Chapter Halleck to Hamilton of H by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

Halleck to Hamilton

Halleck, Fitzcreene (1790-1867).—Poet, born at Guilford, Conn., wrote, with Rodman Drake, a young poet who died at 25, The Croaker Papers, a series of satirical and humorous verses, and Fanny, also a satire. In 1822 he visited Europe, and the traces of this are found in most of his subsequent poetry, e.g. his lines on Burns, and on Alnwick Castle.

Halliwell-Phillips, James Orchard (1820-1889).—Archæologist and Shakespearian scholar, educated at Cambridge, was the author of a Life of Shakespeare (1848), New Boke about Shakespeare and Stratford upon Avon (1850), Folio Edition of Shakespeare (1853-65), and various other works relative to him, also Dictionary of Old English Plays (1860). He also edited works for the Camden and Percy Societies, and compiled a Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words. In 1872 he added his wife’s name of Phillips to his own.

Hamerton, Philip Gilbert (1834-1894).—Artist and writer on æsthetics, son of a solicitor, was born near Oldham. Originally intended for the Church, he decided for art and literature. After working as an artist in the Highlands with his wife, who was a Frenchwoman, he settled in France, and devoted himself to writing on art. Among his works are Etching and Etchers, etc. (1868), Painting in France after the Decline of Classicism (1869), The Intellectual Life (1873), Human Intercourse (1884), The Graphic Arts (1882), Landscape (1885), some of which were magnificently illustrated. He also left an autobiography. His writings had a great influence upon artists, and also in stimulating and diffusing the love of art among the public.

Hamilton, Alexander (1757-1804).—Statesman and political writer, born in the West Indies, was one of the framers of the Constitution of the United States, and was the first secretray of the national Treasury. He was one of the greatest of American statesmen, and has also a place in literature as the principal writer in the Federalist, a periodical founded to expound and defend the new Constitution, which was afterwards published as a permanent work. Hamilton contributed 51 of its 85 articles.

Hamilton, Elizabeth (1758-1816).—w rote The Cottagers of Glenburie, a tale which had much popularity in its day, and perhaps had some effect in the improvement of certain aspects of humble domestic life in Scotland. She also wrote Letters on Education, Essays on the Human Mind, and The Hindoo Rajah.

Hamilton, Thomas (1789-1842).—Novelist, brother of Sir William Hamilton (q.v.), wrote a novel, Cyril Thornton (1827), which was received with great favour. He was an officer in the army, and, on his retirement, settled in Edinburgh, and became a contributor to Blackwood. He was also the author of Annals of the Peninsular Campaign (1829), and Men and Manners in America (1833).

Hamilton, William (of Bangour) (1704-1754).—Poet, was born at the family seat in Linlithgowshire. Cultivated and brilliant, he was a favourite of society, and began his literary career by contributing verses to Allan Ramsay’s Tea Table Miscellany. He joined the Pretender in 1745, and celebrated the Battle of Prestonpans in Gladsmuir. After Culloden he wandered in the Highlands, where he wrote his Soliloquy, and escaped to France. His friends, however, succeeded in obtaining his pardon, and he returned to his native country. In 1750, on the death of his brother, he succeeded to the family estate, which, however, he did not long live to enjoy. He is best remembered for his fine ballad of The Braes of Yarrow. He also wrote The Episode of the Thistle. He died at Lyons.

Hamilton, William (of Gilbertfield) (1665?-1751)—Poet, served in the army, from which he retired with the rank of Lieutenant. He wrote poetical Epistles to Allan Ramsay, and an abridgment in modern Scotch of Blind Harry’s Life of Sir William Wallace.

Hamilton, Sir William (1788-1856).—Metaphysician, born in Glasgow, in the University of which his father and grandfather successively filled the Chair of Anatomy and Botany, educated there and at Balliol Coll., Oxford, was called to the Scottish Bar, at which he attained little practice, but was appointed Solicitor of Teinds. In 1816 he established his claim to the baronetcy of Hamilton of Preston. On the death of Dr. Thomas Brown in 1820, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Chair of Moral Philosophy in Edinburgh, but in the following year he was appointed Professor of History. It was not until 1829 that