Fielding and Gascoyne had each issued contradictory pamphlets on the case, but it was Virtue Hall's testimony, fundamental in the prosecution of Squires and Wells, which became central to Gascoyne's investigation. Hall had given her testimony to Fielding under threat of imprisonment and when by chance the Grub Street writer John Hill heard from a Magistrate that she had showed signs of remorse, he was presented with a perfect opportunity to settle an old score. A prodigious writer and author of a renowned newspaper column, "The Inspector", Hill had squabbled with several of his peers, notably so in Fielding's case, as Fielding had closed that argument in his "Covent Garden Journal" by stating that "this "hill" was only a paltry "dunghill", and had long before been levelled with the dirt."