When I visited Lacock recently, I was privileged to meet the lovely Morag, whom I had seen featured a few times on the National Trust’s Facebook page and was delighted to meet in person. She was taking this in her stride, used to being fussed over, as one of the resident cats of Lacock.

Morag outside Lacock Abbey. Photo courtesy C. Hardy
The Lacock archive is as full of references to cats as there are currently cats living in and around the abbey. Although these are mostly photographs, there are also text references to cats. The earliest reference I’ve found is from the 19th century. Charles Henry Talbot, who owned Lacock from 1877, kept most of the letters written to him (although sadly didn’t make copies of the ones he sent) and from there we can find several interesting references to his home life and relationships with his family and friends – and animals! We know from correspondence that Charles had at least two cats in the last part of the 19th century, called Stripy and Bunny. It appears that he was very fond of them. Matilda Talbot, who inherited Lacock from her uncle Charles, was equally fond of them and many photographs of cats have appeared from amongst her papers.