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 804 HOOGLY HOOK Tacitus through 52 times. He also wrote a life of Henry IV. (1626), and a history of the house of Medici (1649). Among his poetical compositions are the tragedies Gerard van Vel- sen, Baete^ and several minor pieces. HOOGLY, a river of Bengal, British India, one of the deltoid mouths of the Ganges, formed by the junction, in lat. 23 25' N., Ion. 88 22' E., of three branches of the Ganges. Its course is nearly S. with many windings, and it discharges its waters into the bay of Bengal by a broad estuary about 35 m. long and 15 m. wide at its mouth. The length of the Hoogly from the junction of its parent streams to the head of the estuary is 125 m. At Cal- cutta it is nearly a mile wide, and there is little increase in its size until it receives the Dum- modah and Rupnarain, a short distance above its estuary. It is navigable by vessels of 1,400 tons as high as Calcutta, 100 m. from the bay, and ships of the line could formerly ascend to Ohandernagore, 17 m. further. It is feared that the bed of the stream is being gradually filled up with mud and sand, and it has been proposed to construct a ship canal from Cal- cutta to the Mutwal, another mouth of the Ganges some distance E. The Hoogly is the only channel of the delta now frequented by large ships, though its mouth is obstructed by shoals. The Hindoos regard it as the true course of the sacred Ganges. The tidal phenomenon called the bore is often witnessed in it. HOOGLY. I. A district of British India, in the province of Bengal, bounded N". by Burdwan, E. by the Hoogly, S. by the Rupnarain, and W. by Midnapore and Burdwan ; area, 1,470 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 1,491,621. The surface is low and flat in the east and hilly in the west and northwest. The principal streams are the Hoogly and its tributaries, the Dummodah, Rupnarain, and Dalkissore. The soil of the low lands is fertile, and in some places is im- pregnated with salt. The most important pro- ductions are rice, sugar cane, indigo, cotton, tobacco, mustard, oil seeds, ginger, potatoes, garden vegetables, and hemp. Silkworms are reared, and silk is one of the principal articles of export. II. The principal town of the dis- trict, situated on the right bank of the river of the same name, 22 m. above Calcutta, with which it has communication by the Calcutta and Burdwan railway ; pop. about 12,000. It contains a fine church built by the Jesuits in 1599, and a college erected in 1836, in which both English and oriental branches are taught. This institution is supported by en- dowment from the estate of a wealthy Mo- hammedan. Hoogly, once an important city, is now of little note, having declined with the rise of Calcutta. The town was probably founded by the Portuguese in 1537. It was taken by Shah Jehan in 1632, when 1,000 Eu- ropeans were slaughtered and 4,400 made prisoners. The British established here in 1676 a factory, which, being fortified five years later, and furnished with a guard of 20 men, became the first military establishment of the East India company in Bengal. The first action fought by the English in Bengal took place here in 1686, when the nawaub's troops were defeated and 500 houses burned. In 1756 the town was captured by Surajah Dow- lah, but was retaken in 1757 by Clive. HOOK, Theodore Edward, an English author and journalist, born in London, Sept. 22, 1788, died in Fulham, Aug. 24, 1841. As a boy he showed extraordinary precocity. After a very inadequate education, terminating premature- ly at Harrow, he rejoined his father, then mu- sical director of Vauxhall gardens, and soon gave evidence of his talents by the production of several songs, for which he also composed the music; and when scarcely 16 he wrote a drama entitled " The Soldier's Return," which was well received. Elated by the extravagant praises of friends, he produced in rapid succes- sion a number of farces and vaudevilles, and at an age when most boys are at* school was a successful dramatist, the wit of the greenroom, and the companion of actors and playwrights. Yielding to the fascinations of such a life, he gradually enlarged the circle of his admirers by his facile humor, his astonishing faculty of punning, the audacity of his practical jokes, and his brilliant powers of improvisation, until he was welcomed to the most aristocratic soci- ety of London, and even attracted the notice of the prince regent, who sent him in 1812 to Mauritius as accountant general and treasu- rer, with a salary of 2,000. In 1818 he was brought back to England as a prisoner under a charge of embezzling a sum of the public money estimated at 20,000, but which was subsequently reduced to 12,000. The law officer of the crown decided that there was no ground for a criminal prosecution, although his carelessness and incapacity were displayed to an extent almost incredible ; and he was set at liberty and once more commenced the ca- reer of an author. In 1820 the "John Bull " newspaper was established in the interest of the king, for the purpose of crushing the sup- porters of Queen Caroline, and Hook's powers of satire and ridicule suggested him as a fit person to conduct it. He performed the task with great adroitness, and the circulation of the paper gave him a handsome income. In 1823 the government reasserted its claim against him, but after two years' confinement he procured a stay of proceedings, although he never made any attempt to discharge the debt. He was again welcomed to society, and to the close of his life remained a professed diner-out and wit. He employed his literary powers to some purpose, in the production of " Sayings and Doings," in three series, "Gilbert Gur- ney," "Maxwell," "Jack Brag," and a num- ber of other novels. Fashionable dissipation, high living, hard drinking, the excitement of the gaming table, and the constant mental strain to which he was subjected, gradually un- dermined his constitution, and he ended his