Yorkshire Almanac James Robinson of Barnsley is observed teaching his dog to worry cats

7 November 1866: James Robinson of Barnsley is observed teaching his dog to worry cats

Leeds Mercury. 1866/11/08. Cruelty to a Cat. Leeds. Get it:

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

At the Barnsley Police-court yesterday, James Robinson was charged with cruelty to animals on the 13th ult. The information was laid by Mr. Inspector Temperley, of the Leeds Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Witnesses deposed to the defendant going to the house of Mary Gunsen, and taking away a young cat. When on the highway he pulled the animal out of his pocket and gave it to his dog, which commenced to worry it. Abraham Leak, school master of the village, saw the act, and asked the defendant what he was doing, to which he replied, “I am teaching my dog to worry cats.” Wm. Naylor saw the man patting the dog and encouraging it to worry the cat, which was struggling and apparently dying. The Chairman said the expenses were rather heavy, and imposed a fine of 1s. and the expenses, amounting to £1 1s., accompanied with the remark that the society must pay the expenses of the witnesses.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

What kind of dog was it, and was the purpose of the exercise to then introduce it to worrying foxes or some such?

£1 2s. was just over £100 in January 2023.

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Comment

What kind of dog was it, and was the purpose of the exercise to then introduce it to worrying foxes or some such?

£1 2s. was just over £100 in January 2023.

Something to say? Get in touch

30 May 1835: Alfred Austin, future poet laureate, “Banjo-Byron that twangs the strum-strum,” is born into rural splendour at Ashwood, 48 Headingley Lane, Leeds

10 December 1769: Part of the northern ballad about Bill Brown, a Brightside (Sheffield) steelworker and hare-poacher killed by gamekeepers today near Rotherham

14 March 1573: Archbishop Grindal intercedes on behalf of the commoners of Sutton-on-the-Forest (north of York) against enclosure of part of the royal Forest of Galtres

4 July 1838: 26 girls and boys drown trying to escape via a tunnel from flash flooding in Huskar Colliery, Silkstone, Barnsley, after the steam lifts fail during a rainstorm

9 October 1726: Two horsemen attack the house of Mr Goodwin, rector of Tankersley (Barnsley)

30 July 1820: Primitive Methodists try to disrupt the traditional Maudlin Fair football match between Hedon and Preston (Holderness)

5 May 1546: Sir Henry Savile invites William Plumpton to a cockfight at Sheffield between Derbyshire, Lancashire and … Hallamshire

4 September 1947: Conflicting hopes for the future of the nationalised coal industry, as a wildcat strike against increased hours at Grimethorpe spreads through the South Yorkshire coalfield

5 December 1859: Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon’s nephew and the cousin of the then French emperor, has work for the Barnsley dialectologist Charles Rogers

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Comment

Paterson is wrong to claim that Louis Lucien was “son of the late King of Holland” – Louis Bonaparte: his father was actually Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon’s younger brother, Minister of the Interior from 1799 to 1800, and president of the Council of Five Hundred in 1799.

Who can find me the Barnsley Song of Solomon?

“One of the Barnsley newspapers”!

Bonaparte also visited Abel Bywater, Sheffield dialect writer, and requested a Sheffield version of the Song of Solomon of him:

This he did, and was favoured with a dozen copies from the Prince. He, however, when he saw them, regretted having reduced them to such a ridiculous appearance (Bywater 1877).

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