There’s a stone memorial topped by a cat on Highgate Hill, supposedly on the very spot where Dick Whittington heard the Bow bells ring out: “Turn again, Dick Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor of London”. We all know that Dick never was a poor tramp and that he must have had a very poor sense of direction to be returning from the City of London to his home in Gloucestershire by way of Highgate Hill but no matter, it’s a favourite childhood story. And, of course, he actually was the Mayor three times, in 1397 under Richard II, 1406 in the reign of Henry IV, and finally in 1420 when Henry V was on the throne. I am thinking of him because the spectacular Lord Mayor’s Show is on this Saturday, the 12th of November.






