SOURCE: "Leigh Hunt in Literary History: A Response," in The Life & Times of Leigh Hunt, edited by Robert A. McCown, Friends of the University of Iowa Libraries, 1985, pp. 73-100.

In the following essay, Reiman evaluates Hunt as one of the most influential Romantic writers—one who should be judged not just for his literary merits but also for his wide-ranging contributions to English culture.

Hunt's Remarks About Christmas in England (1817):

Christmas is a dreary business, compared with what it used to be in old times; and scarcely one of the other national holidays is alive. We shall give some accounts of them in the progress of our remarks; when the reader will be struck with the contrast as we were. The nation hardly appears to be the same. There is scarcely a vestige of the rural and out-of-door part of the festivities. In London particularly, nothing of that...