One of the
traditional British pantomime tales, Dick Whittington tells the story
of a
young man (Dick) and his
cat, who travels to
London to seek his fortune
after hearing that
the streets are paved with gold in the city. After spending a
miserable few days and nights
trudging around and discovering that
there certainly aren't any gold
paving stones there, Dick despondently sets out
to return home. As he rests his
weary legs on
Highgate Hill he hears the
bells of the city churches ringing out, and what he hears in their
melody is:
"Turn again Whittington, thrice mayor of London"
He returns to London, where after a series of adventures he meets the
girl of his dreams, makes his fortune and does indeed become Lord Mayor of London
three times.
The true story upon which this tale is based is also worth telling.
Richard Whittington, far from being born a poor man, was the son of of
Sir William Whittington, a wealthy landowner from Gloucestershire. We know that
Sir William died in 1358 and not long after that his teenage son travelled to London
where he was apprenticed in the Mercer's (Merchants) Guild -- a very respectable
trade in medieval London and a position which he would not have got were his
father not so well-known.
Whittington turned out to be an excellent merchant, and their main goods were rich
silks, velvets and other valuable Oriental imports. Their main customers were
therefore the élite of London society, as well as the royal court,
and Whittington became both very wealthy and very well-known. In 1393 the
king recognised this by making him an alderman of the City of London, and in
1397 he was appointed Lord Mayor, a position which he did indeed fill a further
two times.
Dick Whittington was for many years the richest merchant in London, and three
successive English kings appointed him their banker. However he did try to use
some of his vast fortune for good: he personally funded the following, all of which
were badly needed in early 15th Century London:
As if all this weren't enough, Dick Whittington ensured that his name would be
forever
remembered fondly by Londoners by making
bequests in his
will. After
his death in
1423 his
estate paid for:
Although the name of Dick Whittington has been known to all Londoners for many
centuries, very little of his
influence remains in the city today. Most of the
public works he helped build were destroyed in the
Great Fire of London in
1666,
by which time the tale had already
metamorphosised into the pantomime version
mentioned at the top of this writeup. A wall
plaque marks the location of his old
house on College Hill in central London and a
stone has been erected on
Highgate Hill where the
legend tells he heard the
church bells tolling.
Whittington College is still in existence, although its physical location has moved
twice since Whittington's time: the first time to Highgate in north London, and
again in 1965 to Felbridge in West Sussex near the south coast of England.