the life of a munich cat

This short passage describes Munich right after it became the capital of the short-lived Kingdom of Bavaria in 1806.  I'm surprised that court life there was that vapid, because the king at the time, Maximilian I Joseph, sounds as if he were a decent sort of man.  Courts are always weird and artificial, though, I think.

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. . . The manners of the inhabitants of Munich are such as might be expected from forty thousand people who depend on the court, and for the most part go idle at its expense. Among the nobles there are instances of good breeding and politeness; but the people at large are eminent for inactivity, and a strange want of attachment to their country. Many of the court ladies know of no other employment than playing with their parrots, their dogs, and their cats. Some keep a hall full of cats, and several maids to attend them; they converse half their time with them, and serve them with coffee, &, dressing them according to their fancy differently every day.

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Sir Richard Phillips, A General View of the Manners, Customs and Curiosities of Nations: Including a Geographical Description of the Earth, Volume 2 (1810: Johnson and Warner), pp. 139-40