Whittington and His Cat. 



113 



called; some of our rich men in the nineteenth century have not 

 learned the true power of wealth as well as he knew it, and not as 

 often as we should, do we find them erecting lasting monuments to 

 religion, education and charity — monuments that would cause them 

 to be held in everlasting remembrance. With the church of St. Mi- 

 chael, in Paternoster Eoyal, his name is inseparably connected, for it 

 was there he founded his magnificent college with its master, four fel- 

 lows, masters of arts, clerks, conducts and choristers ; and bestowed 

 on it the rights and profits of the church which belonged to him. This 

 college, called God's House by his executors, was founded by him in 

 1421, for perpetual sustentation of needy and poor people ;V and I 

 believe this is the first establishment of a home for the aged poor. It 

 is now under the control and management of the Mercers' Company, 

 of which company Whittington was a member. The principal is a 

 person in holy orders called the tutor, whose duty it is to perform 

 service in the chapel, ancl to "oversee the husbandry of the house and 

 nourish charity and peace among his fellows." Each poor person ad- 

 mitted is to be one " meek of spirit, destitute of temporal goods in 

 other places, by which he might competently live, and chaste and of 

 good conversation." The inmates must be single persons above fifty- 

 five, not having freehold property to the amount of £20, or other 

 property to the amount of £30 a year. They receive from the funds 

 of the college a yearly stipend of £30, besides enjoying some money 

 gifts, and the advantages of medical attendance and the assistance of 

 nurses. This charity, four hundred years after Whittington founded 

 it, erected a handsome stone building, at an expense of £17,000, and 

 its annual income thirty years ago was nearly £5,000. 



He was the founder of the large manuscript library, which, in the reign 

 of Edward Sixth, was in the chapel, called the Lord Mayor's Chapel, ad- 

 joining Gruildhall; and he laid the first stone of a new library building 

 attached to the church and house of the Gray Eriars, near the spot 

 Avhere Christ Church hospital now stands. The total expenses of this 

 building amounted to £556 IGs. 8d, and of that sum Whittington con- 

 tributed £400. In this London monastery there appears to have been 

 the most considerable collection of books in the city, and one of its 

 treasures was a transcript of the works of Nicholas de Lira, which 

 was chained in the library. This book was one of Whittington's gifts, 

 purchased at a cost of more than $300. During his third mayoralty, 

 he entertained at Guildhall King Henry the Eif th and his bride Catha- 

 rine of Erance. The king had just before been victorious at Agin- 

 court, and that victory and the others which followed it brought about 

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