Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/491

 12 s.i. JUNE 17, i9i6.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

Those acquainted with Fielding's journa- listic work would instinctively pause by the name of Knapton. Messrs. J. & P. Knapton were well-known publishers in Ludgate Street, and Fielding makes several friendly references to them, in particular in The Champion of June 17, 1740, and in The True Patriot of March 25, 1746. See also ' Henry Fielding and the History of Charles XII.,' by Prof. Wells of Beloit, Wisconsin, U.S.A., in The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, vol. xi., 1912.

Learning that the Knapton family were still resident in Lymington, I approached Capt. A. L. R. Knapton, R.N., who was so good as to write :

" Odber Knapton was my great-great-grand- father. He was baptized at Christchurch, 11 August, 1696, and buried at Lymington, 20 November, 1746. He appears to have been appointed a Free Burgess of Lymington in 1718, and was Mayor 1727-8, and later Town Clerk. John Knapton and his brother Paul were first cousins of Odber Knapton. I am afraid I have no record as to the characteristics of Odber Knapton, but I have a portrait of him, and his face is certainly humorous-looking. There is no mention of any other member of the Knapton family being a lawyer about that time."

When Mr. Odber Knapton visited London would not the publishers, in their desire to entertain and delight their Lymington cousin, invite Fielding to their circle ? And Fielding, travelling the Western Circuit would he not meet Odber Knapton at Winchester Assizes ? And as there is internal evidence in the ' Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon ' that Fielding had visited the Isle of Wight on a previous occasion, may he not have taken ship from Lymington, where he would meet the merriest gentleman in England "on his native heather" ?

J. PAUL DE CASTRO.

1 Essex Court, Temple.

HEROES OF WATERLOO. The compilation of a Roll of Honour for the battles of Quatrebras and Waterloo is rather a difficult matter, and your readers may like to know how to set about it. The lists of officers or men who were killed in action or who died of wounds are contained in the Casualty Registers at the Public Record Office (class W.O. 25). Certain of these registers also give the names of the officers wounded. If you want to discover the names of the wounded rank and file, you have to consult the monthly pay lists of the period (class W.O. 12), white the names of all the rank and file (sergeants excepted) who took part

in the battle are contained in the ' Supple- mentary Pay List ' issued under the War Office circular of July 31, 1815, and charged on. the quarterly pay list for the period ending Sept. 24, 1816. J. M. BULLOCH. 123 Pall Mall, S.W.

THE MOUNT, WHITECHAPEL.

" On Saturday last the Earle of Middlesex and Sir Kenelme Digby,in disguised habits, were busily viewing of the new Fortifications at Mile- End Green and Whitechapel, but, being known by some there present, they were apprehended and brought before the Lord Mayor of Ixmdon r who committed them both to the Counter." This excerpt from ' England's Memorials,' Monday, Nov. 14, 1642, is one of the earliest references to the Mount that remained until: the early nineteenth century. Its site to-day is marked by Turner Street, but the London Hospital stands on a piece of ground de- scribed in June, 1748, by Robert Mainwaring,. its surveyor, as " the mount field or White- chapel mount."

Its original measurements are said (Emerson, ' How the Town Grew,' cited by Mr. Hale, ' East London Antiquities,' p. 104> to have been 239 ft. long by 182 ft. broad at the base. These dimensions do not suggest any specific purpose ; presumably it was a< large enclosed camp, with earthworks, to command the approach to the City, but the best illustration available suggests other intentions in design and later uses.

The oblong folio view of the London Hospital in 1759, engraved by Chatelain. and Rowe, has on the right the stepped eud- of a cliff or hill, surmounted by trees of considerable growth and a summer-house^ Its height rising above the roof of th& Hospital may be estimated to be 50 ft. It- probably extended east in a decreasing spur, which was cut away when the site was cleared for the Hospital ; but it is obvious that this was more than the fortifications,, ramparts, or mounds hurriedly thrown up at the suggestion of Fairfax in 1642.

The most probable explanation that occurs- to me is that this mount was a dust or ash hill largely founded by carted debris from the- Great Fire of 1666, but constantly augmented and extended, much as the mountains o Battle Bridge grew until their final clearance. It will be recalled that the greater part of the- Fire debris was removed to the outskirts of. the City ; some thousands of loads must have been shot in the marshy fields at Horseferry, and Mountfield would be even, more convenient. When its removal was desired, the City Lands Committee announced ("Guildhall, 14 March, 1801," printed in.