but contains some curious antiquarian matter. The allegory of the owl dressed in the feathers of other birds was supposed by Pinkerton to refer to James II, but this view, which partly rested on the false reading of a word, ‘crowne’ for ‘rowme,’ has been proved groundless by Sir Walter Scott and Mr. David Laing. It certainly seems to have no application to the king, but it is impossible not to suspect some personal allusion besides the general satire on pride. More interesting than the allegory itself, which is explained at full length by Irving (Hist. of Scottish Poetry, p. 166), and in Mr. Laing's preface, are the incidental passages, which give notices of early heraldic blazons, of the musical instruments then in use, and of the highland bards, already a subject for jest to the poets of the lowlands. The singular prophecy,
Our soveraine of Scotland his armes to knowe,
Quilk sall be lord and ledar
Our [or over] braid Brettane all quhar,
As Sanct Mergaretis air,
there seems no reason to suppose interpolated. Holland was esteemed by subsequent Scottish poets. His poem is referred to by Blind Harry, or Henry the Minstrel [q. v.] William Dunbar [q. v.] names him in his ‘Lament for the Makaris,’ and Lyndsay as one of the poets ‘who, though they be dead, their libelles [i.e. books] are yet living.’ A few quarto pages of a printed edition of ‘The Howlat’ were found by D. Laing in the old covers of a Protocol Book written before 1530, but no other portions of this edition are known. ‘The Buke of the Howlat’ was edited for the Bannatyne Club from the Bannatyne MS. in 1823 by Mr. Laing. A reprint appeared at Paisley, 1882.
[Laing's Preface, with notes by Sir W. Scott; Irving's Hist. of Scottish Poetry.]
HOLLAND, RICHARD (1596–1677), mathematician, born at Lincoln in 1596, was educated at Oxford, but appears to have taken no degree there. His life was mainly spent as a teacher of mathematics and ‘geology’ to the junior university students, and he wrote two books for the use of his pupils. The first, entitled ‘Globe Notes,’ Oxford, 1678, reached a second edition in 1684. It contains many of the simple propositions in astronomy still occurring in some elementary text-books, with definitions of such terms as colure, solstice, equinoxial. The other book is ‘Notes how to get the Angle of Parallax of a Comet or other phenomenon at two Observations,’ Oxford, 1668. It contains diagrams, with practical directions implying some knowledge of trigonometry.
According to Wood, Holland had such repute as a teacher that he became wealthy. He died on 1 May 1677, and was buried in the parish church of St. Peter-in-the-East, Oxford. Another Richard Holland, of Emanuel College, Cambridge, was incorporated M.A. at Oxford in 1679; was rector of Stanford, Lincolnshire, and author of five sermons published between 1698 and 1702.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 1109; Fasti, ii. 371.]
HOLLAND, ROBERT (1557–1622?), clergyman and poet, the third son of Hugh Holland, by Jane, daughter of Hugh Conway of Bryneurin, was born in 1557 at Conway, where the Holland family, though of English origin, had already been settled for many generations. They eventually became owners of most of the town, including the castle, as well as of good estates in the neighbourhood. Robert Holland studied at Cambridge as a member of Clare, Magdalene, and Jesus Colleges successively, graduating B.A. in 1578, and M.A. in 1581. We learn from the dedication of his paraphrase of the gospels that ‘the race of his youth was unadvisedly run,’ but that, after he had been ‘four years or more tossed with sundry troubles,’ the hearts of his friends had been stirred up ‘to favour his innocency, and to grant him breathing time after his travels.’ In 1591 he was presented to the rectory of Prendergast, in 1607 to that of Walwyn's Castle, and in 1612 to that of Robeston West, all in Pembrokeshire, and in the gift of the lord chancellor. He was also rector of Llanddowror in Carmarthenshire. He died about 1622. By Jane, daughter and heiress of Robert Meylir of Haverfordwest, he had six sons, of whom Nicholas was rector of Marloes, Pembrokeshire.
Holland was the author of:
- ‘The Holie Historie of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's Nativitie, Life, Actes, &c., gathered into English meter, and published to withdraw vayne wits from all unsaverie and wicked rimes and fables, to some love and liking of spirituall songs and holy Scriptures,’ London, 1594, 12mo.
- ‘Darmerth, neu Arlwy Gweddi, &c. (i.e. a prayer, preparation, or feast, conceived with a view to the great exaltation of godliness and the increase of the knowledge and the desire of the ignorant willing rightly to serve the true God),’ Rhydychain (i.e. Oxford), 1600, 4to.
- ‘Dav Cymro yn taring yn Bell o'u Gwlad, ac ymgyffwrdd ar fynydd, &c.’ (Stories told by two Welshmen meeting on a mountain, about all they had seen and heard with regard to conjurers, wizards, and the like).
