Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 27.djvu/196

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

them in sight till he was reinforced. After a partial and distant interchange of shot the squadrons separated (Charnock, v. 197; Troude, Batailles Navales de la France, i. 337; Martin, Histoire de France, xviii. 96). Returning to England for the winter, Holmes sat as a member of the court-martial on Admiral Byng, but in the summer of 1757 he was again in the Grafton on the North American station, and was with Holburne off Louisbourg when the fleet was shattered by the storm of 24 Sept. [see Holburne, Francis]. In addition to the loss of her masts the Grafton lost her rudder, and being obliged to bear away for England she fitted a jury rudder made of a spare topmast (Beatson, ii. 56; Payne, Naval History, v. 85, where there is a sketch of the arrangement). Early in the following year Holmes in the Sea-horse, a small frigate, and having with him the Stromboli, was sent over to the coast of Friesland, where the French and Austrians had taken possession of Emden with a force of some three thousand men. On 18 March these two little vessels took up a position in the Ems that cut the enemy's communications. They at once decided that the place was no longer tenable, and evacuated it the next day, some of their heavy baggage, which they attempted to send up the river, falling into Holmes's hands (Beatson, ii. 160, iii. 190). On his return to England he was appointed to the Warspite for a few months, and on 6 July was promoted to be rear-admiral of the blue. The following year, with his flag in the Dublin, he was third in command of the fleet in the St. Lawrence, under Sir Charles Saunders [q. v.], and in the operations which resulted in the capture of Quebec. In March 1760 he was appointed commander-in-chief at Jamaica. He arrived there in May, and during the next eighteen months waged a very successful war against the French commerce, several rich prizes falling to his cruisers. He died at Jamaica on 21 Nov. 1761. There is a monument to his memory in Westminster Abbey.

[Charnock's Biog Nav. v. 193; Beatson's Nav. and Mil. Memoirs, vols. i. and ii.; Yarmouth Register, through the Rev. G. Quirk; official documents in the Public Record Office.]

J. K. L.

HOLMES, EDWARD (1797–1859), writer on music, born in 1797, was a schoolfellow and great friend of Keats at Charles Clarke's school at Enfield. With his schoolmaster's son, Charles Cowden Clarke [q. v.], he was intimate through life. When young, Holmes was very handsome. He was apprenticed to Robert B. Seeley, the bookseller, but subsequently chose the profession of music, and studied under Vincent Novello, who generously made him an inmate of his house for several years. He thus came to know Charles Lamb and most of the men of letters of the day. Always a great admirer of Mozart, he and Novello raised a subscription for Mozart's widow, and went to Germany to present it to her in 1828. Holmes wrote an account of the trip. He taught the pianoforte in schools, and wrote the musical criticisms for the ‘Atlas’ from its commencement in 1829, and later for the ‘Spectator;’ he also contributed occasional articles to ‘Fraser's Magazine,’ and many papers to the ‘Musical Times.’ Holmes died 4 Sept. 1859. Late in life he married the sister of his friend Egerton Webb, but left no issue.

His works are: 1. ‘A Ramble among the Musicians of Germany, giving some account of the Operas of Munich, Dresden, Berlin …,’ written for the proprietors of the ‘Atlas,’ London, 1828, 8vo (it reached a third edition). 2. ‘The Life of Mozart,’ London, 1845, 8vo, based on Nissen's biography. 3. ‘Analytical and Thematic Catalogue of Mozart's Pianoforte Works,’ 1852. 4. ‘Critical Essay on the Requiem of Mozart,’ prefixed to the music in Novello's edition, 1854, 8vo. 5. ‘Life of Purcell,’ for Novello's edition of that composer's sacred music. Among his papers in the ‘Musical Times’ are a series on the English glee and madrigal composers (vol. iv.), analyses of the masses of Beethoven, Haydn, and Mozart; addenda to the ‘Life of Mozart’ (viii.); and the first of a series on the ‘Cultivation of Domestic Music,’ which he did not live to complete. Of his songs, ‘My Jenny’ was the most popular. Holmes's arrangement of Mozart's ‘Te Deum’ was published in 1844.

[Private information; Musical Times, ix. 125; C. and M. Cowden Clarke's Recollections of Writers, passim; Letters of C. Lamb, ed. Ainger, ii. 120, 197; Grove's Dictionary of Music, i. 744; Mendel's Musikalisches Conversations-Lexikon, v. 274.]

L. M. M.

HOLMES, GEORGE (fl. 1673–1715), organist and composer, perhaps a son of Thomas Holmes and grandson of John Holmes (fl. 1602) [q. v.], was in 1698 organist to the Bishop of Durham, Nathaniel, lord Crewe, formerly dean of the Chapel Royal. From 1704 till about 1715 Holmes was organist to Lincoln Cathedral. He contributed several catches to the ‘Musical Companion’ in 1673. A toccata for single or double organ, believed to be by Holmes, in a book of organ music once in his possession (Addit. MS. 31446), a suite for harpsichord (ib. 31465), and an air or brawle for two trebles and a bass (ib. 31429, No. 34) are preserved