Those bells that call’d him so,
Turn again, Whittington,
Would they call may moe
Such men to fair London.”
At the end of one of the chap-books there is a version of the ballad in which Lancashire is replaced by Somersetshire.
In the same volume of the Roxburghe Ballads (p. 470) is a short version [1710?] containing a few only of the verses taken from the ballad. It is illustrated with some woodcuts from T. H.’s earlier History.
“An old Ballad of Whittington and his Cat, who from a poor boy came to be thrice Lord Mayor of London. Printed and sold in Aldermary Church Yard, London.”
There is a copy of this in the Chetham Library.
The following are some of the chief references to Whittington’s story in literature after the publication of Johnson’s ballad, arranged in chronological order:—
“As if a new-found Whittington’s rare cat,