privately, and entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827. There he was at once drawn into a literary set, and became a member of the famous “Apostles” Club, which then included Tennyson, Hallam, Trench, J. W. Blakesley, afterwards dean of Lincoln, and others. After taking his degree, Milnes travelled abroad, spending some time at Bonn University. Thence he went to Italy and Greece, and published in 1834 a volume of Memorials of a Tour in some Parts of Greece, describing his experiences. He returned to London in 1837, and was in that year elected to Parliament as member for Pontefract. His parliamentary career was marked by much strenuous activity. He interested himself particularly in the question of copyright and the conditions of reformatory schools. He left Peel’s party over the Corn Law controversy, and was afterwards identified in politics with Palmerston, at whose instance he was made a peer in 1863. His literary career was industrious and cultured, without being exceptionally distinguished. Church matters had always a claim upon him: he wrote a striking tract in 1841, which was praised by Newman; and took part in the discussion about “Essays and Reviews,” defending the tractarian position in One Tract More (1841). He published two volumes of verse in 1838, Memorials of Residence upon the Continent and Poems of Many Years, Poetry for the People in 1840 and Palm Leaves in 1844. He also wrote a Life and Letters of Keats in 1848, the material for which was largely provided by the poet’s friend, Charles Armitage Brown. Milnes also contributed largely to the reviews. His poetry is meditative and delicate; some of his ballads were among the most popular of their day, and all his work was marked by refinement. But his chief distinctions were his keen sense of literary merit in others, and the judgment and magnanimity with which he fostered it. He was surrounded by the most brilliant men of his time, many of whom he had been the first to acclaim. His chief title to remembrance rests on the part he played, as a man of influence in society and in moulding public opinion on literary matters, in connexion with his large circle of talented friends. He secured a pension for Tennyson, helped to make Emerson known in Great Britain, and was one of the earliest champions of Swinburne. He helped David Gray and wrote a preface for The Luggie. He was, in the old sense of the word, a patron of letters, and one who never abused the privileges of his position. Milnes married in 1851 the Hon. Annabel Crewe (d. 1874). He died at Vichy on the 11th of August 1885, and was buried at Fryston. His son, the second Baron Houghton, was created Earl of Crewe (q.v.) in 1895.
See The Life, Letters and Friendships of Richard Monckton Milnes, first Lord Houghton (1890), by Sir T. Wemyss Reid.
HOUGHTON-LE-SPRING, an urban district in the Houghton-le-Spring
parliamentary division of Durham, England, 6 m. N.E.
of the city of Durham. Pop. (1901) 7858. It is well situated
at the head of a small valley branching from that of the Wear.
St Michael’s church is a cruciform Early English and Decorated
building, with a picturesque embattled rectory adjoining.
Bernard Gilpin, “the Apostle of the North,” was rector of this
parish from 1556 to 1583, and the founder of the grammar school.
The principal public buildings are a town hall, market house
and church institute. Houghton Hall is a fine mansion of the
late 16th century. In the orchard stands a tomb, that of the
puritan Sir Robert Hutton (d. 1680), of whom a curious tradition
states that he desired burial beside his war-horse, the body of
which was denied interment in consecrated ground. The main
road from Durham to Sunderland here passes through a remarkable
cutting in the limestone 80 ft. deep. The district affords
frequent evidence of ice activity in the glacial period. The
town is the centre of a large system of electric tramways. The
population is mainly dependent on the neighbouring collieries,
but limestone quarrying is carried on to some extent.
HOUND, a dog, now used, except in poetry, only of dogs of
the chase, and particularly of the breed used in hunting the fox,
the “hound” par excellence. Other breeds have a defining
word prefixed, e.g. boar-hound, stag-hound, &c. (see Dog).
The O. Eng. hund is the common Teutonic name for the animal,
cf. Du. hond, Ger. Hund, &c., and is cognate with Sansk. çvan,
Gr. κύων, Lat. canis, Ir. and Gael. cu.
HOUNSLOW, a town in the Brentford parliamentary division
of Middlesex, England, 1212 m. W. by S. of St Paul’s Cathedral,
London, on the District and London & South Western railways.
Pop. (1901) 11,377. It has grown into an extensive residential
suburb of London. Its situation at the junction of two great
roads from the west of England made it an important coaching
station, and some 500 coaches formerly passed through it daily.
A priory of friars of the Holy Trinity was founded at Hounslow
in 1296, and existed till the dissolution of the monasteries.
The priory chapel was used as a church till 1830, after which
its place was taken by the existing church of the Holy Trinity
(1835). Hounslow Heath, west of the town, had, according to
the survey of 1546, an area of 4293 acres. It was the site of
Roman and British camps, and in the wars of the 17th century
was the scene of several important military rendezvous. It
was a favourite resort of highwaymen, whose bodies were
exposed on gibbets along the road. In 1784 the base-line of the
first trigonometrical survey in England was laid down on the
heath. In 1793 large cavalry barracks were erected upon it,
and it is also the site of extensive powder mills. It began to be
enclosed towards the end of the reign of George III. In Osterley
Park, N.E. of Hounslow, Sir Thomas Gresham built a mansion
in 1577, and this was rebuilt with great magnificence by Francis
and Robert Child c. 1770. Hounslow is divided between the
parishes of Heston and Isleworth. Pop. of urban district of
Heston and Isleworth (1901) 30,863.
HOUR, the twenty-fourth part of a civil day, the twelfth
part of a natural day or night, a space of time of sixty minutes’
duration. The word is derived through the O. Fr. ure, ore,
houre, mod. heure, from Lat. hora, Gr. ὥρα, season, time of day,
hour (see Calendar).
HOUR ANGLE, the angular distance of a heavenly body from
the meridian, as measured around the celestial pole. It is
equal to the angle at the pole between the hour circle through
the body and the meridian, but is usually expressed in time.
HOUR-GLASS, a device for measuring intervals of time, also
known as sand-glass, and as log-glass when used in conjunction
with the common log for ascertaining the speed of a ship. It
consists of two pear-shaped bulbs of glass, united at their apices
and having a minute passage formed between them. A quantity
of sand (or occasionally of mercury) is enclosed in the bulbs,
and the size of the passage is so proportioned that this sand will
completely run through from one bulb to another in the time
it is desired to measure—e.g. an hour or a minute. Instruments
of this kind, which have no great pretensions to accuracy, were
formerly common in churches. In the English House of Commons,
as a preliminary to a division, a two-minute sand-glass is still
turned, and while the sand is running the “division bells” are
set in motion in every part of the building, to give members
notice that a division is at hand.
HOURI, the term for a beautiful virgin who awaits the
devout Mahommedan in Paradise. The word is the French
representative of the Pers. hūrī, Arab, hawrā‘, a black-eyed
virgin, from hawira, to be black-eyed, like a gazelle.
HOURS, CANONICAL, certain portions of the day set apart by
rule (canon) of the church for prayer and devotion. The Jewish
custom of praying three times a day, i.e. at the third, sixth and
ninth hours, was perpetuated in the early Christian Church
(Acts ii. 15, iii. 1, x. 9), and to these were added midnight (when
Paul and Silas sang in prison), and the beginning of day and of
night. Ambrose, Augustine and Hilary commended the example
of the psalmist who gave praise “seven times a day” (Ps. cxix.
164). The seventh (Compline, Completorium) was added by
Benedict. These hours were adopted especially in the monasteries
as a part of the canonical life, and spread thence to the cathedral
and collegiate chapters.
Since the 6th century the number and order of the hours have been fixed thus: matins, lauds, prime, terce, sext, none, vespers, compline.
Matins theoretically belongs to midnight, but in Italy it is
