Augustus John Cuthbert Hare (13 March 1834 – 22 January 1903) was an English writer, painter, and raconteur.
Early life
He was the youngest son of Francis George Hare of
Herstmonceux,
East Sussex, and
Gresford,
Flintshire, Wales, and the nephew of Augustus William Hare and Julius Hare.
[ Who's Who, Henry Robert Addison, Charles Henry Oakes, John Lawson, Published by Adam & Charles Black, London, 1900]
Augustus Hare was born in
Rome; he was adopted by his aunt, the widow of Augustus Hare, and his parents renounced all further claims to him. His autobiography
The Story of My Life (1896–1900) details both a devotion to his adopted mother, Maria, and an intense unhappiness with his home education at
Buckwell Place. He spent one year at
Harrow School in 1847 but left due to ill health. In 1853, he matriculated at University College, Oxford, graduating in 1857 with a BA.
Career
Hare was the author of a large number of books, which fall into two classes: biographies of members and connections of his family, and descriptive and historical accounts of various countries and cities. To the first belong
Memorials of a Quiet Life (about his adoptive mother),
Story of Two Noble Lives (about Countess Canning and the Marchioness of Waterford, sisters and artists),
The Gurneys of Earlham (about the Gurney family of bankers and social reformers of
Earlham Hall near Norwich), and an autobiography in six volumes. This last included a number of accounts of encounters with
. A reviewer in the
New York Times concluded that "Mr Hare's ghosts are rather more interesting than his lords or his middle-class people".
He also compiled numerous travel books, including a couple for John Murray, as well as many others under his own name, such as Walks in Rome, Walks in London, Wanderings in Spain, Cities of Northern, Southern, and Central Italy (separate works), Days near Rome and Sussex. A number of his travel books were revised in later editions by the historian Welbore St Clair Baddeley (1856–1945).
Hare was a friend to the barrister Basil Levett and his wife Lady Mary Levett, the daughter of the Earl of Shaftesbury, to whom Hare left a painting in his will.[ Story of My Life, Augustus John Cuthbert Hare, George Allen, London, 1900] ("Basil Levett or his wife Lady Margaret Copy of the Last Communion of S Jerome by Domenichino.")
Hare died unmarried in 1903, and was buried in Herstmonceux.[Dictionary of National Biography]
Holmhurst
Hare spent his money on purchasing and refurbishing a house in
Baldslow,
Sussex, near Hastings, which he named Holmhurst St Mary.
[ Augustus Hare and Holmhurst, Umilta.net, Retrieved 31 October 2016]
In his biography of Somerset Maugham, writer Ted Morgan mentions that Hare, whom he refers to as "the last Victorian," befriended Maugham, who became a frequent guest at Holmhurst.[Morgan, Ted, Maugham, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1980, p. 74]
After Hare's death, the house was taken by Admiral Sir Lewis Beaumont and family, and then from 1908 Sir John Gordon Kennedy and family.[Julia Bolton Holloway, ‘Mason, (Frances) Agnes (1849–1941)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 12 Nov 2016] the estate was purchased by the Community of the Holy Family, an Anglican order of teaching nuns, with a focus on art and scholarship. Their mother foundress, Agnes Mason, who had formed the community in London in 1896 and later brought it to Sussex, recognised the house and gardens as a piece of Italy – specifically Florence – in England.[ Miss Hortin-Smith by Joanna Lumley; 27 February 2015, Times Educational Supplement, access-date: 1 July 2020] Its best-known pupil was Joanna Lumley, an "army brat" who boarded in the 1960s: "I especially loved my second boarding school, an Anglo-Catholic convent in the hills behind Hastings. The nuns wore blue stockings and were brainy and lovely. There were 70 boarders and I was happy as a clam."
List of works
Travel guides:
-
A Handbook for Travellers in Berks, Bucks and Oxfordshire, (John Murray, 1860)
-
A Winter at Mentone, (Wertheim, Macintosh & Hunt, 1862)
-
A Handbook for Travellers in Northumberland and Durham, (John Murray, 1863)
-
Walks in Rome, (Daldy, Isbister & Co., 1871) 2 vols.
-
Wanderings in Spain, (Strahan & Co., 1873)
-
Days Near Rome, (Daldy, Isbister & Co., 1875) 2 vols.
-
Cities of Northern Italy, (Daldy, Isbister & Co., 1876) 2 vols.
-
Walks in London, (Daldy, Isbister & Co., 1878)
-
Cities of Southern Italy and Sicily, (Smith, Elder & Co., 1883)
-
Cities of Central Italy, (Smith, Elder & Co., 1884) 2 vols.
-
Florence, (Smith, Elder & Co., 1884)
-
Venice, (Smith, Elder & Co., 1884)
-
Sketches in Holland and Scandinavia, (George Allen, 1885)
-
Studies in Russia, (Smith, Elder & Co., 1885)
-
Paris, (Smith, Elder & Co., 1887) 2 vols.
-
Days Near Paris, (Smith, Elder & Co., 1887)
-
South-Eastern France, (George Allen & Unwin, 1890)
-
South-Western France, (George Allen & Unwin, 1890)
-
North-Eastern France, (George Allen & Unwin, 1890)
-
Sussex, (1894)
-
North-Western France (Normandy and Brittany), (George Allen, 1895)
-
The Rivieras, (George Allen, 1897)
-
Shropshire, (George Allen, 1898)
-
Sicily, (William Heinemann, 1905) posthumous single volume edition, revised by St Clair Baddeley
-
Cities of Southern Italy, (William Heinemann, 1911) posthumous single volume edition, revised by St Clair Baddeley
Autobiography:
-
The Story of My Life, (George Allen, 1896–1900) 6 vols.
Biography:
-
Memorials of a Quiet Life, (Strahan & Co., 1872–76) 3 vols.
-
Life and Letters of Frances Bunsen, (Daldy, Isbister & Co., 1879) 2 vols.
-
The Story of Two Noble Lives: being Memorials of Charlotte, Countess Canning, and Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford, (George Allen, 1893) 3 vols.
-
Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, (Edward Arnold, 1894) - as editor
-
The Gurneys of Earlham, (George Allen, 1895) 2 vols.
-
Biographical Sketches: being Memorials of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster, Henry Alford, Dean of Canterbury, Mrs. Duncan Stewart etc., (George Allen, 1895)
Other:
-
Epitaphs for Country Churchyards. Collected and Arranged, (John Henry & James Parker, 1856)
-
Letters to Crown-Prince Gustav V (unpublished) - he had conducted the future King on a tour of Rome
-
Last Will and Testament (unpublished)
Notes
-
Barnes, Malcolm. Augustus Hare. Victorian Gentleman, (Allen & Unwin, 1985)
-
Hare, Augustus; Barnes, Malcolm (ed.) In My Solitary Life, (George Allen, 1953)
-
Hare, Augustus; Barnes, Malcolm (ed.) The Years with Mother, (George Allen, 1952)
External links
