Author: King, James
Biography:
KING, James (fl 1829)
At the time of the poem in its praise, Leigh Park in Hampshire was the country seat of Sir George Thomas Staunton (1781-1859), Sinologist and MP, who had acquired the park only in 1819 but had immediately set about extensive landscaping improvements. (The house was demolished in 1946 to make way for a housing estate of the same name; the gardens were separated as Staunton Country Park.) The author's taste and classical education are revealed especially in his notes, but his identity is not known and he does not appear to have published anything else. It is tempting to believe he might have been a young gentleman of Herefordshire, James King King (sic) (1806-81) of Stanton Park near Staunton (later Staunton on Arrow), who also became an MP later, but no evidence has come to light about a family relationship or any connection apart from the Staunton name, and King is not on record as a literary author. ("Staunton, Sir George Thomas," ODNB 3 Jun. 2021; "Staunton Park Genealogy Centre," thestauntoninfo.org 3 Jun. 2021; historyofparliamentonline.org 3 Jun. 2021; ancestry.com 3 Jun. 2021)