325 



HAYLEY, WILLIAM. 



HEAD, SIR EDMUND WALKER. 



that he would be one of the painters selected for the task. Accordingly, 

 finding that fresco was the vehicle in favour with the authorities, he 

 set himself to acquire mastery over the use of that material, aud when 

 the cartoon competition was summoned, he addressed himself eagerly 

 to the preparation of a cartoon. The judges gave in their award 

 however, and his name was not among the successful competitors, 

 even of the third class. It was a death blow to all his hopes ; and 

 though he struggled bravely against the disappointment, he never really 

 recovered the shock. His last works were ' Uriel and Satan ;' ' Curtius 

 leaping into the Gulf;' 'Alfred and the Trial by Jury;' ' The Burning 

 of Rome,' and numerous repetitions of his ' Napoleon.' ' Alfred,' and 

 ' The Burning of Rome,' were exhibited in 1846 at the Egyptian Hall. 

 The exhibition failed, and added to the embarrassment of his pecuniary 

 affairs. Haydon's mind now entirely gave way under his misery. He 

 died by his own hand, June 22, 1846. It should be added that a 

 post mortem examination showed that there had been long standing 

 disease of the brain. He left a wife and family, for whom a public 

 subscription was immediately got up. It is not a little to the honour 

 of Sir R. Peel, that, at what was perhaps the most busy and exciting 

 period of his parliamentary career, he had found time just five days 

 before the painter's unhappy death, to think of the artist, to whom 

 he inclosed a cheque for 50?. Haydon's ' Lectures ' are almost his 

 only contributions to literature. Considerable difference of opinion 

 exists as to bis merits as a painter. The exaggeration and hardness, 

 which it must be admitted disfigured his general style, are ascribed 

 to his early intimacy with and imitation of Fnseli, but unjustly; 

 they are Haydon's own, the result partly of insufficient study, partly 

 of incomplete artistic education, more of hia peculiar physical tempera- 

 ment, and habit of working. But he had many merits, and he did 

 much to raise the character of English art, and to extend an interest 

 in and a love of it. For a fair, and far from partial review of the 

 character of Haydon as a man and an artist, the reader is referred to 

 the concluding pages of the third volume of Taylor's ' Life of Benjamin 

 Robert Haydon,' 2nd ed., 3 vols., 1853. 



HAYLKY, WILLIAM, best remembered as the friend and biogra- 

 pher of Cowper, during the end of the past and the beginning of the 

 present century enjoyed a considerable reputation, less perhaps from 

 hi* sterling merit as a poet, than from his combining a very respect- 

 able share of taste, talent, and devotion to art and literature, with an 

 eaiy fortune, and a certain position in society. Of epitaphs and 

 other occasional verses he was a frequent, willing, and elegant author; 

 but the credit acquired by this ephemeral branch of composition is 

 as fleeting as it is commonly excessive. Mr. Hayley was born at 

 Chichester, in 1745, and studied in Trinity Hall, Cambridge, intending 

 to practUe as a barrister. Finding the law not to his taste, he settled 

 on his patrimonial estate of Eartham, in Sussex, in 1774, a name 

 memorable by its frequent occurrence in the history of Cowper, with 

 whom the proprietor became acquainted in 1792. Hayley died Novem- 

 ber 20, 1820. Of hia numerous poetic works, the 'Triumph of 

 Temper,' 1781, has been the most popular, probably in consequence 

 of the domestic interest of the subject. The ' Es.ay on Painting,' 

 1778, and ' Essay on History,' 1781, addressed respectively to his 

 friends, Rornney the painter, and Gibbon, though really of little 

 value, rank among hia best productions. We may add, as the most 

 important of his other numerous works, the ' Essay on Epic Poetry,' 

 1782; 'Life and Poetical Works of Milton,' 1794-99; 'Essay on 

 Sculpture,' 1800, addressed to his friend Flaxman; 'Life of Cowper,' 

 1802. (Life of Hayley, by himself, 1823.) 



IIAYMAN, FRANCIS, R.A., perhaps the best historical painter in 

 England before the arrival of Cipriani, was born at Exeter about the 

 commencement of the 1 8th century. He waa the scholar of Robert 

 Brown, and was in early life much employed by Fleetwood, the 

 proprietor of Drury Lane old theatre, and by Tiers, the proprietor of 

 Vauxhall. He also made many designs for booksellers, the best of 

 which are the illustrations to Sir Thomas Hanmer's 'Shakspere.' 

 He waa the first librarian to the Royal Academy. Among his brother 

 artists he was highly esteemed as a jovial companion, and many 

 anecdotes are recorded of his wit aa well as geniality. He died from 

 gout, increased if not induced by his convivial habits, in 1776. 

 (Edwards, Anecdote! of Painters, Jcc.; Someriet Haute Gazette, 1824.) 



IIAZLITT, WILLIAM, the son of a Unitarian minister of the same 

 name, waa born at Maidstone on the 10th of April 1778. When he was 

 five yean old hit father transferred the scene of his ministerial exer- 

 tions to America, and remained with his family in the United States 

 for two years. On hia return to England the father became pastor of 

 the Presbyterian congregation at Wem in Shropshire : and it is here 

 that the work of Hazlitt'g education was commenced. At the age of 

 nine he wag put to a day-school at Wem. Some letters written by 

 him, between the agea of nine and twelve, which have been preserved, 

 indicate a very forward mental development ; and in addition to these 

 specimens of private correspondence, there is a letter, which ho pub- 

 lubed at the age of thirteen, in a newspaper, in defence of Dr. Priest- 

 ley, which, if printed exactly as he wrote it, displays considerable 

 knowledge as well as literary skill. In 1793 Hazlitt was entered as a 

 student of the Unitarian college at Hackney, in order to be educated 

 for his father's profession. But for this profession he had no liking ; 

 and he devoted himself, while at the college, principally to moral and 

 political philosophy, comparatively neglecting theological pursuits. 



He returned home in 1795, having determined, much against his father's 

 wishes, to change hia profession. 



Hazlitt had from a very early age shown a love of pictures and a 

 taste for drawing, and it was now determined that he should follow 

 the profession of a painter. He commenced with great ardour aud 

 assiduity, continuing to cultivate metaphysics in his intervals of leisure. 

 We are told by his son that the first rough sketch of the essay on the 

 ' Principles of Human Action' was thus begun at the age of eighteen. 

 In 1802 he visited Paris for the purpose of studying the paintings in 

 the Louvre ; and on his return to England in the next year he made 

 a professional tour through some of the midland counties and the 

 manufacturing towns, and painted a considerable number of portraits ; 

 but he did not persevere. His notion of success was so exalted, and 

 his fastidiousness so great, that he could never satisfy himself, and, as 

 he did not succeed in satisfying anybody else, he determined on again 

 changing his plans. 



He now proceeded, in the autumn of 1803, to the metropolis to 

 start as a literary adventurer. He commenced his almost endless 

 series of publications with the essay on the 'Principles of Human 

 Action,' and on which, we are told by his son, he always prided himself 

 as much as on any other of his numerous works. As a metaphysical 

 essay it is however of little value, though to a certain extent ingenious 

 aud acute ; while, so far as the merits of composition are concerned, 

 it is inferior to his writings on miscellaneous literary subjects. This 

 essay was published anonymously in 1805, and was followed up quickly 

 by other works. In 1808 he married a Miss Stoddart, the sister of 

 Dr. (afterwards Sir John) Stoddart; and after his marriage retired 

 into Wiltshire, where he continued without intermission his literary 

 pursuits. In 1811 he returned to London, and we find his residence 

 in a house in York-street, Westminster, which had been once inhabited 

 by Milton, and which then belonged to Bentham. His admiration for 

 genius led him to erect, in the garden of this house, a tablet, " inscribed 

 to the Prince of Poets : " and he was afterwards much scandalised by 

 a plan of Mr. Bentham's to cut down two beautiful cottou-trees 

 which inarched this tablet, and to expose the garden and the tablet 

 to the continual inroad of the members of a Chreatomathic school. 

 The passage however in the ' Spirit of the Age,' in which Hazlitt 

 speaks of this contemplated profanation, as he deems it, is perhaps 

 not altogether free from an affected sentimentality. 



In 1813 Hazlitt delivered a course of lectures at the Russell Insti- 

 tution, on the history of English philosophy ; and subsequently he 

 lectured on the English poets generally, the comic poets, and the poets 

 of the age of Elizabeth, in separate courses, at the Surrey Institution. 

 He acted for a short time also as reporter to the ' Morning Chronicle," 

 and after giving it up he still wrote occasionally in that paper, and also 

 in the ' Examiner.' He was also, in the latter part of his life, a con- 

 tributor to the ' Edinburgh Review,' and to some smaller magazines. 

 His life waa indeed one unintermitting course of literary exertion; 

 and his labours brought him in a considerable income, which however 

 his imprudence always quickly dissipated. In 1822 he was divorced 

 from his wife, and two years afterwards he married a second time. He 

 died on the 18th of September 1830 of cholera. 



Hazlitt's principal works, besides those which have been already men- 

 tioned are the ' Round Table,' in which he wa^ assisted by Mr. Leigh 

 Hunt ; the 'Table Talk ; ' the 'Plain Speaker,' which three are collections 



collected from different newspapers and magazines, and published in 

 one volume, with a preface, by Hone ; aud the ' Life of Napoleon,' 

 which Hazlitt himself looked upon as his great work, and which was 

 his hut The article Fine Arts, in the ' Eucyclopsodia Britaunica,' and 

 the 'Life of Titian,' to which the name of Northcote is appended, were 

 also written by Hazlitt. 



The principal merits of Hazlitt as a writer arc force and ingenuity of 

 illustration, strength, terseness, and vivacity. Another characteristic, 

 which, by excess, often becomes a fault, is abundance of quotation. 

 And while, as has been said, one good quality frequeutly exhibited in 

 his writings is terseness, it often happens that he is chargeable with 

 the opposite faults of verbiage and diffuseuess. There is also a want 

 of reposo in his style, which prevents its pleasing for a long time, and 

 which, despite the excellence of particular passages, tends to leave an 

 unsatisfactory general impression. Hazlitt's chief title to fame is 

 derived from his essays on subjects of taste and literature, which are 

 deservedly popular. For an historian he was too prejudiced, to say 

 nothing of the unfitting luxuriance of his style ; and he was not clear- 

 headed enough for a metaphysician. 



Shortly after Hazlitt's death, two volumes of his ' Literary Remains ' 



rere published by his son, with a short life ; and a uniform edition of 



his principal works has since been carefully edited by his son, William 



Hazlitt, who is also favourably known by various other literary 



labours, chiefly translations and compilations. 



* HEAD, SIR EDMUND WALKER, 8th Baronet, son of the Rev. Sir 

 John Head, 7th Baronet, was born in 1805 at Wiarton Place, near Maid- 

 stone, Kent He was educated at Oriel College, Oxford, where, in 1827, 

 he was first class in classics. He was elected a fellow of Merton College, 

 and took his degree of M.A. in 1830. In 1834 ho was university 

 examiner. He married in 1830, and succeeded his father in 1838. 



