British Wild Beasts. 203 



They gnawed the flesh from every limb. 



For they were sent to do judgment on him " [Southey] — 



are each the subject of a poem. Nor is the death of the 

 bishop at all beyond rat capabilities ; for it is beyond doubt 

 that men have been killed and eaten by rats in the sewers, 

 both of London and Paris, while Professor Bell, on the 

 authority of Robert Stephenson, relates the following 

 instance of the extreme ferocity of the rat when driven to 

 hunger.^ " In a coal-pit," he says, " in which many horses 

 were employed, the rats (which fed upon the fodder pro- 

 vided for the horses) had accumulated in great multitudes. 

 It was customary in holiday times to bring to the surface 

 the horses and the fodder, and to close the pit for the time. 

 On one occasion, when the holiday had extended to ten 

 daj'S or a fortnight, during which the rats had been deprived 

 of food, on reopening the pit, the first man who descended 

 was attacked by the starving multitude, and speedily killed 

 and devoured ! " Of their audacity Butler gives delightful 

 illustration — rats getting into his worthy's breeches-pockets 

 to eat his rations — 



" For, as we said, he always chose 

 To carry little in his hose. 

 That often tempted rats and mice 

 The ammunition to surprise ; 

 And when he put a hand but in 

 The one or t'other magazine. 

 They stoutly on defence on't stood, 

 And from the wounded foe drew blood. 

 And till th' were stormed and beaten out, 

 Ne'er left the fortified redoubt " — 



while Shenstone records in verse the all-too-frequent 

 vanity of the rat-trap. 



^ Cassell's " Natural History," edited by Professor P. Martin Duncan, 

 F.R.S., F.G.S. 



