London Folk Tales by Helen East

Author:Helen East
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780752478470
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2012-11-09T16:00:00+00:00

Turn again Whittington, Lord Mayor of London.

Turn again Whittington, Lord Mayor of London.

Turn again Whittington, Lord Mayor of London. Once. Twice. Thrice. Yes!

He stayed there until he was absolutely sure; Lord Mayor of London. Three times over. That’s what the bells were telling him. He knew Bow Bells would never lie.

And so Dick Whittington went back to the mercer’s house, and slipped inside while everyone was still fast asleep. And from then on, whenever things were hard to bear, he’d remember Highgate Hill, and imagine himself there.

Meanwhile, Dick’s cat was having adventures of her own. The ship she was on had sailed past France, and Venice too, far beyond the lands of Christendom and along the Barbary Coast to a place where gold was as plentiful as dust. There the captain stopped to trade, and as the people of that land were so different from them, many came just to see the sailor men. And so delighted were they with the curious goods brought from the cold lands of the North that the king of the land invited the captain to feast with him in his palace.

There, all things were so splendid that the captain was dazzled. Fine food of every kind was brought for him to eat. But before they could finish, rats and mice appeared from all sides, and in no time at all they had gobbled up everything. The captain was shocked, and asked the king if he would like these creatures stopped.

‘Certainly,’ the king replied. He would give a great deal of riches to anyone who could do that for him.

The captain was pleased for he remembered poor Dick and his cat, which was still on board, and a great favourite with all the sailors as she was such a good ratter. He sent for her straightaway. Being hungry by now, having long since eaten all the vermin on-board ship, the cat was delighted to meet some more. In less time than it takes to tell, she had killed 100 rats and mice, and had a feast herself as well.

Now the king and all his people were so eager to buy the cat that the captain barely had to bargain to get a casket of gold and pearls worth a prince’s ransom.

And so it was that when the ship returned at last to London, the price Dick got in exchange for his cat was worth more than all the ship’s cargo put together. And when Mr Fitzwaryn heard that, although some advised him that it would be too much for so young a man, he insisted Dick should have it all, down to the very last groat. And Dick himself was so generous that he well repaid his master, the captain, and everyone else, even giving something to the cruel cook.

Now when Dick came to the end of his apprenticeship, he had no trouble finding the money to pay the issue fee which was required to make him a freeman. Becoming then a ‘lowys’ or ‘bachelor’,

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