1IAUOTIS 



HALL 



517 



!l gemiS (if gasteropndollS niollllSCS, <)f 



tin- family llaliotidie, order Prosobranchiata ; shell 

 \\iddv open, ear-shaped, pierced on tin- outer 

 BUUrgin by ft series of holes which are closed in the 

 coin-so of growth after ceasing t<i )>e of use in con- 

 taining the pallial folds. The shell, on account of 

 autifullv iridescent Nacre (q.v. ), is much ux-d 

 for the purposes of ornament. In some parts of 

 Italy it is called Venus's ear; it is the ' mother-of- 

 pearl ' of old English writers, and the 'ormer' (con- 

 tracted from on-ill > (>> mer) of the French. Tlie 

 animal itself, in a living state, exhihits great Iwauty 

 ..I colours. It inhabits tlie littoral zone, adhering to 

 rocks like the limpet; one Japanese species, how- 

 ever, is found in deep water. Several species are 

 nsi-d for food in different parts of the world. The 

 genus has a wide distrihution, being found in every 

 part of the ocean from the Channel Islands south- 

 wards. Seventy-five recent and four fossil species, 

 commencing in the Miocene period, are known. 



Hal il IK riiiin. See DUGONG. 



Hall* the large principal apartment of the 

 castles and mansions of tlie middle ages. The 

 hall is of very ancient origin. The earliest Saxon 

 buildings we "have any record of are the palaces 

 of the Kings, and these seem to have consisted of 

 one large hall, in which the king, his courtiers or 

 * hearth-men,' and all his retainers dwelt together, 

 eating at the same tahle, and sitting round the 

 same fire ; and one other chamber, in which the 

 king and his hearth-men slept, while his retainers 

 slept in the hall. In the Norman keep the hall 

 occupied the whole of the first floor the private 

 apartment of the lord of the castle being on the 

 floor above. In the 12th century halls of a more 

 commodious kind came to be erected in the court- 

 yards of the castles, with the private apartments 

 at one end and the kitchen offices at the other. 

 The same arrangement prevailed, with slight modi- 

 fications, during the 12th and 13th centuries. In 

 the 14th and 15th centuries, when England was 

 more settled and prosperous, and manners more 

 refined, numerous apartments became necessary. 

 The hall, however, still retained its place as the 

 chief apartment. In it the king or the lord of 

 the manor gave audience, administered justice, 

 received and entertained his retainers and guests, 

 and performed all the public acts of feudal life. 



At one end of the nail was a raised platform or 

 dais, on which the table of the lord of the manor 

 was placed, and where his more honoured guests 

 sat along with him. This end of the hall was 

 Dually lighted with large oriel windows, and com- 

 municated with a building which contained the 

 lord's solar, or bedroom and parlour, on the upper 

 floor, and the wine-cellar below. The retainers sat 

 at a table which ran along the lower part of the 

 hall. This part was not always in the cleanest 

 and sweetest condition, and 'hence it received the 

 name of 'the marsh.' The entrance porch was at 

 tlie lower end of the hall, where also a passage was 

 cut off by a screen. This passage gave access to 

 the kitchen, pantry, and buttery, and above the 

 passage a gallery for musicians was frequently con- 

 structed. Survivals of such medieval dining-halls 

 may be found in the Oxford and Cambridge colleges, 

 with their high tables, portraits, si a inn I glass, &c., 

 as also in the halls of the Inns of Court and of some 

 of the London guilds. 



The hall partook of the style of architecture 

 prevailing at the time when it was built, and being 

 a large and important apartment was generally 

 ornamental in it* character. The roofs especially 

 were very carefully and elegantly constructed, as 

 many stifl remaining show. The hall was essenti- 

 ally a part of feudal architecture. When that 

 system gave way, the large common halls were 



uliandoned and private dining-rooms Hubatituted. 

 Many old ones, however, still remain ; but their 

 use is changed. The hall of the king's palace, now 

 called ' Westminster Hall,' built by William Unfit*, 

 and restored by Kit-hard II., \ the fineMt example 

 in Kngland, Ix-ing .'100 feet long and 100 feet broad. 

 See also MIMCII-AI, AurnmxTri:i.. 



Hall, or Si n\\ AIHSCH-HALL, a town of Wlir- 

 temberg, is beautifully situated in the deep valley 

 of the Kocher, 33 miles by rail E. by S. of Heil- 

 lironn. Like other places in whose names the word 

 Hall or Sal/ occurs, Hall has considerable salt- 

 works, the brine being obtained from \\ illi<-lin- 

 gliick, 5 miles distant, and producing annually 

 nearly 80,000 cwt. of salt. There are also cotton- 

 spinning and weaving, silk and machine manu- 

 factures, and tanneries. The Gothic church of St 

 Michael (1427-1525) has excellent wood-carvings, 

 lu 1276 Hall was made a free imperial town ; it 

 had enjoyed since 1228 the right of minting 

 money ; here were coined the first silver heller 

 (holler) or farthings. In 1802 it was added to 

 Wurtemberg. Pop. 9125. 



I! all. a town of Austria, in Tyrol, is situated 

 on the Inn, 6 miles by rail E. of Innsbruck. The 

 parish church contains a monument to Speck- 

 bacher, the Tyrolese patriot of 1809. About 7 

 miles north of the town is the Salzberg, from the 

 mines in which salt brine is conveyed to the pans 

 of Hall in wooden pipes. Here 150,000 cwt. of 

 salt are produced annually. Hall received town 

 rights in 1303. It is a health-resort. Pop. 5756. 



Hall. BASIL, writer of travels and miscellaneous 

 works, was born in Edinburgh, 31st December 

 1788. He was the son of Sir James Hall of Dun- 

 glass, baronet (1761-1832), the founder of experi- 

 mental geology (see GEOLOGY), also distinguished 

 as a chemist and as author of a work on Gothic 

 architecture. Basil entered the naw in 1802, 

 and became post-captain in 1817. When Lord 

 Amherst was sent on a mission to the court of 

 Peking in 1816, Hall commanded a sloop in the 

 naval escort, and visited some places along the 

 western coast of the Corea which were little known 

 to Europeans. The chief results of his explorations 

 were published in A Voyage of Discovery to Corea 

 and the Great Loo-Choo Islands (1818), a book 

 which took the popular fancy. After this he wrote 

 Extracts from a Journal written on the Coast of 

 Chili, Peru, and Mexico in 1820-22 ; Travels in 

 North America in 1827-28 (a work that was vio- 

 lently assailed by the American press); and, also 

 popular, Fragments of Voyages and Tmrels(9 vols. 

 1831-40). Hainfeld (1836), a semi-romance, and 

 Patchwork ( 1841 ), a collection of tales and sketches, 

 also came from his pen. He was a Fellow of the 

 Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, and a 

 member of the Astronomical Society of London, 

 and the author of various articles in the scientific 

 journals of the day. He died insane in Haslar 

 Hospital, Gosport, ilth September 1844. 



Hall, CHARLES FRANCIS, Arctic explorer, born 

 in Rochester, New Hampshire, in 1821, was suc- 

 cessively a blacksmith, journalist, stationer, and 

 engraver, and, becoming interested in the fate of 

 the Franklin expedition, devoted his leisure to 

 gathering information al>out Arctic America. He 

 made two search expeditions, in 1860-62 and 1864- 

 69, living alone among the Eskimo, and bringing 

 back some relics and the bones of one of Franklin's 

 company ; and in 1871 he sailed in command of 

 the government ship Polaris, on an 'expedition 

 to the North Pole. He took his vessel for -J.vi 

 miles up the channel leading from Smith's Sound, 

 and on 29th August reached 82" 16' N. at that 

 date the highest northern latitude ever reached; 



