CATS OF THE PAST. 



issued an order that anyone who stole or killed 

 a cat that guarded the prince's granary was 

 to forfeit a milch ewe, its fleece, and lamb, or 

 as much wheat as when poured on the cat 

 suspended by its tail (the head touching the 

 floor) would form a heap high enough to cover 

 the top of the tail. 



This is not only curious, as being an evi- 

 dence of the simplicity of ancient customs, 

 but it goes far to prove that cats were not 

 aborigines of these islands. The large price 

 set on them if we consider the high value of 

 specie at that time 

 - and the great 

 care taken of the 

 improvement and 

 breed of an animal 

 that multiplies so 

 quickly, are almost 

 certain proofs of 

 their being little 

 known at that pe- 

 riod. No doubt wild 

 cats abounded in 

 our islands, and this 

 creature is described 

 by Pennant as be- 

 ing three or four 

 times as large as 

 the house cat. The 

 teeth and claws are, 

 to use his expres- 

 sion, " tremendous," and the animal is alto- 

 gether more robust. The tail of the wild cat is 

 thick and as large at the extremity as it is in the 

 centre and at the base ; that of the house cat 

 tapers to the tip. This ferocious creature, 

 well named the British tiger, was formerly 

 common enough in the wooded and mountain- 

 ous districts of England, Scotland, and 

 Wales, but owing to the attention paid 

 to the preservation of game it has gradually 

 become almost if not entirely exterminated. 

 In olden times, when wild cats were hunted 

 and captured, the principal use they were put 

 to was to trim with their fur the garments of 

 the ladies in the various nunneries scattered 

 over the land. A writer of the Middle Ages 



says : " The peasants wore cat skins, badger 

 skins, &c." It would appear that lambs' ana 

 cats' skins were of equal value at that period. 



Harrison Weir, in his work on cats, tells 

 us that in 1871 and 1872 a wild cat was ex- 

 hibited at the Crystal Palace by the Earl of 

 Hopetoun ; he also mentions that as late as 

 1889 Mr. Edward Hamilton, M.D., writing to 

 the Field, gives information of a wild cat being 

 shot at Inverness-shire. He states : " A fine 

 specimen- of a wild cat was sent to me on 

 May 3rd, trapped on the Ben Nevis range. Its 



dimensions were : 

 "from nose to base 

 of tail, i foot; height 

 at shoulders, i foot 

 2 inches." In July, 

 1900, a paragraph 

 to the following ef- 

 fect appeared in the 

 Stock- Keeper : 



" The Zoological 

 Society have just ac- 

 quired a litter of wild 

 cats. This is the only 

 instance where a 

 whole litter has been 

 sent to the Gardens. 

 It was taken not far 

 from Spean Bridge, 

 Inverness-shire." 



PUSS IN WARFARE (vide p. 8). 

 (From a ittfi Century MS.) 



The late Professor Rolleston, in an article 

 on the " Domestic Cats of Ancient and 

 Modern Times " (Journal of Anatomy and 

 Physiology), has well explained much of the 

 confusion about cats in former writers and 

 their so-called interpreters. He shows how 

 loosely now, as long ago, the word " cat " 

 and its classic equivalents may be employed. 

 Just as we still speak of civet cats and 

 martens. Up to the beginning of this 

 century the wild cat was wrongly thought 

 to be the original of the tame species. Yet 

 apart from more exact evidence this is shown 

 to be an error if we note the value set upon 

 domestic cats in former centuries. The Rev. 

 Dr. Fleming, in his " History of British 



