William Hazlitt. Inscription restored.
The burial place of William Hazlitt ( 1778 to 1830) in St Anne's churchyard, Soho, London. The stone on top of the grave is a modern one, with lettering executed by the Cardozo Kindersley Workshop of Cambridge and is inscribed with the original fulsome tribute to Hazlitt by his friend, Charles Wells :
Here rests William Hazlitt, born April 10 1778. Died 18 September 1830.
He lived to see his deepest wishes gratified as he has expressed them in his essay "On the Fear of Death". Viz :
To see the downfall of the Bourbons and some prospect of good to mankind.
To leave some sterling work to the world
That some friendly hand should consign him to the grave was accomplished to a limited but profound extent ; on these conditions he was ready to depart, and to have inscribed on his tomb "Grateful and contented".
He was the first metaphysician of the age, a despiser of the merely rich and great : a lover of the people, poor or oppressed: a hater of the pride and power of the Few, as opposed to the happiness of the Many ; a man of true moral courage, who sacrificed profit and present fame to principle, and a yearning for the good of human nature. Who was a burning wound to an aristocracy, that could not answer him before men, and who may confront him before their maker. He lived and died the unconquered champion of Truth, Liberty and Humanity.
Dubitantes opera legite.
Hazlitt - essayist, journalist, writer, polemicist, radical thinker, literary critic and also an accomplished portrait painter was a friend of Coleridge and Charles and Mary Lamb. He was acquainted too with Wordsworth ( with whom he fell out) and Keats and many of the radical thinkers of the day, including Jeremy Bentham.
By 1870 the inscription on Hazlitt's tombstone was considered too inflammatory and, in a fit of what would now be deemed political correctness, it was removed and replaced by a simple stone with his dates and the fact that he was 'painter, critic, essayist'. This stone still exists but has been removed from the tomb itself, though it can still be seen in the same churchyard on the west side of the tower.
In April 2003 the original inscription was reinstated and laid on the tomb at a re-consecration ceremony attended by Michael Foot who unveiled it and by Tom Paulin and Andrew Motion among many others. Soho has once again recognised Hazlitt as one of its own. The new stone , below the Latin injunction to doubters to read his works, has the addition ,' This stone is raised by one whose heart is with him in his grave'.
William Hazlitt. Inscription restored.
The burial place of William Hazlitt ( 1778 to 1830) in St Anne's churchyard, Soho, London. The stone on top of the grave is a modern one, with lettering executed by the Cardozo Kindersley Workshop of Cambridge and is inscribed with the original fulsome tribute to Hazlitt by his friend, Charles Wells :
Here rests William Hazlitt, born April 10 1778. Died 18 September 1830.
He lived to see his deepest wishes gratified as he has expressed them in his essay "On the Fear of Death". Viz :
To see the downfall of the Bourbons and some prospect of good to mankind.
To leave some sterling work to the world
That some friendly hand should consign him to the grave was accomplished to a limited but profound extent ; on these conditions he was ready to depart, and to have inscribed on his tomb "Grateful and contented".
He was the first metaphysician of the age, a despiser of the merely rich and great : a lover of the people, poor or oppressed: a hater of the pride and power of the Few, as opposed to the happiness of the Many ; a man of true moral courage, who sacrificed profit and present fame to principle, and a yearning for the good of human nature. Who was a burning wound to an aristocracy, that could not answer him before men, and who may confront him before their maker. He lived and died the unconquered champion of Truth, Liberty and Humanity.
Dubitantes opera legite.
Hazlitt - essayist, journalist, writer, polemicist, radical thinker, literary critic and also an accomplished portrait painter was a friend of Coleridge and Charles and Mary Lamb. He was acquainted too with Wordsworth ( with whom he fell out) and Keats and many of the radical thinkers of the day, including Jeremy Bentham.
By 1870 the inscription on Hazlitt's tombstone was considered too inflammatory and, in a fit of what would now be deemed political correctness, it was removed and replaced by a simple stone with his dates and the fact that he was 'painter, critic, essayist'. This stone still exists but has been removed from the tomb itself, though it can still be seen in the same churchyard on the west side of the tower.
In April 2003 the original inscription was reinstated and laid on the tomb at a re-consecration ceremony attended by Michael Foot who unveiled it and by Tom Paulin and Andrew Motion among many others. Soho has once again recognised Hazlitt as one of its own. The new stone , below the Latin injunction to doubters to read his works, has the addition ,' This stone is raised by one whose heart is with him in his grave'.