10 



THE BOOK OF THE CAT. 



to the people, that in derision of them a cat was 

 taken on a Sabbath day, with her head shorne 

 as a Fryer's and the likenesse of a vestment cast 

 over her, with her feet tied together, and a round 

 piece of paper like a singing Celse between them ; 

 and thus was she hanged in a gallows in Cheap- 

 side, neere to the Crosse, in the Parish of St. 

 Matthew. Which cat, being taken down, was 

 sent to Doctor Pendleton (who was then preaching 

 at St. Paul's Cross), commanding it to be shown 

 to the congregation. The Round-head Fryers 

 cannot abide to heare of this cat." 



At the coronation of Eliza- 

 beth there is an account 

 given, in the Hatton corre- 

 spondence, of an effigy of the 

 Pope being carried through 

 the streets and afterwards 

 burnt with several live cats, 

 which, we are told, '' squalled 

 in a most hideous manner " 

 as soon as they felt the fire. 



After a famous French 

 trial in the seventeenth cen- 

 tury, a woman condemned as 

 a murderess was hung in an 

 iron cage over a slow fire, and 

 fourteen poor unoffending cats 

 were made to share the same 

 fate. It is difficult to con- 

 ceive by what train of thought 

 civilised beings could arrive 

 at such a pitch of wicked and 

 horrible cruelty. Why should 

 a gentle, shrinking, graceful little creature be 

 thus made the savage sport of devils in human 

 form ? 



There seems, however, to have been one 

 haven of rest for poor persecuted pussy during 

 the Middle Ages, and that was in the nunneries. 

 Here, at least, she would be kindly treated, 

 let us hope. It is said that this fact has 

 something to do with the cat's traditional 

 association with old maids. 



And now let us quit this dark page of his- 

 tory, where the shameful treatment of an inno- 

 cent race makes the lover of the poor pussies 

 sorrowful and indignant. It was in France 



TOMB OF A CAT WHICH BELONGED 

 TO MADAME DE LESDIGUIERES. 



that, after the period when the cat was given 

 over to the ways of the witch and the sorcerer, 

 we find her yet again taking her proper place 

 in the home and the heart of the highest in the 

 land. Writers of natural history and others 

 frequently denounce the cat as an animal in- 

 capable of personal attachment, yet puss has 

 wooed and won the friendship and affection of 

 many notable men. 



Cats, the most politic, the most polite, and 

 in proportion to their size the 

 most powerful of beasts real- 

 ising almost literally Napo- 

 leon's favourite maxim, " Iron 

 hand in velvet glove " have 

 the permanent fame of being 

 loved by that most eminent 

 of Frenchmen, Cardinal Riche- 

 lieu, who delighted to watch 

 the frolics of a number of kit- 

 tens by which he was gener- 

 ally surrounded in his leisure 

 hours. In this tendrcsse he- 

 resembled a still more famous 

 Churchman ! A cat went to 

 sleep once, we are told, on the 

 sleeve of Mahomet's robe. 

 The hour of prayer arrived, 

 and he chose rather to cut 

 away his sleeve than to dis- 

 turb the slumbers of his be- 

 loved Muezza. 



Chateaubriand makes fre- 

 quent mention of the cat in 

 his " Memoires." He received a present of 

 a cat from the Pope. Moncrieff wrote a 

 series of quaintly worded letters on cats, 

 and the book has some curious illustra- 

 tions. In this we read of the pussies of many 

 grand dames of the French Court of that day. 

 We give an illustration taken from this book, 

 which represents the tomb of a cat which be- 

 longed to Madame Lesdiguieres, and bears this 

 inscription : 



UNE CHATTE JOLIE. 

 Sa maitresse qui n'aima rien 

 , L'aima jusques a la folie. 

 Pourquoi le dire ? On le voit bien. 



