The Times/1910/Obituary/Alfred Henry Huth

Mr. A. H. Huth

Mr. Alfred Henry Huth, the bibliophile and owner of the magnificent and early printed books gathered by his father, Mr. Henry Huth died at his Wiltshire residence, Fosbury Manor, on Friday last.

He was the second son of Mr. Henry Huth, and was born in London in 1850. His parents were close friends of Henry Thomas Buckle, the historian, and when he and his two brothers were at school at Mr. Capel's, at Carshalton, Buckle stayed there for a time and became very friendly with them. When Alfred Huth was 11 and his brother Edward 14, Buckle offered to take them to Egypt, and this offer was accepted. Buckle took with him only the Bible, Shakespeare, Molière, and a few books about Egypt, calculating that the boys would be forced to read them for want of other distraction. The party after visiting Egypt went for a tour through Palestine. At Jerusalem Buckle contracted typhoid fever, and eventually died at Damascus. Mr. A. H. Huth was Buckle's biographer—"The Life and Writings of Henry Thomas Buckle" is his chief literary work. His other work included "The Marriage of Near Kin," "Speculum Humanae Salvationis," Goethe's Faustus in English verse, and "Adventures of Matthew Dudgeon."

Alfred Huth continued his education at Rugby and Berlin University, the family's connexion with German being close. He became a partner in the great firm of City merchants, Frederick Huth and Co., founded by his grandfather in the beginning of last century, and a director of the Alliance Assurance Company. Besides this he was a considerable landowner in Wiltshire. He was a man of remarkable attainments in various directions; and though of a very shy mature was most genial among his intimate friends. A keen critic of the present tendency of land legislation, he was a frequent contributor on the subject to The Times up to a recent period. He kept up the famous library and added to it; he also produced a large part of the important Catalogue of the Huth Library and saw it through the press.

Mr. Huth married his cousin Octavia Huth in 1872. His funeral takes place to-morrow at Fosbury, Wiltshire.