Obituary of Mrs. Robert Hollond
Interpolatory
[It is uncertain whether Brett intended this passage to be in the following Chapter or this one. The passage is not indexed in this chapter, but appears, and is numbered as page 2 by Brett; prior to the Chapter 37 header page. A copy is inserted as per Brett's index at Chapter 37 page 298]
Mrs. Hollond
113½ St.
The death of Mrs. Robert Hollond on the 29th of November, 1884—just as I am entering the historic threshold of 1847 - brings to the front a crowd of political associations of the earlier year in which the deceased lady and her less recently deceased husband were prominent figures. It was on the 29th of July, 1847, that Mr. Hollond was returned, a third time, as one of the Hastings representatives in Parliament; his colleague, whom he headed by 16 votes. being Mr. Brisco, of Coghurst Hall. Mr. Hollond’s first election was ten years antecedent to the last-named date, when he became the colleague of the Right Hon. Joseph Planta. who obtained 403 votes, as against Mr. Hollond’s 383. The losing candidate on that occasion was Mr. Brisco, who polled the comparatively good number of 312. This result, as viewed on party lines, was very significant; for whereas in 1835 the number of votes polled for the Conservatives were only 316, as against 665 for the Liberals, in two years’ time the conditions were entirely reversed, the Conservative votes being 715, as against the Liberal 383. At the time of Mr. Hollond’s first election (1837) he was unmarried, his temporary residence being at 2 Breed’s place, and his residential companions being E. L. Richards, Esq., and E. Kendall, Esq. In the following year he took up his abode at Allegria, a pleasant villa in St. Leonards, of which he became the proprietor. It was to this mansion that Mr. Hollond brought his young wife on the 10th of August, 1840, the nuptials having been consummated at the village of Stanmore, near London, on March the 18th of the same year. The bride’s name was Ellen Julia Teed, the only daughter of Mr. Thomas Teed, a Justice of the Peace. For about twelve years out of the fifteen that her husband held a parliamentary seat for Hastings, Mrs. Hollond displayed her amiability among a large circle of friends in her “at-home” balls, dinners and other parties, as well as in many acts of benevolence among the poorer members of her husband’s constituents. She naturally took an interest in the elections of 1841 and 1847, and acknowledged with becoming courtesy the enthusiastic greetings of the Liberals on those occasions, and especially on the chairing days, the magnificent processions of which were events not easily to be forgotten. As Mr. Hollond declined to be put in nomination for the election of 1852, he disposed of this St. Leonards residence to Mr. Coster, and withdrew to his other beautiful mansion, Stanmore Hall, Middlesex. It is there that his widow has recently died at the not over venerable age of 62 years. Mr. Hollond was known to have invested a large sum of money in Hastings and St. Leonards, in addition to the very liberal amount which he expended in various ways, and which, it is fair assume, gave him a considerable hold on the voting power of the borough. I may, perhaps, venture to state that only by the demise of Mr. and Mrs. Hollond has their connection with Hastings and St. Leonards wholly ceased, it being understood that sundry unredeemed or unrealisable properties in various parts of the borough have remained in possession of that gentleman and lady or under the management of trustees until the present time.
The deceased lady survived her husband seven years, the date of Mr. Hollond’s death being Dec. 26th, 1877. In addition to Stanmore Hall, in Middlesex, Mr. Hollond had a villa residence at Cannes, to which he gave the name of Allegria, that being (as before stated) the name of his former residence at St. Leonards. It was while Mr.and Mrs. Holland , were en route for Cannes that the former was seized with inflammation of the lungs. to which malady he succumbed at Paris. Both before and since that time, Mrs. Holland seems to have been as well known in the French capital as at Cannes; and now that she, too, has passed the portals of death a Parisan journal 'La-Justice' refers to the event as of Parisian interest. It says, The deceased lady enjoyed in her widowhood a considerable fortune, of which she made an intelligent and beneficent use. Before her health obliged her to winter in the south of France, she resided a good deal in Paris where she had, during the Empire, the foremost literary and musical salon of the time. It was then called “Le Salon de la Ligue Liberale,” and was frequented by M. M. Guizot, Montelambert, Remusat, Henri Martin, Prevost Paradol, &c. Mrs. Hollond was the original of Ary Scheffer’s “St. Monica.” She had always about her, both in Paris and at her villa, struggling and meritorious Protestants; and one of these, Mdlle Marie Dubois, who, as a pianiste, obtained, last August, the first Erard prize at the Conservatoire, wrote a letter overflowing with acknowledgements of the kindness which she had received from Mrs. Hollond.
Sir Joseph Planta.
Another associative circumstance occurs in the fact that whereas in 1840 Mr. and Mrs. Planta were among the guests at Stanmore when the lady who has just now died at the time of writing was married to Mr. Hollond, so, in 1847, the year to which this History has reached, the death of Mr. Planta was recorded, The right honourable gentleman’s demise occurred at Fairlight place on Monday the 3rd of April, in the 60th year of his age. His father was the late Joseph Planta, F.R.S., a native of Switzerland, who had been long domiciled in England when he became Librarian to the British Museum and Secretary to the Royal Society. The son of this latter gentleman was in early life engaged as a precis writer in the Foreign office, and in course of time became Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, which office he held for about three years. He accompanied the then Marquis of Londonderry as Private Secretary to the Congress of Paris, Vienna and Aix-la-Chapelle, and was greatly trusted by that nobleman, to whom his attainments as linguist and publicist were of great value. From May, 1827, till November, 1838, Mr. Planta was one of the joint Secretaries of the Treasury; and although he never took a prominent part in the business of the House of Commons as Member for Hastings (for which borough he was returned in 1827, 1830, 1837 and 1841), he was generally recognised in official circles as a man of great knowledge and ability. He made Fairlight Place — (a rather small house owned by Mr. Milward) — his Hastings residence for many years; but although a man of fine proportions, his close application to official duties so affected his health as to cause him to resign his seat in 1844 by accepting the stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds. At some time during the period 1831-5 the honour of knighthood was conferred upon him, the distinction being a G.C.H. (Grand Cross of the Hanoverian Guelphic Order); and his having also a seat in the Privy Council, entitling him to the prefix of Right Honourable, It would have been difficult to find a man of more presentable features, of more gentlemanly address, or of a kindlier disposition. His death, though sudden, was not altogether unexpected, for his health had been gradually giving way during the previous seven years. His remains were consigned to one of the catacombs of Kensal-Green Cemetery, and his property was left entirely to his wife. He recommended that his papers should be destroyed, but that his wife should first consult her son (Mr, Adolphus Orme) and also obtain the opinion of his esteemed friend, Sir Woodbine Parish, as to what papers it might be necessary to preserve. Where, however, positive directions had been given on the papers themselves, such directions were to be rigidly followed. The right honorable(sic) gentleman was never regarded as a man of great wealth, but he had a large circle of aristocratic and official friends, besides which his personal influence was greater than that which fell to the lot of most other Parliamentarians.
He was thus enabled to procure situations in the Civil Service and other departments for the sons of his constituents when applied to, and in many other ways to benefit the townspeople generally. On the other hand, Mr. Hollond, with his abundance of money, was not slow to assist those who wanted pecuniary help, either by purchasing what they were desirous of turning to profitable account or by lending them money on stipulated securities at less than the usually demanded interest. That Mr. Hollond also spent a large sum of money in the borough in the giving of balls, dinners and parties, and that he contributed liberally to local charities and other institutions, are facts pretty well known to the townspeople of that period. Then there was Mr. Brisco, who was a losing candidate in 1836, ditto in 1837 and 1841, a successor of Sir Joseph Planta in 1844, and again a winning competitor in 1847 and 52. His benevolence and munificence were responsive to every call, whilst the expenses of his electioneering contests must have been enormous. When Mr. Hollond was first introduced to the electors in 1835, a Liberal journal was exuberant in its thankfulness that Mr. Hollond’s wealth would save the borough from the long purse of Mr. Brisco. I think, however, it must be admitted that its effect was to give the borough two long purses instead of one. Anyhow, the commercial and other advantages which accrued to Hastings for about fifteen years through the political rivalry of two long purses and the emulative energy of a third medium, with more of personal than of pecunious influence, were such as I have not since witnessed, and such also as were hardly likely to have been equalled, even in the palmy days of the Lyffes, the Ashburnhams, the Beaumonts, the Parkers and the Pelhams, when the night of election was with the jurats and freemen, resident and not receiving alms. One hardly likes to suppose that there was anything in all this that could by any possible means he considered as partaking of the nature of undue influence, howsoever short a period had elapsed after Parliamentary Reform had been achieved for candidates and electors to wholly forget the pocket-borough system. And yet a dreamy thought almost challenges the bare possibility that imaginations reveled(sic) in the vision of something being due to the electoral body for the preferential bestowal of their votes. It does not seem so very difficult to conceive that something more than an intelligent policy on one side and a purely political conviction on the other was necessary to secure a parliamentary seat even no longer than thirty or forty years ago. When Mr, Elphinstone refused to re-try his chance of election on account of “the ruthless expenditure,” and Mr. North declined a contest on the ground of the expense being “too great for a country gentleman of ordinary means,” it would really seem as though the distribution of wealth was the great political lever in those halcyon days when a greatly extended franchise was still within moderate limits by comparison with what it has subsequently become. If, therefore, vast sums of money had to be spent during the period referred to for obtaining and maintaining a parliamentary seat, let those and the descendants of those who benefited by such necessity be thankful that the possessors of the “long purses“ used them with a genial and generous disposition.
