Penny's poetry pages Wiki
Don't have an account?
Register
Penny's poetry pages Wiki
Advertisement
Register
in: Articles incorporating Cite DNB template, Articles with authority control information, 1791 births,
and 9 more

Chandos Leigh

Edit
Chandos-leigh1

Chandos Leigh (1791-1850). Courtesy Author Jane Lark's Stories from History.

Chandos Leigh, 1st Baron Leigh (27 June 1791 - 27 September 1850), was an English poet, prose author, and landowner.[1]

Life[]

Family[]

Leigh was born in London, the only son of James Henry Leigh (1765-1823), M.P., of Addlestrop, Gloucestershire, and subsequently of Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire, by his wife Julia, the eldest daughter of Thomas Fiennes, 10th lord Saye and Sele. He was a descendant of Sir Thomas Leigh, lord mayor of London in 1558, and his grandmother on his father's side was Lady Caroline, daughter of Henry Brydges, second duke of Chandos, and sister of James, third duke of Chandos.[1] He was a cousin of novelist Jane Austen.[2] His father, was privately educated by Isaac Hunt, father of Leigh Hunt, who was named after the elder Hunt's pupil.[1]

Youth and education[]

Chandos Leigh was educated at Harrow School, where he was a schoolfellow of Lord Byron.[1]

He subsequently studied for several terms at Christ Church, Oxford, where he matriculated 8 June 1810; but he left the university without a degree, and completed his education by foreign travel with Dr. Shuttleworth, afterwards bishop of Chichester, as his tutor.[1]

Career[]

While a young man Leigh issued many volumes of verse, and was an associate of Sheridan, Fitzpatrick, Sir John Cam Hobhouse, Lord Byron, and other liberals of about his own age, who used to meet at Holland House. His interest in political and social questions was always keen, and he frequently corresponded on such topics with the leaders of the liberal party, including Lord Althorp, Sir James Mackintosh, and Sir Samuel Romilly.[1]

In June 1819 Leigh married Margaret (died 5 February 1866), eldest daughter of Rev. William Shippen Willes of Astrop House, Northamptonshire, grandson of Chief Justice John Willes, by whom he had 3 sons and 6 daughters.[1]

He was raised to the peerage by Lord Melbourne in May 1839, as Lord Leigh of Stoneleigh, but he took little part in the debates of the upper house, contenting himself with the discharge of his duties as an active resident magistrate in Warwickshire. He was also a trustee of Rugby School.[1]

He died 27 September 1850 at Bonn on the Rhine, and was buried in the chancel of Stoneleigh Church, where there is a fine marble monument to his memory. His eldest son, William Henry, succeeded him as second baron.[1]

Writing[]

Leigh's earliest publication was The Island of Love, a poem, published in 1812; this was followed by Trifles Light as Air, in 1813; Poesy, a Satire, 1818 (anon.); Epistles to a Friend in Town, Golconda's Fate, and other Poems, 1826; 2nd edition with additional poems 1831. Other works in verse which he printed privately were The Spirit of the Age, 1832; Vasa ;and A Fragment.[3]

His poems, though never widely known, and reflecting the influence of Horace, Virgil, Pope, and Byron, were much prized by the scholarly few.[3]

He also issued privately in prose Fragments of Essays, 1816, and published, under the sobriquet of "A Gloucestershire County Gentleman," about 1820, 3 tracts on subjects connected with agriculture. These tracts are mentioned in the 'Bibliotheca Parriana,' as "the gift of the author [C.L.], an ingenious poet, an elegant scholar, and my much esteemed friend." Tracts written in the years 1823 and 1828 by C.L., Esq., were privately printed at Warwick in 1832.[3]

About 1840 he printed, for private circulation only, a pamphlet on the corn law question, entitled 'A Word of Consolation,' in which he showed that the farmers and squires need not fear being ruined by the abolition of protection if they would improve their methods of agriculture.[3]

Publications[]

Poetry[]

  • The Island of love: A dream. London: W. Lindsell, 1812.
  • Trifles Light as Air. London: G. Sidney, for F. Benedict, 1813.
  • Juvenile Poems. London: W. Lindsell, 1815; London: G. Sidney, for F. Benedict, 1815.
  • An Epistle to Emma: To a skull converted into a drinking bowl. London: G. Sidney, 1816.
  • Verses. London: G. Sidney, 1816.
  • Juvenile Poems, and other pieces. London: W. Lindsell, 1817.
  • "Dedicatory stanzas to Mary," in Literary Gazette, and Journal of the Belles Lettres (31 January 1818), 73-74.[4]
  • Poems. London: W. Lindsell / Longman, Hurst, 1818.
  • Poesy: A satire; with other poems. Warwick, UK: Henry Sharpe, 1818.
  • The View. Warwick, UK: Henry Sharpe, 1819.
  • England, and other poems. Warwick, UK: Henry Sharpe, 1820.
  • The View, and other poems. London: 1820, 1822.
  • Sylva: Poems on several occasions. London: T. & J. Allman / Edinburgh: W. Blackwood, 1823.
  • Second Letter to a Friend in Town and other poems. London: E. Lloyd, 1824.
  • A Third Letter to a Friend in Town &c. Warwick, UK: Henry Sharpe, 1825.
  • Epistles to a friend in town; Golconda's fete; and other poems. London: Henry Colburn, 1826.
  • Fourth Epistle to a Friend in Town, and other poems. Warwick, UK: Merridew, 1830.
  • The Spirit of the Age. Warwick, UK: Merridew, 1832.
  • Fifth Epistle to a Friend in Town; Warwickshire; and other poems. London: Richard Bentley, 1835.
  • Poland. Warwick, UK: Merridew, 1836.
  • Poems: Now first collected. London: Edward Moxon, 1839.
  • A Vision. [1840?]
  • Supplementary Verses. Warwick, UK: H.T. Cooke, 1841.
  • Thoughts at Whitsuntide, and other poems. London: Edward Moxon, 1842.
  • Walks in the Country. London: Edward Moxon, 1844.
  • Minor Poems. Leamington, UK: Taylor, Glover, 1850.

Non-fiction[]

  • Fragments of Essays. London: G. Sidney, 1816.
  • A Short Discourse on Natural and Revealed Religion. Warwick, UK: H. Sharpe, 1821.
  • Tracts: Written in the years 1823 & 1828. Warwick, UK: printed by J. Merridew, 1832.


Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[5]

See also[]

References[]

  • PD-icon Walford, Edward (1892) "Leigh, Chandos" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 32 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 429-430 . Wikisource, Web, Aug. 1, 2016.

Notes[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Walford, 429.
  2. ↑ Two captivating true life characters among Jane Austen’s relatives are Elizabeth Wentworth and Chandos Leigh Author Jane Lark's Stories from History, September 26, 2012. Wordpress, Web, Aug. 2, 2016.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Walford, 430.
  4. ↑ Dedicatory Stanzas to Mary," English Poetry, 1579-1830, Center for Applied Technologies in the Humanities, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. Web, Aug. 2, 2016.
  5. ↑ Search results = au:Chandos Leigh, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Aug. 2, 2016.

External links[]

Poems
Prose
Books
About

PD-icon This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Leigh, Chandos

Authority control
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.
Advertisement