2O2 



THE BOOK OF THE CAT. 



goes on and a larger number of fanciers take 

 up these breeds, a distinct classification will be 

 given for creams and fawns. It may always be 

 a little difficult to draw the line between the 

 two ; but such a division of colours would, I 

 think, give satisfaction to the breeders of both 

 creams and fawns, for at present judges are 

 more inclined to give 

 a preference to the 

 palest - coloured cats, 

 perhaps because more 

 beautiful and more 

 difficult to breed. 



In the former breeds, 

 more especially blues 

 and silvers, that I have 

 described in this work 

 it would have been 

 impossible to name all 

 those cats that were 

 noted in the fancy, for 

 the simple reason that 

 their name is legion ; 

 but it is different in a 

 breed like creams, for, 

 as I mentioned in the 

 beginning of this 

 chapter, in times past 

 it was a case of only here and there a 

 cream Persian appearing on the scene, then 

 vanishing perhaps to America, or else being 

 purchased for a pet and retiring from public 

 life. These " sports " in the fancy were not 

 seriously taken up, and no one thought of 

 trying to establish a strain ; so that one can, 

 as it were, put one's finger on the cats of this 

 variety, if not so easily in the present day, 

 certainly in the past. 



The first recorded cream Persian in cata- 

 logues or stud books is " Cupid Bassanio," 

 born in 1890, bred by Mrs. Kinchant ; no 

 pedigree is given. He was a big, broad- 

 headed, heavily coated cat, with a good many 

 marks and shadings, and was sold to Mrs. 

 Preston Whyte, and passed on to Miss Norman. 

 In the same year Mrs. Kinchant exhibited 

 cream kittens at Brighton. " Ripon " was 

 another well-known cream of imported parents 



MRS. F. NORRIS S CREAM KITTEN 

 (Photo: E. Lander, Baling.) 



(a blue and an orange). This cat was pur- 

 chased from Mrs. Foote by Lady Marcus 

 Beresford, and eventually disappeared when 

 in the possession of Miss Cockburn Dickinson. 

 Mr. McLaren Morrison in 1893 owned a pale 

 cat called " Devonshire Cream." In the follow- 

 ing year Miss Taylor bred a splendid speci- 

 men from " Tawny," 

 her noted tortoise- 

 shell. This cat, called 

 " Fawn," was an ab- 

 solutely self - coloured 

 fawn with brown eyes, 

 and would do some 

 winning if alive now 

 to compete in our 

 up-to-date classes for 

 cream or fawn. It was 

 in 1895 that Miss Beal 

 first exhibited some of 

 her creams, upon 

 which at that time she 

 did not set much store, 

 more interested as she 

 was in blues ; but of 

 her now celebrated 

 strain more anon. 



One of the best- 

 known creams of late years is " Zoroaster," 

 bred by Mrs. Bagster from her tortoiseshell 

 "Pixie." This was a remarkably large pale 

 cat with glorious eyes, but he was a good deal 

 patched in colour when I saw him at Mrs. 

 Mackenzie Stewart's cattery. Mrs. Cartwright 

 bred a well-shaped light cream, " Upwood 

 Junket," by " Timkins," a blue, and a daughter 

 of " Cyrus the Elamite." Mrs. Davies, of 

 Caterham, has often had creams in her posses- 

 sion, notably " Lord Cremorne," quite one of 

 the palest seen in the show pen. Two noted 

 creams now placed at stud are Mrs. Norris's 

 " Kew Ronald " and Mrs. Western's " Matthew 

 of the Durhams." Both these cats arc bred 

 from Miss Beal's famous " Heavenly Twins." 

 Regarding " Matthew," a reporter in Our Cats 

 thus writes after the Botanic show of 1901 : 

 " Creams are, we prophesy, the coming cats. 

 There seems to us great possibilities in this 



