Copy Book Archive

The Convert Victorian cat-lover Harrison Weir launches into his favourite subject, but finds his audience growing restive.

In two parts

1871
Queen Victoria 1837-1901
Music: Muzio Clementi

From ‘The Book of the Cat’, by Frances Simpson (1903). Source

About this picture …

Judges at the Richmond Cat Show, held (for the first time) as an extension of the annual dog show at the Old Deer Park in 1902. The photograph was included in a series for Frances Simpson’s ‘Book of the Cat’ (p. 73). The accommodation at the Crystal Palace thirty years earlier was evidently rather more five-star.

The Convert

Part 1 of 2

On the eve of the world’s first Cat Show, held in 1871 at the Crystal Palace in London, organiser Harrison Weir was frankly boring a friend with his flights of ecstasy on cats. Just when the argument seemed lost, a happy inspiration struck him.
Abridged

“STOP,” said my friend, “I see you do like cats, and I do not, so let the matter drop.”

“No,” said I, “not so. That is why I instituted this Cat Show; I wish every one to see how beautiful a well-cared-for cat is, and how docile, gentle, and — may I use the term? — cossetty. Come with me, my dear old friend, and see the first Cat Show.”

Inside the Crystal Palace stood my friend and I. There lay the cats in their different pens, reclining on crimson cushions, making no sound save now and then a homely purring, as from time to time they lapped the nice new milk provided for them. Yes, there they were, big cats, very big cats, middling-sized cats, and small cats, cats of all colours and markings, and beautiful pure white Persian cats; and as we passed down the front of the cages I saw that my friend became interested.

Jump to Part 2

Part Two

Marguerite Gérard, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain. Source

About this picture …

‘Young Girl Giving Milk to Her Cat’ by Marguerite Gérard (1761-1837). This cat might almost be at Harrison Weir’s Cat Show in London, where the exhibits were to be found ‘reclining on crimson cushions, making no sound save now and then a homely purring, as from time to time they lapped the nice new milk provided for them’. The wistful expression on the dog’s face is heartbreaking; the cat, on the other hand, has the look of one ‘fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils’.

PRESENTLY he said: “What a beauty this is! and here’s another!”

“And no doubt,” said I, “many of the cats you have seen before would be quite as beautiful if they were as well cared for, or at least cared for at all; generally they are driven about and ill-fed, and often ill-used, simply for the reason that they are cats, and for no other. Yet I feel a great pleasure in telling you the show would have been much larger were it not for the difficulty of inducing the owners to send their pets from home, though you see the great care that is taken of them.”

“Well, I had no idea there was such a variety of form, size, and colour,” said my friend, and departed.

A few months after, I called on him; he was at luncheon, with two cats on a chair beside him — pets I should say, from their appearance.

Copy Book

Source

Abridged from ‘Our Cats’ by Harrison Weir (1824-1906).

Suggested Music

1 2

Twelve Monferrinas Op. 49

III. Andante con espressione

Muzio Clementi (1752-1832)

Performed by Lilya Zilberstein.

Media not showing? Let me know!

Twelve Monferrinas Op. 49

IV. Allegretto con moto

Muzio Clementi (1752-1832)

Performed by Lilya Zilberstein.

Media not showing? Let me know!

How To Use This Passage

You can use this passage to help improve your command of English.

IRead it aloud, twice or more. IISummarise it in one sentence of up to 30 words. IIISummarise it in one paragraph of 40-80 words. IVMake notes on the passage, and reconstruct the original from them later on. VJot down any unfamiliar words, and make your own sentences with them later. VIMake a note of any words that surprise or impress you, and ask yourself what meaning they add to the words you would have expected to see. VIITurn any old-fashioned English into modern English. VIIITurn prose into verse, and verse into prose. IXAsk yourself what the author is trying to get you to feel or think. XHow would an artist or a photographer capture the scene? XIHow would a movie director shoot it, or a composer write incidental music for it?

For these and more ideas, see How to Use The Copy Book.

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