52 THE MOB EL MERCHANT 



I have said that he was a man of enlightenment far in advance of 

 his age, and the first instance of it which I shall give is this. One of 

 the greatest improvements of the last few years, one of the most recent 

 suggestions of humanity, and one of the most approved preventives of 

 that dreadful vice, drunkenness, is that of having drinking fountains 

 in different parts of the metropolis and our large country towns, where 

 the wayfarer may slake his thirst, without being obliged to purchase 

 his draught at the expense of his pocket, or perhaps of his soul. In 

 passing St. Sepulchre's Church in London, a short time since, I could not 

 but notice the neat drinking fountain which adorns the corner of the 

 churchyard, but when I observed upon it the inscription — " This is 

 the first drinking fountain established in the metropolis," or words to 

 that effect, I could not help mentally ejaculating, as the novelists style 

 that process of the mind — "Alas, how transient is fame ! Alas, that 

 Eichard Whittington's memory should be so soon forgotten!" Friends 

 of humanity, fully and freely as I honor you, and deem your cause one 

 of the highest and noblest, yet candour bids me say that Whittington 

 was long before you in this. Let us turn to that venerable histoiian 

 Stow, and we shall find that " there was a water conduit, east of the 

 Church, (St. Giles, Cripplegate) which came from Highbury ; and that 

 "Whittington, the Mayor, caused a ' bosse,' •"■ or tap, of water to be made 



X It would appear that the water of this fountain Avas made to issue fi'om a hoss, or 

 stud, in the shape of a bear's head, (as our door knockers often represent that of a 

 lion,) which went by the name of "Whittington's boss. This emblem was adopted 

 in a singular paper war of satirical repartee, in the beginning of the sixteenth 

 centurj", between the celebrated grammarians of the day, William Lilyc, Eobcrt 

 Aldridge, William Ilorman, and Robert Whittington. The latter being a man of 

 conceited notions, though undoubtedly of much talent, had supplicated the Uni- 

 versity of Oxford to grant him the honor of the Laureate, which dignity was 

 solemnly conferred upon him on the 4th of July, 1513, when he was publicly 

 crowned with a wreath of laurel. Upon this he gave himself great airs, and 

 assumed the title of Profo-vates Anglice, which provoked the spleen of his fellow 

 grammarians who, unwilling to allow his presumption to pass imnoticed, applied 

 to him, in ridicule, the nickname of Whittington's boss; partly, perhaps, on account 

 of a personal resemblance in feature, or manner, to the animal there represented, 

 and the bearish way in which he behaved towards his contemporaries ; or partly, 

 perhaps, on account of the similarity of the name he bore to that of the philanthropic 

 founder of the foiintain, -nath whom, perhaps, in his boastful manner he may have 

 claimed relationship. I cannot, however, find that he belonged to the Gloucester- 



