﻿HOLSWOBTHT. 



HONDURAS. 



222 



to Flanders, Brabant, and Holland, and declared the Eyder, on its 

 northern frontier, to be the boundary between Germany and Denmark. 

 The emperor Lotbariua made Holstein and Stormarn a county, which 

 he granted as a iief in HOG to Adolphus, count of Schauenburg, whose 

 son, Adolphus II. conquered Wagria. The family became extinct on the 

 death of Adolphus VIII., and the states chose, in 1460, Christian I., 

 king of Denmark, for their count, securing to themselves the right of 

 choosing their princes among his descendants, which they actually 

 exercised to the time of Christian IV. and Duke Philip, in 1597. 

 Various changes took place in the sequel, in consequeace of the divi- 

 sion of the families into different branches, and the subsequent ex- 

 tinction of collateral lines ; and it wa-s not till 1733 that the whole 

 came permanently under Danish government. The king of Denmark 

 had a seat in the diet as duke of Uolstein ; but on the dissolution of 

 the empire and the formation of the Bhenish Confederation in ISOti, 

 be declared all his German possessions to be parts of the kingdom of 

 Denmark : however, on the formation of the German Confederation 

 in 1S15, he became a member of it, and Holstein was re-onnexed to 

 Germany. 



HOLSWOKTHY, Devonshire, a decayed market-town and the seat 

 of a Poor-Law Union in the parish of Holsworthy, is situated in 

 50" 48' N. lat., 4^ 22' W. long., distant 38 miles W. by N. from Exeter, 

 214 miles W. by S. from London. The population of the parish of 

 Holsworthy in 1851 was 1833. The town is governed by a court-Ieet. 

 The living is a rectory in the archdeaconry of Barnstaple and diocese 

 of Exeter. Holsworthy Poor-Law Union contains 19 parishes and 

 townships, with an area of 72,924 acres, and a population in 1851 of 

 9850. The parish church is ancient : it has some Norman piers and a 

 plain Norman doorway. The tower is a remarkably flue one. Tbo 

 Independents and Wesleyan Methodists have places of worship. A 

 National school was erected in 1848 ; the Bude and Holsworthy 

 Canal, which unites with the Bude and Launceston Canal, passes near 

 the town. The market is on Wednesday ; there are two great 

 markets and three fairs held in the year. 

 HOLT. [Denbighsbike ; Nobpolk.] 

 HOLY ISLAND. [Northumbebla*!).] 



HOLYHEAD, Anglesey, North Wales, a parliamentary borough, 

 sea-port, and market-town, in the parish of Holyhead, is situated in 

 53° 19' N. lat., 4" 38' W. long., distant 24 miles W. by N. from Beau- 

 maris, 260 miles N.W. by W. from London by road, and 272} miles 

 by the tiondon and North- Western, and Chester and Holyhead rail- 

 ways. The population of the borough of Holyhead in 1851 was 

 5622. Holyhead unites with Amlwch, Beaumaris, and Llangefni in 

 returning one member to the Imperial Parliament. The living is a 

 perpetual curacy in the archdeaconry and diocese of Bangor. 



Holyhead, or Caer Oybi, as it is called by the Welsh, is situated 

 upon a small island of the same name at the western extremity of 

 the isUod of Anglesey, with which it is onited by the embankment 

 and bridges of the great Irish coach road, and the Chester and Holy- 

 head railway, and also by a stone bridge at a point where the arm of 

 the sea, which bounds the island on its eastern side, is narrow enough 

 to be spanned by one. Numerous Boman coins have been found in 

 the ialaad at different times ; there are also a cromlech and other 

 primeval remains. The town is straggling and irregularly built, 

 but has some good houses. The road from the railway station to 

 the lighthouse is lighted with gaa. The parish church is mostly 

 of the perpendicular style, and has been enriched externally with 

 a good deal of rude but curious carving. The churchyard appears 

 to be a portion of an ancient fortification ; and is partly surrounded 

 by a very curious aud interesting Boman walL The Wesleyan and 

 Calvinistic Hothodists, Independents, and Baptists, have cUapel». 

 There are National and British schools, a library, and a savings 

 bank. The inhabitants are principally employed in the coasting- 

 trade, and in ship-building and rope-making. Holyhead is the 

 station of the Dublin mail steam-packets. The harbour is formed 

 by a pier 900 feet in length, constructed chiefly of hewn limestone, 

 and at the pier-head there is, during ordinary tides, a depth of 14 

 feet at low-water. The pier is the prolongation of an islet, which is 

 connected with the island of Holyhead by a swing bridge of cast- 

 iroo, and by a viaduct for the railway, laid down to convey materials 

 to the new harbour works. At the head of the pier is a lighthoase ; 

 on tb^ land side is a triumphal arch of Anglesey marble, erected to 

 commemorate the landing of George IV. in 1821. A wooden jetty is 

 carried into the harbour. Holyhmid has been selected by government 

 as the site of a harbour of refuge. The works when completed 

 will inclose about 316 acres, with a depth of more than six fathoms 

 H water. 



^M At the northern extremity of Holyhead Island is the South-Stack 

 ^^L lighthouse, built on the summit of a detached rock. The lighthouse 

 ^^nbdc k noitod to the island by a small suspension-bridge. The ooaat 

 ^Hj^wa ii ezeaediogly wild and rugged ; it has been worn by the waves 

 ^V^kfto Bfunaixnu cavema, and swarms, during a portion of the year, 

 ^B Vith Ma birds. Holyhead Island has many barren spots, but includes 

 good paature for sheep, and a proportion of fair arable soil. 

 (Comtiumieation from Holyhtad.) 



HOLYWELL, Flintshire, a market-town, municipal and parlia- 

 BMDtary borough, and the seat of a Poor-Law Union, is situated in 

 68* 17' N. Ut., 3' 7' W. long., distant 10 mUes JT.N.W. from Mold, 



I 



and 200 miles N.W. from Loadou. The population of the borough 

 of Holywell in 1851 was 5740. The living ia a vicarage iu the arch- 

 deaconry and diocese of St. Asaph. Holywell Poor-Law Uuiou con- 

 tains 14 parishes and townships, with an area of 64,834 acres, aud a 

 populatiou in 1S51 of 41,053. 



The town is situated upon an eminence near the southei'u shore of 

 the festuary of the Dee. Its mineral riches and the manufactures 

 carried on in the neighbourhood have made Holywell one of the moat 

 important aud flourishing towns in North Wales. The towu ia lighted 

 with gaa and paved. The parish church was mostly rebuilt in 1769. 

 In the town are chapels for Independents, Baptists, Wesleyan Metho- 

 dists, Wesleyan Reformers, Welsh Methodists, aud Roman Catholics ; 

 National, British, Infant, aud Roman Catholic schools ; the Flintshire 

 infirmary, and a savings bank. A county court is held in the town. The 

 principal works are lead-smelting, aud desilverizing works ; copper 

 works ; a shot tower ; flannel factories ; and a paper mill. There are 

 also collieries and lead-mines ; large quarries of Aberdo limestone ; 

 and a Roman cemeut manufactory. Holywell owes its name to the 

 famous Well of St. Winefred, which is situated close to the church, 

 and was once in high repute for the cure of diseases. Near the spring 

 are vestiges of the old British fortification of Dinas Basing, 'the fort 

 in the bottom.' 



(Communication from Holywell.) 

 HOLYWOOD. [DowNSHiKE.] 

 HOLZMiJNDEN. [Brunswick.] 

 HOMBURG. [Hesse-Homburq.] 

 HOMERTON. [Hackney.] 



HONDURAS, Republic of. Central America, occupies the elevated 

 country between the table-laud of Guatemala and the plaius of 

 Mosquitos and Nicaragua. It lies between 14° 5' aud 16° N. lat., and 

 about 85° 30' and 88° 40' W. long. ; but a narrow tract extends 

 southward between Salvador and Nioai-agua as far as the Gulf of Con- 

 chaguaon the Pacific, 13° 30' N. lat. Honduras is bounded E. by the 

 Mosquito territory, but the boundary line on this side remains unde- 

 fined ; 8. by the republics of Nicaragua and Salvador, except where 

 the narrow tract of land reaches down to the Gulf of Couchagua ; W. 

 by Guatemala ; and N. by the Caribbean Sea. The area is about 

 30,000 square miles : the population is about 230,000, of whom three- 

 fourths are ladinoa or mulattoes. 



Surface, dec. — The Caribbean coast from Cape Cameron to Cape 

 Honduras bears, with a general concave sweep, due west; and thence 

 to Caballo Point, aud to the mouth of the Rio Motagua, a short 

 distance east of which is the boundary of the republic, it bears 

 W.S.W. Between Capes Cameron and Honduras the coast ia low ; 

 thence westward it is for the most part high and i-ocky. The only 

 available ports are Truxillo at the mouth of the river of the same 

 name, which is merely an open roadstead in a bay formed by Cape 

 Honduras; and Omoa, a small but good harbour near the western 

 extremity of the republic. The whole of this coast is extremely 

 unhealthy, and consequently very thinly peopled. The small tract 

 owned by Honduras bordering on the Gulf of Conohagua, in the 

 Pacific Ocean, is also low, subject to be inundated by spring tides, 

 and very unhealthy ; but in neither case does the miasmatic influence 

 extend far inland. 



The surface of the country is greatly broken. It may be described as a 

 table-land traversed by several ridges of hills running from north-west 

 to south-east with secondary ridges branching obliquely from them. 

 The general level of the table-land is perhaps about 4000 feet ; the 

 highest part is the southern side, where it borders on Salvador. 

 Close upon the shores of the Caribbean Sea a ridge of mountains, the 

 Sierra Omoa, extends from Cape Honduras to Caballo Point, near 

 which is Mount Omoa, 7000 feet high, which gives its name to the 

 ridge. The culminating point of this ridge is the peak of Gongrehoy, 

 87° W. long., which is 7500 feet above the level of the sea. The 

 ridges which traverse the interior of Honduras do not attain any great 

 altitude above the general level. Between the ridges are long, wide, 

 open, and fertile valleys, which mostly descend, gently to the great 

 plain on the east. Near the western end of the state are the broad 

 valleys of the Chamalicon and the Ulua, which are overgrown by 

 thick forests of mahogany, cedar, and fustic trees. Along the 

 southern side of the territory runs a ridge which divides the waters 

 which flow into the Pacific from those which fall into the Atlantic ; 

 but only a few peaks attain any considerable elevation. From this 

 ridge, and from the transverse ridges north-west of it, a aeries of 

 high and steep hills rise from a broad-backed tract of high ground 

 and connect the table-land of Honduras with that of Guatemala. 

 The valleys between these ridges are of comparatively moderate 

 width. 



The principal rivers flow into the Caribbean Sea. Beginning on 

 the west we have the Chamalicon, which rises on the Merendon 

 Muuntaina near 14° N. lat. and flows in a generally northern direction 

 into the Bay of Honduras a little east of Punta de Caballos. For a 

 large part of its upper coiu^e it flows through a wild and uninhabited 

 country; but as it approaches the sea the valley opens out to a great 

 width, its slopes l)eiug covered with vast forests of valuable timber 

 trees. Like most of the rivers of the state the navigation of the 

 Chamalicon is impeded by a bar at its mouth. East of the Ch.amalicon 

 is the Ulua, a much longer aud more important stream. It is formed 



