HOOD drawn battle with De Grasse during the same year near Chesapeake bay, but could not pre- vent its blockade nor the surrender of the Brit- ish army. In the great battle of April 12,1 782, when De Grasse was defeated, Hood com- manded the van division of the fleet under Rodney, and was in the same year created an Irish peer, under the title of Baron Hood. When the war with France commenced in 1793 he was sent to the Mediterranean to aid the royalists of the south, who surrendered Toulon to him. When the republicans under Bona- parte were about to regain possession of the place, which was no longer tenable, Hood de- stroyed the arsenal and dockyard, and 32 French ships, and withdrew with his fleet. In 1794 he expelled the French from Corsica and blockaded the port of Genoa. In 1796 he was raised to the English peerage as Viscount Hood of Whitley, and in 1799 became admiral of the red. II. Alexander, Viscount Bridport, brother of the preceding, born in 1727, died in Bath, May 3, 1814. He entered the naval ser- vice, and early became distinguished by the capture of two French vessels of war in two actions in Hyeres bay in 1757. He passed rap- idly through the lower grades, and in 1782, as rear admiral, was second in command of the fleet sent out under Lord Howe to relieve Gib- raltar. In 1794 he contributed materially to Lord Howe's great victory with the channel fleet, his flag being hoisted on the Royal George, which sustained the hottest of the fire. In the same year he was created an Irish peer, under the title of Baron Bridport. In 1795 he attacked the French fleet of 12 ships of the line and 10 frigates, off Lorient, with an in- ferior force, and captured three sail of the line. For this he was in 1796 made a British peer as Baron Bridport, and in 1800 Viscount Bridport. HOOD, Thomas, an English poet, born in Lon- don, May 23, 1798, died there, May 3, 1845. His father, who was a bookseller, died when he was but 12 years old. After acquiring the rudiments of an education, he was placed in a counting house ; but the confinement of a mer- cantile life so affected his health that he was sent to Dundee to recruit, where mountain tramps and roving on the Tay restored his strength, but rendered him unwilling to re- sume a commercial life. He made his first literary attempts here, in the "Dundee Maga- zine," and after two years' residence returned to London and engaged himself to an uncle, to learn the art of engraving. He continued his attempts at versification, which attracted some attention, and in 1821 was made sub-editor of the " London Magazine," which had passed into the hands of some of his friends. Through this connection he became acquainted with Charles Lamb, Hartley Coleridge, De Quincey, Hazlitt, Bowring, Taltburd, Gary, Procter, and other literary men who were among the con- tributors. With Lamb he contracted an in- timacy which was uninterrupted until the lat- ter's death. Hood's first book, " Odes and HOOFT 803 Addresses to Great People," was published anonymously, being in part the work of his brother-in-law J. H. Reynolds. In 1826 he published a collection of miscellaneous papers under the title of " Whims and Oddities." His "National Tales" appeared in 1827, and in the same year he published a volume of poems including " The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies " "Hero and Leander," and "Lycus the Cen- taur," which were received with little interest by the public. Returning to his lighter and more popular style, he brought out a second series of " Whims and Oddities," which was followed in 1829 by a humorous poem called " The Epping Hunt." Hood edited the " Gem " for this year, and wrote for it his " Dream of Eugene Aram." In 1830 he began the publi- cation of the "Comic Annual," which was continued through 10 volumes ; and after an interruption of two years an llth was issued in 1842. A selection of pieces from this work, with some additions, appeared in 12 monthly numbers in ISSS-^, under the title of " Hood's Own." In 1831 he removed to a residence in Essex, called the Lake house, where he wrote his novel of "Tylney Hall," but pecuniary troubles compelled him to leave it in 1835. In 1837 he went to the continent for the benefit of his health, and remained abroad several years, publishing while in Belgium his "Up the Rhine," which was constructed on the groundwork of Smollett's "Humphrey Clink- er." Returning to England, he became editor of the "New Monthly Magazine," from which he retired in 1843, collecting some of his contri- butions to its pages in a volume called " Whim- sicalities." In 1844 he started " Hood's Maga- zine," which he continued to the time of his death ; and in the same year appeared in "Punch" his "Song of the Shirt," composed, like the "Bridge of Sighs" and the "Lay of the Laborer," on a sick bed from which he never rose'. About this time he received through the favor of Sir Robert Peel a pension of 100, which was continued after his death to his widow. The fullest collections of Hood's poems have been made in Boston, one edited by Epes Sargent (4 vols., 1856), and another in Prof. Child's edition of the British poets (4 vols., 1857). "Memorials of Thomas Hood, collect- ed, arranged, and edited by his Daughter," appeared in 1860 (2 vols.), and "A Collection of the favorite Old Tales, told in Verse by Tom Hood," illustrated by Dore, in 1865 (4to). HOOFT, Pieter Corneliszoon, a Dutch historian and poet, born in Amsterdam, March 16, 1581, died at the Hague, May 21, 1647. After fin- ishing his education at Leyden, he spent three years in foreign travel, principally in France, Germany, and Italy, and returned to Amster- dam in 1601. In 1609 the stadtholder Maurice appointed him bailiff of Muiden and judge of Gooland, offices which he retained through Me. He wrote, in the style of Tacitus, Nederlandsche ffistorien (2 vols., Amsterdam, 1642-'54). To acquire his style, Hooft is said to have read
