June 25, 1897

Margaret Oliphant, a Scottish writer (April 4, 1828 to June 25. 1897), is another of those Victorian women who find themselves the sole support of their children and relations, and succeed in this amidst a life of many sad events. Perhaps the most interesting thing is that they did succeed in making a living on their literary work. In the case of Margaret Oliphant her literary output included many articles for Blackwoods magazine, novels, histories and literary criticism. Her nonfiction includes Historical Sketches of the Reign of George II (1869), and A Literary History of England from 1760 to 1825 (1882), and many other books. And her fiction sold well, though our quote is not from one of her most remembered books. The title is Brownlows (1868) and we can see she was a graceful writer.

Mrs Swayne's kitchen was by far the most cheerful place in the house. It had a brick floor, which was as red as the hearth was white, and a great array of shining things about the walls. There was a comfortable cat dozing and blinking before the fire, which was reflected out of so many glowing surfaces, copper, pewter, and tin, that the walls were hung with a perfect gallery of cats. Mrs Swayne herself had a wickerwork chair at one side, which she very seldom occupied; for there was a great multiplicity of meals in the house, and there was always something just coming to perfection in the oven or on the fire.

She was good at portraying busy women. And I love her validation of bourgeois values in the cat reflected in polished utensils around the room. The cat as emblem of cleanliness is not an old association for the feline in history.