James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859), born in Southgate Middlesex to an immigrant US preacher, was a poet, essayist and, particularly, a journalist who new many of the great literati then about and introduced several of them to each other. His household , way of life and standard of living is described as being thoroughly unsettled and very short of cash because of his nature and talents, the nature of his wife and the fact that they had seven children. He had been editor of 'The Examiner' (1808-21), which his brother printed, in which several major writers were published, e.g., Byron, Moore, Shelley and Lamb. During that time he was imprisoned with his brother for a libel on the Prince Regent whom he called a 'fat Adonis of fifty'. After that editorship, the Hunts spent a couple of years in Italy with Shelley and Byron, who referred to the children as being 'dirtier and more mischievous than Yahoos.' Leigh and his family arrived in Chelsea in 1833. His residence for 7 years is commemorated by a Blue Plaque here at 22, Upper Cheyne Row, Chelsea. He writes in his autobiography:

'My family moved to a corner of Chelsea where the air was so refreshing, and the quiet of the thoroughfares so full of repose, that although our fortunes were at their worst and my health almost a piece of them, I felt for some weeks as if I could sit for ever, embalmed in the silence.'

Leigh and his wife Marianne befriended Thomas and Jane Carlyle when the latter arrived in Cheyne Row. This was rather more enjoyed by Thomas than by Jane, mainly because Marianne was a perpetual borrower of domestic items and also likely to be tipsy.

O/S Co-ords:2719.7780
Source(s):

Chelsea

The Blue Plaque Guide to London Homes