The Minister's Cat is a Victorian

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 parlour game

Parlour game

A parlour game is a group game played indoors. During the Victorian era in Great Britain and in the United States, these games were extremely popular among the upper and middle classes. They were often played in a parlour, hence the name....

. The game involves describing the eponymous cat

Cat

The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...

 using adjective

Adjective

In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....

s beginning with each letter of the alphabet.

How the game is played

All players sit in a circle, and the first player describes the minister's cat with an adjective beginning with the letter 'A' (for example, "The minister's cat is an adorable cat") Each player then does the same, using different adjectives starting with the same letter. Once everyone has done so, the first player describes the cat with an adjective beginning with the letter 'B'. This continues for each letter of the alphabet.

• In an alternate variation, the first player describes the minister's cat with an adjective beginning with the letter 'A', the second with the letter 'B' and so forth, going around the circle.

In both variations, a player is "out" of the game if they are unable to think of an adjective, or if they repeat one previously used. Players may clap in unison or speak in a rhythmic manner during the game, setting the pace for each player to speak his line; if a player falls too far behind the pace while thinking of an adjective, he may also be declared "out."

Variations

On the second and succeeding rounds an alternate sentence can be used: "Mother's tea service was brittle.", "Mother's tea service was broken.".