The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 232

HAMPDEN, JOHN, a famous English statesman and patriot, cousin to Oliver Cromwell, born in London; pa.s.sed through Oxford and studied law at the Inner Temple; subsequently he settled down on his father's estate, and in 1621 entered Parliament, joining the opposition; he came first into conflict with the king by refusing to contribute to a general loan levied by Charles, and subsequently became famous by his resistance to the ship-money tax; he was a member of the Short Parliament, and played a prominent part in the more eventful transactions of the Long Parliament; an attempt on Charles's part to seize Hampden and four other members precipitated the Civil War; he took an active part in organising the Parliamentary forces, and proved himself a brave and skilful general in the field; he fell mortally wounded while opposing Prince Rupert in a skirmish at Chalgrove Field; historians unite in extolling his n.o.bility of character, statesmanship, and single-minded patriotism (1594-1643).

HAMPDEN, RENN d.i.c.kSON, theologian and bishop, born in Barbadoes; became a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, and in 1832 delivered his celebrated Bampton lectures on the "Scholastic Philosophy considered in its Relation to Christian Theology," which drew upon him the charge of heresy and produced an embittered controversy in the Church of England; he was successively Princ.i.p.al, professor of Moral Philosophy, and of Divinity at St. Mary's Hall, and became bishop of Hereford in 1847 (1793-1868).

HAMPOLE, RICHARD ROLLE, "the Hermit of Hampole," born at Thornton, Yorkshire; studied at Oxford, and at the age of 19 turned hermit; was the author of "The p.r.i.c.ke of Conscience," a lengthy poem of a religious character (1290-1349).

HAMPSHIRE, HANTS (690), a maritime county of S. England, fronting the English Channel between Dorset on the W. and Suss.e.x on the E.; in the NE. are the "rolling Downs," affording excellent sheep pasturage, while the SW. is largely occupied by the New Forest; the Test, Itchen, and Avon are princ.i.p.al rivers flowing to the S.; besides the usual cereals, hops are raised, while Hampshire bacon and honey are celebrated; Southampton, Portsmouth, and Gosport are the chief trading and manufacturing towns.

HAMPSTEAD (68), a Parliamentary borough of Middles.e.x, has a hilly and bright situation, 4 m. NW. of London; is a popular place of resort with Londoners, and contains many fine suburban residences; beyond the village is the celebrated Heath; many literary a.s.sociations are connected with the place; the famous Kit-Cat Club of Steele and Addison's time is now a private house on the Heath; here lived Keats, Leigh Hunt, Coleridge, Hazlitt, &c.

HAMPTON (4), a village of Middles.e.x, on the Thames, 15 m. SW. of London; in the vicinity is HAMPTON COURT PALACE, a royal residence down to George II.'s time, and which was built originally by Wolsey, who presented it to Henry VIII.; in William III.'s time considerable alterations were made under the guidance of Wren; there is a fine picture-gallery and gardens; it is now occupied by persons of good family in reduced circ.u.mstances; the HAMPTON COURT CONFERENCE to settle ecclesiastical differences took place here in 1604 under the presidency of James I., and the decisions at which proved unsatisfactory to the Puritan members of it; it was here at the suggestion of Dr. Reynolds the authorised version of the Bible was undertaken.

HANAU (25), a Prussian town in Hesse-Na.s.sau, at the junction of the Kinzig and the Main, 11 m. NE. of Frankfurt; is celebrated for its jewellery and gold and silver work, and is otherwise a busy manufacturing town; it is the birthplace of the brothers Grimm.

HANc.o.c.k, WINFIELD SCOTT, a noted American general, born near Philadelphia; he had already graduated and served with distinction in the Mexican War, when, on the outbreak of the Civil War, he received a commission as brigadier-general of volunteers; he led a heroic charge at Fredericksburg, and in 1864 his gallant conduct in many a hard-fought battle was rewarded by promotion to a major-generalship in the regular army; subsequently he held important commands in the departments of Missouri, Dakota, &c., and in 1880 unsuccessfully opposed Garfield for the Presidency (1824-1886).

HaNDEL, musical composer, born at Halle; distinguished for his musical ability from his earliest years; was sent to Berlin to study when he was 14; began his musical career as a performer at Hamburg in 1703; produced his first opera in 1704; spent six years in Italy, devoting himself to his profession the while; came, on invitation, to England in 1710, where, being well received, he resolved to remain, and where, year after year--as many as nearly fifty of them--he added to his fame by his diligence as a composer; he produced a number of operas and oratorios; among the latter may be noted his "Saul," his "Samson," and "Judas Maccabaeus," and pre-eminently the "Messiah," his masterpiece, and which fascinates with a charm that appeals to and is appreciated by initiated and uninitiated alike (1684-1759).

HANG-CHOW (800), a Chinese town, a treaty-port since the recent war with j.a.pan; is at the mouth of the Tsien-tang at the entrance of the Imperial Ca.n.a.l, 110 m. SW. of Shanghai; it is an important literary, religious, and commercial centre; has flourishing silk factories, and is noted for its gold and silver ware.

HANGING GARDENS, THE, OF BABYLON, one of the seven wonders of the world, had an area of four acres, formed a square, were a series of terraces supported by pillars sloping upwards like a pyramid and seeming to hang in air; they are ascribed to Semiramis.

HANIF, name given to a Mohammedan or an Arab of rigidly monotheistic belief.

HANKOW (750), a Chinese river-port, at the confluence of the Han and Yangtsze Rivers; it is properly an extension of the large towns Wu-chang and Han-yang; there is a considerable amount of shipping; tea is the princ.i.p.al article of export, and a large trade is carried on with the inland provinces.

HANLEY (85), a busy manufacturing town in the "Potteries," 18 m. N.

of Stafford; coal and iron are wrought in the neighbourhood.

HANMER, SIR THOMAS, Speaker of the House of Commons; elected in 1713, discharged the duties of the office with conspicuous impartiality; published an edition of Shakespeare (1677-1746).

HANNAY, JAMES, a novelist and critic, born in Dumfries; spent his boyhood in the navy, on quitting which he settled in London and took to letters; was for a time editor of the _Edinburgh Courant_, a Tory paper, and subsequently consul at Barcelona, where he died; he knew English literature and wrote English well (1827-1873).

HANNIBAL, the great Carthaginian general, son of HAMILCAR (q. v.); learned the art of war under his father in Spain; subjugated all Spain south of the Ebro by the capture of the Roman allied city of Saguntum, which led to the outbreak of the Second Punic War and his leading his army through hostile territory over the Pyrenees and the Alps into Italy; defeated the Romans in succession at the Ticinus, the Trebia, and Lake Trasimenus, to the extirpation of the army sent against him; pa.s.sed the Apennines and descended into Apulia, where, after being hara.s.sed by the tantalising policy of Fabius Maximus, he met the Romans at Cannae in 216 B.C. and inflicted on them a crushing defeat, retiring after this into winter quarters at Capua, where his soldiers became demoralised; he next season began to experience a succession of reverses, which ended in the evacuation of Italy and the transfer of the seat of war to Africa, where Hannibal was met by Scipio on the field of Zama in 201 B.C. and defeated; he afterwards joined Antiochus, king of Syria, who was at war with Rome, to his defeat there also, upon which he fled to Prusias, king of Bithynia, where, when his surrender was demanded, he ended his life by poisoning himself (247-183 B.C.).

HANNINGTON, JAMES, first bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, born at Hurstpierpoint, Suss.e.x; was ordained in 1873 after pa.s.sing through Oxford, and in 1882 undertook missionary work in Uganda, under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society; his health breaking down when he had gone as far as Victoria Nyanza, he returned home; but two years later as bishop he entered upon his duties at Frere Town, near Mombasa; in the following year he was killed by natives when making his way to the mission station at Rubaga, in Uganda (1847-1885).

HANNO, the name of several eminent Carthaginians, one of whom, surnamed the Great, was a persistent opponent of the Barcine faction, headed by Hamilcar; and another was a navigator who made a voyage round the western coast of Africa, of which he left an account in his "Periplus" or "Circ.u.mnavigating Voyage."

HANOVER (2,278), a Prussian province since 1866, formerly an independent kingdom; stretches N. from Westphalia to the German Ocean, between Holland on the W. and Saxony on the E.; the district is well watered by the Elbe, Weser, and Ems; in the S. are the Harz Mountains; for the rest the land is flat, and much of it is occupied by uncultivated moors; agriculture and cattle-rearing are, however, the chief industries, while the minerals of the Harz are extensively wrought; in 1714 George Ludwig, second Elector of Hanover, succeeded Anne on the English throne as her nearest Protestant kinsman, and till 1837 the dual rule was maintained, Hanover meanwhile in 1814 having been made a kingdom; in 1837 the Hanoverian crown pa.s.sed to the Duke of c.u.mberland, Queen Victoria, as a woman, being ineligible; in 1866 the kingdom was conquered and annexed by Prussia.

HANOVER (164), the capital, is situated on the Leine, 78 m. SE. of Bremen; it consists of an old and a new portion; presents a handsome appearance, and its many fine buildings include the royal library (170,000 vols.), the Kestner Museum, several palaces and art-galleries, &c.; it is the centre of the North German railway system, and its many industries embrace iron-works, the manufacture of pianos, tobacco, linen, &c.

HANSARD, record of the proceedings and debates in the British Parliament, published by the printers Hansard, the founder of the firm being Luke Hansard, a printer of Norwich, who came to London in 1770 as a compositor, and succeeded as proprietor of the business in which he was a workman; _d_. 1828.

HANSEATIC LEAGUE, a combination of towns in North-western Germany for the mutual protection of their commerce against the pirates of the Baltic and the mutual defence of their liberties against the encroachments of neighbouring princes; it dates from 1241, and flourished for several centuries, to the extension of their commerce far and wide; numbered at one time 64 towns, and possessed fleets and armies, an exchequer, and a government of their own; the League dwindled down during the Thirty Years' War to six cities, and finally to three, Hamburg, Lubeck, and Bremen.

HANSTEEN, CHRISTOPH, a Norwegian astronomer and mathematician, born in Christiania, where he became professor of Mathematics; is famous for his researches and discoveries in connection with the magnetism of the earth, and the impetus he gave to the study of it; he prosecuted his magnetic researches as far as the E. of Siberia, and published the results (1784-1873).

HANSWURST (i. e. Jack Pudding), a pantomimic character in comic performances on the German stage; a great favourite at one time with the vulgar; distinguished for his awkwardness, his gluttonous appet.i.te, and his rotundity.

HANUMAN, the monkey-G.o.d of the Hindus, a friend of Rama, for whose benefit he reared a causeway across seas to Ceylon.

HANWAY, JONAS, a traveller and philanthropist, born in Portsmouth; travelled through Russia and Persia, and settled in London as one of the navy commissariat; devoted himself to the reclaiming and befriending of unfortunates of all kinds; was a man of very eccentric ways (1712-1786).

HAPSBURG or HABSBURG, HOUSE OF, a famous royal house which has played a leading part in the history of Continental Europe from its foundation in the 12th century by Albert, Count of Hapsburg, and which is represented to-day by the Imperial family of Austria. Representatives of this family wore the Imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire for centuries. It takes its name from the castle of Habsburg or Habichtaburg, on the Aar, built by Werner, bishop of Strasburg, in the 11th century, a castle, however, which has long since ceased to be in the possession of the family.

HARBOUR GRACE (7), a seaport and the second town of Newfoundland, lies on the W. side of Conception Bay, 84 m. NW. of St. John's; its commodious harbour is somewhat exposed; it is the seat of a Roman Catholic bishop, and has a cathedral and convent.

HARBURG (35), a prospering Prussian seaport in Luneburg, on the Elbe, 5 m. S. of Hamburg; its industries embrace gutta-percha goods, oil, chemicals, &c.; is a favourite watering-place.

HARCOURT, SIR WILLIAM VERNON, statesman, born, a clergyman's son, at Nuneham Park, Oxfordshire; was highly distinguished at Cambridge, and in 1854 was called to the bar; was a Q.C. in 1866, and professor of International Law at Cambridge (1869-87); he won considerable repute by his articles in the _Sat.u.r.day Review_ and his "Historicus" letters to the _Times_, and in 1868 entered Parliament, representing Oxford in the Liberal interest; in 1873 he became Solicitor-General, and received a knighthood; he was a vigorous opponent of the Disraeli Government, and on the return of the Liberals to power in 1880 became Home Secretary; under Mr. Gladstone in 1886, and again in 1892, he held the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer; he staunchly supported Mr. Gladstone in his Home Rule policy; became leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons on Mr. Gladstone's retirement, a post which for party reasons he resigned in 1899; _b_. 1827.

HARDENBERG, FRIEDRICH VON. See NOVALIS.

HARDENBERG PRINCE VON, a Prussian statesman, born in Hanover; after service in Hanover and Brunswick entered that of Prussia under William II., and became Chancellor of State under William III.; distinguished himself by the reforms he introduced in military and civic matters to the benefit of the country, though he was restrained a good deal by the reactionary proclivities of the king (1750-1822).