December, 190S. The Irish Nahualist. 249 



HENRY CHICHESTER HART. 



Henry Chichestkr Hart was born at Raheny, Co. Dublin, 

 on Juh' 29th, 1847, and died at his beautiful residence, Carra- 

 blagh, on the shores of Lough Swilly, on August 7, 1908, 

 aged 61 years. 



His mother delighted in gardens and wild flowers, and his 

 father, Sir Andrew S. Hart, was a distinguished mathe- 

 maticiaU; and Vice-Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, so 

 that his son's ability and taste for botanj^ were doubtless 

 hereditary. Donegal was the native county of the family, 

 and when about seventeen ^xars of age, Henr}', in com- 

 pany with his eldest brother, George V. Hart (now K.C., of 

 Woodside, Howth), began to scour the mountains of Donegal 

 each summer for wild flowers.; and the two brothers determined, 

 by means of that well-known and ingenious key in Bentham's 

 British Flora, to make out the name of every plant gathered. 

 Benth^m was, indeed; the British botanist's bible in the 

 sixties of the last centur}', and the writer of this notice well 

 remembers the keen interest taken at that period in ascertain- 

 ing the correct name of a species by comparison with the key 

 above referred to. 



Hart distinguished himself in three spheres of activity — 

 phj'sical, scientific, and literar}^ the combination of which 

 in a single individual is exceptional. He entered Trinity 

 College; Dublin, in 1866, and took his B.A. Degree with 

 honours in 1S69 by obtaining a Moderatorship in Experi- 

 mental and Natural Science. He was a well-known athlete, 

 tall (6 feet r inch) and handsome, a powerful swimmer, and 

 the champion walker for some years at the College Races, 

 his chief competitors being his 3 ounger brother, William Ho 

 Hart, W. J. Craig, who subsequently became, like himself, an 

 eminent Shakespearian scholar, and Abraham Stoker, after- 

 wards the late Sir Henry Irving's secretar}^ and biographer. 



Hart was conscious of his athletic superiority, and most 

 walking companions who could not keep up with him were 

 left behind unnoticed, and for this reason many of his bota- 

 nical expeditions were made alone. The writer's only chance 

 of keeping up with him in the mountains was to suggest 

 the ascent of some difficult gully or a traverse along the ledge 



A. 



