205 
HAN HAN 
zaYdous llep in life: this therefore fliould be carefully HAND'-LEATHER, f, A piece of leather to fecuYe 
watched, and a young man with great diligence handed the hand. 
over it. Locke .—To feize : to lav hands on: HAND'-MILL, f. A mill moved bv the hand : 
Let him, that makes but trifles of his eyes, 
F'irlt hand me;. Shakefpcare. 
To manage ; to move with the hand : \ 
’Tis then that with delight I rove, 
Upon the boiindlefs depth of love : 
I blefs my chains, I hand my Oar, 
Nor think on all I left on fhore. Prior. 
To tranfmit in fucceffion, with down ; to deliver from 
one to another.—Arts and fciences conlill of fcattered 
theorems 3nd prabtices, which are handed about a.monglt 
the mailers, and only revealed to the Jilii artis, till fome 
great genius appears, who collects thefe disjointed pro- 
pofitions, and reduces them into a regular fyltem. Ar- 
buthnot. —One would think a ltory fo fit for age to talk 
of, and infancy to hear, were incapable of being handed 
down to us. Pope. 
Hand is much ufed in compofition for that which is 
manageable by the hand, as a hand-faw ; or borne in the 
hand, as a hand-barrow. 
HAND'-BALL. See the article Tennis. 
HAND'-B ARROW, /. A frame on which any thing 
is carried by the hands of two men, without wheeling 
on the ground.—Set the board whereon the hive ffand- 
eth on a hand-barrow , and carry them to the plate you 
intend. Mordmef. 
HAND'-BASKET,/, A portable balket—You mull 
have woollen yarn to tie grafts with, and a (mail kand- 
bajket to carry them in. Mortimer. 
HAND'-BELL, /. A bell rung by the hand.—The 
llrength of the percuflion is the principal caufe of the 
loudnefs or foftnefs of founds, as in ringing of a hand- 
bed harder or fofter. Bacon. 
Hand-bells, which firft appeared in religious procef- 
fions, were afterwards ufed by bell-ringers for the fake 
of paltime. Ten or twelve bells are frequently rung in 
rounds, or changes, by a company of ringers, fometimes 
one to each bell, but more ufually every ringer has two. 
A blind man, who fits in the ftreets of London, rings 
twelve bells at one time : two of them are placed upon 
his head ; two in each hand ; one affixed to each of his 
knees ; and two upon each foot ;• all of which he manages 
with great adroitnefs, and performs a variety of tunes. 
HAND'-BILL,/. The edge-tool w ith which wood¬ 
men perform their work, in cutting underwood, &c. 
HAND'-BORROW, f. A furety ; a manual pledge. 
An old law term. 
H AND'-BRE ADTH,/. A fpace equal to the breadth 
of the hand ; a pahn.—The eaftern people determined 
their hand-breadth by the breadth of barley-corns, fix mak¬ 
ing a digit, and twenty-four a hand’s-breadtk. Arbuthnot. 
HAND'-CUFF, f. An iron inllrument to confine the 
hand. 
To HAND'-CUFF, v. a. To confine the hands by an 
iron inllrument. 
HAND'-GALLOP, f. A flow and eafy gallop, in 
which the hand prefles the bridle to hinder increafe of 
fpeed.—Ovid, with all his fweetnefs, has as little variety 
of numbers and founds as he : he is always upon a hand- 
gallop, and his verfe runs upon carpet ground. Dryden. 
HAND'-GUN,jf. A Ihort gun.—Guns have names 
given them, fome from ferpents or ravenous birds, as 
culverines or colubrines ; others in other refpebls, as 
cannons, demicannons, hand-guns, and mulkets. Camden. 
HAND'-HABEND,/. A thief caught in the very fa&, 
having the goods Helen in his hand. Leg. Hen. I. c. 59. 
HAND'-HOOK, J'. An inllrument ufed by fmiths for 
twilling bars of iron. 
HAND-IN-AND-OUT, /. The name of an unlawful 
game long fince difufed. and prohibited by llatu.te 17 
Ldw.lV.c.2. 
Vol. IX. No. 578. 
Oft the drudging afs is driv’n with toil. 
Returning late, and loaden home with gain. 
Of barter’d pitch, and hand-mills for the grain. Dryden. 
HAND'-S AILS,y. Sails managed by the hand.—The 
feamen will neither Hand to their hand-fails , nor futfer 
the pilot to lteer. Temple. 
HAND'-S AW, f. Saw manageable by the hand.—My 
buckler cut through and through, and my fword hack’d 
like a hand-faw. Fa/Jlaff. 
HAND -SCREW, J'. A kind of engine for railing 
weights; a jack. 
HAND'-STAFF,/ That part of the threfliing inllru¬ 
ment, or flail, which is held in the'hand. 
H AMD .'-VICE, f. A vice to hold fmall work in. 
IIAND'-WE ARON, f. A weapon for the hand. 
HAND-WRITING, f. A call or form of waiting pe¬ 
culiar to each hand.—To no other caufe .than the wife 
providence pf God can be. referred the diver fit y of hand¬ 
writings. Cockbvrn. 
That you beat me at the mart, I have your hand to fhow. 
If the (kin were parchment, and the blows you gave me 
ink, 
Your own hand-writing would tell you what I think. 
HAN'DED, adj. Having the life of the hand, left or 
right.—Manyare right handed , whole livers-are weakly 
conftituted : and many ufe the left, in whom 1 that part 
is ffrongefl. Brown .—With hands joined 
Into their inmoll bow’r 
Handed they went. Milton. 
HAN'DEL (George - Frederic), a moll admirable 
compofer and mailer of mufic, born at Halle, in Upper 
Saxony, in 1684. His father was a phyfician in that 
city, and had this fon by a fecond wife. From his . 
earliell childhood he difeovered filch an irrefiffible pro- 
penfity to mufic, that his father, who intended him for 
the civil law', Was much vexed at it, and removed all 
muficai inltruments put of his way ; yet fo Itrong was 
the child’s ruling paflfon for the charms of.melody, that, 
before he had reached the age of feven, he contrived to 
get a fmall clavichord conveyed to the top of the houfe, 
with which he conflantly ainufed himfelf.when the fa¬ 
mily were retired to rell. It happened about this time 
that he accompanied his father on a vifit to a fon by the 
firli marriage, who was valet to the duke of Saxe-Weif- 
fenfels. On this occafion,,young Handel could not for¬ 
bear touching every harplichord he met with : and one 1 
morning, Healing into the organ-loft of the chapel, lie. 
began to play upon it while the duke was within hear¬ 
ing. Struck with an unufual found, he alked his valet 
what Itranger was playing; and, on being told it was 
his brother,' he commanded the, boy to be brought be¬ 
fore him, and the father all'o to be lent for. The refult 
of the duke’s enquiries was a recommendation that fuch 
a native genius fliould by no means be Iofi.; with a pro- 
mife of bellowing upon him every means of .encourage¬ 
ment. Upon his return to Halle, Handel was placed 
with Zachau, organilt of-the cathedral, by whom he 
was taught the principles of mufic, and introduced to 
the works of the great compofers. He improved fo ra¬ 
pidly, that at the age of nine he compofed motets for 
the fervice of the church. When he was thirteen, he 
found that Halle offered him no farther opportunity of 
improvement, and therefore vifited Berlin, where the 
opera was then flourilhing under Buononcini and Attilio. 
He there attrafled the notice of the king, who eXprefibd 
an intention of fending him to Italy, where he might be 
formed under the belt mailers; but his friend-s had rea- 
fons for declining the offer. He next vifited Hamburg'; 
and, loling his father about this time, lie look-a place 
