WHIT-
TINGTON
AND HIS
CAT

that in the last year of his mayoralty he enter-
tained King Henry the Fifth, on his return from
the battle of Agincourt; upon which occasion
the king knighted him by the style and title of
Sir Richard Whittington.

It is told that he then entertained the king at a
great banquet, when King Henry said: ‘Never
had a prince such a subject.’ To which Whitting-
ton replied: ‘Never had a subject such a prince.’
Sir Richard Whittington constantly fed great
numbers of the poor: he built a church, and added
a college to it, with lodgings, and a yearly allow-
ance to thirteen poor scholars. He also erected
a great part of St. Bartholomew's Hospital in
Smithfield.

History has not told us what became of the pro-
perty left by him for the support of the church and
the thirteen poor scholars; but it is believed it
was seized by King Henry VIII. at the time of
the Reformation, as that king seized upon many
of the lands which were left for religious purposes ;
but those which Whittington left for building and
endowing almshouses met with a better fate; and
Whittington’s almshouses remain to this day.
Here ends the story of Whittington and his cat;
from which we may see how that honesty and
industry met with success; and that charity and
piety are the best ornaments of the rich.

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