Holt, Sir John, English lawyer, born at Thame, Oxfordshire; called to the bar in 1663; was a prominent counsel in the State trials of his age, and rose to be Lord Chief-Justice of the King's Bench under William III., an office whose duties he discharged with unflinching integrity and fairness (1642-1710).
Holtzmann, Adolf, an eminent German philologist, born at Carlsruhe; gave himself to the study of theology and then of philology at various universities, and in 1852 became professor of the German Language and Literature at Heidelberg; author of various learned treatises on philology and kindred subjects (1810-1870).
Holy Alliance, an alliance of the sovereigns of Russia, Austria, and Prussia on the fall of Napoleon, professedly for conservative ends, but really for the suppression of political liberty and the maintenance of absolute power.
Holy Coat of Trèves, a seamless coat alleged to have been deposited there by the Empress Helena, and to have been the one worn by Christ.
Holy Fair, a rural celebration of the Communion once common in Scotland, attended not only by the people of the parish, but by large numbers of strangers from far and near; described by Burns.
Holy Island or Lindisfarne, an islet of Northumberland, 9½ m. SE. of Berwick; is separated from the mainland by a stretch of sand bare at low water, and some 3 m. broad; has interesting ruins of a Benedictine priory church where St. Cuthbert (q. v.) once ministered; there is a small village and fine old castle.
Holy Office, name given to the Inquisition (q. v.).
Holy Wars, name given to the Crusades (q. v.).
Holy Week, the week before Easter, so called as consecrated to the commemoration of the Passion of Christ in view of His death on the Cross.
Holyhead (9), an important little seaport of Anglesey, North Wales, on the N. side of an island of the same name, 25 m. W. of Bangor; is the chief mail-packet station for Ireland, and has excellent harbourage, &c.
Holyhead Island (9), a rocky islet forming a part of Anglesey, from which it is separated by a narrow strait, dry at low water, and crossed by an arched causeway.
Holyoake, George Jacob, an active propagandist of advanced social theories, born at Birmingham; has lived a busy life as an agitator, lecturing and writing; he espoused the cause of Garibaldi, edited the Reasoner; was the last man to be imprisoned in England on a charge of atheism (1841); was a zealous supporter of co-operation and all movements making for the betterment of the social condition of the working-classes; his numerous works embrace a valuable "History of Co-operation in England," "The Limits of Atheism," "Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life," &c.; b. 1817.
Holyoke (45), a city of Massachusetts, 8 m. N. of Springfield, on the Connecticut, whose rapid current supplies the water-power for the many large paper-mills, cotton and woollen factories.
Holyrood, an abbey founded at Edinburgh in 1128 by David I., and dedicated in honour of the Holy Cross, a casket of gold shaped like a cross brought to the country by St. Margaret in 1070; a palace was afterwards attached, which became the chief seat of the Scottish sovereigns of the Stuart dynasty; the parks around were at one time a sanctuary for debtors.
Holywell (3), a market-town of Flintshire, has an elevated situation, 15 m. NW. of Chester; the principal industry is the smelting of lead, iron, copper, and zinc ores obtained from the surrounding mines; the famous well of St. Winifred (whence the name of the town) is over-built by a fine Perpendicular chapel.
Homburg (9), a fashionable watering-place in Hesse-Nassau, Prussia, beautifully situated at the base of the Taunus Mountains, 8 m. NW. of Frankfort-on-the-Main; has fine chalybeate and saline springs.
Home, defined by Ruskin as "the place of Peace; the shelter not only from all injury, but from all terror, doubt, and division. In so far as it is not this, it is not home; so far as the anxieties of the outer world penetrate into it, and the inconsistently-minded, unknown, unloved, or hostile society, the outer world, is allowed by either husband or wife to cross the threshold, it ceases to be home; it is then only a part of the outer world which you have roofed over and lighted a fire in."
Home, Daniel Dunglas, a noted spiritualist, born near Edinburgh; became widely known as a "medium," was presented at Courts and to the Pope; was expelled from the Catholic Church for spiritualistic practices, and latterly became involved in a lawsuit with a Mrs. Lyon, who had bestowed upon him £60,000 and forced him to return it; he is supposed to have suggested to Browning his well-known poem "Sludge—the Medium"; wrote several books (1833-1886).
Home, John, Scotch divine and dramatist, born at Leith; graduated at Edinburgh, and entered the Church in 1745; became minister at Athelstaneford, near Haddington, where he wrote the tragedies "Agis" and "Douglas"; the latter established his fame, but brought him into disgrace with the Presbytery, and he withdrew to England, becoming secretary to the Earl of Bute; his plays were produced by Garrick, and displaced the stiff and artificial tragedies of Addison, Johnson, &c.; besides his dramatic works and poems he published a "History of the Rebellion of 1745" (1722-1808).
Home Rule, a form of local self-government, a name applied to an administration of the kind projected by Mr. Gladstone for Ireland.
Homer, the great epic poet of Greece, and the greatest of all time; author of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey," and for the honour of being the place of whose birth seven Greek cities contended; is said, when old and blind, to have wandered from city to city rehearsing his verses, and to have lived 900 years before Christ, some time after the reign of Solomon; it is only modern criticism that has called in question his existence, and has ventured to argue that the poems ascribed to him are a mere congeries of compositions of the early fabulous age of Greece, but the unity of the plan and the simplicity of the style of the poems go to condemn this theory in the regard of most Homeric scholars.
Homildon Hill, in Northumberland, 1 m. NE. of Wooler; the scene of Hotspur's famous victory over the Scots under Earl Douglas, December 14, 1402.
Homoeopathy, a method of treating diseases advocated by Hahnemann (q. v.) which professes to cure a disease by administering in small quantities medicines that would produce it in a healthy person.
Homoiousia, name given to the Semi-Arian doctrine that the Son is of like substance with the Father, in opposition to the orthodox doctrine called Homoousia that He is of the same substance.
Homologoumena, name given to the books of the New Testament accepted as canonical.
Honduras (435), a maritime republic of Central America, whose northern seaboard fronts the Gulf of Honduras in the Caribbean Sea, between Nicaragua on the S. and SE. and Guatemala on the W., less than four-fifths the size of England; the coast lands are low and swampy, but the interior consists chiefly of elevated tableland diversified by broad rich valleys; the Cordilleras traverse the country in a NW. direction, and form the watershed of many streams; fever prevails along the low, hot coast, but the highlands are cool and healthful; large numbers of cattle are raised, and fruits, india-rubber, indigo, &c., are exported, but agriculture is backward; its mineral wealth is very great; silver ore is abundant, and other minerals, such as gold, iron, copper, but the enterprise is wanting to the carrying out of mining on a proper scale; Honduras broke away from Spain in 1821, and became an independent State in 1839; the Government is vested in a President and six ministers, and the legislative power in a Congress of 37 members; the population is, with the exception of a few thousands, composed of blacks; Tegucigalpa (12) is the capital.
Hone, William, miscellaneous writer and political satirist, born at Bath; threw up his position as a law clerk in London and started a print and book shop; became a busy contributor to newspapers, and involved himself in serious trouble by the freedom of his political parodies and satires; of his many squibs, satires, &c., mention maybe made of "The Political House that Jack Built," "The Queen's Matrimonial Ladder," "The Political Showman," all illustrated by G. Cruikshank (q. v.) (1780-1842).
Honeycomb, Will, a jaunty member of the "Spectator Club."
Honfleur (9), a seaport of France, situated on the estuary of the Seine, opposite Havre; has a good harbour; exports dairy produce, cattle, &c.; has sugar refineries, tanworks, &c.
Hong-Kong (222), an island lying off the mouth of the Canton River, South China; was ceded to Britain in 1842; is hilly and unproductive, but is well watered and tolerably healthy; it owes its great importance as a commercial centre to its favourable position, its magnificent harbour, and to its having been made a free port and the head-quarters of the European banks; opium is the chief import, silk and tea the principal exports; Victoria, a handsome city on the N. side, is the capital, seat of the British governor, &c.
Honiton (3), an ancient market-town of Devonshire, close to the Otter, 17 m. NE. of Exeter; is famed for its pillow-lace, an industry introduced by some Flemish refugees in the 16th century.
Honolulu (20), capital of the Hawaiian Islands (q. v.), situated on an arid strip of land on the S. side of Oahu; is nicely laid out after the manner of a European town; and has the only good harbour in the archipelago.
Honorius, the name of four Popes: H. I., the most famous, Pope from 626 to 638; H. II., Pope from 1124 to 1130; H. III., Pope from 1216 to 1227; and H. IV., Pope from 1286 to 1287.
Honorius, Flavius, emperor of the West, born at Constantinople, son of Theodosius the Great, a weak ruler, and only able to resist the invasion of the Goths so long as Stilicho, his minister, lived, for after the murder of the latter by treachery matters with him went from bad to worse, and he saw some of his finest provinces snatched from his grasp (384-423).
Hontheim, a German Catholic theologian, born at Trèves; distinguished for his bold assertion and subsequent retractation of a doctrine called Febronianism, from the nom de plume Febronius which he assumed, tending to the disparagement of the Papal authority in the Church (1701-1790).
Honthorst, Gerard van, a Flemish painter, born at Utrecht, painted night and torchlight scenes; "Christ before Pilate" his best-known work (1592-1666).
Honved`, name given in Hungary to the landwehr, or originally to any distinguished national patriot or party.
Hood, Samuel, Viscount, a distinguished admiral, born at Thorncombe; entered the navy in 1740, and rising rapidly in his profession evinced high qualities as a leader; in 1782 he brilliantly outmanoeuvred De Grasse in the West Indies, and under Rodney played a conspicuous part in the destruction of the French fleet at the battle of Dominica, for which he was rewarded with an Irish peerage; he defeated Fox in the celebrated Westminster election, became a Lord of the Admiralty, and as commander of the Mediterranean fleet during the revolutionary wars, captured the French fleet at Toulon and reduced Corsica; in 1796 he was created a viscount (1724-1816).
Hood, Thomas, poet and humourist, born in London; gave up business and engraving, to which he first applied himself, for letters, and commencing as a journalist, immortalised himself by the "Song of the Shirt" and his "Dream of Eugene Aram"; edited the "Comic Annual," and wrote "Whims and Oddities," in all of which he displayed both wit and pathos (1798-1845).
Hooghly or Hûgli, 1, the most important and most westerly of the several branches into which the Ganges divides on approaching the sea, breaks away from the main channel near Santipur, and flowing in a southerly direction past Calcutta, reaches the Bay of Bengal after a course of 145 m.; navigation is rendered hazardous by the accumulating and shifting silt; the "bore" rushes up with great rapidity, and attains a height of 7 ft. 2, A city (33) on the western bank of the river, 25 m. N. of Calcutta; is capital of a district, and has a college for English and Asiatic literature.
Hook, Theodore, comic dramatist, born in London; wrote a number of farces sparkling with wit and highly popular; appointed to be Accountant-General of the Mauritius, came to grief for peculation by a subordinate under his administration; solaced and supported himself after his acquittal by writing novels (1788-1841).
Hooke, Robert, natural philosopher, born at Freshwater, Isle of Wight; was associated with Boyle in the construction of the air-pump, and in 1665 became professor of Geometry in Gresham College, London; was a man of remarkable inventiveness, and quick to deduce natural laws from meagre premises; thus he in some important points anticipated Newton's theory of gravitation, and foresaw the application of steam to machinery; he discovered amongst other things the balance-spring of watches, the anchor-escapement of clocks, the simplest theory of the arch, and made important improvements on the telescope, microscope, and quadrant (1635-1703).
Hooker, Richard, English Church theologian and ecclesiastical writer, born in Exeter; famous as the author of "Ecclesiastical Polity," in defence of the Church against the Puritans, characterised by Stopford Brooke as "a stately work, and the first monument of splendid literary prose that we possess"; of this work Pope Clement VIII. said, "There are such seeds of eternity in it as will continue till the last fire shall devour all learning"; the author is distinguished by the surname of "The Judicious" for his calm wisdom; he was not judicious, it would seem, in the choice of a wife, who was a shrew and a scold (1554-1600).
Hooker, Sir William, botanist, born at Norwich; was professor of Botany in Glasgow from 1820 to 1841, after which he held the post of Director of Kew Gardens; his writings in botany are numerous (1785-1865).
Hoolee, in India, the name of a saturnalian festival in honour of Krishna (q. v.).
Hooper, John, bred for the Church; was converted to Protestantism, and had to leave the country; returned on the accession of Edward VI. and was made Bishop of Gloucester; was committed to prison in the reign of Mary, condemned as a heretic, and burned at the stake in Gloucester (1495-1555).
Hoosac Mountain, in the Green Mountain Range in Massachusetts, is noted for its railway tunnel, nearly 5 m. in length, and the longest in America.
Hope, Antony, nom de plume of A. H. Hawkins, novelist, born in London, educated at Oxford; called to the bar; author of "Men of Mark," "Prisoner of Zenda," &c.; b. 1863.
Hope, Thomas, traveller and virtuoso, author of "Anastasius, or the Memoirs of a Modern Greek," which Byron was proud to have fathered on him, and of a posthumous essay on the "Origin and Prospects of Man," was famous as having suggested to Carlyle one of the most significant things he ever wrote, while he pronounced it perhaps the absurdest book written in our century by a thinking man. See Carlyle's Miscellaneous Essay "Characteristics."
Hôpital, Michel de l', Chancellor of France; stoutly resisted the persecution of the Protestants, and secured for them a measure of toleration, but his enemies were too strong for him; he was driven from power in 1568, and went into retirement; was spared during the massacre of St. Bartholomew, but it broke his heart, and he survived it only a few days (1505-1572).
Hopkins, Samuel, an American divine, born at Waterbury, Connecticut; was pastor at Newport; was a Calvinist in theology, but of a special type, as he denied imputation and insisted on disinterested benevolence as the mark of a Christian; gave name to a party, Hopkinsians, as they were called, who held the same views (1721-1803).
Horatius Flaccus or Horace, Roman poet, born at Venusium, in Apulia; was educated at Rome and in Athens, and when there in his twenty-first year joined Marcus Brutus, became a military tribune, and fought at Philippi, after which he submitted to the conqueror and returned to Rome to find his estate forfeited; for a time afterwards he had to be content with a frugal life, but by-and-by he attracted the notice of Virgil, and he introduced him to Mæcenas, who took him into his friendship and bestowed on him a small farm, to which he retired and on which he lived in comfort for the rest of his life; his works, all in verse, consist of odes, satires, and epistles, and reveal an easy-going man of the world, of great practical sagacity and wise remark; they abound in happy phrases and quotable passages (65-8 B.C.).
Horn, Cape, the most southern point of America, is a lofty, precipitous, and barren promontory of Hermit Island, in the Fuegian Archipelago.
Horn Gate, the gate of dreams which come true, as distinct from the Ivory Gate, through which the visions seen are shadowy and unreal.
Hornbook, was a sheet of vellum or paper used in early times for teaching the rudiments of education, on which were inscribed the alphabet in black or Roman letters, some monosyllables, the Lord's Prayer, and the Roman numerals; this sheet was covered with a slice of transparent horn, and was still in use in George II.'s reign.
Horrocks, Jeremiah, a celebrated astronomer, born at Toxteth, near Liverpool; passed through Cambridge, took orders, and received the curacy of Hoole, Lancashire; was devoted to astronomy, and was the first to observe the transit of Venus, of which he gave an account in his treatise "Venus in Sole Visa" (1619-1641).
Horse-power, the unit of work of a steam-engine, being the power to raise 33,000 lbs. one foot in one minute.
Horsham (9), a market-town of Sussex, 26 m. NW. of Brighton; has a fine specimen of an Early English church, and does a thriving trade in brewing, tanning, iron-founding, &c.
Horsley, Samuel, English prelate, born in London; celebrated as the champion of orthodoxy against the attacks of Priestley (q. v.), in which he showed great learning but much bitterness, which, however, brought him church preferment; was in succession bishop of St. Davids, Rochester, and St. Asaph (1733-1806).
Hosea, a Hebrew prophet, a native of the northern kingdom of Israel, and a contemporary of Isaiah, the burden of whose prophecy is, Israel has by her idolatries and immoralities forsaken the Lord, and the Lord has forsaken Israel, in whom alone her salvation is to be found.
Hoshangabad (17), capital of a district of the same name in the Central Provinces, India, situated on the Nerbudda River, 40 m. SE. of Bhopal; is a military station, and has a considerable trade in cotton, grain, &c.
Hoshiarpur (22), a town in the Punjab, at the base of the Siwalik Hills, 90 m. E. of Lahore; is capital of a district, and is the seat of an American mission.
Hospitallers, the name given to several religious brotherhoods or orders of knights under vow to provide and care for the sick and wounded, originally in connection with pilgrimages and expeditions to Jerusalem.
Hospodar, a title once borne by the kings of Poland and the governors of Moldavia and Wallachia.
Hostilius, Tullus, the third king of Rome from 670 to 638 B.C.; showed more zeal for conquest than for the worship of the gods, who in the end smote him and his whole house with fire.
Hottentots, a name somewhat indiscriminately applied to the first known inhabitants of Cape Colony, who, however, comprised two main tribes, the Khoikhoi and the Bushmen, in many respects dissimilar, but speaking languages characterised alike by harsh and clicking sounds, a circumstance which induced the early Dutch settlers to call them Hottentots, which means practically "jabberers"; the great majority are semi-civilised now, and servile imitators of their conquerors.
Houdon, Jean-Antoine, an eminent French sculptor, born of humble parentage at Versailles; at 20 he won the prix de Rome, and for 10 years studied with enthusiasm the early masters at Rome, where he produced his great statue of St. Bruno; he was elected in turn a member of the Academy and of the Institute, Paris, and in 1805 became professor at the École des Beaux-Arts; he was unrivalled in portraiture, and executed statues of Rousseau, Voltaire, Diderot, Mirabeau, Washington, Napoleon, and others (1741-1828).
Houghton, Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord, poet and patron of letters, born of good family at Fryston Hall, Pontefract; graduated at Cambridge; entered Parliament as a Conservative, but subsequently went over to the other side, and in 1863 was raised to the peerage by Palmerston; was a man of varied interests, a traveller, leader of society, philanthropist, and above all the friend and patron of authors; his works include various volumes of poetry, "Life of Keats," "Monographs, Personal and Social," &c. (1809-1885).
Hounslow (13), a town of Middlesex, 10 m. SW. of London; railways have done away with its importance as a posting town; in the vicinity are gunpowder mills, barracks, and the famous Hounslow Heath.
Houri, a beautiful maiden who, according to the Mohammedan faith, awaits the advent of a pious Moslem in Paradise.
Houston, Samuel, President of the Texan Republic, born in Virginia; was adopted by a Cherokee Indian, and rose from the rank of a common soldier to be governor of Tennessee in 1827; as commander-in-chief in Texas he crushed the Mexicans, won the independence of Texas, and became the first President of the new republic in 1836; subsequently represented Texas in the United States Senate; was elected governor and deposed in 1861 for opposing secession (1793-1863).
Houyhn`hnms, an imaginary race of horses in "Gulliver's Travels" endowed with reason.
Hoveden, Roger of, chronicler, born at Howden, Yorkshire; held an appointment in Henry II.'s household; was engaged in various missions to the monastic houses, and in 1189 became an itinerant justice; his well-known Chronicle begins where Bede's ends, 732, and continues down to 1201.
Howard, Catherine, fifth wife of Henry VIII., granddaughter of the Duke of Norfolk; was married to Henry in 1540 after his divorce from Anne of Clèves; two years later she was found guilty of immoral conduct prior to her marriage, and was executed (1520-1542).
Howard, John, a noted philanthropist, born at Hackney, Middlesex; was left in easy circumstances at his father's death; a bitter experience as a French prisoner of war and observations made whilst acting as sheriff of Bedfordshire roused him to attempt some reform of the abuses and misery of prison life; he made a tour of the county jails of England, and the mass of information which he laid before the House of Commons in 1774 brought about the first prison reforms; he continued his visitations from year to year to every part of the United Kingdom and to every quarter of the Continent; during 1785-87 he made a tour of inspection through the principal lazarettos of Europe, visited plague-smitten cities, and voluntarily underwent the rigours of the quarantine system; he died at the Crimea whilst on a journey to the East; he published at various times accounts of his Journeys; his deep piety, cool sense, and single-hearted devotedness to his one great object won him universal respect throughout Europe (1727-1790).
Howe, John, a Puritan divine, born at Loughborough; was educated at Oxford and Cambridge, took orders, and became the outspoken and universally respected chaplain to Cromwell; after the Restoration he was ejected from the Church by the Act of Uniformity; subsequently he was in turn domestic chaplain to Lord Massarene in Ireland, and pastor of a Dissenting congregation in London; for some years he settled in Utrecht, but in 1687 returned to England after the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, and became a leader of the Dissenters; he published a number of works which display a powerful, philosophic, and earnest mind; his "The Good Man the Living Temple of God" remains a masterpiece of Puritan theology; he was a man of exceptional strength of character, and it was said that he could awe Cromwell into silence and Tillotson into tears (1630-1706).
Howe, Richard, Earl, admiral, born in London, son of an Irish viscount; first saw service under Anson against the Spaniards; distinguished himself during the Seven Years' War; in 1783 became First Lord of the Admiralty, and was created an earl; during the French War in 1793 he commanded the Channel Fleet, and gained "the glorious first of June" victory off Ushant (1726-1799).
Howell, James, an English writer, whose "Familiar Letters" have won a permanent place in English literature, born in Abernant, Carmarthenshire; travelled for many years on the Continent in a business capacity; entered Parliament in 1627; was for some years a Royalist spy, and suffered imprisonment at the Fleet; at the Restoration he was created Historiographer-Royal; his works are numerous, but his fame rests upon his entertaining "Instructions for Foreigne Travell" and his graceful and witty "Familiar Letters" (1593-1666).
Howells, William Dean, a popular American novelist, the son of a Swedenborgian journalist, born at Martin's Ferry, Ohio; adopted journalism as a profession, produced a popular Life of Lincoln, and from 1861 to 1865 was Consul at Venice; resuming journalism he became a contributor to the best American papers and magazines, and was for a number of years editor of the Atlantic Monthly; an excellent journalist, poet, and critic, it is yet as a novelist—witty, graceful, and acute—that he is best known; "A Chance Acquaintance," "A Foregone Conclusion," "A Modern Instance," "An Indian Summer" are among his more popular works; b. 1837.
Howitt, William, a miscellaneous writer, who, with his equally talented wife, Mary Howitt (1799-1888) (née Botham), did much to popularise the rural life of England, born, a Quaker's son, at Heanor, Derbyshire; served his time as a carpenter, but soon drifted into literature, married in 1821, and made many tours in England and other lands for literary purposes; was a voluminous writer, pouring out histories, accounts of travel, tales, and poems; amongst these are "Rural Life in England," "Visits to Remarkable Places," "Homes and Haunts of the Poets," &c. (1792-1879). His wife, besides collaborating with him in such works as "Stories of English Life," "Ruined Abbeys of Great Britain," wrote poems, tales, &c., and was the first to translate the fairy-tales of Hans Andersen.
Howrah or Haura (130), a flourishing manufacturing town on the Hooghly, opposite Calcutta, with which it is connected by a floating bridge.
Hoy, a steep, rocky islet in the Orkney group, about 1 m. SW. of Mainland or Pomona, remarkable for its huge cliffs.
Hoylake (3), a rising watering-place in Cheshire, at the seaward end of Wirral Peninsula, 8 m. W. of Birkenhead; noted for its golf-links.
Hoyle, Edmond, the inventor of whist, lived in London; wrote on games and taught whist; his "Short Treatise on Whist" appeared in 1742 (1672-1769).
Hrolf, Rollo, Duke of Normandy (q. v.)
Huancaveli`ca (104), a dep. of Peru, lies within the region of the Cordilleras, has rich silver and quicksilver mines; the capital (4), bearing the same name, is a mining town 150 m. SE. of Lima.
Hub of the Universe, a name humorously given by Wendell Holmes to Boston, or rather the State House of the city.
Huber, Francis, naturalist, born at Geneva; made a special study of the habits of bees, and recorded the results in his "Observations sur les Abeilles" (1750-1831).
Hubert, St., bishop of Liège and Maestricht, the patron-saint of huntsmen; was converted when hunting on Good Friday by a milk-white stag appearing in the forest of Ardennes with a crucifix between its horns; generally represented in art as a hunter kneeling to a crucifix borne by a stag (656-728).
Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, chief justiciary of England under King John and Henry III.; had charge of Prince Arthur, but refused to put him to death; was present at Runnymede at the signing of Magna Charta; d. 1234.
Huc, a French missionary, born at Toulouse; visited China and Thibet, and wrote an account of his experiences on his return (1813-1860).
Huddersfield (96), a busy manufacturing town in the West Riding of Yorkshire, is favourably situated in a coal district on the Colne, 26 m. NE. of Manchester; is substantially built, and is the northern centre of the "fancy trade" and woollen goods; cotton, silk, and machine factories and iron-founding are also carried on on a large scale.
Hudibras, a satire by Samuel Butler on the Puritans, published in 1663, born of the reaction that set in after the Restoration.
Hudson, in New York State, one of the most picturesque of North American rivers, rises amid the Adirondack Mountains, and from Glen's Fall flows S. to New York Bay, having a course of 350 m.; is navigable for steamboats as far as Albany, 145 m. from its mouth. It has valuable fisheries.
Hudson, George, the Railway King, originally a linen-draper in York, the great speculator in the construction and extension of railways, in connection with which he made a huge fortune; acquired civic honours, and was nearly having a statue raised to his honour, but certain frauds being exposed he fell into disgrace and embarrassment, and died in London; he was elected thrice over Lord Mayor of York, and represented Sunderland in Parliament from 1845 to 1859 (1800-1871).
Hudson, Henry, English navigator; made three unsuccessful efforts to discover a north-east passage, then turned his course north-westward, and discovered in 1610 the river, strait, and bay which bear his name; his sailors in his last expedition in 1611 mutinying, set him and eight others adrift in an open boat, and though an expedition was sent in quest of him, he was nowhere to be found.
Hudson Bay, an inland sea in North America, 400 m. long and 100 m. wide, communicating with the Atlantic; discovered by Hudson in 1610.
Hudson Bay Company, a joint-stock company founded in 1760 to obtain furs and skins from North America, under charter granted by Charles II., the possessions of which were in 1869 incorporated in the Dominion of Canada.
Hué (30), capital of the French protectorate Annam, on the Hué, 10 m. above its mouth, is strongly fortified with walls and a citadel.
Huelva (19), a thriving seaport in Spain, 68 m. SW. of Seville, between the mouths of the Odiel and Tinto; fisheries and the exportation of copper, manganese, quicksilver, and wine are the chief industries.
Huerta, Garcia de la, a Spanish poet, was royal librarian in Madrid; wrote tragedy of "Raguel," thought of very highly (1729-1797).
Huesca (13), an interesting old Spanish town, 58 m. NE. of Saragossa; has picturesque old churches, a university, and a palace; manufactures linen and leather.
Huet, Pierre Daniel, a learned French prelate, born at Caen; a pupil of Descartes; associated with Bossuet as scholar, and editor of Origen (1630-1721).
Hug, Leonhard, a Catholic theologian and biblical scholar, author of an "Introduction to the New Testament" (1765-1846).
Hugh Capet, the first of the Capetian dynasty of France, son of Hugh Capet, Count of Paris; proclaimed king in 987; his reign was a troubled one by the revolt of the very party that had raised him to the throne, and who refused to own his supremacy; Adelbert, a count of Périgueux, had usurped the titles of Count of Poitiers and of Tours, and the king, sending a messenger to ask "Who made you count?" got for answer the counter-challenge "Who made you king?" (946-996).
Hughenden, a parish in Buckinghamshire, in the Chiltern district, 2 m. N. of High Wycombe; is interesting as the seat of Hughenden Manor, for many years the residence of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield.
Hughes, Thomas, author of "Tom Brown's School-days," born at Uffington, Berks; was at Rugby in Dr. Arnold's time, graduated at Oxford, and was called to the bar in 1848; his famous story of Rugby school life, "Tom Brown's School-days," was published in 1856, and was followed by "Tom Brown at Oxford" and other stories and biographies; he entered Parliament in 1865, and in 1882 became a County Court Judge; throughout his life he was keenly interested in social questions and the betterment of the working-classes (1832-1896).
Hugo, Victor-Marie, a famous French poet and novelist, born at Besançon; as a boy he accompanied his father, a general in Joseph Bonaparte's army, through the campaigns in Italy and Spain; at 14 he produced a tragedy, and six years later appeared his "Odes et Ballades"; in 1827 was published his famous tragedy "Cromwell," which placed him at the head of the Romanticists, and in "Hernani" (1830) the departure from the old classic novels was more emphatically asserted; his superabundant genius continued to pour forth a quick succession of dramas, novels, essays, and poems, in which he revealed himself one of the most potent masters of the French language; he was admitted to the French Academy, and in 1845 was created a peer; he engaged in politics first as a Royalist and next as a Democrat, fled to Brussels after the coup d'état; subsequently he established himself in Jersey and then in Guernsey, where he wrote his great novels "Les Misérables," "Les Travailleurs de la Mer," etc.; he returned to France in 1870, engaged in politics again, became a senator, and continued to produce works with undiminished energy; his writings were in the first instance a protest against the self-restraint and coldness of the old classic models, but were as truly a faithful expression of his own intense and assertive egoism, and are characteristic of his school in their exaggerated sentiment and pervading self-consciousness (1802-1885).