bullfinch; she was also credited with an "exquisite hand on the lute". She was admired and respected by the best wits of the time; John Blow and Purcell wrote difficult music for her; John Hughes, the poet, was her friend; William Congreve wrote a long irregular ode on "Mrs. Arabella Hunt singing", and after her death penned an epigram under a portrait of her sitting on a bank singing. The painting was by Godfrey Kneller. There are mezzotints by Smith (1706) and Charles Grignion the Elder; and Hawkins gives a vignette in his History. In an ode, On the Excellency of Mrs Hunt's Voice, and Manner of Singing, composed in 1700, John Blow declared that "she reigns alone, is Queen of Musick by the People's choice". Death Hunt died, aged 43, at home in London on 26 December 1705. References English women singers English lutenists 1705 deaths 1662 births LGBT history in the United Kingdom