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Anne Hunter (''
née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...
'' Home) (1742 – 7 January 1821) was a salonnière and poet in Georgian London. She is remembered mostly for the texts to at least nine of
Joseph Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( ; ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions ...
's 14 songs in English. She was the wife of surgeon and anatomist John Hunter, whose anatomical collections in their home eventually formed the basis for the
Hunterian Museum The Hunterian is a complex of museums located in and operated by the University of Glasgow in Glasgow, Scotland. It is the oldest museum in Scotland. It covers the Hunterian Museum, the Hunterian Art Gallery, the Mackintosh House, the Zoology M ...
. She entertained the leading
Bluestocking ''Bluestocking'' (also spaced blue-stocking or blue stockings) is a Pejorative, derogatory term for an educated, intellectual woman, originally a member of the 18th-century Blue Stockings Society from England led by the hostess and critic El ...
s at their house.


Biography

Hunter was the eldest daughter of surgeon Robert Boyne Home of Greenlaw Castle, Berwickshire. In July 1771, she married John Hunter, one of the most distinguished scientists and surgeons of his day. Her brother Everard Home was apprenticed to her husband as a surgeon. Her salons were among the most enjoyable of her time, though not always to her husband's taste. The
Bluestocking ''Bluestocking'' (also spaced blue-stocking or blue stockings) is a Pejorative, derogatory term for an educated, intellectual woman, originally a member of the 18th-century Blue Stockings Society from England led by the hostess and critic El ...
s Elizabeth Carter,
Mary Delany Mary Delany, earlier Mary Pendarves ( Granville; 14 May 1700 – 15 April 1788) was an English artist, letter-writer, and bluestocking, known for her "paper-mosaicks", botanic drawing, needlework and her lively correspondence. Early life Mary ...
, and Elizabeth Montagu were her friends. Her husband's sister was widowed in 1778, which led indirectly to Dorothea and her children moving to London a few years later. Anne Hunter proved an inspiration to the young Joanna Baillie, who devoted herself seriously to writing poetry and drama. On John Hunter's death in 1793, his widow was left ill provided for. For some time she was indebted for a maintenance partly to the queen's bounty and to the generosity of Dr. Maxwell Garthshore, and partly to the sale of her husband's furniture, library, and curiosities. Her son-in-law, Sir James Campbell of Inverneill, provided her with a small annuity, and in 1799 Parliament voted to give her £15,000 for her husband's collections, which finally placed her in fair circumstances. (This became The Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons in London; when his anatomist brother to
William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...
died in 1783, he bequeathed his collection to Glasgow, where it became the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery.) Anne Hunter had four children, of whom two, a son and a daughter, survived her. She lived in retirement in London till her death on 7 January 1821 at age 78.


Poetry and songs

As a young woman she had gained some note as a lyrical poet, her "Flower of the Forest" appearing in '' The Lark,'' an Edinburgh periodical, in 1765. Thirty-two years later she wrote "Sports of the Genii" to a set of graceful drawings by Susan Macdonald (d. 1803), eldest daughter of Lord-chief-baron Macdonald; these display humour and fancy. She published a volume of poems in 1802 which ran to a second edition the following year. The conservative magazine ''
British Critic The ''British Critic: A New Review'' was a quarterly publication, established in 1793 as a conservative and high-church review journal riding the tide of British reaction against the French Revolution. The headquarters was in London. The journa ...
'' suggests that her poems show no depth of thought, but have a natural feeling and simplicity of expression, which make many of them worth reading. Haydn set a number of her songs to music, including "My Mother bids me bind my Hair," originally written to an air of Pleyel's. Her relationship with Haydn is ambiguous, though at the time of his visit she was a widow. Songs by Haydn on her texts include The Mermaid's Song, Fidelity, Pleasing Pain, and The Spirit's Song and a libretto for ''The Creation'', which was based on
John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, and civil servant. His 1667 epic poem ''Paradise Lost'' was written in blank verse and included 12 books, written in a time of immense religious flux and politic ...
's ''
Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an Epic poetry, epic poem in blank verse by the English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The poem concerns the Bible, biblical story of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their ex ...
''.Caroline Grigson. 2009. ''The Life and Poems of Anne Hunter: Haydn's Tuneful Voice''. Liverpool University Press,


References

*


External links


Anne Hunter
at th
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)Anne Hunter: Poet, Songwriter, Wife
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, Anne 1742 births 1821 deaths 18th-century Scottish poets 19th-century Scottish poets People from Berwickshire Scottish women poets 19th-century English women writers 19th-century English writers 18th-century English women writers