William Hayley was one of the most popular poets of the period from 1780 to 1800, but even in his own lifetime he dropped out of the accepted canon. He is known today as the generous but bemused patron of William Blake, but on the title page of his Memoirs of the life and writings of William Hayley, Esq. of 1823 he styled himself "the friend and biographer of Cowper." He wrote biographies of John Milton, George Romney, William Cowper, and of his own son (included in the Memoirs), and all these works present the subjects in a tone of elegiac hyperbole. In his Memoirs he uses the same style for his own life. His genius for friendship combined with commemoration was the essence of Hayley's sensibility.

Hayley was born in Chichester on 29 October 1745 and christened there on 25 November. His grandfather had been dean of Chichester Cathedral. William's father, Thomas Hayley...