HOOD HOOKER. 



789 



famous than Robin Hood, whose chief residence was 

 in Sherwood forest, in Nottinghamshire, and the 

 heads of whose story, as collected by Stow, are 

 briefly these : "In this time (about the year 11UO, in 

 the reign of Richard I.) were many robbers and out- 

 laws, among which Robin Hood and Little John, 

 renowned theeves, continued in the woods, despoyling 

 and robbing the goodes of the rich. They killed 

 none but such as would invade them, or by resistance 

 for their own defence. The saide Robert entertain- 

 ed an hundred tall men and good archers, with suche 

 spoiles and thefts as he got, upon whom four hun- 

 dred (were they ever so strong) durst not give the 

 onset. He suffered no woman to be oppressed, violat- 

 ed or otherwise molested ; poore men's goods lie 

 spared, abundantlie reliveing them with that which 

 by theft he got from abbeys and the houses of rich 

 old carles, whom Maior (the historian) blamethe for 

 his rapine and theft ; but of all the theeves he affinn- 

 eth him to be the prince, and the most gentle theefe" 

 (Anals, p. 159). The personal courage of this cele- 

 brated outlaw, his skill in archery, his humanity, and 

 especially his levelling principle of taking from the 

 rich and giving to the poor, have, in all ages, ren- 

 dered him the favourite of the common people, who, 

 not content to celebrate his memory by innumerable 

 songs and stories, have bestowed on him the dignity 

 of an earl. Indeed, it is not impossible that Robin 

 himself, to gain more respect from his followers, or 

 they, to derive the more credit to their profession, 

 may have given rise to such a report ; for we find it 

 recorded in an epitaph which, if genuine, must have 

 been inscribed on his tombstone, near the nunnery of 

 Kirklees, in Yorkshire, where (as the story goes) he 

 was bled to death by a treacherous nun, to whom lie 

 applied for phlebotomy. This epitaph gives the 

 year 1247 as the time of his death. See Percy's 

 Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, and Sir John 

 Hawkins's History of Music, 4to. vol. 3. 



HOOD, SAMUEL, lord viscount ; a British admi- 

 ral, son of an episcopal clergyman in Devonshire, 

 where he was born in 1724. He entered as a mid- 

 shipman in the navy, in 1740, and, six years after, 

 was promoted to a lieutenancy. In 1754, he was 

 made master and commander ; and, in 1759, post- 

 captain. He had the office of commissioner of Ports- 

 mouth dock-yard bestowed on him in 1778; but re- 

 signed it two years after, on being made a rear-admi- 

 ral. He was then employed in the West Indies, 

 where he preserved the isle of St Christopher's from 

 lieing taken by count de Grasse, and was present at 

 the famous defeat of that officer by admiral Rodney, 

 April 12, 1782. His services on this occasion were 

 rewarded with an Irish peerage. In 1784, he was 

 chosen member of parliament for Westminster ; but 

 vacated his seat in 1788, on obtaining the appoint- 

 ment of a lord of the admiralty. In 1793, he com- 

 manded against the French in the Mediterranean, 

 when he signalized himself by the taking of Toulon, 

 and afterwards Corsica ; in reward of which achieve- 

 ments he was made a viscount and governor of 

 Greenwich hospital. He died at Bath in 1816. 



HOOFT, PETER CORNELIUS VAN ; a Dutch histo- 

 rian and poet, born in 1581, at Amsterdam. He 

 translated Tacitus into the Dutch language with 

 great fidelity and perspicuity ; published a life of 

 Henry IV. of France, in Latin ; a History of the Low 

 Countries, from the Abdication of the Emperor 

 Charles V. to the Year 1598 (2 vols., folio); besides 

 a variety of miscellaneous works, consisting of epi- 

 grams, comedies, &c. Louis XIII. made him a 

 knight of the order of St Michael. He was on his 

 way to witness the obsequies of Frederic Henry, 

 prince of Orange, when he was suddenly taken ill, 

 and died on the road, in 1647. 



HOOGHLY RIVER, properly the BHAGI- 

 RUTTY; a river of Bengal, formed by the junction 

 of the two western branches of the Ganges, the 

 Dummoodaand R'oopnarain rivers. The entrance to 

 this river is rendered extremely dangerous and diffi- 

 cult, by reason of numerous sand-banks, which are 

 frequently shifting. The spring tides also run up 

 with great violence, advancing at the rate of fifteen 

 miles an hour, and frequently overset boats, and drive 

 ships from their anchorage. All the towns belong 

 ing to the European nations, and several others 

 or,cupied by natives, stand on its banks; and few rivers 

 can boast of a more extensive commerce. 



HOOKAH. See Pipe. 



HOOKE, NATHANIEL ; celebrated for an elabo- 

 rate Roman history. The time of his birth is 

 unknown. The first fact known of him is given in a 

 letter from himself to lord Oxford, in which he 

 describes himself as ruined by the South sea infa- 

 tuation. He was recommended to Sarah, duchess of 

 Marlborough, to aid her in drawing up her Apology, 

 for which service she presented him with 5000, 

 although she afterwards quarrelled with him for 

 endeavouring to make her a Catholic. His zeal for 

 his religion was very great, if not orthodox, he being 

 greatly attached to the mysticism and quietism of 

 the school of Fenelon. It was Hooke who brought 

 the priest to confess Pope on his death-bed. Hooke's 

 great work, his Roman History from the earliest 

 Period to the Accession of Octavius, is comprised in 

 4 vols., 4to, published in 1733, 1745, 1764, and 

 1771. It is a performance of great accuracy and 

 critical acumen, the style of which is clear and per- 

 spicuous, without being eloquent or masterly. 

 Another work of his upon Roman affairs was Observa- 

 tions on four Pieces upon the Roman Senate (1758, 

 4to), in which he discusses the opinion of Vertot, 

 Middleton, and Chapman, with some severity in 

 respect to the two latter. He also translated Ramsay's 

 Travels of Cyrus. He died July 19, 1763. 



HOOKE, ROBERT, an English mathematician and 

 natural philosopher, was born in the Isle of Wight 

 in J 635. He was entered of Christ-church college, 

 Oxford, in 1653. In 1658 or 1659, he invented the 

 pendulum-watch ; at least, the prior discovery of it is 

 usually assigned to Hooke by the English, while 

 foreigners ascribe it to Christian Huygens. In 1663, 

 he was nominated one of the first fellows of the royal 

 society, and was afterwards a member of the council. 

 In 1664, he was made Cutlerian professor of mecha- 

 nics to the royal society ; and he afterwards became 

 professor of geometry at Gresham college. The next 

 year he published his Micrographia, or Philosophical 

 Descriptions of Minute Bodies. In 1673, he pro- 

 posed a Theory of the Variation of the Mariner's 

 Compass. His death took place in March, 1703. 

 He published a great number of papers in the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions, besides which he was the author 

 of Cutlerian Lectures, a volume of Posthumous Tracts 

 (printed in 1705), and Philosophical Experiments 

 and Observations (published by doctor Dernam in 

 1726). Doctor Hooke was a man of undoubted tal- 

 ents, but of a very unamiable disposition. His quar- 

 rels with other men of science were generally man- 

 aged in a way by no means creditable to his character. 



HOOKER, RICHARD, a celebrated divine and 

 theological writer of the sixteenth century, was 

 born about 1553, at the village of Heavitree, near 

 Exeter. His avidity for learning procured him the 

 patronage of bishop Jewel, who, in 1567, sent him to 

 Oxford, where he obtained the place of one of the 

 clerks of Corpus Christi college. He was elected a 

 scholar of his college in 1573 ; and, in 1577, was 

 chosen a fellow of Christ-church. In 1579, his skill 

 in the Oriental languages procured him the appoint- 



