Dame Whitecraft, the pretty wife of the above.--Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).
Whitfield of the Stage (The). Quin was so called by Garrick (1716-1779). Garrick himself is sometimes so denominated also.
Whitney (James), the Claude Duval of English highwaymen. He prided himself on being “the glass of fashion and the mould of form.” Executed at Porter’s Block, near Smithfield (1660-1694).
Whittington (Dick), a poor orphan country lad, who heard that London was “paved with gold,” and went there to get a living. When reduced to starving point a kind merchant gave him employment in his family to help the cook, but the cook so ill treated him that he ran away. Sitting to rest himself on the roadside, he heard Bow bells, and they seemed to him to say, “Turn again, Whittington, thrice lord mayor of London;” so he returned to his master. By-and-by the master allowed him, with the other servants, to put in an adventure in a ship bound for Morocco. Richard had nothing but a cat, which, however, he sent. Now it happened that the king of Morocco was troubled by mice, which Whittington’s cat destroyed; and this so pleased his highness that he bought the mouser at a fabulous price. Dick commenced business with this money, soon rose to great wealth, married his master’s daughter, was knighted, and thrice elected lord mayor of London--in 1398, 1406 and 1419.
⁂ A cat is a brig built on the Norwegian model, with narrow stern, projecting quarters and deep waist.
Another solution is the word achat, “barter.”
Keis, the son of a poor widow of Siraf, embarked for India with his sole property, a cat. He arrived at a time when the palace was so infested by mice and rats that they actually seized the king’s food. This cat cleared the palace of its vermin, and was purchased for a large sum of money, which enriched the widow’s son.--Sir William Ouseley (a Persian story).
Alphonso, a Portuguese, being wrecked on the coast of Guinea, had a cat, which the king bought for its weight in gold. With this money Alphonso traded, and in five years made £6000, returned to Portugal, and became in fifteen years the third magnate of the kingdom.--Description of Guinea.
⁂ See Keightley, Tales and Popular Fictions, 241-266.
Whittle (Thomas), an old man of 63, who wants to cajole his nephew out of his lady-love, the Widow Brady, only 23 years of age. To this end he assumes the airs, the dress, the manners, and the walk of a beau. For his thick flannels he puts on a cambric shirt, open waist-coat, and ruffles; for his Welsh wig he wears a pigtail and chapeau bras; for his thick cork soles he trips like a dandy in pumps. He smirks, he titters, he tries to be quite killing. He discards history and solid reading for the Amorous Repository, Cupid’s Revels, Hymen’s Delight, and Ovid’s Art of Love. In order to get rid of him, the gay young widow assumes to be a boisterous, rollicking, extravagant, low Irishwoman, deeply in debt, and utterly reckless. Old Whittle is thoroughly alarmed, induces his nephew to take the widow off his hands, and gives him £5000 for doing so.--Garrick, The Irish Widow (1757).