"The book is unexceptionable on the score of taste.... It is an agreeable miscellany into which one may dip at random with the certainty of landing something entertaining, rather than an autobiography of the ordinary kind. The concluding chapter is full of a deep and tender pathos."—_The Manchester Guardian._
"Mr. Hare's style is graceful and felicitous, and his life-history was well worth writing. The volumes simply teem with good things, and in a single article we can but skim the surface of the riches they contain. A word must also be said of the beauty and delicacy of the illustrations. Few living men dare brave criticism by giving us the story of their lives and promising more. But Mr. Hare is quite justified. He has produced a fascinating work, in some parts strange as any romance, and his reminiscences of great men are agreeable and interesting."—_Birmingham Gazette._
"An inexhaustible storehouse of anecdote."—_South-Western News._
"These volumes possess an almost unique interest because of the striking series of portraits we get in them, not so much of celebrities, of whom we often hear enough, but of 'originals' in private life.... They give us a truly remarkable picture of certain sections of European society, and, above all, introduce us to some singularly quaint types of human character."—_Glasgow Herald._
"Brimful of anecdotes, this autobiography will yield plenty of entertainment. We should like to quote many a characteristic little tale, but must content ourselves by heartily recommending all who care for the pleasantest of pleasant gossip concerning famous people and places to procure these three volumes."—_Publisher's Circular._
"Mr. Hare has an easy, agreeable style, and tells a story with humour and skill."—_The Saturday Review._
"It would be well for all who think the children of to-day are over-pampered and too much considered, to read Mr. Hare's life."—_Lady's Pictorial._
"Very delicate, idyllic, and fascinating are the pictures the author has drawn of daily life in old rectories and country houses."—_The World._
"Mr. Hare has the gift, the rare gift, of writing about himself truthfully. Nor can a quick eye for shades of character be denied to Mr. Hare, who does not seem ready to take people at their own estimate or even at what may be called their market price. But we do not detect a touch of malice, but only that knack of telling the truth which is so hateful to the ordinary biographer, and so distasteful to that sentimental public which is never so happy as when devouring sugared falsehoods."—_The Speaker._