This will be seen by comparing the two
printed here. Thus T. H. merely says (p. 6) that Whittington was
obscurely born, and that being almost starved in the country he came up
to London. In the later chap-book the journey to London is more fully
enlarged upon (p. xxxiii.), and among those at Whittington's marriage
with Alice Fitzwarren the name of the Company of Stationers not then in
existence is foisted in (pp. xlii.) It does not appear in T. H.'s
_History_.
In many other particulars the later chap-book which contains the story
as known to modern readers is amplified, and thus shows signs of a very
late origin.
With regard to the three fictitious points of Whittington's history
mentioned at the beginning of this preface, the first--his poor
parentage--is disposed of by documentary evidence; the second--his
sitting on a stone at Highgate hill--has been shown to be quite a modern
invention; and the third--the story of the cat--has been told of so many
other persons in different parts of the world that there is every reason
to believe it to be a veritable folk-tale joined to the history of
Whittington from some unexplained connection. None of the early
historians who mention Whittington allude to the incident of the cat,
and it is only to be found in popular literature, ballads, plays, &c.
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