The earliest date on his pictures is 1674, when lie executed the Stag-Hunt in the Museum of Berlin, and the Fight with Robbers in the Liehtenstein 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, commenc ing with the fight of Zentha against the Turks in 1697, and con cluding 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.
HUDDERSFIELD, a municipal and parliamentary borough and market-town of England, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, is beautifully situated on the slope of a hill in the valley of the Colne, a tributary of the Calder, 15 miles south of Bradford, and 16 south-west of Leeds. It is surrounded by a network of railways, and is connected with the extensive canal system of Lancashire and Yorkshire. The town is built principally of stone, and has undergone within late years very extensive improvements, in regard to both its external appearance and its sanitary arrangements. The older portions of the town, where the streets were mean-looking and narrow, have almost disappeared, making way for handsome, spacious, and well-paved thoroughfares, whilst many of the business premises possess considerable architectural merit. Among the churches deserving special mention are St Peter’s, the parish church, in the Perpendicular style, rebuilt in 1837 at a cost of £10,000, possessing chancel, nave, aisles, transept, and tower with peal of ten bells; Trinity Church, erected in 1819 at a cost of £12,000, in the Pointed style, with an embattled tower at the west end; St Paul’s, built by the parliamentary commissioners in 1831, in the Early English style, with a tower surmounted by a light spire; St Thomas’s, in the Transition Early English style, completed in 1859 at a cost of £10,000. Of the numerous Nonconformist places of worship, Ramsden Street (Congregational), Queen Street and Buxton Road (Wesleyan), and Brunswick Street (Free Methodist) chapels are remarkable for their capacity, whilst High Street (New Connexion Methodist), New North Road (Baptist), and Highfield and Hillhouse (Congregational) have considerable architectural beauty. The principal other buildings, in addition to the many fine warehouses, are the Cloth-Hall, erected by Sir Thomas Ramsden in 1768, and extended in 1780,—a circular two-storied brick building, having a diameter of 80 yards, now fallen almost into disuse; the Armoury, erected as a riding-school, but now the headquarters of the rifle volunteers, and also used for concerts and large public meetings; the Victoria Hall, a capacious building recently erected by the Huddersfield Temperance Society; the Philosophical Hall, in the Grecian style, originally used for lectures and public meetings, afterwards converted into a theatre, and burnt almost to the ground February 15, 1880; the Gymnasium Hall, erected in 1847, capable of accommodating 1000 persons, and transformed into public baths in 1879; the Infirmary, erected in 1831, a large and elegant stone edifice of the Doric order with wings and a portico, the latter supported by four fluted columns, a large ward and medicated baths being added later; the General Railway Station, in the Grecian style, erected in 1848, having in front a handsome statue of Sir Robert Peel; the Huddersfield College, in the Baronial style, established in 1838 for sons of gentlemen and tradesmen; the Collegiate School, in the Gothic style, erected in 1839; the Huddersfield Club; the Borough Club; the Masonic Hall (1838); the Corporation offices, in the Classic style (1877); the Town-Hall, also in the Classic style, but much richer (1880); the Guardians’ offices (1880); the Ramsden Estate buildings, a handsome and extensive block of the mixed Italian order; the Chamber of Commerce; and a remarkably fine new market-hall, in the Gothic style, with a clock-tower and spire 106 feet in height, founded in 1878, and opened in 1880.
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Plan of Huddersfield. |
