HOLMAN, JAMES. 



HOLT, SIR JOHN. 



4*. 



to tho ruling power*, probably from hi* general acquaintance with the 

 friends of bit patron, who were mostly royalist*, with iome of whom 

 lie wai mad* prisoner at tha surrender of Baaing HOUM, in Hampshire, 

 in 1C<5. Hollar however having some time after obtained hia liberty, 

 wrut over to the continent to the Earl of Aruiidel, who then resided 

 at Antwerp, whrre be remained for several yean, copying from that 

 portion of hia patron'* collection which had been carried there, and in 

 working for printselltr* and publishers. It was at thin time that hii 

 portraits from lx;onardo da Vinci, Holbein, and other great masters, 

 made their appearance. In 1662 ho returned to England, aud worked 

 Incessantly till the time of liii death. The plate* by him in the first 

 and arcond volumes of the old edition of Dugdale't ' Monaatioon,' in 

 Dngdale's ' History of St. Paul's,' and in hia ' Surrey of Warwickshire,' 

 sufficiently prove his industry. It would be endless to enumerate all 

 the subjects he engraved. A map of Donegal, in Ireland, is one of the 

 ran t. lu 1069 he was rent to Tangier, in Africa, in quality of hia 

 majesty's designer, to take the various prospects there of the garrison, 

 town, fortifications, and surrounding country : these he subsequently 

 engraved. Several of the drawings taken at this time are preserved in 

 the liritish Museum. They were purchased, together with numerous 

 fine proofs of Hollar's beat works, from his widow, by Sir Han 

 Hollar's latest works are probably the plates in Thorotou's 'Antiquities 

 of Nottinghamshire,' some of which remain unfinished. When Hollar 

 was iu his seventieth year he had the misfortune to have nu execution 

 at his house in Gardiner's Lane, Westminster : he desired only the 

 liberty of dying in his bed, and that be might not be removed to any 

 other prison than his grave. Whether this was granted to him or not 

 is uncertain, but bo died March 28th, 1677, and, as appears from the 

 parish-register of St. Margaret's, was buried iu New Chapel-yard, near 

 the place of his death. No monument was erected to his memory. 

 Grose, from information he received from Oldys, has recorded that 

 Hollar used to work for the booksellers at fourpence au hour, always 

 having an hour-glass placed before him ; and that he was so scru- 

 pulously exact, that even whilst talking, though with the persons for 

 whom he was working, and upon their own business, be constantly 

 laid down the glass to prevent the sand from running. Hia works, 

 according to Vertue's catalogue of them, amount to nearly 2400 prints. 

 In drawing the human figure Hollar was defective ; and he failed iu a 

 few plates which he attempted to execute with the graver only. 



HOLMAN, JAMKS, known as 'The Blind Traveller,' was born in 

 or about the year 1787. He entered the royal navy in December 1798, 

 and was appointed lieutenant in April 1807. At tho age of twenty-five 

 an illness which resulted from his professional duties deprived him 

 entirely of his sight. On the 29th of September 1812, ho was ap- 

 pointed one of the Naval Knights of Windsor, of whom there are six, 

 with a governor. By degrees, when he had become accustomed to hia 

 condition, in 1S19, partly the state of his health and partly a desire 

 for change induced him to set out on a journey to the continent, of 

 which he published an account in ' The Narrative of a Journey under- 

 taken in the Years 1819, 1S20, 1821, through France, Italy, Savoy, 

 Switzerland, parts of Germany bordering on the Rhine, Holland, and 

 the Netherlands ; comprising Incidents that occurred to the Author, 

 who has long suffered under a total Deprivation of Sight, by Jamea 

 Holman, R.N. aud K.W.,' 8vo, 1822. On the 1 9th of July 1 822, he 

 embarked on a voyage to St. Petersburg, whence he proceeded to 

 Moscow, Novgorod, and finally to Irkutsk, the capital of Eastern 

 Siberia. His intention was, when the ice on Lake Baikal became 

 sufficiently firm, to have crossed over, and travelled through Mongolia 

 and China. At Irkutsk however an order was received by the 

 Russian authorities from tho Emperor Alexander, prohibiting him from 

 proceeding any farther, and he was compelled to return. He was 

 accompanied by a Russian officer to the frontiers of Germany, and was 

 treated with external politeness combined with much harshness and 

 severity. After his return to England he published ' Travels through 

 Russia, Siberia, Poland, Austria, Saxony, Prussia, Hanover, tic., during 

 the Tears 18U2, 1823, and 1824, while suffering from total Blindness, 

 and comprising an Account of the Author being conducted a State 

 Prisoner from the Eastern Parts of Siberia,' 2 vola. 8vo, 1825. 



Mr. Holman's ' Travels through Russia' were intended, as ho states, 

 to have been the commencement of a series of travels and voyages 

 round the world, which he afterwards accomplished, and which 

 occupied about five yean. After his return he published 'A Voyage 

 round the World, including Travels in Africa, Asia, Australasia, 

 America, Ac , from 1827 to 1832,' 4 vols. 8vo, 1834. In this ' Voyage' 

 he visited first the i-lands of Madeira, Tencriffe, and the western coast 

 of Africa; thence he crossed the Atlantic to Rio Janeiro, and wmt to 

 the gold-mine*. After travelling some time iu Brazil, he recrossed the 

 Atlantic to the Cape of Good Hope, and visited Callirlaml, Madagascar, 

 Mauritius, and Ceylon, whence he passed to Hindustan. Ho next 

 passed by tho Strait* of Malacca to New South Wales, Van Diemen's 

 Land, and New Zealand, and returned round Cape Horn to England. 

 In 1843 be visited Dalmatia, Montenegro, Bosnia, and Servia, and 

 passed in 1844 by Moldavia into Transylvania. Lieutenant lU.lman's 

 aeries of voyages and travels excited much interest when they were 

 published, chiefly from the extraordinary circumstance of their having 

 been accomplished by a man who was totally blind, but they are, as 

 might be expected, of little value for any information which they 

 contain. 



HOI. ..the Utinised name of LUCAS HoI.STK. born at 



Hamburg in 16D5, became one of the first scholars of his time. After 

 travelling through Italy, England, and other countries, he settled at 

 Paris, where he became acquainted with the brother* Dupuy, Peiroso, 

 and other learned men. At Paris he embraced the Roman Catholic 

 religion, in consequence, he laid, of his deeply studying the works of 

 the Fathers, and of his seeking for the principle of unity in the 

 Church. Prime introduced Holsteuius to the pope's nuncio, Cardinal 

 Borberiui, tho nephew of Urban VIII., whom ho accompanied to 

 Rome iu 1527. From that tiuie he lived in the cardinal's house, 

 became hia librarian, was made canon of St. Peter's, and lastly librarian 

 of the Vatican. He was sent on several missions to Germany, among 

 others, to lunspruck, to receive the abjuration of Queen Christina of 

 Sweden. He was also instrumental in effecting other conversions to 

 Catholicism, llolstenius died nt Rome in February 1661, leaving his 

 patron, Cardinal Borberiui, bis universal legatee. Ho had collected a 

 vast quantity of scarce books aud manuscripts, and be left many 

 works of hi* own iu an unfinished state. With much ap; . 

 a great desire of knowledge, he wanted perseverance, aud was apt to 

 suddenly desert one branch of study for another. Among his pub- 

 lished works ore the following: 1, 'Porphyrii liber de Vita Pytha- 

 goras,' Rome, 1630, with a Latin version uud notes, aud a dissertation 

 on the life and* writings of Porphyrius, which hat been consul 

 a model of learned biography; 2, 'Demuphili. Democrat!*, et Sucmi'li 

 Veterum Philosophorum Seutentio) Morales,' Leydeu, 1638; 3, 'Notai 

 in Sallustium Philosophum de Diis et Mundo ; 4, ' Observatioues ad 

 Apollonii Rhodii Argouautica ; ' 5, 'Arriouus de Venatione,' with a 

 Latin version ; 6, ' Aduotationes iu Geographiam Sacram Carol! a S. 

 Paulo, Italiam Antiquam Cluverii, et Theaaurum Geographicnm 

 Ortelii;' 7, ' Notaj et Castigationes Poithunue in Stephaui r.w.antini 

 de Urbibun,' edited by Ryckius; 8, 'Liber Diuriiua Toutilicum 

 Romanorum,' a collection of papal acts and decrees. Ho also wrute a 

 collection of the rules of the earlier monastic orders, which was pub- 

 lished after his death ; aud he edited in his lifetime the 'Antiquities 

 of i'rteneste,' by Suares. Many of his Latin letters have been also 

 published. His life was written by N. Wilkiua, Hamburg, 17- '. 



HOLT, SIR JOHN, lord-chief-justice of the King's Liench, was the 

 eldest sou of Sir Thomas Holt, Knt, a bencher of Gray's Inn, and a 

 gentleman of property in Oxfordshire. Sir John Holt was born at 

 Thaiue iu Oxfordshire, on the 30th of December 1642, and after 

 spending some y<ars at the free-school of Abingdon was in his 

 sixteenth year entered as a gentleman commoner at Oriel ('ullage, 

 Oxford. His college life appears to have been unusually wild aud 

 licentious ; but l.ku hU predecessor in the King's 1! uch (Sir .Matthew 

 Hale), he discarded his irregular habits, and became remarkable for 

 diligence and application. In 1652, before he was ten years old, he 

 had been entered upon the books of the Society of Uray's Inu, aud 

 on tho 27th of February 1UU3 ho was called to the bar, and rose 

 rapidly into notice as a firat-rate lawyer and successful advocate, lie 

 was employed in most of the state trials which the troubled ti;. 

 which he lived produced, and was generally counsel on behalf of the 

 accused. Hia opposition to the measures of the court brought upon 

 him the vengeance of James II., who procured his removal from the 

 recordership of London. Shortly after tho accession of William III 

 (April 1689) Sir John Holt was made lord-chief-justice of the Kind's 

 iieiich, in which situation he continued during the remainder of his 

 life, although the chancellorship was offered to him on the removal of 

 Lord Somers in 1700. Sir John Holt in the discharge of the 

 of his office evinced great resolution iu opposing tho encroachments 

 as well of the crown as of the houses of parliament HU demeanour 

 towards prisoners presented a noble contrast to the intemperance, 

 brutality, and vulgar ribaldry which had disgraced the criminal pro- 

 ceedings of former reigns, and he set an example of spirit and temper 

 which has continued to distinguish and adorn the judicial bench of 

 England. 



It was the fortune of Sir John Holt to bo placed more than once 

 iu a position to bring into a striking point of view the personal 

 intrepidity of hia character, one instance of which, arising from the 

 claims of privilege by the House of Commons, may be here mentioned. 

 It occurred in the famous cose of the Aylesbury burgesses, several f 

 whom claimed damages against the returning officer who had refused 

 to record their votes. Tho House of Commons resolved that the 

 plaintiffs were guilty of a breach of privilege, and committed them to 

 Newgate; but they sued out writs of Habeas Corpus, and the chief- 

 justice was of opinion they were entitled to their discharge. Upon 

 this the House of Commons issued warrant* for tho apprehension of 

 the counsel who had argued for tho burgesses, and sent the serj. aut- 

 at-urma to Sir John Holt to summon him to appear at tho bar of tho 

 house. The chief-justice bade him begone, upon which the house 

 sent a second message by their speaker, attended by as many members 

 as supported the measure. After tho speaker bad delivered his 

 message, Sir John Holt is reported to have said, "Go back to your 

 chair, Mr. Speaker, within this five minutes, or you may depend upou 

 it I will ei-ud you to Newgate. You speak of your authority ; but 

 1 will tell you I hit here as tho interpreter of tho lawn, and a 

 distributor of justice, and were tho whole House of Commons in your 

 belly, I would not stir one foot." The accuracy of this reply has been 

 questioned, but it has beeu extensively stated, and from tho spirited 



