today I would like you to meet, not Top Cat but the Dolt-cat. In fact, you have no choice: you`re going to meet the Dolt-cat right now!
A few days ago I was looking through Moonrakings. A Little Book of Wiltshire Stories by the Wiltshire Federation of Women`s Institutes. I flicked through and under the entry for Wishford in the History section I found the following entry: (Spelling is kept as in the original.)
The Churchwardens` Accounts contain some interesting items. A few are appended:-
1719. for Sparrows Heds 4 dozen……4
For 6 Poulcatts heds……………………2 0
For a Bagger`s hed……………………..1 0
For a Dolt-cat……………………………..4 (1)
This is all that is relevant from our point of view. So I contacted the Natural History Museum in London to ask them what the Dolt-cat might be. I first thought that it might be a badger, as they are dull and slow-witted (well, they are to me) but we have already seen that the 'Bagger' is mentioned. Then I thought about the otter: superficially cat-like, but hardly dull. Here was the reply I received on August 23rd:
(The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology defines dolt thus: doult dull fellow, blockhead, XVI. Prob. earlier in dial. Use, and rel. to dold (XV) numb, and dol (l), var. of DULL) (2)
Dear Richard,
With regard to your dole-cat (sic) enquiry….I`ve passed this onto several library colleagues in the hope that one of them can find this animal.
One colleague has written this note:
Hmmmm, fascinating, I`ll have a think about this, I wish we had the complete quote. Does he know it was an animal? [I don`t - R] Might it not be some time type of equipment?
Assuming it is an animal, it could be something that was more valuable then than now. I wondered about a ferret but they were very useful then, so not likely to have a price on their head as vermin. A stoat,maybe? They can `dance` in a crazy fashion, leaping around & jumping in the air. Possibly a weasel?
http://www.wiltshirefhs.co.uk/databases-wiltshirewords.html
The above gives some dialect meanings-as you see, dolt isn`t used in dialect to mean stupid or slow-witted, they had other names for these. This was my first thought but generally speaking mustelids/cats aren`t particularly stupid. On the other hand it may have nothing to do with cats or mustelids - look what they called moles.
4 shillings was a lot of money, suggesting it was something dangerous, very difficult to catch or rare (or not an animal at all).
I assume the word was transcribed correctly in the first place - what appears to be a `d` in old script can be a `cl` (not that I`ve had any more luck with this), &, as we said, there can be any number of possibilities. (3)
Concerning a Hong Kong hyena, a blog about the slum and squalor town that once was the Hong Kong Walled City that I found, said that before the demolition of it was completed in April 1994, hyenas were supposed to roam the derelict place.
1. E.Olivier and M.K.S. Edwards Moonrakings a Little Book of Wiltshire Stories (n.d) p.32
2. C.T. Onions The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology(1982) p.282
3. E-mail from Lorraine Portch of Natural History Museum to R.Muirhead August 23rd 2011
With regard to your dole-cat (sic) enquiry….I`ve passed this onto several library colleagues in the hope that one of them can find this animal.
One colleague has written this note:
Hmmmm, fascinating, I`ll have a think about this, I wish we had the complete quote. Does he know it was an animal? [I don`t - R] Might it not be some time type of equipment?
Assuming it is an animal, it could be something that was more valuable then than now. I wondered about a ferret but they were very useful then, so not likely to have a price on their head as vermin. A stoat,maybe? They can `dance` in a crazy fashion, leaping around & jumping in the air. Possibly a weasel?
http://www.wiltshirefhs.co.uk/databases-wiltshirewords.html
The above gives some dialect meanings-as you see, dolt isn`t used in dialect to mean stupid or slow-witted, they had other names for these. This was my first thought but generally speaking mustelids/cats aren`t particularly stupid. On the other hand it may have nothing to do with cats or mustelids - look what they called moles.
4 shillings was a lot of money, suggesting it was something dangerous, very difficult to catch or rare (or not an animal at all).
I assume the word was transcribed correctly in the first place - what appears to be a `d` in old script can be a `cl` (not that I`ve had any more luck with this), &, as we said, there can be any number of possibilities. (3)
Concerning a Hong Kong hyena, a blog about the slum and squalor town that once was the Hong Kong Walled City that I found, said that before the demolition of it was completed in April 1994, hyenas were supposed to roam the derelict place.
1. E.Olivier and M.K.S. Edwards Moonrakings a Little Book of Wiltshire Stories (n.d) p.32
2. C.T. Onions The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology(1982) p.282
3. E-mail from Lorraine Portch of Natural History Museum to R.Muirhead August 23rd 2011
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