1872-82 ‘SPECIMENS OF MY CORRESPONDENCE’ 243 
“memories” of literary favourites, friends, and 
acquaintances, to carry with us to our home across 
the Atlantic. By parcels post I have ventured 
to send you a page of my wife’s album, and we 
shall feel grateful if you will enrich it with a 
brief autographic contribution. We shall hail the 
veriest trifle with very great pleasure. 
‘ I remain, 
‘ Yours most truly. 
‘ Since the old Park mole-catcher went to 
earth,’ the Professor wrote,^ March 1, 1880, ‘my 
plague of moles has returned, and my front lawn 
is seldom free from one or more evidences, cumu- 
lative, of the wonderful little tunneller’s operations. 
In our village there is a belief that “ the ’Fessor 
keeps a mole,” and I have seen children, when 
they come to play about the Pond, peer through 
the light fence to see the “ ’Fessor’s mole.” Well ! 
I have lately benefited by an unexpected ally. 
A fine young cat, reared by the cook, has taken 
to catching moles. She steals out in the gray 
of the morning, listens, and sits where she 
hears the little grubber coming near the surface, 
and, when he pushes his head above the earth- 
mound, Puss pounces upon him and hales him 
out.’ 
The mole-catcher in question, from whom the 
* To Dr. Pearson Langshaw. 
R 2 
