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Author: Hole, Richard

Biography:

HOLE, Richard (1746-1803: ODNB)

Born at Exeter, he was the son of Thomasin Evans and her husband William Hole, archdeacon of Barnstaple and canon of Exeter Cathedral. He was educated at the Exeter grammar school and Exeter College, Oxford; he was ordained in 1770 and graduated BCL in 1771. He returned to Devon and was curate at Stockleigh Pomeroy and at Littleham before becoming vicar at Buckerell in 1777. In 1776 he married Wilhelmina Katencamp, daughter of an Exeter merchant. His literary career began with translations. In 1772 he published a verse translation of James Macpherson’s (q.v.) Ossian poems, Fingal: A Poem in Six Books; this was followed by his Homeric Hymn to Ceres (1781). He contributed to periodicals: the Monthly Review, British Magazine, and Gentleman’s Magazine. He was also closely associated with an Exeter literary society that included Richard Polwhele (q.v.) with whom Hole later publicly and acrimoniously fell out. Papers that Hole read to the literary society resulted in his Remarks on the Arabian Nights Entertainment (1797). In 1792 he was promoted to the Rectory of Faringdon which he held until his death. He died at Exmouth, survived by his wife and two daughters. John Herman Merivale (q.v.) was his nephew. (ODNB 25 Mar. 2021; ancestry.co.uk 25 Mar. 2021; CCEd 25 Mar. 2021; WorldCat)

 

 

Books written (5):

Exeter: [no publisher: printed by B. Thorn, sold by Dilly in London], 1781
Dublin: [no publisher: printed by Zachariah Jackson], 1790
Bath/ London/ Oxford/ Cambridge: [no publisher: printed by Cruttwell and sold by Cruttwell/ Cadell/ Fletcher/ Merrill], 1792
London/ Oxford/ Cambridge/ Bath: T. Cadell, G. Dilly, and G. G. and J. Robinson/ Fletcher/ Merrill/ Cruttwell, 1806