﻿157 



HEKDHED, EAST. 



HfeRAULT. 



188 



and Mill-Hill, and an Infant establishment in connection with the 

 Union. There are 16 almshouaea with an endowment; another 

 endowment provides clothing for 50 children. 



HENDRED, EAST. [Berksbibe.] 



HENFIELD. [Sussex.] 



HE>fHAM-ON-THEHILL. [Essex.] 



HENLEY-IN-ARUEN. [Warwickshire.] 



HENLEY-ON-THAMES, Oxfordshire, a market-town and the seat 

 of a Poor-Law Union in the parish of Henley, is situated on the left 

 bank of the river Thames, in 51° 32' N. lat., 0° 54' W. long., distant 

 24 miles S.E. from Oxford, and 85 miles W. by N. from London by 

 road. The population of the town in 1851 was 2595. The living is 

 a rectory in the archdeaconry and diocese of Oxford. The borough is 

 governed by 10 aldermen, 2 bridgemen, and 14 burgesses, one of whom 

 is mayor. Henley Poor-Law Union contains 24 parishes and town- 

 ships, with an area of 57,795 acres, and a population in 1851 of 

 17,895. 



Henley was anciently called Hanlegang and Hanncburg. The town 

 is delightfully situated on a gentle ascent from the left bank of the 

 Thames, amid hills covered with extensive beech-woods and other 

 plantations. It consists chiefly of four principal streets, which are 

 lighted with gas and paved. At the intersection of the streets is a plain 

 stone cross and conduit. On the east side is a handsome stone bridge 

 of five arches over the Thames. The church has a good tower, and 

 several interesting portions both of decorated and perpendicular 

 character. The Wesleyan Methodists and Quakers have places of 

 worship. The Endowed Grammar school, founded in 1605, had 46 

 scholars in 1853. There are also a Commercial school, endowed by 

 Lady Periam ; Kational, Industrial, and Infant schools. The town- 

 hall in the High-street is supported by sixteen Doric columns ; beneath 

 it is a QUkrket-house. The town poaaesses a savings bank and some 

 almshouses. The market is on Thursday ; fairs are held on March 7th 

 and at the end of September. Henley is the head-quarters of the 

 aquatic sports of the upper part of the Thames, and the scene of an 

 annual regatta. 



HENNEBON. [MoninHAX.] 



HENSTEAD, Norfolk, a hundred which has given name to a Poor- 

 Law Union, is bounded N. and E. by the hundred of Blowfield, S. by 

 the huudreds of Depwade and Clavering, and W. by the hundred of 

 Humbleyard. It comprises 20 parishes, with an area of 19,331 acres, 

 and a population in 1851 of 5781. Henstead Poor-Law Union con- 

 tains 37 parishes, with an area of 11,986 acres, and a population in 

 1851 of 11,545. 



HERACLEA. [Basiucata; Lcca»ia.] 



HERAT, a city of Western Afghanistan, and the capital of a small 

 independent state of the same name, is situated on the Heri River, in 

 a plain 2500 feet above the sea-level and proverbial for fertility ; dis- 

 tant 360 miles due W. from Cabul, 190 miles S.E. from Mushed, the 

 capital of Persian Khorasan ; and had a population of about 45,000 in 

 1838. The importance of Herat in a military point of view is very 

 great, occupying as it does an opening in the great range of the Paro- 

 pamisus, or Uhor Mountains, which alone affords facilities for a well- 

 equipped army to march upon the frontier of Hindustan from the 

 north-west. The city has been described as the ' Gate of India.' Within 

 the limits of its territory all the great roads leading to India from the 

 west converge ; all the necessaries for an army — provisions, lead, iron, 

 sulphur, saltpetre, 4c. — may be procured in abundance. "The import- 

 ance of this position seems to have been thoroughly comprehended by 

 Alexander the Oreat, who spent several months completing the sub- 

 jection of Aria (which name still survives in the modem designation 

 of the city and the province) before his march upon India. 



Herat occupies the site of the ancient A ma, or A Ha CivitaSf which 

 was built or more probably repaired by Alexander the Great, and is 

 supposed to be the same as the Artakoana of Arrian, the AHakana 

 of Strabo and Ptolemams, and the Alerandreia Arion of Pliny, all of 

 which ate given as names of the chief town of the ancient province of 

 Aria situated on the Arins, now called Heri. Of its ancient history 

 little more is known than that it was included in the Persian empire. 

 On the conquest of Persia by the followers of Mahomet in the middle 

 of the 7th century of the Christian era, Herat was subjected to the 

 khalifs with the rust of Khorasan, to which it then belonged. About 

 the nyddle of the 1 2th century it became the residence of the Ghouride 

 sultans. In 1220 it was seized by Genghis Khan, who demolished 

 the city. In the following century it was again destroyed by the 

 Mongols. In 1381 it fell with the whole of Khorasan into the hands 

 of Tamerlane, under one of whose followers it again became the 

 capital of an independent state, and rose to great eminence and 

 prosperity. In the beginning of the ICth century the city was taken 

 by the Turkomans, and in 1511 by the Shah Ismacl Sophi, who 

 re-united it to Persia. In 1749 it was taken from Persia and annexed 

 to Afghanistan by Ahmed Khan, the founder of the Duranee dynasty. 

 Mahmood, appointed governor of Herat by his step-brother, Shah 

 Zmdmi, gnndson of Ahmed Khan, again marie Herat the capital of 

 an indapoident state, and by the ability of his wuzeer, Futteh Khnn, 

 twlo* Maendad the throne of Cabul. This independence, though 

 thnataned by Persia on one side and by the Ameers of Cabul and 

 Kandahar on the other, Herat still maintains. The Persians attacked 

 the city in 181S, but were defeated by Futteh Khan, the able wuzeer 



of Mahmood, who however seized upon the city himself, and dismissed 

 the acting governor, a brother of Mahmood's. In the following year 

 Futteh Khan was barbarously deprived of sight by Kamran, son of 

 Mahmood, and soon after murdered. The civil wars that arose out 

 of this cruel act between the sons of Futteh Khan and Mahmood 

 deprived the Duranee family of all their possessions except Herat. 

 [Afghanistan.] Mahmood died in Herat in 1829, and was succeeded 

 by his son Kamran. The Persians again, instigated it was said by 

 Russia, threatened Herat in 1833 ; but the death of Abbas Meerza 

 prevented the prosecution of the siege by his son Mahommed Meerza, 

 the general in command. But Mahommed, now Shah of Persia, 

 returned in 1838, and laid close siege to the city with a large force, 

 aided by the advice of Colonel Simouich, a Russian officer, and by a 

 regiment of so-called Russian deserters. The siege, one of the most 

 memorable of modem times, lasted ten months, from November 22, 

 1837, to September 9, 1838. It was unsuccessful, chiefly through the 

 heroic courage and constaincy of Eldred Pottinger, an English officer, 

 who happened at the commencement of hostilities to be sojourning in 

 the city, and who was allowed by Kamran and his wuzeer Yar 

 Mohammed to take a share in the defence. At the end of the ten 

 months the Shah, terrified by a demonstration made by a small 

 British force in the Persian Gulf, withdrew his army after reducing 

 the city ond its defences almost to ruins. On Kamran's death in May 

 1843 Yar Mohammed made himself master of Herat to the exclusion 

 of Kamran's son ; and the better to secure his power he made a sort 

 of submission to the Shah, and entered into friendly relations with the 

 Barukzye chiefs of Cabul and Kandahar. Yar Mohammed died in 

 June 1851, and was succeeded by hia son, who about a year after was 

 attacked by the Kandahar Sirdars with a large force, which was 

 defeated by the Herattees after eight hours' fighting, the forces on 

 each side numbering about 12,000 men. 



The following description of the city before its siege by the 

 Persians in 1837-8, is chiefly taken from that given by Arthur 

 ConoUy and adopted by Mr. Kaye. It is given in the past tense, 

 for the aspect of the city and its environs was greatly changed by 

 that- disastrous siege i — Herat was surrounded by a fair expanse of 

 country laid out in corn-fields, viueyards, and gardens, and studded 

 with little fortified villages, which were built by the side of small 

 running streams that increased the beauty and fertility of the plain. 

 The city was nearly a square in shape, the sides facing the cardinal 

 points and less than a mile in length, and the site was a slope 

 descending gradually from the north-east to the south-west. It was 

 strongly fortified ou every side by a solid earthen wall, surrounded 

 by a wet ditch and pierced by five gates, each defended by a small 

 outwork. But the real defences of the place were two covered 

 ways on the exterior slope of the embankments, one within aud the 

 other without the ditch. On the northern side surrounded by a wet 

 ditch stoo<l the citadel (formerly called Kella-i-Aktyar-Aldyn, now the 

 Ark) built of brick, with lofty ramparts aud numerous towers, but 

 from neglect a place of inconsiderable strength. Within, four long 

 bazaars, roofed with arched brickwork, meeting in a small domed 

 quadrangle in the centre of the city, divided it into four quarters, 

 each containing about 1000 houses and 10,000 inhabitants. The 

 principal of the bazaars terminated in the Kandahar Gate ; it was 

 1300 yar<ls long, 6 yards wide, and covered by a succession of small 

 domes, springing from ill-formed arches that crossed the streets. 

 Mosques, caravanserais, public baths, and reservoirs varied the 

 wretched uniformity of the narrow dirty streets, which being roofed 

 across were often little better than conduits, where every conceivable 

 description of filth was Buffered to collect and putrify. Without 

 drains to carry off the rain that falls within the walls, it stagnates in 

 ponds dug in different parts of the city. The refuse of the houses, 

 dead cats and dogs, lie in the streets upon heaps of the vilest filth. 

 The Khan's residence is a mean building. The principal mosque is a 

 large structure of the 13th century. Outside the walls are some 

 magnificent ruins of a religious edifice, aud an enormous mound 

 erected by Nadir Shah. Herat is in peaceful times a place of great 

 commercial importance and a mart for the products of India, China, 

 Tartary, and Persia. The native m.anufactures include carpets, 

 dressed sheepskins, cloaks and caps, shoes, saddlery, harness, sabres, 

 &o. The population numbered about 45,000 in 1838, including 

 about 1000 Hindoos, several Armenian families, and a few Jews. 

 The great majority of them were Mohammedans of the Slieeah 

 sect, who were treated with the most remorseless tyranny by their 

 Afghan masters, whose numbers did not exceed a foiurth part of the 

 population. 



(Kaye, History of the Afghan War; A. ConoUy, Journey to the 

 North of India ; I! Art de Verifier let Dates ; Dictionary of Oreek 

 and Roman Ocography.) 



HERAULT, a department in France, on the coast of the Medi- 

 terranean, which derives its' name from the river Hfjrault, is bounded 

 N.E. by the department of Gard, S.E. by the Mediterranean, S.W. by 

 the department of Aude, and N.W. by the departments of Tarn, 

 Aveyron, and Gord. It lies between 43° 11' and 43° 58' N. Lit., 

 2° 33' and 4° 11' E. long. The greatest length from east to west is 

 84 miles, from north to south 49 miles. The area is 2393 square 

 miles : the population in 1841 was 367,343, by the census of 1851 it 

 was 388,286, being 162'67 to the square mile, or 11'91 below the 



