Life of Octavia Hill as Told in Her Letters — A Reader’s Guide

s an outcry in the papers a little time ago, with regard to Florence Nightingale, which took a rather peculiar form. These writers said that there had been too much sentimental talk about the “lady of the lamp” bending over the sick bed; and that this picture had obscured Miss Nightingale’s real power of organisation and practical reform. Perhaps twentieth century hardness may be as blinding as nineteenth century sentiment. At any rate, the danger with regard to Octavia Hill is precisely of the opposite kind to that which was supposed to threaten the fame of Florence Nightingale.

Octavia’s power of organisation, and her principles of discipline, have been allowed by many critics to thrust into the background her human sympathies. The figure of the landlady sternly exacting her rents seems to stand rather on the opposite side to the “lady of the lamp.”

“Miss Hill,” said a critic in the early days of her fame, “I was puzzled to make out how you succeeded in your work, till I realised that the broker was always in the background.”

This statement represents the view of her work which was always most distasteful to Octavia. She disliked extremely the phrase “rent collector” as summing up the essential character of that work. She maintained, as strongly as did Carlyle, that “cash payment was not the sole nexus between man and man,” not, as another critic supposed, because she held that “the poor were there for the rich to do good to”; but because she realised that each had to learn from the other by common sympathy with each other’s needs, and not by a hard enforcement of claims, or a careless belief in the power of money giving. It is this wider and more human aspect of her life, which I hope these letters will bring home to their readers. Perhaps the point of view, on which I am insisting, can be best summed up in Canon Barnett’s words, “She brought the force of religion into the cause of wisdom, and gave emotion to justice.”

I need only add my most hearty thanks to the friends who have helped me, either by sending Miss Hill’s letters, or by hints derived from their own recollections, or by enabling us to use the pictures which appear in this volume.

PAGE PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD 1

EARLY WORK IN LONDON. 1851—APRIL, 1856 13

WORKING WOMEN’S CLASSES AND ART TRAINING. 1856–1858 80

MILTON STREET, DORSET SQUARE. DECEMBER, 1858—APRIL, 1861 127

NOTTINGHAM PLACE SCHOOL. BEGINNING OF HOUSING WORK. 1860–1870 188

1870–1875. GROWING PUBLICITY OF OCTAVIA’S WORK 256

1875–1878. THE OPEN SPACE MOVEMENT 315

1878–1881. FOREIGN TRAVELS. MANAGEMENT OF HER WORK AT HOME 354

1881–1889. APPOINTMENT BY THE ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSIONERS 440

FURTHER PROGRESS IN HOUSING AND OPEN SPACE WORK. 1890–1902 505

LAST YEARS OF LIFE. 1902–1912 548

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

OCTAVIA HILL. From a Photograph, enlarged by an American artist _Frontispiece_

WISBEACH IN 1840. House on right side of bridge where Octavia was born, December 3rd, 1838 3

JAMES HILL. Father of Octavia Hill 9

OCTAVIA HILL AS A CHILD. From an Oil Painting by Margaret Gillies 13

DR. SOUTHWOOD SMITH. Grandfather of Octavia Hill. From a Chalk Drawing by Margaret Gillies 172

CAROLINE SOUTHWOOD HILL. Octavia’s Mother. From a Photograph by Andrew Whelpdale 326

MIRANDA HILL. From a Photograph by Maull and Fox 340

OCTAVIA HILL. From a Drawing by Edward Clifford, 1877 357

SOUTHWARK. Red Cross Cottages and Garden. Opened June, 1887 454

OCTAVIA HILL. From an Oil Painting by Sargent. Presented to her in 1898 506

CHAPTER I PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD

Early in the nineteenth century Mr. James Hill was carrying on in Peterborough a business as corn merchant which his father had made very successful, and to which was added a banking business. Later on he removed to Wisbeach with his brother Thomas. James Hill showed much of his father’s business capacity, though sometimes carried away by an oversanguine temperament. Both his ability and his hopefulness were to be put to a severe test, when in 1825 England suffered from a general banking panic, and Mr. Hill failed in company with other bankers of greater note. But he roused himself to meet the emergency, and to a great extent retrieved his fortunes, for a time.