OF TEE MIDDLE AGES. 71 



Condidit hoc templum 



Jlichaelis quam speciosuni, 



Regia spes et pres » 



Divinis res rata turbis ;'' 



Pauperibus pater, 



Et Major qui fuit iirbis ; 



Martius hunc vicit, « 



En annos gens tibi dicet/ 

 rich and poor by his acts of charity, or it may mean (3) his overcoming all sordid 

 and selfish feelings by \rhich those are too often actuated who raise themselves 

 from poverty to affluence. Or if barathrum be taken as an old monkish Latin word 

 for barter,* it may signify (4) the liberal views which he introduced into trade, 

 raising it from mere pedlary into legitimate commerce, and discarding aU illicit 

 traffic, especially alluding to that almost last act of his public life, compelling the 

 adoption by the brewers of a more honest and liberal mode of dealing. (See 

 page 54.) 



See Rees' Encyclopedia, under Barathrum. "The ^«raf7i?-!<»!, among the an- 

 cient Athenians, was a dark noisome hole, having spikes at the the top to prevent 

 any escape, and others at the bottom to pierce and lacerate the ofiender. From its 

 depth and capaciousness, the name came to be used proverbially for a miser, or 

 glutton, always craving, in which sense the word is used among the Latin poets. 

 Thus, Horace, Epist. Lib. I., Ep. xv., v. 631. — 



"Pemicies et tempestas barathi-umque Marcelli 

 Quicquid quoesierat venti-i donaret avaro." 

 " Regia spes et pres," i. e. prses. Fras, (1) a surety in a money matter, one who 

 engageth for another, especially to the public, and upon his default to make it good. 

 (2) A real security by bond or mortgage. — Ains^-ovth's Latin Dictionary, 4to., 1756. 

 How entirely this bears out the history of his advances to the crown. 



p " Divinis res rata turbis." His suretyship to his earthly king is held to be his 

 surety for the rewards of his heavenly king. 



q By the Charter of Foundation of his Hospital, the day of his death was to be 

 observed the B? March. 



r By this it would appear that his exact age was unknown to his executors, by 

 whom his monument was erected. In the Whittington Pedigree, given at the 

 end of this Memoir, and also in the Table, facing page 1 8, showing the con- 

 nection between the "Whittingtons and the Berkeleys of Cubberley, an accidental 

 error in the misplacement of a single figure in the date of the death of Sir "William de 

 Whytyngton, our hero's father, viz. 1 3oO instead of 1360, only discovered since the 

 printing off of the earlier sheets, having led to an ciToneous calculation on the 

 subject of Richard Whittington's age, I take this opportimity of correcting it ; for 

 although it does not make any great difference as to the theory of his early history, 



* (See Du Cange's Glossary, under baratrum. {Barraftare, Italian.) 



K 



