HAZLITT, William (1778-1830). Writer and painter.
Autograph Letter Signed to an unnamed correspondent ('Dear Sir'), 1 page 4to (lacks address-leaf, lightly laid down on the remains of an album leaf), Winterslow Hut, 'Sunday, October 5' [?1817]. A note in another hand at the foot identifies the recipient as Rowland Hunter of St Paul's Churchyard.
Asking for a copy of Baron Fain's 'Campaign of 1814 (Translation in preference)' to be sent down by coach.

'... I have been stopped in my work three days for want of it, & cannot get it from any other quarter. I hope to be in town in about a month, & will call & settle with you for for it. ...'

Hazlitt's marriage to Sarah Stoddart in 1808 had brought with it a property in Winterslow, which could be 'The Hut', described by Oxford DNB as 'the inn at Winterslow in Wiltshire where he frequently went in order to write'. The marriage to Sarah had cooled by 1815 as was effectively over by 1820. It seems unlikely that the writer would still be travelling to Winterslow to write after this time. The only year between 1808 and 1820 on which 5 October was a Sunday was 1817 (1812 having been a leap year).
Rowland Hunter, a bookseller, was the stepfather of the botanist and writer Elizabeth Kent (1790-1861), whose older sister, Marianne, was married to Leigh Hunt.
The present letter is not to be found in The Letters of William Hazlitt, ed Sikes, Bonner and Lahey (1979), and is probably unpublished.
[No: 21518]