DICK WHITTINGTON

Southland Times, Issue 18963, 9 June 1923, Page 6

DICK WHITTINGTON

FIFTH CENTENARY CELEBRATED The fifth centenary of the death of Dick Whittington occurs this month, wrote a correspondent of the Morning Post in March. It is rare that legend can claim to have rendered famous a man who was in fact great through his instrumentality alone. This, however, was the case with Dick Whittington. Who would have heard of him if it had not been for the picturesque story of his rise to wealth and position? Perhaps the only facts that remain unknown about his whole life are those concerning the foundation of his great fortune. Here tradition steps in and makes him famous for all time and keeps alive his memory. He was already entitled to a place in history both by his good works and by his sound administration, but these would otherwise undoubtedly have been forgotten. Dick Whittington, a maltreated boy, employed in the kitchen of Sir Ivo Fitzwaryn’s house, is in desperate straits. He has tramped up to London from his West Country home to make his fortune, only to find work as a menial, badly paid, ill-used, and beaten by the cook. His one solace is found in the companionship of his cat. To-morrow his merchant master is sending a ship to sea, and, in superstitious dread lest ill-fortune should befall his vessel, he calls his servants to his room, and, in accordance with his usual custom, invites them to take a share, however small, in the fortune of his boat. Dick, alas! has no money, but decides to part with his cat, which is by now half-starved owing to the brutality of the cook. He allows it to go more out of anguish for its condition than from any hope of gain.

The months pass by, and Dick, bereft of his only friend and companion, sinks into gloom and despair. There is no word of kindness nor any ray of hope to brighten his life, and finally late one night, after receiving exceptionally cruel treatment from the cook, he creeps out of the house and turns his back on London. How recently he had made that long journey on foot from Gloucestershire to London, his heart buoyed up by the hope of a great and glorious career in that wonderful city of his dreams. And this is the end.

On reaching the outskirts of London he sinks to the ground and falls asleep worn out by unhappiness and fatigue. Dawn breaks. Gradually consciousness returns. What is that joyful sound? . . . bells! ... in his fevered imagination the Bells of St. Mary-le-Bow are calling to him! . . . they seem to say— Turn again, Dick Whittington, Lord Mayor of London. Shall he answer their call? Yes! One more trial! and he returns, to creep back into the Fitzwaryn mansion, without his absence being discovered. And then the wonderful piece of luck occurs. The ship returns, and with it the news that it had touched at an unknown part of the Barbary Coast, and that there the cat had been bought for untold goldj>y the King of the country. So thrilled had this African Potentate been at the way the cat, the first he had ever seen, killed the rates and mice, that he had never rested until he had acquired it to rid his own palace of the pest. With the money so obtained Dick bought himself an apprenticeship in the mercer’s trade, and from that moment fortune smiled on him. To this picturesque legend and to the fortunate lack of information handed down about early days in London is due the fame which history would probably not otherwise have accorded to one of the greatest benefactors the City of London has known. Born about 1360, the third son of Sir William Whittington, owner of the estate of Pauntley, and head of an old Gloucestershire family, Dick was early left an orphan with no fortune. As soon as he was old enough and strong enough to stand the strain of the long journey, he walked to London to seek his fortune. The foregoing legend tells us of how he was enabled to apprentice himself to a mercer. It is not known when he set up for himself, but it is certain that he rose rapidly in his profession. He married the daughter of his former employer, Sir Ivo Fitzwaryn, and was, as is well known, three times elected Lord Mayor of London. It has been stated that in 1416 he represented the City of London \ in Parliament, but there is no trace of his name in the records of the House of Commons. Dick Whittington was at all times charitable, and after the death of his wife he devoted almost the whole of his great fortune to good works and to the improvement of the conditions under which the poor lived. He held many other municipal offices, and was the recipient of distinctions of every description. On several occasions he lent money to Henry V., and the, story is told of how he entertained the King to a great banquet on his return from the conquest of France. At the end of the feast he threw into the fire the King’s bonds for a loan of about £2500, and, it is said, received a Knighthood in return. That, however, Jias never been fully established, unless the investigations of the Royal Commission on Honours which has lately been sittimr have brought it to light !