English Furs, 



the joys of freedom, many had grown to a truly 

 enormous size, not in fat, as the domestic animal 

 does, but in length of back and limb. These afforded 

 the best skins ; perhaps out of eight or nine killed 

 but two would be available or worth preserving. 



This gives an idea of the extraordinary number 

 of cats which stray abroad and get their living by 

 poaching. They invariably gravitate towards the 

 woods. The instance in point is taken from an out- 

 lying district far from a town, where the nuisance is 

 comparatively small ; but in the preserves say from 

 ten to twenty miles round London the cats thus killed 

 must be counted by thousands. Families change 

 their homes, the cat is driven away by the new comer 

 and takes to the field. In one little copse not more 

 than two acres in extent, and about twelve miles from 

 Hyde Park Corner, fifteen cats were shot in six weeks,,, 

 and nearly all in one spot — their favourite haunt- 

 When two or three wild or homeless animals take up 

 their abode in a wood, they speedily attract half a 

 dozen hitherto tame ones ; and, if they were not 

 destroyed, it would be impossible to keep either game 

 or rabbits. 



She has her own receipts for preserving furs and 

 feathers, and long practice has rendered her an adept. 

 Here are squirrels' skins also prepared ; some with 



