Concerning Some Historic Cats 



Ravenna he had five of them. Daniel Maclise's 

 famous portrait of Harriet Martineau represents that 

 estimable woman sitting in front of a fireplace and 

 turning her face to receive the caress of her pet 

 cat crawling to a resting-place upon her mistress's 

 shoulder. 



Although La Fontaine in his fables shows such a 

 delicate appreciation of their character and ways, it 

 is doubtful whether he honestly loved cats. But his 

 friend and patron, the Duchess of Bouillon, was so 

 devoted to them that she requested the poet to make 

 her a copy with his own hand of all his fables in 

 which pussy appears. The exercise-book in which 

 they were written was discovered a few years ago 

 among the Bouillon papers. 



Baudelaire, it is said, could never pass a cat in the 

 street without stopping to stroke and fondle it. 

 "Many a time," said Champfleury, "when he and I 

 have been walking together, have we stopped to look 

 at a cat curled luxuriously in a pile of fresh white 

 linen, revelling in the cleanliness of the newly ironed 

 fabrics. Into what fits of contemplation have we 

 fallen before such windows, while the coquettish laun- 

 dresses struck attitudes at the ironing boards, under 

 the mistaken impression that we were admiring 

 them." It was also related of Baudelaire that, "go- 

 ing for the first time to a house, he is restless and 

 uneasy until he has seen the household cat. But 

 when he sees it, he takes it up, kisses and strokes it, 



