Lyndhurst, New Forest.
1909
Aug 19-23
(No 4)
Rudyard Kipling.
He told me of a Lion Cub, taken when only a few
days old, just after its mother had been killed. He fed
it at first from a nursing bottle. After that Mrs. Kipling
gave it mutton broth which it lopped from her hand,
cutting quite through her skin with the rasp of its rough
tongue. When he let it out in his garden (in South Africa)
it chased butterflies, striking at them, not as a kitten
would strike, but with an upward thrust of the right
paw followed, instantly, by a downward strike of the
left paw (this he illustrated with his hands). "Just so
its father killed Matabele oxen", he concluded.
  When I asked him if the English Brown Trout was
not a shrewd & sophisticated fish he said "it knows as
much as an Oxford graduate thinks he knows".
  We were discussing his literary work when he said
abruptly, with his charming smile, "all the fun and
satisfaction to be got from producing books comes from
the writing of them. After they are printed we never wish
to see or hear of them again".
  He considered the Hare "a much more interesting animal
than the Rabbit. The Hare is a gentleman, while the
Rabbit is not". When the Rabbits on his own place
so increased as to become a nuisance he called on
a notorious poacher in his neighborhood & suggested that
he kill a lot of them. The man at first denied that
he had any skill at that kind of business but finally
asked abruptly "would it be wiring them you would have
me do", Kipling replied "I don't care whether you wire
or poison them if only you will get rid of them". In the
course of the following week most of them disappeared,
"at no expense for the services of a professional game keeper".