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eighth year of Henry IV.'s reign, and his third in the seventh year of Henry V., to whom he is said to have advanced a very considerable sum towards carrying on the war in France. His generous conduct to the conqueror of Agincourt is thus noticed in the ballad:

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We shall now let the writer of the preface speak for himself: "He marry'd Alice, the daughter of Hugh and Molde Fitzwarren at whose house, traditions say, Whittingdon liv'd a servant, when he got his immense riches, by venturing his cat in one of his master's ships. However, if we may give credit to his own will, he was a knight's son; and more obliged to an English king and prince than to any African monarch, for his riches. For when he founded Whittington College, and left a maintenance for so many people, as above related; they were, as Stow records it (for this maintenance), bound to pray for the good estate of Richard Whittington and Alice his wife, their founders; and for Sir William Whittington and Dame Joan his wife; and for Hugh Fitzwarren and Dame Molde his wife; the fathers and mothers of the said Richard Whittington and Alice his wife for King Richard II. and Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Glocester, special Lords and promoters of the said Richard Whittington, etc."

Howel in his Londinopolis,* speaks of Richard Whittington as having been chosen for the mayoralty four times. The ballad and the preface above quoted give him that office only thrice.

"For to the city's praise,

Sir Richard Whittington,
Came to be in his days,

Thrice Mayor of London."

Generous, charitable, and exemplary as was his life, it does not

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appear that his bones were left undisturbed; for the same Howel says that he was "thrice buried.”

In the chapter "Of Vintry Ward" the last-mentioned author thus writes:-"Then is the fair parish church of Saint Michael, called Paternoster church, in the Royal-street. This church was new builded, and made a colledge of S. Spirit and S. Mary, founded by Richard Whittington, mercer, four times mayor, for a master, four fellows, masters of arts, clerks, conducts, chorists, etc.; and an alms-house, called God's House or Hospital, for thirteen poor men, one of them to be tutor, and to have sixteen pence the week, the other twelve, each of them to have fourteen pence the week for ever, with other necessary provision, an hutch with three locks, with a common seal, etc. The licence for this foundation was granted by King Henry IV. the eleventh of his reign, and in the twelfth of the same king's reign, the mayor and the communalty of London, granted to Richard Whittington a vacant piece of ground thereon, to build his colledge in the Royall; all which was confirmed by Henry VI. the third of his reign, to John Coventry, Jenkin Carpenter, and William Grove, executors to Richard Whittington. This foundation was again confirmed by Parliament, the tenth of Henry VI., and was suppressed by the statute of Edward VI. The alms-houses with the poor men do remain, and are paid by the mercers."

"This Richard Whittington was (in the church) three times buried: first, by his executors, under a fair monument; then in the reign of Edward VI. the parson of that church, thinking some great riches (as he said) to be buried with him, caused his monument to be broken, his body to be spoiled of his leaden sheet, and again the second time to be buried; and in the reign of Queen Mary, the parishioners were forced to take him up, and lap him in lead, as afore, to bury him the third time, and to place his monument, or the like, over him again, which remaineth still, and so he rested."

At all events, so long as London is London, Whittington will be always associated with his cat; and no bad associate either, notwithstanding the vile character given of the slandered quadruped by Buffon and others for caprice, treachery, and in short, every bad quality that would make a companion odious.

Now, though we grant as a general proposition that cats are attached more to the place than the person, we at the same time are free to confess our belief that they are capable of the most steady personal attachment. There are

"Some that are mad, if they behold a cat,"

and the antipathy is so strong that they are ready to faint if one be in the room with them. The gallant Highland chieftain al

luded to by Sir Walter Scott, had "been seen to change into all the colours of his own plaid" on such an occasion. Such persons cannot be friendly to cats. But though these animals are too often treated with contumely and cruelty, the instinct of attachment is so strong, that they will still keep about the place, notwithstanding the bad treatment they have endured. Though proverbially loth to wet their feet, they have been known, after being carried to a far country in bags, in the hope of banishing them, to swim rivers in their irresistible anxiety to return to their home."*

Others again will tell you, "I was disposed to be kind to that cat; but whilst I was caressing it the ill-natured beast turned on me, and bit and scratched me." No pleasant operation, certainly, under any circumstances, but becoming a fearful attack when it is recollected that the bite of a cat has been known to communicate the horrible hydrophobia, as fatally as that of the dog. Now in such cases, unless the animal be diseased, or, at least, in nine out of ten, it will be found either that puss's temper has been ruined by previous provocations, or that the party attacked does not know how to play with a cat-he does not understand the animal; what he calls play is teasing, and is resented. But when a cat has been kindly dealt with, and its master or mistress is really fond of it, few animals are more attached. Such cats have been seen to follow their patrons about like dogs, escort them to the door, when permitted to go no farther, and abide patiently on the mat listening for the much-desired return, from morning till evening. On the entrance of their friend, no dog could express a more lively affection, a more hearty welcome. We need only allude to the story of the favourite cat that would not be parted from its dying master-was with difficulty driven from the chamber of death-and even after the body was

"Compounded with the dust, whereto 'twas kin,"

would return again and again to the grave, though repeatedly chased from the churchyard, and there lie, braving cold and hunger for hours.

To be sure, puss is, as Pennant says, "a piteous, squalling, jarring lover;" nor need we wonder that the distinguished northern functionary

"Unmov'd, unmelted by the piteous muse"

* Female cats are naturally kindly animals; and so strongly imbued with the love of offspring that, at the season of maternity, all feelings seem to be merged in that passion. They have been known to suckle leverets and mice, and young rats have been seen sharing the full tide of maternal affection with a kitten. In the latter case the cat showed the young rats the same attentions in caressing them, and dressing their fur, as she did to her kitten.

of a cat-parliament held under his window, fired his blunderbuss upon the amazed wretches-not, however, till he had quieted his legal conscience by reading the Riot Act.

The days of puss's gestation are fifty-six, or thereabout; and as she produces two or three litters in a year, and some five or six at a birth, there is no fear that the cat population will decrease, notwithstanding the unsparing means used to keep it down. The young do not see till about the ninth day.

:

The varieties are almost infinite: among them, the long silkenhaired Angora, the Persian, the bluish Chartreuse, the tortoiseshell, and the typical tabby, are the most prominent. There is also a tailless variety, which most probably owes its existence to its unfortunate ancestors having been deprived of that handsome appendage by accident. To Spain, it is said, we are indebted for the tortoiseshell variety and a male of this colour, or rather assemblage of colours, being rare, even now, fetches a high price.* We have seen one of these unhappy varieties chained to his little kennel, at the door of a dealer in beasts and birds, looking as important, and withal as sorrowful, as any wild beast of them all could look in such a shackled situation. And here we are almost tempted to give a hint to the President and Council of the Zoological Society of London, on the subject of the sin of keeping cats in cages. They certainly were once guilty of such incarceration; but we hope that they have repented and let their prisoners out. At all events, 'the bereavement which they have

* A friend, not less noted for his scientific labours than his fund of anecdote, tells us that some twenty-five, or (by'r Lady) thirty years ago, a tortoiseshell Tom-cat was exhibited in Piccadilly, where the Liverpool Museum was afterwards shown, and where dowagers and spinsters thronged to his levee, as was recorded in the caricatures of the day. "One hundred guineas," says our philosophical friend of many tales, "was the price asked; and I saw many a longing, lingering, coronetted coach at the door of the exhibition-room."

After a gestation of fourteen months and twenty days, the first giraffe ever born in Europe, came into the world at one o'clock, on Wednesday, the 19th of June, 1839, at the gardens of the Zoological Society of London, in the Regent's-park. It was a male, strong and hearty, and stood on its oustretched legs, two hours after its birth.

It was a most beautiful creature, and almost a perfect miniature of the full grown animal, standing about six feet high, the principal difference being in the smallness of the white divisions that separated the great spots. The horns, too, were relatively smaller; and the frontal protuberance was not developed. Not in the least shy, it came up to be caressed: and its full, large, lucid eye, with its long silken lashes, was lovely.

The mother was not unkind to her offspring, but she would not let it come near her to receive nourishment. Persisting in this prohibition, she lost the power of affording it still the vigorous young animal throve admirably to all appearance, upon cow's-milk, and there was every reason to hope that it would be brought up well by hand.

recently had to lament disarms all censure; and for the incarcerated cats, if incarcerated they still be, we can breathe no better wish than a speedy deliverance from their gaol, even if it be to embark with the grim ferryman on their transportation to the Feline Elysium.

"There shall the worthies of the whiskered race,

Elysian mice o'er floors of sapphire chace,
'Midst beds of aromatic marum stray,

Or raptur'd rove beside the milky way."

APES AND MONKEYS

"A wilderness of Monkeys."

MERCHANT OF VENICE.

MAZURIER, it is said, after a long and patient attendance upon the monkeys domiciled in the Jardin du Roi, sewed up in skins, and with a face painted and made up in a concatenation accordingly, raised at last the benevolence of a tender-hearted one to such a pitch, that it offered him a bit of the apple it was eating, and drew from him that rapturous exclamation, pregnant with the consciousness of his apparent identity with the monkey-character "Enfin ! enfin, je suis singe!"

Poor Mazurier! when he died, Polichinelle was shipwrecked indeed. We can see him now gaily advancing, as if Prometheus had just touched the wood with his torch, in a brilliant cocked hat of gilt and silvered pasteboard, with rosettes to match, gallantly put on athwart ships; that very pasteboard, so dear to

On Friday morning, the 27th, at six o'clock, it was frisking about the large box, or rather spacious apartment, in which it was confined with its mother; and at half-past ten was dead. On the post-mortem examination, the first three stomachs were found in a healthy state; but the fourth was slightly inflamed, and the rest of the alimentary canal presented a similar condition. The inference to be drawn from this seems to be that its food disagreed with it. Not the slightest blame can attach to any one from this untoward event. The conduct of the keepers, both before and after the birth, was exemplary ; and we have only to hope that if Zaïda should present the society with another baby giraffe, that she will be able and willing properly to fulfil the duties of a mother (1839).

Since the last paragraph was written Zaïda has produced no less than three young ones, all healthy males. She nursed them admirably, and they are alive and well; two in England, and one, by the gift of the Zoological Society of London, in Ireland.

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