Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/715

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
*
655
*

HAWSER. 655 HAWTHORNE. ferred to as hawsers; and rope which was for- merly cMlIril lunvser-laid is now called cable-laid. HAWTHORN (I'roiii AS. Iiayponi, Lier. Uuyc- doni, from AS. huya, Eng. hair, hedge + |'o//;, Eng. thoni), Crutwyiis ojcyacantha. A shrub or small tree, native of Kurope, Siberia, and North- ern Africa, which reaches a height of 25 feet. It has roundish obovate three to five lobed deciduous leaves, and corymbs generally of white, ruse-col- ored, or soraetir;ies deep crimson llowers. suc- ceeded by a small red fruit {haic) with yellow pulp, which, since they remain on the tree after the leaves have fallen, afford winter food to birds. Of the many varieties of h.iwthorn, the Glaston- bury thorn — so named because supposed to have originated at Glastonbury Abbey — is remarkable for its early flowering, which in England often takes place in the middle of the winter. The com- mon kind blossoms in Jlay or June. The winter fiowers are, however, not generally followed by fruit, and a second flowering often takes place in HAWTUOaX. the same year. The common hawthorn is often pop- ularly called 'may,' from the season of its flower- ing in England, "it is also called 'whitethorn,' to distinguish it from the sloe or blackthorn. It is also sometimes employed as a stock on which to graft apples and other pome fruit. The wood is very hard, close-grained, and takes a fine polish, but is apt to warp. A fermented liquor, which is very intoxicating, is made from the fruit in many parts of France. The hawthorn is particu- larly valuable as a hedge-plant, for which pur- pose it is widely used in Great Britain, in con- sequence of its strong and plentiful spines, quick growth while young, its long life, and its ready adaptation to a variety of soils and especially to trimming. For this purpose it is propagated by seed. .See Crat.t.gus ; Hedge. HAWTHORNE, .Titlian (1846-). An American novelist, born in Boston, son of Nathaniel Hawthorne. He entered Harvard in 186.3. but did not graduate. He stud- ied civil engineering in America and Ger- many, was engineer in the New York City Dock Department under General JlcClellan (1870-72), spent ten years abroad, and on hi* return edited his father's unlinished Dr. Grim- ,s/i((»<"i- tifcrvt (1883). liilc in Europe he wrote the novels, ISrvnnanl (1873); Idolatry (1874); (lurlli (1877); .In'liiliald Malmaisoii (187!)); Sebustiaii Htroiiic (1880). Of many novels written after his return to America, per- haps the most noteworthy are: Xoltli; Blood (1884) ; John Farmlee's Curse (1886) ; The Pro- fessor's Sister (1888); A Fool of Nature (1896); and One of Those Coincidences and Other Stories (1899). He also wrote: Saxon Studies (1876); Nathaniel Hawthorne and His Wife (1885); Confcs.iions and Criticisms (1886): American Literature (1891); journal- istic articles en the famine of 1897 in India, and on the Cuban War; and a History of the United States (1899). HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel (1804-64). An American romancer. He was born at Salem, Jlass.. July 4, 1804. He w'as of English descent, and his family had spelled their name 'Hathorne,' to which Nathaniel added the 'w.' His ancestor, William Hawthorne, had accompanied Winthrop in the Arbella in 1630. He settled first in Dor- chester, and moved thence to Salem (1636), where he received a large grant of land. He seems to have been a man of strong and energetic will, and a Puritan of the grimmest t.ype. John, his son, was like him in abilities and disposition, took an active part in the persecution of witches at Salem, and w-as a magistrate as well as a soldier. Two of the Hawthornes were privateers- men during the Revolution. The novelist's father, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1776-1808), was also a sailor and sea captain, and married Eliza- beth Clark JIanning, of Salem, whose ancestors had emigrated to America about 1680. They had three children, of whom Nathaniel was the second. Upon her husband's death, the mother took her children to her father's house, but of Nathaniel's bo3'hood we only know that he was fond of long solitary walks, and showed an hereditary longing for the sea. When he was fourteen his mother Avent to live with his uncle, Richard Planning, at Raymond, Cumberland Co., Maine. Nathaniel still cared more for n.iture than for study, hunted and roamed the woods, and jotted in his note-book impressions that show how close was his sympathy with nature, iind how minute his observation. After a year here, he returned to Salem to prepare for col- lege. He entered Bowdoin College in 1821, where he found two fellow-students who were destined to exercise much influence on his future, the poet Longfellow, and the future President. Franklin Pierce. His scholarship was good, especially in the classics. Upon his gradua- tion (1825). he returned to Salem. Here he led a somew-hat secluded life, and still indvilged in long walks and in literary studies, in which he is said, at times, to h<ave become so absorbed that food would be left for him before his locked door. He wrote much, but destroyed almost as much, for he could not satisfy his taste. Favshaicc. the first work of fiction that he committed to the press, was issued anonymously in 1S2S. His name was first attached to four "Tales," in the Token (1831). a holiday annual under the direc- tion of S. G. Goodrich. They were favorably re- ceived, but hardly justly appreciated. Goodrich persu.aded Hawthorne to do some hack work for an .Imerican Magazine of Useful and Entertain-