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).