uting numerous portraits of his courtiers,
till his death of the plague; his "Last Supper" and "Dance of Death" are
well known (1497-1554).

HOLBERG, LUDWIG, BARON, an eminent Danish author, born at Bergen, in
Norway; graduated at Copenhagen, where, after travel, he became professor
of Metaphysics; subsequently he held in turn the chairs of Eloquence and
of History; he was an author of great versatility, excelling as a writer
of satires, comedies, and as historian of Church and State; his
autobiography is an interesting work, and many of his plays and other
works are among the accepted classics of Danish literature (1684-1754).

HOLCROFT, THOMAS, journalist and political novelist, born in London;
began life as an actor; wrote "Road to Ruin"; was charged with treason,
but acquitted; left "Memoirs" (1744-1809).

HOLDEN, SIR ISAAC, inventor, born at Hurlet, Renfrewshire; worked in
a cotton-mill in Paisley, but betook himself to teaching, and in 1829,
while a teacher of chemistry in Reading, discovered the principle of the
lucifer match; turning to wool-combing as a means of livelihood, he
became established near Paris, where he carried out elaborate
experiments, which resulted in improvements in wool-combing machinery
that brought him fame and fortune; in 1859 he transferred his works to
the vicinity of Bradford; entered Parliament in 1865, and was created a
baronet in 1893 (1807-1897).

HOLINSHED, RAPHAEL, English chronicler of the Elizabethan age; his
"Chronicle," published in two vols. in 1577, supplied Shakespeare with
materials for some of his historical plays; _d_. 1580.

HOLL, FRANK, artist, born in Kentish Town; was highly distinguished
as an art student, and at 23 won the travelling studentship of the
Academy; came into notice first as a _genre_-painter, exhibiting pictures
of a pathetic nature, such as "Want--the Pawnbroker's Shop,"
"Newgate--Committed for Trial," "Ordered to the Front," &c.; subsequently
he won a wide celebrity as a portrait-painter, producing portraits of the
Prince of Wales, Mr. Gladstone, and other distinguished personages
(1845-1888).

HOLLAND (4,795), officially known as the Netherlands, a small
maritime country of Western Europe, bordered on its N. and W. by the
German Ocean, and having Prussia on its E. and Belgium to the S.; its
area, somewhat less than one-fourth the size of England and Wales,
comprises, besides the mainland, two island groups, one in the N. and one
i