The Cat and Cartography
What, you wonder, does this have to do with cartography? The answer lies on the other side of the A23 to Muesli, a little north of Reigate Hill, on a chalk downland slope. It may be seen on maps drawn up from, say, the 1890s until 1976. These depicted a diminutive area of woodland in close proximity to the Gatton Estate. By my estimate, it accounted for no more than 1/50 square kilometre, or 5 acres. Realizing this, whoever put this arboricultural dwarf on the map thought carefully about its name. What is the smallest item of which one can conceive? How should this teeny-weeny wood be envisaged? His solution was cartographical genius: Catsbrain Shaw.
Alas, it was not to last. In 1976 the M25 motorway lobotomised the southern half of this mapping marvel. So diminished is it now that the name is no longer recorded by the OS. Sic transit gloria mundi.