Concerning Cats 



You a friend of loftier mind, 

 Answer Mends alone in kind. 

 Just your foot upon my hand 

 Softly bids it understand. 



Thomas Gray's poem on the death of Robert Wal- 

 pole's cat, which was drowned in a bowl of goldfish, 

 was greatly prized by the latter ; after the death of 

 the poet the bowl was placed on a pedestal at Straw- 

 berry Hill, with a few lines from the poem as an 

 inscription. In a letter dated March i, 1747, accom- 

 panying it, Mr. Gray says : — 



" As one ought to be particularly careful to avoid 

 blunders in a compliment of condolence, it would be 

 a sensible satisfaction to me (before I testify my sor- 

 row and the sincere part I take in your misfortune) 

 to know for certain who it is I lament. [Note the 

 " Who."] I knew Zara and Selima (SeUma was it, 

 or Fatima.'), or rather I knew them both together, 

 for I cannot justly say which was which. Then, as 

 to your handsome cat, the name you distinguish her 

 by, I am no less at a loss, as well knowing one's 

 handsome cat is always the cat one likes best ; or if 

 one be alive and the other dead, it is usually the 

 latter that is the handsomest. Besides, if the point 

 were never so clear, I hope you do not think me so 

 ill bred or so imprudent as to forfeit all my interest 

 in the survivor. Oh, no; I would rather seem to 

 mistake and imagine, to be sure, it must be the tabby 

 one that had met with this sad accident. Till this 



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