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Hunt (JAMES HENRY LEIGH an English)

JAMES HENRY LEIGH, an English poet and essayist; born in Southgate, Middlesex, England, Oct. 19, 1784. He was the personal friend of Byron, Shelley, Hazlitt, Lamb, and Coleridge.

In 1811 he was tried and acquitted for some remarks on the subject of flogging in the army, published in the "Examiner," a journal which he had founded. He was afterwards sentenced, with his brother, to a fine of $2,500 and two years' imprisonment for an alleged libel against the prince regent. Offers to remit these penalties on a promise to refrain from similar expressions for the future were firmly rejected. "The Story of Rimini" is his longest and perhaps his best known poem; and among his miscellaneous works may be mentioned his autobiography, and his essays, entitled "Men, Women, and Books"; "Imagination and Fancy"; "Wit and Humor"; etc. He died in Putney, England, Aug. 28, 1859.