“Turn again, Whittington, Lord Mayor of London,
  Turn again, Whittington, Lord Mayor of London.”

These words took complete possession of him, and he returned before it was known that he had run away.  In the more modern chap-book Whittington is made to reach Holloway, where it would be less easy to hear Bow bells, and from which place he would have found it more difficult to return before the cook had risen.  As far as I can find there is no allusion to Holloway or Highgate hill in any early version, and it is evident that this localization is quite modern.  Mr. Lysons is certainly wrong when he says that at Highgate “a stone continued to mark the spot for many centuries.”  It is not known when the stone was first erected there, but it was probably put up when the name of the place was first foisted into the tale.  One stone was taken away in 1795, but others have succeeded it, and now there is a Whittington Stone Tavern; and the situation of Whittington College, which was removed to Highgate in 1808, has helped to favour the supposition that Whittington himself was in some way connected with that place.

The form of invitation which the bells rung out varies very much in the different versions.

In Richard Johnson’s ballad (1612) we find—­

  “Whittington, back return.”

which is then amplified into—­

  “Turn againe, Whittington,
  For thou in time shall grow
  Lord Maior of London.”

In T. H.’s History (see p. 11) we have—­

  “Turn again, Whittington, Lord Mayor of London.”

In the later chap-book version this is altered into—­

  “Turn again, Whittington,
  Lord Mayor of great London.”

It will be seen that the special reference to the fact that Whittington was three times Lord Mayor is not to be found in either the ballads or the chap-books.

In the Life, by the author of George Barnwell (1811), however we read—­

  “Return again, Whittington,
  Thrise Lord Mayor of London.”

And in The Life and Times of Whittington (1841)—­

  “Turn again, turn again, Whittington,
  Three times Lord Mayor of London.”

In the early version of the History by T. H. the fanciful portions are only allowed to occupy a small portion of the whole, and a long account is given of Whittington’s real actions, but, in the later chap-book versions, the historical incidents are ruthlessly cut down, and the fictitious ones amplified.  This will be seen by comparing the two printed here.  Thus T. H. merely says (p. 6) that Whittington was obscurely born, and that being almost starved in the country he came up to London.  In the later chap-book the journey to London is more fully enlarged upon (p. xxxiii.), and among those at Whittington’s marriage with Alice Fitzwarren the name of the Company of Stationers not then in existence is foisted in (pp. xlii.) It does not appear in T. H.’s History.