“I never had any uneasiness from that bite of a mad dog; indeed, I
never troubled myself about it, or even thought of it.
“I’ve caught some other things besides rats in my time. One night, I
saw a little South African cat going along the New-road. I thought it
was a cur’ous specie of rat, and chased it, and brought it home with
me; but it proved to belong to Mr. Herring’s menagerie in the New-road,
so I let him have it back again.
“Another time I met with two racoons, which I found could handle
me just as well as I could handle a rat, for they did bite and
scratch awful. I put ’em in the cart, and brought them home in a
basket. I never found out to whom _they_ belonged. I got them in
Ratcliffe-highway, and no doubt some sailors had brought them over, and
got drunk, and let ’em loose. I tried them at killing rats, but they
weren’t no good at that.
“I’ve learnt a monkey to kill rats, but he wouldn’t do much, and only
give them a good shaking when they bit him. After I found the racoons
no good, I trained a badger to kill rats, and he was superior to any
dog, but very difficult in training to get him to kill, though they’ll
kill rabbits fast enough, or any other kind of game, for they’re rare
poachers are badgers. I used to call her Polly. She killed in my own
pit, for I used to obleege my friends that wouldn’t believe it possible
with the sight. She won several matches--the largest was in a hundred
match.
“I also sterminate moles for her Majesty, and the Woods and Forests,
and I’ve sterminated some hundreds for different farmers in the
country. It’s a cur’ous thing, but a mole will kill a rat and eat it
afterwards, and two moles will fight wonderful. They’ve got a mouth
exactly like a shark, and teeth like saws; ah, a wonderful saw mouth.
They’re a very sharp-biting little animal, and very painful. A rat is
frightened of one, and don’t like fighting them at all.
“I’ve bred the finest collection of pied rats which has ever been
knowed in the world. I had above eleven hundred of them--all wariegated
rats, and of a different specie and colour, and all of them in
the first instance bred from the Norwegian and the white rat, and
afterwards crossed with other specie.
“I have ris some of the largest tailed rats ever seen. I’ve sent them
to all parts of the globe, and near every town in England. When I sold
’em off, three hundred of them went to France. I ketched the first
white rat I had at Hampstead; and the black ones at Messrs. Hodges and
Lowman’s, in Regent-street, and them I bred in. I have ’em fawn and
white, black and white, brown and white, red and white, blue-black and
white, black-white and red.
“People come from all parts of London to see them rats, and I supplied
near all the ‘happy families’ with them. Burke, who had the ‘happy
family’ showing about London, has had hundreds from me. They got very
tame, and you could do anythink with them. I’ve sold many to ladies
for keeping in squirrel cages. Years ago I sold ’em for five and ten
shillings a-piece, but towards the end of my breeding them, I let ’em
go for two-and-six. At a shop in Leicester-square, where Cantello’s
hatching-eggs machine was, I sold a sow and six young ones for ten
shillings, which formerly I have had five pounds for, being so docile,
like a sow sucking her pigs.”