THE CAT IN HISTORY.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Every cat-lover must be in your debt for your delightful allusion in your book, The River of Life (Hodder and-Stoughton), to the self-respect of that most delightful of companions. Now, heaven forbid that I should try to break a lance with you, but I think that the cat started. its career of domination on the minds of the painters- a good deal earlier than you record. Against the " thirty or forty years after 1550 " can be set that pleading picture by Pintoricchicin the National Gallery, wherein a grey and white cat, vastly domesticated, seems to be the keystone and symbol of all Penelope's virtues. This gives a date between 1454-1513. Then again Giulio Campagnola (1482-1514) succumbed to the cat, and there is a fascinating and unique engraving by him in. the British Museum of a fat child with three cats grouped; on a pillar— a most peaceful and domestic conceit. Of course two instances do not make history, but I am only quoting from my own limited researches, and I am sure a cab-lover abroad would find other examples. I have been told that Gozzoli (1424-1494) succumbed in pictures at Pisa and Siena, so that in all probability a cat purred with Cesare Borgia and warmed itself by Savonarola's fire and found the birds of St. Francis most congenial company ! Some day when time and oppor- tunity offer I hope to be able to delve deeper into cat history, but in the meantime please forgive this waste of your reading
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