THE CAT ABOUT TOWN 35 



hunted with success for an hour or more. Besides the 

 brewery rats, which are said to drink beer when they 

 can get it, there are ' temperance rats/ which live by 

 the river, and, so far as we know, only drink water. 

 These form the grand objects of summer sport to all 

 London cats in range of the Thames, from the docks 

 in the east to Chiswick in the west, and all along the 

 old muddy foreshore on the Surrey side, where no em- 

 bankment intervenes to spoil sport. We have never 

 heard of an instance of London cats catching fish by 

 the river, probably because until very recently there 

 have been so few fish to catch. But the keenness of the 

 cats for this riverside hunting by the tidal Thames is 

 such that they often return covered and clotted with 

 mud from the foreshore, where they have either fallen 

 in from the wharves, or have pursued a rat escaping 

 across the leavings of the river ebb. 



In summer mornings, from 4 a.m. to about 5 a.m., 

 London ceases for the moment to belong to the world 

 of men, and for the moment is given up to the sole 

 enjoyment of the London birds and the London cats. 

 At this really bewitching hour, for the town is quite 

 beautiful then, the cats may be seen, as at no other 

 time, monarchs of all they survey rerum domini, 

 masters of the town. Then it may be seen that it is 

 not for nothing that the race have for generations 

 maintained their independence, and asserted their right 



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