Timothy Fielding, sometime member of the Haymarket and Drury Lane
companies, and proprietor, for several successive years, of a booth at
Bartholomew, Southwark, and other fairs. In the absence of any Christian
name, Mr. Lawrence seems to have rather rashly concluded that the
Fielding mentioned by Genest as having a booth at Bartholomew Fair in
1733 with Hippisley (the original Peachum of the _Beggar's Opera_), was
Fielding the dramatist; and the mistake thus originated at once began
that prosperous course which usually awaits any slip of the kind. It
misled one notoriously careful inquirer, who, in his interesting
chronicles of Bartholomew Fair, minutely investigated the actor's
history, giving precise details of his doings at "Bartlemy" from 1728 to
1736; but, although the theory involved obvious inconsistencies,
apparently without any suspicion that the proprietor of the booth which
stood, season after season, in the yard of the George Inn at Smithfield,
was an entirely different person from his greater namesake. The late Dr.
Rimbault carried the story farther still, and attempted to show, in
_Notes and Queries_ for May 1859, that Henry Fielding had a booth at
Tottenham Court in 1738, "subsequent to his admission into the Middle
Temple;" and he also promised to supply additional particulars to the
effect that even 1738 was not the "_last_ year of Fielding's career as a
booth-proprietor." At this stage (probably for good reasons) inquiry
seems to have slumbered, although, with the fatal vitality of error, the
statement continued (and still continues) to be repeated in various
quarters. In 1875, however, Mr. Frederick Latreille published a short
article in _Notes and Queries_, proving conclusively, by extracts from
contemporary newspapers and other sources, that the Timothy Fielding
above referred to was the real Fielding of the fairs; that he became
landlord of the Buffalo Tavern "at the corner of Bloomsbury Square" in
1733; and that he died in August 1738, his christian name, so often
suppressed, being duly recorded in the register of the neighbouring