Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/806

770 In private life Sir John Herschel was a firm and most active friend ; he had no jealousies; he avoided all scientific feuds; he gladly accorded a helping hand to those who consulted him in scientific difficulties; he never discouraged, and still less disparaged, men younger than or inferior to himself ; he was pleased when his own work was appre- ciated, but that was never an object of his solicitude: it was said of him by a discriminating critic, and without extravagance, that “his was a life full of the serenity of the sage and the docile innocence of a child.” He died at Coliingwood, his residence near Hawkhurst in Kent, May 11, 1871, in the seventy-ninth year of his age, and his remains are interred in Westminster Abbey close to the grave of Sir Isaac Newton.

1em  HERSENT, (1777–1860), French painter, was one of David’s most distinguished pupils, and became one of the most noted painters of the Restoration. He was born at Paris on 10th March 1777, and obtained the Prix de Rome in 1797; in the Salon of 1802 appeared his Metamorphosis of Narcissus, and he continued to exhibit with rare interruptions up to 1831. His most considerable works under the empire were Achilles parting from Briseis, and Atala dying in the arms of Chactas (both engraved in Landon’s Annales du Musée); an Incident of the life of Fénelon, painted in 1810, found a place at Malmaison, and Passage of the Bridge at Landshut, which belongs to the same date, is now at Versailles. Hersent’s typical works, however, belong to the period of the Restoration ; Louis XVI. relieving the Afflicted (Versailles) and Daphnis and Chloe (engraved by Langier and by Gelée) were both in the Salon of 1317 ; at that of 1819 the Abdication of Gustavus Vasa brought to Hersent a medal of honour, but the picture, purchased by the duke of Orleans, was destroyed at the Palais Royal in 1848, and the engraving by Henriquel-Dupont is now its sole record. Ruth, produced in 1822, became the property of Louis XVIIT., who from the moment that Hersent rallicd to the Restoration zealously patronized him, made him officer of the legion of honour, and pressed his claims at the Institute, where he replaced Van Spaendonck. He continued in favour under Tharles X., for whom was executed Monks of Mount St Gotthard, exhibited in 1824. In 1831 Hersent made his last appearance at the Salon with portraits of Louis Philippe, Marie-Amélie, and the duke of Moutpensier; that of the king, though good, is not equal to the portrait of Spontini (Berlin), which is probably Hersent’s chef-d’auvre. After this date Hersent ceased to exhibit at the yearly salons. Although in 1846 he sent an excellent likeness of Delphine Gay and one or two other works to the rooms of the Socicté d’Artistes, he could not be tempted from his usual reserve even by the international contest of 1855. Five years later, on 2d October 1860, he died. His work shows every artistic merit which can be attained by steadily directed intelligence and labour; his skilful arrangement, delicacy of line, and certainty in execution are points which have excited the admiration even of those who find him wanting in feeling, in interest, and in sense of colour. Louis XVI. relieving the Afflicted, the treatment of which indicates the approach of the realistic movement, is less theatrical than Daphnis and Chloe, which combines, in the true spirit of the Restoration, drawing-room graces with a pseudo-classic style; but both show the same dryness and hardness of manner which Hersent had acquired under the influence of the first empire, and from which he never was able to free himself.  HERSFELD, a town of Prussia, capital of a circle in the government district of Cassel, province of Hesse-Nassau, is pleasantly situated at the confluence of the Geisa and Haune with the Fulda, on the railway from Frankfort to Bebra, 10 N.N.E. of Fulda. The greater part of its old fortifications remain, but the ramparts and ditches have been laid out as promenades. The principal buildings are the ancient town-house; the parish church, completed in, in the Gothic style, with a fine tower and a large bell; the ruins of the collegiate church in the Byzantine style, erected in the on the site of the cathedral, but burnt down by the French during the Seven Years’ War; and outside the town the ancient monastery with its surrounding grounds. Among the public institu- tions are a gymnasium, a higher town school, an orphanage, and a district infirmary. The town has important manufactures of cloth and leather, as well as dye-works, worsted mills, and soap-boiling works. The population in 1875 was 6929.

1em  HERSTAL, or in its older form Heristar, a market- town of Belgium, on the left bank of the Meuse, 3 or 4 niles north-east of Liége, and skirting the road which leads from that city to Maestricht. Its, which in 1876 numbered 11,126, is mainly supported by its coal mines and iron industries. Herstal probably derives its name from being a “Heerstelle” or permanent camp of the Franks. It is well known as the birthplace and family seat of Pippin, the major-domo of the Austrasian kingdom, some few traces of whose castle are still pointed out above the town, And though it cannot maintain its claim to be the birthplace also of Charlemagne, it was undoubtedly a frequent place of residence for this greatest of the Carolin- gians ; and in 870 it gave its name to the treaty by which Charles the Bald and Lewis the German decided the parti- tion of Lotharingia. The lordship of Herstal passed to the house of Nassau in ; and in 1702, on the death of William III. of England, its possession was disputed between the house of Orange and the king of Prussia. The decision of the courts was given in 1714 in favour of Prussia ; but the new possessors, finding the feelings of the people of Herstal against them, sold the lordship to Liége