Lancashire thou hast bred This flower of charity; Though he be gone and dead, Yet lives he lastingly. Those bells that call’d him so, ‘Turne again, Whittington,’ Call you back may moe To live so in London.” This ballad, as it stands here with the exception of the last stanza, was reprinted in _A Collection of Old Ballads_, 1823, vol. i. p. 130. This ballad is the original of all the later ballads, although the titles have been greatly varied. The Roxburghe ballad (vol. iii. p. 58) is dated in the British Museum Catalogue 1641[?]. Its full title is as follows:-- “London’s Glory and Whittington’s Renown, or a Looking Glass for Citizens of London, being a remarkable story how Sir Richard Whittington (a poor boy bred up in Lancashire) came to be three times Lord Mayor of London in three several kings’ reigns, and how his rise was by a cat, which he sent by a venture beyond sea. Together with his bountiful gifts and liberality given to this honourable City, and the vast sums of money he lent the King to maintain the wars in France; and how at a great Feast, to which he invited the King, the Queen, and the Nobility, he generously burnt the writings and freely forgave his Majesty the whole Debt. Tune of ‘Dainty, come thou to me.’ London: Printed for R. Burton, at the Horse Shoe in West Smithfield.” The bulk of the ballad is the same as Richard Johnson’s, but the following first stanza is added, the original first stanza becoming the second:-- “Brave London Prentices, Come listen to my song, Tis for your glory all And to you both belong. And you poor country lads, Though born of low degree, See by God’s providence What you in time may be.” The second half of the original seventh stanza, and the eighth, ninth, and tenth stanzas, are left out. Immediately before the last stanza the following one is introduced:-- “Let all kynde Citizens Who do this story read, By his example learn Always the poor to feed. What is lent to the poor The Lord will sure repay, And blessings keep in store Until the latter day.” The other alterations are not many, and chiefly consist in transpositions by which the rhymes are varied. This may be seen by comparing with the original the Roxburghe version of the last stanza which is as follows:-- “Lancashire, thou hast bred This flower of charity; Though he be dead and gone, Yet lives his memory. 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_.