Miss Alice Fitzwarren, was thrice Lord Mayor
of London, was knighted, and was member of
parliament for the City.—We cannot pretend
to tell the story so well as the story-book tells
it, but this will serve our present purpose.

Now, some persons say that Dick never
existed at all; while some, knowing that
Stow and other old writers mention one Sir
Richard Whittington as having been thrice
Lord Mayor of London, believe in his identity,
but deny all the marvellous parts of the story.
Others, accepting Dick as having been a
real personage, say that he came from Shropshire.
Many assert that he came from Staffordshire,
some say from Lancashire, some
from other counties, but agree with each
other in ignoring the cat, the cook, the Bow
bells, the King of Barbary, the rats and mice,
and the casket of jewels. Lemprière, in his
Dictionary, asserted that the story of Dick
Whittington is calculated for the amusement of
children, but has no foundation in truth. Pennant,
writing in 1790, said: "I leave the history
of the Cat to the friend of my younger
days, Mr. Punch, and his dramatic troupe."
Mr. Keightley, in his Tales and Popular
Fictions, says: "In the whole of this legendary
history, there is, as we may see, not a single
word of truth, other than this—that the maiden
name of Lady Whittington was Fitzwarren."

These doubts have, however, been overhauled
in a resolute manner by an antiquarian writer,
who leaves no stone unturned to arrive as near
as he can at the truth. The Rev. Samuel
Lysons, rector of Rodmarton, in Gloucestershire,
gave a lecture in his neighbourhood on
the subject of Whittington; and this lecture
has since been expanded into a volume full of
curious information and speculation. Certain it
is that Mr. Lysons proves that there was a Dick
Whittington, and that he was a native of
Gloucestershire. During a period of no less than
six hundred years, there have been families in
the county of that name, varied in its spelling
as Whytynton, Whityngdon, Whittyngdon,
Whitingdon, Whyttyngton, Wityndon, Whytindon,
Witinton, Whytington, Wittingdon, Wityngton,
Wittington, and at length Whittington.
Even Dick himself had his name spelt in many
different ways—a fault very prevalent before the
invention of printing. Mr. Lysons, by tracing
the pedigree in old MSS. contained in the
British Museum, finds that Dick was the fifth
son of Sir William de Whittington, a
Gloucestershire knight living in the time of Edward the
Third. There is a William de Whittington
traceable as far back as 1240. Dick himself
appears to have been born in 1350.

Mr. Lysons assigns reasons for believing that
Dick, being a fifth son, poor and unbefriended
by his family, came to London to seek his
fortune; and those who consider what was the
state of the roads and the vehicles in those
days, will be prepared to credit the narrative of
trials and troubles by the way. Arrived in the
metropolis, Dick commenced his career as a
mere sweeper in the house or shop of a City
trader. As to the trader's daughter being
gentle and kind, and the old cook ill tempered
and cruel, there is nothing unbelievable in that.
The alleged commercial venture of Mr.
Fitzwarren was quite in harmony with the custom
of the times. There were no consuls, no
partners of private firms settled in foreign lands,
no system of exchanges to square up international
balances. Merchants were accustomed to send
out ship-loads of assorted goods under the charge
of a supercargo, whose business it was to sell
the merchandise in any foreign land where he
could find a market, and whose mode of remuneration
was such as to induce honesty and
vigilance. That Mr. Fitzwarren should send
out such a ship-load is quite consistent with the
usages of that age.

But how about the cat? Who could have
thought of such a thing as Dick sending out his
penny cat as a venture; and how could the King
of Barbary, even if the story were shorn of ever
so much of its marvels, have been induced to give
a valuable purchase price for such an animal?
Mr. Keightley discredits the Whittington story
in this matter, on the ground that somewhat
similar tales are to be found in Denmark,
Tuscany, Venice, Persia, and South America. Sir
Gore Ouseley discovered a similar story of a cat
in a Persian poem, written as far back as the
year twelve hundred and ninety-nine. Mr.
Lysons contends, however, that these tales
render the whole subject all the more worthy of
attention. That the cat was, in ancient times,
a much more valued animal than at present, is
certain. The ancient laws and institutions of
Howel Dhu, about 950 A.D. (published by the
Record Commission in 1841), mention the cat
as an animal held in high repute. In one place
the price of a cat is estimated in the following
curious way: The animal is to be held up by the
tail, with the nose near the floor, and as much
of the best wheat as would be necessary to
completely cover the cat in this position was the
price of the animal. By what means poor puss
was to be induced to remain in this uncomfortable
position while the experiment was being
performed, we are not told.

In 1771 the story of Whittington and his
Cat underwent discussion at a meeting of the
Society of Antiquaries, in connexion with a
paper read by the learned Dr. Pegge; Horace
Walpole ridiculed it; and the way in which
Foote treated it, in his farce of The Nabob,
gives us an insight into one of the modes
of interpretation adopted at the time. Sir
Matthew Mite says: "That Whittington lived,
no doubt can be made; that he was Lord
Mayor of London was equally true; but as to
his cat, that, gentlemen, is the Gordian knot to
untie. And here, gentlemen, be it permitted to
me to define what a cat is. A cat is a domestic,
whiskered, four-footed animal, whose employment
is catching of mice; but let puss have
been ever so subtle, let puss have been ever so
successful, to what could puss's capture amount?
No tanner can curry the skin of a mouse, no
family make a meal of the meat, consequently