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HUNT, JAMES HENRY LKIQH. 



HUNT. WILLIAM. 



la 1808 Mr. Hunt left the War-office, at the ago of twenty-four, to 

 bocome joint-editor and joint-proprietor of the ' Examiner' newspaper 

 a journal, the high reputation of wlm-h, both fur liberal politic* and 

 for literary ability, wa first acquired under the management of the 

 HunU. The reputation however was not acquired, in those days of 

 political persecution, without soiuc serious personal consequences to 

 the partners. Although more literary than political in his taste*, the 

 articles of Leigh Hunt, as well as those of his brother, were of a kin<l 

 to give offence to the ruling powers of the day ; and on three several 

 occasions the 'Examiner' had to stand a government prosecution. 

 On the first occasion, in 1810, when the cause of offenco was on article 

 on the Regency, reflecting on the rule of George III., the prosecution 

 was abandoned ; on tho second, which was caused in 181 1 by an article 

 on Flogging in the Army, the brothers were tried before Lord Ellen- 

 borough, but being defended by Mr. Brougham, were acquitted by the 

 jury ; on the third however, when the cause was an article referring 

 to the Prince Regeut in rather severe terms, and calling him " An Adonis 

 of fifty," tho brother* were sentenced to pay a fine of 5001. each, and 

 to two years' imprisonment. The imprisonment, though actually 

 undergone, was lightened by tho public sympathy with the captives; 

 and Leigh Hunt describes the two years as being spent very pleasantly 

 amid flowers and books, with occasional visits from friends, such as 

 Byron, Moore, Charles Lnmb, Shelley, and Keats, some of whom he 

 then became acquainted with for the first time. Keats's sonnet, 

 Written on the day that Mr. Leuth Hunt left Prison,' is a fine poetical 

 expression of the affection with which Mr. Hunt was regarded at that 

 time by a wide circle of literary friends. Among the literary fruits of 

 his leisure in prison, published after his release, were ' The Descent 

 of Liberty, a masque,' 1815 ; ' The Feast of the Poets, with notes, and 

 other pieces, in Terse,' 1815; and the well-known ' Story of Rimini,' 

 1816 tho last of which gave the author at once a place among the 

 poets of the day. In 1818 appeared 'Foliage, or Poems, original, 

 und translated from the Greek of Homer, Theocritus, Bion and Moschus, 

 and Anacrcon, and from the Latin of Catullus.' About the same time 

 Mr. Hunt started the ' Indicator,' a small weekly paper, on the model 

 of the Queen Anne Essayists. In 1823 he published ' Ultra-Crepi- 

 doriua, a Satire ou William Gifford' a retaliation on the ' Quarterly 

 Review' for its severe treatment of the school of poetry to which 

 Mr. Hunt was most closely related. Before this satire wag published 

 however, Mr. Hunt, whose circumstances had not recovered from the 

 confusion into which they were thrown by his imprisonment and by 

 the expenses of the ' Examiner,' had accepted an invitation from Shelley 

 and Lord Byron, and gone over to Italy (1822) to assist them in carry- 

 ing on ' The Liberal,' a journal the opinions of which were to be of 

 an extreme kind both in politics and literature. The death of his 

 kindest friend, Shelley, at the very moment of his arrival (July 1822), 

 was a heavy blow to his fortunes ; and, though Mr. Hunt lived for a 

 time under the same roof with Lord Byron, the connection was not 

 of a kind to last ' The Liberal' was discontinued Byron and Hunt 

 parted, less mutually friends than when they had met Byron died 

 in 1824 ; and after living with his family some time in Italy, Mr. Hunt 

 returned to England. The publication in 1828 of 'Lord Byron and 

 some of hii Contemporaries, with Recollections of the Author's Life 

 and his Visit to Italy,' gave much offence to Lord Byron's admirer.', 

 and especially to Moore; and Mr. Hunt has himself subsequently 

 declared the criticisms of Byron's personal character and behaviour 

 there contained to be unnecessarily harsh and bitter. In 1828 Mr. 

 Hunt (who bad meanwhile been contributing largely, together with 

 Lamb, Hazlitt, &c., to various periodicals, including the 'London 

 Magazine ') started ' Tho Companion,' a kind of sequel to the ' Indi- 

 cator;' and the 'Indicator and Companion,' republished together in 



1834, has been deservedly among the most popular of modern col- 

 lections of light and fanciful essays. In 1833 was published a collected 

 edition of Leigh Hunt's poetical works, since superseded by later 

 editions, which include, in addition to other later poems, his cele- 

 brated ' Captain Sword and Captain -Pen,' first published separately iu 



1835. In 1834 he started a new serial, 'The London Jourml,' which 

 be continued to edit during that and the following year; ho then 

 wrote for periodicals till 1840, when he published ' A Legend of Flo- 

 rence, a play ' (acted with some lucceas at Coveut-Gardeu), and several 

 parts of a new ferial, called ' The Seer, or Commonplaces Reported,' 

 and also edited the 'Dramatic Works of Wychcrley, Congrcve, Van- 

 brugh, and Farquhar.' These works were followed in 1842 by 'The 

 Palfrey, a Love Story of Old Timer,' and ' One Hundred Romances of 

 Real Life, selected and translated,' 1843. A larger work of fiction was 

 ' Sir Ralph Eiher, or Memoirs of a Gentleman of tue Court of diaries II.,' 

 n new edition of which appeared in 1850. Of Mr. Hunt's later works 

 the following are tho chief : 'Imagination and Fancy' (a series of 

 extracts from the English Poets, with five critical elucidations and 

 a preliminary essay on poetry), 1844 ; ' Wit and Humour' (a nimihir 

 collection), 1846 ; 'Stories from the Italian Poets, with Lives' (acollcc- 

 tiou of admirably translated pieces), 1846 ; an edition of the ' Dramatic 

 Works of Sheridan,' with biography and note*, 1846; ' Men, Women, 

 and Books, a selection of Sketches, Essays, and Critical Memoirs,' 

 1847; 'A Jar of Honey from Mouut HyUa' (a collection in prose 

 and Terse), 1848 ; ' A Book for a Corner' (also a collection of pieces in 

 prose ana verse), 1849 ; the author's 'Autobiography,' in 3 vols., 1850 : 

 a volume of ' Table-Talk, with Imaginary Conversations of Pope and 



Swift,' 1851 ; ' The Town, it* remarkable Characters and Events ' (a 

 delightful book of gossip about London streets), 2 Tola., 1848 ; ' The 

 Religion of the Heart, a Manual of Faith and Duty,' 1853 ; a collection 

 rifs iu Verse,' from the author's earlier writings, 1855; and 

 ' The Old Court Suburb, or Memorials of Kensington, regal, critical, 

 and anecdotic*!,' 2 vols., 1855. In 1847 Mr. Hunt received from the 

 crown a literary pension of 2001. per annum, which he still enjoys, 

 with the goodwill of thousands whom bis numerous writings, both iu 

 prose and in verse, have instructed and charmed, and among whom he 

 is the representative of an ago of poets now all but vanished. 



HUNT, ROBERT, a writer and popular lecturer ou the physical 

 sciences, was born September 6th, 1807, at Devouport, in Devonshire. 

 He was brought up to business, and owes his scientific position to his 

 own unaided efforts. In tho earlier part of his career his knowledge 

 of chemistry and fondness for science recommended him to the Corn- 

 wall Polytechnic Society, of which he was secretary for live years. In 

 this position he devoted considerable time and attention to the study 

 of mineral veins and metalliferous deposits. He was thus recommended 

 to the attention of Sir Henry de la Heche, and shortly after the opening 

 of the Museum of Economic Geology, Mr. Hunt was api>oiuted 

 Keeper of the Mining Records. When this institution was removed to 

 Jermyn-strect, Mr. Hunt was appointed professor of mechanical philo- 

 sophy, an office which he has since resigned. 



Mr. Hunt first became known as an author by his ' Researches on 

 Light,' published in 1S44. In this work he gave a general account of 

 the physical phenomena of light, and drew more particular attention 

 to the chemical action exerted by some of the rays, which he tirst 

 named ' actinic.' In 1848 he published a work called the ' Poetry of 

 Science,' in which he drew attention more especially to the action of 

 the great forces in nature heat, light, and electricity. This was suc- 

 ceeded by a work of a more imaginative character, entitled ' Pauthea, 

 or the Spirit of Nature.' On obtaining the position of professor of 

 mechanics at the Museum of Practical Science, he published an 

 elementary treatise on physics, which has since been published iu a 

 chrap form. From the time of the discoveries of Daguerre and Fox 

 Talbot, Mr. Hunt has taken great interest in the art of photography, 

 and has written a manutl for the guidance of those who would i : 

 it He has also contributed a report to the ' Transactions ' of the 

 British Association on the influence of the rays of light on the growth 

 of plants. Besides this, he has been a frequent contributor to many 

 of the literary and scientific journals. He took an active part in the 

 arrangements of the Great Exhibition in 1&51, and wrote an essay 

 upon the science involved in that great display of human industry. 

 Mr. Hunt is well known throughout the country as au able and 

 eloquent lecturer ou the various departments of science to which he 

 has turned his attention. 



* HUNT, WILLIAM, one of the most original of the English school 

 of painters iu water-colours, was born iu London in 1790. Of his 

 early studies we have no information, but there can be little doubt 

 that, as an artist, his style was formed on the Dutch and Flemish 

 painters of homely, and what is termed 'still' life. Mr. Hunt became 

 a member of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours iu 1824, and 

 from that year to the present his works have formed an uufailing source 

 of attraction at the aunual exhibitions of that society. Offering but 

 a confined range of subjects, and utterly devoid of all imaginative or 

 poetic flights, his pictures, in their downright matter-of-fact fidelity to 

 nature, and their entire freedom from pretence and affectation, have 

 won the suffrages of all classes of visitors and critics. In looking over 

 the long file of exhibition catalogues, and drawing upon the stores of 

 memory, we are almost astonished to find with how little deviation 

 Mr. Hunt has for more than forty years trod and retrod his chosen 

 path, and at the same time how we have continued to receive, not only 

 without wearisomenc ss but with ever new pleasure, the specimens ha 

 has picked up in his way. And these specimens arc just such " common 

 things'* as a more profound or scientific collector would be most likely 

 to look down upon as beneath his notice. For year after year ha 

 has shown us gome healthy, ruddy, broad-faced, ugly and stolid, but 

 thoroughly good-tempered ' peasant boy,' in green smock-frock and 

 battered felt, either (as tho ' Catalogue ' carefully informs us) ' laugh- 

 ing ' or ' crying ;' 'idle,' 'tired,' ' sleeping,' or 'fast-asleep;' 'scared,' 

 ' astonished,' or downright ' panic-struek ; ' ' catching flies ' or blowing 

 bubbles,' or 'giving himself (h)airs;' 'going to bed,' or 'doing 

 penance ' on a stool ; ' puzzling over a sum,' or some ' long word ' in 

 'a spelling lesson;' amusing himself and terrifying his juniors with a 

 ' paper lantern,' or 'a turnip bogle;' or else contemplating the charms 

 of some ' sleeping beauty,' and affording our paint. -r a new reading of 

 ' Cymon and Iphigenia.' Or ho has presented a nearly parallel series 

 of portraitures of his favourite 'peasant girl,' showing her either as 

 'the village pet' or 'farm-house beauty;' us 'nursing a pig;' in her 

 best frock as a 'Sunday scholar,' or perchance as ho caught In - 

 asleep ' when she ought to have been busy at work. Of course he 

 loitered awhile now ami then with an adult 'hermit,' an 'old pilot,' 

 or a ' fisherman,' or occasionally amused himself by sketching a 

 mulatto girl or a negro boy (whom he names ' Mn-sa Sambo ') ; but 

 he has shown decisively that his delight has all along been iu watching 

 the growth and noting the doings of the many generations of young 

 urchins whom he has seen in turn succeed to each other's tricks as 

 well as places. At the same time he has never neglected to observe 



