People when they want to get rid of their cats, and do not like killing
them, bring them to the garden of Clifford’s Inn, drop them there and go
away. In spite of all that is said about cats being able to find their
way so wonderfully, they seldom do find it, and once in Clifford’s Inn
the cat generally remains there. The technical word among the
laundresses in the inn for this is, “losing” a cat:
“Poor thing, poor thing,” said one old woman to me a few days ago, “it’s
got no fur on its head at all, and no doubt that’s why the people she
lived with lost her.”