ceived 100l. for it. The first edition went off in six weeks; the sale of the second was spoilt, as he thought, by an attack in the ‘Quarterly Review.’ For this and a later assault Hazlitt revenged himself by a vigorous ‘Letter to William Gifford,’ exposing some misrepresentations, and accusing his most hated enemy of deliberate falsehood. Gifford's brutality was such as to justify the retaliation. The second book reviewed by Gifford was the ‘English Poets,’ the republication of a series of lectures given at the Surrey Institution in 1818. Two other courses, on the ‘Comic Writers’ and the ‘Age of Elizabeth,’ were given at the same place in 1819–20. He had known little of the dramatists, and borrowed a dozen volumes from Procter (Autobiog. p. 173), which he got up during six weeks at Winterslow. Patmore, who as secretary to the institution now first made his acquaintance, and Talfourd, who heard him, speak of his success as a lecturer. His manner impressed his hearers, in spite of some shocks to the prejudices of a middle-class audience. His general reputation was rising, though hardly in proportion to his merits. His services were in request by editors. He contributed in 1818 to the ‘Yellow Dwarf,’ started by John Hunt. He was one of the contributors to the ‘London Magazine,’ in which appeared part of his ‘Table Talk’ in 1819, and was even supposed—though erroneously—to have been the editor (W. C. Hazlitt, ii. 9). In 1821 he had a sharp quarrel with Leigh Hunt, who resented some attacks made by Hazlitt upon Shelley in the ‘Table Talk.’ Hazlitt repeated the offence afterwards, to the renewed anger of Hunt. Hunt, however, upon Shelley's death, obtained his help in the ‘Liberal,’ started by Byron [see under Byron, George Gordon], in which Hazlitt wrote five papers. Byron's association with mere literary hacks such as Hunt and Hazlitt was much resented by T. Moore, upon whom Hazlitt afterwards made some sharp attacks. Hazlitt never wrote, according to Patmore, till he was in actual want of money, although he then wrote very rapidly and discharged his engagements punctually. He was driven to isolation by his wayward temper and obstinate adherence to his peculiar political creed. He despised the whigs, loathed the tories, and vehemently attacked the radicals of Bentham's school. He liked to be in a minority of one, and tried to punish the apostasy (as he thought it) of his old friends Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Southey by inexcusably bitter attacks in the ‘Chronicle’ (see Political Essays).
Meanwhile his domestic life had become intolerable to him. Mrs. Hazlitt was a woman of considerable reading and vigorous understanding. She was, however, an utterly incompetent housewife, despised the ordinary proprieties, and had a love of incongruous finery. She visited some friends, drenched to the skin, after attending a walking-match in the rain. She had no sentiment, was slow to sympathise, and her estimate of Hazlitt's writings was considerably lower than his own. She was not jealous, nor does it appear that Hazlitt gave her cause for jealousy, beyond passing fits of admiration for other women (W. C. Hazlitt, i. 214, ii. 12, 269). It was not surprising, however, that such a woman should fail to agree with a man singularly fastidious, exacting in all his relations, and constantly taking umbrage at trifles. Their one bond seems to have been their common affection for their only child. From the autumn of 1819 (ib. ii. 26) Hazlitt lived chiefly apart from his wife, staying frequently at ‘The Hut’ (also called the Pheasant Inn), a coaching inn near Winterslow, on the road from Salisbury to London, described by Mr. Ireland (Hazlitt, p. xxxi). In 1820 he took lodgings at 9 Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane. His landlord, a Mr. Walker, had two daughters, for one of whom, Sarah, he conceived a strong passion. She confessed to a previous attachment, but, if his account be accurate, coquetted very freely with him. In 1820 or 1821 he proposed a divorce from his wife, intending when free to marry Sarah Walker. Miss Walker is described by Procter (Autobiog. p. 180), who says that Hazlitt's passion was unaccountable, and almost verged upon madness. In January 1822 he started for Scotland. He wrote an account of his conversations with Miss Walker at Stamford on 19 Jan. 1822. He reached Edinburgh soon afterwards, where Mrs. Hazlitt arrived on 21 April. Her diary (partly published by Mr. W. C. Hazlitt) gives a business-like account of the various stages of the proceedings by which a divorce was ultimately obtained. During some of the delays Hazlitt made a trip to the highlands, and afterwards wrote part of his ‘Table Talk’ at Renton Inn, Berwickshire. He wrote impassioned letters to Patmore about Miss Walker. He had some conversations with his wife, and when all was settled told her that he had hopes of marrying ‘some woman with a good fortune,’ which would enable him to give up writing and do something for his brother and his son (W. C. Hazlitt, ii. 63). Both husband and wife clearly believed in the legal validity of the proceedings. It had been held that forty days' residence brought the
