hobble.) 1. To walk lamely or awkwardly upon one leg more than the other; to hitch (Swift). 2. To move roughly or unevenly (Prior).

HO'BBLE. s. (from the verb.) Uneven awkward gait (Swift).

HOʻBBLINGLY.ad. (from hobble.) Clumsily; awkwardly; with a halting gait.

HOBBY. s. (hobereau, French.) 1. A species of hawk. See FALCO. 2. (hoppe, Gothick.) An Irish or Scottish horse; a pacing horse; a garran. 3. A stick on which boys get astride, and ride (Prior). 4. A stupid fellow (Shakspeare).

HOBGOBLIN, a name vulgarly applied to fairies and apparitions.

HOBIT, a small mortar. See HowITZER. HOBLERS, a name formerly given to certain Irish knights who used to serve as light horsemen upon hobbies.

HOʻBNAIL. s. (from hobby and nail.) ▲ nail used in shoeing a little horse (Shakspeare). HO'BNAILED. a. Set with hobnails

(Dryden).

HO'BNOB. Corrupted from habnab (Sh.). HOBSHEE-COFFREES, a kind of slaves very frequent in the empire of Hindustan. They come mostly from a province subject to the Negus of Ethiopia, called Innariah, to the south of his other dominions, and bordering upon Negroland in Africa.

HOBSON'S CHOICE, a vulgar proverbial expression, applied to that kind of choice in which there is no alternative. It is derived from the name of a carrier at Cambridge, who let out hackney horses, and obliged each customer to take in his turn that horse which stood next the stable-door. Hobson died Jan. 1, 1630, while the plague was in London, and Milton wrote two epigrammatic epitaphs on the occasion, both of which are preserved in his Miscellanies. Till very lately there was a fine picture of Hobson, at the Bull, in Bishopsgate-street, London: where it is now we know not.

HOCHBERG, a marquisate of Brisgaw, in Germany, in the circle of Suabia. It belongs to the Prince of Baden Dourlach.

HOCHSTET, a town of Germany, in the circle of Suabia, remarkable for the great battle gained near it by the Duke of Marlborough in 1704, and which the English call the battle of Blenheim, from a village of that name three miles S. W. of this. It is seated on the Danube. Lat. 48. 38 N. Lon. 10. 33 E.

HOCK, the hough of a horse or other quadruped the joint of the leg behind, corresponding with the knee in front. Its office, in sustaining the principal weight and various turns of the body, renders it liable to injuries of a peculiar kind, which are often severe and permanent. Bone-spavins, blood-spavins and curbs are of this description.

To HOCK. v. a. To disable in the hock. Hock, Ho'CKAMORE. s. (from Hockheim on the Maine.) Old strong Rhenish wine (Floyer).

HO'CKHERB. s. (hock and herb.) A plant, the same with mallow (Ainsworth).

To HOCKLE. v. a. (from hock.) To hamstring (Hanmer).

HOCUS POCUS. (Junius derives it from hocced, Welsh, a cheat, and poke or pocus, a bag.) A juggle; a cheat (L'Estrange).

HOD. s. A kind of trough in which a labourer earries mortar to the masons. The same word is often used in the fens of Huntingdonshire, &c. to denote a kind of turf used as fuel.

HODDESDON, a town in Hertfordshire, with a market on Thursdays. It is seated near the Lea. Lat. 51. 49 N. Lon. 0. 5 E.

HODGE-PODGE. (haché poché, Fr.) A medley of ingredients boiled together (Sandys). HODIE'RNAL. a. (hodiernus, Latin.) Of

to-day.

HÓDMAN. s. (hod and man.) A labourer that carries mortar.

HOE, a husbandman's tool, somewhat like a cooper's adze, to cut up weeds in gardens, fields, &c. This instrument is of great use, and ought to be much more employed than it is in hacking and clearing the several corners and patches of land in spare times of the year, which would be no small advantage to the soil.

HOECK (John van), an historical and portrait painter, was born at Antwerp in 1600. He studied under Rubens, and afterwards visited Rome, where he gained the patronage of several of the cardinals and other great personages. At the solicitation of Ferdinand II. he went to Vienna, where he was greatly distinguished by the imperial family. He died in 1650. (Watkins).

HOEI-TCHEOU, the most southern city of the province of Kiang-nan of China, and one of the richest of the empire. The people are economical and temperate, but they are active and enterprising in trade. They boast of their tea, varnish, and engravings, which are indeed the most esteemed in China.

HOEI-TCHEOU-FOU, a commercial city of China, in the province of Quang-tong. Its jurisdiction contains 11 cities of the 2d and 3d class. Lat. 23. 1 N. Lon. 113. 58 E.

HOEING, in the new husbandry, is the breaking or dividing the soil by tillage while the corn or other plants are growing thereon. It differs from common tillage (which is always performed before the corn or plants are sown or planted) in the time of performing it; and it is much more beneficial to the crops than any other tillage. This sort of tillage is performed various ways, and by means of different instruments. See HUSBANDRY.

HOEL (Gerard), an historical and landscape painter, born at Bommel in 1648. He settled at Utrecht, where he was appointed director of an academy for drawing and painting. Many capital pictures of his are in the palace of Stargenberg, and his eminent talents may be seen in the grand staircase of the seat of the Earl of Albemarle. He died in 1733.

HOFFMAN (Maurice), an eminent phy

sician, born in the electorate of Brandenburg, in 1021. After studying under his uncle, who was professor of physic at Altdorf, he went to Padua, where he took his doctor's degree. In 1648 he was made professor-extraordinary in anatomy and surgery at Altdorf, and the year following professor of physic. In 1653 he obtained the professorship of botany, to which was added the direction of the physic-garden. He died in 1698. His works are, 1. Altdorfi delicia Hortenses; 2. Appendix de Catalogum Plantarum Hortensium; 3. Delicia silvestres; 4. Florigeium Altdorfinum. His son John Maurice Hoffman was also an eminent physician, as well as a good botanist.

HOFFMA'NNIA. In botany, a genus of the class tetrandria, order monogynia. Calyx four-toothed; corol salver-shaped, four-parted; filamentless; berry two-celled, many-seeded, inferior. One species; an herbaceous plant

of Jamaica.

HOG. s. (hwch, Welsh.) 1. The general name of swine. See Sus. 2. A castrated boar. 3. To bring HoGs to a fine market. To fail of one's design (Spectator).

HOG, on board a ship, is a sort of flat scrubbing-broom, formed by inclosing a number of short twigs of birch or such wood between two pieces of plank fastened together, and cutting off the ends of the twigs. It is used to scrape the filth from a ship's bottom under water, particularly in the act of boot-topping. For this purpose they fit to this broom a long staff with two ropes; one of which is used to thrust the hog under the ship's bottom, and the other to guide and pull it up again close to the planks. HOG'S-LARD. See AxUNGIA. HOGARTH (William), a celebrated English artist, was born at London in 1698, and bound apprentice to an engraver of arms on silver plate. About 1720 he set up business for himself, and his first employment was to engrave coats of arms and shop-bills. He next undertook to execute plates for booksellers, the chief of which are a set of prints to illustrate Hudibras in 1726. His first performance as a painter was a representation of Wanstead assembly, the portraits taken from life, but without burlesque. In 1730 he married a daughter of Sir James Thornhill, and shortly after embellished the gardens of Vauxhall with some excellent paintings, for which Mr. Tyers, the proprietor, complimented him with a golden ticket of admission for himself and friends. In 1733 appeared his Harlot's Progress, a set of prints which at once stamped his reputation, and which was followed by other moral histories, most strikingly executed. Soon after the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle he went over to France, and while at Calais began to sketch a drawing of the gate of the town, for which he was taken up, but at last obtained his discharge. This circumstance gave rise to his piece of, O the roast Beef of Old England! and it is observable that he never after exhibited a Frenchman but in caricature. In 1753 he published his Analysis of Beauty,

in a 4to. volume, in which work he was greatly assisted by Dr. Benjamin Hoadley the physi cian, and Dr. Morell. Hogarth bad the infirmity of excessive vanity, and thought him. self the first painter of the age. He was also a very absent man; an instance of which happened as follows: Soon after he had set up his carriage, he paid a visit to the lord mayor, and having protracted his visit for a considerable time till a heavy shower came on, he was let out by a different door from that by which he entered. Unmindful of his own carriage, he called for a coach, but finding none was to be had he set off through the rain, and got home dripping wet. When Mrs. Hogarth asked him where he had left the carriage, he said that he had forgot it. The last remarkable incident of his life was a dispute with Churchill the poet, who attacked him in a poetical epistle for his abuse of his friend Mr. Wilkes. Hogarth retaliated by representing the satirist in the form of a bear dressedly canonically, holding a pot of porter in his paw. He died of a lingering illness in 1762, and was interred in the church-yard of Chiswick.

A specimen of Hogarth's propensity to merriment, on the most trivial occasions, is ob servable in one of his cards requesting the company of Dr. Arnold King to dine with him at the Mitre. Within a circle, to which a knife and fork are the supporters, the written part is contained. In the centre is drawn a pie, with a mitre on the top of it: and the invitation of our artist concludes with the following words in Greek letters-to Eta Beta Pi. The rest of the inscription is not very accurately spelled. A quibble by Hogarth is surely as respectable as a conundrum by Swift.

HOGCOTE. s. (hog and cote.) A house for hogs; a hog-sty (Mortimer).

HOGGEREL. s. A two-year-old ewe (Ainsworth).

HO'GH. s. (otherwise written ho, from hoogh, Dutch.) A hill; rising ground (Spen.). HOʻGHERD. s. (hog and hýɲd, a keeper.) A keeper of hogs (Broome).

HO'GGISH. a. (from hog.) Having the qualities of a hog; brutish; selfish (Sidney). HO'GGISHLY. ad. Greedily; selfishly. HOGGISHNESS. s. (from hoggish.) Brutality; greediness; selfishness.

HOGSHEAD, in commerce, a measure of capacity for liquids. The hogshead of wine contains 63 gallons, each of 231 cubic inches : the hogshead of beer 54 gallons of 282 cubic inches each. In Scotland a hogshead contains 16 gallons.

HO'GSTY. s. (hog and sty.) The place in which swine are shut to be fed (Swift). HO'GWASH. s. (hog and wash.) The draff which is given to swine (Arbuthnot).

HOGUE, CAPE LA, on the N.W. point of Normandy, near which Admiral Rooke burnt 13 French men of war in 1692. Lat. 49. 45 N. Lon. 1. 52 W.

HOHENZOLLERN, a town of Suabia, capital of a county of the same name, with a

To HOIDEN. v. n. (from the noun.) romp indecently (Swift).

To

To HOISE. TO HOIST. v. a. (hausser, Fr.) To raise up on high (Chapman).

HOKE-DAY, HOCK-DAY, or Hock TUESDAY, in our ancient customs (dies Martis, quem quindenam paschæ vocant), the second Tuesday after Easter week; a solemn festival celebrated for many ages in England in memory of the great slaughter of the Danes in the time of king Ethelred, they having been in that reign almost all destroyed in one day in different parts of the kingdom, and that principally by women. This is still kept up in some counties; and the women bear the principal sway in it, stopping all passengers with ropes and chains, and exacting some small matter from them to make merry with.

HO-KIEN-FOU, a city of China, and one of the principal in the province of Pe-tcheli. It has two cities of the second, and fifteen of the third class, in its district, but is remarkable for nothing but the neatness of its streets. Lat. 38. 28 N. Lon. 115. 43 E.

HOLBEACH, a town in Lincolnshire, with a market on Thursdays. Lat. 52. 47. N. Lon. 0. 11 E.

HOLBECK, a seaport of Denmark, in the island of Zealand, with a good harbour. Lat. 55.42 N. Lon. 11. 44 E.

HOLBEIN (John or Hans), a famous painter, was born at Basil in Switzerland in 1498, and was instructed in the principles of his art by his father. In the town-house of Basil he painted a fine picture of our Saviour's Passion; and in the fish market of the same town, a dance of peasants, and Death's dance, the last of which has been engraved in a series of plates. In the reign of Henry VIII. he came to England, where he was patronized by sir Thomas More and other great men. He was also taken into the service of the king, and painted a vast number of portraits and historical pieces in an excellent style. On the report of this painter's character, a lord of the first quality came to see him when he was drawing a figure after the life. Holbein sent to desire his lordship to defer the honour of his visit to another day; which the nobleman taking for an affront, broke open the door, and very rudely went up stairs. Holbein, hearing a noise, came out of his chamber; and meeting the lord at his door, fell into a violent passion, and pushed him backwards from the top of the stairs to the bottom. However, immediately reflecting on what he had done, he escaped from the tumult he had raised, and made the best of his way to the king. The nobleman, much hurt, though not so much as he pretended, was there soon after him; and upon opening his grievance, the king ordered Holbein to ask his pardon. But this only irritated the nobleman the more, who would not be satisfied with less than his life; upon which the VOL. V.

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king sternly replied, My lord, you have not now to do with Holbein, but with me: whatever punishment you may contrive by way of revenge against him, shall certainly be inflicted on yourself. Remember, pray, my lord, that I can whenever I please make seven lords of seven ploughmen, but I cannot make one Holbein of even seven lords." Holbein died of the plague at his lodgings at Whitehall in 1554.

HOLCUS. Soft grass. In botany, a genus of the class polygamia, order monoecia. Herm.: calyx glume two-valved; one or two-flowered; corol glume two-valved, awned; stamens three; styles two; seed one. Male: calyx glume two-valved; corolless; stamens three. Fifteen species: chiefly natives of India, a few of America, and two common to our own country. The following are all we can notice.

1. H. sorghum. Millet. Glumes villous, seeds compressed, awned. It produces the true culinary millet-seed; and is a native both of India and Guinea. In the latter country, and especially on the banks of the Senegal, the fields are frequently covered with it, and the stalk rises to eight feet in height. The flour makes excellent bread; and from the quantity of saccharine matter contained in the sap, it is probable that an excellent sugar might be obtained from it at a cheap expence.

2. H. mollis. Glumes partly naked; hermaphrodite plant awnless; male with a sharply-bent awn; root creeping. Common to our own hedges.

3. H. lanatus. Glumes villous; hermaphrodite floret awnless; male with an arch recurved awn. Found in our pastures.

HOLD, in veterinary language, is a term applied to the mare after copulation, and means that she retains the male semen. See RETAIN. The mare being brought to the horse on the ninth day, from the first time of covering, if she again receive him the act is accounted a sufficient proof she did not hold or retain before: she is, nevertheless, brought again to the horse at the end of another nine days, and when she has twice refused to take him, she is said to be stinted, and no doubt is entertained of her being with foal.

To HOLD. v. a. preter. held; part. pass. held or holden. (haldan, Saxon.) 1. To grasp in the hand; to gripe; to clutch (Shakspeare). 2. To keep; to retain (Spenser). 3. To connect; to keep together (Exodus). 4. To maintain as an opinion (Locke). 5. To consider; to regard (Shakspeare). 6. To think of; to judge with regard to praise or blame (Dryden). 7. To receive, and keep in a vessel (Milton) 8. To contain; to receive into its capacity: as, a hogshead holds sixty-three gallons. 9. To have any station (Milton). 10. To possess; to have (Knolles). 11. To possess in subordi nation (Knolles). 12. To suspend; to refrain (Crashaw). 13. To stop; to restrain (Denham). 14. To fix in any condition (Shak.). 15. To keep; to save (Shakspeare). 16. To confine to a certain state (Esdras). 17. To detain; to keep in subjection (Acts). 18. To

RR

monly written Oleracea (from olus, anciently holus, a pot-herb.) The name of the twelfth order in Linnéus's Natural Orders; and the fiftythird in his Fragments of a natural Method; containing Spinach, Beet, &c. &c.

HOLIBUT, or HOLLIBUT, in ichthyology. See PLEURONECTES.

HOLIDAM. s. Blessed lady (Hanmer). HO'LILY. ad. (from holy.) 1. Piously; with sanctity (Shakspeare). 2. Inviolably; without breach (Sidney).

HOʻLINESS. s. (from holy.) 1. Sanctity: piety; religious goodness (Rogers). 2. The state of being hallowed; dedication to religion. 3. The title of the pope (Addison).

HOLINSHED (Raphael), an English historian famous for the Chronicles under his name, was descended from a family that lived at Bosely, in Cheshire; but neither the time of his birth, nor scarcely any circumstances of his life, are known. However, he appears to have been a man of considerable learning, and to have had a genius particularly adapted for history. His Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, were first published at London in 1570, in 2 vols. folio; and then in 1587, in 3 vols. In this second edition several sheets in the 2d and 3d vols. were castrated for containing some passages disagreeable to queen Elizabeth and her ministers; but the castrations have since been printed apart. Holinshed was not the sole compiler of this work, being assisted in it by several other hands. The time of his death is unknown; but from his will, which is prefixed to Hearne's edition of Camden's Annals, it appears to have happened between 1378 and

1582.

HO'LLA. interj. (hola, French.) A word used in calling to any one at a distance(Milt.). To HO'LLA. v. n. (from the interjection.) It is now vitiously written hollo; sometimes halloo.) To cry out loudly (Shakspeare).

HOLLAND, a once celebrated republic of Europe, and principal of the Dutch states, or as they were commonly, though perhaps improperly, called, the Seven United Provinces. Holland is a peninsula, bounded on the north and west by the German Ocean, on the east by the Zuyder See and the state of Utrecht, and on the south by the river Meuse and Brabant. It is divided into North and South. North Holland includes all to the north of Amsterdam. South Holland extends from the state of Zealand and Brabant to the river Ye: the length of the whole, including the island of Texel and the islands in the Meuse, is about ninety miles; the breadth is various, from fifteen to forty-eight. It contains twenty-nine walled towns, with many others that enjoy municipal privileges, and above 400 villages. Six large cities have seats in the states general, viz. Dort, Haeriem, Delft, Leyden, Amsterdam, and Gouda. The number of inhabitants is estimated at 800,000. The soil of the country is so soft and marshy, that but for the constant care in forming ditches and canals, it would be hardly capable of cultivation; some part of it lies even lower than the sea, from which it is

secured by dykes or dams, The meadow grounds are rich, and great numbers of milch cows are kept by the farmers, and the making of butter and cheese is one of their principal occupations; these meadows are generally under water in the winter, and the water would continue there at all times, if the inhabitants of the country had not found means to dis charge them, by mills invented for this purpose, into the ditches and canals. The Hollanders are affable, industrious, laborious, absorbed in trade, excellent sailors, good politicians, and lovers of liberty. A free exercise of religion is allowed to all persuasions except the Roman Catholics; but Calvinism is the most prevailing, This country was anciently inhabited by the Batavians, who derived their origin from the Catti, a people of Germany. Having been obliged to abandon their country on account of civil wars, they came to establish themselves in an island, formed by the waters of the Rhine and the Wahal or Leck, and named their coun try Batavia, or Betuwe, from Batton, the son of their king. These people served in the Roman armies in quality of auxiliary troops, and historians inform us, that some of them were at the battle of Pharsalia. They formed the ordinary guard of the emperor Augustus. The services which they rendered Germanicus, in Germany, were so important, that the senate gave them the appellation of brothers. They had afterwards a considerable share in the conquest of Britain, under Plancius and Agricola. They strengthened the party of Galba, and af terwards that of Vitellius, and it was principally to their valour that Julian the Apostate was indebted for the victory which he obtained over the Germans, near Strasburg. The name of Holland is by some said to be given it on account of the vast and thick forests of wood with which it was at one time covered. Holtlant, in German, signifying woodland; others are inclined to think that the Normans, who made a descent here about the year 836, gave the country this name, founding their opinion on the resemblance of names found in this country to those in Denmark and Norway, the ancient residence of the Normans, as Zealand, Oland, Schagen, Bergen, &c. On the decline of the Roman empire, the Batavians, or Hol landers, having thrown off their yoke, came under the dominion of the Saxons, and then of the French, under Childeric I. king of France. The Normans and the Danes were the next masters, from the time of Charlemagne, and ravaged the country three times with fire and sword: when they were driven away, Charles the Bald, emperor and king of France, erected Holland into a county, in the year 863, in favour of Thierry, duke of Aquitaine, who, five years after, was also made count of Zealand, by Louis, king of Germany. In the year 1299, the county of Holland devolved to the counts of Hainaut, and, in 1436, it fell to Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, and afterwards to the emperor Maximilian, whose descendant, Philip 11. king of Spain, was the last count of Holland; the seven provinces revolting from