Fielding | Page 4

that a great part of Henry Fielding's childhood must have
been spent by the "pleasant Banks of sweetly-winding Stour" which
passes through it, and to which he subsequently refers in Tom Jones.
His education during this time was confided to a certain Mr. Oliver,
whom Lawrence designates the "family chaplain." Keightley supposes
that he was the curate of East Stour; but Hutchins, a better authority

than either, says that he was the clergyman of Motcombe, a
neighbouring village. Of this gentleman, according to Murphy, Parson
Trulliber in Joseph Andrews is a "very humorous and striking portrait."
It is certainly more humorous than complimentary.
From Mr. Oliver's fostering care--and the result shows that, whatever
may have been the pig-dealing propensities of Parson Trulliber, it was
not entirely profitless--Fielding was transferred to Eton. When this took
place is not known; but at that time boys entered the school much
earlier than they do now, and it was probably not long after his mother's
death. The Eton boys were then, as at present, divided into collegers
and oppidans. There are no registers of oppidans before the end of the
last century; but the Provost of Eton has been good enough to search
the college lists from 1715 to 1735, and there is no record of any Henry
Fielding, nor indeed of any Fielding at all. It may therefore be
concluded that he was an oppidan. No particulars of his stay at Eton
have come down to us; but it is to be presumed Murphy's statement that,
"when he left the place, he was said to be uncommonly versed in the
Greek authors, and an early master of the Latin classics," is not made
without foundation. [Footnote: Fielding's own words in the verses to
Walpole some years later scarcely go so far:--
"Tuscan and French are in my Head; Latin I write, and Greek I-- read."]
We have also his own authority (in Tom Jones) for supposing that he
occasionally, if not frequently, sacrificed "with true Spartan devotion"
at the "birchen Altar," of which a representation is to be found in Mr.
Maxwell Lyte's history of the College. And it may fairly be inferred
that he took part in the different sports and pastimes of the day, such as
Conquering Lobs, Steal baggage, Chuck, Starecaps, and so forth. Nor
does it need any strong effort of imagination to conclude that he bathed
in "Sandy hole" or "Cuckow ware," attended the cock- fights in
Bedford's Yard and the bull-baiting in Bachelor's Acre, drank mild
punch at the "Christopher," and, no doubt, was occasionally brought
back by Jack Cutler, "Pursuivant of Runaways," to make his
explanations to Dr. Bland the Head-Master, or Francis Goode the Usher.
Among his school-fellows were some who subsequently attained to
high dignities in the State, and still remained his friends. Foremost of

these was George Lyttelton, later the statesman and orator, who had
already commenced poet as an Eton boy with his "Soliloquy of a
Beauty in the Country." Another was the future Sir Charles Hanbury
Williams, the wit and squib- writer, then known as Charles Hanbury
only. A third was Thomas Winnington, for whom, in after years,
Fielding fought hard with brain and pen when Tory scribblers assailed
his memory. Of those who must be regarded as contemporaries merely,
were William Pitt, the "Great Commoner," and yet greater Earl of
Chatham; Henry Fox, Lord Holland; and Charles Pratt, Earl Camden.
Gilbert West, the translator of Pindar, may also have been at Eton in
Fielding's time, as he was only a year older, and was intimate with
Lyttelton. Thomas Augustine Arne, again, famous in days to come as
Dr. Arne, was doubtless also at this date practising sedulously upon
that "miserable cracked common flute," with which tradition avers he
was wont to torment his school-fellows. Gray and Horace Walpole
belong to a later period.
During his stay at Eton, Fielding had been rapidly developing from a
boy into a young man. When he left school it is impossible to say; but
he was probably seventeen or eighteen years of age, and it is at this
stage of his career that must be fixed an occurrence which one of his
biographers places much farther on. This is his earliest recorded love-
affair. At Lyme Regis there resided a young lady, who, in addition to
great personal charms, had the advantage of being the only daughter
and heiress of one Solomon Andrew, deceased, a merchant of
considerable local reputation. Lawrence says that she was Fielding's
cousin. This may be so; but the statement is unsupported by any
authority. It is certain, however, that her father was dead, and that she
was living "in maiden meditation" at Lyme with one of her guardians,
Mr. Andrew Tucker. In his chance visits to that place, young Fielding
appears