John Hunt to William Hone, "Friday Evening," [June?] 1821 An Electronic Edition John Hunt Kyle Grimes

For publication in the Hone Correspondence section of the William Hone BioText, http://honearchive.org. The letter is published under a Creative Commons license, details of which are accessible from the BioText homepage.

British Library, Add. MS 41071, f. 5.

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John Hunt to William Hone, 1821.British Library, Add. MS 41071, f. 5. The likely date for this letter is late June or early July of 1821. On 28 May, John Hunt had been sentenced to one year's confinement in Cold Bath Fields prison for a libel on the House of Commons; the coronation of King George IV took place on 19 July, 1821.[return] — -TEI-
Dear Sir,

You are aware, I believe, that I can now see my friends from half past eleven till two; and I hope soon to obtain further time for them.

What are you about? I saw Mr. Hazlitt today; and asking him whether you were not at work on the Coronation, he said he did not know. How is this? Here is what I should call a golden opportunity, for you and your friend Cruikshank. You know what the "Immortal"Hunt's reference is to Shakespeare; the following clause is a paraphrase of Shakespeare's Brutus in Julius Caesar (III.iv.218-19). [return] says about the tide which leads on to fortune. There will perhaps be 50 or 60,000 people in town from the country, all wanting something to carry home with them of the droll kind. If you have not, as I hope, been long at work, rouse up—there is time for something even now.

This is my chief object in writing to you; for I meant to reprove you in person, for sending wine to a man who drinks water. But if I neglect the gift, the giver has my best wishes for his prosperity.

Yours most truly, John Hunt

Cold Bath Fields Prison Friday Evening.