Richard Jefferies’ book, “The Gamekeeper at Home” published in 1878 is a fascinating, often lyrical book. Jefferies gives numerous insights into nineteenth century country life, the delights of the natural world, the seasons, hardships, social strata and the rewards and difficulties of maintaining an estate for the benefit of the owner in the great house.
The quotes below concern one of the many problems faced by gamekeepers - feral cats. The first paragraph describes how the gamekeeper’s wife makes use of the skins.
She explains that this rug comes within her special sphere. It is a carriage-rug of cat-skin; the skins carefully selected to match exactly, and cured and prepared in the same way as other more famous furs. They have only just been sewn together, and the rug is now spread on the sofa to dry. She has made rugs, she will tell you, entirely of black cat skins, and very handsome they looked; but not equal to this, which is wholly of the tabby.
She explains that this rug comes within her special sphere. It is a carriage-rug of cat-skin; the skins carefully selected to match exactly, and cured and prepared in the same way as other more famous furs. They have only just been sewn together, and the rug is now spread on the sofa to dry. She has made rugs, she will tell you, entirely of black cat skins, and very handsome they looked; but not equal to this, which is wholly of the tabby.
All the cats to which these skins belonged were shot or caught in the traps set for vermin by her husband and his assistants. The majority were wild—that is, had taken up their residence in the woods, reverting to their natural state, and causing great havoc among the game.
The instance in point is taken from an outlying district far from a town, where the nuisance is comparatively small; but in the preserves say from ten to twenty miles round London the cats thus killed must be counted by thousands. Families change their homes, the cat is driven away by the new comer and takes to the field. In one little copse not more than two acres in extent, and about twelve miles from Hyde Park Corner, fifteen cats were shot in six weeks, and nearly all in one spot—their favourite haunt. When two or three wild or homeless animals take up their abode in a wood, they speedily attract half a dozen hitherto tame ones; and, if they were not destroyed, it would be impossible to keep either game or rabbits.
Richard Jefferies - The Gamekeeper at Home (1878)
The instance in point is taken from an outlying district far from a town, where the nuisance is comparatively small; but in the preserves say from ten to twenty miles round London the cats thus killed must be counted by thousands. Families change their homes, the cat is driven away by the new comer and takes to the field. In one little copse not more than two acres in extent, and about twelve miles from Hyde Park Corner, fifteen cats were shot in six weeks, and nearly all in one spot—their favourite haunt. When two or three wild or homeless animals take up their abode in a wood, they speedily attract half a dozen hitherto tame ones; and, if they were not destroyed, it would be impossible to keep either game or rabbits.
Richard Jefferies - The Gamekeeper at Home (1878)
7 comments:
How times change. I remember a furore a few years ago when cute ornaments imported from China turned out to be made from cat fur.
My favourite landscape historian disliked the proliferation of deer which damage woodland so much. His advice - "Eat Bambi".
He pointed out that deer were not a problem decades ago when, he reckoned, every field in the country would be visited every week or so by a bloke with a gun.
Jannie - yes indeed, how times change. We've swapped hardship for soft comfort zones.
dearieme - according to Jefferies they would be visited regularly on dark nights too.
Not much use for catskin these days, but in our last parish there was, as per dearieme's post, a massive problem with deer. Huge agricultural pests, and breeding so fast they are apparently weakening their own gene-pool. But it's hard to shoot them. You need rifles now, not shotguns, which are illegal to use on deer. And rifles are very heavily controlled, and can only be used where there is no chance of a missed shot killing someone in a distant housing estate.
Sam - deer can be a menace on the roads too, we've seen a few dead muntjac by the side of roads, obviously killed by a vehicle. Must do some damage too.
It's been a hard life for a cat. But not for my two who live the life of riley. Mind you I feel like skinning them, when they get hold of birds, especially last summer when they killed our garden song thrush and her fledgling.
Tammly - I don't dislike cats, but a neighbour's cat keeps stalking the birds in our garden.
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