Here is a delicious epitaph, which our readers will find
on the outside of Wirksworth Church, Derbyshire, under the west window,— "Philip Shallcross, an eminent Quill-driver to the Attorneys of this Town. (Died 1787, aged 67.)
Viewing Philip in a moral light, the most prominent and remarkable features in his character were his real and invincible attachment to dogs and cats, and his unbounded benevolence towards them, as well as towards his fellow-creatures."
Evidently Philip would have been in favour of the fifth clause (as originally proposed) of Lord Carnarvon's Bill. What did the " invincible " attachment to dogs and cats mean? We have
heard of "invincible ignorance" of Catholic truth, but an "invincible attachment" to dogs and cats suggests quite a novel conception of human jealousy on the one hand, and fidelity to the canine and feline favourites on the other. No douht Philip Shallcross shared the view put forth to the heroine by
one of the characters in "The Mill on the Floss,"—"Hev a pup, Miss ; it's better nor any Christian."
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