Belmont.
_Mitigation of Capital Punishment_ (Vol. viii., p. 42.).--I am sorry MR.
GATTY takes the phrase "mythic accompaniments" as an imputation on himself.
I did not intend it for one, having no doubt that he repeated the story as
he heard it. In it were two statements of the highest decree of
improbability. One I showed (Vol. v., p. 434.) to be contrary to penal, the
other to forensic practice. One MR. GATTY found to have been only a report,
the other to have occurred at a different place and under different
circumstances. Had these been stated in the first version, I should not
have disputed them. Whittington was thrice Lord Mayor of London--that is
history, to which the prophecy of Bow-bells and the exportation of the cat
are "mythic accompaniments."
A word as to "disclosing only initials." I think you, as a means of
authentification, should have the name and address of every correspondent.
You have mine, and may give them to any one who pays me the compliment of
asking; but I do not seek farther publicity.