The first of the poems named above, the Gest of Arthure or Gest Historyalle (ib. i. 4288), has been identified by Dr Trautmann, “Anglia,” Der Dichter Huchown (1877), with the alliterative Morte Arthure in the Thornton MS. at Lincoln, printed by the E.E.T.S. (ed. Brock, 1865). The problem of the second (The Awntyr of Gawane) is still in dispute. There are difficulties in the way of accepting the conjecture that the poem is the “Awntyres of Arthure at the Tern Wathelyne” (see S.T.S., Scottish Alliterative Poems, 1897, and Introduction, pp. 11 et seq.), and little direct evidence in favour of the view that the reference is to the greatest of middle English romances, Sir Gawain and the Grene Knight. The third may be safely accepted as the well-known Pistil [Epistle] of Swete Susan, printed by Laing (Select Remains, 1822) and by the S.T.S. (Scottish Alliterative Poems, u.s.).
See, in addition to the works named, above, G. Neilson’s Sir Hew of Eglintoun and Huchown of the Awle Ryale (Glasgow, 1901), which contains a full record of references to the historical Sir Hew of Eglintoun; Huchown of the Awle Ryale, the Alliterative Poet (Glasgow, 1902) by the same; J. T. T. Brown’s Huchown of the Awle Ryale and his Poems (Glasgow, 1902), in answer to the foregoing. See also the correspondence in the Athenaeum, 1900–1901, and the review of Mr Neilson’s pamphlets, ib. (Nov. 22, 1902); and J. H. Millar’s Literary History of Scotland (1903), pp. 8-14.
HUCHTENBURG, the name of two brothers who were Dutch painters in the second half of the 17th century. Both were natives of Haarlem. Jacob, the elder, of whom very little is known, studied under Berghem, and went early to Italy, where he died young about 1667. His pictures are probably confounded with those of his brother. In Copenhagen, where alone they are catalogued, they illustrate the style of a Dutchman who transfers Berghem’s cattle and flocks to Italian landscapes and marketplaces.
John van Huchtenburg (1646–1733), born at Haarlem it is said in 1646, was first taught by Thomas Wyk, and afterwards induced to visit the chief cities of Italy, where, penetrating as far as Rome, he met and dwelt with his brother Jacob. After the death of the latter he wandered homewards, taking Paris on his way, and served under Van der Meulen, then employed in illustrating for Louis XIV. the campaign of 1667–1668 in the Low Countries. In 1670 he settled at Haarlem, where he married, practised and kept a dealer’s shop. His style had now merged into an imitation of Philip Wouvermans and Van der Meulen, which could not fail to produce pretty pictures of hunts and robber camps, the faculty of painting horses and men in action and varied dress being the chief point of attraction. Later Huchtenburg ventured on cavalry skirmishes and engagements of regular troops generally, and these were admired by Prince Eugene and William III., who gave the painter sittings, and commissioned him to throw upon canvas the chief incidents of the battles they fought upon the continent of Europe. When he died at Amsterdam in 1733, Huchtenburg had done much by his pictures and prints to make Prince Eugene, King William and Marlborough popular. Though clever in depicting a mêlée or a skirmish of dragoons, he remained second to Philip Wouvermans in accuracy of drawing, and inferior to Van der Meulen in the production of landscapes. But, nevertheless, he was a clever and spirited master, with great facility of hand and considerable natural powers of observation.
The earliest date on his pictures is 1674, when he executed the “Stag-Hunt” in the Museum of Berlin, and the “Fight with Robbers” in the Lichtenstein collection at Vienna. A “Skirmish at Fleurus” (1690) in the Brussels gallery seems but the precursor of larger and more powerful works, such as the “Siege of Namur” (1695) in the Belvedere at Vienna, where William III. is seen in the foreground accompanied by Max Emmanuel, the Bavarian elector. Three years before, Huchtenburg had had sittings from Prince Eugene (Hague museum) and William III. (Amsterdam Trippenhuis). After 1696 he regularly served as court painter to Prince Eugene, and we have at Turin (gallery) a series of eleven canvases all of the same size depicting the various battles of the great hero, commencing with the fight of Zentha against the Turks in 1697, and concluding with the capture of Belgrade in 1717. Had the duke of Marlborough been fond of art he would doubtless have possessed many works of our artist. All that remains at Blenheim, however, is a couple of sketches of battles, which were probably sent to Churchill by his great contemporary. The pictures of Huchtenburg are not very numerous now in public galleries. There is one in the National Gallery, London, another at the Louvre. But Copenhagen has four, Dresden six, Gotha two, and Munich has the well-known composition of “Tallart taken Prisoner at Blenheim in 1704.”
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HUCKABACK,[1] the name given to a type of cloth used for towels. For this purpose it has perhaps been more extensively used in the linen trade than any other weave. One of the chief merits of a towel is its capacity for absorbing moisture; plain and other flat-surfaced cloths do not perform this function satisfactorily, but cloths made with huckaback, as well as those made with the honeycomb and similar weaves, are particularly well adapted for this purpose. The body or foundation of the cloth is plain and therefore sound in structure (see designs A and B in figure), but at fixed intervals some of the warp threads float on the surface of the cloth, while at the same time a number of weft threads float on the back. Thus the cloth has a somewhat similar appearance on both sides. Weave A is the ordinary and most used huck or huckaback, while weave B, which is usually woven with double weft, is termed the Devon or medical huck. The cloths made by the use of these weaves were originally all linen, but are too often adulterated with inferior fibres.
HUCKLEBERRY, in botany, the popular name in the north-eastern United States of the genus Gaylussacia, small branching shrubs resembling in habit the English bilberry (Vaccinium), to which it is closely allied, and bearing a similar fruit. The common huckleberry of the northern states is G. resinosa; while G. brachycera and G. dumosa are known respectively as box and dwarf huckleberry. The name Gaylussacia commemorates the famous French chemist Gay-Lussac.
HUCKNALL TORKARD, a town in the Rushcliffe parliamentary division of Nottinghamshire, England; 132 m. N.N.W. from London by the Great Central railway, served also by the Great Northern and Midland railways. Pop. (1901) 15,250. The church of St Mary Magdalene contains the tomb of Lord Byron. There are extensive collieries in the vicinity, and the town has tobacco and hosiery works. Small traces are found of Beauvale Abbey, a Carthusian foundation of the 14th century, in the hilly, wooded district W. of Hucknall; and 3 m. N. is Newstead Abbey, in a beautiful situation on the border of Sherwood Forest. This Augustinian foundation owed its origin to Henry II. It came into the hands of the Byron family in 1540, and the poet Byron resided in it at various times until 1818. There remain the Early English west front of the church, a Perpendicular cloister and the chapter-house; while in the mansion, wholly restored since Byron’s time, and in the demesne, many relics of the poet are preserved. To the S. of Hucknall are traces of Gresley Castle, of the 14th century.
HUCKSTER, a dealer or retailer of goods in a small way. The word, in various forms, is common to many Teutonic languages. In Early English it is found as howkester, hokester, huxter; in early modern Dutch as heuker, and Medieval Low German as hoker; but the ultimate origin is unknown. Huckster apparently belongs to that series of words formed from a verb,—as brew, brewer; but the noun “huckster” is found in use before the verb to huck. Hawker and pedlar are nearly synonymous in meaning, but “huckster” may include a person in a small way of trade in a settled habitation, while a hawker or pedlar invariably travels from place to place offering his wares. In a contemptuous sense, huckster is used of any one who barters, or makes gain or profit in underhand or mean ways, or who over-reaches another, to get advantage for himself.
HUDDERSFIELD, a municipal, county and parliamentary borough in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, 190 m. N.N.W. from London. Pop. (1901) 95,047. It is served by the Lancashire & Yorkshire and London & North Western
- ↑ Skeat, Etym. Dict. (1898), says, “The word bears so remarkable resemblance to Low Ger. hukkebak, Ger. huckeback, pick-a-back, that it seems reasonable to suppose that it at first meant ‘peddler’s ware.’ ” The New English Dictionary does not consider that the connexion can at present be assumed.
