L to R: MacNeice, Hughes, Eliot, Auden, Spender; source
Re kittens, one must be called Old Foss after Mr Lear's famous cat. The other two might perhaps be called Barocco and Rokoko (Anthony [Blunt] read a paper on these last night). But cats have little interest in architecture, so perhaps Rodillardus and Chat Botté would be more appropriate -- though French is so difficult to pronounce. Other charming names that occur to me are Malinn, Fanfreluche, Cydalise, Poll Troy, Dobbin, Queen Anne, Pactolus, Parthenon, Laidronette, Midas, Oenone, Quangle Wangle (Mr Lear again), Amanda, Passionata and Perhaps. You may select from these -- but remember Old Foss.
Letter from a teenage Louis MacNeice
to his stepmother (?1926) quoted in
Nick Laird 'Chianti in Khartoum'
Review of Jonathan Allison (ed.)
Letters of Louis MacNeice (2010) in
3 March 2011, vol. 33, no. 5., p.31
On the gerundive origins of 'Amanda' ("she who must be loved"),
see this nice piece at audio video disco.
