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Social Victorians/People/Horniman

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Also Known As

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  • Family name: Horniman
  • Annie Elizabeth Fredericka Horniman
  • Miss Horniman
  • Golden Dawn motto: Fortiter et Recte — "Bravely and Justly" (Howe 296) or "Strongly and Rightly"

Demographics

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  • Nationality: English

Residences

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  • The Mount, Lordship Lane, Dulwich, London (Gilbert 86 144).
  • H. I. Montague Mansions, Portman Square, London (by 9 May 1897) (Horniman typescript).
  • The Midland Hotel, Manchester?

Family

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  • Frederick John Horniman (8 October 1835 – 5 March 1906)
  • Rebekah née Elmslie Horniman (1825 – 14 February 1895)
  1. Annie Elizabeth Fredericka Horniman (3 October 1860 – 6 August 1937)
  2. Elmslie John Horniman (1863 – 11 July 1932)

Acquaintances, Friends and Enemies

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Acquaintances

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Friends, at least at one time or another

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Enemies

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Organizations

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Timeline

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1882 October, Horniman met Mina Bergson at the Slade School of Art, run by Alphonse Legros (AEFH memo 14 July 1898, qtd Howe 64).

1886, Horniman left the Slade School of Art. By this time she had begun attending the Wagner Festival at Bayreuth. Felix Mottl conducted Tristan und Isolde in 1886 (Wikipedia, "Bayreauth Festival").

1890 January, Horniman was initiated into the Golden Dawn (Gilbert 86 144).

1890, MacGregor Mathers became the "curator" (King 89 49) or librarian of the Horniman museum.

1891 December 7, Horniman was initiated into the Inner Order of the Golden Dawn (Gilbert 86 21); this was her "portal date" (Küntz 193).

1891 December, Horniman was going abroad, which is why she was initiated into the Inner Order on the 7th (before Farr) (Howe 93).

1893, Horniman was Sub-Praemonstrator of the Golden Dawn, when Westcott resigned and Farr became Praemonstrator (Greer xvii).

1894 March–April, the season at the Avenue: Yeats's The Land of Heart's Desire, Shaw's Arms and the Man, and Todhunter's The Comedy of Sighs; Farr produced the plays.

1895 February 14, Horniman's mother died (Greer xvii).

1896 January 27, MacGregor Mathers wrote "a long letter" to Farr, as she put it, "in reply to a letter of mine sending a charged drawing of the Egyptian and asking him if I were not grossly deceived by her claiming to be equal in rank to an 8-3 of our Order at the same time giving me numbers which I afterwards calculated to be correct for that grade. I still [on 17 January 1901] possess his letter approving altogether of my working with her, and saying it was necessary to make offerings & then all would be well -- &c &c" (Harper 74 221).

1896 March 28, one week after his initiation into the Golden Dawn, W. T. Horton wrote to Yeats about himself and about Horniman. Harper sees implications in the letter for later disputes regarding Horniman, Yeats, and the writings of Thomas Lake Harris (Harper 80 6). Harper writes: Horniman "was in fact in charge of instruction to new members. A reference to her in Neophyte Horton's letter ... suggests that Harris's doctrines of love were much discussed in the Order at that time. In the light of Miss Horniman's aversion to sex and Horton's later action in leaving the Golden Dawn, joining The Brotherhood of the New Life, and living Platonically with Miss Locke, a reference to a disagreement between Yeats and Miss Horniman over the controlling astral forces in Horton's life is illuminating if not prophetic:

I can't help thinking you right about my star being Venus & not Virgo as suggested by Miss H. I have always been in love with some girl ever since I was a child. Always some girl that I idealised, put on a pinnacle & tried to keep myself pure for her sake. If it was not one girl it was another. I can't help thinking that if I had not married young & also had a very strong spiritual bent, I might have given full sway to the Venus proclivities. But more of this when we meet. I shall be looking forward to my horoscope at your leisure.

Harper's reading of Horniman's "aversion to sex" is loaded and should not be taken at face value. Also, possibly, is his sense of the seriousness of this "disagreement" between Yeats and Horniman. Harper was "able to discover little about Horton's wife or child. Although he refers to her occasionally in the letters to Yeats, Horton says nothing of their life together, and he never mentions their son" (Harper 80 6, n. 25).

1896 April, Horniman was Sub-Praemonstratrix of Isis-Urania (Harper 80 7).

1896 October 29, Mathers demands written submission from the members of the Second Order.

1896 November 23, Horniman wrote Frederick Gardner: "Care 'Daffodil'" -- "What a time of it you must give S.S.D.D. [Farr]. She wants me to study Egyptian too, but I find one new language enough at a time and am hard at work at Italian" (Harper 74 225).

1896 December 3, Horniman's name was removed "from the Roll of the Order" of the Golden Dawn (Howe 136).

1896, neither John William nor Frances Brodie-Innes signed the 1896 petition to reinstate Horniman. They did not want to "challenge" the "superiors" (Howe 142).

1896 December 16, Dolmetsch wanted to go to Florence. Campbell says, "Dolmetsch was always keen to perform in Italy but was unable to afford such a trip on his own account. Horne, as usual, came to the rescue and used his influence to obtain a sponsor, but nowhere is the benefactor named. Although Dolmetsch was scrupulous in limiting his spending to the musical requirements of an undertaking, he was blissfully unconcerned as to the source of the funds so provided. All that occupied his thoughts at the moment was that at last he would be going to Italy -- the land where culture pervaded everything and the very speech was music" (Campbell ???).

1896, end of, Florence Kennedy was, like Horniman, threatened with explusion.

1897 February, Horniman's father remarried, and she cut off ties with her father and brother (Greer xvii).

1897 May 6, H. C. Morris got Edward Berridge's "pamphlet" with the footnote about Horniman and the handwritten "doggerrel" (Howe 173-74).

1897 May 9, Horniman was living at H. I. Montague Mansions, Portman Square, London (Horniman typescript). circa 1898, Henry Pullen Burry left England for North America (the Klondike), and Horniman began to support his family (Rose Pullen Burry, and their three children).

1897 November 2, Arnold Dolmetsch wrote to Herbert Horne that he had 30 subscribers (Campbell 119). Was AEFH one of those subscribers?

1898 December 13 through 1899 February 8, Yeats et al. were in Sligo for the Celtic Explorations (Harper 74).

1898 December 13, there are "a number of divinations" in Yeats's papers; Horniman was doing Celtic Explorations (Harper 74 165, n. 19).

1903 January 3, Madame Troncey was doing a portrait of W. B. Yeats (Wade 392).

1910 May 6, Friday, Edward VII, King of England, died.

1910 May 7, Saturday, The Abbey Theatre in Dublin did not close for Edward VII's death, so Annie Horniman cut them off.

1910 September 26, George Pollexfen died.

Questions and Notes

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  1. Horniman was said to have had a stained-glass window in her home in Marylebone. Any chance it was a Burne-Jones or William Morris one?
  2. Find the Second Order diaries to see exactly when AEFH was there -- exactly what dates (summarized in Howe 101).
  3. Did AEFH know Dolmetsch? was she ever his (secret or otherwise) benefactor?
  4. 1896 December 16, Dolmetsch wanted to go to Florence. Campbell says, "Dolmetsch was always keen to perform in Italy but was unable to afford such a trip on his own account. Horne, as usual, came to the rescue and used his influence to obtain a sponsor, but nowhere is the benefactor named. Although Dolmetsch was scrupulous in limiting his spending to the musical requirements of an undertaking, he was blissfully unconcerned as to the source of the funds so provided. All that occupied his thoughts at the moment was that at last he would be going to Italy -- the land where culture pervaded everything and the very speech was music" (Campbell ???).
  5. Did AEFH know Herbert Horne? (Horne got the funding for Dolmetsch, then in 1896 as at other times.
  6. 1897 November 2, Arnold Dolmetsch wrote to Herbert Horne that he had 30 subscribers (Campbell 119). Was AEFH one of those subscribers?
  7. Dolmetsch met Sybil and brother Russell Thorndike In New York in November 1905 (Campbell 169). Did AEFH know them then?
  8. Did Horniman know George Pierce Baker when he was at Harvard in 1912? He met her at least twice, according to the copied pages in the file, both times in London (Kinne 158).
  9. Did AEFH write a letter in support of the appeal for a Civil Pension for Arnold Dolmetsch? (see July 1936).
  10. The Wagner Festival in Bayreuth began 13 August, 1876. How long did it run each year? Horniman was going by 1886, according to Howe, and she went every year except one until 1914 (66).
  11. Did Annie Horniman know William Rothenstein?

Bibliography

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  • Howe
  • Küntz

Horniman's Writing

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  • Golden Dawn rituals 0=0 through 5=6 were written by MacGregor Mathers and revised some by Horniman and W. B. Yeats (see Harper 74).
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