Adventure and novelist, Sir Henry Rider Haggard was born 22 June 1856 at Bradenham, Norfolk, UK, the son of Sir William Rider Haggard. Haggards father send him to South Africa in 1875 to be assistant to the secretary of Sir Henry Bulwer, Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of Natal and old friends of the Haggard family. Haggard was to travel out with Bulwer and after a stopover in Cape Town arrived in Durban aboard the Florence.He later joined Sir Theophilus Shepstone, Commissioner for the Transvaal, as a member of his staff and witnessed the annexation of the Boer Republic of Transvaal, in April 1877, and ran up the British flag. Haggard met and married Marianna Louisa Margitson (1859-1943) on 11 August 1880 and returned to South Africa that same year. The intention was to join his friend Cochrane, farming ostriches at Hilldrop. In 1882, Haggard moved back to England, where he studied law and was called to the bar in 1884. He however was an uncommitted lawyer and commenced his writing career after settling in Hammersmith. It was King Solomon’s Mines (1885), that brought him fame, followed by She (1887), Allan Quartermain (1887) and sequel Ayesha. Rider Haggard’s book Jess is based on his time whilst at Hilldrop and his experiences farming ostrich, the travails of flooded rivers. In the book the farm Mooifontein can be recognised, as can Lion Kloof, the hill directly behind Hilldrop. Haggard was appointed Knight Batchelor in 1912 and Knight Commander of the British Empire in 1919 (KCMG). The original home built in 1875, forms the core of the bed and breakfast, built in 1981 stood on the 3-hectare site originally, the farm Rooipoint and later Mooifontein. Haggard had bought the farm with his partner Cochrane where they intended to farm cattle and ostriches. Haggard lived in this brown stone, thatched house at the foot of Lions Kloof, a kopjie, from 1881 until he left South Africa in 1882. The arrival of Haggard and his wife Louie had coincided with the outbreak of the first Anglo Boer War, and for a few days the family was laagered in Newcastle. After the losses at Majuba, a truce was signed on 6 March 1881, in the small cottage belonging to the O’Neil’s on Laings Nek. Hilldrop was rented out to British officials, including Sir Hercules Robinson presiding over the Royal Commission into the Majuba ‘affair’, for 50 pounds a week until 2 June 1881. The rent had alleviated Haggard and Cochrane’s poor financial state, whilst the family in the in the interim lived in the barns and mill-house. The events that had transpired had persuaded Haggard, that there was no future in South Africa, and he left in August 1881. The farm was left in the hands of George and a Mr North, the farm’s miller. Only two years later 29 April 1883 was the partnership dissolved and the farm sold. The furniture had been auctioned on 23 August 1881 when the Haggards left the farm, in the last weeks of August and Natal aboard the Dunkeld on 31 August 1882. The farm produced hay and mielies and erected a steam driven grinding mill and hired out wagons to the Government. Haggard’s Hilldrop house, on the outskirts of Newcastle was declared a National Monument in 1981. Haggard left after the first Anglo Boer War in 1881, after the terms of the peace accord had been negotiated in his home, after the defeat of the British at Majuba and signing of the truce at O’Neil’s Cottage. This resulted in the return of the Transvaal to the Boers. The irony was not lost on Haggard who had raised the annexation flag in Pretoria five years prior. Haggard revisited the Union of South Africa in 1914, for the first time since 1881 and reunited in Pietermaritzburg with his old servant friend Mazooku (correct spelling Masuku), who features in some of his books. Information from his visit to Mazooku and an old Zulu, Socwatsha, was the background for another book, Finished. Haggard and Mazooku, toured many parts of Zululand including Isandlewana and Nkandla, before taking leave of Mazooku for the last time in Pietermaritzburg. He was one of six Royal Commissioners reporting on the Dominions. He revisited Hilldrop and wandered around all his old haunts, before leaving for the last time. Haggard died on 14 May 1925 in Ditchingham, England and is buried under a marble slab in St Mary’s Church.
