A Book of Memories of Great Men and Women of the Age, from Personal Acquaintance (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1871 edition. Excerpt: ...it was in his conversation and conduct. This characteristic was noticed by many, who wondered that so " mild " a person should have embarked on the stormy sea of politics, and have become a fierce partisan of the pen. His father, not long after he made his home in England, took orders, and became tutor to the nephew of the Duke of Chandos, whose name was Leigh, after whom he called his latest-born, who was nine years younger than the youngest of his brothers, of whom there were several. His father had the spiritual cure of Southgate; and there, Leigh Hunt writes, "I first saw the Jf Cnu tflCrn-]r& a # -&&&'/ '/f light." Southgate was then " lying out of the way of innovation," with a pure sweet air of antiquity about it, on the border of Enfield Chase, and in the parish of Edmonton. The house is yet standing, and I have engraved it. The neighbourhood retains much of its peculiar character; it has still "an air of antiquity;" of old houses and ancient trees many yet remain; the forest is, indeed, gone, but modern " improvements " have but little spoiled the locality. In 1792 he entered Christ's Hospital. For eight years he toiled there, bareheaded all that time, save now and then when "he covered a few inches of pericranium with a cap no bigger than a crumpet." Here, however, he obtained a scholarship, under the iron rule of the hard taskmaster of whom something has been said in the Memory of Coleridge. No doubt much of the after-tone of his mind was derived from his long residence in the heart of a great city, and to it may be traced not only his love of streets, but his love of flowers--his luxuries at every period of his life. He was grateful to the...