Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 28.djvu/287

Rh , and was largely responsible for the separation of George Henry Lewes and his wife.

In addition to a few pamphlets, Hunt published a novel, 'The Foster Brother,' London, 1845, 8vo. He also edited his father's 'Autobiography,' London, 1850, 8vo, 'Poetical Works,' London, 1860, 8vo, and 'Correspondence,' London, 1862, 8vo.

[Leigh Hunt's Autob. i. 83, 85, &c., ii. 246, &c.; Corresp. of Leigh Hunt, ii. 146, 149, &c.; Lamb's Poems, Plays, and Misc. Essays, ed. Ainger, pp. 83, 383; Fox Bourne's English Newspapers; Men of the Reign, p. 456; Athenæum, 28 June 1873, p. 825.]

 HUNT, WALTER (d. 1478), theologian, whose name was latinised as Venantius, is stated by Bale (Harl. MS. 3838, f. 92) to have been born in the West of England. He became a Carmelite friar, and, it is said, doctor and professor of theology at Oxford. In 1438, while still in the prime of life, he was, according to Leland, chosen for his eloquence, learning, and linguistic capacity, to represent England at the general council of Ferrara. When Pope Eugenius IV in January 1439 removed the council to Florence, Hunt went thither, and in the negotiations which led, after more than a year, to a temporary reunion of the western with the eastern church, he is said to have been one of the chief exponents of the Latin view. The church historians mention six, including two nameless monks. His skill in disputation with the Greek doctors on the procession of the Holy Ghost, and other subjects in dispute between the churches, won him general admiration and the special favour of Pope Eugenius. Leland accuses him of allowing personal friendship to carry him in subsequent works into an exaggerated view of the papal powers. Returning to Oxford, he spent nearly forty years in unremitting labour, continuing to teach and write, even when overtaken by the feebleness of age. He died of natural decay at Oxford on 28 Nov. 1478 (Harl. MS. 3838, f. 93; Leland says 20 Dec.), and was buried in the Carmelite friary there. He wrote in Latin some thirty treatises, grammatical, historical, philosophical, and theological, but none are known to be extant. Bale (supra) gives the opening lines of a number of them, and a complete list will be found in Tanner. They include a Latin vocabulary (Catholicon) and a treatise upon sounds; extracts from, and an epitome of, chronicles; several works on the proceedings of the councils of Ferrara and Florence; others in defence of the monastic system and of the friars, on the authority and dignity of the church, the preeminence of Peter among the apostles, and the universal lordship and superiority to general councils of the pope. He also wrote on the kingship and poverty of Christ, on predestination, and against preaching by women, besides sermons, disputations, and theological lectures.

[Leland's Comm. de Script. Britann. pp. 468-9, Oxford, 1709; Bale, Harl. MSS. 1819 and 3838, and De Script. Maj. Brit. cent. viii. No. 39; Pits, De Illustr. Angliæ Script, pp. 667-8; Tanner's Bibl. Script. Brit.-Hib. p. 423.]  HUNT, WILLIAM HENRY (1790-1864), water-colour painter, was born on 28 March 1790, at 8 Old Belton Street (now Endell Street), Long Acre, London. He was the son of John and Judith Hunt, and his father was a tinplate worker. He was a small, sickly child, crippled from weakness in the legs, and unfit for ordinary work, but his fondness for drawing was displayed early. He was probably about fourteen years old when he was apprenticed to John Varley [q.v.] for seven years. John Linnell [q.v.] was a fellow-pupil; they soon became friends and sketched together in Kensington Gravelpits and other places within easy distance, for Hunt's infirmity compelled him then as in later life to choose subjects close at hand. In 1807 he was at work with Linnell on an illumination transparency, and in 1809 he sketched with him at Hastings. It was probably before this that he made the acquaintance of Dr. Thomas Monro of Adelphi Terrace and of Bushey (near Watford), the patron of young painters in water-colour. At Adelphi Terrace he copied drawings by Gainsborough and others at 1s. 6d. or 2s. apiece, and had the opportunity of meeting the rising artists of the day. To Hunt Monro showed more than usual favour, having him to stay with him for a month at a time and paying him 7s. 6d. a day for his sketches from nature. In the neighbourhood of Bushey he used to be taken about in a sort of barrow with a hood to it, drawn by a man or a donkey, and according to one account it was while he was sketching for Monro that he was introduced to the Earl of Essex, whose seat of Cassiobury was not far from Bushey. According to another account it was the earl who introduced him to the doctor. At all events one of his earliest commissions was for `interiors' at Cassiobury for the earl, and in 1822 he exhibited at the Royal Academy a picture of the 'Dining Room at Cassiobury,' and two coloured aquatints after Hunt's drawings are to be found in Britton's `Account of Cassiobury.' The Duke of Devonshire was also an early patron. For him Hunt drew or painted the state rooms at Chatsworth.