Cat Rescuing Kitten Carved in Stone

Cat Rescuing Kitten Carved in Stone

F. Edward Hulme's The Town, College, and Neighbourhood of Marlborough (London: Stanford, 1881), contains the following entry (p. 24):

"Over the southern porch of St. Mary’s church [in Marlborough, Wiltshire] is a rude carving, scarcely now discernible, but which is said to represent a cat with a kitten in its mouth. The local legend is to the effect that, during the fire that consumed the church, a cat who had domesticated herself in the tower, brought down one by one her young ones, and each time with increasing danger from the advancing flames, until at length she fell a victim to her maternal devotion, and lost her life, but gained, in the new-built church, this monument to her memory. The old carvers show so often so complete a sympathy to their works that we hesitate to consign Pussy to the region of myths, but would rather think the story true from beginning to end, and that the brave devotion of the little mother touched a chord in some true human heart and earned her this memorial.”