Pop Goes
the Weasel by Albert Jack
August 5th 2008
Turn Again Dick Whittington
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his story has been well known, even famous, for centuries through
this nursery rhyme and more recently, as the subject of pantomime,
Dick Whittington was a real person. Born in the village of Pauntley in Gloucestershire around 1354, Richard Whittington went to London as a boy, after famously being told the streets there were 'paved with gold,' to learn the trade of mercer (trader in textiles.) He worked hard and soon became successful, importing exotic new material such as velvet and silk and exporting the staple English fair of wool. By 1397 he was making such a fortune that he started lending vast sums of money to the King Richard II. In return the king granted him the prestigious position of Lord Mayor of London. Richard Whittington worked just as hard at making a success of his new role and proved to be so popular that he retained the honour for an unheard-of second year. But when King Richard, was deposed in 1399, Whittington feared for his future and decided to return to Gloucestershire and a comfortable retirement. It was on his journey out of London, legend has it, that at Highgate Hill he then heard the peal of Bow Bell (see Oranges and Lemons - page xxx) calling him back to the city :'Turn again, Whittington.' The popular merchant duly returned and prospered even further under Richard's successors Henry IV and Henry V, supplying the Court with valuable textiles and cloth. The rhyme proved prophetic when, in 1406, Whittington became Lord Mayor of London for the third time and again, for a final term in office in 1419. He never forgot his humble origins and was fondly known by Londoners as Dick Whittington rather than Richard. During his lifetime he donated most of his profits to the City of London, financing many improvements for the benefit of the common man such as public drinking fountains, a wing at St. Thomas' hospital for unmarried mothers and accommodation for the homeless. He also rebuilt the Guildhall, paid for basic drainage systems and sanitation in slum areas and built Greyfriars Library to help improve education in that area. When he died he left £7000 to the Company of Mercers (equivalent to around £5 million in modern terms) that funded the Guildhall Library, repaired St. Bartholomew's hospital and built further almshouses for the homeless. In death Richard Whittington became something of a folk hero and his legend is sure to live on. The only unfortunate part is there appears to be no mention anywhere throughout his real life of his faithful cat, made famous by pantomime. Although the image of a cat is supposed to have been carved above the gates of Newgate Prison after his death and, some say, also painted onto a carriage presented in Whittington's name in 1572 to the Guild of Merchants, but there is no real evidence to substantiate that claim. It is through the legend of Dick Whittington that the expression The Streets Are Paved with Gold has passed into common language to describe a town or city full of opportunity and well worth a visit. The first record of any London play about the former Lord Mayor was around 1605 with a performance called 'The History of Richard Whittington, of his lowe byrth and his great fortune.' Later in the century diarist Samuel Pepys wrote an entry in 1668, 'Then to Southwark fair, very dirty, but saw the puppet show of Whittington, which was pretty to see.' In 1814 Dick Whittington made his debut in as a pantomime character with one of the greatest clowns of all time, Joseph Grimaldi, playing the role of Dame Cecily Suet. |
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