Henry Fielding: A Memoir | Page 2

a mezzotint by J. Hardy_.
Eton--1742 From an engraving of a drawing by Cozens.
Anne Oldfield _From a mezzotint of a painting by J. Richardson_.
Leyden--1727 _From an engraving of a drawing by C. Pronk_.
Kitty Clive as Philida _From a mezzotint of a painting by Veter van Bleeck, junr. 1735._
Frontispiece to Fielding's "Tom Thumb" By Hogarth.
The Close, Salisbury--1798 _From an acquatint of a drawing by E. Dayes_.
Charlcombe Church, near Bath _From an engraving of a drawing made in 1784_.
Fielding's house, East Stour, Dorsetshire _From a print published in Hutchins' "History of Dorsetshire," 1813_.
Sir Robert Walpole--1740 From a contemporary cartoon.
"Pasquin" _From a cartoon depicting a scene in "Pasquin" in which Harlequinades, etc., triumph aver legitimate drama. Pope is leaving a box. The Signature "W. Hogarth" is doubtful_.
Cartoon celebrating the success of "Pasquin" _From a contemporary cartoon showing Fielding, supported by Shakespeare, receiving an ample reward, while to Harlequin and his other opponents is accorded a halter_.
The Little Theatre in the Haymarket _From an engraving by Dale, showing the demolition of the Little Theatre in 1821_.
The Green Room, Drury Lane _From the painting by Hogarth, in the possession of Sir Edward Tennant_.
The Temple--1738 _From an engraving of a drawing by J. Nicholas_.
Henry Fielding holding the Banner of the "Champion" newspaper _From a contemporary cartoon showing Sir Robert Walpole laughing at the "Funeral" of an Opposition Motion in Parliament_.
Cartoon showing Fielding, in Wig and Gown, as a supporter of the Opposition _From a print of 1741_.
Henry Fielding reading at the Bedford Arms _From the frontispiece to Sir John Fielding's "Jests."_
Assignment for "Joseph Andrews" From the autograph now in the South Kensington Museum.
Beaufort Buildings, Strand, in 1725 _From a watercolour drawing by Paul Sandby, 1725_.
Prior Park, near Bath, the seat of Ralph Allen, 1750 From an engraving of a contemporary drawing.
George, First Baron Lyttelton From a portrait by an unknown artist.
Theatre Ticket for Fielding's "Mock Doctor" _The signature "W. Hogarth" is doubtful_.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu--1710 _From an engraving by Caroline Watson, from a miniature in the possession of the Marquis of Bute_.
The Bow Street Police Court, Sir John Fielding presiding _From the "Newgate Calendar"_, 1795.
Edward Moore _From a frontispiece in Chalmers' "British Essayists"_ 1817.
Sir John Fielding _From a mezzotint of a painting by Nathaniel Hone, R.A._
Ralph Allen _From a chalk drawing by W. Hoare, R.A._
Henry Fielding _From an engraving of a pen and ink sketch, made by Hogarth after Fielding's death_.
Henry Fielding, defending Betty Canning from her accusers, the Lord Mayor, Dr Hill, and the Gipsy _From a contemporary print, now first reproduced, and the only known sketch of Fielding made during his lifetime_.
Justice Saunders Welch From an engraving of a sketch by Hogarth.
Ryde--1795 From an engraving of a drawing by Charles Tomkins.
Lisbon--1793 From a mezzotint of a drawing by Noel.
The design on the cover is a copy, slightly enlarged, of an impression of Fielding's seal, attached to an autograph letter in the British Museum.

HENRY FIELDING

CHAPTER I
YOUTH
"I shall always be so great a pedant as to call a man of no learning a man of no education."--Amelia.
Henry Fielding was born at Sharpham Park, near Glastonbury, on the 22nd of April 1707. His birth-room, a room known as the Harlequin Chamber, looked out over the roof of a building which once was the private chapel of the abbots of Glastonbury; for Sharpham Park possessed no mean history. Built in the sixteenth century by that distinguished prelate, scholar, and courtier Abbot Richard Beere, the house had boasted its chapel, hall, parlour, chambers, storehouses and offices; its fishponds and orchards; and a park in which might be kept some four hundred head of deer. It was in this fair demesne that the aged, pious, and benevolent Abbot Whiting, Abbot Richard's successor, was seized by the king's commissioners, and summarily hung, drawn, and quartered on the top of the neighbouring Tor Hill. Sharpham thereupon "devolved" upon the crown; but the old house remained, standing in peaceful seclusion where the pleasant slope of Polden Hill overlooks the Somersetshire moors, till the birth of the 'father of the English Novel' brought a lasting distinction to the domestic buildings of Abbot Beere. In the accompanying print, published in 1826, the little window of the Harlequin Chamber may be seen, above the low roofs of the abbots' chapel.
That Henry Fielding should have been born among buildings raised by Benedictine hands is not incongruous; for no man ever more heartily preached and practised the virtue of open-handed charity; none was more ready to scourge the vices of arrogance, cruelty and avarice; no English novelist has left us brighter pictures of innocence and goodness. And it was surely a happy stroke of that capricious Fortune to whom Fielding so often refers, to allot a Harlequin Chamber for the birth of the author of nineteen comedies; and yet more appropriate to the robust genius of the Comic Epic