Named Beneficiaries under the terms of the Will of Augustus John Cuthbert Hare

BE IT KNOWN that Augustus John Cuthbert Hare of "Holmhurst" St. Leonards on Sea in the County of Sussex died on the 22nd day of January 1903 at "Holmhurst" aforesaid. THIS IS THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT of me AUGUSTUS JOHN CUTHBERT HARE ...

24. To Gwendoline Broderick a view of Bologna by Ainslie Bean

53. To Weeny wife of Sir Edward Ridley The Ettui case with Bloodstones

71. To Mildred Lady Anstruther Picture of a Tomb in Glasgow Churchyard by Old Leitch

Augustus John Cuthbert Hare (1834-1903)

He was born in Rome, the son of Francis Hare and the nephew of Augustus Hare (see Note 1 below) whose widow (Maria Hare - née Leycester) practically adopted him. He had another uncle who was also a writer - Julius Hare (see Note 2 below). He was educated at Harrow and was the author of a large number of books.

A short introductory biography of him reads -

"Hare was born into an aristocratic English family, most of whose members were considerably worse than peculiar. As a small boy, he might well have envied the happy life of Oliver Twist. As an adult, he had no money--at least by his standards--but he "collected cousins as others collect stamps" and could always find a country house to put him up. He also collected anecdotes, with which he enlivened a series of guidebooks that flourished for decades, and with which, as a raconteur, he became a valued guest. His texts include a lively description of Mark Twain, a report on Thomas Carlyle complete with Scottish accent, tales of ghosts and ghastlies, and complaints about his publisher. His instrument was the pen rather than the harp, but in his way Hare was a wandering minstrel, and he is an attractive and sometimes witty acquaintance."

And another - "Augustus John Cuthbert Hare was a Victorian writer who had clung, so to speak, to the edges of fame. He was born into the maddest of upper-class English families and survived a cruel childhood to write monumental travel guides to the Continent and a six-volume autobiography, "The Story of My Life." There is a modern one-volume condensation of this extraordinary work which can be found on the market.

Peculiar People: The Story of My Life - Augustus Hare
Edited by Anita Miller and James Papp
350pp · 5 x 8 · Cloth
ISBN 0-89733-388-8

From 'The Story of My Life', Chapter 2, Boyhood

". . . .my mother gave in to a suggestion of Aunt Esther that I should be locked into the vestry of the church between the services. Miserable indeed were the three hours which - provided with a sandwich for dinner - I had weekly to spend there; and though I did not expect to see ghosts, the utter isolation of Hurstmonceaux Church, far away from all haunts of men, gave my imprisonment an unusual eeriness. Sometimes I used to clamber over the tomb of the Lords Dacre, which rises like a screen against one side of the vestry, and be stricken with vague terrors by the two grim white figures lying upon it in the silent desolation, in which the scamper of a rat across the floor seemed to make a noise like a whirlwind. At that time two grinning skulls (of the founder and foundress of the church, it was believed) lay on the ledge of the tomb; but soon after this Uncle Julius and Aunt Esther made a weird excursion to the churchyard with a spade, and buried them in the dusk with their own hands. In the winter holidays, the intense cold of the unwarmed church made me so ill, that it led to my miserable penance being remitted."

He died alone the day after receiving the news that his lifelong friend, Mmme Ernest Bunsen, had died.

His writing may be said to fall into two main categories - (1) biographies of members and connections of his family and (2) descriptive and/or historical accounts of various countries and cities. To the first category belong his Memorials of a Quiet Life, (his aunt's) Story of Two Noble Lives (Lady Canning and Lady Waterford), The Gurneys of Earlham, and finally an (some say over-) extended autobiography titled Peculiar People: The Story of My Life. It ran to six volumes. Into the second category come Walks in Rome, Walks in London, Wanderings in Spain, Cities of Northern, Southern, and Central Italy (separate works), and many others.

Bibliography - “Epitaphs from Country Churchyards” (1856); “Walks in Rome” (1871); “Memorials of a Quiet Life” (1872); “Wanderings in Spain” (1873); “Days Near Rome” (1875); “Cities of Northern and Central Italy” (1876); “Walks in London” (1878); “Cities of Southern Italy and Sicily” (1883); “Cities of Central and Northern Italy” (1884); “Venice” (1884); “Studies in Russia” (1885); “Sketches in Holland and Scandinavia” (1885); “Paris” (1887); “North-Eastern France” (1890); “South-Eastern France” (1890); “South-Western France” (1890); “Memorials of Charlotte, Countess Canning, and Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford” (1893); “Sussex” (1894); “Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth” (1894).

Note 1 - Augustus William Hare (1792-1834).— the son of Francis Hare-Naylor who married a cousin of the famous Duchess of Devonshire and was the author of a history of Germany. He was sent by the widow of Sir W. Jones, whose godson he was, to Winchester and New College, Oxford, in the latter of which he was for some time a tutor. Entering the Church, he became incumbent of the rural parish of Alton Barnes where, leading an absolutely unselfish life, he was the father and friend of his parishioners. In addition to writing, in conjunction with his brother Julius Guesses at Truth, a work containing short essays on multifarious subjects which attracted much attention, he left two volumes of sermons.

Note 2 - Julius Charles Hare (1795-1855).—Essayist - writer, younger brother of the above, was born at Vicenza. When two years old his parents left him to the care of Clotilda Tambroni, female Professor of Greek at Bologna. Educated at Charterhouse and Cambridge, he took orders and, in 1832, was appointed to the rich family living of Hurstmonceau which Augustus had refused. Here he had John Sterling for curate and Bunsen for a neighbour. He was also Archdeacon of Lewes and a Chaplain to the Queen. His first work was Guesses at Truth (1827), jointly with his brother and he also published, jointly with Thirlwall, a translation of Niebuhr’s History of Rome, wrote The Victory of Faith and other theological books and pamphlets on Church and other questions, A Life of Sterling, and a Vindication of Luther. Hare, though lovable, was an eccentric man of strong antipathies, was unmethodical and unpunctual.

His own notes about his house.