Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 27.djvu/153

 flowers on pottery and porcelain, and came to London in 1819 to practise as a flower-painter, and to give lessons in drawing landscape, architecture, and marine subjects. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1824, and in 1830 he visited France and made studies of its architecture. In 1823 he exhibited a picture of ‘London from Blackheath.’ In 1835 he became an associate exhibitor of the (now Royal) Society of Painters in Water-colours, but he left the society in 1843, and joined the (now Royal) Society of British Artists, of which he remained a member till 1848. He rejoined the Water-colour Society in 1856, and was elected a full member two years afterwards. He was much employed in drawing for the illustrated annuals, and for this purpose he visited Venice, Milan, Geneva, and Paris in 1836, and Portugal in 1838. In 1839 he exhibited at the Royal Academy a fine painting of Lisbon. In 1845 he went to Rotterdam, in 1850 to Normandy and North Wales, in 1851 again to Geneva, and in 1857 again to Venice. In the South Kensington Museum are a series of sketches in Portugal dated 1847, from which it would appear that he visited that country a second time. In the course of his life he exhibited, in addition to his contributions to the Water-colour Society, thirty-two pictures at the Royal Academy, ninety-one at the British Institution, and one hundred and eight at the Society of British Artists. Though generally classed as a water-colour painter, he was equally skilful in oils. He was one of the finest colourists of the English school, and his pictures, especially those of Venice, though neglected in his lifetime, are now eagerly sought for and fetch large prices. He appears to have ceased to exhibit in 1857. He died 12 Dec. 1870. At Greenwich Hospital there is a picture by him of Greenwich, and at the South Kensington Museum are two small oil pictures and a few water-colours, but there is no fine example of his work in the national collections.

 HOLLAND, JOHN, and  (1352?–1400), born about 1352, was third son of Thomas Holland (d. 1360), first earl of Kent [q. v.], by Joan, daughter of [q.v.], earl of Kent. His mother afterwards became the wife of Edward the Black Prince; Holland was consequently half-brother to Richard II.

Dugdale wrongly places his first military service in 1354–5, and supports his statement by a reference to a contemporary document which, however, contains no mention of him. In 1381 he was made a knight of the Garter; on 6 May in the same year justice of Chester. On the rising of the commons in 1381 he was with the king in the Tower, but like his brother, Thomas Holland [q.v.], he did not go out to Mile End. In the following December he was appointed one of those sent by the king to receive his bride (Anne of Luxemburg) at Calais, and escort her to England. In 1384 he is charged—on the authority of Walsingham, unsupported by any contemporary record—with a cold-blooded murder. A Carmelite friar had informed the king of an alleged plot on the part of the Duke of Lancaster to dethrone him. The duke soon convinced the king of his innocence, and advised the friar's detention in Holland's custody. The night before the date fixed for the inquiry into the matter, Holland and Sir Henry Green caused the friar to be butchered in prison (Hist. Angl. ii. 113–14).

During 1385 Holland was undoubtedly guilty of a crime which illustrates the violence of his temper. In that year he accompanied Richard on his way to Scotland. While the army was near York an archer of Ralph, eldest son of Hugh, earl Stafford, quarrelled with and slew one of Holland's esquires. According to Froissart on the evening after the occurrence, Ralph rode to visit Holland in order to appease him for the outrage; at the same time Holland was riding out to demand an explanation of Stafford. They passed each other in the dark, and Holland asked who went by; on receiving the answer ‘Stafford,’ he gave his own name, plunged his sword into Ralph's body, and rode off. Earl Stafford demanded vengeance, and on 14 Sept. 1385 the king ordered Holland's lands to be seized; he had taken sanctuary in the house of St. John of Beverley. Most of the chroniclers of the time state that his mother implored the king's pardon, and died from grief at its refusal. The exact date of the murder is unknown, but Joan died 8 July 1385, two months before the king issued the extant writ to seize Holland's lands. It is possible that the extant writ is not the earliest issued. In February 1386, it was arranged that Holland should find three chaplains to celebrate divine service for ever for the repose of Ralph Stafford's soul; two of these chaplains were to be stationed at the place where the youth had been slain, and the third at the place of his interment. The king afterwards directed that the three chaplains should be established at Langley, the place of Ralph's burial. Holland soon obtained the restitution of his property, and