ABSTRACT
Western in Henry Fielding’s novel Tom Jones. The novel is set in 1745, but Fielding only lets this slip incidentally, and it was published in 1749.
Squire Western is the Whig Fielding’s caricature of the Tory Jacobite
squire who goes to bed each night ‘generally so drunk he could not see’,
whose life was dedicated to his dogs and hunting, who is a JP with no
knowledge of the law, who swears and farts and drinks to ‘the king over
Western is a larger than life character. Is he based on another larger
than life character, Sir John Hynde Cotton of Madingley Hall, Cam-
bridgeshire? Even if he had not met him personally, Fielding must have
known about Sir John and his exploits. His great girth was frequently
seen about the streets of London, and evidence of his substantial haunches
can be seen in his tartan suit, on display in the National Museum of
Scotland. Indeed, Sir John could also be the model for John Trott-Plaid,
the fictional author of Fielding’s satirical periodical The Jacobite Journal, in which characters such as Tory Rory, John Pudding and Humphrey
Gubbins appeared, and which included frequent references to the Jacobite
Fielding’s figures had some basis in reality. He was pillorying the
Jacobite gentlemen who sported their plaid waistcoats and ribbons at
Lichfield Races, but perhaps it was unfortunate for the cause that two of
the leading English Jacobites, Sir John Hynde Cotton and Sir Watkin
Williams Wynn, were so large, loud and colourful, enabling Fielding to
create a stereotype of the Tory squire based on them. Other Jacobite gentry
were more retiring, keeping their prejudices within their own circle and
their home. They knew they had to be circumspect or lose their estates,
even their heads.
