820 



HULL HUMBOLDT. 



subsequently, great improvements wore made in the 

 public roads leading to the town, and the access to it 

 was further facilitated by ferries across the I lum- 

 ber. The commerce of Hull was considerable even 

 as early as the reign of John; and in the time of 

 Edward I. it had so far increased in relative impor- 

 tance as to be inferior in the amount of its commerce 

 only to London and Boston. When Edward III. 

 collected a fleet, for the invasion of France, in 1359, 

 tliis port contributed sixteen ships, and 466 mariners. 

 The town was fortified with walls, towers, and a 

 ditch, in the reign of Edward 11.; and in that of his 

 great grandson, Richard II., the fortifications were 

 improved by Sir Michael de la Pole, a native of the 

 town, who possessed great influence in the state at 

 li.at period, and to whom this place was in some 

 degree indebted for its subsequent prosperity. Henry 

 VI., in the eighteenth year of his reign, confirmed the 

 charter of his predecessors, and constituted the town, 

 with its precincts, a distinct county, with the usual 

 privileges of a separate jurisdiction. In 1536, Hull 

 was taken by the Yorkshire insurgents, under Robert 

 Aske, who opposed the ecclesiastical innovations 

 which were then in progress, and who styled their ex- 

 pedition " The Pilgrimage of Grace;" but the rebellion 

 was soon suppressed, and the leader executed. This 

 place was the scene of another unsuccessful insurrec- 

 tion in 1569 ; and in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and 

 seventeenth centuries, the inhabitants experienced 

 the calamitous visitations of plague and inundation. 

 Hull afterwards became the theatre of the opening 

 events of the war between Charles I. and the English 

 parliament. A depot of arms and military stores had 

 been established here previously to the commence- 

 ment of hostilities, and both parties were anxious to 

 secure possession of a place of so much importance. 

 The consequent attempt of the king to obtain admis- 

 sion into the town; the opposition of Sir John Hotham, 

 who had been made governor by the parliament; the 

 succeeding operations of the royalists; the vacillating- 

 conduct of the governor; his treachery and punish- 

 ment, are matters of national history. A blockhouse 

 and a citadel were built by Henry VII., on the eastern 

 bank of the river Hull; and Charles II., in 1681, ex- 

 pended considerable sums of money in further improv- 

 ing the fortifications. Since tliat period, various 

 works of importance have been carried on here, not, 

 however, with a view to the operations of war, but 

 for the advantage of manufactures and commerce. 

 In 1774 an act of parliament passed for establishing 

 public quays or wharfs in the harbour, for the better 

 securing the revenue of the customs, and for the 

 promotion of the trade of this seaport. By this 

 statute the dock company was incorporated, and 

 required to construct docks, basins, quays, sluices, 

 and other works; and in compliance with its pro- 

 visions, the old dock was formed, which extends into 

 the town as far as Whitefriars Gate, and communi- 

 cates with the Humber and the sea through the old 

 harbour, at the upper end of which the entrance- 

 dock is situated; this dock is 1703 feet long, 254 

 broad, and in extent about ten acres. The works 

 were finished in 1778, but the lock and an entrance- 

 basin were reconstructed in 1814. An extension of 

 dock-room being rendered necessary by the increase 

 of trade, new acts were procured in 1802 and 1805, 

 authorizing the Dock Company to erect additional 

 works; and the Humber Dock was consequently 

 commenced. This dock is 914 feet in length, 342 in 

 breadth, and seven acres in surface. There is an 

 entrance-basin from the Humber, with which this 

 dock communicates by a lock at spring-tides, capa- 

 ble of admitting a vessel drawing twenty-six feet and 

 a half of water; the works were completed in 1809. 

 Under the provisions of the act last mentioned, a 



third dock has been constructed between the two 

 preceding, called the Junction dock, which extends 

 from Whitefriars Gate to Myton Gate, and at these 

 points respectively communicates with the Old Dock 

 and the Humber Dock, and completes a range of 

 docks from the river Hull to the Humber, almost in 

 the line of the old fortifications; thus dividing the 

 ancient portion of the town from the suburbs by 

 water on every side. The Junction Dock is 645 

 feet long, 407 broad, and in extent more than six 

 acres. The bridges across the locks are constructed 

 of cast iron, on the lifting plan, each twenty-four feet 

 wide, and said to be of greater magnitude than any 

 moveable bridge of earlier date. The works were 

 begun in 1826, and finished 1829. The accommoda- 

 tion for shipping at this port thus consists of the old 

 harbour often acres, and the three wet docks, which, 

 with their entrance-basins, are in superficial extent 

 more than thirty-six acres. About 250 sail may 

 here be kept afloat, at all times of the tide, while 

 vessels which do not enter the docks may be moored 

 in safety along the quays or staiths in the harbour. 

 Connected with the docks are nearly 60,000 square 

 yards of quayage, with warehouses, bonding and 

 timber-yards, and the requisite accommodations for 

 lading and unlading merchandise. In 1829 there 

 were belonging to this port 579 vessels, the burden 

 of which altogether amounted to 72,248 tons. It has 

 a greater share than any other British port in the 

 whale-fishery; and its intercourse with the Baltic is 

 very considerable. The coasting trade for coals, 

 corn, wool, manufactured goods, &c., is great; and 

 the inland trade exceeds that of any other English 

 port. Various manufactures of the coarser kinds are 

 also carried on at Hull. The town itself has within 

 the last thirty years been greatly enlarged. Among 

 the public buildings is the Trinity church, which is a 

 large and beautiful structure of Gothic architecture, 

 and of exquisite workmanship, partly built about the 

 year 1312. The charter-house hospital was founded 

 by Michael de la Pole, in 1384, for the support of 

 poor pensioners; and there are, besides, seven other 

 hospitals for the poor. The grammar school was 

 instituted in 1436. Population in 1831, 32,958; 

 lat. 53 45' N. 



HUMANITIES; used in schools and colleges, to 

 signify polite literature, or grammar, rhetoric, and 

 poetry, including the study of the ancient classics, in 

 opposition to philosophy and science. It is some- 

 times used in a narrower sense, for philology. In 

 classical Latin, humanitas has the secondary sense of 

 erudition, learning; and studio, humaniora is used by 

 modern writers for elegant literature, or belles-lettres. 

 A humanist is he who pursues the humaniora. 



HUMBOLDT, FREDERIC HENRY ALEXANDER, 

 baron of, a distinguished traveller and naturalist, was 

 born Sept. 14, 1769, at Berlin, studied at Gottingen, 

 and Frankfort on the Oder, went to the commercial 

 academy in Hamburg, and, in 1790, travelled with 

 G. Forster and Van Geuns along the Rhine, to Hol- 

 land and to England, This journey gave rise to his 

 Observations on the Basalt on the Rhine, which was 

 published, in 1793, at Brunswick. In 1791, he 

 studied mining and botany at the mining school in 

 Freyberg. (See his Specimen Flora; Fribergensis 

 subterranete, Berlin, 1793.) Here his acquirements, 

 his attractive and instructive conversation, his wit, 

 and goodness of heart, gained him universal esteem 

 and affection. In 1792, he was appointed assessor 

 in the mining and smelting department, and soon 

 afterwards removed to Baireuth, as overseer of the 

 mines in Franconia. Here he introduced many im- 

 provements, among which was the establishment of 

 the mining school at Steben; he likewise made valu- 

 able galvanic experiments, the results of which were 



