OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 



Divesting, then, the story of Whittington of its mere infantine garb, 

 I have to place him before you as a model of that description of which 

 I have just spoken — as a man of yourselves, a man of your own County, 

 a man who, from small resources, raised himself to affluence by means 

 of trade ; and who, when he had been blessed in his efforts, knew what 

 return was due to the God who had prospered him. And this is the 

 more remarkable because, as we shall see presently, he lived in one of 

 the darkest ages of the Christian Church ; at a time when there was 

 but a veiy faint glimmering of Gospel light. He was a man in every 

 way immensely in advance of the age in which he lived, a man of 

 enlightenment in the midst of darkness. "We claim Whittington then 

 as a Gloucestershire man, and we may well be proud of such a fellow 

 countryman ; indeed it is not surprizing that more villages than one, 

 and that more counties than one should contend for the privilege of 

 having given birth to so distinguished a character. I am told that 

 Herefordshire,* Somersetshii'e,' Shropshire,'' Lancashire,* and Stafford- 

 shire dispute wdth us the birthplace of the hero of our tale, as we also 

 read that no less than seven places contended for that of Homer. "We 

 find that there have been families of the name of "Wliittington, at 

 different times, in most of the counties which have laid claim to have 



b The family of "WTiittington undoubtedly possessed property at Solers Hope, 

 in Herefordshire, but they also possessed the estate of Pauntley, in the County of 

 Gloucester, and most probably resided there, as in the Calendar. Inquis. post mortem, 

 William de "WTiitington is noted first as of Pauntley, Gloucestershire, and then of 

 Solers Hope, Herefordshire. The same order of precedence is obseired in the 

 Parliamentaiy Writs, which seems to indicate that Pauntley was at least the chief 

 residence ; and we find from the •wills of Eobert and Guy "WTiittington that they 

 made it their place of family burial. 



Solers Hope is described as " an isolated and, to this day, iminviting estate ;" 

 •whereas the situation of Pauntley, though remote fi'om towns, is extremely 

 pleasing as to its picturesque features. 



c Woodcock's Lives of Lord Mayors, p. 28, at Taunton Dean, Somerset. 



d Life of Whityngton, London, 8vo, 1828, p. 11. at Ellesmere, Shropshire. 



e Ballad Tale, CMackay's Collection), p. 4. 



None of these authors, ho^wever, give any authority, and it is probable that it 

 ■«'as a mere guess from their finding that there were villages or places of that 

 name in those counties. He might on such gi-ounds have been equally given to 

 Derbyshii-e, Stafi"ordshu-e, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Leicestershire, or 

 Northumberland. 



