The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-19 00:00:00

31E310/UAL 70 LEIGH MINI.

The following letter, addressed to the editor of
the Scotsman, appeared in that journal of yester-
day :-
25, Norfolk-street, Strand, 117.0,
September it;, 1868.
Sin,—As yet the grave of Leigh Hunt in Keusal
Green Cemetery is obscure and undistinguished.
During life his wide sympathies and versatile
acquirements drew around him from all quarters of
the globe friendly visitors whose opinions were as
far apart as the homes from which they came. It
is a humiliating reflection that travellers from Ante"
rica or Italy who in other years made Leigh Hunt's
study the shrine of their loving pilgrimages rosy
have wished to visit his last resting-place, and
found no mark to guide them to it—no record, if
they have discovered it, of his many claims on
grateful recollection.
In dedicating " The Cenci " to Leigh Hunt WV
years ago, Shelley paid him this noble tribute:—
" One more gentle, honourable, innocent, and braire
one of more exalted toleration for all who do and
think evil, and yet himself more free from evil; one
who knows better how to receive and how to confer
a benefit, though he must ever confer far more than
he can receive ; one of simpler, and, in the highest
sense of the word, of purer, life and manners, I never
knew." This friendship between Leigh Hunt and
Shelley, honourable and delightful though it was
to both, became in some measure the cause of mis-
representations which attended Leigh Hnet4,
early career. A writer in All the Year Rona
(vol. vii., p. 118) justly says :—" Leigh Hunt
defended the character of Shelley with so nillel!
warmth from the aspersions which had been Os"
upon it that he was in time identified with tllB
whole of Shelley's opinions, and suffered accordingly'
This was a signal error. As a journalist, he wilg
.
never republican, but constitutional and monarch':
cal ; and in religion, Leigh Hunt at no time adopted
the extreme unbelief of Shelley's youthful speelll3"
tions. . . . His natural piety was always Or;
spicuous ; and the greater spirituality of Shelley's
more mature works was not improbably owing 0
his communings with a mind at once liberal and cled
vout. . . . This truly religious tendency of mine
increased and ripened with years and sorrow; and tb,
beautiful volume called the ' Religion of the Heart,
proved to a wider circle of readers how serionsvo
he had been misapprehended by those /lb,
called him a scoffer and materialist." A writer 113 t
the Cornhill Magazine -:(Vol. p. 92) points
how much the press of England in the present (13):
is indebted for its " cultivated style, elevated tone'
and independent sentiment" to Leigh Hunt, wil
exhibited a consistency, honesty, and fearlessuess
that even his opponents could not but res Pee,
Neither personal nor political animosities, 11°P-
ever, troubled the declining years of what Carlyle
truly terms his " most pure and even exemPlsrYa
life ; and as men of all creeds and classes delightf_,
then to honour the veteran poet, the genial crit.'ea
the accomplished scholar, each of whose Wi
works acquired vitality from his warmth of heart
and uprightness of mind, so all can now consistently
unite in promoting the memorial which it is Pro
posed to erect over his grave.
Hall
i°
This project was suggested by Mr. S. C.
the Art Journal three years ago, and, after conolo
tation with Mr. Joseph Durham, A.R.A.
estimated the entire cost of the work at £l5O, °:
lr
who volunteered to execute a bust and pedestal 1°,5
the mere cost of the materials), he applied to Maur
and admirers of the poet for support. Altogethe:t
in pay and promises, about £7O was the result---1_':0
a moiety of the requisite sum. The proposal w_nr,
then allowed to sleep, Air. Durham, howevtie
making a sketch of his design and finishing
model of the portrait bust. ied
The pedestal will have four sides—One oce°Pile
with Leigh Hunt's epitaph, the next with a 11
from " Abon Ben Ahem and the Angel

" Write mo as one that loves his folio w-mon

the third with Lord Lytton's estimate rti"
"Ile had that chief requisite of a good critio— a goodlo
and the fourth with a jar of honey, in bas e,
Thus much having been settled, it has been :40
cently determined to make a public appeal for
and
remainder of the money, £BO ; to raise which .0g
carry out the matter satisfactorily, the follosvic
committee has been formed, viz. :—Chief-Bar°l3ter
F. Pollock, Messrs. Thomas Carlyle, B. W. Fr,°c-gi.
Charles Ratcliff, F.S.A., Alexander Ireland, r--"
Ward, R.A., W. C. Macready, Robert Cbal foe'
LL.D., George Godwin, F.R.S., Charles Plc;
William Barry, Sir John Bowring, Sir eel;
William
Shelley, Bart., and Captain Bertrand ll' ;,
F.R.S.L. The honorary secretaries are :Mess treat
C. Hall and Edmund Oilier ; and the bon' tro, i 9
surer, who will be happy to receive contributio°'
S. 11. TOWNSHEND MI A.