The Press. SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 1914

Press, Volume L, Issue 14916, 14 March 1914, Page 10

The Press. SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 1914

Miss Octavia Hill.

One of the most inspiring biographies that has appeared for many years is the recently published "Life of Octavia Hill as Told in her Letters." It was Octavia Hill's own wish, expressed shortly before hor death in 1912, that tho details of any memoir that might be published should be kept in the hands of her own family, and that the final decision as to what should be made public and what suppressed should rest with her brother-in-law, Mr Edmund Maurice, a surviving son of tho great theologian 9. D. Maurice, whoso teaching and counsel in early years had had so great an influence in shaping her character and determining her career. Mr Maurice has furnished a singularly noble story of high purposes formed early and adhered to with unswerving faithfulness through a lifo of over seventy years—a story which should give pause to the unthinking persons Who are so ready nowadays to sneer at CT belittle Victorian womanhood.. Bora in 1838, Octavia Hill was tho daughter of a man of restless energy, wide culture, and great readiness to

assist in generous public causes. Her mother was a gentlewoman of strong character ' and great originality of thought, who held and carried out in the training of her family the view, pot even yet too widclv accepted, that worthy education is a preparation for worthy and noble life, and should aim at developing self-reliance and independence of mind. Her grandfather waa Dr. South wood Smith, the well-known pioneer in social and s&nitary reform, and as Octavia and

her sisters spent muck of their childhood under his roof at FincbJey, their thoughts were early directed into grave and practical channels. They were thoughtful beyond their years. •'Those are wonderful children," said that erratic genius "Orion" Horn, "You can talk to them about anything." Yet they were neither prigs nor prodigies. They had plenty of timo for play, ard for life in the open among all the fresh beauties of garden, wood, and wild which are among the most wholesome formative influences on all young lives.

Tho childhood properly so called soon came to an end, and responsibility came early. In 1851 Mrs Hill moved to London to take charge of an enterprise of Mr Vansittart Neale's, a Ladies' Guild of Co-operative Workers. With this was presently associated a scheme for the employment of some ragged school children in toy-making. At the age of fifteen Octavia was put in charge of tho toy-makers' workroom, and as all details wero left in her hands, she gained not merely a training in business methods, but a first-hand and sympathetic insight into tho life and thought of tho very poor which was to stand her in good stead through life. It was at this time that she was brought into closo contact with that famous group of Christian Socialists, Maurice, Kingsloy, Hughes, Ludlow, and Ncale, and came especially under the influence cf that great teacher F. D. Maurice, through whose kindness, when work at tho Ladies' Guild came to an end, sJie was appointed in her eighteenth year organising secretary to the recentlylaunched Working Women's College. Hero she was called on to make arrangements for classes, advise on books and courses of studies, and even occasionally to supply at a moment's notice tho place of an absent teacher. By this time she had formed hor friendship with Kuskin, who was so deeply impressed with her rare artistic gifts that he undertook personally to superintend her further art-training, and employed her to make studies for "Modern Painters," then in course of publication. It was Buskin who in 18W advanced at. o per cent, tho funds which enabled her to purchase tho three tenement houses near Nottingham place, in tho management of which she gained her first practical knowledge of how to improve the dwellings of tho poor in crowded cities, and laid tho foundation of the work which, eagerlycopied all over England, in America, Russia, Germany, and Holland, will always be associated with her name.

It is, of course, impossible in a narrow space to enter into the details of a life so full of varied activities. Thoso who wish to see how she was first led to her especial work, and how it prospered and expanded under her hands, till it called for the aid of troops of skilled fellow-workers, must turn to the. pages of the "Lifo." Octavia Hill was ono of tho greatest pioneers, and ono of the most successful workers in tho cause of practical social roform, the world has ever seen. Beginning with houses, her work grew into a crusade for securing garden plots and breathing spaces, play-grounds for the children, tho conversion of disused cemeteries into recreation grounds, the securing of heaths and commons from the encroachment of the builder, the conservation for the nation of historic sites, the preservation for the public of access to lake, and mountain and coastal scenery, thc. multiplication on all sides of the means for freeing the spirit of man by rendering his physical surroundings clean, wholesome, and ennobling. Her work Was done, as all true work must be done, quietly, and for many years almost without observation. Drum, trumpet, and self-advertisement were always abhorrent to Octavia Hill. She had great sanity and breadth of mind, distrusted theories, was "avid of fact," attentive to detail, quick to recognise the limits of th© possible. She had a large and noblo patience, was content to wait, and refused to be daunted by disappointment, always believed that

even in persons apparently hopeless there was an element of goodness which could be got at by those who went the right way to work. She believed intensely in family life, human intercourse, individual effort, and distrusted vast organisations and Government enterprises for tho relief of the poor. Filled with a noblo sensibility, her emotions never "slopped over," and she never forgot the woman of business in the social reformer. The vexed question of female suffrage seemed to her unimportant, except in so far as it diverted the energies of. women from work for which they were peculiarly fitted, and which was crying out for* them to do. Genuine workers were quick" to recognise her work and her worth. Men -so divers© as Archbishop Temple, Mr Chamberlain, and Lord George Hamilton (Chairman of tho Poor Law Commission) found her full of wisdom and practical common sense, and peculiarly great "in her absolute disregard "of tho frivolity and fancies of the "moment," while Carlyle, a man not given to compliment, said of her as long ago as 1874, "of a most faithful "disposition, with clear sagacity to "guide it. You can't get faithful "people; they're quite exceptional; I " never heard of another like this one."