HOPE, THOMAS, author and connoisseur, was born in London in 1774. While still a youth he travelled over a large portion of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and collected many drawings, chiefly of buildings and sculptures. In England he first attracted attention by the splendid decorations which he bestowed on the interior of his mansion in Duchess Street, Portland Place, London, a description of which appeared in his book on Household Furniture (1805). In 1809 he published Costume of the Ancients and Architecture of Theatres, in 1812 Modern Costumes, and in 1819 (anonymously) Anastasius, or Memoirs of a Modern Greek at the close of the 18th Century. This last work is his masterpiece, and by many was ascribed to Lord Byron, who was greatly flattered by the rumour. It is certainly a brilliant and erudite performance; still it wants the dramatic vis of a genuine work of genius. Hope died 3d February 1831, leaving behind him a very heterodox but rather eloquent essay On the Origin and Prospects of Man (1831), and an Historical Essay on Architecture (1835).
His third son, ALEXANDER JAMES BERESFORD-HOPE, born in 1820, was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1841. He was twice Conservative member for Maidstone (1841-52, 1857-59), and for Cambridge University from 1868 till his death on 20th October 1887. In 1880 he was sworn a privy-councillor, and in 1881 Dublin University created him an honorary LL.D. A zealous High-Churchman, he was the principal founder of St Augustine's missionary college at Canterbury (q.v.), and published several works on church topics, as well as two novels, Strictly Tied Up (1880) and The Brandreths (1882). He was also a proprietor of the Saturday Review.