Part 19

When the Civil War began, Hampden was appointed a member of the committee for safety, levied a regiment of Buckinghamshire men for the parliamentary cause, and in his capacity of deputy-lieutenant carried out the parliamentary militia ordinance in the county. In the earlier operations of the war he bore himself gallantly and well. He took no actual part in the battle of Edgehill. His troops in the rear, however, arrested Rupert's charge at Kineton, and he urged Essex to renew the attack here, and also after the disaster at Brentford. In 1643 he was present at the siege and capture of Reading. But it is not on his skill as a regimental officer that Hampden's fame rests. In war as in peace his distinction lay in his power of disentangling the essential part from the non-essential. In the previous constitutional struggle he had seen that the one thing necessary was to establish the supremacy of the House of Commons. In the military struggle which followed he saw, as Cromwell saw afterwards, that the one thing necessary was to beat the enemy. He protested at once against Essex's hesitations and compromises. In the formation of the confederacy of the six associated counties, which was to supply a basis for Cromwell's operations, he took an active part. His influence was felt alike in parliament and in the field. But he was not in supreme command, and he had none of that impatience which often leads able men to fail in the execution of orders of which they disapprove. His precious life was a sacrifice to his unselfish devotion to the call of discipline and duty. On the 18th of June 1643, when he was holding out on Chalgrove Field against the superior numbers of Rupert till reinforcements arrived, he received two carbine balls in the shoulder. Leaving the field he reached Thame, survived six days, and died on the 24th.

Hampden married (1) in 1619 Elizabeth, daughter of Edmund Symeon of Pyrton, Oxfordshire, and (2) Letitia, daughter of Sir Francis Knollys and widow of Sir Thomas Vachell. By his first wife he had nine children, one of whom, Richard (1631-1695) was chancellor of the exchequer in William III.'s reign; from two of his daughters are descended the families of Trevor-Hampden and Hobart-Hampden, the descent in the male line becoming apparently extinct in 1754 in the person of John Hampden.

JOHN HAMPDEN the younger (c. 1656-1696), the second son of Richard Hampden, returned to England after residing for about two years in France, and joined himself to Lord William Russell and Algernon Sidney and the party opposed to the arbitrary government of Charles II. With Russell and Sidney he was arrested in 1683 for alleged complicity in the Rye House Plot, but more fortunate than his colleagues his life was spared, although as he was unable to pay the fine of L40,000 which was imposed upon him he remained in prison. Then in 1685, after the failure of Monmouth's rising, Hampden was again brought to trial, and on a charge of high treason was condemned to death. But the sentence was not carried out, and having paid L6000 he was set at liberty. In the Convention parliament of 1689 he represented Wendover, but in the subsequent parliaments he failed to secure a seat. He died by his own hand on the 12th of December 1696. Hampden wrote numerous pamphlets, and Bishop Burnet described him as "one of the learnedest gentlemen I ever knew."

See S. R. Gardiner's _Hist. of England_ and _of the Great Civil War_; the article on Hampden in the _Dict. of Nat. Biography_, by C. H. Firth, with authorities there collected; Clarendon's _Hist. of the Rebellion_; Sir Philip Warwick's _Mems._ p. 239; Wood's _Ath. Oxon._ iii. 59; Lord Nugent's _Memorials of John Hampden_ (1831); Macaulay's _Essay on Hampden_ (1831). The printed pamphlet announcing his capture of Reading in December 1642 is shown by Mr Firth to be spurious, and the account in _Mercurius Aulicus_, January 27 and 29, 1643, of Hampden commanding an attack at Brill, to be also false, while the published speech supposed to be spoken by Hampden on the 4th of January 1642, and reproduced by Forster in the _Arrest of the Five Members_ (1660), has been proved by Gardiner to be a forgery (_Hist. of England_, x. 135). Mr Firth has also shown in _The Academy_ for 1889, November 2 and 9, that "the belief that we possess the words of Hampden's last prayer must be abandoned."

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Hampden was one of the persons to whom the earl of Warwick granted land in Connecticut, but for the anecdote which relates his attempted emigration with Cromwell there is no foundation (v. under JOHN PYM).

HAMPDEN, RENN DICKSON (1793-1868), English divine, was born in Barbados, where his father was colonel of militia, in 1793, and was educated at Oriel College, Oxford. Having taken his B.A. degree with first-class honours in both classics and mathematics in 1813, he next year obtained the chancellor's prize for a Latin essay, and shortly afterwards was elected to a fellowship in his college, Keble, Newman and Arnold being among his contemporaries. Having left the university in 1816 he held successively a number of curacies, and in 1827 he published _Essays on the Philosophical Evidence of Christianity_, followed by a volume of _Parochial Sermons illustrative of the Importance of the Revelation of God in Jesus Christ_ (1828). In 1829 he returned to Oxford and was Bampton lecturer in 1832. Notwithstanding a charge of Arianism now brought against him by the Tractarian party, he in 1833 passed from a tutorship at Oriel to the principalship of St Mary's Hall. In 1834 he was appointed professor of moral philosophy, and despite much university opposition, Regius professor of divinity in 1836. There resulted a widespread and violent though ephemeral controversy, after the subsidence of which he published a _Lecture on Tradition_, which passed through several editions, and a volume on _The Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England_. His nomination by Lord John Russell to the vacant see of Hereford in December 1847 was again the signal for a violent and organized opposition; and his consecration in March 1848 took place in spite of a remonstrance by many of the bishops and the resistance of Dr John Merewether, the dean of Hereford, who went so far as to vote against the election when the _conge d'elire_ reached the chapter. As bishop of Hereford Dr Hampden made no change in his long-formed habits of studious seclusion, and though he showed no special ecclesiastical activity or zeal, the diocese certainly prospered in his charge. Among the more important of his later writings were the articles on Aristotle, Plato and Socrates, contributed to the eighth edition of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, and afterwards reprinted with additions under the title of _The Fathers of Greek Philosophy_ (Edinburgh, 1862). In 1866 he had a paralytic seizure, and died in London on the 23rd of April 1868.

His daughter, Henrietta Hampden, published _Some Memorials of R. D. Hampden_ in 1871.

HAMPDEN-SIDNEY, a village of Prince Edward county, Virginia, U.S.A., about 70 m. S.W. of Richmond. Pop. about 350. Daily stages connect the village with Farmville (pop. in 1910, 2971), the county-seat, 6 m. N.E., which is served by the Norfolk & Western and the Tidewater & Western railways. Hampden-Sidney is the seat of Hampden-Sidney College, founded by the presbytery of Hanover county as Hampden-Sidney Academy in 1776, and named in honour of John Hampden and Algernon Sidney. It was incorporated as Hampden-Sidney College in 1783. The incorporators included James Madison, Patrick Henry (who is believed to have drafted the college charter), Paul Carrington, William Cabell, Sen., and Nathaniel Venable. The Union Theological School was established in connexion with the college in 1812, but in 1898 was removed to Richmond, Virginia. In 1907-1908 the college had 8 instructors, 125 students, and a library of 11,000 volumes. The college has maintained a high standard of instruction, and many of its former students have been prominent as public men, educationalists and preachers. Among them were President William Henry Harrison, William H. Cabell (1772-1853), president of the Virginia Court of Appeals; George M. Bibb (1772-1859), secretary of the treasury (1844-1845) in President Tyler's cabinet; William B. Preston (1805-1862), secretary of the navy in 1849-1850; William Cabell Rives and General Sterling Price (1809-1867).

HAMPSHIRE (or COUNTY OR SOUTHAMPTON, abbreviated Hants), a southern county of England, bounded N. by Berkshire, E. by Surrey and Sussex, S. by the English Channel, and W. by Dorsetshire and Wiltshire. The area is 1623.5 sq. m. From the coast of the mainland, which is for the most part low and irregular, a strait, known in its western part as the Solent, and in its eastern as Spithead, separates the Isle of Wight. This island is included in the county. The inlet of Southampton Water opens from this strait, penetrating inland in a north-westerly direction for 12 m. The easterly part of the coast forms a large shallow bay containing Hayling and Portsea Islands, which divide it into Chichester Harbour, Langston Harbour and Portsmouth Harbour. The westerly part forms the more regular indentations of Christchurch Bay and part of Poole Bay. In its general aspect Hampshire presents a beautiful variety of gently rising hills and fruitful valleys, adorned with numerous mansions and pleasant villages, and interspersed with extensive tracts of woodland. Low ranges of hills, included in the system to which the general name of the Western Downs is given, reach their greatest elevation in the northern and eastern parts of the county, where there are many picturesque eminences, of which Beacon, Sidown and Pilot hills near Highclere in the north-west, each exceeding 850 ft., are the highest. The portion of the county west of Southampton Water is almost wholly included in the New Forest, a sequestered district, one of the few remaining examples of an ancient afforested tract. The river Avon in the south-west rises in Wiltshire, and passing Fordingbridge and Ringwood falls into Christchurch Bay below Christchurch, being joined close to its mouth by the Stour. The Lymington or Boldre river rises in the New Forest, and after collecting the waters of several brooks falls into the Solent through Lymington Creek. The Beaulieu in the eastern part of the forest also enters the Solent by way of a long and picturesque estuary. The Test rises near Overton in the north, and after its junction with the Anton at Fullerton passes Stockbridge and Romsey, and enters the head of Southampton Water. The Itchen rises near Alresford, and flowing by Winchester and Eastleigh falls into Southampton Water east of Southampton. The Hamble rises near Bishops Waltham, and soon forms a narrow estuary opening into Southampton Water. The Wey, the Loddon and the Blackwater, rising in the north-eastern part of the county, bring that part into the basin of the Thames. The streams from the chalk hills run clear and swift, and the trout-fishing in the county is famous. Salmon are taken in the Avon.

_Geology._--Somewhat to the north of the centre of the county is a broad expanse of hilly chalk country about 21 m. wide; the whole of it has been bent up into a great fold so that the strata on the north dip northward steeply in places, while those on the south dip in the opposite direction more gently. In the north the chalk disappears beneath Tertiary strata of the "London Basin," and some little distance south of Winchester it runs in a similar manner beneath the Tertiaries of the "Hampshire Basin." Scattered here and there over the chalk are small outlying remnants which remain to show that the two Tertiary areas were once continuous, before the agencies of denudation had removed them from the chalk. These same agencies have exposed the strata beneath the chalk over a small area on the eastern border.

The oldest formation in Hampshire is the Lower Greensand in the neighbourhood of Woolmer Forest and Petersfield; it is represented by the Hythe beds, sandstones and limestones which form the high ridge which runs on towards Hind Head, then by the sands and clays of the Sandgate beds which lie in the low ground west of the ridge, and finally by the Folkestone beds; all these dip westward beneath the Gault. The last-named formation, a clay, worked here and there for bricks, crops out as a narrow band from Fareham through Worldham and Stroud common to Petersfield. Between the Gault and the chalk is the Upper Greensand with a hard bed of calcareous sandstone, the Malm rock, which stands up in places as a prominent escarpment. The Upper Greensand is also exposed at Burghclere as an inlier; the rocks are bent into a sharp anticline and the chalk, having been denuded from its crest, the older sandy strata are brought to light. A much more gentle anticline brings up the chalk through the Tertiary rocks in the neighbourhood of Fareham. Besides occupying the central region already mentioned, which includes Basingstoke, Whitchurch, Andover, Alresford and Winchester, the chalk appears also in a small patch round Rockbourne. The Tertiary rocks of the north (London basin) about Farnborough, Aldershot and Kingsclere, comprise the Reading beds, London clay and the more sandy Bagshot beds which cover the latter in many places, giving rise to heathy commons. The southern Tertiary rocks of the Hampshire basin include the Lower Eocene Reading beds--used for brick-making--and the London clay which extend from the boundary of the chalk by Romsey, Bishop's Waltham, to Havant. These are succeeded towards the south by the Upper Eocene beds, the Bracklesham beds and the Barton clay. The Barton clays are noted for their abundant fossils and the Bagshot beds at Bournemouth contain numerous remains of subtropical plants. A series of clays and sands of Oligocene age (unknown in the London basin) are found in the vicinity of Lymington, Brockenhurst and Beaulieu; they include the Headon beds, with a fluvio-marine fauna, well exposed at Hordwell cliffs, and the marine beds of Brockenhurst. Numerous small outliers of Tertiary rocks are scattered over the chalk area, and many of the chalk and Tertiary areas are obscured by patches of Pleistocene deposits of brick earth and gravel.

_Agriculture and Industries._--Nearly seven-tenths of the total area is under cultivation (an amount below the average of English counties) and of this area about two-fifths is in permanent pasture. The acreage under oats is roughly equal to that under wheat and barley. Small quantities of rye and hops are cultivated. Barley is usually sown after turnips, and is more grown in the uplands than in the lower levels. Beans, pease and potatoes are only grown to a small extent. On account of the number of sheep pastured on the uplands a large acreage of turnips is grown. Rotation grasses are grown chiefly in the uplands, and their acreage is greater than in any other of the southern counties of England. Sanfoin is the grass most largely grown, as it is best adapted to land with a calcareous subsoil. In the lower levels no sanfoin and scarcely any clover is grown, the hay being supplied from the rich water meadows, which are managed with great skill and attention, and give the best money return of any lands in the county. Where a rapid stream of water can be passed over them during the winter it seldom becomes frozen, and the grasses grow during the cold weather so as to be fit for pasture before any traces of vegetation appear in the surrounding fields. Hops are grown in the eastern part of the county bordering on Surrey. Farming is generally conducted on the best modern principles, but owing to the varieties of soil there is perhaps no county in England in which the rotation observed is more diversified, or the processes and methods more varied. Most of the farms are large, and there are a number of model farms. The waste land has been mostly brought under tillage, but a very large acreage of the ancient forests is still occupied by wood. In addition to the New Forest there are in the east Woolmer Forest and Alice Holt, in the south-east the Forest of Bere and Waltham Chase, and in the Isle of Wight Parkhurst Forest. The honey of the county is especially celebrated. Much attention is paid to the rearing of sheep and cattle. The original breed of sheep was white-faced with horns, but most of the flocks are now of a Southdown variety which have acquired certain distinct peculiarities, and are known as "short wools" or "Hampshire downs." Cattle are of no distinctive breed, and are kept largely for dairy purposes, especially for the supply of milk. The breeding and rearing of horses is widely practised, and the fattening of pigs has long been an important industry. The original breed of pigs is crossed with Berkshire, Essex and Chinese pigs. In the vicinity of the forest the pigs are fed on acorns and beechmast, and the flesh of those so reared is considered the best, though the reputation of Hampshire bacon depends chiefly on the skilful manner in which it is cured.

The manufactures are unimportant, except those carried on at Portsmouth and Gosport in connexion with the royal navy. Southampton is one of the principal ports in the kingdom. In many of the towns there are breweries and tanneries, and paper is manufactured at several places. Fancy pottery and terra-cotta are made at Fareham and Bishop's Waltham; and Ringwood is celebrated for its knitted gloves. At most of the coast towns fishing is carried on, and there are oyster beds at Hayling Island. Cowes in the Isle of Wight is the station of the Royal Yacht Squadron, and has building yards for yachts and large vessels. The principal seaside resorts besides those in the Isle of Wight are Bournemouth, Milford, Lee-on-the-Solent, Southsea and South Hayling. Aldershot is the principal military training centre in the British Isles.

_Communications._--Communications are provided mainly by the lines of the London & South-Western railway company, which also owns the docks at Southampton. The main line serves Farnborough, Basingstoke, Whitchurch and Andover, and a branch diverges southward from Basingstoke for Winchester, Southampton and the New Forest and Bournemouth. An alternative line from eastward to Winchester serves Aldershot, Alton and Alresford. The main Portsmouth line skirts the south-eastern border by Petersfield to Havant, where it joins the Portsmouth line of the London, Brighton & South Coast railway. The South-Western system also connects Portsmouth and Gosport with Southampton, has numerous branches in the Southampton and south-western districts, and large work shops at Eastleigh near Southampton. The Great Western company serves Basingstoke from Reading and Whitchurch, Winchester and Southampton from Didcot (working the Didcot, Newbury & Southampton line); the Midland & South-Western Junction line connects Andover with Cheltenham; and the Somerset & Dorset (also a Midland & South-Western joint line) connects Bournemouth with Bath--all these affording through communications between Southampton, Bournemouth, and the midlands and north of England. None of the rivers, except in the estuarine parts, is navigable.

_Population and Administration._--The area of the ancient county is 1,039,031 acres, including the Isle of Wight. The population was 690,097 in 1891 and 797,634 in 1901. The area of the administrative county of Southampton is 958,742 acres, and that of the administrative county of the Isle of Wight 94,068 acres. The county is divided for parliamentary purposes into the following divisions: Northern or Basingstoke, Western or Andover, Eastern or Petersfield, Southern or Fareham, New Forest, and Isle of Wight, each returning one member. It also includes the parliamentary boroughs of Portsmouth and Southampton, each returning two members, and of Christchurch and Winchester, each returning one. There are 11 municipal boroughs: Andover (pop. 6509), Basingstoke (9793), Bournemouth (59,762), Christchurch (4204), Lymington (4165), Portsmouth (188,133), Romsey (4365), Southampton (104,824), Winchester (20,929), and in the Isle of Wight, Newport (10,911) and Ryde (11,043). Bournemouth, Portsmouth and Southampton are county boroughs. The following are urban districts: Aldershot (30,974), Alton (5479), Eastleigh and Bishopstoke (9317), Fareham (8246), Farnborough (11,500), Gosport and Alverstoke (28,884), Havant (3837), Itchen (13,097), Petersfield (3265), Warblington (3639); and in the Isle of Wight, Cowes (8652), East Cowes (3196), St Helen's (4652), Sandown (5006), Shanklin (4533), Ventnor (5866). The county is in the western circuit, and assizes are held at Winchester. It has one court of quarter sessions, and is divided into 14 petty sessional divisions. The boroughs of Andover, Basingstoke, Bournemouth, Lymington, Newport, Portsmouth, Romsey, Ryde, Southampton (a county in itself) and Winchester have separate commissions of the peace, and the boroughs of Andover, Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Southampton and Winchester have in addition separate courts of quarter sessions. There are 394 civil parishes. Hampshire is in the diocese of Winchester, excepting small parts in those of Oxford and Salisbury, and contains 411 ecclesiastical parishes or districts wholly or in part.

_History._--The earliest English settlers in the district which is now Hampshire were a Jutish tribe who occupied the northern parts of the Isle of Wight and the valleys of the Meon and the Hamble. Their settlements were, however, unimportant, and soon became absorbed in the territory of the West Saxons who in 495 landed at the mouth of the Itchen under the leadership of Cerdic and Cynric, and in 508 slew 5000 Britons and their king. But it was not until after another decisive victory at Charford in 519 that the district was definitely organized as West Saxon territory under the rule of Cerdic and Cynric, thus becoming the nucleus of the vast later kingdom of Wessex. The Isle of Wight was subjugated in 530 and bestowed on Stuf and Wihtgar, the nephews of Cerdic. The Northmen made their first attack on the Hampshire coast in 835, and for the two centuries following the district was the scene of perpetual devastations by the Danish pirates, who made their headquarters in the Isle of Wight, from which they plundered the opposite coast. Hampshire suffered less from the Conquest than almost any English county, and was a favourite resort of the Norman kings. The alleged destruction of property for the formation of the New Forest is refuted by the Domesday record, which shows that this district had never been under cultivation.

In the civil war of Stephen's reign Baldwin de Redvers, lord of the Isle of Wight, supported the empress Matilda, and Winchester Castle was secured in her behalf by Robert of Gloucester, while the neighbouring fortress of Wolvesey was held for Stephen by Bishop Henry de Blois. In 1216 Louis of France, having arrived in the county by invitation of the barons, occupied Winchester Castle, and only met with resistance at Odiham Castle, which made a brave stand against him for fifteen days. During the Wars of the Roses Anthony Woodville, 2nd earl Rivers, defeated the duke of Clarence at Southampton, and in 1471, after the battle of Barnet, the countess of Warwick took sanctuary at Beaulieu Abbey. The chief events connected with Hampshire in the Civil War of the 17th century were the gallant resistance of the cavalier garrisons at Winchester and Basing House; a skirmish near Cheriton in 1644 notable as the last battle fought on Hampshire soil; and the concealment of Charles at Titchfield in 1647 before his removal to Carisbrooke. The duke of Monmouth, whose rebellion met with considerable support in Hampshire, was captured in 1685 near Ringwood.