Greville MacDonald published, and Greville remembers his ‘braggart avowal that I wished there were 60,000 volumes of it’. Carroll had been uncertain as to its potential for publication, until he tried the manuscript with the MacDonald children and had an enthusiastic reception. Alex Munro used Greville as a model for his sculpture in Hyde Park of a boy with a fish. Greville attributes his understanding of Latin to Octavia Hill (who became a co-founder of the National Trust in 1895, along with Haslemere’s Sir Robert Hunter) who joined the family on holiday in 1867 at Bude, and became a lifelong friend of
Octavia Hill was small in stature with a long body and short legs. She did not dress, she only wore clothes, which were often unnecessarily unbecoming; she had soft and abundant hair and regular features, but the beauty of her face lay in brown and very luminous eyes, which quite unconsciously she lifted upwards as she spoke on any matter for which she cared. Her mouth was large and mobile, but not improved by laughter. Indeed, Miss Octavia was nicest when she was made passionate by her earnestness." Barnett also spoke of Hill's streak of ruthlessness. Gertrude Bell called Hill despotic. Later