116 



WMttington and His Cat. 



faced the old stone, inclosed it in an oval plinth, surrounded it with an 

 iron railing, supporting a very handsome lamp, and inscribed on it 

 " Whittington Stone," with the years of his service as Lord Mayor and 

 Sheriff, and added the following: This stone was restored, the rail- 

 ing fixed, and lamp erected, at the sole expense of R. Perkins, 1869." 

 So, now, Whittington and Mr. R. Perkins will go down to posterity 

 together. Now, despite this record of the stone, which goes back long 

 before 1795, it is very doubtful whether Whittington sat on a stone at 

 all. For from the ancient deeds that have been found, it appears that 

 on that part of Highgate Hill there stood in ancient times a Lazar 

 house or hospital for leprous persons; and from an old view of the 

 place which has been preserved, it would seem that the stone was a 

 part of a wayside cross in front of the chapel of St. Anthony, erected 

 for the purpose of attracting the notice of the passing traveler, to the 

 unhappy victims of disease in the hospital, and as a means of solicit- 

 ing his alms and his prayers for the unfortunate. Such a cross would, 

 of course, be very old, but it would be long after the time when Whit- 

 tington flourished. But the story is stronger than historical facts, 

 and thanks to Mr. Perkins' liberality, the story seems destined to out- 

 live them. 



But I do not believe the story would have lived for a generation had 

 it not been for the part the cat has taken in it. Puss seems to have 

 been the foundation of the whole tale, and had she been left out, his 

 good deeds, his munificent charities, and his high honors would all 

 have been forgotten. That prince of old gossips, Pepys, Cells us, that 

 he went "■ to South warke fair, and there saw the puppet show of Whit- 

 tington, which was pretty to see; and how that idle thing do work 

 upon people that see it, and even myself, too ! " Honest old Samuel ; 

 but we cannot believe that the puppet show could have worked upon 

 him very greatly, or that the play could have been a stock piece of 

 Punch and his dramatic troupe for more than a century, if the cat 

 had not been one of the principal performers. Early in the reign of 

 James I., Reginald Elstracke published a very fine engraving of Whit- 

 tington, in which he was represented with his hand resting on a skull. 

 There was no sale for it, no one wanted it; his great and generous 

 deeds failed to create a market for it. So one Peter Stint, a print- 

 seller 'of Pye Corner in London, purchased the plate, and having a 

 proper appreciation for the Englishman's love of the legend, and also 

 a keen eye for business, erased the skull and engraved a cat in its 

 place ; and he had no difficulty then in disposing of all the copies he 

 prin ted. 



