Jennifer Westwood - her slightly evil face suggests she might be
a relation of the mad designer woman - gives a few historic
legends of cats in a book called Albion, a Guide to Legendary
Britain.
Sir Henry Wyatt, father of the poet Thomas Wyatt, was kept in
a tower and fed by a cat, who fed him a dead pigeon every day.
[ambiguous that but I'll leave it, as I don't think cats are known
for altruism]
A bas relief in Gloucester is supposed to show Dick Whittington
with a cat but it looks more like a monkey to me. Some say it is
a lamb. Westwood relates the legend to continental tales of Puss
in Boots, who brings good fortune.
A farmer in Staindrop, Durham was crossing a bridge when a
talking cat told him "Mally Dixon's dead". Relating this to his
wife at home, their own cat overheard, got up, cried "Is she?"
and vanished. Variants of the tale also come from other towns
in County Durham. In some cases the cat declares "Well now I
am King of the Cats!". Well it might have happened!
None of which involves big cats unless we count soap stars with
huge thighs who frighten the kiddies every Christmas in Panto.
No, for a rash of Big Cat sightings you have to go to Charlie Fort.
The man himself has a rash of sightings which to his mind were
associated with the Welsh religious revivals around the First World
War. It's all in Lo! which is a set book, you know. And available
free online which is nice.
