Augustus John Cuthbert Hare

“ My only reprieve from the misery of Lyncombe in 1850 was in a three days’ visit to my half-uncle Gustavus Hare at Exmouth. I describe to my mother the extraordinary sermon which I heard there from the Dean of Exeter, on the theory that the object of St. Paul’s visit to Jerusalem, as described in the Acts of the Apostles, was to attend the deathbed of the “most blessed Virgin.” I was greatly delighted with sketching the then ruined sanctuary of St. John in the Wilderness—an old grey tower covered with moss and lichen and a huge yew-tree, in a solitary opening amid woods. ”

“ At Stroud Lady Paul’s pony-carriage was waiting, and we drove swiftly through some deep valleys, the old coachman, twenty-five years in the family, telling me how he had seen and nursed me when a baby, and how glad he was that I was come to see my grandfather We turned up by a house which he said was my ‘Aunt Jane’s,’ [9] through a steep lane overhung by magnificent beech-trees, and then round a drive to this hill-set mansion, which has a fine view over wood and valley on one side, and on the other a garden with conservatories and fountains. ”

“ Wonderful were the stories which she had to tell me, and delighted to tell me, of her past life and sufferings, “through which only God and religion” had helped her, with the moral attached that since the few whom she had idolised were taken away, she must now live for all. She talked much also of her great anxiety about dear old Landor, “that God would change and rebuild his soul.” Lady Boyle, a sweet and beautiful old lady, [7] was now quite paralysed, and her daughter would sit for hours at her feet, soothing her and holding her hands. ”

“ Most of the external consolations of this year came from the residence in Bath of my maternal cousin Mrs. Russell Barrington, a rather gay young widow, and an eccentric person, but very kind to me at this time, incessant in her invitations, and really very useful in her constant lectures upon “good manners.” She might truly have written to my mother in the words of Mme. de Sévigné—“Je me mêle d’apprendre à votre fils les manèges des conversations ordinaires, qu’il est important de savoir; il y a des choses qu’il ne faut pas ignorer. ”

“ Uncle Julius and Aunt Esther visited Rockend when we were there, and as my aunts when together generally acted as foils to each other, I should have been at liberty to enjoy the really beautiful place—its delightful gardens, storm-beaten rocks, and the tower where Aunt Lucy “made her meditations”—if I had been well enough; but I had generally to spend the greater part of the day lying upon the floor on a hard backboard and in a state of great suffering. ”

“ I was often on the point of throwing myself over the cliffs, when all would have been over in an instant, and was only restrained by my intense love for my mother, and the feeling that her apparently dormant affection would be awakened by such a catastrophe, and that she would always be miserable in such an event. ”

“ One or two of these pictures were real works of art, but as a rule he had bought them at Bath, quite willing to imagine that the little shops of the Bath dealers could be storehouses of Titians, Giorgiones, and Vandycks. The Bath picture-dealers never had such a time; for some years almost all their wares made their way to Mr. Landor’s walls. Mr. Landor lived alone with his beautiful white Spitz dog Pomero, which he allowed to do whatever it liked, and frequently to sit in the oddest way on the bald top of his head. ”

“ As I was drawing the village, a farmer came riding by, and, after looking at my sketch, went back with me to show me his house, once a manor of the Hungerfords, with a splendid old carved chimney-piece.
“These are very long dreary half-years. At Harrow I used to rejoice that I should never more have to endure those horrible long private-school half-years, yet here they are again. Oh! what would I not give to be back with you, and able to take care of you when you are poorly!” ”

“ We all had rooms to ourselves at Lyncombe, scantily furnished, and with barely a strip of carpet, but we could decorate them with pictures, &c., if we liked. We did our lessons, when we were supposed to do them, at regular hours, in the dining-room, where we had our meals, and after work was finished in the evening, and eight-o’clock tea, we were expected to sit with Mrs. R. in the drawing-room. ”

“ At last my sufferings were such, from the relaxing air of Hurstmonceaux, that I was taken to Eastbourne, but an attempt was still made to chain me down for six or eight hours a day in a stuffy lodging at lessons with my tutor, who had not an idea of teaching and knew nothing to teach. Poor man! ”

“ Liddell was one of the kindest of men, with all the genial courtesy of a race of country gentlemen now almost extinct, and his wife was a beautiful old lady, with much that was interesting to tell of past times and people. ”

“ She was then living with her mother Lady Boyle in the same house of Millard’s Hill, near Frome, in which my great-aunts Caroline and Marianne Hare had lived before; and, to my great surprise and delight, I was allowed to go by the coach to spend two days with her there. It was on this occasion that I first wore a morning-coat instead of a jacket, and very proud I was of it. Apropos of dress, at this time and for many years afterwards, all young gentlemen wore straps to their trousers, not only when riding, but always: it was considered the ne plus ultra of snobbism to appear without them. ”

“ Landor generally orders his own little dinners, but almost all this was for me, as he will dine himself on a little fish. He has actually got a new hat, he says because all the ladies declared they would never walk with him again unless he had one, and he has a hideous pair of new brown trousers. Pomero was put out of the room for jumping on them, but when he was heard crying outside the door, Mr. Landor declared he could not let his dear child be unhappy, and was obliged to let it in ”

“ Alexander, a person who afterwards, for some years, bore a large share in our life. In her youth, as Miss Mary Manning, she had been a governess in the family of Sir John Malcolm, and, while living with the Malcolms at Hyde Hall near Cambridge, had been the most intimate early friend of my Uncle Julius. People generally thought that he had been engaged to her, but this, I believe, was never the case. She had married a Mr. Alexander, a physician at Edinburgh, who soon left her a widow, and since that time she had possessed no settled home. ”

“ I now first made acquaintance with Miss Boyle’s younger sister Mary, whom I knew better many years after, when I learned td value her wonderful sympathy with all the pathos of life, as much as to admire her quick wit and inimitable acting. [8] Landor used to say of her, “Mary Boyle is more than clever, she is profound;” but it is her quickness that remains by one. Of her lively answers it is difficult to give specimens, but I remember how one day when she neglected something, Lady Marion Alford said to her, “What a baby you are, Mary,” and she answered, “Well, I can’t help it ”

“ Thus, though I walked sometimes twenty-four miles in a day, and was out for eight or ten hours, I never had a penny with which to buy even a bit of bread, and many a time sank down by the wayside from the faintness of sheer starvation, often most gratefully accepting some of the food from the common working people I met. ”

“ They look most extraordinary, especially two babies, whom, at first sight, you would take for a pair of shoes. . . . When I am alone with Harris, I like him very much. He writes poetry and draws beautifully, and can read French and Italian for his own amusement. I wish I could. Oh, I am so tired of having nothing to do!”
My dear Grandmother, Mrs. Leycester, had been failing all the autumn, and my mother was much with her at her house in New Street. ”

“ But, on religious grounds, it was thought wrong to contend against “the wonderful leadings of God’s Providence”—pain was sent to be endured, sickness as a tractor to draw its victims to heaven; and all simple and rational means of restoration to a healthy and healthful life were disregarded. Sago with brandy in it was provided instead of meat for my physical, and an inexhaustible supply of tracts, hymns, and little sermons for my mental digestion. ”

“ Martin’s Church, Trafalgar Square, her coffin being laid upon that of Uncle Hugh (Judge Leycester) . The vaults were a very awful place—coffins piled upon one another up to the ceiling, and often in a very bad state of preservation, [4] —and the funeral was a very ghastly one, all the ladies being enveloped in huge black hooded mantles, which covered them from head to foot like pillars of crape. Grannie is one of the few persons whose memory is always evergreen to me, and for whom I have a most lasting affection. Everything connected with her has an interest. ”

“ Another person of whom we saw much at this time was the really saint-like Harry Grey, my mother’s first cousin, who was living at Babbicombe. He was heir to the Earldom of Stamford (to which his son afterwards succeeded) , but a clergyman, and very poor.
I was so ill when we returned home, almost everything I ate producing violent sickness, that it is astonishing my health should not have been considered a primary object. A few weeks of healthy life on moors or by the seaside, with freedom from the gnawing mental misery and depression under which I suffered, would probably have restored me ”

“ Another resident of whom I saw much at Bath was my mother’s cousin, Miss Harriet Dumbleton (her mother was a Leycester) —an old maiden lady, who lived in the most primitive manner, really scarcely allowing herself enough to eat, because, like St. Elizabeth, though she had a very good fortune, she had given everything she had to the poor. She would even sell her furniture, books, and pictures, to give away the money they realised. But she was a most agreeable, witty, lively person, and it was always a great pleasure to go to her.
To my Mother.
“Lyncombe, Sept. ”

“ R. J. Harris Temple, eldest son of the second marriage of the second Lord Harris with Miss Isabella Helena Temple of Waterstown.↑ “No man who has once heartily and wholly laughed can be altogether irreclaimably bad.”—Carlyle, “Sartor Resartus.”↑ There is really no end to the absurd calumnies which I have heard circulated during my life about dear old Mr. Landor, the kindest, most refined, most courteous, and most genial, though most irascible of men. ”

“ Then he took me into the house and told me all the stories of the pictures there.
“Mr. Landor has been here, and, thinking to do me honour, called upon the R.’s. Whilst Pomero danced about, he told numbers of stories, beginning at once about the Dukes of Brandenburg and Orleans, and in defence of the Danes. ‘Hare may say what he likes, but that King of Prussia is a regular old scoundrel.’
“Whenever we are supposed to do any work, Mr. R. sits at the small table in the dining-room while we are at the large one ”