A Cut above the Rest
With the aid of a slice of beef, a Perth puss takes feline scheming to a new level.
Queen Victoria 1837-1901
With the aid of a slice of beef, a Perth puss takes feline scheming to a new level.
Queen Victoria 1837-1901
Charles Henry Ross and his wife Isabelle Émilie de Tessier, alias Marie Duval, were the co-creators of Ally Sloper, ‘hero’ of one of the earliest strip cartoons, and the first recurrent character. Charles also had a fund of anecdotes proving that cats are just as clever as “their much-vaunted rival, the dog”.
A FAMILY in Callander* had in their possession a favourite Tom Cat, which had, upon several occasions, exhibited more than ordinary sagacity.
One day, Tom made off with a piece of beef, and the servant followed him cautiously, with the intention of catching, and administering to him a little wholesome correction. To her amazement, she saw the Cat go to a corner of the yard where she knew a rat-hole existed, and lay the beef down by the side of it.
Leaving the beef there, he hid himself a short distance off, and watched until a rat made its appearance. Tom’s tail then began to wag, and just as the rat was moving away with the bait, he sprang upon, and killed it.
Callandar (Calasraid in Gaelic) is a town on the River Teith near Stirling in Perthshire, central Scotland.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Where did the cat get a slice of beef from?