Chapter III: Front Matter (3)

HEROIC VERSE, a term exclusively used in English to Indicate the rhymed iambic line or HEROIC COUPLET. In ancient literature, the heroic verse, [Greek: heroikon metron], was synonymous with the dactylic hexameter. It was in this measure that those typically heroic poems, the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ and the _Aeneid_ were written. In English, however, it was not enough to designate a single iambic line of five beats as heroic verse, because it was necessary to distinguish blank verse from the distich, which was formed by the heroic couplet. This had escaped the notice of Dryden, when he wrote "The English Verse, which we call Heroic, consists of no more than ten syllables." If that were the case, then _Paradise Lost_ would be written in heroic verse, which is not true. What Dryden should have said is "consists of two rhymed lines, each of ten syllables." In French the alexandrine has always been regarded as the heroic measure of that language. The dactylic movement of the heroic line in ancient Greek, the famous [Greek: rhythmos heroos] of Homer, is expressed in modern Europe by the iambic movement. The consequence is that much of the rush and energy of the antique verse, which at vigorous moments was like the charge of a battalion, is lost. It is owing to this, in part, that the heroic couplet is so often required to give, in translation, the full value of a single Homeric hexameter. It is important to insist that it is the couplet, not the single line, which constitutes heroic verse. It is interesting to note that the Latin poet Ennius, as reported by Cicero, called the heroic metre of one line _versum longum_, to distinguish it from the brevity of lyrical measures. The current form of English heroic verse appears to be the invention of Chaucer, who used it in his _Legend of Good Women_ and afterwards, with still greater freedom, in the _Canterbury Tales_. Here is an example of it in its earliest development:--

"And thus the longe day in fight they spend,
Till, at the last, as everything hath end,
Anton is shent, and put him to the flight,
And all his folk to go, as best go might."

This way of writing was misunderstood and neglected by Chaucer's English disciples, but was followed nearly a century later by the Scottish poet, called Blind Harry (_c._ 1475), whose _Wallace_ holds an important place in the history of versification as having passed on the tradition of the heroic couplet. Another Scottish poet, Gavin Douglas, selected heroic verse for his translation of the _Aeneid_ (1513), and displayed, in such examples as the following, a skill which left little room for improvement at the hands of later poets:--

"One sang, 'The ship sails over the salt foam,
Will bring the merchants and my leman home';
Some other sings, 'I will be blithe and light,
Mine heart is leant upon so goodly wight.'"

The verse so successfully mastered was, however, not very generally used for heroic purposes in Tudor literature. The early poets of the revival, and Spenser and Shakespeare after them, greatly preferred stanzaic forms. For dramatic purposes blank verse was almost exclusively used, although the French had adopted the rhymed alexandrine for their plays. In the earlier half of the 17th century, heroic verse was often put to somewhat unheroic purposes, mainly in prologues and epilogues, or other short poems of occasion; but it was nobly redeemed by Marlowe in his _Hero and Leander_ and respectably by Browne in his _Britannia's Pastorals_. It is to be noted, however, that those Elizabethans who, like Chapman, Warner and Drayton, aimed at producing a warlike and Homeric effect, did so in shambling fourteen-syllable couplets. The one heroic poem of that age written at considerable length in the appropriate national metre is the _Bosworth Field_ of Sir John Beaumont (1582-1628). Since the middle of the 17th century, when heroic verse became the typical and for a while almost the solitary form in which serious English poetry was written, its history has known many vicissitudes. After having been the principal instrument of Dryden and Pope, it was almost entirely rejected by Wordsworth and Coleridge, but revised, with various modifications, by Byron, Shelley (in _Julian and Maddalo_) and Keats (in _Lamia_). In the second half of the 19th century its prestige was restored by the brilliant work of Swinburne in _Tristram_ and elsewhere. (E. G.)

HEROLD, LOUIS JOSEPH FERDINAND (1791-1833), French musician, the son of Francois Joseph Herold, an accomplished pianist, was born in Paris, on the 28th of January 1791. It was not till after his father's death that Herold in 1806 entered the Paris conservatoire, where he studied under Catal and Mehul. In 1812 he gained the grand prix de Rome with the cantata _La Duchesse de la Valliere_, and started for Italy, where he remained till 1815 and composed a symphony, a cantata and several pieces of chamber music. During his stay in Italy also Herold for the first time ventured on the stage with the opera _La Gioventu di Enrico V._, first performed at Naples in 1815 with moderate success. During a short stay in Vienna he was much in the society of Salieri. Returning to Paris he was invited by Boieldieu to collaborate with him on an opera called _Charles de France_, performed in 1816, and soon followed by Herold's first French opera, _Les Rosieres_ (1817), which was received very favourably. Herold produced numerous dramatic works for the next fifteen years in rapid succession. Only the names of some of the more important need here be mentioned:--_La Clochette_ (1817), _L'Auteur mort et vivant_ (1820), _Marie_ (1826), and the ballets _La Fille mal gardee_ (1828) and _La Belle au bois dormant_ (1829). Herold also wrote a vast quantity of pianoforte music, in spite of his time being much occupied by his duties as accompanist at the Italian opera in Paris. In 1831 he produced the romantic opera _Zampa_, and in the following year _Le Pre aux clercs_ (first performance December 15, 1832), in which French _esprit_ and French chivalry find their most perfect embodiment. These two operas secured immortality for the name of the composer, who died on the 18th of January 1833, of the lung disease from which he had suffered for many years, and the effects of which he had accelerated by incessant work. Herold's incomplete opera _Ludovic_ was afterwards printed by J. F. F. Halevy.

HERON (Fr. _heron_; Ital. _aghirone_, _airone_; Lat. _ardea_; Gr. [Greek: erodios]: A.-S. _hragra_; Icelandic, _hegre_; Swed. _hager_; Dan. _heire_; Ger. _Heiger_, _Reiher_, _Heergans_; Dutch, _reiger_), a long-necked, long-winged and long-legged bird, the typical representative of the group _Ardeidae_. It is difficult or even impossible to estimate with any accuracy the number of species of _Ardeidae_ which exist. Professor Hermann Schlegel in 1863 enumerated 61, besides 5 of what he terms "conspecies," as contained in the collection at Leyden (_Mus. des Pays-Bas_, Ardeae, 64 pp.),--on the other hand, G. R. Gray in 1871 (_Handlist_, &c. iii. 26-34) admitted above 90, while Dr Anton Reichenow (_Journ. fur Ornithologie_, 1877, pp. 232-275) recognizes 67 as known, besides 15 "subspecies" and 3 varieties, arranging them in 3 genera, _Nycticorax_, _Botaurus_ and _Ardea_, with 17 sub-genera. But it is difficult to separate the family, with any satisfactory result, into genera, if structural characters have to be found for these groups, for in many cases they run almost insensibly into each other--though in common language it is easy to speak of herons, egrets, bitterns, night-herons and boatbills. With the exception of the last, Professor Schlegel retains all in the genus _Ardea_, dividing it into _eight_ sections, the names of which may perhaps be Englished--great herons, small herons, egrets, semi-egrets, rail-like herons, little bitterns, bitterns and night-herons.

The common heron of Europe, _Ardea cinerea_ of Linnaeus, is universally allowed to be the type of the family, and it may also be regarded as that of Professor Schlegel's first section. The species inhabits suitable localities throughout the whole of Europe, Africa and Asia, reaching Japan, many of the islands of the Indian Archipelago and even Australia. Though by no means so numerous as formerly in Britain, it is still sufficiently common,[1] and there must be few persons who have not seen it rising slowly from some river-side or marshy flat, or passing overhead in its lofty and leisurely flight on its way to or from its daily haunts; while they are many who have been entertained by watching it as it sought its food, consisting chiefly of fishes (especially eels and flounders) and amphibians--though young birds and small mammals come not amiss--wading midleg in the shallows, swimming occasionally when out of its depth, or standing motionless to strike its prey with its formidable and sure beak. When sufficiently numerous the heron breeds in societies, known as heronries, which of old time were protected both by law and custom in nearly all European countries, on account of the sport their tenants afforded to the falconer. Of late years, partly owing to the withdrawal of the protection they had enjoyed, and still more, it would seem, from agricultural improvement, which, by draining meres, fens and marshes, has abolished the feeding-places of a great population of herons, many of the larger heronries have broken up--the birds composing them dispersing to neighbouring localities and forming smaller settlements, most of which are hardly to be dignified by the name of heronry, though commonly accounted such. Thus the number of so-called heronries in the United Kingdom, and especially in England and Wales, has become far greater than formerly, but no one can doubt that the number of herons has dwindled. The sites chosen by the heron for its nest vary greatly. It is generally built in the top of a lofty tree, but not unfrequently (and this seems to have been much more usual in former days) near or on the ground among rough vegetation, on an island in a lake, or again on a rocky cliff of the coast. It commonly consists of a huge mass of sticks, often the accumulation of years, lined with twigs, and in it are laid from four to six sea-green eggs. The young are clothed in soft flax-coloured down, and remain in the nest for a considerable time, therein differing remarkably from the "pipers" of the crane, which are able to run almost as soon as they are hatched. The first feathers assumed by young herons in a general way resemble those of the adult, but the pure white breast, the black throat-streaks and especially the long pendent plumes, which characterize only the very old birds, and are most beautiful in the cocks, are subsequently acquired. The heron measures about 3 ft. from the bill to the tail, and the expanse of its wings is sometimes not less than 6 ft., yet it weighs only between 3 and 4 lb.

Large as is the common heron of Europe, it is exceeded in size by the great blue heron of America (_Ardea herodias_), which generally resembles it in appearance and habits, and both are smaller than the _A. sumatrana_ or _A. typhon_ of India and the Malay Archipelago, while the _A. goliath_, of wide distribution in Africa and Asia, is the largest of all. The purple heron, _A. purpurea_, as a well-known European species having a great range over the Old World, also deserves mention here. The species included in Professor Schlegel's second section inhabit the tropical parts of Africa, Australasia and America. The egrets, forming his third group, require more notice, distinguished as they are by their pure white plumage, and, when in breeding-dress, by the beautiful dorsal tufts of decomposed feathers that ordinarily droop over the tail, and are so highly esteemed as ornaments by Oriental magnates. The largest species is _A. occidentalis_, only known apparently from Florida and Cuba; but one not much less, the great egret (_A. alba_), belongs to the Old World, breeding regularly in south-eastern Europe, and occasionally straying to Britain. A third, _A. egretta_, represents it in America, while much the same may be said of two smaller species, _A. garzetta_, the little egret of English authors, and _A. candidissima_; and a sixth, _A. intermedia_, is common in India, China and Japan, besides occurring in Australia. The group of semi-egrets, containing some nine or ten forms, among which the buff-backed heron (_A. bubulcus_), is the only species that is known to have occurred in Europe, is hardly to be distinguished from the last section except by their plumage being at certain seasons varied in some species with slaty-blue and in others with rufous. The rail-like herons form Professor Schlegel's next section, but it can scarcely be satisfactorily differentiated, and the epithet is misleading, for its members have no rail-like affinities, though the typical species, which inhabits the south of Europe, and occasionally finds its way to England, has long been known as _A. ralloides_.[2] Nearly all these birds are tropical or subtropical. Then there is the somewhat better defined group of little bitterns, containing about a dozen species--the smallest of the whole family. One of them, _A. minuta_, though very local in its distribution, is a native of the greater part of Europe, and has bred in England. It has a close counterpart in the _A. exilis_ of North America, and is represented by three or four forms in other parts of the world, the _A. pusilla_ of Australia especially differing very slightly from it. Ranged by Professor Schlegel with these birds, which are all remarkable for their skulking habits, but more resembling the true herons in their nature, are the common green bittern of America (_A. virescens_) and its very near ally the African _A. atricapilla_, from which last it is almost impossible to distinguish the _A. javanica_, of wide range throughout Asia and its islands, while other species, less closely related, occur elsewhere as _A. flavicollis_--one form of which, _A. gouldi_, inhabits Australia.

The true bitterns, forming the genus _Botaurus_ of most authors, seem to be fairly separable, but more perhaps on account of their wholly nocturnal habits and correspondingly adapted plumage than on strictly structural grounds, though some differences of proportion are observable. The common bittern (q.v.) of Europe (_B. stellaris_), is widely distributed over the eastern hemisphere.[3] Australia and New Zealand have a kindred species, _B. poeciloptilus_, and North America a third, _B. mugitans_[4] or _B. lentiginosus_. Nine other species from various parts of the world are admitted by Professor Schlegel, but some of them should perhaps be excluded from the genus _Botaurus_.

Of the night-herons the same author recognizes six species, all of which may be reasonably placed in the genus _Nycticorax_, characterized by a shorter beak and a few other peculiarities, among which the large eyes deserve mention. The first is _N. griseus_, a bird widely spread over the Old World, and not unfrequently visiting England, where it would undoubtedly breed if permitted. Professor Schlegel unites with it the common night-heron of America; but this, though very closely allied, is generally deemed distinct, and is the _N. naevius_ or _N. gardeni_ of most writers. A clearly different American species, with a more southern habitat, is the _N. violaceus_ or _N. cayennensis_, while others are found in South America, Australia, some of the Asiatic Islands and in West Africa. The Galapagos have a peculiar species, _N. pauper_, and another, so far as is known, peculiar to Rodriguez, _N. megacephalus_, existed in that island at the time of its being first colonized, but is now extinct.

The boatbill, of which only one species is known, seems to be merely a night-heron with an exaggerated bill,--so much widened as to suggest its English name,--but has always been allowed generic rank. This curious bird, the _Cancroma cochlearia_ of most authors, is a native of tropical America, and what is known of its habits shows that they are essentially those of a _Nycticorax_.[5]

Bones of the common heron and bittern are not uncommon in the peat of the East-Anglian fens. Remains from Sansan and Langy in France have been referred by Alphonse Milne-Edwards to herons under the names of _Ardea perplexa_ and _A. formosa_; a tibia from the Miocene of Steinheim am Albuch by Dr Fraas to an _A. similis_, while Sir R. Owen recognized a portion of a sternum from the London Clay as most nearly approaching this family.

It remains to say that the herons form part of Huxley's section _Pelargomorphae_, belonging to his larger group _Desmognathae_, and to draw attention to the singular development of the patches of "powder-down" which in the family _Ardeidae_ attain a magnitude hardly to be found elsewhere. Their use is utterly unknown. (A. N.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] In many parts of England it is generally called a
"hernser"--being a corruption of "heronsewe," which, as Professor
Skeat states (_Etymol. Dictionary_, p. 264), is a perfectly distinct
word from "heronshaw," commonly confounded with it. The further
corruption of "hernser" into "handsaw," as in the well-known proverb,
was easy in the mouth of men to whom hawking the heronsewe was
unfamiliar.

[2] It is the "Squacco-Heron" of modern British authors--the
distinctive name, given "Sguacco" by Willughby and Ray from
Aldrovandus, having been misspelt by Latham.

[3] The last-recorded instance of the bittern breeding in England was
in 1868, as mentioned by Stevenson (_Birds of Norfolk_, ii. 164).

[4] Richardson, a most accurate observer, asserts (_Fauna
Boreali-Americana_, ii. 374) that its booming (whence the epithet)
exactly resembles that of its Old-World congener, but American
ornithologists seem only to have heard the croaking note it makes
when disturbed.

[5] The very wonderful shoe-bird (_Balaeniceps_) has been regarded by
many authorities as allied to _Cancroma_; but there can be little
doubt that it is more nearly related to the genus _Scopus_ belonging
to the storks. The sun-bittern (_Eurypyga_) forms a family of itself,
allied to the rails and cranes.

HERPES (from the Gr. [Greek: herpein], to creep) an inflammation of the true skin resulting from a lesion of the underlying nerve or its ganglion, attended with the formation of isolated or grouped vesicles of various sizes upon a reddened base. They contain a clear fluid, and either rupture or dry up. Two well-marked varieties of herpes are frequently met with. (a) In _herpes labialis et nasalis_ the eruption occurs about the lips and nose. It is seen in cases of certain acute febrile ailments, such as fevers, inflammation of the lungs or even in a severe cold. It soon passes off. (b) In the _herpes zoster, zona_ or "shingles" the eruption occurs in the course of one or more cutaneous nerves, often on one side of the trunk, but it may be on the face, limbs or other parts. It may occur at any age, but is probably more frequently met with in elderly people. The appearance of the eruption is usually preceded by severe stinging neuralgic pains for several days, and, not only during the continuance of the herpetic spots, but long after they have dried up and disappeared, these pains sometimes continue and give rise to great suffering. The disease seldom recurs. The most that can be done for its relief is to protect the parts with cotton wool or some dusting powder, while the pain may be allayed by opiates or bromide of potassium. Quinine internally is often of service.

HERRERA, FERNANDO DE (c. 1534-1597), Spanish lyrical poet, was born at Seville. Although in minor orders, he addressed many impassioned poems to the countess of Gelves, wife of Alvaro Colon de Portugal; but it is suggested that these should be regarded as Platonic literary exercises in the manner of Petrarch. As is shown by his _Anotaciones a las obras de Garcilaso de la Vega_ (1580), Herrera had a boundless admiration for the Italian poets, and continued the work of Boscan in naturalizing the Italian metrical system in Spain. His commentary on Garcilaso involved him in a series of literary polemics, and his verbal innovations laid him open to attack. But, even if his amatory sonnets are condemned as insincere in sentiment, their workmanship is admirable, while his odes on the battle of Lepanto, on Don John of Austria, and the elegy on King Sebastian of Portugal entitle him to rank as the greatest of Andalusian poets and as the most important of the followers of Garcilaso de la Vega (see VEGA). His poems were published in 1582, and reprinted with additions in 1619; they are reissued in the _Biblioteca de autores espanoles_, vol. xxxii. Of Herrera's prose works only the _Vida y muerta de Tomas Moro_ (1592) survives; it is a translation of the life in Thomas Stapleton's _Tres Thomae_ (1588).

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--E. Bourciez, "Les Sonnets de Fernando de Herrera,"
_Annales de la Faculte des Lettres de Bordeaux_ (1891); _Fernando de
Herrera, controversia sobre sus anotaciones a les obras de Garcilaso
de la Vega_ (Seville, 1870); A. Morel-Fatio, _L'Hymne sur Lepante_
(Paris, 1893).

HERRERA, FRANCISCO (1576-1656), surnamed el Viejo (the old), Spanish historical and fresco painter, studied under Luis Fernandez in Seville, his native city, where he spent most of his life. Although so rough and coarse in manners that neither scholar nor child could remain with him, the great talents of Herrera, and the promptitude with which he used them, brought him abundant commissions. He was also a skilful worker in bronze, an accomplishment that led to his being charged with coining base money. From this accusation, whether true or false, he sought sanctuary in the Jesuit college of San Hermenegildo, which he adorned with a fine picture of its patron saint. Philip IV., on his visit to Seville in 1624, having seen this picture, and learned the position of the artist, pardoned him at once, warning him, however, that such powers as his should not be degraded. In 1650 Herrera removed to Madrid, where he lived in great honour till his death in 1656. Herrera was the first to relinquish the timid Italian manner of the old Spanish school of painting, and to initiate the free, vigorous touch and style which reached such perfection in Velazquez, who had been for a short time his pupil. His pictures are marked by an energy of design and freedom of execution quite in keeping with his bold, rough character. He is said to have used very long brushes in his painting; and it is also said that, when pupils failed, his servant used to dash the colours on the canvas with a broom under his directions, and that he worked them up into his designs before they dried. The drawing in his pictures is correct, and the colouring original and skilfully managed, so that the figures stand out in striking relief. What has been considered his best easel-work, the "Last Judgment," in the church of San Bernardo at Seville, is an original and striking composition, showing in its treatment of the nude how ill-founded the common belief was that Spanish painters, through ignorance of anatomy, understood only the draped figure. Perhaps his best fresco is that on the dome of the church of San Buenaventura; but many of his frescoes have perished, some by the effects of the weather and others by the artist's own carelessness in preparing his surfaces. He has, however, preserved several of his own designs in etchings. For his easel-works Herrera often chose such humble subjects as fairs, carnivals, ale-houses and the like.

His son FRANCISCO HERRARA (1622-1685), surnamed el Mozo (the young), was also an historical and fresco painter. Unable to endure his father's cruelty, the younger Herrera, seizing what money he could find, fled from Seville to Rome. There, instead of devoting himself to the antiquities and the works of the old Italian masters, he gave himself up to the study of architecture and perspective, with the view of becoming a fresco-painter. He did not altogether neglect easel-work, but became renowned for his pictures of still-life, flowers and fruit, and from his skill in painting fish was called by the Italians _Lo Spagnuolo degli pesci_. In later life he painted portraits with great success. He returned to Seville on hearing of his father's death, and in 1660 was appointed subdirector of the new academy there under Murillo. His vanity, however, brooked the superiority of no one; and throwing up his appointment he went to Madrid. There he was employed to paint a San Hermenegildo for the barefooted Carmelites, and to decorate in fresco the roof of the choir of San Felipe el Real. The success of this last work procured for him a commission from Philip IV. to paint in fresco the roof of the Atocha church. He chose as his subject for this the Assumption of the Virgin. Soon afterwards he was rewarded with the title of painter to the king, and was appointed superintendent of the royal buildings. He died at Madrid in 1685. Herrera el Mozo was of a somewhat similar temperament to his father, and offended many people by his inordinate vanity and suspicious jealousy. His pictures are inferior to the older Herrera's both in design and in execution; but in some of them traces of the vigour of his father, who was his first teacher, are visible. He was by no means an unskilful colourist, and was especially master of the effects of chiaroscuro. As his best picture Sir Edmund Head in his _Handbook_ names his "San Francisco," in Seville Cathedral. An elder brother, known as Herrera el Rubio (the ruddy), who died very young, gave great promise as a painter.

HERRERA Y TORDESILLAS, ANTONIO DE (1549-1625), Spanish historian, was born at Cuellar, in the province of Segovia in Spain. His father, Roderigo de Tordesillas, and his mother, Agnes de Herrera, were both of good family. After studying for some time in his native country, Herrera proceeded to Italy, and there became secretary to Vespasian Gonzago, with whom, on his appointment as viceroy of Navarre, he returned to Spain. Gonzago, sensible of his secretary's abilities, commended him to Philip II. of Spain; and that monarch appointed Herrera first historiographer of the Indies, and one of the historiographers of Castile. Placed thus in the enjoyment of an ample salary, Herrera devoted the rest of his life to the pursuit of literature, retaining his offices until the reign of Philip IV., by whom he was appointed secretary of state very shortly before his death, which took place at Madrid on the 29th of March 1625. Of Herrera's writings, the most valuable is his _Historia general de los hechos de los Castellanos en las islas y tierra firme del Mar Oceano_ (Madrid, 1601-1615, 4 vols.), a work which relates the history of the Spanish-American colonies from 1492 to 1554. The author's official position gave him access to the state papers and to other authentic sources not attainable by other writers, while he did not scruple to borrow largely from other MSS., especially from that of Bartolome de Las Casas. He used his facilities carefully and judiciously; and the result is a work on the whole accurate and unprejudiced, and quite indispensable to the student either of the history of the early colonies, or of the institutions and customs of the aboriginal American peoples. Although it is written in the form of annals, mistakes are not wanting, and several glaring anachronisms have been pointed out by M. J. Quintana. "If," to quote Dr Robertson, "by attempting to relate the various occurrences in the New World in a strict chronological order, the arrangement of events in his work had not been rendered so perplexed, disconnected and obscure that it is an unpleasant task to collect from different parts of his book and piece together the detached shreds of a story, he might justly have been ranked among the most eminent historians of his country." This work was republished in 1730, and has been translated into English by J. Stevens (London, 1740), and into other European languages.

Herrera's other works are the following: _Historia de lo sucedido en
Escocia e Inglaterra en quarenta y quatro anos que vivio la reyna
Maria Estuarda_ (Madrid, 1589); _Cinco libros de la historia de
Portugal, y conquista de las islas de los Acores, 1582-1583_ (Madrid,
1591); _Historia de lo sucedido en Francia, 1585-1594_ (Madrid, 1598);
_Historia general del mundo del tiempo del rey Felipe II, desde 1559
hasta su muerte_ (Madrid, 1601-1612, 3 vols.); _Tratado, relacion, y
discurso historico de los movimientos de Aragon_ (Madrid, 1612);
_Comentarios de los hechos de los Espanoles, Franceses, y Venecianos
en Italia, &c., 1281-1559_ (Madrid, 1624, seq.). See W. H. Prescott,
_History of the Conquest of Mexico_, vol. ii.

HERRICK, ROBERT (1591-1674), English poet, was born at Cheapside, London, and baptized on the 24th of August 1591. He belonged to an old Leicestershire family which had settled in London. He was the seventh child of Nicholas Herrick, goldsmith, of the city of London, who died in 1592, under suspicion of suicide. The children were brought up by their uncle, Sir William Herrick, one of the richest goldsmiths of the day, to whom in 1607 Robert was bound apprentice. He had probably been educated at Westminster school, and in 1614 he proceeded to Cambridge; and it was no doubt during his apprenticeship that the young poet was introduced to that circle of wits which he was afterwards to adorn. He seems to have been present at the first performance of _The Alchemist_ in 1610, and it was probably about this time that Ben Jonson adopted him as his poetical "son." He entered the university as fellow-commoner of St John's College, and he remained there until, in 1616, upon taking his degree, he removed to Trinity Hall. A lively series of fourteen letters to his uncle, mainly begging for money, exists at Beaumanoir, and shows that Herrick suffered much from poverty at the university. He took his B.A. in 1617, and in 1620 he became master of arts. From this date until 1627 we entirely lose sight of him; it has been variously conjectured that he spent these years preparing for the ministry at Cambridge, or in much looser pursuits in London. In 1629 (September 30) he was presented by the king to the vicarage of Dean Prior, not far from Totnes in Devonshire. At Dean Prior he resided quietly until 1648, when he was ejected by the Puritans. The solitude there oppressed him at first; the village was dull and remote, and he felt very bitterly that he was cut off from all literary and social associations; but soon the quiet existence in Devonshire soothed and delighted him. He was pleased with the rural and semi-pagan customs that survived in the village, and in some of his most charming verses he has immortalized the morris-dances, wakes and quintains, the Christmas mummers and the Twelfth Night revellings, that diversified the quiet of Dean Prior. Herrick never married, but lived at the vicarage surrounded by a happy family of pets, and tended by an excellent old servant named Prudence Baldwin. His first appearance in print was in some verses he contributed to _A Description of the King and Queen of Fairies_, in 1635. In 1650 a volume of _Wit's Recreations_ contained sixty-two small poems afterwards acknowledged by Herrick in the _Hesperides_, and one not reprinted until our own day. These partial appearances make it probable that he visited London from time to time. We have few hints of his life as a clergyman. Anthony Wood says that Herricks's sermons were florid and witty, and that he was "beloved by the neighbouring gentry." A very aged woman, one Dorothy King, stated that the poet once threw his sermon at his congregation, cursing them for their inattention. The same old woman recollected his favourite pig, which he taught to drink out of a tankard. He was a devotedly loyal supporter of the king during the Civil War, and immediately upon his ejection in 1648 he published his celebrated collection of lyrical poems, entitled _Hesperides; or the Works both Human and Divine of Robert Herrick_. The "divine works" bore the title of _Noble Numbers_ and the date 1647. That he was reduced to great poverty in London has been stated, but there is no evidence of the fact. In August 1662 Herrick returned to Dean Prior, supplanting his own supplanter, Dr John Syms. He died in his eighty-fourth year, and was buried at Dean Prior, October 15, 1674. A monument was erected to his memory in the parish church in 1857, by Mr Perry Herrick, a descendant of a collateral branch of the family. The _Hesperides_ (and _Noble Numbers_) is the only volume which Herrick published, but he contributed poems to _Lachrymae Musarum_ (1649) and to _Wit's Recreations_.

As a pastoral lyrist Herrick stands first among English poets. His genius is limited in scope, and comparatively unambitious, but in its own field it is unrivalled. His tiny poems--and of the thirteen hundred that he has left behind him not one is long--are like jewels of various value, heaped together in a casket. Some are of the purest water, radiant with light and colour, some were originally set in false metal that has tarnished, some were rude and repulsive from the first. Out of the unarranged, heterogeneous mass the student has to select what is not worth reading, but, after he has cast aside all the rubbish, he is astonished at the amount of excellent and exquisite work that remains. Herrick has himself summed up, very correctly, the themes of his sylvan muse when he says:--

"I sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds and bowers,
Of April, May, of June and July flowers,
I sing of May-poles, hock-carts, wassails, wakes,
Of bridegrooms, brides and of their bridal-cakes."

He saw the picturesqueness of English homely life as no one before him had seen it, and he described it in his verse with a certain purple glow of Arcadian romance over it, in tones of immortal vigour and freshness. His love poems are still more beautiful; the best of them have an ardour and tender sweetness which give them a place in the forefront of modern lyrical poetry, and remind us of what was best in Horace and in the poets of the Greek anthology.

After suffering complete extinction for more than a century, the fame
of Herrick was revived by John Nichols, who introduced his poems to
the readers of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ of 1796 and 1797. Dr Drake
followed in 1798 with considerable enthusiasm. By 1810 interest had so
far revived in the forgotten poet that Dr Nott ventured to print a
selection from his poems, which attracted the favourable notice of the
_Quarterly Review_. In 1823 the _Hesperides_ and the _Noble Numbers_
were for the first time edited by Mr T. Maitland, afterwards Lord
Dundrennan. Since then the reprints of Herrick's have been too
numerous to be mentioned here; there are few English poets of the 17th
century whose writings are now more accessible. See F. W. Moorman,
_Robert Herrick_ (1910). (E. G.)

HERRIES, JOHN CHARLES (1778-1855), English politician, son of a London merchant, began his career as a junior clerk in the treasury, and became known for his financial abilities as private secretary to successive ministers. He was appointed commissary-in-chief (1811), and, on the abolition of that office (1816), auditor of the civil list. In 1823 he entered parliament as secretary to the treasury, and in 1827 became chancellor of the exchequer under Lord Goderich; but in consequence of internal differences, arising partly out of a slight put upon Herries, the ministry was broken up, and in 1828 he was appointed master of the mint. In 1830 he became president of the board of trade, and for the earlier months of 1835 he was secretary at war. From 1841 to 1847 he was out of parliament, but during 1852 he was president of the board of control under Lord Derby. He was a consistent and upright Tory of the old school, who carried weight as an authority on financial subjects. His eldest son, SIR CHARLES JOHN HERRIES (1815-1882), was chairman of the board of inland revenue.

See the _Life_ by his younger son, Edward Herries (1880).

HERRIES, JOHN MAXWELL, 4TH LORD (c. 1512-1583), Scottish politician, was the second son of Robert Maxwell, 4th Lord Maxwell (d. 1546). In 1547 he married Agnes (d. 1594), daughter of William Herries, 3rd Lord Herries (d. 1543), a grandson of Herbert Herries (d. c. 1500) of Terregles, Kirkcudbrightshire, who was created a lord of the Scottish parliament about 1490, and in 1567 he obtained the title of Lord Herries. But before this event Maxwell had become prominent among the men who rallied round Mary queen of Scots, although during the earlier part of his public life he had been associated with the religious reformers and had been imprisoned by the regent, Mary of Lorraine. He was, moreover--at least until 1563--very friendly with John Knox, who calls him "a man zealous and stout in God's cause." But the transition from one party to the other was gradually accomplished, and from March 1566, when Maxwell joined Mary at Dunbar after the murder of David Rizzio and her escape from Holyrood, he remained one of her staunchest friends, although he disliked her marriage with Bothwell. He led her cavalry at Langside, and after this battle she committed herself to his care. Herries rode with the queen into England in May 1568, and he and John Lesley, bishop of Ross, were her chief commissioners at the conferences at York. He continued to labour in Mary's cause after returning to Scotland, and was imprisoned by the regent Murray; he also incurred Elizabeth's displeasure by harbouring the rebel Leonard Dacres, but he soon made his peace with the English queen. He showed himself in general hostile to the regent Morton, but he was among the supporters of the regent Lennox until his death on the 20th of January 1583. His son William, 5th Lord Herries (d. 1604), was, like his father, warden of the west marches.

William's grandson John, 7th Lord Herries (d. 1677), became 3rd earl of Nithsdale in succession to his cousin Robert Maxwell, the 2nd earl, in 1667. John's grandson was William, 5th earl of Nithsdale, the Jacobite (see NITHSDALE). William was deprived of his honours in 1716, but in 1858 the House of Lords decided that his descendant William Constable-Maxwell (1804-1876) was rightly Lord Herries of Terregles. In 1876 William's son Marmaduke Constable-Maxwell (b. 1837) became 12th Lord Herries, and in 1884 he was created a baron of the United Kingdom.

HERRING (_Clupea harengus_, _Haring_ in German, _le hareng_ in French, _sill_ in Swedish), a fish belonging to the genus _Clupea_, of which more than sixty different species are known in various parts of the globe. The sprat, pilchard or sardine and shad are species of the same genus. Of all sea-fishes _Clupeae_ are the most abundant; for although other genera may comprise a greater variety of species, they are far surpassed by _Clupea_ with regard to the number of individuals. The majority of the species of _Clupea_ are of greater or less utility to man; it is only a few tropical species that acquire, probably from their food, highly poisonous properties, so as to be dangerous to persons eating them. But no other species equals the common herring in importance as an article of food or commerce. It inhabits in incredible numbers the North Sea, the northern parts of the Atlantic and the seas north of Asia. The herring inhabiting the corresponding latitudes of the North Pacific is another species, but most closely allied to that of the eastern hemisphere. Formerly it was the general belief that the herring inhabits the open ocean close to the Arctic Circle, and that it migrates at certain seasons towards the northern coasts of Europe and America. This view has been proved to be erroneous, and we know now that this fish lives throughout the year in the vicinity of our shores, but at a greater depth, and at a greater distance from the coast, than at the time when it approaches land for the purpose of spawning.

Herrings are readily recognized and distinguished from the other species of _Clupea_ by having an ovate patch of very small teeth on the vomer (that is, the centre of the palate). In the dorsal fin they have from 17 to 20 rays, and in the anal fin from 16 to 18; there are from 53 to 59 scales in the lateral line and 54 to 56 vertebrae in the vertebral column. They have a smooth gill-cover, without those radiating ridges of bone which are so conspicuous in the pilchard and other _Clupeae_. The sprat cannot be confounded with the herring, as it has no teeth on the vomer and only 47 or 48 scales in the lateral line.

The spawn of the herring is adhesive, and is deposited on rough gravelly ground at varying distances from the coast and always in comparatively shallow water. The season of spawning is different in different places, and even in the same district, e.g. the east coast of Scotland, there are herrings spawning in spring and others in autumn. These are not the same fish but different races. Those which breed in winter or spring deposit their spawn near the coast at the mouths of estuaries, and ascend the estuaries to a considerable distance at certain times, as in the Firths of Forth and Clyde, while those which spawn in summer or autumn belong more to the open sea, e.g. the great shoals that visit the North Sea annually.

Herrings grow very rapidly; according to H. A. Meyer's observations, they attain a length of from 17 to 18 mm. during the first month after hatching, 34 to 36 mm. during the second, 45 to 50 mm. during the third, 55 to 61 mm. during the fourth, and 65 to 72 mm. during the fifth. The size which they finally attain and their general condition depend chiefly on the abundance of food (which consists of crustaceans and other small marine animals), on the temperature of the water, on the season at which they have been hatched, &c. Their usual size is about 12 in., but in some particularly suitable localities they grow to a length of 15 in., and instances of specimens measuring 17 in. are on record. In the Baltic, where the water is gradually losing its saline constituents, thus becoming less adapted for the development of marine species, the herring continues to exist in large numbers, but as a dwarfed form, not growing either to the size or to the condition of the North-Sea herring. The herring of the American side of the Atlantic is specifically identical with that of Europe. A second species (_Clupea leachii_) has been supposed to exist on the British coast; but it comprises only individuals of a smaller size, the produce of an early or late spawn. Also the so-called "white-bait" is not a distinct species, but consists chiefly of the fry or the young of herrings and sprats, and is obtained "in perfection" at localities where these small fishes find an abundance of food, as in the estuary of the Thames.

Several excellent accounts of the herring have been published, as by
Valenciennes in the 20th vol. of the _Histoire naturelle des
poissons_, and more especially by Mr J. M. Mitchell, _The Herring, its
Natural History and National Importance_ (Edinburgh, 1864). Recent
investigations are described in the Reports of the Fishery _Board for
Scotland_, and in the reports of the German _Kommission zur
Untersuchung der Deutschen Meere_ (published at Kiel). (J. T. C.)

HERRING-BONE, a term in architecture applied to alternate courses of bricks or stone, which are laid diagonally with binding courses above and below: this is said to give a better bond to the wall, especially when the stone employed is stratified, such as Stonefield stone, and too thin to be laid in horizontal courses. Although it is only occasionally found in modern buildings, it was a type of construction constantly employed in Roman, Byzantine and Romanesque work, and in the latter is regarded as a test of very early date. It is frequently found in the Byzantine walls in Asia Minor, and in Byzantine churches was employed decoratively to give variety to the wall surface. Sometimes the diagonal courses are reversed one above the other. Examples in France exist in the churches at Querqueville in Normandy and St Christophe at Suevres (Loir et Cher), both dating from the 10th century, and in England herring-bone masonry is found in the walls of castles, such as at Guildford, Colchester and Tamworth. The term is also applied to the paving of stable yards with bricks laid flat diagonally and alternating so that the head of one brick butts against the side of another; and the effect is more pleasing than when laid in parallel courses.

HERRINGS, BATTLE OF THE, the name applied to the action of Rouvray, fought in 1429 between the French (and Scots) and the English, who, under Sir John Falstolfe (or Falstaff), were convoying Lenten provisions, chiefly herrings, to the besiegers of Orleans. (See ORLEANS and HUNDRED YEARS' WAR.)

HERRNHUT, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Saxony, 18 m. S.E. of Bautzen, and situated on the Lobau-Zittau railway. Pop. 1200. It is chiefly known as the principal seat of the Moravian or Bohemian brotherhood, the members of which are called _Herrnhuter_. A colony of these people, fleeing from persecution in Moravia, settled at Herrnhut in 1722 on a site presented by Count Zinzendorf. The buildings of the society include a church, a school and houses for the brethren, the sisters and the widowed of both sexes, while it possesses an ethnographical museum and other collections of interest. The town is remarkable for its ordered, regular life and its scrupulous cleanliness. Linen, paper (to varieties of which Herrnhut gives its name), tobacco and various minor articles are manufactured. The Hutberg, at the foot of which the town lies, commands a pleasant view. Berthelsdorf, a village about a mile distant, has been the seat of the directorate of the community since about 1789.

HERSCHEL, CAROLINE LUCRETIA (1750-1848), English astronomer, sister of Sir William Herschel, the eighth child and fourth daughter of her parents, was born at Hanover on the 16th of March 1750. On account of the prejudices of her mother, who did not desire her to know more than was necessary for being useful in the family, she received, in youth only the first elements of education. After the death of her father in 1767 she obtained permission to learn millinery and dressmaking with a view to earning her bread, but continued to assist her mother in the management of the household until the autumn of 1772, when she joined her brother William, who had established himself as a teacher of music at Bath. At once she became a valuable co-operator with him both in his professional duties and in the astronomical researches to which he had already begun to devote all his spare time. She was the principal singer at his oratorio concerts, and acquired such a reputation as a vocalist that she was offered an engagement for the Birmingham festival, which, however, she declined. When her brother accepted the office of astronomer to George III., she became his constant assistant in his observations, and also executed the laborious calculations which were connected with them. For these services she received from the king in 1787 a salary of L50 a year. Her chief amusement during her leisure hours was sweeping the heavens with a small Newtonian telescope. By this means she detected in 1783 three remarkable nebulae, and during the eleven years 1786-1797 eight comets, five of them with unquestioned priority. In 1797 she presented to the Royal Society an Index to Flamsteed's observations, together with a catalogue of 561 stars accidentally omitted from the "British Catalogue," and a list of the errata in that publication. Though she returned to Hanover in 1822 she did not abandon her astronomical studies, and in 1828 she completed the reduction, to January 1800, of 2500 nebulae discovered by her brother. In 1828 the Astronomical Society, to mark their sense of the benefits conferred on science by such a series of laborious exertions, unanimously resolved to present her with their gold medal, and in 1835 elected her an honorary member of the society. In 1846 she received a gold medal from the king of Prussia. She died on the 9th of January 1848.

See _The Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel_, by Mrs John
Herschel (1876).

HERSCHEL, SIR FREDERICK WILLIAM (1738-1822), generally known as Sir William Herschel, English astronomer, was born at Hanover on the 15th of November 1738. His father was a musician employed as hautboy player in the Hanoverian guard. The family had quitted Moravia for Saxony in the early part of the 17th century on account of religious troubles, they themselves being Protestants. Herschel's earlier education was necessarily of a very limited character, chiefly owing to the warlike commotions of his country; but being at all times an indomitable student, he, by his own exertions, more than repaired this deficiency. He became a very skilful musician, both theoretical and practical; while his attainments as a self-taught mathematician were fully adequate to the prosecution of those branches of astronomy which he so eminently advanced and adorned. Whatever he did he did methodically and thoroughly; and in this methodical thoroughness lay the secret of what Arago very properly termed his astonishing scientific success.

In 1752, at the age of fourteen, he joined the band of the Hanoverian guard, and with his detachment visited England in 1755, accompanied by his father and eldest brother; in the following year he returned to his native country; but the hardships of campaigning during the Seven Years' War imperilling his health, his parents privately removed him from the regiment, and on the 26th of July 1757 despatched him to England. There, as might have been expected, the earlier part of his career was attended with formidable difficulties and much privation. We find him engaged in several towns in the north of England as organist and teacher of music, which were not lucrative occupations. But the tide of his fortunes began to flow when he obtained in 1766 the appointment of organist to the Octagon chapel in Bath, at that time the resort of the wealth and fashion of the city.