the Lord Mayor, Court of Aldermen, Sheriffs, the Company of Stationers, and a number of eminent merchants, attended the ceremony, and were elegantly treated at an entertainment made for that purpose.
History tells us, that they lived happy and had several children; and he was Sheriff of London in the year 1340, and then Lord Mayor; that in the last year of his Mayoracy he entertained King Henry the V. and his Queen, after his conquest of France. Upon which occasion, the king, in consideration of Whittington’s merit, said “Never had Prince such a subject,” which being told to Whittington at the table, he replied, “Never had subject such a King.” He constantly fed great numbers of the poor; he built a college, with a yearly allowance for poor scholars, and near it erected an hospital. He built Newgate for criminals, and gave liberally to St Bartholomew’s hospital, and to other public charities.
