Life
1800-1889; son of Robert Hall who established the Devon Fencibles, 1794;
b. Waterford, moved to Cork and left there for London, 1821; parliamentary
reporter in the House of Lords, 1823; editing the Literary Observer
in 1823; fnd. and ed. The Amulet, A Christian and Literary Remembrancer,
1826-37, up to the collapse of its its publisher, when Hall acquired
all its debts; ed. The Spirit and Manners of the Age (1826), The
Morning Journal (1829-30); sub-ed. and later editor, of New Monthly
Magazine (1830); wrote a History of France (1830) for Colburn’s
Juvenile Library; enrolled at the Inner Temple, and finally called to
the bar in 1841; never practised, but inscribed ‘Barrister at Law’
on title-page of Poems (1850); unsuccessful newspaper, The Town;
sub-ed. John Bull and manager of Britannia; editor and principal
shareholder of Art Union Monthly Journal, 1839, called The Art
Journal from The Art Journal, 1849; ed. Art Journal, 1839-80;
vigorously criticised the trade in Old Masters and pioneered engravings
of sculpture; published engravings of Robert Vernon’s collection
before it went to the National Gallery, 1848; issued authorised catalogue
of 150 engravings taken from Queen Victoria’s private collection,
1851; remained on as paid editor after the failure of an illustrated report
on the Great Exhibition, 1851; Gallery of Modern Sculpture (1849-54);
ed. Book of British Ballads (1842); Memoirs of Great Men and
Women ... from personal acquaintance (1871); retired and received
a civil list pension for fostering art appreciation in England, 1880.
DNB PI DIB DIW DIL IF MKA RAF OCIL
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Works
[Connected with Ireland,] The Talents (Cork 1820); Lines Written
at Jerpoint Abbey (London 1823) [var. 1826]; with Anna Hall, Ireland,
Its Scenery, Character [... &c.], 3 vols. (London: How & Parsons
1841-43); with Anna Hall, A Week at Killarney (1843); Poems
by S. C. Hall FSA, of the Inner Temple, Barrister at law [priv. 1850],
8pp.; Retrospect of a Long Life from 1815 to 1883, 2 vols. (London:
Bentley 1883), includes ‘Recollections of Ireland’; The Beauties
of the Poet Moore (London 1844); Retrospect of a Long Life from
1815 to 1883 (1883).
Reprints, Michael Scott, ed., Hall’s Ireland: Mr & Mrs Hall’s Tour of 1840 [condensed edn.] (London: Sphere 1984), xix, 480pp., ill., maps [infra]
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Notes
Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English, The Romantic
Period (Gerrards Cross 1980), Vol 2, notes that his father was stationed
nr. Waterford; ed. Amulet, Art Journal, et al.; m. Maria
Fielding, 1824; d. Kensington, 16 Mar 1889. [Bibl. as supra].
Emerald Isle Books (1995) lists Ireland, Its Scenery, Character [... &c.], 3 vols. (London: How & Parsons 1841-43) [£325].
Belfast Central Library holds Memory of Thomas Moore (1879), 32pp.; Retrospect of a Long Life, 2 vols. (1883); Sketches of Irish Character (1855); Amulet, ed. (1834); also S. C. and A. M. Hall, Ireland, Its Scenery, character etc., 3 vols. (1841, 1842); The North and The Giant’s Causeway (1853); A Week at Killarney (1850); MORRIS holds Ireland, Its Scenery, Character &c, 3 vols. (1866); A Week at Killarney (1850) 217p.
Peter Ellis Books (Cat. 2004) lists S. C. Hall, ed. & intro., The Book of British Ballads (London: Jermiah How 1842; 2nd edn. 1844), vi, 234pp.; with var. illustrators incl. Richard Dadd [4 to “Robin Goodfellow”], w. B. Scott, J. Franklin, J. H. Townsend, E. Courbould, &c.; called by Gordon Ray ‘the most ambitious English book with wood engravings’ between 1790 and 1914.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)