Chapter Huniades to Hythloday of H by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Huniades to Hythloday

Huniades , called by the Turks “The Devil. ” He was surnamed “Corvinus,” and the family crest was a crow (1400–1456)

The Turks employed the name of Huniadês to frighten their perverse children. He was corruptly called “Jancus Lain.”—Gibbon: Decline and Fall, etc., xii. 166 (1776–88).

Hunsdon (Lord), cousin of queen Elizabeth.—Sir W. Scott: Kenilworth (time, Elizabeth).

Hunted Down, a tale by Charles Dickens (1860). A Mr. Sampson, chief manager of an insurance office, tells us how Julius Slinkton, having effected an insurance on the life of Alfred Beckwith, endeavoured to poison him, in order to get the insurance money. Being foiled, however, in his attempt, he committed suicide.

Hunter (Mr. and Mrs. Leo), persons who court the society of any celebrity, and consequently invite Mr. Pickwick and his three friends to an entertainment in their house. Mrs. Leo Hunter wrote an “Ode to an Expiring Frog,” considered by her friends a most masterly performance.—Dickens: The Pickwick Papers (1836).

Can I view thee panting, lying
On thy stomach, without sighing;
Can I unmoved see thee dying
On a log, expiring frog!
Say, have fiends in shape of boys,
With wild halloo, and brutal noise,
Hunted thee from marshy joys,
With a dog, expiring frog!
   —Ch. xv.

Hunter (The Mighty), Nimrod; so called in Gen. x. 9.

Proud Nimrod first the bloody chase [war] began, A mighty hunter, and his prey was man.
   —Pope: Windsor Forest (1713).

Huntingdon (Henry of), Henry archdeacon of Huntingdon (1100–1168), a chronicler who wrote a History of England (Historia Anglorum) from the invasion of Julius Câsar to the death of Stephen. He was a poet also.

Huntingdon (Robert earl of), generally called “Robin Hood” (q.v.). In 1601 Anthony Munday and Henry Chettle produced a drama entitled The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntingdon (attributed often to T. Heywood). Ben Jonson began a beautiful pastoral drama on the subject of Robin Hood (The Sad Shepherd, or A Tale of Robin Hood), but left only two acts of it when he died (1637). We have also Robin Hood and his Crew of Souldiers, a comedy acted at Nottingham, and printed 1661; Robin Hood, an opera (1730). J. Ritson edited, in 1795, Robin Hood: a Collection of Poems, Songs, and Ballads relative to that Celebrated English Outlaw.

Huntingdon (The earl of), in the court of queen Elizabeth.—Sir W. Scott: Kenilworth (time, Elizabeth).

Huntingdon (David earl of), prince royal of Scotland. He appears first as sir Kenneth, Knight of the Leopard, and afterwards as Zohauk the Nubian slave.—Sir W. Scott:The Talisman (time, Richard 1.).

Huntingdon Sturgeon and Godmanchester Hogs.

During a very high flood in the meadows between Huntingdon and Godmanchester, something was seen floating, which the Godmanchester people thought was a black hog, and the Huntingdon folk declared was a sturgeon. When rescued from the waters, it proved to be a young donkey.—Braybrook (Pepys: Diary, May 22, 1667).

Huntinglen (The earl of), an old Scotch nobleman.—Sir W. Scott: Fortunes of Nigel (time, James 1.).

Huntly (The marquis of), a royalist.—Sir W. Scott: Legend of Montrose (time, Charles 1.).