Henfield - The Cat House

The Cat House

The Cat House is at Pinchnose Green, so called because there used to be a tannery nearby and the process of tanning produces unpleasant odours. This house was once owned by George Ward who had a canary. This bird was killed by a cat belonging to the Anglican Canon Nathaniel Woodard who lived at nearby Martyn Lodge. So incensed was Ward that he painted his house with pictures of a cat holding a bird that would be seen by the canon every time he walked past on his way to the church. He also rigged up strings of sea shells to rattle, and a black figure would appear at a small window called the zulu hole when the hapless canon was seen approaching.

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Famous quotes containing the words cat and/or house:

    That’s what the cat said to the canary when he swallowed him: “You’ll be all right.”
    Alvah Bessie, Ranald MacDougall, and Lester Cole. Raoul Walsh. Mr. Williams (Henry Hull)

    For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:
    But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.
    We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.
    Bible: Hebrew Psalm LV (l. LV, 12–14)