Philip Gilbert Hamerton

Philip Gilbert Hamerton

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Title: Philip Gilbert Hamerton
Author: Philip Gilbert Hamerton et al
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PHILIP GILBERT HAMERTON
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 1834-1858
AND A MEMOIR BY HIS WIFE 1858-1894

"Intellectual living is not so much an accomplishment as a state or
condition of the mind in which it seeks earnestly for the highest and
purest truth.... If we often blunder and fail for want of perfect wisdom
and clear light, have we not the inward assurance that our aspiration has
not been all in vain, that it has brought us a little nearer to the Supreme
Intellect whose effulgence draws us while it dazzles?"--The Intellectual
Life.

PREFACE.
About twelve years ago my husband told me that he had begun to write
an Autobiography intended for publication, but not during his lifetime.
He worked upon it at intervals, as his literary engagements permitted,
but I found after his sudden death that he had only been able to carry it
as far as his twenty-fourth year. Such a fragment seemed too brief for
separate publication, and I earnestly desired to supplement it by a
Memoir, and thus to give to those who knew and loved his books a
more complete understanding of his character and career. But though I
longed for this satisfaction and solace, the task seemed beyond my
power, especially as it involved the difficulty of writing in a foreign
language. Considering, however, that the Autobiography was carried,

as it happened, up to the date of our marriage, and that I could therefore
relate all the subsequent life from intimate knowledge, as no one else
could, I was encouraged by many of Mr. Hamerton's admirers to make
the attempt, and with the great and untiring help of his best friend, Mr.
Seeley, I have been enabled to complete the Memoir--such as it is.
I offer my sincere thanks to Mr. Sidney Colvin and to his co-executor
for having allowed the insertion of Mr. R. L. Stevenson's letters; to Mr.
Barrett Browning for those of his father; to Sir George and Lady Reid,
Mr. Watts, Mr. Peter Graham, and Mr. Burlingame for their own.
I also beg Mr. A. H. Palmer to accept the expression of my gratitude for
his kind permission to use as a frontispiece to this book the fine
photograph taken by him.
E. HAMERTON.
September, 1896.

CONTENTS.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

CHAPTER I.
My reasons for writing an Autobiography.--That a man knows the
history of his own life better than a biographer can know it.--Frankness
and reserve.--The contemplation of death.

CHAPTER II.
1834.
My birthplace.--My father and mother.--Circumstances of their
marriage.--Their short married life.--Birth of their child.--Death of my
mother.--Her character and habits.--My father as a widower.--Dulness
of his life.--Its degradation.

CHAPTER III
1835-1841.
My childhood is passed at Barnley with my aunts.--My grandfather and
grandmother.--Estrangement between Gilbert Hamerton and his brother
of Hellifield Peel.--Death of Gilbert Hamerton.--His taste for the
French language.--His travels in Portugal, and the conduct of a steward
during his absence.--His three sons.--Aristocratic tendencies of his
daughters.--Beginning of my education.--Visits to my father.

CHAPTER IV.
1842.
A tour in Wales in 1842.--Extracts from my Journal of this tour.--My
inborn love for beautiful materials.--Stay at Rhyl.--Anglesea and
Caernarvon.--Reasons for specially remembering this tour.

CHAPTER V.
1843-1844.
A painful chapter to write.--My father calls me home.--What kind of a
house it was.--Paternal education and discipline.--My life at that time
one of dulness varied by dread.

CHAPTER VI.
1844.
My extreme loneliness.--Thoughts of flight.--My father's last illness

and death.--Circumstances of my last interview with him.--His funeral.