The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-31 00:00:00

Whittington and his Cat,

Everybody knows the story of Dick Whittington and his
Cat—how the little fellow, at the age of seven, ran away
from a home where there was nothing to make him happy,
was a beggar boy for some years, and then, hearing that the
streets of London were paved with gold and silver, worked
his way thither to he saved from starvation by the good
nature of a merchant of Leadenhall-street named Fitzwar-
ren—how he was for a long time scullion in the merchant's
house, much favoured by Mistress Alice, the merchant's
daughter, but much persecuted by the vile jade of a cook,
whose bidding he had to follow—how at length his master,
sending a shipfull of merchandise to B trbary, permitted
each one of his servants to venture something, and poor
Whittington had nothing to venture save a cat which ho
had bought for a penny, and set to destroy the rats and miss
that infested his garret—how, while the ship was on its
voyage, the cook•.maio's tyranny so troubled him that he
ran away, and had gone as far as Bunhill-fields, when the
bells of 13.-)w Church seemed to call to him—

"Turn again, Whittington,
Thrice Lord Mayo.: of London,"

and how when, in obedience to this warning, he went back
to Leadenhall-strect, it was to learn that his cat had been
bought by the King of Barbary for treasures worth 5.,100,000,
so that he was all at once almost the richest commoner in
England, fit to marry good Mistress Alice, his patron's
daughter, to become a famous merchant, and, as Bow bells
had promised, thrice Lord Mayor of London, and to live in
the City's history as one of the greatest benefactors, But
that tale is too full of anachronisms and improbabilities for
any part of it, not confirmed by authentic records, to be
believed in; and the authentic records are so few that wo
can get but a slight knowledge of Whittington's real
history.

That a cat had something to do with the making of his
fortune is not easily to be denied. The legend is traced
beck to within a generation of his lifetime, and to authorities
that. could hardly have been either ignorant or untruthful.
It is probable, moreover, that he owed something to the in-
fluence and assistance of Fitzwarren, whose daughter ho
did really marry. But that he began life as a beggar-boy
and scullion is certainly a fable. He was the youngest son
of Sir William Whittington, a descendant of an ancient
Warwickshire family, and proprietor of the manors of
Pauntley, in Gloucestershire, and Solers Hope, in Hereford,
who died in 1360. The family possessions passed to William,
the first-born, and, on his early death, to Robert, the second
son, High Sheriff of Gloucester in 1402, and again in 1407,
and ancestor of the Whittingtons of Hamworth, existing to
this day. This Robert must have been a wealthy man.
On one occasion ho was riding with his son Guy in the
neighbourhood of Hereford, when about thirty followers of
one Richard Oldcastle, who had doubtless been aggrieved
at some of the High Sheriff's proceedings, waylaid and took
them prisoners, only to be released on their entering into a
bond to pay £6OO by way of ransom, and to take no proceed-
ings against Oldcastle for his lawless conduct. In 1416,
however, Robert Whittington obtained authority from
Parliament to consider this forced engagement as null and
void; and it is likely that he got back his money and pro-
cured the punishment of his enemy.
Richard Whittington seems to have been only a few years
old at the time of his father's death, and he was not yet a
man in 1373, when he lost his mother. Being a younger
son, he followed the common practice of younger sons in
times when there were few other professions to choose
from, and became a merchant. Of his early life
nothing is recorded. We first hear of him in the year 1393,
when he must have been nearly 40—but as he was then a
member of the Mercer's Company, and alderman and
sheriff of the City of London, we have good ground for
assuming that he had been a prosperous merchant during
many previous years. Perhaps, as the story-books assert,
ho ran away to London, and then became rich through the
accidental value of his cat—but in that case the wealth thus
derived can only have been a trifling sum, to be used well
and greatly augmented by his industry. It is more pro-
bable, however—and we do him the greater honour in
making this assumption—that he rose solely through his
own talent and application. He must have had some slight
patrimony of his own, and much more must have come to
him by his marriage with Alice, the daughter of Sir Hugh
Fitzwarren, of Tcrrington, owner of much property in
Devonshire, Gloucestershire, and other counties.—From
the illerchant Princes of England," in London Society.

The Surrey Sensation Drama,

(From Punch.)

Without quite echoing the playbill, that Ashore and
Afloat " eclipses Blach•eyed Susan," and presents " One
Blaze of Triumph" from the first to the last scone, I must
admit that, when I saw it, the drama was received with
" tumultuous applause ;" and there were starings, shout-
ings, stampings, and hand-clappings enough to be described
as " acclamations of wonder and delight." The plot was
more intelligible than I quite expected ; and all throughout
the piece the author clearly did his best to prevent a Bri-
tish audience iron making a mistake between villainy and
virtue, and so took care that tie murder which was done in
the first act should be committed corani populo, and not
behind the scenes. The humour was peculiar, as in these
over-water dramas it usually is ; but in neither word nor
gesture was aught to be dotected at all savouring of coarse-
ness; and this is more than may be said at some genteeler
theatres which I fcrbear to ns.ne. To tell your friend in
confidence, " Well, if 'tie so it is, and it can't be no'tis-er"
may not appear, perhaps, a very brilliant epigram, but the
audience seemed perfectly delighted with its pungency and
point; and when Rai Oakford, being tempted to turn
traitor at Algiers, turns his quid instead, and, hitching up
his trousers, says, " What I sail under false colours ?
damme, no! sheer off, you monkey-eating swab I I mean
to die True Blue, and not Turkey Rhuberb," there is a
roar of approbation at the gallant fellow's courage, and the
house is quite enraptured at the sparkle of his wit.
Perhaps it is because he has the real cataract in his eye
that the author seems throughout the play to strive after
reality, and to make his characters do just what they natu.
rally would do in real life. Thus, in the murder scene, a
person who, according to the playbill, is a " wealthy but
miserly landlord." while out walking with a friend, on a
sudden recollects ho has £2,000 about him, and so hands
him this small trifle to keep for a few days, which is pre-
cisely what a miser would most naturally do. Meek villain,
miser's bailiff, stabs friend with his pocket-knife (which
bears, of course, his name on it, and which he takes good
care to drop) ; and, as the notes for £2,000 are on a bank
which breaks unluckily before he gets them cashed, he walks
about for four years with them in his pocket, that at the
right moment they may prove his guilt. Then, when
Algiers is bombarded, on comes Mr. Shepherd as a gallant
British sailor, with a broadsword in ono hand and a big
Union Jack (a famous thing to fight with) in the other, and
a terrific " one, two, over, one, two, under" fight ensues
between him and the Dcy, who also wears a broadsword,
as Turks usually do. All this, you see, is strictly true to
nature and reality ; and people who read history, and are
induced thereby to fancy that Algiers was taken by Lord
Exmouth, may discover at the Surrey that history is quite
wrong, and that the capture in reality was made by one
Hal Oakford, who, with his soft and cheery voice and light
and springy bearing, reminded me a little of dear old T. P.
Cooke.
As to the sensation scene, which takes place in a coal-
mine, its chief novelty consists in the fact that all the cha-
racters are left hanging in mid-air at the falling of the cur-
tain, and when the curtain again rises at the bidding of the
audience, the rescued heroine and her friends aro still in
bodily suspense. Perhaps the next sensation climax will
take place in a balloon, and a terrific broadsword combat
will come off in the car between the hero and the villain,
when the villain, being worsted, will proceed to draw a
blunderbuss out of his left boot, and, firing bang at the
balloon, will laugh ha ! ha ! as it collapses, and the act-
drop will descend while they both vanish down a trap.
Of course, in the next scene the audience will.learn that the
villain has been smashed; and the hero will be seen with
one arm in a sling and the other round the heroine, who
being startled at her needle by the banging of the blunder-
buss, looked out and caught a glimpse of the balloon as it
collapsed, and so, with woman's wit and quickness, scam-
pered from her cottage, carrying a feather-bed, which she
laid upon the grass plat just in time to break her long-
loved Harry's fall.
Trusting that Sal Oakford and the girl ho nightly res-
cues will neither of them break their legs, or even sprain
their ankles, before their run is over, I beg leave to sub-
scribe myself as usual, ONE WHO PAYS,

THE CONVICTED MURDERER WATKlNs.—Thomas
Watkins, the man who was convicted at the late
Hereford Assizes of the brutal murder of his wife at Ren-
ner, near Leominster, has had the day of his execution com-
municated to him by the under-sheriff, Mr. N. Lanwarne,
which he bore with equal firmness to his trial and sentence.
Since his condemnation he has eaten his meals regularly,
and has generally slept soundly. He has up to the present
time been constantly visited by his mother and sister, and
the meetings have been of a very sad and affecting nature.
It is believed that Watkins has communicated, not only
to his relatives, but to others about the precincts of
the prison, the fullest particulars of the dreadful
tragedy, for which ho is on Tuesday next to suffer the ex-
treme penalty of the law. To the exhortations of the
chaplain of the gaol he is by no means heedless, though he
does not exhibit symptoms of intense mental feeling, con-
trition, or regret. Soma faiut effort emanating from the
family was made up to get up a petition to Sir George Grey
to grant a reprieve, but public sympathy having been probed
and found to be deaf to the interests of the murderer, it was
abandoned. The visiting magistrates have ordered the con-
demned man to be supplied with any reasonable amount of
food, and that of any kind he may desire. Great precau-
tion has been taken to keep the clay of the execution from
the public, in order to prevent such a concourse assembling
as did on the execution of William Hope, in April last.
AMERICAN I\IAIES.—The Inman steamer Etna left
the Mersey yesterday with mails for New York. To-day
the Montreal Ocean Steamship Company's steamer Peru-
vian Balla for Pori land with Canada mails ; and on Saturday
the Cunard etenmer Asia sails with American mails for
Boston.
A SCOTCH MILLIONAIRE.—Mr. William Baird,
of Gartsherrie, has left behind him a fortune of two mil.
dolls