We had birds, gold-fish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a cat . This latter was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree.
Collins, Collins and Porri's Carreras Black Cat Cigarette Factory, Hampstead Road, Mornington Crescent, NW1
In speaking of his intelligence, my wife, who at heart was not a little tinctured with superstition, made frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion, which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise.
From Edgar Allan Poe’s The Black Cat (1843)
