Page "Octavia Hill" Paragraph 30

When John Singer Sargent's portrait of her was presented by her fellow-workers in 1898, Hill made a speech in which she said, " When I am gone, I hope my friends will not try to carry out any special system, or to follow blindly in the track which I have trodden.

New circumstances require various efforts, and it is the spirit, not the dead form, that should be perpetuated.

... We shall leave them a few houses, purified and improved, a few new and better ones built, a certain amount of thoughtful and loving management, a few open spaces ..." But, she said, more important would be " the quick eye to see, the true soul to measure, the large hope to grasp the mighty issues of the new and better days to come – greater ideals, greater hope, and patience to realize both.