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to strangers, but revengeful, jealous, and
obscene. Their " habitt " was generally
black, and they wore large bands and
cloaks ; others followed the French fashion,
but in sad colours. They seem to have been
great admirers of art, " but learning is almost
lost among them, w ch themselves confess."
The travellers found to their cost that
"" cleanlynes was none of their Tallent." It
is interesting to note that at this time there
seems to have been a fairly good supply of
coaches in Italy. Earlier travellers in this
century are often at pains to remark upon
the dearth of coaches, but Chiswell strongly
recommends their " calashes, which travel
both night and day." This night travelling,
too, was an innovation. Previously no one
thought of travelling at night. For one
thing, the roads were too unsafe to venture
along them in the dark ; and another reason
for confining one's travelling to daylight was
that many of the towns and villages through
which one would have to pass closed their
gates at sunset, and would neither admit
travellers nor pass them out after that hour.
Chiswell's travels might almost be said to
belong to the eighteenth century. By that
time the novelty of travelling had begun to
wear away. Communications had improved,
tourists were specially catered for, and the
element of surprise and adventure which
makes sixteenth- and seventeenth-century
travel so refreshing had, to a large extent,
ceased to exist.
MALCOLM LETTS.
FIELDING AT BOSWELL COURT.
A CONTBIBUTOB to The Gentleman's Magazine of 1786, p. 659, subscribing himself " G. S. .of; Harley Street," narrates a somewhat far-fetched story concerning Henry Fielding (1707-54), the point of which centres about an allegation that
" some parochial taxes for his house in Beaufort Buildings being unpaid, and for which he had teen demanded again and again, or, in vulgar phrase, dunned de die in diem. ..."
" G. S." states that Fielding's sister lived with him at the time the rate-collector made his fruitless calls ; it may, therefore, be taken that he refers to the period of Fielding's widowerhood, the time between Charlotte Fielding's death in November, 1744, and his re-marriage in November, 1747. ' On the strength of " G. S.'s " statement Fielding's biographers have invariably named Beaufort Buildings as the place of his residence ; &.&. see Miss Godden's ' Memoir of Henry Fielding,' pp. 161-3 (Sampson Low, 1910),
where an illustration of " Beaufort Buildings,
Strand, in 1725, by Paul Sandby," is
appended. As Paul Sandby was born in
1725 he must have shown much precocity.
It has been my good fortune to examine the documents in Walton v. Collier, a case from Salisbury, tried in 1745. The details of the litigation I propose discussing later, but the point of immediate interest lies in the fact that the defendant, to avoid arrest, was ordered to find two sureties ; whereupon
" James Harris of the City of Sarum in the County of Wilts Esquire and Henry Fielding of Bpswell Court in the Parish of St. Clement Danes in the County of Middlesex Esquire came into the Court of our Lord the King at Westminster in their proper persons and became pledges and each of them by himself did become pledge. ..."
Possessed of this clue, I sought permission to investigate the original Rate- Books in the keeping of the Westminster City Council, from which, with the courteous help of the assistants in the Council's Record Depart- ment, the following information was ab- stracted :
The Accompts of the Overseers of the Poor for the Parish of St. Clement Danes.
SHIER LANE WARD.
BOSWELL COURT. Year. Bent. Name. Rates collected. Arrears.
1744 45 Filden 15 /-
1745 45 Filden 376 376
1746 55 ( Fe Esq? g '} 376 376
{Henry "1 Fielding, [ 18/4 18/4 18/4 Esq. } 1748 No entry
The following observations may be per- mitted :
1. The record of this particular ward for 1743 is missing, but the name does not appear in that for 1742. A Sewer Rate was levied in 1743, but the Sewer Rate Books in the possession of the London County Council, to which I was granted access, do not give Fielding's name in 1743.
2. The rateable value of the property appears to have increased during Fielding's tenancy, the rate being collected sometimes quarterly, sometimes half-yearly. The marked differences in the yearly payments are owing probably to the hand-to-mouth parochial policy of the period, the rates being required sometimes for upkeep only, whereas at other times they had to cover construc- tional outlays.
