PREFACE
ON the day after Arthur Stanley died, his only surviving sister and his most intimate friend, Hugh Pearson, wrote to me, asking me to be his biographer. I gladly accepted the office, as I felt sure that no one could know more of a cousin with whom much of my life had been spent, and to whose kindness - in my boyhood and youth - I had been most deeply indebted. But Sir George Grove, who was one of his literary executors, did not consider me competent for the work, and at first undertook to carry it out himself, afterwards intrusting it to others, whom - to the utmost of my power - I helped with materials. To myself, it was only left to write a magazine article, without any material but my own recollections and such letters as I personally possessed. It is given again here, in a slightly enlarged form, with illustrations. To this are added some memorials of my dear friend, Henry Alford, Dean of Canterbury, and of Mrs. Duncan Stewart, a clever and charming old lady, who was for some years a well-known figure in London Society. [1]
AUGUSTUS J. C. HARE
[1] The Article on Arthur Penrhyn Stanley first appeared in Macmillan's Magazine; that on Mrs. Duncan Stewart in Good Words; that on Paray le Monial in Evening Hours.
