IIERRERA HBRRNHUT. 



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715 



from the imputations cast on them for their conduct 

 on this continent. Ilerrera's character as a historian 

 does not rise in our esteem, when we hear him, in 

 his Historic, general del Mundo, describe the deatli 

 of Philip II. in the words, Yasi acabo este gran monarca 

 eon la misma prudencia con que vivio,por lo qualmeri- 

 tamente se le dio el attribute de prudente. 



HERRERA, HERNANDO DE, a distinguished Span- 

 ish poet, born at Seville, in the beginning of the 

 sixteenth century. His contemporaries called him 

 el divino. Like the other poets of his age, Herrera 

 formed himself on the Romans, Greeks, and Italians. 

 Many of his poems are amatory, and in his odes 

 he often rises to an elevated strain, and they are 

 perhaps inferior in fire only to those of Luis de 

 Leon. Velasquez blames his excessive polish. 

 Francisco Pacheco, one of his admirers, published 

 Obras en f-'erso de Hernando de Herrera (Seville, 

 1582). There is another edition of his poems, by 

 G. R. Vejerano (Seville, 1619, 4to), both very rare. 

 By the preface to the latter edition, we see that 

 Hen-era was the author of several other productions, 

 which are lost. He was also a prose writer and 

 historian. Cervantes' opinion of this poet is to be 

 found in his Canto de Caliope. Lope de Vega speaks 

 of him in high terms in his Laurel de sfpolo, Her- 

 rera's exterior was pleasing, his disposition mild and 

 engaging. He is said, though against all probability, 

 to have been present at the battle of Lepanto. See 

 Parnaso Espanol, vol. 7th. 



HERRING. There are many species of the genus 

 chtpea, known under the name of herring (See Ichthy- 

 ology ; but the qlupea harengus is that which frequents 

 our coasts in sucli numbers, and which furnishes so 

 important an article of food to so many inhabitants. 



Herrings are found from the highest northern lati- 

 tu.'.es yet known, as low as the northern coasts of 

 France. They are met with in vast shoals on the coast 

 of America, as low as Carolina. In Chesapeak Bay 

 is an annual inundation of those fish, which cover the 

 shore in such quantities, as to become a nuisance. 

 We find them again in the seas of Kamtschatka ; and 

 probably they reach Japan. The great winter ren- 

 dezvous of the herring is within the Arctic circle : 

 there they continue for many months, in order to 

 recruit themselves after the fatigue of spawning ; the 

 seas within that space swarming with insect food in 

 a far greater degree than those of our warmer lati- 

 tudes. This mighty army begins to put itself in 

 motion in spring. They begin to appear off the 

 Shetland Isles in April and May. These are only the 

 forerunners of the grand shoal, which comes in June ; 

 and their appearance is marked by certain signs, 

 such as the number of birds, like gannets and others, 

 which follow to prey on them : but when the main 

 body approaches, its breadth and depth is such as to 

 alter the appearance of the very ocean. It is 

 divided into distinct columns of five or six miles in 

 length, and three or four in breadth ; and they drive 

 the water before them with a kind of rippling. Some- 

 times they sink for the space of ten or fifteen minutes, 

 and then rise again to the surface ; and in fine 

 xve.itlier reflect a variety of splendid colours, like a 

 field of the most precious gems. 



The first check this army meets in its march south- 

 ward, is from the Shetland Isles, which divide it into 

 two parts ; one wing takes to the east, the other to 

 the western shores of Great Britain, and fill every 

 bay and creek with their numbers : the former pro- 

 ceed towards Yarmouth, the great and ancient mart 

 of herrings ; they then pass through the British 

 Channel, and after that in a manner disappear. 

 Those which take towards the west, after offering 

 themselves to the Hebrides, where the great sta- 

 tionary fishery is, proceed to the north of Ireland, 



where they meet with a second interruption, and are 

 obliged to make a second division : the one takes to 

 tlie western side, and is scarcely perceived, being 

 soon lost in the immensity of the Atlantic ; but the 

 other, that passes into the Irish sea, rejoices and 

 feeds the inhabitants of most of the coasts that border 

 on it. These brigades, as we may call them, which 

 are thus separated from the greater columns, are 

 often capricious in their motions, and do not show an 

 invariable attachment to their liaunts. 



This instinct of migration was given to the herrings, 

 that they might deposit their spawn in warmer seas, 

 that would mature and vivify it more assuredly than 

 those of the frozen zone. It is not from defect of 

 food that they set themselves in motion ; for they 

 come to us full of fat, and on their return are almost 

 universally observed to be lean and miserable. What 

 their food is near the pole, we are not yet informed ; 

 but in our seas they feed much on the oniscus 

 marinus, a crustaceous insect, and sometimes ou 

 their own fry. 



They are full of roe in the end of June, and con- 

 tinue in perfection till the beginning of winter, when 

 they deposit their spawn. The young herrings begin 

 to approach the shores in July and August, and are 

 then from half an inch to two inches long. Though 

 we have no particular authority for it, yet, as very 

 few young herrings are found in our seas during 

 winter, it seems most certain that they must return 

 to their parental haunts beneath the ice. Some of 

 the old herrings continue on our coasts the whole 

 year. Pennant's British Zoology. 



The herring was unknown to the ancients, being 

 rarely, if ever, found within the Mediterranean. 

 The Dutch are said to have engaged in the fishery in 

 1164. The invention of pickling or salting herrings 

 is ascribed to one Beukels, or Beukelson, of Bierv. 

 liet, near Sluys, who died in 1397. The emperor 

 Charles V. visited his grave, and ordered a magni- 

 ficent tomb to be erected to his memory. Since tiiis 

 early period, the Dutch have uniformly maintained 

 their ascendancy in the herring fishery ; but, owing 

 to the Reformation, and the relaxed observance of 

 Lent in catholic countries, the demand for herrings 

 upon the Continent is now far less than in the four- 

 teenth and fifteenth centuries. 



HERRICK, ROBERT; an English poet of the 

 seventeenth century, a native of London, educated 

 at Cambridge. He took orders in the church of 

 England. In common with many others of the 

 Episcopal clergy, he suffered deprivation under the 

 government of Cromwell ; but he recovered his 

 benefice after the restoration of Charles II., in 1660, 

 which period he did not long survive. His compo- 

 sitions were published in 1648, under the title of 

 Hesperides, or the Works, both Human and Divine, 

 of Robert Herrick (8vo). A selection from these 

 poems, with an account of the author, by doctor 

 Nott, was printed at Bristol in 1810; and a complete 

 edition at Edinburgh, in 1823 (2 vols., 8vo). Doctor 

 Drake, in his Literary Hours, has given specimens 

 of his productions, which show that he does not 

 deserve the comparative oblivion in which he has 

 been involved. 



HERRNHUT ; a town of Saxony, in Upper Lusa- 

 tia, six miles south of Lobau, and the same distance 

 north of Zittau. Population, 1500. It is situated at 

 the foot of Hutberg mountain, and is 1054 feet above 

 :h<> level of the sea. It was built by count Zinzen- 

 dorf, in 1722, for the use of the Moravian Brethren, 

 and it afterwards became the metropolis and centre 

 of that sect of Christians, who, from this town, are 

 often called Herrnhittters. (See United Brethren.) 

 tt has a great variety of manufactures. The objects 

 of curiosity are the observatory and the burial- 



