n London. Then, all men of the same trade stood by each
other and were brothers: now, too often, men of the same trade are
enemies.

The names of streets show the nature of the trades carried on in them.
Turners and makers of wooden cups and platters, Wood Street:
ironmongers, in their Lane: poultry sellers, the Poultry: bakers, Bread
Street: and so on. Chepe was the great retail market of the City. It was
built over gradually, but in early times it was a broad market covered
with stalls, like the market-place of Norwich, for instance; these
stalls were ranged in lines and streets: churches stood about among the
lines. Then the stalls, which had been temporary wooden structures, were
changed into permanent shops, which were also the houses of the tenants:
the living room and kitchen were behind the shop: the master and his
family slept above, and the prentices slept under the counter.

[Illustration: LARGE SHIP AND BOAT OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

(_The mainsail of the ship has the Beauchamp arms, and the streamer the
bear and ragged staff. From the 'Life of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of
Warwick,' by John Rous; drawn about 1485._)]

30 WHITTINGTON.

PART I.

The story of Dick Whittington has been a favourite legend for many
generations. The boy coming up to London poor and friendless; lying
despairing on the green slope of Highgate; resolved to return to the
country since he can find no work in London: the falling upon his ears
of the bells of Bow, wafted across the fields by the south wind--every
child knows all this. What did the bells say to him--the soft and
mellow bells, calling to him across four miles of fields? 'Turn again,
Whittington--Turn again, Whittington--Lord Mayor of London--Turn again,
Whittington.' He did turn, as we know, and became not once, but four
times Lord Mayor of London and entertained kings, and was the richest
merchant of his time. And all through a cat--we know how the cat began
his fortune.

That is the familiar legend. Now you shall learn the truth.

There was a Dick Whittington: and he was Lord Mayor of London--to be
accurate, he was Mayor of London, for the title of Lord Mayor did not
yet exist.

He was not a poor and friendless lad by any means. He belonged to a good
family, his father, Sir William Whittington, Knight, being owner of an
estate in Herefordshire called Soler's Hope, and one in Gloucestershire
called Pauntley. The father was buried at Pauntley Church, where