Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/337

Rh T.imcs. Having removed in 1837 to Esher, to be near the literary circles of the metropolis, Howitt there wrote in succession The Rural Life of England, 2 vols., 1838; Colonization and Christianity, 1838; The Boy’s Country Book, 1839; and the first series (afterwards extended) of Visits to Remarkable Places, Old Halls, Battlefields, and Scenes illustrative of striking passages in English History and Poetry, 1840-42, in which he recorded impressions derived on the spot, and pictured each place with its in habitants freed, as he says, from the heaviness of the antiquarian rubbish piled upon them. Visiting Heidelberg in 1840, primarily for the education of their children, the Howitts remained in Germany two years, studying their neighbours, and busying their pens in descriptions of their new surroundings. In 1841 Howitt produced The Student Life of Germany, under the pseudonym of &quot;Dr Cornelius,&quot; including translations of some of the most popular German songs. The next he published The Rural and Do mestic Life of Germany, with characteristic Sketches of its Cities and Scenery; in  following a translation of Chamisso’s Wonderful History of Peter Schlemihl; and in 1844 The Life of Jack of the Mill, a version of Holthaus’s Wanderings of a Journeyman Tailor, and German Experi ences, addressed to the English, a satire on the social life of Germany. In 1845 appeared Life in Dalecarlia, translated from the Swedish of Miss Bremer, The Renounced Treasure, and Johnny Darbyshire. The Aristocracy of England, a History of the English People, a political sketch, appeared in 1846, at the beginning of which Howitt became connected with the management and proprietorship of The People’s Journal, a weekly paper. A disagreement leading to his withdrawal he started: in 1847 a rival called Howitt’s Journal, but this was continued through three or four volumes only, though The People’s Journal was merged in it. In 1847 Howitt had translated Ennernoser’s History of Magic, and written an original work entitled Homes and Haunts of the most eminent British Poets, 2 vols., which was succeeded by The Hall and the Hamlet, or Scenes and Characters of Country Life, and very speedily by Stories of English and Foreign Life (Bohn’s Illustrated Library), in which Mrs Howitt assisted. Then appeared The Year-Book of the Country, or the Field, the Forest, and the Fire side, and in 1851 a three-volume novel called Madam Dorrington of the Dene. Under the associated names of husband and wife an interesting work was brought out in 1.852, The Literature and Romance of Northern Europe: constituting a complete History of the Literature of Sweden, Denmark, Nonvay, and Iceland, in 2 vols. In June of that Howitt, with two sons and some friends, set sail for Australia, where he spent two of the most trying of his life, working in the gold diggings, and visiting Melbourne, Sydney, and other s. Some account of the novel situations in which he was himself placed is given in A Soy’s Adventures in the Wilds of Australia (1854). Shortly afterwards he returned to the suburbs of London, on this occasion to Highgate, and narrated more elaborately his experiences in Land, Labour, and Gold; or Two Years in Victoria, with Visits to Sydney and Van Diemcn’s Land, 2 vols., 1855, a work which speedily became popular, the condition of the Australian colonies being then almost totally unknown in England. A further account of Australian life was given in 1857 in Tallangdta, the Squatter’s Home, 3 vols. The before Howitt had commenced The Illustrated History of England for Messrs Cassell, the sixth and last volume of which appeared in 1861. While this work was in pro gress he wrote in 1859 A Country Book of Amusements, and, in connexion with Mrs Hall and others, The Boy’s Birthday Book, and in 1860 The Man of the People, 3 vols. From 1861 to 1864 Mr and Mrs Howitt were occupied on The Ruined Abbeys and Castles of Great Britain, issuing, before its completion, The Wye, its Ruined Abbeys and Castles (1863); and the same Howitt printed a series of Letters on Transportation, and the Cruelties Practised under the Game Laws, and a work of great research, The History of the Supernatural in all Ages and Rations, and in all Churches, Christian and Pagan, demonstrating a Universal Faith, 2 vols. To a man with the mental de velopment of Howitt the miraculous became at all times an absorbing speculation; and he adds to these pages &quot;his own conclusions from a practical examination of the higher phenomena through a course of seven years.&quot; &quot; If,&quot; he reasons, &quot;you crush the supernatural you must crush the universe.&quot; Other works from Howitt’s pruliiic pen were Sargent’s Peculiar (1864); The History of Discovery in Australia, &c., 2 vols., 1865; The Ruined Abbeys of the Border (1865), and of Yorkshire (1865), jointly with his wife; Woodburn Grange, a story of English country life, 3 vols., 1867; The Northern Heights of London, an anti quarian and topographical description of Hampstead, Highgate, &c., 1869; The Mad War-Planet, and other Poems, 1871; The Religion of Rome, 1873. Suffering from bronchitis, Howitt had now made Home his winter residence, passing the summer in Tyrol. He died at Rome on the 3il of March 1879.  HOWRAH, the largest and most important in the district of Hooghly, Bengal, arid the headquarters of the magisterial district of Howrah, is situated on the right bank of the Hooghly river, opposite Calcutta, and forms a suburb of that. Since 1785 it has risen from a small village to a, with a magistrate, subordinate judge, &c., of its own. The total area of Howrah and suburbs within municipal limits is 11-05 square s; the in 1872 numbered 97,784, of whom 54,098 were males and 43,686 females (Hindus, 79,335; Mahometans, 16,611; Christians, ; others, 354). The municipal income in 1871-72 was 13,994. The is lighted with gas; it contains several large and important dockyards, and is also the Bengal terminus of the East Indian Railway. Mills and manufactories of various sorts are rapidly developing. Communication with Calcutta is carried on by means of ferry steamers, and by a massive pontoon bridge, which was opened for traffic in 1874. Howrah is a suburban residence for many people who have their places of business in Calcutta. Sibpur. one of the suburbs of Howrah, situated opposite Fort-William, a small village at the commencement of the century, is now a flourishing little. To the south of Sibpur are the Royal Botanical Gardens and the Bishop’s College.  HÖXTER (Latin, Huxaria], a of Prussia, capital of a circle in the government district of Minden, province of Westphalia, is situated on the Weser at its confluence with the Grube and the Schelpe, and on a branch line of the Westphalian Railway, 2^ s S.W. of Holxniinden. It is the seat of a provincial office and of a circle court, and possesses an Evangelical and a Catholic church, a synagogue, a gymnasium, a building-school, and a hospital. The Weser is crossed by a stone bridge about 500 in length, erected in 1833. On the Brunsberg adjoining the  there is an old watch-tower said to be the remains of a fortress built by Bruno, brother of Wittekind. Near Hoxter is the castle, formerly the Benedictine monastery, of Corvey (see ). The principal manufactures of the  are linen, cotton, cement, and gum, and there is also a considerable shipping trade. The  in 1875 was 5645.

