Hôtel Cluny. This beautiful building in Paris derives its name from the Abbé of Cluny, who bought an ancient palace which stood on the spot now occupied by the present one. This was built in 1490. It was once used as a theatre, afterwards as a convent, and during the Revolution Marat held his meetings there. Subsequently it became a museum, and passed into the hands of the government. It contains many treasures of art, mosaics, reliefs, stained glass windows, ivory_cabinets, vases, and paintings. The building itself is much admired for the grace and delicacy of its sculptures. See PALAIS DES THERMES. Hôtel de Pimodan. A noted mansion in Paris of the time of Louis XIV.

Hôtel de Rambouillet. A palace in Paris- the residence of the Marquis de Rambouillet - very famous in the seventeenth century, and subsequently, as the centre of a literary and political coterie. According to Roederer, the opening of the salon of the Hôtel de Rambouillet took place in the year 1600, under the reign of Henry IV. The marquis was an enemy of Sully; and his house became the headquarters of the opposition party, where the barbarism and immoralities of the court were offset by purity of language and of manners. The most celebrated wits of the period, and the finest ladies of the realm, sought admission to these réunions. Through the indifference to literature manifested by Louis XIII. and the various ministries which succeeded each other down |

to the time of Richelieu, the Hôtel de Rambouillet soon had the exclusive patronage and direction of letters, and exerted an influence which was for a long time without a rival. But notwithstanding the excellence of its motives, it could not escape the law which governs all literary coteries. In time it engendered mannerism and affectation. The discussions turned upon idle and frivolous questions, upon the merits of roundelays, madrigals, enigmas, and acrostics. The women who frequented the Hôtel de Rambouillet took the name of Précieuses. It was a title of honor and a sort of diploma of talent and purity; but when pedantry and affectation had begun to draw down upon them the shafts of the satirists, it lost its original meaning, the epithet ridicules was appended to it, and Molière, with his pungent irony, gave the fatal blow to the literary fame of the celebrated salon by holding it up to public laughter in his "Précieuses Ridicules and his "Femmes Savantes." The name Hôtel de Rambouillet is at present only a derisive sobriquet.

The house of Mlle. de L'Enclos was a branch establishment of the Hôtel de Rambouillet. J. Janin. The great comédienne [Contat] had her court and her Hôtel Rambouillet.

Roger de Beauvoir. Hôtel de Ville. [City-Hall.] A general term applied in France and Belgium to the buildings used for municipal offices, some of which are among the finest existing specimens of architecture. See infra.

Hôtel de Ville. A large and beautiful building in Paris, the official residence of the Prefect of the Seine. It contained also rooms for the public festivals of the city, the sittings of the council, and meetings of learned and scientific societies. It was adorned by sculptures which were chiefly from the hand of Jean Goujon. The building had many interesting historical associations; the

insurrection of the Maillotins, in 1358, broke out here; here met societies of the Fronde; here Robespierre held his council; and here Louis Philippe was presented to the French nation by La Fayette in 1830. The Hôtel de Ville was

destroyed by the leaders of the Commune prior to the entrance of the German army, May 28, 1871, and has not been rebuilt. Among the finer examples of architecture bearing this name may be mentioned the town-halls of Brussels, Bruges, Louvain, Ypres, etc.

And for about four months all France, and to a great degree all Europe, roughridden by every species of delirium, except happily the murderous for most part, was a weltering mob, presided over by M. de Lamartine at the Hôtel de Ville.

Hôtel de Ville.

Carlyle.

The

[Bruges.] municipal building of Bruges, Belgium, the oldest edifice of the kind in the country, having been erected in 1377.

"It is a small building, being only 88 feet in front by 65 in depth, and of a singularly pure and elegant design. The belfry is one of the most picturesque towers in the country."

Fergusson.

A

Hôtel de Ville. [Brussels.] noble Gothic edifice, the municipal hall of Brussels, Belgium. In the grand hall of this building the abdication of Charles V. took place in 1555. It is considered the finest of the town-halls of Belgium. It was begun in 1401, and finished in 1455. It has a spire of open stone-work 364 feet in height.

"The spire that surmounts its centre is unrivalled for beauty of outline and design by any spire in Belgium, and is entitled to take rank amongst the noblest examples of its class in Europe." Fergusson.

Hôtel de Ville. [Louvain.] A splendid edifice in Louvain, Belgium, used for municipal purand one of the finest Gothic poses, buildings in the world.

"The well-known and beautiful town-hall at Louvain is certainly the most elaborately decorated piece of Gothic architecture in existence. Though perhaps a little overdone in

some parts, the whole is so consistent, and the outline and general scheme of decoration so good, that little fault can be found with it. In design it follows very closely the hall at Bruges, but wants the tower which gives such dig. nity to those at Brussels and at Ypres." Fergusson.

Hôtel de Ville. [Ypres.] A noted building in Ypres, Belgium, restored in 1860, and now used for municipal purposes. It was originally called the Halle, or ClothHall, cloth having been the great staple manufacture of Belgium during the Middle Ages.

est.

"The cloth-hall at Ypres is by far the most magnificent and beautiful of these [trade-halls], as also the earliThe foundation-stone was laid in 1200 by Baldwin of Constantinople, but it was not finished till 104 years afterwards. The façade is 440 feet in length, and of the simplest possible design, being perfectly straight and unbroken from end to end. . Its height is varied by the noble belfry which rises from its centre, and by a bold and beautiful pinnacle at each end. The whole is of the pure architecture of the thirteenth century, and is one of the most majestic edifices of its class to be seen anywhere." Fergusson. Hôtel de Ville, Place de l'. See PLACE DE L'HÔTEL DE VILLE. Hôtel des Invalides. See INVA

LIDES.

Hôtel des Monnaies. A handsome

classical edifice near the Pont Neuf, Paris, built in 1775. The mint of Paris is the principal one in France. The rate at which coins can be struck off is about 1,500,000 per day. In the Museum are interesting collections of coins, medals, models, etc. The establishment also contains, besides the workshops for coining, laboratories for assaying. Hôtel Dieu. A magnificent hospital in Paris, on the river Seine. Its wards are on both sides of the river. It was established as early as the seventh century, and has been richly endowed by various kings, nobles, and wealthy men. All the arrangements are on the most liberal scale. This name is given to the chief hospi tal of many places.

Hôtel Lambert.

A handsome structure on the Ile St. Louis, Paris, of the style of architecture under Louis XIV. Voltaire lived here; and here, in 1815, Napoleon held one of his last conferences. Hôtel St. Aignan. An old aristocratic hotel of Paris, where lived the Duc d'Avaux, and later the Duc de St. Aignan. The gateway and court, with Corinthian pilasters, are left.

Hôtel St. Paul. A former palace

of Paris, built by Charles V. about 1364. Nothing now remains of it.

Hotoie, La. A fine promenade in the city of Amiens, France. It covers 52 acres.

Houghton Hall. A splendid mansion in the county of Norfolk, England, formerly the residence of Sir Robert Walpole, and famous for the rare collection of pictures which it contained. Most of the pictures are now dispersed; the greater part, having been sold to the Empress of Russia, are now at St. Petersburg. The estate now belongs to the Marquis of Cholmondeley.

Hougoumont. A mansion in the
neighborhood of Waterloo, noted
for its importance in connection
with the battle upon that field.
[Written also Goumont.]

Nor wood, nor tree, nor bush. are there,
Her course to intercept or scare,

Nor fosse nor fence are found,
Save where, from out her shatter'd bow-
ers,

Rise Hougoumont's dismantled towers.

Scott. Hounsditch or Houndsditch. This is the centre of the Jews' quarter in London, so called from the ancient foss around the city, once a receptacle for dead dogs.

"From Aldgate, north-west to Bishopsgate, lieth the ditch of the city, called Houndsditch; for that in old time, when the same lay open, much filth (conveyed from the city), espe cially dead dogs, were there laid or Stow.

cast."

More knavery and usury, And foolery and trickery, than Dogsditch. Beaumont and Fletcher.

If it please Heaven, we shall all yet make our Exodus from Houndsditch, and bid the sordid continents, of once rich apparel now grown poisonous Ou-clo', 'a mild farewell! Carlyle. Hounslow Heath. A region once open and infested by highwaymen, but now enclosed, adjacent to Hounslow, in Middlesex County, England.

"The waste tracts which lay on the great routes near London were especially haunted by plunderers of this class. Hounslow Heath, on the great Western road, and Finchley Common, on the great Northern road, were perhaps the most celebrated of these spots." Macaulay. House. For names beginning with HOUSE, see the next prominent word. See also infra.

House of Commons. One of the houses of Parliament in the New Palace at Westminster, London.

"The principal chamber of the manufactory of statute law." Quarterly Review.

House of Lords, or House of

Peers. One of the houses of

Parliament, magnificently and richly fitted up, in the New Palace at Westminster, London. Houses of Parliament. See WESTMINSTER PALACE.

Howard. See CASTLE HOWARD. Howe's Cave. A natural curiosity in Schoharie County, N.Y. The cave has been penetrated a distance of eight or ten miles, and visitors usually go as far as three or four miles. It was discovered in 1842, and is thought to be hardly surpassed by any cavern except the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. [Sometimes called also the Ötsgaragee Cavern.]

Hoy, Old Man of. See OLD MAN OF HOY.

Hradschin, The. The ancient palace of the Bohemian kings, in Prague, Austria. This imposing pile was begun in 1541, but not completed till 200 years later. There are said to be 440 apartments in it. It commands a noble view.

Aloft on the mountain, with prospect over city, river, and wood-grown isles, his old Hradschin beaming in the sun.

Hans Christian Andersen.

Huguenot, The. A well-known picture by J. E. Millais (b. 1829).

"The incident of the 'Hugue. not' picture is founded on the order of the Duc de Guise, that each good Catholic should, on the eve of St. Bartholomew, bind a strip of white linen round his arm, as a badge to be known by." Sarah Tytler.

Huis in 't Bosch. [House in the Wood.] A palace in a wooded park in the environs of the Hague, Holland.

Human Life. See REPRESENTATION OF HUMAN LIFE.

Humane Society. See DISTINGUISHED MEMBER OF THE HUMANE SOCIETY.

Hume Castle. A picturesque ruined castle near Kelso in Scotland, once the residence of the Earls of Home.

Humphrey's Walk. See DUKE HUMPHREY'S WALK.

"A most glorious picture here. The Trial of John Huss before the Council of Constance, by Lessing... The painter has arrayed with consum. mate ability in the foreground a repre sentation of the religious respectability of the age: Italian cardinals in their scarlet robes... men whom it were no play to meet in an argument, all that expressed the stateliness and grandeur of what Huss had been educated to consider the true church. In the midst of them stands Huss in a simple dark robe: his sharpened features tell of prison and of suffering. He is defending himself, and there is a trembling earnestness in the manner with which his hand grasps the Bible. With a passionate agony he seems to say, Am I not right? Does not this Word say it? and is it not the word of God?" Beecher.

Hyde Park. A large pleasureground in London, extending from Piccadilly westward to Kensington Gardens. It is the site of the ancient manor of Hyde. For nearly two centuries it has been the scene of military reviews and spectacles. Hyde Park was enclosed about the middle of the sixteenth century. It was opened to the public during the time of Charles I. Reform meetings and other turbulent gatherings have frequently been held here, which have been sometimes attended with violence.

"In this Park, in the London season, from May to August (between 11 and 1, and 5 and 7), may be seen all the wealth and fashion and splendid equipages of the nobility and gentry of Great Britain. As many as 800 equestrians, including the Knot at the music, have been seen assembled at Hyde Park in the height of the season." Murray's Handbook. "Hyde Park with its small rivulet, its wide greensward, its sheep, its shady walks, resembling a pleasurepark suddenly transported to the centre of a capital." Taine, Trans. Now, at Hyde Park, if fair it be, A show of ladies you may see. Poor Robin's Almanack (May, 1698). At fourscore he [the Duke of Schomberg] retained a strong relish for innocent

pleasures; he conversed with great courtesy and sprightliness; nothing could be in better taste than his equipages and his table; and every cornet of cavalry envied the grace and dignity with which the veteran appeared in Hyde Park on his charger at the head of his regiment. Macaulay.

Sooner shall grass in Hyde-park circus grow,

And wits take lodgings in the sound of Bow!

Sooner let air, earth, sea, to chaos fall, Men, monkeys, lap-dogs, parrots, perish all! Pope

2. A public pleasure-ground in St. Louis, Mo.

Hyder Ali. A vessel belonging to the State of Pennsylvania, which, in 1782, captured the British ship General Monk, in Delaware Bay, an exploit pronounced by Cooper "one of the most brilliant actions that ever occurred under the American flag." See MONK, THE.