Herstmonceux, Hailsham - JCH hopes to come to Cambridge in mid-November for a couple of days: 'There is so much I want to hear from you both about persons and things. Where is Thirlwall [Connop Thirlwall]? I have heard nothing of him since he went abroad in June. I hope you do not find that your controversy has produced any coolness between you. It certainly ought not: for he felt the friendliness of your first pamphlet, and this feeling must assuredly have been strengthened by the second. Still it will be long before he can feel at home among you again' [see JCH to WW, 1 June 1834]. Has WW seen William Wordsworth - 'I rejoice to see from the British Magazine that we are to have a new volume of poems from him soon. Alas, he is now the only object of veneration left in England'. Since JCH saw WW Samuel Coleridge has died. John Sterling thinks a monument for Coleridge should be established at Cambridge on the philosophy of Christianity: 'The plan delighted me the moment I heard of it; and I hope in a few days to send you a sketch of some proposals to be circulated with a view to raising subscriptions for the purpose' [see JCH to WW, 25 Oct. 1834]. JCH is working on an edition of his his brother's, Augustus Hare, parish sermons. Meanwhile the third volume of Niebuhr's History of Rome has yet to be done.
Wallington, Cambo, Northumberland. - Happy to be expecting Elizabeth and Julian today. Interested to hear about the castle [at Aulla, owned by Aubrey and Lina Waterfield?], and envies Robert's chance of 'a fine fortnight near Florence' [with the Berensons]. Caroline has just finished reading Colonel Young's book on the Medicis, which pleased her greatly, and Sir George intends to try it. Young appears to be 'an old Indian officer', and his work to be 'free from that sort of canting way in which people think it is necessary to write about Italy... like Symonds, Hare, and in some sort Ruskin' and 'hundreds' of other lesser writers. There was a 'glorious eclipse of the moon' last night, and 'much distress of politicians for it to portend'. They are going to read Forster's novel ["Howards End"] aloud, having finished [Arnold Bennett's] "Clayhanger" which was 'admirable'. Adds in a postscript that Major Dobbin [in Thackeray's "Vanity Fair"] might have written Colonel Young's book, 'instead of his history of the Sikhs'; it has 'the honesty and thoroughness of [Sir George's] Colonel Gerald Boyle" [who composed a manuscript "Notes on the War of the American Revolution"?].
25 [Via] Mario de' Fiori, Rome. - Condolences on the death of Lady Houghton.
13 Belgrave Square. - Condolences on the death of Lady Houghton; discusses his recent loss of his own wife. Will of course vote for Augustus Hare in the ballot for the Athenaeum next Monday and do all he can for him; does not think this will be needed given Hare's 'literary claims & his popular character', and Houghton must not think of coming to town solely for that purpose.
Explains that he would have answered her letter before, but that he has been very busy. Claims that he finds it difficult to realise how long she has been at Wiesbaden. States that he remembers the place distinctly, 'especially the Russian Church'. Wishes that she could give a better account of herself. States that he once thought of writing ' "Advice to Invalids" ', drawn from his own experience, but was prevented mainly by the consideration that 'there are so many varieties of invalids', and that his advice would be useless to all except a very few. Discusses his selfishness, and his efforts to combat it, which included reading the Times. Came to the conclusion that the best method was to attempt to try and think how others were feeling, 'and sometimes to prophesy what they would say'; thinks 'most of [his] little knowledge of [his] fellow-creatures' comes from that period'.
States that 'Female Education is in a state of movement' at present, as is all other education. Announces that he is considering a scheme for educating the whole country [the beginning of what became the University Extension Lectures]. Claims that he does not go in for modern literature at present, and when he has any spare time he reads Middlemarch over again. Observes that 'things seem to be moving towards Biography now', and states that his own taste is changing in the same direction. Claims that novels weary him 'because they are not true' to human nature. Complains that while biographies are true, 'they are stuffed with facts that one wants to forget.' Remarks that he hears 'the [Augustus] Hare book (Memorials of a Quiet Life) is very good', and refers also to the second volume of John Forster's Life of Charles Dickens. Sends his love to all.
With notes by Hare, Sept. 1868, copied by Lady Houghton. All re the death of his sister Ann Hare.