CHAPTER OF VARIETIES. 



219 



ing had been first evinced, we had taken no particular notice of it. 

 The cat (which is a female) had a kitten with her nearly half grown 

 when we were about to leave London for the country, in September 

 1825, and my wife wishing to take the kitten with her, I proposed to 

 take the mother also ; and they were accordingly put together into a 

 basket, and accompanied us on our journey. The unconscious kitten 

 was full of play, even in this state of confinement, to the no small 

 annoyance of its mother, who seemed to be gravely contemplating on 

 weightier matters, perhaps connected with the change occasioned by her 

 unexpected trip. We travelled in a circuitous route upwards of 140 

 miles, occasionally stopping for one, two, and three days, at different 

 places, till at last the cats were apparently quite reconciled to their 

 new mode of life. When the basket was opened at the places we 

 visited, the mother would at first, for a moment, look wildly and sus- 

 piciously around her ; but when she found her friends standing by and 

 speaking kindly to her, she immediately resumed her confidence and 

 composure, and would walk about contentedly whilst we were in view, 

 till called again to her basket, which she would enter without the least 

 reluctance, evidently showing that she was really attached to our per- 

 sons, and not to any place in particular, and was perfectly satisfied 

 whilst she knew we were near her. We left her at a friend's house in 

 the country, upwards of twenty miles from this place, for more than a 

 year, and ultimately, when we came to settle here, took her home with 

 us, she never having appeared to forget, but always recognised us when 

 she saw us, and stayed contented where we were without any apparent 

 inclination to leave us or return to her former habitation ; and this has 

 likewise since been the case when we have occasionally changed our 

 residence in this town. I have no doubt that want of kindness and 

 attention very often prevents personal attachment in these animals, and 

 is many times the destruction as well of them as of our own species, 

 and it is certainly very inexcusable and cruel to neglect or ill-treat the 

 brute creation placed under our care. — " A good man is merciful to his 

 beast," and he or she who is not so is not a friend to humanity, nor fit 

 to have the management of children. 



De Ville, the Professor of Phrenology, in the Strand, extends his 

 observations to other animals, as well as to man ; and in a course of 

 lectures he delivered here a short time since, he remarked upon the 

 generally received opinion that cats were attached to the house, and not 

 to the person, stating that there were exceptions to the rule, and that 

 where this was the case, the animal would be found to possess a more 



c. 



