no cat could give Whittington his wealth. From
whence, then, does this error proceed? Be that
my care to point out. The commerce this
worthy merchant carried on was chiefly confined
to our coasts; for this purpose he constructed a
vessel which, for its agility and lightness, he
aptly christened a Cat. From thence it appears
that it was not the whiskered, four-footed,
mouse-killing cat that was the source of the
magistrate's wealth, but the coasting, sailing,
coal-carrying Cat."

In an early MS. the value of a cat is stated
to be equal to that of a milch sheep with
its lamb and its wool; and in another, the property
necessary to constitute a "proper hamlet"
is said to comprise nine buildings, one plough,
one kiln, one churn, one bull, one cock, and one
cat. One of the Spanish writers says that eight
hundred gold pieces were given for the first
Spanish cat landed in Chili, by Almagro, the
companion of Pizarro; while another puts down
the sum at six hundred, and states that Almagro
gave the gold for the cat, not the cat for the
gold—a discrepancy which tends to show that
there was some foundation for the story.
Jean Barbot, in his Description of Guinea,
published in 1680, speaks of that country being
infested with rats and mice, and of the great
consequent value attached to cats. Pennant gives
a very marvellous story, to the effect that "Alphonso,
a Portuguese, wrecked on the coast of
Guinea, was presented by the king with his
weight of gold for a cat to kill mice, and an
ointment to kill flies, which sum he improved
in five years to six thousand pounds." Pennant
makes use of this as a weapon with which to
knock down the Whittington story, but Mr.
Lysons accepts it as being rather corroborative
than destructive. Mr. Keightley describes a
doorway at Ribe Cathedral, in Jutland, in which
is a sculptured alto-relievo of a cat and four
mice, commemorative of a poor mariner who
made a fortune by the sale of a cat in some
foreign land. Mr. Lysons quotes from a work
published in 1811, showing in how great estimation
cats have at certain times been held.
"At Aix, in Provence, on the festival of Corpus
Christi, the finest Tom cat in the country,
wrapped in swaddling-clothes like a child, was
on this occasion exhibited to the admiration of
the gaping multitude in a magnificent shrine.
Flowers were strewed before him; every knee
bent as he passed." This strange and shocking
ceremony did not die out till the year 1757; we
only notice it in connexion with the fact that
cats, from whatever cause, were more highly
valued in past times than in the present day.

That Dick Whittington rose to be a
distinguished man is now unquestionable. He was
made a member of the Mercers' Company in
1392; he became alderman about the same
time; mayor, or lord mayor (it is not quite
certain at what date the mayor was first
belorded), in 1398, and again in 1407; member of
parliament for the City of London in 1416; lord
mayor a third time in 1420, and was knighted
some few years before his death in 1423. His
trade was not merely that of a mercer; he was,
as Mr. Lysons expresses it, a sort of "Howell
and James," dealing in the costliest silks, jewels,
and other luxuries. Among the Issue Rolls,
under the date 7th Henry the Fourth, is an
entry of payment of two hundred and forty-eight
pounds ten shillings and sixpence (a large sum
in those days) to Richard Whittington, citizen
and mercer of London, for pearls and cloth of
gold, provided for the solemnisation of the
marriage of Philippa, the king's daughter. In
Hakluyt's collection of Voyages, a poem called
the Libel of England's Policie makes mention
of our hero as one of the recognised merchant-
princes of the age:

                    Now I think of the sonne
      Of merchandy, Richard of Whitingdon,
      That loade sterre and chief chosen flowere.
      What hath by him our England of honoure!
      And what profit hath been of his riches!
      And yet tasteth daily of his worthinesse!

A famous story is told of him as a worthy cit.
"During his last mayoralty, after the war with
France, he entertained Henry the Fifth and his
queen at Guildhall in a most splendid manner,
and received from his sovereign the order of
knighthood. The king, in order to carry on the
war, had been obliged to contract many debts,
for which he had given his bonds. These bonds
had been bought up by Whittington to the
amount of sixty thousand pounds; and on the
present occasion, while the king was admiring a
fire which had been made in the room, in which
were burned several sorts of precious woods,
mixed with cinnamon and other spices, Whittington
took out the king's bonds, threw them into
the fire, and burned them; thus, at his own
expense, freeing the king from his debts. All
were amazed at such a proceeding; and the
king exclaimed, 'Never had prince such a
subject!' to which Whittington adroitly replied,
'Never had subject such a prince!'" We may
doubt that the sum was so large as sixty
thousand pounds, without doubting the general
tenor of the story.

But Sir Richard Whittington was not merely
a merchant so wealthy as to be able to assist
needy monarchs; he was an enlightened man,
who won the hearts of the citizens by the many
public improvements he introduced.
Whittington made a conduit from Highbury to
Cripplegate, where he formed a well, or fountain,
for the use of the public. He arched over a
spring near the City wall ditch, to keep the
water pure for use. He began to rebuild
during his lifetime the prison of Newgate, of
which an old chronicler, speaking of its
previous condition, relates that "hyt was febel
over litel, and so contagious of eyre yat hyt
caused the deth of many men." He began
building a library for the Grey Friars Monastery
in Newgate-street, and supplied it with books
(of course MSS. in those days). He arranged
with his executors for building a library attached
to Guildhall. He repaired St. Bartholomew's
Hospital, which had fallen into decay. He