Robert Hunt was born in 1807 in Plymouth, his mother came from St Levan and his dad, a ship's carpenter, died before he was born. Soon Hunt and his mum moved back to Penzance, and the boy went to Penzance Grammar School. When he was 10 he went on a journey to Bodmin with his mum. Hunt made himself a notebook, he wanted to write down the tales he heard there. That was the start of his tale collecting.

He went to London and learnt to to make medicines and be a pharmacist. When he was 20 he was ill, and went on a long walk to make himself better – he walked through Devon and Cornwall, collecting tales from the places he visited, and wrote them in his notebook.

He worked as a pharmacist in Penzance, but he loved all kinds of science. He was one of the first people to have a camera, and he wrote a book on photographgy, and the science of light. Then he got a very important job as Keeper of Mining Records for the whole of the country, and he helped to start the Geological Museum in London. He went round mines with another notebook, writing down how much ore the mines dug up.

He still loved stories, wrote a book of the stories he had collected called Popular Romances of the West of England. The book tells tales from all over Cornwall, and Hunt included some tales collected by his friends, including the postman form Zennor and William Bottrell. It was published in 1865.

Hunt died in 1887 in London. He was a kind, cheerful man.