some clerical and literary cats

The following selection is from a little book of musings upon the cat, written a century ago by a gentleman named Charles Platt.  His list of cat fans includes people I didn't know as such (the Brontes? Byron? What have I been missing?) and some people I didn't know, period.  What fun to catch up with them.  

In more recent days Sir Walter Scott inspired the most steadfast affection in every animal he met; while at Naples he visited the Archbishop of Taranto, another Cat-lover, and promptly fell in love with all the pets. These animals were also referred to by Sir Henry Holland, who remarked that he scarcely knew which he admired the more, the prelate or his Cats! . . . Of Bishop Thirlwall a story is told that might equally be quoted of many others. A visitor, who observed that the venerable Bishop looked wearied, asked him why he did not use his easy chair. “It is already occupied,” said the Bishop, pointing to a big grey Cat fast asleep on the cushion.
Canon Liddon was the proud possessor of many Cats, as also Archbishop Whately. Indeed, turn where we may, we see the same consoling picture: Puss restored to her old position of comfort and friendship,valued for her quiet sympathy, for her peace-loving ways. Southey, Sterne, Charles Lamb, Christopher North, Shelley, ]ohnson, Lord Byron, Scott, Matthew Arnold, Canning, Marshal Turenne, Lord Heathfield, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, Miss Edgeworth, Wordsworth, Carlyle. 

Even better reading, though, is Platt's dedication:

DEDICATED TO

THAT INTELLIGENT LITTLE FRIEND

MY ORANGE LONG-HAIRED CAT

YCLEPT TRECKIE.

-- Platt, C. (191?). Things you don't know about cats. London: A. Melrose. 55-57.