60 THE MODEL MERCHANT 



dte citee toucTi la demolicon d'aucuns lieu ou murs en la dte citee 

 sans I'avis de "Whittington," &c. — Bill. Cotton. Cleopatra, Y. iii. 

 f. 145, a contemporary MS. Such was the confidence which King 

 Henry V. placed in this illustrious citizen, that he had no person to 

 whom, for sterling integrity, for taste in architecture, and zeal for 

 improvement, he could better intrust the repair of that noble fabric 

 the Abbey Church at "Westminster, the nave of which had been burnt 

 down in a former reign, and had remained in ruins for many years. 



The king associated ^yhittiugton with Richard Harweden, a monk of 

 the Abbey at AVcstmiustcr, as commissioner for carrying this noble 

 work into execution ; so that we ai'c chiefly indebted to the taste and 

 vigilance of Hichard Whittington for that beautiful fane beneath 

 which repose the ashes of so many of the heroes of our country, and 

 in which prayer and praise, (thanks to the Dean and Chapter who 

 have yielded to the general wish of the metropolis for an extension of 

 church accommodation for the lower orders) now rise every Sabbath 

 to the throne of grace from the mouths of tliousands. A copy of the 

 original commission to Whittington and Harweden, in Latin, will 

 appear in the Ajjpcndix. 



Neither were his loyalty and liberality towards his sovereign 

 impaired by his wonderful acts of benevolence. The story book tells 

 us that, on the last occasion of his mayoralty, after the conquest of 

 France, he entertained Henry V. and his Queen at Guildhall, in a 

 most splendid manner, when he received from his sovereign the honor 

 of knighthood. The king, in order to carry on the war, had been 

 obliged to contract many debts, for which he had given his bonds. 

 These bonds Whittington had bought up to the amount of sixty 

 thousand pounds, and on the present occasion, while the king was 

 admiring the fire which had been made in the room, in wliicli were 

 burnt several sorts of precious woods, mixed Avith cinnamon and 

 other spices — not, observe, with offensive sea-borne coal, brouglit by 

 a swift sailing ship, for that would have destroyed the tale of poor 

 puss^ — Whittington took out the king's bonds, threw them into the 

 fire and burnt them; thus, at liis own expense, freeing the king 

 from his debts. All were amazed at such a proceeding, and the king 

 exclaimed — "Never had Prince such a subject," to which Whitting- 

 ton courteously replied—" Xevcr had subject such a Prince." 



