Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/521

 HASTINGS 507 was not master of Rome. After other exploits he once more appeared upon the coast of Nor- mandy. Count Robert of Anjou and the duke of Aquitaine surprised him at Brisarthe, near Angers, from which place, after a furious bat- tle, in which both the Frankish leaders were slain, Hasting ascended the Loire, plundered every town on its banks, and sailed for Eng- land to join a Danish invasion. Repulsed by Alfred the Great, he reappeared upon the Loire, and wrung from Charles the Fat possession in perpetuity of the county of Chartres. He now sought a home in Denmark, where at a great age his identity is lost in the confusion of the chronicles, which attribute to him the subse- quent exploits of a number of vikings who as- sumed his name. HASTINGS, a municipal and parliamentary borough of Sussex, England, 54 m. S. S. E. of London, with which it is connected by railway ; Battle Abbey, Hastings. >p. of the town in 1871, 29,289 ; of the bor- mgh, 33,335. Hastings is one of the cinque )orts, and is pleasantly situated on the coast, >eing sheltered on three sides by hills and cliffs. It consists of an old and a new town. The trade is inconsiderable. Crowds of visitors lock to it during the bathing season. The bat- tle of Hastings, between William of Normandy ind Harold, king of the Anglo-Saxons, was fought on Oct. 14, 1066, at Senlac, six miles "rom Hastings. The Normans, formidable by their cavalry and bowmen, advanced to the at- tack, and were met by the Anglo-Saxons with their battle axes, the Kentish men in front. Tie battle continued from 9 o'clock in the morning till sunset, and the Anglo-Saxons suf- fered severely by advancing to pursue the Nor- mans, who feigned retreat ; yet they maintained their position till Harold fell pierced by an ar- row. Then their efforts immediately relaxed, and they dispersed at dusk. "The subjugation of a nation by a nation," says Macaulay, speak- ing of the consequences of the battle, "has seldom, even in Asia, been more complete." Upon the battle field the conqueror within two years founded the " abbey of bataille," and the name of Senlac was changed to that of Battle, which the place still bears. The victorious ar- my numbered 60,000 men, more than one fourth of whom were left on the field ; the number of the vanquished and their loss are unknown. HASTINGS, a central county of Ontario, Can- ada, bordering on the bay of Quinte, an inlet of Lake Ontario; area, 2,337 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 48,364, of whom 20,408 were of Irish, 11,543 of English, 5,968 of German, 5,120 of Scotch, 2,785 of French, and 1,547 of Dutch origin or descent. The surface is interspersed with small lakes and rivulets. Gold is found in the interior. The county is traversed by the Grand Trunk railway. Capital, Belleville. HASTINGS, a city and the capital of Dakota co., Minnesota, on the right bank of the Mis- sissippi river, at the mouth of the Vermil- ion, and about 5 m. above the mouth of the St. Croix, 20 m. E. S. E. of St. Paul ; pop. in 1860, 1,653; in 1870, 3,458. Railroad com- munication is furnished by the Chicago, Mil- waukee, and St. Paul, and the Hastings and Dakota lines. The Ver- milion here falls 110 ft. in half a mile, and fur- nishes abundant water power. The principal manufactories are four flour mills, a saw mill, and a shingle mill. The city has a three-story brick hotel, a large central school house, con- taining the high school, and having eight teachers, three school houses with one teach- er each, a Catholic school and a second in course of erection, a national bank, two week- ly newspapers, and eight churches. HASTINGS, Francis Rawdon Hastings, marquis of, an English soldier, born Dec. 9, 1754, died in the bay of Baja, near Naples, Nov. 28, 1826. He was educated at Oxford, and at the age of 17 entered the army as ensign in a foot regiment. In 1773 he was sent with his regiment to Amer- ica, and two years later, as captain in the 63d foot, participated in the battle of Bunker hill. In 1778 he was appointed adjutant general of the British forces in North America, with the rank of lieutenant colonel. His good conduct at the battle of Monmouth in the same year procured him the command of a British corps in South Carolina, which he led at the battle of Camden (Aug. 16, 1780), and with which he