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Anna Maria Dashwood letter to Leigh Hunt, ca. August 1834; Leigh Hunt letter to Anna Maria Dashwood, September 12, 1836

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Title	Anna Maria Dashwood letter to Leigh Hunt, ca. August 1834; Leigh Hunt letter to Anna Maria Dashwood, September 12, 1836
Creator	Dashwood, Anna Maria Hunt, Leigh, 1784-1859
Date Original	1834-08 1836-09-12
Description	Two letters. 1. Concerning her [Dashwood's] desire that Hunt "be severe" in the editing of her writing. 2. Concerning his [Hunt's] anxiety at not hearing from her; the way in which his son John, who is "not so sincere as the rest of his family" offended Landor. His desire to dedicate an unnamed poem, i.e. Feast of the Violets, to her; a request that she suggest names for the poem.
Note	This document contains two related letters. The first (the enclosures) is a fragment of a letter from Dashwood to Hunt and an 1834 epitaph for S.T. Coleridge. The second letter is from Hunt to Dashwood. Dashwood later made a note at the end of this letter that states that she suggested the name The Feast of the Blue Belles to Hunt.
Personal Name Subject	Hunt, Leigh, 1784-1859 Dashwood, Anna Maria Landor, Walter Savage, 1775-1864 Hunt, John Leigh, 1812-1846
Geographic Subject	England -- London -- Kensington and Chelsea -- Chelsea
Chronological Subject	1830-1840
Type (DCMIType)	Text
Type (AAT)	Correspondence
Type (IMT)	jpeg
Digital Collection	Leigh Hunt Letters
Contributing Institution	University of Iowa. Libraries. Special Collections Dept.
Archival Collection	Brewer-Leigh Hunt Collection
Collection Guide	http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/resources/Brewer-LeighHunt.html
Location	Gates MsL H94das
Rights Management	Educational use only, no other permissions given. This letter is owned by The University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections Department, and is provided here for educational purposes. It may not be reproduced or distributed in any format without written permission of the Special Collections Department.
Contact Information	Contact the University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections Department: lib-spec@uiowa.edu
Height (cm)	22.3
Width (cm)	18.3
Number of Pages	4 + 2 enclosures
Number of Sheets of Paper	3
Digitization Specifications	Scanned with Ricoh Aficio 2335 scanner at 600 ppi, 24-bit color. Archival tiff image available.
Date Digital	2008-11-19
Transcript	Chelsea-Sept. 12. 1836. I am very uneasy, my dear friend, at not hearing from you. I have delayed writing from day to day, partly for fear of being thought importunate (since you have not answered my last letter); partly, I confess, for dread of ill news. I am afraid of hearing that you are too ill to write. Sometimes I hope that you are gone somewhere to amuse yourself, & that your sister has taken her place beside "dear aunty"; but then I have flattered myself that you would let me know as much. Some times I almost fancy that I have offended you; but then comes the puzzling question "In what?" and besides, I reckon that you would be generous enough to let me know what has given you offence, & so enable me assuredly to do it away: for I am as clear of any intention or consciousness to that effect, as the day-light. I wrote you a long letter of explanation respecting the offence given to Landor by the poor lad, my second son John. The offending article I never saw, but I have lately seen the offender, & he expresses his sorrow, & says that he had no intention of offending, adding, with real or affected surprise (for poor fellow! he is not so sincere as the rest of his family) that he is astonished at Mr. Landor's being so angry. He denies having spoken ill of his scholarship, but says that he expressed an opinion as to Mr. Landor's being "inferior as a man of genius to Mr. Hazlitt." I told him that he had much better have avoided giving any opinion on such matters, which in fact are above his [page break] critical knowledge.- Pray write, if you can; or if at present you are not well enough, contrive to let me know that I may write to you, & if my letters will (as I hope) give you any recreation in your illness. It is not necessary for you, if ill, to write to me. It will be sufficient for me to write to you, & to pray for your getting well . My little poem is drawing near its conclusion, & I want to know if you will be displeased at the form into which I have thrown the dedication of it. I must send you the exordium, that you may see how the latter is introduced. Here it is. The dinner alluded to is the "Feast of the Poets." Lo! I, who in verse flowing smooth as the wine (Modest youth!) once recorded a dinner divine, And shew'd the great god of the Sun entertaining With wit & crack'd walnuts the poets then reigning, Now sing, in a dance fitter still for the crupper Whose wings bore me thither, a more divine supper : For that was of man, though of Phoebus; but this is Of Phoebus, & woman, & blue-stocking blisses. Hear, Anna, true woman, Phoebean all o'er, With heart in thy bosom enough for a score; Turn your bright eyes awhile from some thoughtfuller page , [page break] And e'en from the lov'd one, still lovely in age , And hear how the blue-footed charmers were blest, Where you, had it pleas'd you, had rank'd with the best . If you do not disapprove these lines (& recollect that if not absolutely painful to you no other objection will be admitted) pray tell me how I may imply to the reader, at the top of the poem, that he is to look for a dedication? for such, you know, is the custom. Shall I say "Inscribed to a Lady"? or may I say "Inscribed to Mrs. D."-or to A.M.D. or how?- I feel confident that I need not assure you there is "no offence" in the poem,-nothing to "commit" either your opinions, or mine. If there were, it would not appear in the New Monthly Magazine; neither should I write it. You know the spirit [of] my writings too well, I trust, by this time, to have any such apprehensions. But then sometimes one's nerves apprehend, when one's other faculties do not; & if you have one iota of misgiving in one smallest fibre of your brain, you shall read the poem before it appears. -Can you help me to a title for it? For it is yet unchristened, & these baptisms of poems are sometimes very difficult. The name, to be complete, ought to be striking, short, & comprehensive. The subject, you know, is a ball, concert, & supper given by Apollo to the reigning literary ladies. "Apollo & the Blue-Stockings" is perhaps the most obvious title, but it seems too plain, or hardly implies the intended elegance & brilliancy of the entertainment. I thought, at first, of calling it the "Feast of the Women" in parallel, as it were, with "Feast of the Poets";- but then it might be thought that the women were not [page break] literary, & some might even object to the word "women" as not sufficiently respectful or lady-like; though, to my notions, "women" includes all that can be said the most respectful to the sex,-implying womanhood itself. The "Blue Party" has been thought of;-the "Blue Ball & Supper" &c. &c. [Wi]ll you think of a title? and indeed of three or four, if you can, that there may be the greater choice . How shall I confess to you, that I have not yet seen the Evanses! Oh my dear friend, if you knew my whole life, & how it passes, you would admit my excuses, both great & small; but then I should not have so peremptorily undertaken to go at a stated time. I hope I need not say how fully I intended it; but I ought to have anticipated hindrances. At length, when I have no hindrance at all, I hear that Mr. E. has gone to Ireland. Tell me if I shall still call, & I think I can now say with safety, that I will call the day after I receive your letter. God bless my dear, dear kind friend, ever prays affectionate L.H. "The feast of the Blue Belles" was my answer but the reader for The New Monthly objects to the pun. "The violets or Apollo's feast" is now the approved name & after the poem has appeared in the Magazine it is to form a sep[arate] Vol. with additional notes & engravings. Mrs. Dashwood, Bodryddan, St. Asaph, North Wales.
Transcript Notes	A year after his visit to Wales to meet Mrs. Dashwood, who had become his benefactress, Hunt in this letter expresses great anxiety at the possibility of offending her . His son John, now twenty-four and trying his hand at journalism, was proving even more embarrassing and troublesome as an adult then he had as a child. Carlyle, Wordsworth, and other friends and acquaintances of Hunt would all be importuned by John for money or favors-greatly to his father's chagrin. Hunt, however, could not seriously have disapproved John's estimate of Hazlitt vis-a-vis Landor, though Landor was a friend and collaborator for whom he entertained the highest respect . The poem Hunt was dedicating to Mrs. Dashwood was "Blue-Stocking Revels; or The Feast of the Violets" a companion piece to his much earlier Feast of the Poets (1814), which finally found publication in the July 1837 issue of the Monthly Repository, of which Hunt had become editor. The lines given here by Hunt appear in Vol. I, p. 33.
Transcript By	Gates, Eleanor M.
Transcript Location	University of Iowa. Libraries. Special Collections Dept.
Letter Published In	Gates, Life. Eleanor M. Gates, ed. Leigh Hunt: A Life in Letters Together With Some Correspondence of William Hazlitt. Essex, CT: Falls River Publications, 1998,p. 284-287;

Title	Enclosure1_Page1
Relation - Is Part Of	Anna Maria Dashwood letter to Leigh Hunt, ca. Aug. 1834; Leigh Hunt letter to Anna Maria Dashwood, Sept. 12, 1836
Digital Collection	Leigh Hunt Letters
Height (cm)	23.2
Width (cm)	19.2
File Name	h94das_Enclosure1_Page1.jpg

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Anna Maria Dashwood letter to Leigh Hunt, ca. August 1834; Leigh Hunt letter to Anna Maria Dashwood, September 12, 1836

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