cept it, it was offered by his eldest brother to Julius. He accepted it, and went to reside there after a journey to Italy, in which he made the acquaintance of Bunsen. He was aware that he would never make a good parish priest, for he feared that his constitutional peculiarities and previous habits would disqualify him from talking easily to the poor. He retained the strong sense of clerical responsibility which made him answer the 'Guess,' 'What is a living worth? Heaven or Hell as the occupier does his duty.' But the difficulties he had foreseen really pressed heavily upon him. Sick people in the parish used to say, 'Mr. Hare do come to us, and he do sit by the bed and hold our hands, and he do growl a little, but he do say nowt.'
His sermons were equally over the heads of his congregation, who used to say: 'Mr. Hare, he be not a good winter parson,' which meant that he kept them so long in church that they could not get home before dark. Hare generally preached for an hour to a nodding audience. But a few of his sermons which had an especial local application were valued accordingly.
Apart from parochial duties nothing could be happier than Hare's life at Hurstmonceaux. The widow of his brother Augustus, whom he regarded with the most devoted affection, made her home in his parish, where Bunsen also settled for a time, and where John Sterling [q. v.] was his curate. His own house, surrounded by fine oaks and cedars, was one vast library, the books clothing the whole of the wall-space except that occupied by the fine collection of pictures which he had formed in Italy, and which are now in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. Here he continued to extend his vast knowledge amid his multiplying books. The rugged, almost uncouth presence of the master of the house pervaded everything. The eagerness with which he called for sympathy over every passing event of public interest, his uncontrolled vehemence where he detected any wrong or oppression, his triumphant welcome of any chivalrous or disinterested action, his bursts of unspeakable tenderness, the hopeless unpunctuality of everything, especially of every meal, the host often setting oft' on his long evening ramble as the dinner-bell was ringing, gave a most unusual character to the daily life, and the emotions of the day culminated during his readings aloud in the evening. Most remarkable of all perhaps, was his reading in church, perfectly simple and yet indescribably elevating and touching.
In 1839 Hare delivered his sermons on the 'Victory of Faith' before the university of Cambridge as select preacher. Their prodigious length prevented their being appreciated when they were preached, and provoked such obtrusive symptoms of impatience that his friends got up a petition for their publication to efface the discourtesy from his recollection. Hare intended to have illustrated these sermons with a copious collection of notes, such as were appended to his next course, on the 'Mission of the Comforter,' preached in 1840. It was in the latter year that he was appointed by Bishop Otter to the archdeaconry of Lewes. His duties as archdeacon were especially congenial to him. With his clergy he felt none of the difficulty of making himself understood which shackle'd him with his parishioners. He delighted in his church visitations, in which the war against pews, then at its height, called forth all his characteristic vehemence; he found most congenial work in the preparation of his lengthy charges, in which he entered into all the ecclesiastical subjects of the day to a degree which makes them almost an ecclesiastical history of their times. His collected charges were published in 1856, with an introduction by F. D. Maurice.
In 1844 Hare was married to Esther, one of the many sisters of his friend and former pupil, Frederick Maurice. Ill-health began to press upon him soon afterwards, but his life for several years continued to be full of literary activity. A memoir of his friend John Sterling (1848) was followed by a series of vindications and defences, many of them of ephemeral interest, but given to the world with an energy of furious championship which absorbed his whole being at the time. In 1851 his charge on the 'Contest with Rome' (published with exhaustive notes, like those on the 'Mission of the Comforter') attracted a wider circle of readers. This was his last conspicuous work. On 23 Jan. 1855 he died at Hurstmonceaux, where he was buried by the side of his youngest brother Marcus, under the great yew tree of the churchyard.
Besides the works referred to above and some scattered sermons and pamphlets, Hare wrote:
- 'The Victory of Faith,' 1840; 3rd edit., 1874, edited by E. H. Plumptre, with introductory notices by Professor Maurice and Dean Stanley.
- 'Sermons preacht in Hurstmonceaux Church,' 1840-9.
- 'The Mission of the Comforter,' 1846; 2nd edit., 1850; 3rd edit., 1876.
- 'English Hexameter Translations from Goethe and Schiller,' 1847.
- 'A Letter … on … the Appointment of Dr. Hampden to the See of Hereford,' 1848.
- 'A Letter … on the Recent Judgement of the Court of Appeal,' 1850; on the Gorham case.
- ' The Vindi-
