38 THE MODEL MERCHANT 



Sir Thomas Gresliam, Sir Thomas and Lady Ramsey, and Hobson, 

 a Haberdasher, introduces them to his Gallery of Pictures, containing 

 the portraits of "good Citizens," some of whose notable deeds he 

 relates to them ; when he comes to Whittiugton the Dean says : — 



" This Sir Richard WMttington — three times Mayor, son to a Knight and 

 prentice to a mercer — ^hegun the library of Grey Friars in London. And his 

 executors after him did build "Whittington College, thirteen almshouses for poor men, 

 repaired St. Bartholomews in Smithfield, glazed the Guildhall and built Newgate." 



Upon which Hobson says, using a quaint kind of expletive in vogue 



in those days : — 



" Bones a me, then I have heard lies, 

 For I have heard he was a scullion 

 And raised himself by venture of a cat." 

 Dr. Nowell replies, 



" They did more wrong to the gentleman." 



The dean's objection probably refers to the expression of tlie scullion, 

 for, after all my researches, that incident in the story which relates to his 

 ill-treatment by the cook is the only part which I have not been able 

 in some way, T think, to substantiate ; but supposing that it referred to 

 the cat, it is after all only the suggestion of Heywood, the play- 

 writer, who puts these words in the dean's mouth, which were 

 probably the foundation of Foote's scepticism. 



Mr. Itiley, in his edition of the Liher Alhus, suggests two solutions 

 of the cat question: — 1st, That "Whittington made his fortune by 

 achats, which was the French name for traffic. 2ndly, That he 

 made it by the coal trade, in the ships called cats, as suggested 

 by Foote. 



!N'ow let us examine these two suggestions. In the first place, 

 there would be nothing in the use of the word achats to distinguish 

 "Whittington from every other pedlar or retail dealer of his day ; and I 

 do not use the word pedlar in a ridiculous sense, for it was then the 

 legitimate term of a petty dealer' or retail merchant; they all made 

 their fortunes by achats. Mercery was originally achats, or pedlary. 

 See Herbert's History of the Ticelvc Companies. Stow says that " the 

 milloncrs," or haberdashers, " sold mousetraps, bird cages, shoeing 

 hoiTis, lanthorns, Jews' trumps, &c." 



t Todd's Johnson's Bietionary. (Pedlar.) 



