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HEXACHORD 



HEYLIN 



Hexachord, in modern music, denotes the six 

 diatonic degrees of which Guido formed his scale. 

 See GUIDO AKETINUS, and SCALE. 



Hexagon (Gr. hex, 'six,' and gonia, 'angle'), 

 a figure of six sides and six angles ; when the sides 

 and angles are equal it is called a regular hexagon. 

 Of the three figures which can completely occupy 

 space (the equilateral triangle, square, and hexa- 

 gon ) the hexagon contains the greatest area within 

 a given perimeter, the proportions between the 

 three different figures being nearly as the numbers 

 4, 5i, 6. It is thus that bees, by making their cells 

 of a hexagonal form, enclose the greatest space 

 with the least expenditure of wax. See BEE. 



Hexahedron, a solid figure bounded by six 

 faces the cube being one inch. 



Hexameter, the name applied to the most 

 important form of classical verse. It is the heroic 

 or epic verse of the Greeks and Romans, the 

 grandest examples of which are the Iliad and 

 Odyssey in GreeK, and the JEneid in Latin. It con- 

 sists, as its name implies, of six feet or measures, 

 the last of which must be a spondee (a measure 

 composed of two long syllables), and the penulti- 

 mate a dactyl (one long syllable and two short). 

 If the penultimate is also a spondee, the verse is 

 said to be spondaic. Klopstock, Goethe, and Voss 

 have produced admirable specimens of hexameter 

 verse in German ; and it has become familiar in 

 English through Longfellow's Evangeline, Kings- 

 ley's Andromeda, and dough's Bothie of Tober-na- 

 Vuolich. The following lines from the last show 

 the only varieties of the hexameter which are 

 endurable to the ear i.e. those in which the 

 accent on each foot falls on its first syllable : 



Pelt shS in | myriad | springs her | sources I far In thS | moun- 

 tains, 

 Stirring, col | lecting, | heaving up, | rising, | forth out | flowing. 



It will be observed that on whatever syllable here 

 the metrical accent falls, that syllable is precisely 

 tlie same which the voice naturally accentuates. 

 Whether this was the case in ancient Greek and 

 Latin hexameters we do not know, but, if the 

 present system of Greek accentuation represents 

 the natural accent of Homeric words, it is certain 

 that Homer disregarded the natural accents, or did 

 not observe our rule of always placing the metrical 

 accent on the first syllable of each foot ; and we 

 still pronounce Latin hexameters by preserving 

 what we take to be the natural accent of each 

 word, whether that corresponds to the metrical 

 accent or not. Thus in the line 



Itali | am fa | to pr6fa | gus La | viniaque | venit 

 we disregard the metrical accent, which should fall 

 on the first syllable of each foot (and actually does 

 so in the fifth and sixth ), and in reading the line 

 give effect to the natural accents only, as we con- 

 ceive them, of the words Italiam, fato, profugus. 

 Professor T. Arnold, in the appendix on metres 

 in his Manual of English Literature, points out 

 that when English hexameters were first written 

 they were constructed in the same manner ; they 

 were to be read in the same way as Latin hex- 

 ameters. The natural accent, except in the last 

 two feet, overruled the metrical. In the following 

 lines from Stanihurst's translation of the jEneid 

 it will at once be seen that the effect is absurd if 

 we read the lines as modern English hexameters 

 are read : 



Either here | are couch | ing some | troops of | Greekish as | 



sembly, 



Or to crush | our bul | warks this | work is | forged, all | houses 

 For to pry, | surmount | ing the | town ; some | practice or j 



other 

 Here lurks | of cun I ning ; trust | not this | treacherous | 



ensign. 



If we read by the natural accent the effect is rough 

 and harsh to the ear ; if by the modern metrical, 



ridiculous and absurd. Such are the limitations of 

 the hexameter in English. 



Hexapla (Gr. hexapla, 'the sixfold'), a cele- 

 brated edition by Origen of the Old Testament 

 Scriptures, consisting of the Hebrew text, with a 

 transcript in Greek letters, the Septuagint, and the 

 versions of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion. 

 It is no longer extant. See ORIGEN, SEPTUAGINT. 



Hexliam, an ancient town of Northumberland, 

 beautifully situated on the right bank of the Tyne, 

 '24 miles W. of Newcastle by rail. A stone bridge 

 of nine arches spans the river, and the town is 

 intersected from east to west by one long street, 

 called in its different parts by the names of Priest- 

 popple, Battle-hill, and Hencotes. Two narrow 

 streets connect with the market-place, one of the 

 most interesting and picturesque in England, from 

 which again other narrow streets diverge irregularly. 

 The great point of interest is the Abbey Church of 

 St Andrew, a noble monument of 13th-century 

 architecture, of which the greater part of the choir, 

 except the eastern chapels, and both the transepts 

 alone remain, the building having been subjected to 

 shameful restoration in 1858, and again in 1869. 

 The monastery was originally founded by St 

 Wilfrid in 674, and his church was long celebrated 

 by the chroniclers as the finest on this side the 

 Alps. Here in 681 a bishopric was established 

 which lasted till 821, when Tidferth, the last 

 bishop, died on a voyage to Rome, having been 

 driven off by the Danes. The ruined church was- 

 rebuilt in 1112, and a priory of Austin canons 

 founded, but the monastery was suppressed under 

 Henry VIIL, and its last prior hanged at Tyburn 

 for taking part in the Pilgrimage of Grace. The 

 nave of the church was destroyed by the Scots in 

 1296, and was never rebuilt. Under its ruins wa& 

 discovered the Saxon crypt of St Wilfrid, a won- 

 derful survival of our earliest architecture, with 

 strange barrel vaults, lamp niches, and funnel- 

 shaped apertures, only to be matched at Ripon. 

 It has been discovered that it was built of Roman 

 stones, most likely carried from the old Roman 

 station of Corstopitum, but 3 miles distant. The 

 central tower is 100 feet high, and of its eight 

 ancient bells one is still called the ' Fray Bell,' 

 from having been rung to give warning in Border 

 alarms. The stone Frith-stool is supposed to have 

 been Wilfrid's chair. The best remains of the 

 monastery are the refectory and the abbey gate- 

 way of Norman architecture. To the west of the 

 churchyard is the Seal, once the park of the monks, 

 now a public promenade. Near Hexham the Lan- 

 castrians were severely defeated, May 15, 1464.. 

 The chief manufactures of the town are gloves and 

 hats. Pop. ( 1881 ) 5919 ; ( 1891 ) 5945. 



See Wright's History of Hexham (1823) ; The Priory 

 of Hexham, its Chroniclers, Endowments, and Annals, 

 edited for the Surtees Society by James Raine ( 1864- 

 65); Hewitt's Handbook to Hexham and its Antiquities 

 (1879); and especially the admirable and sumptuous 

 work by Charles Clement Hodges, The Abbey of St 

 A ndrew, Hexham ( privately printed, 1888 ). 



Heylin, PETER, an English divine of consider- 

 able note in his own day, was descended from an 

 ancient Welsh family belonging to Montgomery- 

 shire, and was born at Burford, in Oxfordshire, 

 November 29, 1599. He studied at Oxford, where 

 he took the degree of D.D. Through the interest 

 of Laud (q.v. ), Heylin was appointed chaplain-in- 

 ordinary to King Charles in 1629. He was deprived 

 of his livings under the Commonwealth ; but after 

 the Restoration was made sub-dean of Westminster. 

 He died May 8, 1662. Heylin was a very volumin- 

 ous controversial writer on the anti-Puritan side, 

 and wrote cosmographies, histories of England, of 

 the Reformation, and of the Presbyterians. See- 

 FULLER (THOMAS). 



