173 



HOOD, ALEXANDER, VISCOUNT BRIDPORT. 



HOOD, THOMAS. 



474 



he was created an Irish peer by the title of Baron Hood of Catherington. 

 After this battle Rodney returned finally to England, leaving Lord 

 Hood again in the chief command, which he retained till the peace 

 of 1783. 



In the memorable Westminster election of 1784 Lord Hood opposed 

 Fox, and was returned at the head of the poll. He lost his seat on 

 being made a lord of the admiralty in 1788, but was re-elected in 1790. 

 In 1793 he was appointed to command the Mediterranean fleet. An 

 arduous responsibility, both civil and military, devolved on him, in 

 consequence of the surrender of Toulon to the British fleet by the 

 French royalists. After a long siege the town was pronounced unten- 

 able [BONAPARTE], and evacuated December ISth. On this occasion a 

 severe injury was done to the French navy by burning the arsenal, 

 dockyard, and fifteen ships of war ; in addition to which eight were 

 carried away. Early in 1794 Lord Hood applied himself to the 

 expulsion of the French from Corsica, which was accomplished chiefly 

 by the astonishing exertions of the British sailors on shore. These 

 were most signally displayed in the capture of Bastia [NELSON], for 

 which Lord Hood received the thanks of both bouses of parliament. 

 His health being much impaired, he returned to England at the close 

 of the year, and was not again employed in active service. 



In 1796 he was appointed governor of Greenwich Hospital, and 

 raised to the English peerage by the title of Viscount Hood of Whitley. 

 He afterwards received the Grand Cross of the Bath. He died at Bath, 

 in his ninety-second year, June 27, 1816. His professional character 

 has been thus given : " To great bravery he united great seamanship : 

 he possessed at the same time a certain promptitude of decision, coupled 

 with extraordinary coolness, skill, and judgment. These qualities justly 

 entitled him to the confidence of the public, which he uniformly pos- 

 sessed ; while all under his authority yielded a ready obedience to a 

 commander who, when necessary, always appeared foremost in danger, 

 but never risked either ships or men except for the attainment of some 

 great object." 



HOOD, ALEXANDER, VISCOUNT BRIDPORT, younger brother 

 of the above, was also brought up to the navy, and also found many 

 opportunities of signalising bis skill, activity, and bravery in the lower 

 ranks of hia profession. He was made rear-admiral in 1780, and in 

 1782 sailed as second in command of the fleet sent under Lord Howe 

 to relieve Gibraltar. [HowE.] He held the same rank in the Channel 

 fleet under the tame commander iu 1791 ; and bore a distinguished 

 part in the great victory of the 1st of June. In 1795 he engaged a 

 French fleet off L'Orient, nnd took three ships of the line ; and in the 

 following year, on Lord Howe's resignation, be was appointed to the 

 command of the Channel fleet, which he held till April 1800. He 

 was successively raised to the Irish and English peerage by the titles 

 of Baron and Viscount Bridport, the last creation June 10, 1801. 

 Lord Bridport died at Bath on the 3rd of May 1814. The title is now 

 extinct 



HOOD, SIR SAMUEL, VICE-ADMIRAL, who also was elected 

 M.I', for Westminster in 1806, is not to be confounded with Lord 

 Hood, his namesake and cousin. He was in Rodney's battle of the 

 12th of April, served in the Mediterranean under Lord Hood in the 

 Juno frigate, and distinguished himself at Toulon and in the reduction 

 of Corsica. Being promoted to the Zealous, 74, be was engaged in the 

 battle of the Nile, and otherwise was honourably employed till the 

 peace of 1802. In 1803, being sent to command on the Leeward 

 Island station, he captured Tobago and the Dutch settlements in 

 Guiana. For these services he received the order of the Bath. He 

 lost his arm off Rochefort in 1306, in an action in which he captured 

 three French frigates ; but was again engaged in the expedition against 

 Copenhagen in 1807. He was afterwards appointed to the chief 

 command in India, where he died in 1814, much honoured, regretted, 

 and beloved. He was an admirable officer, cool and prudent, as well 

 UK fearless, possessed of great professional skill, ready resources, and a 

 more than common share of scientific knowledge. 



CAITAIN ALEXANDER HOOD, brother of Sir Samuel, another brave 

 and meritorious officer, was killed in command of the Mars, in action 

 with the French 74 L'Hercule, which wag cnptured April 21, 1798. 



HOOD, THOMAS, was born in 1798 in the Poultry, London, where 

 his father was a bookseller, of the firm of Vernor and Hood. Thomas 

 Hood was sent to a school in Tokenhouse-yard, in the city, as a day- 

 boarder. The two maiden sisters who kept the school, and with 

 whom Hood took his dinner, had the odd name of Hogsflesh, and 

 they had a sensitive brother, who was always addressed as ' Mr. H.,' 

 and who subsequently became the prototype of Charles Lamb's 

 unsuccessful farce called ' Mr. H.' Hood was afterwards sent to a 

 preparatory school, and in due course was transferred to a finishing 

 school in the neighbourhood of London, but derived little benefit 

 from either. 



In 1811 Hood's father died, and soon afterwards his elder brother 

 died also. Thomas Hood being then the only remaining son of the 

 widow, she was anxious to have him near her, and recalled him home. 

 In 1812 she sent him to a day-school; and here as he says in his 

 ' Literary Reminiscences,' " In a few months my education progressed 

 infinitely farther than it had done in as many years under the listless 

 superintendence of B.A. snd LL.D. and assistants. I picked up acme 

 Latin, was a tolerable grammarian, and in good a French scholar that 

 I earned a few guineas my first literary fee by revising a new edition 



of 'Paul et Virginia' for the press. Moreover, as an accountant, I 

 could work a aummum bonum, that is, a good sum;" 



From this school he was removed to the counting-house of Messrs. 

 Bell and Co., Russia merchants, Waruford-court, City, but his health 

 soon began to fail, and he was sent in a Scotch smack to Dundee. He 

 was then fifteen years of age, and seems to have been left entirely at 

 his own disposal. Fortunately he was not idle, and had no taste for 

 dissipation, but took great delight in reading, as well as in rambling, 

 fishing, and boating. His health gradually improved, and, after 

 remaining two years at Dundee, he returned to London. He engaged 

 himself to Mr. Robert Sands, an engraver, who was his uncle, in order 

 to learn his art, and was afterwards with Le Keux for the same 

 purpose. 



In 1821 Mr. John Scott, then editor of the ' London Magazine,' was 

 killed in a duel; the Magazine passed to other proprietors, who 

 happened to be Hood's friends, and he was offered the situation of 

 sub-editor. He had published some trifles iu the 'Dundee Advertiser' 

 and ' Dundee Magazine,' while lie remained at that place, which were 

 favourably received, but he had not been stimulated to any further 

 appearance in print. " My vanity," says he, " did not rashly plunge 

 me into authorship, but no sooner was there a legitimate opening than 

 I jumped up at it, a la Grimaldi, head foremost, and was speedily 

 behind the scenes." 



Hood, while in this situation, became acquainted with several 

 persons who subsequently distinguished themselves in English litera- 

 ture, and who were then contributors to the ' London Magazine,' with 

 Lamb, Carey, Procter, Cunningham, Bowring, Barton, Hazlitt, Elton, 

 Hartley Coleridge, Talfourd, Soane, Horace Smith, Reynolds, Poole, 

 Clare, Bcnyon, and others. With Lamb especially Hood afterwards 

 became on terms of great intimacy, which continued till Lamb's 

 death. 



Hood's first publication in a separate form was ' Odes and Addresses 

 to Great People,' in which he was assisted by his brother-in-law, J. 

 H. Reynolds, and which was brought out anonymously. ' Whims and 

 Oddities,' published in 1826, in small 8vo, consisted chiefly of his 

 contributions to the ' London Magazine,' with some additions. His 

 next work was in prose, 'National Tales,' small Svo, which was fol- 

 lowed by ' The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies, Hero and Leiuider, 

 Lycus the Centaur, and other Poems,' small Svo, 1827, a volume of 

 serious poetry which obtained praise from the critics, but little favour 

 from the public. His experience of the unpleasant truth that 



" Those who live to please must please to live," 



induced him to have recourse again to his lively vein. He published 

 a second series of his ' Whims and Oddities,' and a third series in 

 1828. He commenced the ' Comic Annual ' in 1829, and it was con- 

 tinued nine years. In the same year his comic poem of ' The Epping 

 Hunt' came out, and excited much mirth at the expense of the 

 Cockney sportsmen. He was for one year editor of ' The Gem," and 

 wrote for it his poem called 'Eugene Aram's Dream.' 



In the spring of 1831 Hood became the occupier of a house called 

 Lake House, belonging to the proprietor of Wanstead in Essex, near 

 which it was situated. While residing here he wrote his novel of 

 'Tylney Hall.' Pecuniary difficulties compelled him to leave his 

 pleasant residence, in 1835. 



The 'Comic Annual' having terminated in 1837, Hood commenced 

 the publication of ' Hood's Own,' in a series of monthly numbers, in 

 Svo, 1838. It consisted chiefly of selections from the prose and poetry 

 which he had published in the series of the ' Comic Annual,' with 

 several additions. A portrait of himself, for which he sat at the 

 request of the publisher, is attached to the work, and is, as he says 

 himself, a faithful likeness. 



Hood went to the Continent for the benefit of his health, but while 

 in Holland the unwholesome air of the marshes produced an accession 

 of illness, which proved of so dangerous a nature that he was com- 

 pelled to remain abroad much longer than he intended. He went up 

 the Rhine, and was altogether three years in Germany and three years 

 in Belgium. He was in Belgium when he published hia ' Up tho 

 Rhine;' in the preface of which, dated December 1, 1839, he states 

 that he constructed it on the groundwork of ' Humphrey -Clinker.' 

 The work consists of a series of imaginary letters from a hypochou- 

 driacal old bachelor, his widowed sister, his nephew, and a servant- 

 maid, who form the imaginary travelling party. Each individual 

 writes to a friend in England, and describes the scenes, manners, and 

 circumstances, in a manner suitable to the assumed character. The 

 nephew's remarks seem to embody the opinions a,nd observations of 

 Hood himself. The book ia illustrated with whimsical cuts in Hood's 

 usual rough but effective style, and abounds in good sense as well as 

 humour. 



Hood afterwards became editor of the 'New Monthly Magazine;' 

 after his retirement from which, in 1843, he collected his contributions 

 to that work, and, with additions of prose and poetry, published them 

 under the title of * Whimsicalities.' He still continued to suffer from 

 ill health ; and when the secretary of the Manchester Athenajum 

 requested permission to place his name in the list of patrons to a 

 bazaar, he replied in a letter of kindly feeling as well as humour, 

 dated "From my Bed, 17, Elm-Tree-road, St. John's Wood, July 18, 

 1843," In 1844 Hood started his last periodical, 'Hood's Magazine,' 



