4
Sep
Former Homes of Augustus Hare for sale in East Sussex
Mayfair Office members, Rowland Gorringe Estate
Agents are selling a small piece of English Victorian
history.
Lime
House, Church Road, Herstmonceux, East Sussex was formerly the
childhood home of the renowned Water Colour Artist and Travel
Writer Augustus Hare, famous for also writing the longest biography
in the English Language.
Originally built in 1835 today, this impressive former Estate house
is arranged into four very individual homes.
Approached via a small country lane that continues to form into a
private driveway which passes an attractive lake and finally
terminates at the entrance of Lime House. Throughout, this spacious
property still retains many characteristics from a property of this
period including; large principal rooms with high ceilings, ornate
cornices, ceiling roses in addition to high skirting-boards,
picture rails and solid internal doors. Notable features include a
capacious former billiard room offering a variety of usages from
formal dining to a consultancy room measuring 24'8 x 19'9, a
country style fully fitted bespoke kitchen affords access to the
breakfast room with a pleasant outlook over the rear gardens.
A well-proportioned sitting room with a feature open
fireplace is also accessible from the reception hall and breakfast
room. The accommodation which is arranged over four floors also
incorporates a large principal bedroom, family bathroom, guest
bedroom and a top floor suite comprising of a bedroom, dressing
room and a separate shower room/WC. The accommodation and location
coupled with private and good-sized gardens and private parking
must be viewed for all to be fully appreciated.
Augustus John Cuthbert Hare (13 March 1834 – 22 January 1903)
was an English writer and raconteur. Augustus Hare was born
in Rome; later he was adopted by his aunt, and his parents
renounced all further claim to him. His autobiography The Story
of My Life details both a devotion to his adopted mother,
Maria, and an intense unhappiness with his home education. He spent
one year at Harrow School in 1847 but left due to ill health. In
1853 he attended University College, Oxford, graduating in 1857
with a BA.
Hare was the author of a large number of books, which fall into two
classes: biographies of members and connections of his family, and
descriptive and historical accounts of various countries and
cities. To the first belong Memorials of a Quiet Life (about
his adoptive mother), Story of Two Noble Lives (Lady Canning
and Lady Waterford), The Gurneys of Earlham, and an
autobiography in several volumes. This last included a number of
accounts of encounters with ghosts. A reviewer in the New York
Times concluded that "Mr Hare's ghosts are rather more
interesting than his lords or his middle-class people". He also
compiled numerous travel books including Walks in Rome,
Walks in London, Wanderings in Spain, Cities of
Northern, Southern, and Central Italy (separate works), Days
near Rome.
In his biography of Somerset Maugham, writer Ted Morgan mentions
that Hare, whom he refers to as "the last Victorian," befriended
Maugham who became a frequent guest at his country house.
GUIDE PRICE - £485,000 ~ £520,000
For further details contact:
Rowland Gorringe Estate Agents
Tel - 01273 474101
Website - www.rowlandgorringe.co.uk
Back to Top (↑)