In July 1874 she concluded her management by appearing as Peg Woffington to the Triplet of the veteran Benjamin Webster. On 29 Nov. 1875, at the Amphitheatre, Liverpool, she was the first Clytie in Joseph Hatton's dramatisation of his novel of that title, and played the part at the Olympic in London on 10 Jan. 1876.
After other engagements she played, in January 1877, Cynisca in a revival of Gilbert's 'Pygmalion and Galatea' at the Haymarket, and during the rehearsal had a fresh dispute with the author, whose dictatorial control she attacked in a pamphlet-letter addressed to the profession [see under Gilbert, Sir William Schwenck, Suppl. II]. On 3 Jan. 1878 Miss Hodson appeared to signal advantage at the Queen's as Dolores, Countess Rysoor, in 'Fatherland,' her husband's adaptation of Sardou's 'Patrie.' Shortly afterwards she retired from the stage.
Thenceforth she was chiefly known as the tactful hostess at her husband's successive residences. Pope's Villa, Twickenham, and in Old Palace Yard, Westminster. In 1881 she was instrumental in introducing Mrs. Langtry to the stage, and in 1882 accompanied her to America, but made a quick return owing to a violent dispute with her protégée. In 1903 Labouchere acquired Villa Christina, near Florence, and thither Mrs. Labouchere retired. She died there suddenly of apoplexy on 30 Oct. 1910. She left a daughter, Dora, married, in 1903, to the Marquis Carlo di Rudini. Henry Labouchere died at the Villa Christina on 16 Jan. 1912.
An actress of individuality and high technical accomplishment, Henrietta Hodson was seen at her best in characters where she could mingle demureness with an underlying sense of fun and mischief. When pathos or sentimentality was demanded she was found wanting. Her art was somewhat too delicate and refined for burlesque, in which she showed a lack of animal spirits.
[Pascoe's Dramatic List; The Stage Door (Routledge's Christmas Annual, 1880); Ellen Terry's Story of My Life (with portrait of Miss Hodson); Belville St. Penley's The Bath Stage, 1892; The Bancrofts, 1909; Mrs. T. P. O'Connor, I myself, 1911; Michael Williams's Some London Theatres, 1883; The Stage of 1871, by Hawk's Eye; Strand Mag., May 1894, p. 517; Dutton Cook's Nights at the Play, 1883; Joseph Knight's Theatrical Notes, 1893; Daily Telegraph, 1 Nov. 1910; private information and personal research.]
HOEY, Mrs. FRANCES SARAH, 'Mrs. Cashel Hoey' (1830–1908), novelist, born at Bushy Park, co. Dublin, on 14 Feb. 1830, was one of the eight children of Charles Bolton Johnston, secretary and registrar of the Mount Jerome cemetery, Dublin, by his wife Charlotte Jane Shaw. Frances was educated at home, chiefly by her own efforts. On her sixteenth birthday, 14 Feb. 1846, she married Adam Murray Stewart. There were two daughters of the marriage. In 1853 she began to contribute reviews and articles on art to the 'Freeman's Journal' and the 'Nation' and other Dublin papers and periodicals. Thenceforth until her death she was continuously occupied in journalism, novel-writing or translation.
Her husband Stewart died on 6 Nov. 1856, and his widow then came to London with an introduction to Thackeray. She soon wrote reviews for the 'Morning Post,' to whose editor William Carleton introduced her, and for the 'Spectator.' On 6 February 1858 she married John Cashel Hoey (1828–1893), C.M.G., a knight of Malta and a well-known Dublin journalist. He was a member of the Young Ireland party, and assisted Sir Charles Gavan Duffy [q. v. Suppl. II] when he revived the 'Nation' in 1849, and was editor during 1856–7 after Duffy's departure for Australia (cf. C. G. Duffy, My Life in Two Hemispheres, 1898). He was a devout Roman catholic, and after her marriage his wife adopted his faith. Later Hoey was called to the bar of the Middle Temple (18 Nov. 1861), and was secretary to the agent-general of Victoria in London (1872–3 and 1879–92) and of New Zealand (1874–9) (see Foster's Men at the Bar).
In 1865 Mrs. Hoey began with a story entitled 'Buried in the Deep' a long connection with 'Chambers's Journal,' then under the editorship of James Payn [q. v.]. Until 1894 she was a constant contributor, writing articles, short stories, and two serial novels, 'A Golden Sorrow' (1892) and 'The Blossoming of an Aloe' (1894).
Mrs. Hoey wrote in all eleven novels, dealing for the most part with fashionable society. Her first novel, 'A House of Cards' (3 vols. 1868; 2nd edit. 1871), two later novels, 'Falsely True' (1870) and 'The Question of Cain' (1882), and her last novel, 'A Stern Chase' (1886), each passed into a second edition, and some enjoyed a vogue in Canada and the United States. Mrs. Hoey was also largely responsible for 'Land at Last' (1866), 'Black Sheep' (1867), 'Forlorn Hope' (1867),
