Editing William Hazlitt (section)

====Recovery and second marriage====
At the beginning of 1824, though worn out by thwarted passion and the venomous attacks on his character following ''Liber Amoris'', Hazlitt was beginning to recover his equilibrium.<ref>Jones, pp. 341–43. Wardle, pp. 377–378.</ref> Pressed for money as always, he continued to write for various periodicals, including ''The Edinburgh Review''. To ''The New Monthly Magazine'' he supplied more essays in the "Table-Talk" manner, and he produced some art criticism, published in that year as ''Sketches of the Principal Picture Galleries of England''.

He also found relief, finally, from the Sarah Walker imbroglio. In 1823, Hazlitt had met Isabella Bridgwater (''née'' Shaw), who married him in March or April 1824, of necessity in Scotland, as Hazlitt's divorce was not recognised in England. Little is known about this Scottish-born widow of the Chief Justice of [[Grenada]], or about her interaction with Hazlitt. She may have been attracted to the idea of marrying a well-known author. For Hazlitt, she offered an escape from loneliness and to an extent from financial worries, as she possessed an independent income of £300 per annum. The arrangement seems to have had a strong element of convenience for both of them. Certainly Hazlitt nowhere in his writings suggests that this marriage was the love match he had been seeking, nor does he mention his new wife at all. In fact, after three and half years, tensions likely resulting from (as Stanley Jones put it) Hazlitt's "improvidence", his son's dislike of her, and neglect of his wife due to his obsessive absorption in preparing an immense biography of Napoleon, resulted in her abrupt departure, and they never lived together again.<ref>Wardle, p. 381. For a full account of what is known about Hazlitt's marriage to Isabella Bridgwater, see Jones, pp. 348–64. Stanley Jones first discovered Isabella Hazlitt's background and maiden name only in the late twentieth century.</ref>

For now, in any case, the union afforded the two of them the opportunity to travel. First, they toured parts of Scotland, then, later in 1824, began a European tour lasting over a year.