OF TEE MIDDLE AGES. 35 



with the White Horse, in Berkshire, cut a-^ainst the clialk hill, but 

 there is no more mistaking that for anything but a horse, than there 

 is a possibility of mistake as to this figure being meant for a cat, not- 

 withstanding the Pre-Raphaelite execution of the design. 



Bewick, the naturalist, in noticing Hoel Dha's Xat^-s, says: — 

 " 'Whatever credit we may allow to the circumstances of the well 

 known story of JJlu'ttinfffon and his Cat, it is another proof of the 

 great value set on this animal in former times." Seeing, then, what 

 was the value of a cat in this country a few centuries before Whit- 

 tington's time, and in other countries for some centuries afterwards, 

 there is no reason to reject the story of Whittington having laid the 

 foundation of his fortune by the means attributed to him. 



I find some curious notices in Du Gauge's Glossary, under the head 

 of Cats, mentioning the frequent use of their skins for the pelisses of 

 abbots and abbesses, and some regulations made by the ecclesiastical au- 

 thorities '' respecting the fastidiousness of the clergy, and their extrava- 

 gance in respect of furs. Nothing would satisfy them but the skins of 

 the rarest wild Spanish cats. I could hardly, however, imagine that 

 trade in these skins was the source of Whittington's wealth, though it 

 might be more consistent than some opinions which have been sug- 

 gested, because peltries would have been a legitimate part of the 

 dealings of a mercer or haberdasher. But as there is a great tendency 

 in mankind to judge of ancient history by what is passing before their 

 own eyes, and to dispute everything which does not coincide with 

 their own limited notions, so several attempts have been made to 

 explain the story of the cat in some other way than that of the 

 popular tale. Keightley, who has taken more pains to invalidate 

 Whittington's history than anyone else, says, "I hardly ever knew in 

 my own country an instance of the attainment to opulence by a man 

 who, as the phrase goes, had risen from nothing, that there was not 

 some extraordinary mode of accounting for it among the vulgar, and 



p Cattinarum sive aliarum pellium notabilis ct damnabilis curiositas quoe iu 

 tantum ut ipse novi processcrat, ut Gallicanorum cattorum pellibus contemptis ad 

 Iberorum vel Italorum cattos, religiosorum hominiun curiositas transmigraret. 



Consuetudines Cluniac. Petri Yenerabilis c. 17. in Gloss. Du Cange. 



Pellicias habcbant ; jacebant super cilicia ; habebant coopcrtorias cattinas. — 

 Hist. Monast. Abbenton in Any lid. 



