* * * * *

Two old houses in London, which were pulled down at the beginning of the present century, have been associated with the name of Whittington, but there is no evidence that he really dwelt in either of them.  One ruinous building in Sweedon’s Passage, Grub Street, engravings of which will be found in J.T.  Smith’s Topography of London, was pulled down in 1805, and five houses built on its site.  A tablet was then set up, on which was an inscription to the effect that the house had been called Gresham House, and that Whittington once inhabited it.

The magnificent house which stood in Hart Street, Crutched Friars, a few doors from Mark Lane, is said to have been called Whittington’s palace in the old leases, but this is the only evidence in favour of the popular belief.  The front was elaborately carved in oak, the work of a much later date than that of Whittington.  The decoration is attributed to the latter part of the reign of Henry VIII., and on the ceiling among other forms was that of a cat’s head, from which possibly the tradition of its having been the residence of Whittington arose.  There was a popular superstition that the cat’s eyes followed the visitor as he walked about the room.  This house was taken down in 1801, but both it and the house in Sweedon’s Passage were reproduced in the interesting Old London Street at the International Health Exhibition of 1884.

FOOTNOTES: 

[1] Catalogue of Chap Books, Garlands, &c. 1849, p. 69.

[2] Riley’s Memorials of London and London Life, p. 534 (note).

[3] Riley’s Memorials, pp. 533-4.

[4] The Royal Mandate, dated June 8, is printed in Riley’s Memorials, p. 545.

[5] Survey of London, ed.  Thoms, 1842, p. 41.

[6] Survey of London, ed.  Thoms, 1842, p. 162.

[7] Ibid. p. 103.

* * * * *

  THE

  FAMOUS AND REMARKABLE

  HISTORY

  OF

  SIR RICHARD WHITTINGTON,

  THREE TIMES LORD MAYOR OF LONDON: 

  who lived in the time of King Henry the Fifth in the year 1419, with
  all the Remarkable Passages, and things of note, which happened in his
  time:  with his Life and Death.

  WRITTEN BY T. H.

  Printed by W. Thackeray and T. Passinger.

  The Printer to the Reader.

Courteous Reader,—­I here present unto thee no strange or forreign news, no imagination, or vain conceit of poetical fiction; neither do I tell thee of Gallagantua or of the Red Rose Knight, nor such like stories; but I here offer to thy view a true pattern of humility; being the glory of our Kingdom, and raised to Honour by desert; the title tells you that it is the life and death of Richard Whittington,