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).