[ { "id": 211986, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 401, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "376\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\nNOTES ON \n\nTHE ROBERT HART PAPERS \n\nAT THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG LIBRARY' \n\nThe Robert Hart Collection at the Hung On-To Memorial Library, University of Hong Kong, is an exciting discovery, and worthy complement to better known Hart papers at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and Queen's University, Belfast. The collection is sorted into 9 box files and 3 cartons, with the manuscript letters undoubtedly constituting the most valuable part. In particular, Hart's letters to his wife, 492 in all, from 1866 to 1907, written predominantly on a weekly basis, are really quite priceless. While very personal in tone and content, these letters also tell much about Hart's work, his social life and his reactions to current events in China, and should be of interest to anyone working on Hart, the Imperial Maritime Customs, modern China and Sino-British diplomacy. Moreover, he comes through these letters as a passionate, sensuous and poetic man, and any biography of him would not really be complete without reference to these letters.\n\nBOX I \n\nLetters from Hart to Lady Hart (Hester Bredon) \n\n \n Bundle\n Year\n Number\n Date\n of letters\n \n \n 1.\n 1866\n 8\n (16 June - 18 Aug; letter dated 27 July encloses his photograph)\n \n \n \n 2.\n 1868\n (1 sketch)\n \n \n \n \n 3.\n 1869\n 4\n (#14, 4 Dec - 27 Dec)\n \n \n \n 4.\n 1870\n 44\n (#5 — 39, 9 Jan - 30 July) (#1 — 9, ? Aug - 12 Sept)\n \n \n \n 5.\n 1871\n 31\n (#3 — 30, 4 June - 7 Sept) 3 unnumbered\n \n \n \n 6.\n 1872\n 3\n \n \n \n \n 7.\n 1875\n 21\n (Unnumbered, 26 July - 2 Aug) (#118, 18 June - 11 Oct)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211990, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 405, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "380\n\na. Hart to Geo. McAnliffe Esqre, 7 Aug 1880\n\nb. Hart to Association of Ulster-men-in-London, 22 Jan 1909 (draft)\n\nc. Hart to Nellie (?), 18 April 1897\n\nd. Hart to (?) [only postscript]\n\nReceipt of £146 3s. 9d. bequeathed to Hester Jane Bredon (Hart)\n\nDocuments to Bond and Stockholders, National Consolidated Wire and\n\nCable Co.\n\nLetters, Evy to Mabel (7)\n\nSheets of paper with Evy's German? School exercise\n\n1 photograph\n\nCongratulations on birth of child, 8 July 1873\n\nBOX 6\n\nBundles of telegrams to Hart and Lady Hart\n\nBundle of Lady Hart's papers re her investments, esp. National Steel\n\nand Wire\n\nLetters to Lady Hart from various institutions and persons, mainly\n\ncondolences for Hart's death\n\nLetters to Bruce Hart, condolences for his father's death\n\nBOX 7\n\nChinese despatch, Hart to Prince Ch'ing, Kuang-hsu 26.8.22 (15 Sept\n\n1900)\n\nChinese despatch from the Grand Councillor to Hart (received, 1 Sept\n\n1900)\n\nBundle of 24 Chinese documents (folded scrolls) marked \"Various proposals of mine 1900 1908, R. Hart\", on mint, currency, reforms, land tax, gold tariff and other subjects\n\nBundle of 11 Chinese documents, unmarked, but similar to above, 1904\n\n- 1906.\n\nBOX 8\n\nRobert's (Robin) letters, mostly to his mother. This is a very large\n\ncollection.\n\nPage 405\n\nPage 406", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216356, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 115, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "64\n\nsome of the vagueness that has been apparent in previous research on Hart's secret domestic life.\n\nDiscovery and transcription of the statutory declarations\n\nThe statutory declarations written by Sir Robert Hart were discovered in 2002 in the Special Collections, Queen's University Belfast (QUB). They are part of Hart's papers, which were donated to Queen's University Belfast by Hart's great-grandson, the last Sir Robert who died in 1970 without an heir.\n\nOne of the statutory declarations was produced by Hart on 19th August 1905 when he was in China; it details his previous non-marital relationship with the Chinese girl Ayaou and the three children from that relationship, and his marital relationship with Hester (Hessie) Jane Bredon and his son, Edgar Bruce from their marriage (this shall be known as \"Declaration 1\"). The other two statutory declarations were written by Hart at a later date on 20th December 1910 - exactly nine months before he died - at his London home (38 Cadogan Place). The content of one of these declarations is similar to that of Declaration 1, but this time Hart changes the way he describes the relationships (this shall be known as \"Declaration 2\"). A third statutory declaration details his marital relationship with Hester Jane Bredon, his three children from their marriage, and their subsequent marriages (this shall be known as \"Declaration 3\"). Four documents are attached to Declaration 2 and 3, marked \"A\", \"B\", \"C\", and \"D\" respectively. The document marked \"A\" is the marriage certificate of Hart and Hester Jane Bredon, and the documents marked respectively \"B\", \"C\", and \"D\" are birth certificates for the children from Hart's marriage to Hester Jane Bredon.\n\nTo give readers a clearer and more general idea about the contents of the declarations, we have transcribed the relevant items as follows.\n\nDeclaration 1:\n\nWhen I arrived in China in 1854, I found that any acquaintance I made kept his Chinese girl, and in 1857 I fell into the habit myself. The girl kept by me was a Cantonese named Ayaou. She was with me at Ningpo during 1857 and went with me when transferred to Canton in February 1858; I left her then at Macao, and, although", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216357, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 116, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "65\n\nshe continued to be kept i.e. paid ($30 a month) by me till I went home on leave in 1866, we never lived together afterwards and very rarely met. Between 1858 & 1864 she gave birth to three children. In 1866 the connection was dissolved and Ayaou was then presented with $3000 when she surrendered her children to my agent and herself married a Chinaman. The children were sent to England and it was arranged that W. Hutchins my lawyer should take charge of them: I then entrusted him with £6000 for their benefit. They were described as my wards and were named respectively Anna, Herbert and Arthur. At the time W. Hutchins took charge they were lodging with one of the employees of Smith, Elder & Co. Anna died some years ago: [,] Arthur went about the same time to Canada and recently Herbert left England to join him there. I never saw any of the children of Ayaou's since they left China, and, while in China, I believe I only saw Anna twice or three times, Herbert once, and Arthur never. As they were all born while Ayaou was kept by me I decided to provide them respectably, and did so, rather than leave them to their fate in China. Ayaou was a very good little girl & well-behaved but we were not married, and she was not my wife, and her children were illegitimate.\n\nI was married to Hester Jane Bredon in 1866: [,] she is my wife: [.] I was never married to any other: [,] her son Edgar Bruce is my only legitimate son, and is the legitimate heir to the Baronetcy!\n\nI certify the above statement to be true in every respect,\n\nRobert Hart (signature) Peitaiho, 19th August 1905\n\nDeclaration 2., Item 12:\n\n1. In the year 1857 when in China I formed a connection with a Chinese girl named Ayaon.* At that time it was a common practice", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216359, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 118, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "67\n\nShortly after this incident in his letter to his London agent and confidant, James Duncan Campbell (ibid: 1478), Hart responded to the attempts at blackmail by one of his wards, Herbert, who demanded money from him:\n\nMy principle, in a general sense, is to \"face the music\" and pay no \"blackmail\" - but this has to be whittled into fitting form so as to cause as little worry as possible to others. I wish you had dipped deeper into my purse and sent off Herbert with £100 instead of only a \"Five Pound Note\".\n\nIn the same letter, Hart also referred to an incident in 1904 involving the two wards (ibid: 1479):\n\nI dare say we shall hear more of Herbert and Arthur from Canada: already a year ago someone who signed \"E. B. Hart\" wrote me from Canada saying a young man was moving about using my name (possibly Arthur) and asking me to authorise denial!\n\nIn the end of the letter Hart also wrote a post script mentioning that Lady Hart and her daughter, Nollie, planned to visit America, even this caused him disquiet (ibid);\n\nLady H. and Nollie propose visiting America this autumn: I don't want to dissuade them, but it is possible Herbert may find them out and something disagreeable may occur.\n\nIt indicates that Hart was concerned by these recurring troubles. He realised the repercussions of his 'mistake' were far from over. It is in this context that he wrote the first statutory declaration - Declaration 1, dated 19th August 1905, only 8 days after he wrote the letter mentioned above to Campbell. In the declaration, Hart, after detailing his non-marital relationship with Ayaou and the illegitimacy of his three children by her, declares clearly that \"I was married to Hester Jane Bredon in 1866; she is my wife: her son Edgar Bruce is my only legitimate son, and is the legitimate heir to the Baronetcy!\" It is obvious that although Hart was annoyed with Herbert for his attempts at blackmail, Hart's main concern is not money but the inheritance of his title. The fact that Herbert himself made claim in the newspaper - \"eldest son of Sir Robert Hart\" - and also the possibility that Arthur moved about using Hart's", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216360, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 119, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "68\n\nJ\n\nname must have caused him deep concern. According to the common law prevailing at the time Hart wrote the document, “a child was illegitimate if it was not born in wedlock” and “the illegitimate child had no rights of succession\" (R. H. Graveson and F. R. Crane 1957: 42-3). However, Hart's arrangements for Ayaou and his three children by her after the termination of their relationship could lead to confusion if there was a court case. From Declaration 1 and 2, we know that Hart took custody of his three wards by Ayaou and spent a huge sum of money supporting their living and education in England. He also provided Ayaou with a large sum of money when they separated. If Hart had not made a legal statement detailing his non-marital relationship with Ayaou and the illegitimacy of his three children by her, it may have been difficult to prove, after his death, that his three wards by Ayaou were definitely illegitimate and consequently without legal rights of succession.\n\nDeclaration 1 was written on Hart's own official writing paper and it is much less formal than Declaration 2 and 3, the latter were formally declared before a Commissioner for Oaths and with the words \"do solemnly and sincerely declare as follows\". In fact, when Hart made Declaration 2 and 3 in 1910, two of his wards by Ayaou, Anna and Herbert had already died; however, past experience must have made him alert to the possibility that his surviving ward, Arthur and any grandchildren from his three wards might cause some trouble for his family after his death. In Declaration 2, he stresses what he stated in his previous declaration - Declaration 1: \"Ayaou and I were never married. She was not my wife. Her three children above referred to were illegitimate\". It indicates that Hart wants to make sure that his three children from his marriage to Hester Jane Bredon are his only descendents with legal rights of succession.\n\nHart's wife, Lady Hart may have encouraged him to prepare such a document. As mentioned above, she herself had experienced trouble from one of Hart's wards, Herbert, and she visited the Morning Post immediately after she learnt the news that Herbert had announced, in that newspaper, his departure from England by calling himself \"eldest son of Sir Robert Hart\". Lady Hart's prompt reaction to the issue indicates that she was conscious enough of Hart's relationship with Ayaou and his three children by her. From Hart's letter to Campbell we know that Hart didn't think Lady Hart's visit to the Morning Post a good idea and he worried that her visit might be \"good 'fuel' for a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216361, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 120, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "69\n\n6\n\npossible conflagration” (ibid: 1478). Although both Hart and Lady Hart were deeply concerned about the issue, they may each have had a different focus. For Hart, his main priority was his considerable reputation as Inspector General (I.G.) of the CIMC - a position of importance spanning almost forty years at this stage (1905) and inheritance of his title - the Baronetcy, while Lady Hart's main concerns were domestic matters and family interest. She married Hart in 1866 when she was 18 and Hart was 31 years of age (Bell, 1985: 24). After marriage, she spent ten years living with Hart in Beijing and then prepared herself to see the wider world. She left China in 1882 and did not return again until 1906. She “enjoyed living alone” (Bell, 1903), “a house in a good part of London, together with a handsome allowance and costly presents, all provided by Hart” (Bruner, Fairbank and Smith 1986: 323). Although Hart did not tell her anything about Ayaou and his three children by her in the first few months of their falling in love, he did later confess to the \"mistakes\" he made. She took Hart's advice and married him for the future and established a firm marital relationship with him. However, she certainly did not want to see the previous relationship between Hart and Ayaou causing any trouble during her married life. The incident orchestrated by Herbert must have worried her and made her feel the need for a legal document to prevent her family from being troubled by the wards or their descendants after Hart's death, perhaps particularly, with regard to the inheritance of his title and property.\n\nHart's confession to the relationship with Ayaou\n\nIn Declaration 1 and 2, Hart gives a full statement of his relationship with Ayaou. This provides us with a version of his confession that might well indicate the way in which he confessed to the relationship before. Although Hart completely severed his relationship with Ayaou before returning home on leave in 1866, it seemed it was not possible for him to look to the future without some shadow of the past. Hart felt all the awkwardness of his position when confessing to his fiancée Miss Hester Jane Bredon. In his diary, 13 June 1866, Hart writes:\n\n“Let the dead past bury its dead:”- that is easy enough: what is not so easy is to keep the future free from intrusiveness on the part of the products of the past. Does complete confidence mean “to have no secrets for the future”, or “to reveal all that has been done in the past”? (Smith, Fairbank, Burner 1991: 384)\n\nPage 120\n\nPage 121", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216364, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 123, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "72\n\nhe did want to sever the relationship with Ayaou in 1858 when she first became pregnant. In his diary entry for 26 May 1858 he writes \"Ayaou two months\n\n\"Then, on 16 September \"I went to see Ayaou who came back from Macao the night before last... I must cut the connection. He even started managing a new native partner named Ayi. On 22 September he wrote: \"...Went to see Ayi near N.E. gate.\" 23 September: \"Settle for Ayi $100 and $22Ch. ...\" 26 September: \"Again Ayi.” The arrangement, as it is suggested by Bruner, Fairbank and Smith, is \"undoubtedly quite according to custom in the colonial Asia of the 1850s”. (1986: 232)\n\nHowever, Hart's diary entries stop two months and ten days later when Ayaou would have given, or be about to give, birth to their daughter Anna. \"The fact of fatherhood suddenly makes a difference to Robert Hart. There is no other way to account for the record, for he resumes the connection with Ayaou and they have two more children.\" (ibid) Hart might have changed the way in which he maintained the relationship since he left her at Macao - as he states in Declaration 1: \"we never lived together afterwards\" - and in that sense he could say he \"ceased to live with her\". But, it is by no means obvious that he terminated the relationship and only \"saw her but seldom”. His emotional and physical involvement in the relationship is much deeper than that which he describes above, it is significant that in Declaration 1 we find the statement: \"Ayaou was a very good little girl & well-behaved.\" Almost ten years after he finally terminated the relationship and married Hester Jane Bredon, he received photographs of his three wards from England. He wrote to Campbell (Fairbank, Bruner and Matheson 1975: 205);\n\nAnna is very like what her mother was when I first saw her in 1857: only her mother was not pock-marked. I want Anna to stay at school four years more, and I hope she will be a nice, presentable girl by that time. Her mother was one of the most amiable and sensible people imaginable.\"\n\nThe records show that Hart did not only treat Ayaou and his three children by her with kindness and generosity, but also with love. As Bruner, Fairbank and Smith have argued (1986: 154):\n\nIndeed, looking ahead at his twenty years of married life with", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216365, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 124, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "73\n\nHester Jane Bredon (1866-1886) and the subsequent twenty-two years of living alone in Peking after Lady Hart moved back to enjoy life in London, we may surmise that Hart's years of liaison with Ayaou (roughly 1857-1865) gave him his fill of romance, including both his satisfactions and its limitations. For whatever reason, after that his need for feminine companionship declined as he steadily and inexorably became more enamoured of managing the Chinese Imperial Maritime Custom Service.\n\nThis point can be proved by what Hart says in his diary entry for 23 July 1864:\n\nMerely, I presume, that I have gotten through the \"love-fever, 20@30, term of life, and that for the future something other than woman will chiefly attract me. (Smith, Fairbank, Bruner 1991: 384)\n\nHart, of course, did not want to embarrass his family by confessing to a long relationship with Ayaou, a relationship that affected his life in so many ways, including his first experience of fatherhood. Thus, in Declaration 1 and 2 he attempted to reduce the extent of his relationship with Ayaou. He even covered up the year when his third child by Ayaou was born so that the duration of his sexual relationship with Ayaou was made even shorter. (We will give a more detailed analysis of this issue later in the paper.)\n\nHart also attempted to reduce the extent of his relationship with his children by Ayaou. In Declaration 2 he stated: \"To the best of my recollection and belief I have seen Anna twice or three times only and Herbert once only. This was in China. I have never seen Arthur.\" It might be true that, as suggested before, Hart never had a chance to see his youngest son Arthur, as his intimate relationship with Ayaou might have ceased before the boy was born. However, it seems unlikely that he saw Anna \"twice or three times only and Herbert once only\". It was fatherhood that made Hart cease his relationship with his new native partner Ayi and resume his relationship with Ayaou. If he had not had both enjoyment with and responsibility for his children by Ayaou, particularly the girl Anna, he would have already abandoned Ayaou in 1858. It has been argued that (Bruner, Fairbank, Smith 1986: 232) Hart “was a man of conscience and in later life affectionate, almost doting, toward little girls and young women. One can imagine how his baby", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216367, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 126, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "75\n\nconfession as similar as possible to that which he made in 1866 to his fiancée Miss Hester Jane Bredon, but also acceptable at this later date - almost half a century after his relationship with Ayaou.\n\nHart's ceasing and resuming his sexual relationship with Ayaou\n\nThe duration of Hart's sexual relationship with Ayaou has long been vague to researchers due to limited primary sources concerned with this matter. It has only been possible to give a rough idea: \"Hart's years of liaison with Ayaou (roughly 1857-1865)...\" (Bruner, Fairbank, Smith 1986: 154)\n\nIn Declaration 2 Hart himself states: \"Ayaou lived with me at Ningpo during 1857 and went with me when I was transferred to Canton in February 1858. ... In 1866 I went home on leave and on that occasion the connection between Ayaou and myself was finally dissolved.\" This confirms that Hart did indeed start his relationship with Ayaou in 1857, but it was not finally terminated until 1866. This, however, does not necessarily mean that Hart maintained a sexual relationship with Ayaou for this time. In his diary entry for 6 August 1864 Hart writes:\n\nTemptation to get a concubine is very strong, I must confess: nothing bothers me so much, as my liking for women. It is, however, more than a year since I even touched one! (Smith, Fairbank, Bruner 1991: 171)\n\nIn his diaries entry for the 14 August 1864 he also writes: \"Now, for a whole year, I have on principle abstained from womanising.” (ibid: 179) These records give us a clue to the time when he ceased his sexual relationship with Ayaou. If \"more than a year\" is traced from 6 August 1864 back or “a whole year\" from 14 August 1864 back, we are talking about the summer of 1863. This tallies with the time indicated in the second gap left in Hart's diaries: it starts on 6 December 1858 and ends on 6 June 1863 - ending at the exact time when he started to abstain from womanising. It indicates that Hart did not have a sexual relationship with Ayaou between the early summer 1863 and the late August 1864.\n\nIn both Declaration 1 and 2, Hart states: \"Between 1858 and 1864", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216374, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 133, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "82\n\nhigh intent, and for Hart it cleared the way, as honourably as he could, for a British marriage.” (ibid: 363) Hart saw his career as I.G. in China as a long-term commitment. He was proud to hold the position of I.G. at twenty-eight years of age and on 24 December 1863 writes in his diary: \"My life has been singularly successful: not yet twenty-nine, and at the head of a service which collects nearly three millions of revenue, in, - of all countries in the world! - the exclusive land of China. \" (ibid: 53) Thus, when he planned to find a European girl to marry during his home leave in 1866 he definitely hoped that his future wife would stay with him in China. His proposal to Miss Hester Jane Bredon bears this out: \"Could you find it in your heart to come to China with me?\" (Bell: 57) Planning his future like this, sending the children to England to be educated regardless of the expense seemed the best possible solution to sever all connection with the past and to clear the way for Hart's future married life and career in China.\n\nHart certainly could not foresee the future when he made such an arrangement for his children with Ayaou. At that time he probably didn't think that his future wife would eventually return to live in London permanently even though he accepted it when it did happen because he felt \"matrimony does interfere with a man's work at times\". In 1875 when Lady Hart decided to go home, Hart began to think of a new arrangement for his three wards. In his letter to Campbell on 5 June 1875, he asked him, on his private behalf, to make some rearrangements for his three wards who at that time still lived in London and were cared for by Mrs Davison whose husband was a bookkeeper in Smith, Elder & Co. He wanted the two boys to be sent to boarding school at Clifton College and \"when being placed at one of the boarding-houses I want it to be arranged that they shall spend their 1875-1876 vacations there\"; he wanted the girl \"to be sent for three years to a Protestant boarding school on the Continent\" and \"Her vacations will also have to be spent at school.” (Fairbank, Bruner, Matheson 1975: 192-3). It should be noted that 1875-1876 is when Lady Hart prepared and finally returned to Europe. Thus it may be argued that Hart's changed arrangements for his wards in 1875 was not simply a random act resulting from some past memory of Ayaou as suggested (Wang: 140). Less than a month later in a letter to Campbell on 2 July 1875 Hart tells his friend quite clearly: \"Mrs Hart has positively declared that she'll go home next spring\" (Fairbank, Bruner and Matherson 1975: 198) In this case, sending his wards to boarding school and arranging for them", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216378, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 137, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "86\n\nHart's house and photographed him: \"He was extremely friendly, asked us to dinner, kept us talking, assuring us that he was a man busy enough always to have time to give people. Month after month, year after year, for the last 50 years has found him always at work; for 25 years he has had no holiday; he never goes away and has never been even to the Great Wall. 'My wife used to do my sightseeing and my visiting for me' he said. 'She was very useful to me. It's difficult to live alone.' I didn't know what to answer as Lady Hart seems to find it more difficult not to live alone.\"\n\n*\n\n7 The marital relationship between Hart and Lady Hart, as Bruner, Fairbank and Smith argued (1986: 322), is that \"each offered something the other was seeking.\" In his journal entry for 22 August 1867 - their first anniversary - he wrote: \"No one could have a better wife than I have got & so far, we have got on well together.\" Then he added: “At the same time, matrimony does interfere a man's work at times.\" (Volume 9, Transcribed by Deirdre Wildy, 15 September 2003)\n\n$\n\n* Similar statement can also be seen in Declaration 1\n\n\"Census place: Cliffton, Gloucester, England. Source: FHL film 1341597, PRO Ref RG11, Piece 2482, Folio 38, Page 22.\n\n10 See Bruner, Fairbank, and Smith edited “Entering China's Service” (1986: 150): \"Volume 3, as it now exists, begins on 20 March 1858, after a lapse of almost three years. The first pages of this new book, however, were torn out by Hart, who then wrote on the flyleaf '20 March to 6 Dec. 1858' as if that were the normal content of the volume.\" \"It seems evident that Hart did some tidying-up of his journals years later, perhaps in 1902 when Hosea B. Morse asked\n\n11\n\npermission to see them in connection with a proposed biography.\"\n\nIn March 1866 Hart left for home on leave and in late May he fell in love with Miss Hester Jane Bredon. This happened less than a year after Hart's third child was born. Hart was very determined to find a European girl to marry during his visit home. He knew that his proposal to Hester might be refused if he told her the truth, particularly the year when Arthur was born - giving proof to the fact that he continued his sexual relationship with Ayaou until at least late 1864. For Hart the best way to convince Hester to accept the reality of the situation was to let her believe that all these events had taken place a long time ago and she could therefore \"forget the past and welcome the future\". Perhaps it is for this reason that there are contradictions between Hart's statements concerning the year of Arthur's birth in Declaration 1 and 2 and those in his letter to Campbell as well as that which is recorded in 1881 British Census,\n\n12 Hart only felt a bit annoyed when he received two letters from her in 1870 and 1872 and troubled by two of his wards by her between 1904 and 1905.\n\n17\n\n13 See Declaration I.\n\n14 The sum of money equals £28,704, as $5 at that time roughly equals £1. In his", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]