Memoirs of William Hazlitt
Ch. XVI 1818
Leigh Hunt to William Hazlitt; 22 September 1819
“York Buildings, New Road.
“22nd Sept., 1819.
“Dear Sir,
“Nunc scio quid sit
majestas. I do not allude to Mrs.
Tomlinson,† though she certainly ought to be called
Caroline, but to large handwriting,‡ of which I know
you are fond. It enables me to write a long letter of three sentences. However,
your Brobdingnagians are as pleasant as those at Covent Garden; and
* I collect from a passage in one of the essays of
W. H., that he accepted
Mr. Hunt’s invitation,
and crossed over to Taunton. † The landlady at York Street, already referred to. ‡ Mr. Hazlitt
usually wrote a very large, copper-plate hand, and to this Mr. Hunt alludes jocosely. |
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| | LETTER FROM MR. LEIGH HUNT. | 255 |
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so with considerable
effort I beget a similar progeny to send my answer by. Your letter dated
Saturday I did not receive till yesterday; and to day I saw Mr. Procter. He tells me that he had written
me a letter enclosing the bill, and intrusted it to a friend, who kept it in
his pocket for three or four days; upon which he enclosed it in another letter
to you, directed to Southampton Buildings. Shall I call there for it? or what
else shall I do? all that I can do I will: and your belief of this gives me
great refreshment on these rascally occasions, though no more than I desire. I
am glad to hear that you have broken the neck of the Elizabethan poets, and
wished you could have knocked Lord Burleigh
on the head, by the way, in good earnest. As to Winterslow, it is hopeless to
me just now, who have a wife just ready to be brought to bed, and literary
births of my own without end. But I thank you most heartily for asking me.
“Most sincerely,
“Leigh Hunt.”
“To William Hazlitt, Esq.,
“Winterslow Hut, near Salisbury.”
William Hazlitt (1778-1830)
English essayist and literary critic; author of
Characters of
Shakespeare's Plays (1817),
Lectures on the English Poets
(1818), and
The Spirit of the Age (1825).
John Hunt (1775-1848)
English printer and publisher, the elder brother of Leigh Hunt; he was the publisher of
The Examiner and
The Liberal, in
connection with which he was several times prosecuted for libel.
James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859)
English poet, journalist, and man of letters; editor of
The
Examiner and
The Liberal; friend of Byron, Keats, and
Shelley.
Bryan Waller Procter [Barry Cornwall] (1787-1874)
English poet; a contemporary of Byron at Harrow, and friend of Leigh Hunt and Charles
Lamb. He was the author of several volumes of poem and
Mirandola, a
tragedy (1821).
