London, Dick Whittington, and Cat

This story, Dearest One of All, is about a boy, a cat and a great city.

The city is London--the London of long ago. 

London long before computers were invented, before cars and buses--even before trains. 

At the time of this long-ago story, London taxis were carriages pulled by horses and the narrow streets of the city were crowded with huge wagons  drawn by huge draft horses, big carts pulled by big mules, little donkey wagons, and lots and lots of all kinds of people.

One of the people at the time of our story was a little orphan boy so small he could hardly be called a people. He had no mother or father or sister or brother--in fact he had nothing at all except a name and his name was a rather grand one: Dick Whittington. 

No one now knows how he got to own his  splendid name but it is a fact that from the very  beginning of this old story the boy was known as Richard, or Dick, Whittington.

The other character in our story is a cat.

This cat is quite famous-- in fact if you ever go to Highgate in the great City of London today, near the very old Bow church, you can see a statue of this remarkable cat.

We don't know the personal name of this cat. It is only known as "The Cat"-- so that is what we will call him--but you will know that THIS cat is the very famous cat in the good old story-- the story of Dick Whittington and His Cat. 

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