Henry, a farmer of Muirton, near Stirling. Born on the 18th of February
1718 he was educated at the parish school of St Ninians, and at the
grammar school of Stirling, and, after completing his course at
Edinburgh University, became master of the grammar school at Annan. In
1746 he was licensed to preach, and in 1748 was chosen minister of a
Presbyterian congregation at Carlisle, where he remained until 1760,
when he removed to a similar charge at Berwick-on-Tweed. In 1768 he
became minister of the New Greyfriars' Church, Edinburgh, and having
received the degree of D.D. from Edinburgh University in 1771, and
served as moderator of the general assembly of the church of Scotland in
1774, he was appointed one of the ministers of the Old Greyfriars'
Church, Edinburgh, in 1776, remaining in this charge until his death on
the 24th of November 1790. During his residence in Berwick, Henry
commenced his _History of Great Britain, written on a new plan_; but,
owing to the difficulty of consulting the original authorities, he did
not make much progress with the work until his removal to Edinburgh in
1768. The first five volumes appeared between 1771 and 1785, and the
sixth, edited and completed by Malcolm Laing, was published three years
after the author's death. A life of Henry was prefixed to this volume.
The _History_ covers the years between the Roman invasion and the death
of Henry VIII., and the "new plan" is the combination of an account of
the domestic life and commercial and social progress of the people with
the narrative of the political events of each period. The work was
virulently assailed by Dr Gilbert Stuart (1742-1786), who appeared
anxious to damage the sale of the book; but the injury thus effected was
only slight, as Henry received L3300 for the volumes published during
his lifetime. In 1781, through the influence of the earl of Mansfield,
he obtained a pension of L100 a year from the British government.
The _History of Great Britain_ has been translated into French, and
has passed into several English editions. An account of Stuart's
attack on Henry is given in Isaac D'Israeli's _Calamities of Authors_.
HENRY, VICTOR (1850- ), French philologist, was born at Colmar in
Alsace. Having held appointments at Douai and Lille, he was appointed
professor of Sanskrit and comparative grammar in the university of
Paris. A prolific and versatile writer, he is probably best known by the
English translations of his _Precis de Grammaire comparee de l'anglais
et de l'allemand_ and _Precis ... du Grec et du Latin_. Important works
by him on India and Indian languages are: _Manuel pour etudier le
Sanscrit vedique_ (with A. Bergaigne, 1890); _Elements de Sanscrit
classique_ (1902); _Precis de grammaire Palie_ (1904); _Les Litteratures
de l'Inde: Sanscrit, Pali, Pracrit_ (1904); _La Magie dans l'Inde
antique_ (1904); _Le Parsisme_ (1905); _L'Agnistoma_ (1906). Obscure
languages (such as Innok, Quichua, Greenland) and local dialects
(_Lexique etymologique du Breton moderne; Le Dialecte Alaman de Colmar_)
also claimed his attention. _Le Langage Martien_ is a curious book. It
contains a discussion of some 40 phrases (amounting to about 300 words),
which a certain Mademoiselle Helene Smith (a well-known spiritualist
medium of Geneva), while on a hypnotic visit to the planet Mars, learnt
and repeated and even wrote down during her trance as specimens of a
language spoken there, explained to her by a disembodied interpreter.
HENRY, WILLIAM (1775-1836), English chemist, son of Thomas Henry
(1734-1816), an apothecary and writer on chemistry, was born at
Manchester on the 12th of December 1775. He began to study medicine at
Edinburgh in 1795, taking his doctor's degree in 1807, but ill-health
interrupted his practice as a physician, and he devoted his time mainly
to chemical research, especially in regard to gases. One of his
best-known papers (_Phil. Trans._, 1803) describes experiments on the
quantity of gases absorbed by water at different temperatures and under
different pressures, the conclusion he reached ("Henry's law") being
that "water takes up of gas condensed by one, two or more additional
atmospheres, a quantity which, ordinarily compressed, would be equal to
twice, thrice, &c. the volume absorbed under the common pressure of the
atmosphere." Others of his papers deal with gas-analysis, fire-damp,
illuminating gas, the composition of hydrochloric acid and of ammonia,
urinary and other morbid concretions, and the disinfecting powers of
heat. His _Elements of Experimental Chemistry_ (1799) enjoyed
considerable vogue in its day, going through 11 editions in 30 years. He
died at Pendlebury, near Manchester, on the 2nd of September 1836.
HENRYSON, ROBERT (c. 1425-c. 1500), Scottish poet, was born about 1425.
It has been surmised that he was connected with the family of Henderson
of Fordell, but of this there is no evidence. He is described, on the
title-page of the 1570 edition of his _Fables_, as "scholemaister of
Dunfermeling," probably of the grammar-school of the Benedictine Abbey
there. There is no record of his having studied at St Andrews, the only
Scottish university at this time; but in 1462 a "Master Robert Henryson"
is named among those incorporated in the recently founded university of
Glasgow. It is therefore likely that his first studies were completed
abroad, at Paris or Louvain. He would appear to have been in lower
orders, if, in addition to being master of the grammar-school, he is the
notary Robert Henryson who subscribes certain deeds in 1478. As Dunbar
(q.v.) refers to him as deceased in his _Lament for the Makaris_, his
death may be dated about 1500.
Efforts have been made to draw up a chronology of his poems; but every
scheme of this kind, is, in a stronger sense than in the case of Dunbar,
mere guess-work. There are no biographical or bibliographical facts to
guide us, and the "internal evidence" is inconclusive.
Henryson's longest, and in many respects his most original and effective
work, is his _Morall Fabillis of Esope_, a collection of thirteen
fables, chiefly based on the versions of Anonymus, Lydgate and Caxton.
The outstanding merit of the work is its freshness of treatment. The old
themes are retold with such vivacity, such fresh lights on human
character, and with so much local "atmosphere," that they deserve the
credit of original productions. They are certainly unrivalled in English
fabulistic literature. The earliest available texts are the Charteris
text printed by Lekpreuik in Edinburgh in 1570 and the Harleian MS. No.
3865 in the British Museum.
In the _Testament of Cresseid_ Henryson supplements Chaucer's tale of
Troilus with the story of the tragedy of Cresseid. Here again his
literary craftsmanship saves him from the disaster which must have
overcome another poet in undertaking to continue the part of the story
which Chaucer had intentionally left untold. The description of
Cresseid's leprosy, of her meeting with Troilus, of his sorrow and
charity, and of her death, give the poem a high place in writings of
this _genre_.
The poem entitled _Orpheus and Eurydice_, which is drawn from Boethius,
contains some good passages, especially the lyrical lament of Orpheus,
with the refrains "Quhar art thow gane, my luf Erudices?" and "My lady
quene and luf, Erudices." It is followed by a long _moralitas_, in the
manner of the _Fables_.
Thirteen shorter poems have been ascribed to Henryson. Of these the
pastoral dialogue "Robene and Makyne," perhaps the best known of his
work, is the most successful. Its model may perhaps be found in the
_pastourelles_, but it stands safely on its own merits. Unlike most of
the minor poems it is independent of Chaucerian tradition. The other
pieces deal with the conventional 15th-century topics: Age, Death, Hasty
Credence, Want of Wise Men and the like. The verses entitled "Sum
Practysis of Medecyne," in which some have failed to see Henryson's
hand, is an example of that boisterous alliterative burlesque which is
represented by a single specimen in the work of the greatest makers,
Dunbar, Douglas and Lyndsay. For this reason, if not for others, the
difference of its manner is no argument against its authenticity.
The MS. authorities for the text are the Asloan, Bannatyne, Maitland
Folio, Makculloch, Gray and Riddell. Chepman and Myllar's Prints
(1508) have preserved two of the minor poems and a fragment of
_Orpheus and Eurydice_. The first complete edition was prepared by
David Laing (1 vol., Edinburgh, 1865). A more exhaustive edition in
three volumes, containing all the texts, was undertaken by the
Scottish Text Society (ed. G. Gregory Smith), the first volume of the
text (vol. ii. of the work) appearing in 1907. For a critical account
of Henryson, see Irving's _History of Scottish Poetry_, Henderson's
_Vernacular Scottish Literature_, Gregory Smith's _Transition Period_,
J. H. Millar's _Literary History of Scotland_, and the second volume
of the _Cambridge History of English Literature_ (1908). (G. G. S.)
HENSCHEL, GEORGE [ISIDOR GEORG] (1850- ), English musician (naturalized
1890), of German family, was born at Breslau, and educated as a pianist,
making his first public appearance in Berlin in 1862. He subsequently,
however, took up singing, having developed a fine baritone voice; and in
1868 he sang the part of Hans Sachs in _Meistersinger_ at Munich. In
1877 he began a successful career in England, singing at the principal
concerts; and in 1881 he married the American soprano, Lilian Bailey (d.
1901), who was associated with him in a number of vocal recitals. He was
also prominent as a conductor, starting the London symphony concerts in
1886, and both in England and America (where he was the first conductor
of the Boston symphony concerts, 1881) he took a leading part in
advancing his art. He composed a number of instrumental works, a fine
_Stabat Mater_ (Birmingham festival, 1894), &c., and an opera, _Nubia_
(Dresden, 1899).
HENSELT, ADOLF VON (1814-1889), German composer, was born at Schwabach,
in Bavaria, on the 12th of May 1814. At three years old he began to
learn the violin, and at five the pianoforte under Frau v. Fladt. On
obtaining financial help from King Louis I. he went to study under
Hummel in Weimar, and thence in 1832 to Vienna, where, besides studying
composition under Simon Sechter, he made a great success as a concert
pianist. In order to recruit his health he made a prolonged tour in 1836
through the chief German towns. In 1837 he settled at Breslau, where he
had married, but in the following year he migrated to St Petersburg,
where previous visits had made him _persona grata_ at Court. He then
became court pianist and inspector of musical studies in the Imperial
Institute of Female Education, and was ennobled. In 1852 and again in
1867 he visited England, though in the latter year he made no public
appearance. St Petersburg was his home practically until his death,
which took place at Warmbrunn on the 10th of October 1889. The
characteristic of Henselt's playing was a combination of Liszt's
sonority with Hummel's smoothness. It was full of poetry, remarkable for
the great use he made of extended chords, and for his perfect technique.
He excelled in his own works and in those of Weber and Chopin. His
concerto in F minor is frequently played on the continent; and of his
many valuable studies, _Si oiseau j'etais_ is very familiar. His A minor
trio deserves to be better known. At one time Henselt was second to
Rubinstein in the direction of the St Petersburg Conservatorium.
HENSLOW, JOHN STEVENS (1796-1861), English botanist and geologist, was
born at Rochester on the 6th of February 1796. From his father, who was
a solicitor in that city, he imbibed a love of natural history which
largely influenced his career. He was educated at St John's College,
Cambridge, where he graduated as sixteenth wrangler in 1818, the year in
which Sedgwick became Woodwardian professor of geology. He accompanied
Sedgwick in 1819 during a tour in the Isle of Wight, and there he
learned his first lessons in geology. He also studied chemistry under
Professor James Cumming and mineralogy under E. D. Clarke. In the autumn
of 1819 he made some valuable observations on the geology of the Isle of
Man (_Trans. Geol. Soc._, 1821), and in 1821 he investigated the geology
of parts of Anglesey, the results being printed in the first volume of
the _Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society_ (1821), the
foundation of which society was originated by Sedgwick and Henslow.
Meanwhile, Henslow had studied mineralogy with considerable zeal, so
that on the death of Clarke he was in 1822 appointed professor of
mineralogy in the university at Cambridge. Two years later he took holy
orders. Botany, however, had claimed much of his attention, and to this
science he became more and more attached, so that he gladly resigned the
chair of mineralogy in 1825, to succeed to that of botany. As a teacher
both in the class-room and in the field he was eminently successful. To
him Darwin largely owed his attachment to natural history, and also his
introduction to Captain Fitzroy of H.M.S. "Beagle." In 1832 Henslow was
appointed vicar of Cholsey-cum-Moulsford in Berkshire, and in 1837
rector of Hitcham in Suffolk, and at this latter parish he lived and
laboured, endeared to all who knew him, until the close of his life. His
energies were devoted to the improvement of his parishioners, but his
influence was felt far and wide. In 1843 he discovered nodules of
coprolitic origin in the Red Crag at Felixstowe in Suffolk, and two
years later he called attention to those also in the Cambridge Greensand
and remarked that they might be of use in agriculture. Although Henslow
derived no benefit, these discoveries led to the establishment of the
phosphate industry in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire; and the works proved
lucrative until the introduction of foreign phosphates. The museum at
Ipswich, which was established in 1847, owed much to Henslow, who was
elected president in 1850, and then superintended the arrangement of the
collections. He died at Hitcham on the 16th of May 1861. His
publications included _A Catalogue of British Plants_ (1829; ed. 2,
1835); _Principles of Descriptive and Physiological Botany_ (1835);
_Flora of Suffolk_ (with E. Skepper) (1860).
_Memoir_, by the Rev. Leonard Jenyns (1862).
HENSLOWE, PHILIP (d. 1616), English theatrical manager, was the son of
Edmund Henslowe of Lindfield, Sussex, master of the game in Ashdown
Forest and Broil Park. He was originally a servant in the employment of
the bailiff to Viscount Montague, whose property included Montague House
in Southwark, and his duties led him to settle there before 1577. He
subsequently married the bailiff's widow, and, with the fortune he got
with her, he developed into a clever business man and became a
considerable owner of Southwark property. He started his connexion with
the stage when, on the 24th of March 1584, he bought land near what is
now the southern end of Southwark Bridge, on which stood the Little Rose
playhouse, afterwards rebuilt as the Rose. Successive companies played
in it under Henslowe's financial management between 1592 and 1603. The
theatre at Newington Butts was also under him in 1594. A share of the
control in the Swan theatre, which like the Rose was on the Bankside,
fell to Henslowe before the close of the 16th century. With the actor
Edward Alleyn, who married his step-daughter Joan Woodward, he built in
Golden Lane, Cripplegate Without, the Fortune Playhouse, opened in
November 1600. In December of 1594, they had secured the Paris Garden, a
place for bear-baiting, on the Bankside, and in 1604 they bought the
office of master of the royal game of bears, bulls and mastiffs from the
holder, and obtained a patent. Alleyn sold his share to Henslowe in
February 1610, and three years later Henslowe formed a new partnership
with Jacob Meade and built the Hope playhouse, designed for stage
performances as well as bull and bear-baiting, and managed by Meade.
In Henslowe's theatres were first produced many plays by the famous
Elizabethan dramatists. What is known as "Henslowe's Diary" contains
some accounts referring to Ashdown Forest between 1576 and 1581, entered
by John Henslowe, while the later entries by Philip Henslowe from 1592
to 1609 are those which throw light on the theatrical matters of the
time, and which have been subjected to much controversial criticism as a
result of injuries done to the manuscript. "Henslowe's Diary" passed
into the hands of Edward Alleyn, and thence into the Library of Dulwich
College, where the manuscript remained intact for more than a hundred
and fifty years. In 1780 Malone tried to borrow it, but it had been
mislaid; in 1790 it was discovered and given into his charge. He was
then at work on his _Variorum Shakespeare_. Malone had a transcript made
of certain portions, and collated it with the original; and this
transcript, with various notes and corrections by Malone, is now in the
Dulwich Library. An abstract of this transcript he also published with
his _Variorum Shakespeare_. The MS. of the diary was eventually returned
to the library in 1812 by Malone's executor. In 1840 it was lent to J.
P. Collier, who in 1845 printed for the Shakespeare Society what
purported to be a full edition, but it was afterwards shown by G. F.
Warner (_Catalogue_ of the Dulwich Library, 1881) that a number of
forged interpolations have been made, the responsibility for which rests
on Collier.
The complicated history of the forgeries and their detection has been
exhaustively treated in Walter W. Greg's edition of _Henslowe's Diary_
(London, 1904; enlarged 1908).
HENTY, GEORGE ALFRED (1832-1902), English war-correspondent and author,
was born at Trumpington, near Cambridge, in December 1832, and educated
at Westminster School and Caius College, Cambridge. He served in the
Crimea in the Purveyor's department, and after the peace filled various
posts in the department in England and Ireland, but he found the routine
little to his taste, and drifted into journalism for the London
_Standard_. He volunteered as Special Correspondent for the
Austro-Italian War of 1866, accompanied Garibaldi in his Tirolese
Campaign, followed Lord Napier through the mountain gorges to Magdala,
and Lord Wolseley across bush and swamp to Kumassi. Next he reported the
Franco-German War, starved in Paris through the siege of the Commune,
and then turned south to rough it in the Pyrenees during the Carlist
insurrection. He was in Asiatic Russia at the time of the Khiva
expedition, and later saw the desperate hand-to-hand fighting of the
Turks in the Servian War. He found his real vocation in middle life.
Invited to edit a magazine for boys called the _Union Jack_, he became
the mainstay of the new periodical, to which he contributed several
serials in succession. The stories pleased their public, and had ever
increasing circulation in book form, until Henty became a name to
conjure with in juvenile circles. Altogether he wrote about eighty of
these books. Henty was an enthusiastic yachtsman, having spent at least
six months afloat each year, and he died on board his yacht in Weymouth
Harbour on the 16th of November 1902.
HENWOOD, WILLIAM JORY (1805-1875), English mining geologist, was born at
Perron Wharf, Cornwall, on the 16th of January 1805. In 1822 he
commenced work as a clerk in a mining office, and soon took an active
interest in the working of mines and in the metalliferous deposits. In
1832 he was appointed to the office of assay-master and supervisor of
tin in the duchy of Cornwall, a post from which he retired in 1838.
Meanwhile he had commenced in 1826 to communicate papers on mining
subjects to the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, and the Geological
Society of London, and in 1840 he was elected F.R.S. In 1843 he went to
take charge of the Gongo-Soco mines in Brazil; afterwards he proceeded
to India to report on certain metalliferous deposits for the Indian
government; and in 1858, impaired in health, he retired and settled at
Penzance. His most important memoirs on the metalliferous deposits of
Cornwall and Devon were published in 1843 by the Royal Geological
Society of Cornwall. At a much later date he communicated with enlarged
experience a second series of _Observations on Metalliferous Deposits,
and on Subterranean Temperature_ (reprinted from _Trans. R. Geol. Soc.
Cornwall_, 2 vols., 1871). In 1874 he contributed a paper on the
_Detrital Tin-ore of Cornwall_ (_Journ. R. Inst. Cornwall_). The
Murchison medal of the Geological Society was awarded to him in 1875,
and the mineral Henwoodite was named after him. He died at Penzance on
the 5th of August 1875.
HENZADA, a district of Lower Burma, formerly in the Pegu, but now in the
Irrawaddy division. Area, 2870 sq. m. Pop. (1901) 484,558. It stretches
from north to south in one vast plain, forming the valley of the
Irrawaddy, and is divided by that river into two nearly equal portions.
This country is protected from inundation by immense embankments, so
that almost the whole area is suitable for rice cultivation. The chief
mountains are the Arakan and Pegu Yoma ranges. The greatest elevation of
the Arakan Yomas in Henzada, attained in the latitude of Myan-aung, is
4003 ft. above sea-level. Numerous torrents pour down from the two
boundary ranges, and unite in the plains to form large streams, which
fall into the chief streams of the district, which are the Irrawaddy,
Hlaing and Bassein, all of them branches of the Irrawaddy. The forests
comprise almost every variety of timber found in Burma. The bulk of the
cultivation is rice, but a number of acres are under tobacco. The chief
town of the district is HENZADA, which had in 1901 a population of
24,756. It is a municipal town, with ten elective and three _ex-officio_
members. Other municipal towns in the district are Zalun, with a
population of 6642; Myan-aung, with a population of 6351; and Kyangin,
with a population of 7183, according to the 1901 census. The town of
Lemyethna had a population of 5831. The steamers of the Irrawaddy
Flotilla Company call at Henzada and Myan-aung.
The district was once a portion of the Talaing kingdom of Pegu,
afterwards annexed to the Burmese empire in 1753, and has no history of
its own. During the second Burmese war, after Prome had been seized, the
Burmese on the right bank of the Irrawaddy crossed the river and offered
resistance to the British, but were completely routed. Meanwhile, in
Tharawaddy, or the country east of the Irrawaddy, and in the south of
Henzada, much disorder was caused by a revolt, the leaders of which
were, however, defeated by the British and their gangs dispersed.