The archaeology of tradition : an address to a meeting of the members of the Society held at Gloucester, 9th March, 1904 / y E. Sidney Hartland.

  • Edwin Sidney Hartland
Date:
[1904?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The archaeology of tradition : an address to a meeting of the members of the Society held at Gloucester, 9th March, 1904 / y E. Sidney Hartland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    1460, thirty-seven years after Sir Richard’s death. It was pulled down in 1862, and in the course of demolition a carved stone figure of a boy holding a cat was found. The figure belongs to the fifteenth century, and is now in the Guildhall Museum, London. The suggestion is that it formed part of a chimneypiece in the house before the Whittingtons sold the property, and that it shovvs that the family and their contemporaries believed in the cat story. Upon this it has to be observed that either the house in question or some of the adjoining houses (for the Rental of 1455 is ambiguous) bore the name of Raton Row, or Rat Row. In a house with such a name, or even in an adjacent house, the symbolism of a boy holding a cat is not very difficult to in- terpret. And it may have been much more than symbolism. Rats doubtless were in plenty in that part of the town. Inas- much as a cat is the deadly foe of rats and mice, even the carved figure of a cat would suffice, according to a widespread belief, to frighten them away. If, therefore, it were proved that the effigy is of an earlier date than 1460, and that it was set up in the house while the house belonged to the Whittington family, I should think it very slender evidence of the historical character of the cat story. But, so far as I am aware, there is no evidence that the effigy was set up in the house during the ownership of the Whittington family, or at all. It is merely said to have been “ dug up ” when the house was demolished ; and it may have been brought thither long after the Whittingtons had parted with the property, and may have been simply lying forgotten in the cellar. There is not a tittle of evidence that the cat was ever adopted as a badge by vSir Richard Whittington, or that the story was told of him in his lifetime. But we can go much further than this. It is easy to show that the cat story was well known long before Dick Whitting- ton was born. The date usually assigned for his birth is about 1350 ; it is improbable that he was born earlier. A Persian poet and historian, Abdullah, the son of Fazlullah,
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