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Road to riches: Following in the footsteps of Dick

Whittington (oh yes he did exist!)
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By Frank Barrett, Mail on Sunday Travel Editor

Updated: 11:43 GMT, 19 December 2011

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Fame and fortune: Dick Whittington, played by West End actress Summer Strallen in a panto
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Finding out that Dick Whittington is a real person is slightly disconcerting.

Its rather like wandering into your local sorting office to discover Postman Pat and Mrs Goggins
bagging up the mornings mail.
And yet Sir Richard Whittington not only existed, his real life was just as fantastic as the
pantomime persona we came to know as children (all together: Oh no it wasnt...oh yes it was!).
A young man without money, he set out for London from deepest Gloucestershire and went on to
serve as Lord Mayor no fewer than four times, accumulating a fantastic fortune along the way.
Whittington, who lived between 1354 and 1423, was an extraordinary philanthropist with a list of
amazing achievements to his name for example, he built Londons first public lavatory.
And just as it happens in the panto, he fell in love with and married Baron Fitzwarrens daughter,
Alice. When I was a student living in North London, my bus journey to college took me past the
Whittington Hospital in Archway.
There was nothing about the hospital to arouse particular interest after all, Whittington isnt an
uncommon name.
But one morning when we were all turfed off the bus at Archway, I found myself standing next to a
statue of a cat. Dick Whittingtons cat.
It was at this very spot, I read on the plaque, that Dick Whittington stopped on his journey home
and heard the Bow Bells calling him back to the City: Turn again Whittington, thrice mayor of
London, as it says in the popular rhyme.
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I was intrigued. And this interest increased further when I read recently that a row had erupted
about the exact place of Dick Whittingtons birth apparently Shropshire had lodged a claim.
It had always been supposed that Whittington hailed from Gloucestershire. But if that was the
case, ran the counter-argument, why was he heading home up Highgate Hill?
Pauntley Court

Home ground: Dick was born at Pauntley Court in 1354, the Whittington family home

In medieval times, as today, Highgate was a gateway to the North rather than the West Country.
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I can categorically state that if Dick was heading up Highgate Hill, it was because he was under
the impression he was taking a short cut to the medieval equivalent of the A40. Because if ever a
road needed to be named the Dick Whittington Highway, it is the A40.
My favourite A-road (partly because I was born and raised in its environs) begins in the City of
London and ends at Fishguard in West Wales, and it passes through Gloucestershire just seven
miles from Whittingtons birthplace.
So here was my Christmas mission: to seek out the Whittington birth-place and follow in his
footsteps all the way to London along the A40.

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Feline friendly: Frank at the statue of Dick Whittington's cat in North London

Are you ready to join me, children? But hang on, whats missing, boys and girls? Yes, a cat! Like
Master Whittington, I set about acquiring one, albeit temporarily. But I wasnt interested in the furry
variety my feline beast was a new Jaguar XJ.
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Dick would have taken at least a week to walk to the capital, but in my 74,000 three-litre diesel
XJ, the journey took less than two hours (OK, I did get a little help from the M40 along the way).
Forget about Shropshires bogus claim, because Dick was born and raised in Gloucestershire (it
says so on Wikipedia). The online encyclopedia, however, reckons that Whittingtons home
village of Pauntley is in the Forest of Dean.
Pauntley may technically be on the fringes of the Forest, but its definitely not a Forest of Dean
sort of place.
The Forest of Dean, which sits in a mysterious world of its own between the rivers Severn and
Wye, has been a hotbed of creative talent in recent decades.
Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling was brought up in Tutshill at the lower end of the Forest; Joe
Meek, the madcap record producer and songwriter, was raised in Newent; and then is there the
great TV dramatist Dennis Potter, who came from Coleford.
While Pauntley is a stones throw from Newent, it inhabits a much more upmarket world than that
of the real Forest of Dean, which was once a solidly working-class world of freelance colliers.
It neighbours the town of Dymock, famously once the home of the Dymock Poets, whose number
included the American Robert Frost and Edward Thomas (Yes! I remember Adlestrop...).
It was in Gloucestershire that Frost who in 1961 was invited by John F. Kennedy to give a
reading at his presidential inauguration was inspired to write his poem The Road Not Taken.
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A plaque at the church of St Michael Paternoster Royal

Mission accomplished: The church of St Michael Paternoster Royal in the heart of the City of London carries two
Whittington plaques

The work concludes with the lines: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less
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traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

These are sentiments that might equally sum up the unlikely story of Dick Whittington.
His road less traveled begins in Pauntley. He was born in 1354 at Pauntley Court, the Whittington
family home (which isnt open to the public), and baptised shortly afterwards at St John the
Evangelist Church, which sits next door.
The church provides many reminders of the Whittington story. Over the centuries, the City of
London and the Mercers Company, of which Dick became a leading light, have paid for a good
deal of work on the building, and details of their contributions are spelled out in wordy notices.

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The legend grows: An engraving of Dick - with his trusty cat - from 1784

It is immediately clear that Whittington was no poor boy. But as the third son of local landowner
Sir William Whittington, it was unlikely that he could expect any inheritance, so he left for London
to seek his fortune in about 1370.
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In London, he managed to get apprenticed to the Mercers Company and became successful,
quickly building a fortune from trade in valuable cloths such as velvet, silk and damask.
This is where reality diverges sharply from panto fiction: there was no cat that went to Africa and
earned the grateful thanks of a king by killing off the rodent population. People making fortunes
from cats was apparently a favourite medieval fairy tale.
In reality, Whittington quickly became well-known at court. He developed a friendship with Richard
II, becoming not just a trusted confidant but also a lender of money to the Royal Exchequer a
function he also performed for Henry IV and his son Henry V.
If you drive south from the A40 for about 30 minutes, you will reach Wantage, where Dicks future
bride, Alice Fitzwarren, and her family lived.
In the Church of Saints Peter and Paul, you can find the full-length brass that once lay on the
tomb of Alices father Ivo Fitzwarren. I arrived shortly after a well-attended Sunday morning
service.
The church makes much of its connection with poet John Betjeman, who once lived in the town.
And in the main square there is a statue of Alfred the Great, who was born in Wantage in the mid9th
Century, but there is very little to commemorate Whittington.
The vicar showed me the Fitzwarren brass and also the fine medieval tomb of Ivos father
William, who was the 47th recipient of the Order of the Garter, the highest order of chivalry in
England.
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Family link: The Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Wantage, Oxfordshire holds a brass that lay on the tomb of Dick's
father-in-law

Do you get many people who come here in search of Dick Whittington? I asked the vicar.
Er, no, he replied. The most striking Whittington monument stands on Highgate Hill, still looking
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much as I saw it all those years ago as a student.

Dicks cat is shown peering with a display of feline irritation, probably annoyed by those clanging
Bow Bells.
Since St Mary Le Bow church, home of the famous bells, is five miles from Highgate Hill, one
imagines that Dick and the cat either had super powers of hearing or else the bells clanged like
the chimes of Doom.
Its also worth pointing out that the monument like the rhyme talks of Dick being thrice mayor
of London, when in fact he was a four-time mayor. Quadruple mayor of London doesnt work so
well in verse, presumably.
My final stop on the Whittington road was the church of St Michael Paternoster Royal in the heart
of the City of London, where youll find two separate Dick Whittington plaques.
One marks the place where his house was built, the other shows he helped found the church and
was buried there.
The tomb is lost now but, curiously, a mummified cat was found in the church tower in 1949
during a search for Whittingtons burial place. This raises the question of whether a cat played
more of a part in the real Whittington story than history books acknowledge.
I climbed into my motoring cat and headed towards Highgate Hill in the hope that the Bow Bells
might call me back. So did they ring? Oh no, they didnt...
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Jessica, Nancy, Diana, Unity and Pamela Mitford in 1935

Sister act: Jessica, Nancy, Diana, Unity and Pamela Mitford in 1935

The highway thats paved with literary gold

Many authors living in towns and villages dotted along the route of the A40 have found
extraordinary success.
Like Dick Whittington, Laurie Lee was a Gloucestershire boy who found that the streets of
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London were paved with gold in his case literary gold. Lees rise to fame was due mainly to the
success of his memoir Cider With Rosie, which recounts his childhood in the Slad Valley.
Laurie Lee

A40 author: Laurie Lee was a Gloucestershire native like Whittington

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The village of Swinbrook in Oxfordshire is for ever associated with the Mitford sisters notably
Nancy, Diana, Jessica and Deborah, who have each written a bestseller.
Childrens literature dominates Oxford thanks to the success of Alices Adventures In
Wonderland, which was written by Christ Church mathematics tutor Charles Dodgson under the
pen-name Lewis Carroll.
Oxford scholar C. S. Lewis was the author of The Chronicles Of Narnia series, while the more
recent bestselling trilogy His Dark Materials was written by Oxford school teacher Philip Pullman.
In Holywell cemetery, Oxford, you can find the grave of Alastair Grahame, the son of Kenneth
Grahame.
It was for Alastair or Mouse, as he was known that his father devised the tale of Rat, Mole and
Toad in The Wind In The Willows.
It was a touching start to a story that had a tragic ending: always a frail child, in his second year at
university Alastair was found dead on the railway tracks in Port Meadow, Oxford (which provided
the setting for the start of the book).
It is believed he committed suicide.
Further along the A40 towards London you can discover the settings that inspired The Wind In
The Willows. Kenneth Grahame lived at Cookham, Berkshire, where, as a child, he messed
about on the river;
Quarry Wood provided the setting of the books Wild Wood. Luxury hotel Cliveden, once
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notorious as the place where John Profumo frolicked in the swimming pool with Christine Keeler,
provided the inspiration for Toad Hall.

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Peter Pan author J. M. Barrie used to live on the Bayswater Road, London, which formed part of
the A40 before the construction of the Westway in the Sixties.
It was while taking his dog for a walk at the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens that he became
friends with the Llewelyn Davies family, whose son Michael was to be the inspiration for Peter
Pan.
If Dick Whittington found fame and fortune with a cat, Dodie Smiths lasting legacy is due to a dog
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 well, 101 of them actually. Her novel The One Hundred And One Dalmatians is set at No 1, St
Andrews Place, on the eastern edge of Regents Park and close to Great Portland Street
Underground station.
The house still looks just as it is described and illustrated in the book when it was over-run with
puppies and when Cruella De Vil came to snatch them away.
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Costa Rica, a tropical paradise filled with long stretches of unspoiled beaches,
dense jungles, exotic wildlife and smouldering volcanoes - 'pura vida' indeed
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The Austrian capital will the host the Eurovision Song Contest this year... here
are six things you must do in Vienna once the show is over

Great outdoors to be explored: How to make the most of the longer days

Whet your appetite with a trip to Valencia: The home of paella makes for a
delicious break

Spring into Easter! Celebrate with seaside family treats that will blow the
cobwebs away
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The ultimate European road trip! Travelling 16,000 miles and taking in 45 places,
U.S. scientist maps out the perfect getaway
B4YDJA.jpg

Jet Airways passenger opens emergency exit and leaps 15ft down to the tarmac
after plane landed in Mumbai before exiting the airport without being apprehended

From the castle that inspired Walt Disney to a glowing beach in the Maldives: The
world's best fairy-tale destinations to feel like a real-life Cinderella

'Sign the petition!' Footage reveals how Paris scammers target tourists with
bogus causes and demands for donations
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The buffet is open! Stunning photographs show sharks, dolphins, birds and a
whale feasting on NINE MILLION sardines

Kayaking in the Mangroves, food fit for a king and the Grand Mosque at sunset:
It's little wonder Abu Dhabi is known as the Arabian Jewell

You're doing it all wrong! How to cram a month's worth of clothing into hand
luggage allowed by most budget airlines

With nine restaurants, black marble bath tubs and service with a genuine smile,
Grenada's luxury all-inclusive Sandals La Source slays the cynics
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A game of other halves: Jenny Cowley finds beaches and beauty in Croatia ...
while her husband shouts at the football
AJNP4K.jpg

Fancy a voyage? Make a cruise agent your first port of call who can ensure you
pick your perfect itinerary

Downton on rails: Finding Burma's soul via train and rail from Singapore to
Mandalay

Vilnius, Budapest and Riga offer best bargains for Britons this spring as more
holidaymakers choose city breaks over beach getaways
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Have at least 30,000 Instagram followers, maintain your Klout score and use
hashtags: How to use social media to bag a luxury holiday or free hotel stay

From a breathtaking Italian vineyard to Australia's Gold Coast: How one

adventurous couple stays in amazing destinations for FREE

From scoring a free upgrade to sleeping in comfort at 35,000ft: The ultimate guide
to what you should REALLY wear on a plane

From a patch of brown dirt to 'The Happiest Place on Earth': Time-lapse reveals
how original Disneyland was built 60 years ago
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Big, brash and beautiful: A captivating water world in the middle of the desert...
and one of Kim Kardashian's favourite luxury hotels

Keep your lips locked: Popular Indian tourist village in Goa bans 'obscene' public
displays of affection... so where else is kissing is a crime?

Wish you were here? Beyonce, Miranda Kerr and Lady Gaga share 'smug yoga'
holiday selfies atop beaches, rocks and yachts

Now that's a wake-up call! Florida hotel blasts theme from The Lion King every
morning to wake up hungover spring breakers
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The face of 30: From an African mother to the New Yorker who fears failure,
photographs explore people's lives as they reach milestone birthday

What REALLY went down on the real life Hangover: Photos from epic Thailand
trip which began as just a quiet beer in a Middlesbrough pub

Are these the most dangerous holiday snaps ever taken? Tourists brave 800FOOT drop to stand on boulder wedged between cliffs

From William Shakespeare's 'cursed' tomb to Henry VIII's underground vault:

The most visited grave sites in Britain revealed
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Algarve and Tenerife named best bargain spots for Britons planning last-minute
Easter getaways... with Italy and France offering more expensive breaks

Is this the best police force in the world? Officers in Reykjavik dress up as Star
Wars characters and play with kittens in amazing Instagram photos

Hitler portraits, swastikas, and waiters dressed in SS uniforms: Indonesia's

controversial Nazi-themed cafe defies critics and death threats

Lyme disease in Scotland, parasites in Corsica and West Nile virus in America:
The most unusual illnesses you wouldn't expect to get while on holiday
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Jordan's Queen Rania says Britons should consider Middle Eastern kingdom a
'safe' holiday destination despite 'bad neighbours' and ISIS threat

Making history: New Russell Crowe movie on bloody World War I battle becomes
first to film inside Istanbul's Blue Mosque

How safe is the Airbus A320? 'Workhorse' is still one of world's most reliable
planes despite Germanwings crash in French Alps, say experts

Before bland meals in economy, overpriced booze and plastic forks: Fascinating
photos reveal what it was like to eat on a plane amid air travel's glory days
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'I spent more time popping to the toilet than popping the question':
Holidaymakers sue Thomas Cook after salmonella poisoning 'ruins engagement'

Employee of the year? Alaska Airlines worker pays for stranded customer's flight
home after ticket mix-up

More than half of British parents willing to take their children out of school to
avoid high prices on holidays... even though they risk fines of 60 per pupil

A night at the museum (for 1,000): Inside the Emperor's suite at Vienna's
Schonbrunn Palace where tourists can now stay overnight
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Teenage boys in critical condition, parents also in hospital after Delaware family
'poisoned by pesticide' on Caribbean holiday

Ramen noodle baths, cactus massages and a 'womb room': Weirdest spa retreat
treatments from around the globe revealed

Is this the world's most opulent riverboat? Inside Uniworld's Baroque-inspired

floating palace where cabin prices start at 2,500

That really is a mini-break! Magical balcony that extends 30ft into the air to offer a
15 minute escape from everyday life
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Do they call this whale mail? The quaint German village where the post is still
delivered by boat through a network of canals

Blagoveshtenie: Bulgarian children dance in embroidered masks made from

animal fur to scare 'evil spirits' and welcome spring

'Quiet beer' in the local pub turns into 7,000-mile trip to Thailand for two friends
from Middlesbrough... with just a Tesco carrier bag filled with clothes

Gatwick police unveil new 11,000 crime-fighting machine that will help them
whizz to emergencies at 25mph (but does it look like a Raptor to you?)
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'There is a huge animal in the f****** bush!' Game ranger launches angry tirade at
German tourist who ignored orders to keep his distance on safari

Sunburn, sandstorms and 1,500 miles on foot: British explorer, 24, is dubbed 'the
Lonely Snow Leopard' after becoming first person to walk across Mongolia solo

Celebrity guests, balloon dances and passengers exercising in Edwardian

clothes: Cunard's photo archive reveals glamorous history of its ships

From a wife-carrying competition in Finland to bull-riding prisoners in Louisiana:

The world's most bizarre sport holidays revealed
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Marrakech named world's best destination by TripAdvisor as London ranks sixth

behind Prague and Hanoi... and New York fails to crack top ten

Ryanair reveals new on-time landing jingle after passengers voted to scrap
original trumpet-heavy tune

Pilot proposes to flight attendant girlfriend at 34,000 feet... but she misses the
speech as she is too busy pouring coffee for passengers on Alaska Airlines flight
long_flights.png

Intrepid traveller inspired by 15-hour flight creates fascinating map of world's

longest non-stop journeys... and NONE stop in Europe
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It's just like stepping back in time! Stunning replica of Chauvet Cave and its
36,000-year-old wall drawings to open to tourists

LATEST TRAVEL NEWS

Tourists warned as Goa taxi protest turns violent

Parliament to debate cost of term-time holidays
New Brazil yoga retreats for World Cup widows
Outer Hebrides boasts stunning airport approach
Lewis Hamilton to star in Top Gear festival
Thailand set to lose 1.6bn in tourism revenue
14% of Brits abroad refuse to speak local dialect
Egypt bombing: New FCO advice to UK tourists
India to cut red tape and issue visas on arrival
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Qatar Airways' new all-business class flights

Rise in British travellers visiting Germany
Brits rate cuisine as essential part of holiday
London to Glasgow train to host comedy gig
British sounds in 2.5m tourism advert
Two-fifths of parents would risk term-time trip
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Save up to 85% on phone calls on holiday

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The ladies let loose: Racegoers smarten up for Aintree's smart new dress code... but can't
contain themselves once the action starts
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