Chapter V: CHLODWIG KARL VICTOR, prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfurst (3)

HOLLAND, SIR HENRY, BART. (1788-1873), English physician and author, was born at Knutsford, Cheshire, on the 27th of October 1788. His maternal grandmother was the sister of Josiah Wedgwood, whose grandson was Charles Darwin; and his paternal aunt was the mother of Mrs Gaskell. After spending some years at a private school at Knutsford, he was sent to a school at Newcastle-on-Tyne, whence after four years he was transferred to Dr J. P. Estlin's school near Bristol. There he at once took the position of head boy, in succession to John Cam Hobhouse, afterwards Lord Broughton, an honour which required to be maintained by physical prowess. On leaving school he became articled clerk to a mercantile firm in Liverpool, but, as the privilege was reserved to him of passing two sessions at Glasgow university, he at the close of his second session sought relief from his articles, and in 1806 began the study of medicine in the university of Edinburgh, where he graduated in 1811. After several years spent in foreign travel, he began practice in 1816 as a physician in London--according to his own statement, "with a fair augury of success speedily and completely fulfilled." This "success," he adds, "was materially aided by visits for four successive years to Spa, at the close of that which is called the London season." It must also, however, be in a great degree attributed to his happy temperament and his gifts as a conversationalist--qualities the influence of which, in the majority of cases belonging to his class of practice, is often of more importance than direct medical treatment. In 1816 he was elected F.R.S., and in 1828 F.R.C.S. He became physician in ordinary to Prince Albert in 1840, and was appointed in 1852 physician in ordinary to the queen. In April 1853 he was created a baronet. He was also a D.C.L. of Oxford and a member of the principal learned societies of Europe. He was twice married, his second wife being a daughter of Sydney Smith, a lady of considerable literary talent, who published a biography of her father. Sir Henry Holland at an early period of his practice resolved to devote to his professional duties no more of his time than was necessary to secure an income of L5000 a year, and also to spend two months of every year solely in foreign travel. By the former resolution he secured leisure for a wide acquaintance with general literature, and for a more than superficial cultivation of several branches of science; and the latter enabled him, besides visiting, "and most of them repeatedly, every country of Europe," to make extensive tours in the other three continents, journeying often to places little frequented by European travellers. As, moreover, he procured an introduction to nearly all the eminent personages in his line of travel, and knew many of them in his capacity of physician, his acquaintance with "men and cities" was of a species without a parallel. The _London Medical Record_, in noticing his death, which took place on his eighty-fifth birthday, October 27, 1873, remarked that it "had occurred under circumstances highly characteristic of his remarkable career." On his return from a journey in Russia he was present, on Friday, October 24th, at the trial of Marshal Bazaine in Paris, dining with some of the judges in the evening. He reached London on the Saturday, took ill the following day, and died quietly on the Monday afternoon.

Sir Henry Holland was the author of _General View of the Agriculture
of Cheshire_ (1807); _Travels in the Ionian Isles, Albania, Thessaly
and Greece_ (1812-1813, 2nd ed., 1819); _Medical Notes and
Reflections_ (1839); _Chapters on Mental Physiology_ (1852); _Essays
on Scientific and other Subjects contributed to the Edinburgh and
Quarterly Reviews_ (1862); and _Recollections of Past Life_ (1872).

HOLLAND, HENRY FOX, 1ST BARON (1705-1774), English statesman, second son of Sir Stephen Fox, was born on the 28th of September 1705. Inheriting a large share of the riches which his father had accumulated, he squandered it soon after attaining his majority, and went to the Continent to escape from his creditors. There he made the acquaintance of a countrywoman of fortune, who became his patroness and was so lavish with her purse that, after several years' absence, he was in a position to return home and, in 1735, to enter parliament as member for Hindon in Wiltshire. He became the favourite pupil and devoted supporter of Sir Robert Walpole, achieving unequalled and unenviable proficiency in the worst political arts of his master and model. As a speaker he was fluent and self-possessed, imperturbable under attack, audacious in exposition or retort, and able to hold his own against Pitt himself. Thus he made himself a power in the House of Commons and an indispensable member of several administrations. He was surveyor-general of works from 1737 to 1742, was member for Windsor from 1741 to 1761; lord of the treasury in 1743, secretary at war and member of the privy council in 1746, and in 1755 became leader of the House of Commons, secretary of state and a member of the cabinet under the duke of Newcastle. In 1757, in the rearrangements of the government, Fox was ultimately excluded from the cabinet, and given the post of paymaster of the forces. During the war, which Pitt conducted with extraordinary vigour, and in which the nation was intoxicated with glory, Fox devoted himself mainly to accumulating a vast fortune. In 1762 he again accepted the leadership of the House, with a seat in the cabinet, under the earl of Bute, and exercised his skill in cajolery and corruption to induce the House of Commons to approve of the treaty of Paris of 1763; as a recompense, he was raised to the House of Lords with the title of Baron Holland of Foxley, Wiltshire, on the 16th of April 1763. In 1765 he was forced to resign the paymaster generalship, and four years later a petition of the livery of the city of London against the ministers referred to him as "the public defaulter of unaccounted millions." The proceedings brought against him in the court of exchequer were stayed by a royal warrant; and in a statement published by him he proved that in the delays in making up the accounts of his office he had transgressed neither the law nor the custom of the time. From the interest on the outstanding balances he had, none the less, amassed a princely fortune. He strove, but in vain, to obtain promotion to the dignity of an earl, a dignity upon which he had set his heart, and he died at Holland House, Kensington, on the 1st of July 1774, a sorely disappointed man, with a reputation for cunning and unscrupulousness which cannot easily be matched, and with an unpopularity which justifies the conclusion that he was the most thoroughly hated statesman of his day. Lord Holland married in 1744 Lady Georgina Caroline Lennox, daughter of the duke of Richmond, who was created Baroness Holland, of Holland, Lincolnshire, in 1762. There were four sons of the marriage: Stephen, 2nd Lord Holland (d. 1774); Henry (d. an infant); Charles James (the celebrated statesman); and Henry Edward (1755-1811), soldier and diplomatist.

See Walpole's and other memoirs of the time, also the article FOX,
CHARLES JAMES.

HOLLAND, HENRY RICH, 1ST EARL OF (1590-1649), 2nd son of Robert, 1st earl of Warwick, and of Penelope, Sir Philip Sidney's "Stella," daughter of Walter Devereux, 1st earl of Essex, was baptized on the 19th of August 1590, educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, knighted on the 3rd of June 1610, and returned to parliament for Leicester in 1610 and 1614. In 1610 he was present at the siege of Juliers. Favours were showered upon him by James I. He was made gentleman of the bedchamber to Charles, prince of Wales, and captain of the yeomen of the guard; and on the 8th of March 1623 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Kensington. In 1624 he was sent to Paris to negotiate the marriage treaty between Charles and Henrietta Maria. On the 15th of September he was created earl of Holland, and in 1625 was sent on two further missions, first to Paris to arrange a treaty between Louis XIII. and the Huguenots, and later to the Netherlands in company with Buckingham. In October 1627 he was given command of the troops sent to reinforce Buckingham at Rhe, but through delay in starting only met the defeated troops on their return. He succeeded Buckingham as chancellor of Cambridge University; was master of the horse in 1628, and was appointed constable of Windsor and high steward to the queen in 1629. He interested himself, like his elder brother, Lord Warwick, in the plantations; and was the first governor of the Providence company in 1630, and one of the proprietors of Newfoundland in 1637. In 1631 he was made chief-justice-in-eyre south of the Trent, and in this capacity was responsible for the unpopular revival of the obsolete forest laws. He intrigued at court against Portland and against Strafford, who expressed for him the greatest contempt. In 1636 he was disappointed at not obtaining the great office of lord high admiral, but was made instead groom of the stole. In 1639 he was appointed general of the horse, and drew ridicule upon himself by the fiasco at Kelso. In the second war against the Scots he was superseded in favour of Conway. He opposed the dissolution of the Short Parliament, joined the peers who supported the parliamentary cause, and gave evidence against Strafford. He was, however, won back to the king's side by the queen, and on the 16th of April 1641 made captain general north of the Trent. Dissatisfied, however, with Charles's refusal to grant him the nomination of a new baron, he again abandoned him, refused the summons to York, and was deprived of his office as groom of the stole at the instance of the queen, who greatly resented his ingratitude. He was chosen by the parliament in March and July 1642 to communicate its votes to Charles, who received him, much to his indignation, with studied coldness. He was appointed one of the committee of safety in July; made zealous speeches on behalf of the parliamentary cause to the London citizens; and joined Essex's army at Twickenham, where, it is said, he persuaded him to avoid a battle. In 1643 he appeared as a peacemaker, and after failing to bring over Essex, he returned to the king. His reception, however, was not a cordial one, and he was not reinstated in his office of groom of the stole. After, therefore, accompanying the king to Gloucester and taking part in the first battle of Newbury, he once more returned to the parliament, declaring that the court was too much bent on continuing hostilities, and the influence of the "papists" too strong for his patriotism. He was restored to his estates, but the Commons obliged the Lords to exclude him from the upper house, and his petition in 1645 for compensation for his losses and for a pension was refused. His hopes being in this quarter also disappointed, he once again renewed his allegiance to the king's cause; and after endeavouring to promote the negotiations for peace in 1645 and 1647 he took up arms in the second Civil War, received a commission as general, and put himself at the head of 600 men at Kingston. He was defeated on the 7th of July 1647, captured at St Neots shortly afterwards, and imprisoned at Warwick Castle. He was tried before a "high court of justice" on the 3rd of February 1649, and in spite of his plea that he had received quarter was sentenced to death. He was executed together with Hamilton and Capel on the 9th of March. Clarendon styles him "a very well-bred man and a fine gentleman in good times."[1] He was evidently a man of shallow character, devoid of ability, raised far above his merits and hopelessly unfit for the great times in which he lived. Lord Holland married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Sir Walter Cope of Kensington, and, besides several daughters, had four sons, of whom the eldest, Robert, succeeded him as 2nd earl of Holland, and inherited the earldom of Warwick in 1673.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] _Hist. of the Rebellion_, xi. 263.

HOLLAND, HENRY RICHARD VASSALL FOX, 3RD BARON (1773-1840), was the son of Stephen Fox, 2nd Baron Holland, his mother, Lady Mary Fitzpatrick, being the daughter of the earl of Upper Ossory. He was born at Winterslow House in Wiltshire, on the 21st of November 1773, and his father died in the following year. He was educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he became the friend of Canning, of Hookham Frere, and of other wits of the time. Lord Holland did not take the same political side as his friends in the conflicts of the revolutionary epoch. He was from his boyhood deeply attached to his uncle, C. J. Fox, and remained steadily loyal to the Whig party. In 1791 he visited Paris and became acquainted with Lafayette and Talleyrand, and in 1793 he again went abroad to travel in France and Italy. At Florence he met with Lady Webster, wife of Sir Godfrey Webster, Bart., who left her husband for him. She was by birth Elizabeth Vassall (1770-1845), daughter of Richard Vassall, a planter in Jamaica. A son was born of their irregular union, a Charles Richard Fox (1796-1873), who after some service in the navy entered the Grenadiers, and was known in later life as a collector of Greek coins. His collection was bought for the royal museum of Berlin when he died in 1873. He married Lady Mary Fitzclarence, a daughter of William IV. by Mrs Jordan. Sir Godfrey Webster having obtained a divorce, Lord Holland was enabled to marry on the 6th of July 1797. He had taken his seat in the House of Lords on the 5th of October 1796. During several years he may be said almost to have constituted the Whig party in the Upper House. His protests against the measures of the Tory ministers were collected and published, as the _Opinions of Lord Holland_ (1841), by Dr Moylan of Lincoln's Inn. In 1800 he was authorized to take the name of Vassall, and after 1807 he signed himself Vassall Holland, though the name was no part of his title. In 1800 Lord and Lady Holland went abroad and remained in France and Spain till 1805, visiting Paris during the Peace of Amiens, and being well received by Napoleon. Lady Holland always professed a profound admiration of Napoleon, of which she made a theatrical display after his fall, and he left her a gold snuff-box by his will. In public life Lord Holland took a share proportionate to his birth and opportunities. He was appointed to negotiate with the American envoys, Monroe and W. Pinkney, was admitted to the privy council on the 27th of August 1806, and on the 15th of October entered the cabinet "of all the talents" as lord privy seal, retiring with the rest of his colleagues in March 1807. He led the opposition to the Regency bill in 1811, and he attacked the "orders in council" and other strong measures of the government taken to counteract Napoleon's Berlin decrees. He was in fact in politics a consistent Whig, and in that character he denounced the treaty of 1813 with Sweden which bound England to consent to the forcible union of Norway, and he resisted the bill of 1816 for confining Napoleon in St Helena. His loyalty as a Whig secured recognition when his party triumphed in the struggle for parliamentary reform, by his appointment as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster in the cabinet of Lord Grey and Lord Melbourne, and he was still in office when he died on the 22nd of October 1840. Lord Holland is notable, not for his somewhat insignificant political career, but as a patron of literature, as a writer on his own account, and because his house was the centre and the headquarters of the Whig political and literary world of the time; and Lady Holland (who died on the 16th of November 1845) succeeded in taking the sort of place in London which had been filled in Paris during the 18th century by the society ladies who kept "salons." Lord Holland's _Foreign Reminiscences_ (1850) contain much amusing gossip from the Revolutionary and Napoleonic era. His _Memoirs of the Whig Party_ (1852) is an important contemporary authority. His small work on _Lope de Vega_ (1806) is still of some value. Holland had two legitimate sons, Stephen, who died in 1800, and Henry Edward, who became 4th Lord Holland. When this peer died in December 1859 the title became extinct.

See _The Journal of Elizabeth, Lady Holland_, edited by the earl of
Ilchester (1908); and Lloyd Sanders, _The Holland House Circle_
(1908).

HOLLAND, JOSIAH GILBERT (1819-1881), American author and editor, was born in Belchertown, Massachusetts, on the 24th of July 1819. He graduated in 1843 at the Berkshire Medical College (no longer in existence) at Pittsfield, Mass., and after practising medicine in 1844-1847, and making an unsuccessful attempt, with Charles Robinson (1818-1894), later first governor of the state of Kansas, to establish a hospital for women, he taught for a brief period in Richmond, Virginia, and in 1848 was superintendent of schools in Vicksburg, Mississippi. In 1849 he became assistant editor under Samuel Bowles, and three years later one of the owners, of the Springfield (Massachusetts) _Republican_, with which he retained his connexion until 1867. He then travelled for some time in Europe, and in 1870 removed to New York, where he helped to establish and became editor and one-third owner of _Scribner's Monthly_ (the title of which was changed in 1881 to _The Century_), which absorbed the periodicals _Hours at Home_, _Putnam's Magazine_ and the _Riverside Magazine_. He remained editor of this magazine until his death. Dr Holland's books long enjoyed a wide popularity. The earlier ones were published over the pseudonym "Timothy Titcomb." His writings fall into four classes: history and biography, represented by a _History of Western Massachusetts_ (1855), and a _Life of Abraham Lincoln_ (1865); fiction, of which _Miss Gilbert's Career_ (1860) and _The Story of Sevenoaks_ (1875) remain faithful pictures of village life in eastern United States; poetry, of which _Bitter-Sweet_ (1858) and _Kathrina, Her Life and Mine_ (1867) were widely read; and a series of homely essays on the art of living, of which the most characteristic were _Letters to Young People, Single and Married_ (1858), _Gold Foil, hammered from Popular Proverbs_ (1859), _Letters to the Jonses_ (1863), and _Every-Day Topics_ (2 series, 1876 and 1882). While a resident of New York, where he died on the 12th of October 1881, he identified himself with measures for good government and school reform, and in 1872 became a member and for a short time in 1873 was president of the Board of Education.

See Mrs H. M. Plunkett's _Josiah Gilbert Holland_ (New York, 1894).

HOLLAND, PHILEMON (1552-1637), English scholar, "the translator-general in his age," was born at Chelmsford in Essex. He was the son of a clergyman, John Holland, who had been obliged to take refuge in Germany and Denmark with Miles Coverdale during the Marian persecution. Having become a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and taken the degree of M.A., he was incorporated at Oxford (July 11th, 1585). Having subsequently studied medicine, about 1595 he settled as a doctor in Coventry, but chiefly occupied himself with translations. In 1628 he was appointed headmaster of the free school, but, owing probably to advancing age, he held office for only eleven months. His latter days were oppressed by poverty, partly relieved by the generosity of the common council of Coventry, which in 1632 assigned him L3, 6s. 8d. for three years, "if he should live so long." He died on the 9th of February, 1636-1637. His fame is due solely to his translations, which included Livy, Pliny's _Natural History_, Plutarch's _Morals_, Suetonius, Ammianus Marcellinus and Xenophon's _Cyropaedia_. He published also an English version, with additions, of Camden's _Britannia_. His Latin translation of Brice Bauderon's _Pharmacopaea_ and his _Regimen sanitatis Salerni_ were published after his death by his son, HENRY HOLLAND (1583-?1650), who became a London bookseller, and is known to bibliographers for his _Bazili[omega]logia; a Booke of Kings, beeing the true and liuely Effigies of all our English Kings from the Conquest_ (1618), and his _Her[omega]ologia Anglica_ (1620).

HOLLAND, RICHARD, or RICHARD DE HOLANDE (fl. 1450), Scottish writer, author of the _Buke of the Howlat_, was secretary or chaplain to the earl of Moray (1450) and rector of Halkirk, near Thurso. He was afterwards rector of Abbreochy, Loch Ness, and later held a chantry in the cathedral of Norway. He was an ardent partisan of the Douglases, and on their overthrow retired to Orkney and later to Shetland. He was employed by Edward IV. in his attempt to rouse the Western Isles through Douglas agency, and in 1482 was excluded from the general pardon granted by James III. to those who would renounce their fealty to the Douglases.

The poem, entitled the _Buke of the Howlat_, written about 1450, shows his devotion to the house of Douglas:--

"On ilk beugh till embrace
Writtin in a bill was
O Dowglass, O Dowglass
Tender and trewe!"

(ii. 400-403).

and is dedicated to the wife of a Douglas--

"Thus for ane Dow of Dunbar drew I this Dyte,
Dowit with ane Dowglass, and boith war thei dowis."

but all theories of its being a political allegory in favour of that house may be discarded. Sir Walter Scott's judgment that the _Buke_ is "a poetical apologue ... without any view whatever to local or natural politics" is certainly the most reasonable. The poem, which extends to 1001 lines written in the irregular alliterative rhymed stanza, is a bird-allegory, of the type familiar in the _Parlement of Foules_. It has the incidental interest of showing (especially in stanzas 62 and 63) the antipathy of the "Inglis-speaking Scot" to the "Scots-speaking Gael" of the west, as is also shown in Dunbar's _Flyting with Kennedy_.

The text of the poem is preserved in the Asloan and Bannatyne MSS.
Fragments of an early 16th century black-letter edition, discovered by
D. Laing, are reproduced in the _Adversaria_ of the Bannatyne Club.
The poem has been frequently reprinted, by Pinkerton, in his _Scottish
Poems_ (1792); by D. Laing (Bannatyne Club 1823; reprinted in "New
Club" series, Paisley, 1882); by the Hunterian Club in their edition
of the Bannatyne MS., and by A. Diebler (Chemnitz, 1893). The latest
edition is that by F. J. Amours in _Scottish Alliterative Poems_
(Scottish Text Society, 1897), pp. 47-81. (See also Introduction pp.
xx.-xxxiv.)

HOLLAND, officially the kingdom of the Netherlands (_Koningrijk der Nederlanden_), a maritime country in the north-west of Europe. The name Holland is that of the former countship, which forms part of the political, as well as the geographical centre of the kingdom (see the next article).

_Topography._--Holland is bounded on the E. by Germany, on the S. by Belgium, on the W. and N. by the North Sea, and at the N.E. corner by the Dollart. From Stevensweert southward to the extreme corner of Limburg the boundary line is formed by the river Maas or Meuse.[1] On the east a natural geographical boundary was formed by the long line of marshy fens extending along the borders of Overysel, Drente and Groningen. The kingdom extends from 53 deg. 32' 21" (Groningen Cape on Rottum Island) to 50 deg. 45' 49" N. (Mesch in the province of Limburg), and from 3 deg. 23' 27" (Sluis in the province of Zeeland) to 7 deg. 12' 20" E. (Langakkerschans in the province of Groningen). The greatest length from north to south, viz. that from Rottum Island to Eisden near Maastricht is 164 m., and the greatest breadth from south-west to north-east, or from Zwin near Sluis to Losser in Overysel, 144 m. The area is subject to perpetual variation owing, on the one hand, to the erosion of the coasts, and, on the other, to reclamation of land by means of endiking and drainage operations. In 1889 the total area was calculated at 12,558 sq. m., and, including the Zuider Zee and the Wadden (2050 sq. m.) and the Dutch portion of the Dollart (23 sq. m.), 14,613 sq. m. In no country in Europe has the character of the territory exercised so great an influence on the inhabitants as in the Netherlands; and, on the other hand, no people has so extensively modified the condition of its territory as the Dutch. The greatest importance attaches therefore to the physical conformation of the country.

Coast.

The coast-line extends in a double curve from south-west to
north-east, and is formed by a row of sand dunes, 171 m. in length,
fringed by a broad sandy beach descending very gradually into the sea.
In the north and south, however, this line is broken by the inlets of
the sea which form the Frisian and the South Holland and Zeeland
islands respectively; but the dunes themselves are found continued
along the seaward side of these islands, thus indicating the original
continuity of the coast-line. The breadth of the dunes naturally
varies greatly, the maximum width of about 4375 yds. being found at
Schoorl, north-west of Alkmaar. The average height of the individual
dune-tops is not above 33 ft., but attains a maximum of 197 ft. at the
High Blinkert, near Haarlem. The steepness of the dunes on the side
towards the sea is caused by the continual erosion, probably
traceable, in part at least, to the channel current (which at mean
tide has a velocity of 14 or 15 in. per second), and to the strong
west or north-west winds which carry off large quantities of material.
This alteration of coast-line appears at Loosduinen, where the moor or
fenland formerly developed behind the dunes now crops out on the shore
amid the sand, being pressed to the compactness of lignite by the
weight of the sand drifted over it. Again, the remains of the Roman
camp Brittenburg or Huis te Britten, which originally lay within the
dunes and, after being covered by them, emerged again in 1520, were,
in 1694, 1600 paces out to sea, opposite Katwijk; while, besides
Katwijk itself, several other villages of the west coast, as Domburg,
Scheveningen, Egmond, have been removed further inland. The tendency
of the dunes to drift off on the landward side is prevented by the
planting of bent-grass (_Arundo arenaria_), whose long roots serve to
bind the sand together. It must be further remarked that both the
"dune-pans," or depressions, which are naturally marshy through their
defective drainage, and the _geest_ grounds--that is, the grounds
along the foot of the downs--have been in various places either
planted with wood or turned into arable and pasture land; while the
numerous springs at the base of the dunes are of the utmost value to
the great cities situated on the marshy soil inland, the example set
by Amsterdam in 1853 in supplying itself with this water having been
readily followed by Leiden, the Hague, Flushing, &c.

As already remarked, the coast-line of Holland breaks up into a series
of islands at its northern and southern extremities. The principal
sea-inlets in the north are the Texel Gat or Marsdiep and the Vlie,
which lead past the chain of the Frisian Islands into the large inland
sea or gulf called the Zuider Zee, and the Wadden or "shallows," which
extend along the shores of Friesland and Groningen as far as the
Dollart and the mouth of the Ems. The inland sea-board thus formed
consists of low coasts of sea-clay protected by dikes, and of some
high diluvial strata which rise far enough above the level of the sea
to make dikes unnecessary, as in the case of the Gooi hills between
Naarden and the Eem, the Veluwe hills between Nykerk and Elburg, and
the steep cliffs of the Gaasterland between Oude Mirdum and Stavoren.
The Dollart was formed in 1277 by the inundation of the Ems basin,
more than thirty villages being destroyed at once. The Zuider Zee and
the bay in the Frisian coast known as the Lauwers Zee also gradually
came into existence in the 13th century. The extensive sea-arms
forming the South Holland and Zeeland archipelago are the Hont or West
Scheldt, the East Scheldt, the Grevelingen (communicating with Krammer
and the Volkerak) and the Haringvliet, which after being joined by the
Volkerak is known as the Hollandsch Diep. These inlets were formerly
of much greater extent than now, but are gradually closing up owing to
the accumulation of mud deposits, and no longer have the same freedom
of communication with one another. At the head of the Hollandsch Diep
is the celebrated railway bridge of the Moerdyk (1868-1871) 1607 yds.
in length; and above this bridge lies the Biesbosch ("reed forest"), a
group of marshy islands formed by a disastrous inundation in 1421,
when seventy-two villages and upwards of 100,000 lives were destroyed.

Relief and levels.

Besides the dunes the only hilly regions of Holland are the southern
half of the province of Limburg, the neighbourhood of Nijmwegen, the
hills of Utrecht, including the Gooi hills, the Veluwe region in
Gelderland, the isolated hills in the middle and east of Overysel and
the Hondsrug range in Drente. The remainder of the country is flat,
and shows a regular downward slope from south-east to north-west, in
which direction the rivers mainly flow. The elevation of the surface
of the country ranges between the extreme height of 1057 ft. near
Vaals in the farthest corner of Limburg, and 16-20 ft. below the
Amsterdam zero[2] in some of the drained lands in the western half of
the country. In fact, one quarter of the whole kingdom, consisting of
the provinces of North and South Holland, the western portion of
Utrecht as far as the Vaart Rhine, Zeeland, except the southern part
of Zeeland-Flanders, and the north-west part of North Brabant, lies
below the Amsterdam zero; and altogether 38% of the country, or all
that part lying west of a line drawn through Groningen, Utrecht and
Antwerp, lies within one metre above the Amsterdam zero and would be
submerged if the sea broke down the barrier of dunes and dikes. This
difference between the eastern and western divisions of Holland has
its counterpart in the landscape and the nature of the soil. The
western division consists of low fen or clay soil and presents a
monotonous expanse of rich meadow-land, carefully drained in regular
lines of canals bordered by stunted willows, and dotted over with
windmills, the sails of canal craft and the clumps of elm and poplar
which surround each isolated farm-house. The landscape of the eastern
division is considered less typical. Here the soil consists mainly of
sand and gravel, and the prevailing scenery is formed of waste heaths
and patches of wood, while here and there fertile meadows extend along
the banks of the streams, and the land is laid out in the highly
regular manner characteristic of fen reclamation (see DRENTE).

Rivers.

The entire drainage of Holland is into the North Sea. The three
principal rivers are the Rhine, the Maas (Meuse) and the Scheldt
(Schelde), and all three have their origin outside the country, whilst
the Scheldt has its mouth only in Holland, giving its name to the two
broad inlets of the sea which bound the Zeeland islands. The Rhine in
its course through Holland is merely the parent stream of several
important branches, splitting up into Rhine and Waal, Rhine and Ysel,
Crooked Rhine and Lek (which takes two-thirds of the waters), and at
Utrecht into Old Rhine and Vecht, finally reaching the sea through the
sluices at Katwijk as little more than a drainage canal. The Ysel and
the Vecht flow to the Zuider Zee; the other branches to the North Sea.
The Maas, whose course is almost parallel to that of the Rhine,
follows in a wide curve the general slope of the country, receiving
the Roer, the Mark and the Aa. Towards its mouth its waters find their
way into all the channels intersecting the South Holland archipelago.
The main stream joining the Waal at Gorinchem flows on to Dordrecht as
the Merwede, and is continued thence to the sea by the Old Maas, the
North, and the New Maas, the New Maas being formed by the junction of
the Lek and the North. From Gorinchem the New Merwede (constructed in
the second half of the 19th century) extends between dykes through the
marshes of the Biesbosch to the Hollandsch Diep. These great rivers
render very important service as waterways. The mean velocity of their
flow seldom exceeds 4.9 ft., but rises to 6.4 ft. when the river is
high. In the lower reaches of the streams the velocity and slope are
of course affected by the tides. In the Waal ordinary high water is
perceptible as far up as Zalt Bommel in Gelderland, in the Lek the
maximum limits or ordinary and spring tides are at Vianen and
Kuilenburg respectively, in the Ysel above the Katerveer at the
junction of the Willemsvaart and past Wyhe midway between Zwolle and
Deventer; and in the Maas near Heusden and at Well in Limburg. Into
the Zuider Zee there also flow the Kuinder, the Zwarte Water, with its
tributary the Vecht, and the Eem. The total length of navigable
channels is about 1150 m., but sand banks and shallows not
infrequently impede the shipping traffic at low water during the
summer. The smaller streams are often of great importance. Except
where they rise in the fens they call into life a strip of fertile
grassland in the midst of the barren sand, and are responsible for the
existence of many villages along their banks. Following the example of
the great Kampen irrigation canal in Belgium, artificial irrigation is
also practised by means of some of the smaller streams, especially in
North Brabant, Drente and Overysel, and in the absence of streams,
canals and sluices are sometimes specially constructed to perform the
same service. The low-lying spaces at the confluences of the rivers,
being readily laid under water, have been not infrequently chosen as
sites for fortresses. As a matter of course, the streams are also
turned to account in connexion with the canal system--the Dommel,
Berkel, Vecht, Regge, Holland Ysel, Gouwe, Rotte, Schie, Spaarne,
Zaan, Amstel, Dieze, Amer, Mark, Zwarte Water, Kuinder and the
numerous Aas in Drente and Groningen being the most important in this
respect.

Lakes.

It is unnecessary to mention the names of the numerous marshy lakes
which exist, especially in Friesland and Groningen, and are connected
with rivers or streamlets. Those of Friesland are of note for the
abundance of their fish and their beauty of situation, on which last
account the Uddelermeer in Gelderland is also celebrated. The Rockanje
Lake near Brielle is remarkable for the strong salty solution which
covers even the growing reeds with a hard crust. Many of the lakes
are nothing more than deep pits or marshes from which the peat has
been extracted.

_Dikes._--The circumstance that so much of Holland is below the sea-level necessarily exercises a very important influence on the drainage, the climate and the sanitary conditions of the country, as well as on its defence by means of inundation. The endiking of low lands against the sea which had been quietly proceeding during the first eleven centuries of the Christian era, received a fresh impetus in the 12th and 13th centuries from the fact that the level of the sea then became higher in relation to that of the land. This fact is illustrated by the broadening of river mouths and estuaries at this time, and the beginning of the formation of the Zuider Zee. A new feature in diking was the construction of dams or sluices across the mouths of rivers, sometimes with important consequences for the villages situated on the spot. Thus the dam on the Amstel (1257) was the origin of Amsterdam, and the dam on the Ye gave rise to Edam. But Holland's chief protection against inundation is its long line of sand dunes, in which only two real breaches have been effected during the centuries of erosion. These are represented by the famous sea dikes called the Westkapelle dike and the Hondsbossche Zeewering, or sea-defence, which were begun respectively in the first and second halves of the 15th century. The first extends for a distance of over 4000 yds. between the villages of Westkapelle and Domburg in the island of Walcheren; the second is about 4900 yds. long, and extends from Kamperduin to near Petten, whence it is continued for another 1100 yds. by the Pettemer dike. These two sea dikes were reconstructed by the state at great expense between the year 1860 and 1884, having consisted before that time of little more than a protected sand dike. The earthen dikes are protected by stone-slopes and by piles, and at the more dangerous points also by _zinkstukken_ (sinking pieces), artificial structures of brushwood laden with stones, and measuring some 400 yds. in circuit, by means of which the current is to some extent turned aside. The Westkapelle dike, 12,468 ft. long, has a seaward slope of 300 ft., and is protected by rows of piles and basalt blocks. On its ridge, 39 ft. broad, there is not only a roadway but a service railway. The cost of its upkeep is more than L6000 a year, and of the Hondsbossche Zeewering L2000 a year. When it is remembered that the woodwork is infested by the pile worm (_Teredo navalis_), the ravages of which were discovered in 1731, the labour and expense incurred in the construction and maintenance of the sea dikes now existing may be imagined. In other parts of the coast the dunes, though not pierced through, have become so wasted by erosion as to require artificial strengthening. This is afforded, either by means of a so-called sleeping dike (_slaperdyk_) behind the weak spot, as, for instance, between Kadzand and Breskens in Zeeland-Flanders, and again between 's Gravenzande and Loosduinen; or by means of piers or breakwaters (_hoofden_, heads) projecting at intervals into the sea and composed of piles, or brushwood and stones. The first of such breakwaters was that constructed in 1857 at the north end of the island of Goeree, and extends over 100 yds. into the sea at low water. Similar constructions are to be found on the seaward side of the islands of Walcheren, Schouwen and Voorne, and between 's Gravenzande and Scheveningen, and Katwijk and Noordwijk. Owing to the obstruction which they offer to drifting sands, artificial dunes are in course of time formed about them, and in this way they become at once more effective and less costly to maintain. The firm and regular dunes which now run from Petten to Kallantsoog (formerly an island), and thence northwards to Huisduinen, were thus formed about the Zyper (1617) and Koegras (1610) dikes respectively. From Huisduinen to Nieuwediep the dunes are replaced by the famous Helder sea-wall. The shores of the Zuider Zee and the Wadden, and the Frisian and Zuider Zee islands, are also partially protected by dikes. In more than one quarter the dikes have been repeatedly extended so as to enclose land conquered from the sea, the work of reclamation being aided by a natural process. Layer upon layer of clay is deposited by the sea in front of the dikes, until a new fringe has been added to the coast-line on which sea-grasses grasses begin to grow. Upon these clay-lands (_kwelders_) horses, cattle and sheep are at last able to pasture at low tide, and in course of time they are in turn endiked.

River dikes are as necessary as sea dikes, elevated banks being found only in a few places, as on the Lower Rhine. Owing to the unsuitability of the foundations, Dutch dikes are usually marked by a great width, which at the crown varies between 13 and 26 ft. The height of the dike ranges to 40 in. above high water-level. Between the dikes and the stream lie "forelands" (_interwaarden_), which are usually submerged in winter, and frequently lie 1 or 2 yds, higher than the country within the dikes. These forelands also offer in course of time an opportunity for endiking and reclamation. In this way the towns of Rotterdam, Schiedam, Vlaardingen and Maasluis have all gradually extended over the Maas dike in order to keep in touch with the river, and the small town of Delftshaven is built altogether on the outer side of the same dike.

_Impoldering._--The first step in the reclamation of land is to
"impolder" it, or convert it into a "polder" (i.e. a section of
artificially drained land), by surrounding it with dikes or quays for
the two-fold purpose of protecting it from all further inundation from
outside and of controlling the amount of water inside. Impoldering for
its own sake or on a large scale was impossible as long as the means
of drainage were restricted. But in the beginning of the 15th century
new possibilities were revealed by the adaptation of the windmill to
the purpose of pumping water. It was gradually recognized that the
masses of water which collected wherever peat-digging had been carried
on were an unnecessary menace to the neighbouring lands, and also that
a more enduring source of profit lay in the bed of the fertile
sea-clay under the peat. It became usual, therefore, to make the
subsequent drainage of the land a condition of the extraction of peat
from it, this condition being established by proclamation in 1595.

_Drainage._--It has been shown that the western provinces of Holland
may be broadly defined as lying below sea-level. In fact the surface
of the sea-clay in these provinces is from 11(1/2) to 16(1/2) ft.
below the Amsterdam zero. The ground-water is, therefore, relatively
very high and the capacity of the soil for further absorption
proportionately low. To increase the reservoir capacity of the polder,
as well as to conduct the water to the windmills or engines, it is
intersected by a network of ditches cut at right angles to each other,
the amount of ditching required being usually one-twelfth of the area
to be drained. In modern times pumping engines have replaced
windmills, and the typical old Dutch landscape with its countless
hooded heads and swinging arms has been greatly transformed by the
advent of the chimney stacks of the pumping-stations. The power of the
pumping-engines is taken on the basis of 12 h.p. per 1000 hectares for
every metre that the water has to be raised, or stated in another
form, the engines must be capable of raising nearly 9 lb. of water
through 1 yd. per acre per minute. The main ditches, or canals,
afterwards also serve as a means of navigation. The level at which it
is desired to keep the water in these ditches constitutes the unit of
water measurement for the polder, and is called the polder's _zomer
peil_ (Z.P.) or summer water-level. In pasture-polders (_koepolders_)
Z.P. is 1 to 1(1/2) ft. below the level of the polder, and in
agricultural polders 2(1/2) to 3(1/2) ft. below. Owing to the
shrinkage of the soil in reclaimed lands, however, that is, lands
which have been drained after fen or other reclamation, the sides of
the polder are often higher than the middle, and it is necessary by
means of small dams or sluices to make separate water-tight
compartments (_afpolderingen_), each having its own unit of
measurement. Some polders also have a winter peil as a precaution
against the increased fall of water in that season. The summer
water-level of the pasture polders south of the former Y is about 4 to
8 ft. below the Amsterdam zero, but in the Noorderkwartier to the
north, it reaches 10(1/2) ft. below A. P. in the Beschotel polder, and
in reclaimed lands (_droogmakerijen_) may be still lower, thus in the
Reeuwyk polder north of Gouda it is 21(1/4) ft. below.

The drainage of the country is effected by natural or artificial
means, according to the slope of the ground. Nearly all the polders of
Zeeland and South Holland are able to discharge naturally into the sea
at average low water, self-regulating sluices being used. But in North
Holland and Utrecht on the contrary the polder water has generally to
be raised. In some deep polders and drained lands where the water
cannot be brought to the required height at once, windmills are found
at two or even three different levels. The final removal of polder
water, however, is only truly effected upon its discharge into the
"outer waters" of the country, that is, the sea itself or the large
rivers freely communicating with it; and this happens with but a small
proportion of Dutch polders, such as those of Zeeland, the Holland
Ysel and the Noorderkwartier.

As the system of impoldering extended, the small sluggish rivers were
gradually cut off by dikes from the marshy lands through which they
flowed, and by sluices from the waters with which they communicated.
Their level ranges from about 1(1/2) to 4 ft. above that of the pasture
polders. In addition, various kinds of canals and endiked or embanked
lakes had come into existence, forming altogether a vast network of
more or less stagnant waters. These waters are utilized as the
temporary reservoirs of the superfluous polder water, each system of
reservoirs being termed a _boezem_ (bosom or basin), and all lands
watering into the same boezem being considered as belonging to it. The
largest boezem is that of Friesland, which embraces nearly the whole
province. It sometimes happens that a polder is not in direct contact
with the boezem to which it belongs, but first drains into an adjacent
polder, from which the water is afterwards removed. In the same way,
some boezems discharge first into others, which then discharge into
the sea or rivers. This is usually the case where there is a great
difference in height between the surface of the boezem and the outer
waters, and may be illustrated by the Alblasserwaard and the Rotte
boezems in the provinces of South and North Holland respectively. In
time of drought the water in the canals and boezems is allowed to run
back into the polders, and so serve a double purpose as
water-reservoirs. Boezems, like polders, have a standard water-level
which may hot be exceeded, and as in the polder this level may vary in
the different parts of an extended boezem. The height of the _boezem
peil_ ranges between 1(1/3) ft. above to 1(5/6) ft. below the
Amsterdam zero, though the average is about 1 to 1(2/3) ft. below.
Some boezems, again, which are less easily controlled, have a "danger
water-level" at which they refuse to receive any more water from the
surrounding polders. The Schie or Delflands boezem of South Holland is
of this kind, and such a boezem is termed _besloten_ or "sequestered,"
in contradistinction to a "free" boezem. A third kind of boezem is the
reserve or _berg-boezem_, which in summer may be made dry and used for
agriculture, while in winter it serves as a special reserve. The
centuries of labour and self-sacrifice involved in the making of this
complete and harmonious system of combined defence and reclamation are
better imagined than described, and even at the present day the
evidences of the struggle are far less apparent than real.

_Geology._--Except in Limburg, where, in the neighbourhood of
Maastricht, the upper layers of the chalk are exposed and followed by
Oligocene and Miocene beds, the whole of Holland is covered by recent
deposits of considerable thickness, beneath which deep borings have
revealed the existence of Pliocene beds similar to the "Crags" of East
Anglia. They are divided into the _Diestien_, corresponding in part
with the English Coralline Crag, the _Scaldisien_ and _Poederlien_
corresponding with the Walton Crag, and the _Amstelien_ corresponding
with the Red Crag of Suffolk. In the south of Holland the total
thickness of the Pliocene series is only about 200 ft., and they are
covered by about 100 ft. of Quaternary deposits; but towards the north
the beds sink down and at the same time increase considerably in
thickness, so that at Utrecht a deep boring reached the top of the
Pliocene at a depth of 513 ft. and at 1198 ft. it had not touched the
bottom. At Amsterdam the top of the Pliocene lay 625 ft. below the
surface, but the boring, 1098 ft. deep, did not reach the base of the
uppermost division of the Pliocene, viz. the _Amstelien_. Eastward and
westward of Amsterdam, as well as southward, the Pliocene beds rise
slowly to the surface, and gradually decrease in thickness. They were
laid down in a broad bay which covered the east of England and nearly
the whole of the Netherlands, and was open to the North Sea. There is
evidence that the sea gradually retreated northwards during the
deposition of these beds, until at length the Rhine flowed over to
England and entered the sea north of Cromer. The appearance of
northern shells in the upper divisions of the Pliocene series
indicates the approach of the Glacial period, and glacial drift
containing Scandinavian boulders now covers much of the country east
of the Zuider Zee. The more modern deposits of Holland consist of
alluvium, wind-blown sands and peat.[3]

_Climate._--Situated in the temperate zone between 50 deg. and 53 deg.
N. the climate of Holland shows a difference in the lengths of day and
night extending in the north to nine hours, and there is a
correspondingly wide range of temperature; it also belongs to the
region of variable winds. On an average of fifty years the mean annual
temperature was 49.8 deg. Fahr.; the maximum, 93.9 deg. Fahr.; the
minimum, -5.8 deg. Fahr. The mean annual barometric height is 29.93
in.; the mean annual moisture, 81%; the mean annual rainfall, 27.99
in. The mean annual number of days with rain is 204, with snow 19, and
with thunder-storms 18. The increased rainfall from July to December
(the summer and autumn rains), and the increased evaporation in spring
and summer (5.2 in. more than the rainfall), are of importance as
regards "poldering" and draining operations. The prevalence of
south-west winds during nine months of the year and of north-west
during three (April-June) has a strong influence on the temperature
and rainfall, tides, river mouths and outlets, and also, geologically,
on dunes and sand drifts, and on fens and the accumulation of clay on
the coast. The west winds of course increase the moisture, and
moderate both the winter cold and the summer heat, while the east
winds blowing over the continent have an opposite influence. It
cannot be said that the climate is particularly good, owing to the
changeableness of the weather, which may alter completely within a
single day. The heavy atmosphere likewise, and the necessity of living
within doors or in confined localities, cannot but exercise an
influence on the character and temperament of the inhabitants. Only of
certain districts, however, can it be said that they are positively
unhealthy; to this category belong some parts of the Holland
provinces, Zeeland, and Friesland, where the inhabitants are exposed
to the exhalations from the marshy ground, and the atmosphere is often
burdened with sea-fogs.

_Fauna._--In the densely populated Netherlands, with no extensive
forests, the fauna does not present any unusual varieties. The otter,
martin and badger may be mentioned among the rarer wild animals, and
the weasel, ermine and pole-cat among the more common. In the 18th
century wolves still roamed the country in such large numbers that
hunting parties were organized against them; now they are unknown.
Roebuck and deer are found in a wild state in Gelderland and Overysel,
foxes are plentiful in the dry wooded regions on the borders of the
country, and hares and rabbits in the dunes and other sandy stretches.
Among birds may be reckoned about two hundred and forty different
kinds which are regular inhabitants, although nearly two hundred of
these are migratory. The woodcock, partridge, hawk, water-ousel,
magpie, jay, raven, various kinds of owls, wood-pigeon, golden-crested
wren, tufted lark and titmouse are among the birds which breed here.
Birds of passage include the buzzard, kite, quail, wild fowl of
various kinds, golden thrush, wagtail, linnet, finch and nightingale.
Storks are plentiful in summer and might almost be considered the most
characteristic feature of the prevailing landscape.