Chapter I: Preface

It was but a short time before the death of Miss Octavia Hill that one
of her sisters succeeded, with much difficulty, in convincing her that
some account of her life would be necessary to satisfy the public
demand.

On realising this fact, she expressed a strong wish that the family
should keep the details of such a memoir in their own hands; and she
afterwards made a special request that the final decision as to what
should be published, and what suppressed, should rest with me.

It will, therefore, be understood that I am rather the editor than the
author of this book. The most important part of this Memoir will be
found in the letters; and it is by my express wish that they are
printed in larger type than the explanations which link them together.

But even those explanations are only in a limited sense my own work.
All I have done is to weave together statements made by my wife and
her sisters, a paper left by their Mother, and, in the very early
part, the recollections of Octavia’s early playmate, Miss Margaret
Howitt.

Only in those chapters which cover the period from 1866 to 1877 have I
trusted, to any considerable extent, to my own memory; for it was in
those years that I was most closely associated with some parts of
Octavia’s work.

With regard to the letters, there are two points to note. First, I
have endeavoured, as far as possible, to arrange them chronologically;
not separating the special subjects, in which Octavia was interested,
from each other, but rather suggesting the variety of interests which
were occupying her mind at the same time. Secondly, I have endeavoured
to emphasise the human and family sympathy, and not merely her
business capacity.

There was 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.

C. E. MAURICE.

1913.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGE
PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD 1

CHAPTER II

EARLY WORK IN LONDON. 1851—APRIL, 1856 13

CHAPTER III

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

CHAPTER IV

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

CHAPTER V

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

CHAPTER VI

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

CHAPTER VII

1875–1878. THE OPEN SPACE MOVEMENT 315

CHAPTER VIII

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

CHAPTER IX

1881–1889. APPOINTMENT BY THE ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSIONERS 440

CHAPTER X

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

CHAPTER XI

LAST YEARS OF LIFE. 1902–1912 548