OR CHINCHILLA PERSIANS. 



whose ' Silver Lotus ' and ' Veronica,' daughters 

 of ' Silver Squire ' and ' Dossie,' did so much 

 winning in their day. 



" Miss Meeson has also shown considerable 

 enthusiasm in her endeavour to reach the 

 ideal, her best efforts having resulted in 

 ' Jupiter Duvals,' of wide fame. 



" Two clubs have been formed in connection 

 with the chinchilla cat one, the Silver Society, 

 embraced other coloured cats besides the 

 chinchilla, this eventually becoming the Silver 

 and Smoke Persian Cat Society. It was owing 

 to this club encouraging shaded, or marked, 

 silver cats and orange eyes that the Chinchilla 

 Club was formed by Mrs. Balding. This 

 Club has the honour of having as patron 

 H.S.H. Princess Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, 

 who owns and exhibits some beautiful chin- 

 chillas, and Lord Decies as vice-president. 



" The Chinchilla Club gives its support and 

 specials, besides guaranteeing classes at any 

 show whose management apply The con- 

 ditions on which the specials are presented 

 is that the cats to which they are awarded 

 must be the property of members of the club, 

 prize-winners in their respective classes, and 

 registered cats. 



" The club prizes usually consist of half a 

 guinea in each class, and the more coveted 

 Special of the club's badge for the best chin- 

 chilla of either sex. Badges were selected in 

 place of the ubiquitous medal, because most 

 of the dainty professional beauties very soon 

 obtain a considerable number of the latter, 

 and smart little badges were more appre- 

 ciated. 



" The club's present challenge trophy for 

 chinchilla kittens is a solid silver model of 

 ' Silver Lambkin,' offered by the hon. secretary 

 for competition amongst its members ; it is 

 also open to members of the National Cat Club, 

 in acknowledgment of the compliment paid 

 by the latter to the original in choosing his 

 statuette to surmount their challenge cup. 

 The little history of the origin of this special 

 has never appeared in print before, and as 

 I was not present at the committee meeting 

 referred to, ' I tell the tale as 'twas told to me.' 



When the challenge cups of the National Cat 

 Club were designed in 1897, it was decided that 

 the beauty and interest attached to them 

 should be enhanced by immortalising on each 

 the most representative cat of the long-haired 

 and short-haired varieties. For the latter the 

 great ' Xenophon ' was chosen without hesi- 

 tation. Then came the more difficult task 

 of deciding upon a recipient for the distinction 

 from the long-haired ranks, which claim so 

 much oi-the beauty and wealth of winnings 

 of the cat world as to render the singling out 

 of one a matter of consideration. To hasten 

 the termination of the discussion Mrs. Stennard 

 Robinson sent for a collection of cat photo- 

 graphs which had been left to her by the late 

 Miss Portman, the well-known ' Kara Avis ' of 

 the Lady's Pictorial. Amongst these the hon. 

 secretary of the N.C.C. pointed out one with 

 no name attached as the most beautiful 

 photograph of the lot. This was recognised 

 by most of the committee as being ' Silver 

 Lambkin,' so the honour fell to him. 



"By some error at the makers' the long- 

 haired cat was placed on both challenge cups, 

 and it was determined by the club that the 

 superfluous model which had to be removed 

 and replaced by ' Xenophon ' should be 



mounted as a 

 letter-weight 

 and given as a 

 challenge prize 

 for kittens, 

 to be won 

 three times 

 before be- 



.\IRS. WKI.LUYK'S SILVER " VERONICA.' 



(Photo : E. Landor, Eating.) 



