Kyrle

Kyrle, JOHN (1637-1724), philanthropist, was styled the Man of Ross by Pope, having resided for the greater part of his life in the small town of Ross, Herefordshire. He spent his time and fortune in building churches and hospitals, on an income amounting to £600 a year. Pope celebrated his praises in his third Moral Epistle, and Warton said that he deserved to be celebrated beyond any of the heroes of Pindar. The Kyrle Society is a modern association named after him, and was started by Misses Miranda and Octavia Hill in 1875, and founded in 1877 by Prince Leopold and others. The society seeks to bring the influences of natural and artistic beauty home to the lives of the people by means of the decoration of workmen's clubs, of hospital wards, and of dwelling-houses; by the encouragement of window-gardening; providing concerts for the people; and by securing open spaces, both in town and country, to be laid out as public gardens. See an article in Good Words, 1881.