Part 236 (1/2)

HAWKER, ROBERT STEPHEN, a Cornish clergyman and poet; was vicar for 40 years of Morwenstow, a parish on the N. Cornwall coast; author of ”Cornish Ballads”; was a humane man, of eccentric ways, and pa.s.sionately fond of animals; was the author of several works besides his ballads, in particular ”Echoes from Old Cornwall” and ”Footprints of Former Men in Far Cornwall” (1805-1875).

HAWKESWORTH, JOHN, a miscellaneous writer; wrote a book of ”Voyages,” an account of the first voyage of Captain Cook; was a friend of Johnson's, and a.s.sociated with him in literary work (1715-1773).

HAWKINS, SIR JOHN, an English navigator and admiral, born at Plymouth; was rear-admiral of the fleet sent against the Armada and contributed to its defeat; has the unenviable distinction of having been the first Englishman to traffic in slaves, which he carried off from Africa and imported into the West Indies (1530-1595).

HAWKINS, SIR JOHN, retired attorney, born in London; wrote a ”History of Music,” and edited Walton's ”Complete Angler” with notes (1719-1789).

HAWKWOOD, SIR JOHN, an English captain, born in Ess.e.x; embracing the profession of arms, served with distinction at Crecy and Poitiers, and was in consequence knighted by Edward III.; afterwards fought as free-lance with his White Company in the wars of Italy, and finally in the service of Florence, where he spent his last days and died in 1393.

For an account of his character, military ability, and manner of warfare, see Ruskin's ”Fors Clavigera.”

HAWORTH (3), a village of Yorks.h.i.+re, situated on a rising moorland in the W. Biding, 2 m. SW. of Keighley, memorable as the lifelong home of the Brontes, and their final resting-place.

HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL, American novelist, born at Salem, Ma.s.sachusetts; his early ambition was to be a literary man, and ”Twice-told Tales” was the first production by which he won distinction, after the publication of which he spent some months at BROOK FARM (q. v.), leaving which he married and took up house at Concord; from 1848 to 1850 he held a State appointment, and in his leisure hours wrote his ”Scarlet Letter,” which appeared in the latter year, and established his fame as a master of literature; this was followed by ”The House of the Seven Gables,” ”The Snow Image,” ”The Blithedale Romance,” and by-and-by ”The Marble Faun,” and ”Our Old Home” (1804-1864).

HAYDN, JOSEPH, German composer, born at Rohrau, in Austria, of poor parents; early evinced a musical talent, and became at the age of eight a cathedral chorister; came into notice first as a street musician; soon became a popular music-master in Vienna, and, under the patronage of the Esterhazys, kapellmeister to Prince Nicolaus, a pa.s.sionate lover of music; he produced operas, symphonies, and oratorios, &c.; he is at his best in quartettes and symphonies, and in ”The Creation” and ”The Seasons”; he was a man of a happy disposition, and his character appears in his music; he was known at length as Father Haydn (1732-1809).

HAYDON, BENJAMIN ROBERT, an English historical painter, born at Plymouth; studied at the Royal Academy, and in 1807 exhibited ”Joseph and Mary resting on the Road to Egypt”; two years later occurred his memorable split with the Royal Academy over a supposed slight to his picture, ”Dentatus”; ”Christ's Entry into Jerusalem” brought him 1700 by exhibition, and his ”Judgment of Solomon,” considered his finest work, sold for 700 guineas; despite large sums obtained for ”The Mock Election,” ”The Reform Banquet,” &c., he was continually in debt, and his high-strung, sensitive temperament, smarting under imaginary slights and weary of unrealised ambitions, led him to commit suicide by shooting himself in his studio; he was an artist of great but unequal genius; he was fascinated with the Elgin Marbles, and the admiration he expressed for them contributed to persuade the Government to purchase them (1786-1846).

HAYES, ISAAC ISRAEL, Arctic explorer, born in Pennsylvania; after graduating in medicine, joined the Kane expedition in search of Franklin in 1853, and subsequently made two other voyages to the Arctic regions, accounts of which are given in his ”An Arctic Boat-journey,” ”The Land of Desolation,” &c.; subsequently he served as a surgeon during the Civil War, and sat in the New York a.s.sembly (1832-1881).

HAYES, RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD, President of the United States, born at Delaware, Ohio; graduated at Kenyon College, Ohio; studied law at Harvard, and started practice at Cincinnati; he served with distinction through the Civil War, entered Congress in 1865, and was thrice governor of Ohio; in 1876 he was elected President in the Republican interest after a protracted and bitterly disputed election; he did much to pacify the South, reform the civil service, advance education, and to bring about resumption of specie payments, measures which greatly restored the prosperity of the country (1822-1893).

HAY-FEVER, a sort of catarrh, accompanied with paroxysms of sneezing, irritation in the eyes, pains in the head, &c., most frequent in early summer.

HAYLEY, WILLIAM, poet, the friend and biographer of Cowper; wrote ”Triumphs of Temper,” a poem (1745-1820).

HAYM, RUDOLF, professor of Philosophy at Halle; wrote biographies of Hegel, W. von Humboldt, and Schopenhauer; _b_. 1821.

HAYNAU, JULIUS JAKOB, BARON VON, a notorious Austrian general, born at Ca.s.sel, Germany; entered the army in 1801, and while holding a command during the Italian campaigns of 1848-49, crushed the revolt at Brescia with such brutal ferocity as to gain him the name of the ”Hyaena of Brescia”; he was for a time dictator of Hungary, but his murderous cruelty towards the subjugate people became a European scandal and led to his removal; in London he was mobbed and narrowly escaped with his life (1786-1853).

HAYTI (Hispaniola or Santo Domingo), next to Cuba the largest of the W. Indian Islands, in the group of the Greater Antilles, lies midway between Cuba on the W. and Porto Rico on the E.; its area, somewhat larger than Scotland, is apportioned between the negro Republic of Hayti in the E. and the mulatto Dominican Republic in the W.; the island is mountainous, and forests of valuable timber abound; a warm, moist climate favours rice, cotton, &c., and minerals are plentiful; but during this century, under native government, the island has been retrogressive; agriculture and mining are practically at a standstill, while the natives seem incapable of self-government; the language spoken is a corrupt French; Port-au-Prince and San Domingo are the chief towns; discovered in 1492 by Columbus, the island was soon denuded of its aboriginals, then peopled by imported negroes, joined latterly by French buccaneers; in 1697 the island was ceded to France, but in 1791, under TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE (q. v.), the blacks, after a b.l.o.o.d.y revolution, swept the island clear of Europeans; population of island somewhat over a million.

HAYWARD, ABRAHAM, English essayist; bred to law, but took to literature; executed a prose translation of ”Faust,” Pt. I. (1802-1884).

HAZLITT, WILLIAM, critic and essayist, born in Maidstone, of Irish descent; began life as an artist, but abandoned art for letters, and contributed to the reviews; wrote on the English poets and dramatists, the ”Characters of Shakespeare's Plays,” ”The Spirit of the Age,” a ”Life of Napoleon,” &c.; criticism was his _forte_, and he ranks among the foremost devoted to that art; his life was not well regulated, his health gave way, and he died in poverty (1778-1830).