OF THE MILBLE AGES. 49 



willing to give the time and labor necessary for the investigation of 

 the facts, and I believe that such facts are worth investigating, both 

 for theii- historical and archaeological value. 



Now in all these instances, unless there was some extraordinary 

 connection between Whittington and a Cat, I do not think so much 

 pains would have been taken to repeat it ; and if, as some pretend, his 

 fortune was not made through means of the animal, but bj^ a ship of 

 that name, I think we should have had him represented in his 

 portraits with a ship, and not with a Cat/ 



But by whatever process it was that Whittington raised himself, 

 rise he did, and became a most distinguished character, as we shall 

 see. "We do not know at what date he set up for himself in business, 

 but we find that he was a member of the Mercers' Company in 1392, 

 in which year he was elected both AJderman and Sheriff of the City, 

 and that he had five youths bound apprentice'' to him. And here we 

 find one of the first instances of his patriotism and obedience to the 

 laws of his country. A law had been passed to prevent the admission 

 of foreign apprentices into the English guilds, as there had been an 

 attempt on the part of foreigners '' to usurp all the trade of this 

 country, and stringent enactments were required to put a stop to it. 

 Previous wardens had been fined for taking bribes to admit foreigners. 

 Whittington strenuously resisted all overtures of the sort. Bribery 

 and corruption were the order of the day, and from some complaints 

 on this score the Mayor and Sheriff's of London were, A.D. 1391, by 

 virtue of the King's writ, removed and committed to prison, and a 

 custos civitatis and new Sheriff's appointed. 



p The tradition, indeed, is that the name of the ship by which he made his 

 fortune was called the Unicom, and not the Cat. 



q There appeai-s to have existed almost an absolute necessity that apprentices 

 should be of gentle blood, at least if they were ever to expect to become master 

 tradesmen, for "an enactment was repeatedly promulgated, even so late as 11th 

 Richard II., A.D. 1388, that no serf should, under any circumstances whatsoever, 

 be admitted to the freedom of the citj' ;"* and without the freedom of the city I 

 suspect none could legally carry on a trade on his awn account. This, one would 

 think, would be conclusive evidence that Richard Whittington was not himself of 

 low birth, even if we had no other proofs of the respectability of his parentage. 



»• Henry's History of Great Britain, vol. 10, p. 238,, and Midddlcsex and London, 

 by Edward Wedlake Brayley, in Beauties of England and Wales, vol. 10, p. 622, 

 Note. * Introduction to Riley's edition of the Liher Alhm, p. 24. 



