HAN1>FASTIN<; 



HANO-NE8T8 



543 



at once. Scoring wan* a light matter in those 

 luit even no Tie was very rapid. Unmlilu wan 

 \viitteii in fourteen da\s, Tiiini-rlinin iii twenty, the 

 // in twenty four, anil Inrtu-l in lifteen. 



Mi- l.u-e was far nobler than iH usually suppose.!. 

 Tin- port raits are mostly poor, ami the grow features 

 tlie\ -ive are part of the inveterate caricature which 

 puiMiril liis figure, his features, ami his language 

 through life. Those who want to see him as he 

 -I ion Id have a cast of Roubiliac's head in 

 \Ve, minister Abliey, itself taken from a mould, 

 and full of tenderness and dignity. His smile is 

 .said by those who had seen it to have been heavenly, 

 'like the sun breaking through a cloud.' For 

 Knglish biographies read his Memoirs by Main- 

 waring (1770), and his Life by Kockstro (1883), 

 with a complete list of works and dates. Chrys- 

 ander's German biogra]ihy is invaluable, but un- 

 finished (vols. i.-iii. 1856-67). Of the works them- 

 selves the best edition is that of Chrysander 

 (1856 et seq.) ; with all possible condensation they 

 fill ninety-eight vols. The majority of the auto- 

 graph MSS. are at Buckingham Palace ; sketches 

 are at Cambridge in the Fitzwilliam. 



The first Handel Commemoration performance was 

 held in Westminster Abbey in 1784; Handel Festivals 

 have been held since 1850, usually triennially, at the 

 Crystal Palace. Handel societies for the publication of 

 Handel's works were founded in London in 1843, and 

 Leipzig in 1856, and a Handel and Haydn Society for 

 petformances of their works at Boston, U.S., in 1815. 



Handfasting (in Old English, merely 'be- 

 trothal ; ' A.S. hdndfasstan, ' to pledge one's hand ' ) 

 was a custom at one time prevalent in Scotland, by 

 which a man and a woman entered into conjugal 

 relations on the strength simply of a verbal con- 

 tract of marriage. Persons so handfasted were 

 bound to each other for a twelvemonth and a 

 day, after which they could either separate or be 

 formally united in marriage. The custom had 

 its great evils In society, and the clergy, both of 

 the pre- Reformation and the post- Reformation 

 churches, directed many injunctions against it. 

 See MORGANATIC MARRIAGE. 



Handicapping is the term used in various 

 games and sports to denote the placing of competi- 

 tors, good, bad, and indifferent, on such a footing 

 that all shall have, as nearly as possible, an equal 

 chance of winning. Thus, in Horse-racing (q.v. ), 

 when the speed of one horse has been ascertained 

 to be greatly superior to that of another, the swifter 

 of the two, in a handicap race, is made to carry 

 extra weight to an amount that shall be deemed 

 sufficient to reduce its speed to a level with that of 

 its antagonist. In pigeon -shooting from traps, the 

 more skilful the shooter, the farther back has he 

 to stand from the traps. In games such as chess 

 and draughts, certain 'men' are allowed to the 

 inferior player; in billiards, the better of two 

 allows his antagonist a certain number of ' points ;' 

 at cricket, an eleven, such as the eleven of All 

 England, will sometimes play against twenty-two 

 others, the competition being at times very close. 

 In swimming and in pedestrianism, the inferior 

 competitors are alloweu a certain 'law,' or start; 

 in yachting, the vessel of greater tonnage is handi- 

 capped with lesser ones by allowing them extra 

 time for the performance of the race. 



Handsel denotes earnest- money, or part-pay- 

 ment, by way of binding a bargain. In some parts 

 of England ' fasten-penny ' is used with the same 

 signification. In Scotland handsel popularly 

 signifies the first of a series of transactions in 

 trade, as, for example, the first sale effected in 

 the day or week, or the first of a series of presents. 

 It is likewise employed to signify a present given, 

 generally to a servant or child, on the first Monday 

 in the year hence called Handsel Monday. 



Hand-tree (Cheirontenn>i, j,lninnoidu), a large 

 tree of the natural order Sterculiocea-, which re- 

 ceives its name from the peculiar np|>earance of its 

 il.iu.-rs. These have no corolla, but a large 5-lobed, 

 angular, coloured calyx bright red within from 

 which project the live stamens, united by their 

 filament* into a column, and separating and curving 

 at the summit, where they bear the anthers, so OH 

 to have some resemblance to a hand or claw. It is 

 interesting also as being an object of superstition* 

 veneration to the Mexicans, and as being related 

 to the famous Baobab or Monkey-bread (Adansonia 

 digitata) of Senegal, Guinea, and other countries 

 of that region of the west coast of Africa. 



Handwriting. See WRITING, EVIDENCE, 

 EXPERT. 



Han-cllOW. (Hang-chan^, the gate of the 

 imperial canal, capital of the Chinese province of 

 Cheh-chiang, and since the Japanese treaty of 

 Shimoiioseki ( 1895) a treaty port, is at the mouth of 

 the Tsien-tang in the Bay of Hang-chow, 1 10 miles 

 SW. of Shanghai. It was the capital of the Sung 

 empire of southern China previous to its overthrow 

 by the Mongols, and was a splendid city when 

 visited by Marco Polo early in the 14th century. 

 The city, one of the great commercial, religious, 

 and literary centres of China, has clean, well-paved 

 streets and many magnificent temples, is a prin- 

 cipal seat of the silk manufacture, of gold and 

 silver work, and is noted for the beauty of its 

 surroundings. From a remote period, many spots 

 in the environs have been the resort of pilgrims ; 

 and here several thousands of candidates assemble 

 every year for the public examinations. It was 

 formerly a naval port. The river is subject to a 

 dangerous bore or eagre. Previous to the Taiping 

 rebellion, the city had some 2,000,000 inhabitants ; 

 but it was then ( 1861 ) laid in ruins by the rebels, 

 and now contains a population estimated at from 

 400,000 to 800,000. 



Hanging. See EXECUTION, STRANGULATION. 



Hanging Gardens. The Hanging Gardens 

 of Babylon were anciently reckoned among the 

 wonders of the world. Their construction is vari- 

 ously ascribed to Queen Semiramis and to Nebu- 

 chadnezzar. Diodorus and Strabo have given de- 

 scriptions of them. They are said to have formed a 

 square, with an area of nearly four acres, and rose 

 in terraces, supported on masonry arches, to a 

 height of 75 feet. They were irrigated from a 

 reservoir built at the top, to which water was 

 lifted from the Euphrates by a screw. Fountains 

 and banqueting-rooms were distributed throughout 

 the numerous terraces ; groves and avenues of 

 trees, as well as parterres of flowers, diversified the 

 scene ; whilst the view of the city and neighbour- 

 hood was extensive and magnificent. 



Hang-nestS (Ictcrutw), a family of finch-like 

 perching birds peculiar to America, and widely 

 distributed over both continents, though most 

 largely represented in the tropical parts of South 

 America. They are often known as American 

 Orioles, a name received because of their brilliant 

 black and yellow colour, not from any connection 

 with the orioles of the Old World. The family 

 includes many well-known birds, such as bob-o- 

 links, cow- birds, grackles, &c., but the name 

 hang-nest is not literally applicable to all, and 

 most perfectly to such genera as Cassicus and 

 Ostinops from tropical South America. The 

 curious purse-like nests woven by many of these 

 birds are often alniut two feet in length, and have 

 a hole for entrance near the bottom, at one side. 

 One of the best-known species of hang-nest is the 

 Baltimore Oriole (q.v.). The hang-nests are related 

 to the starlings and Weaver-birds (q.v.) of the 

 eastern hemisphere. 



