Leigh was a pupil of Etty, and painted his- toric and religious subjects. He exhibited at the Academy and elsewhere from 1825 to 1849 inclu- sive. It was as a portrait-painter that he was most successful. I have seen portraits by him, brilliant in effect and vigorous in handling, which might bear comparison with the works of Jackson, the friend of Haydon, Chantrey, and Sir George Beaumont. From the time of his father’s death I saw less and less of Harry Leigh, as our paths in life diverged. Now and then I spent evenings at his chambers in Furnival’s Inn with him and other choice spirits, Thornbury, John Hollingshead, Jeffery Prowse, and Godfrey Turner being of the number.
Later we were members of a small club called “The Circle,” from its embracing votaries of all the arts — young journalists, actors, singers, painters, and sculptors. One of the number, Edward Draper, gave us our motto, “Totus teres atque rotundus.” We were Bohemian and nomadic. Having no settled habitation, we met at rooms in taverns, generally in the neighbourhood of Covent Garden. Other members were Val Prinsep, Ouless, E. A. Waterlow, E. Buckman, Byron Webber, Irving Montague, war correspondent, pictorial and literary, Hain Friswell, Storey, P. R. Morris, Alfred Par- sons, &c. &c.
H.S. Leigh would sometimes at our meetings
