strong for him; and though he did continue to 'farm his own land,' and to take a great deal of interest in the affairs of the county, the welfare of the service had always prior claims. On 1 May 1888 he was promoted to be admiral of the fleet, and in 1889, and again in 1890, was appointed aide-de-camp to the German emperor during his visits to this country. In 1891 he was officially sent, on the direct invitation of the emperor, to witness the German manoeuvres in Schleswig-Holstein, where his long hunting experience enabled him to astonish the young German princes. Hornby was, in fact, a horseman from his childhood, and as a cross-country rider was among the best. Although he completely recovered from a serious illness in 1888, and from a severe accident in the early spring of 1891, he was then sensibly aged. The death of his wife in January 1892 was a further shock. On 19 Feb. 1895 he attended a levee, the last time in his official capacity, for the next day, his seventieth birthday, he was put on the retired list. On 3 March he died of influenza. The body was cremated at Woking, and the ashes buried at Compton on 9 March.
Hornby married in 1853 Emily Frances, daughter of the Rev. John Coles of Ditcham Park, Hampshire, by whom he had issue. One of his sons, Robert Stewart Phipps Hornby, is now a commander in the navy; an elder son, Edmund John Phipps Hornby, a major in the artillery, has recently (1900) received the Victoria Cross for service in South Africa. While president of the Royal Naval College, Hornby delivered there, in the spring of 1882, a short course of lectures on 'Exercising Squadrons,' the notes of which were printed for the use of naval officers. During his later years he wrote occasionally in the 'Times' and the monthly magazines, always on professional subjects. For many years before his death he was universally recognised in the navy as the highest authority on naval tactics and naval strategy, although, except as a boy at Acre in 1840, he had never seen a shot tired in actual war. But almost the whole of his service was in flagships, and he had thus not only a very exceptional familiarity with fleets, but had also been the recipient of the traditions and the reflections of past generations. A lithographed portrait, after a photograph, was published by Messrs. Griffin of Portsmouth.
[Hornby's Life has been fully written by his daughter, Mrs. Frederick Egerton( 1896), and enriched with many portraits; to this may be added the notices in the Times of 4 March 1895, in the Army and Navy Gazette of 9 March, and the present writer's personal knowledge.]
HORT, FENTON JOHN ANTHONY (1828–1892), scholar and divine, was born on 23 April 1828. His father, Fenton Hort, third son of Sir John Hort, and grandson of Josiah Hort (1674?–1751) [q. v.], arch-bishop of Tuam, was a refined and well educated man of good natural abilities; he had been a scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, and was one of the original members of the Union Debating Society (1815). He had private means, never followed any profession, but had many interests, and was always full of occupation. He married Anne Collett, the daughter of a Suffolk clergyman, a lady of remarkable intellectual power, and of strong old-fashioned evangelical religious views. Their first home was at Leopardstown, a house near Dublin, at the foot of the Three Rock Mountain; but it was in Dublin, at Lady Hort's house, that their eldest child, Fenton John Anthony, was born on 23 April 1828.
The family moved from Dublin to Cheltenham in 1837, and in 1839 young Fenton was sent to the preparatory school kept by the Rev. J. Buckland at Laleham. In October 1841 he was transferred to Rugby, where Arnold was then head-master, and was entered at the house of the Rev. C. Anstey. The first twelvemonth of his public school life was clouded by the death of his younger brother Arthur, to whom he was devotedly attached, and by the death of Dr. Arnold (12 June), whose influence had already made a deep impression upon him. Hort was five years at Rugby (1841–1840), and his intellectual progress during that time was evidently out of the common. He always himself alleged that he derived especial benefit from the vigorous and stimulating teaching of Bonamy Price [q. v.], and used to speak with great affection and gratitude of his head-master, Tait, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury.
He went to Trinity College, Cambridge, in October 1846 as a pensioner. His tutor was William Hepworth Thompson [q. v.] Hort's life as an undergraduate was one of vehement intellectual energy. He read for honours in mathematics and classics; but he seems to have read everything else as well—philosophy, natural science, theology being favourite subjects—and to have followed the course of public affairs with intense interest. He obtained a foundation scholarship at Trinity College in 1849. Unluckily he was attacked by scarlatina shortly before his mathematical tripos. By a great effort and with considerable risk he did the work of the first three days of the examination; but had to be content with a place in the third class (a
