cheaper rate than foreigners ; there are none who are taught gratis. The government of the school was originally vested in six persons of standing in the parish, who had the power of filling vacancies in their number by election among them- selves; but under the Public Schools Act of 1868 the governing body now consists of the surviving members of the old board, besides six new members who are elected respectively by the Lord Chancellor, the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and London, the Royal Society, and the assistant masters of the school. There is a considerable number of scholarships in connexion with the school to both the great English universities, some to special colleges, others to colleges in the choice of the holders. The general mode of instruction and discipline is modelled on that of Eton, where most of the former headmasters of Harrow were educated. Originally an exclusively classical school, mathematics became in 1837 a compulsory study at Harrow; modern languages, compulsory on the upper forms only since 1851, were extended to the whole school in 1855; while English history and literature began to be more especially studied about 1869. Science, music, and drawing are now also taught. Among the famous men who have been educated here may be mentioned Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, Sir William Jones, the Orientalist, Dr Parr, who was born at Harrow, Admiral Rodney, Sheridan, Byron, Peel, Theodore Hook, Lord Palmerston, Lord Herbert of Lea, the earl of Shaftesbury, and Archbishop Trench. Comparatively little change was made in the school buildings till 1819, when the new portion was begun ; but since that time improvements and additions have steidily increased. In 1839 a school-chapel was consecrated ; but this has been gradually replaced by a handsomer edifice completed in 1857. The Vaughan library was built in 1861-63, and a hospital for the boys in 1865. A new speech room, a gymnasium, and labora- tories have been erected out of the Lyon Tercentenary Fund, subscribed since 1871. The population of the parish in 1871 was 8537, and of the local board district
4997.HARRY, Blind, or Henry the Minstrel, author of a poem in twelve books, entitled The Actis and Deidis of the dlluster and vailzeand campioun, Schir William Wallace, Knicht of Ellerslie. All that is known of Henry’s personal history is contained in the following quotation from Major : —“ Henry, who was blind from his birth, composed in the time of my youth the whole book of William Wallace, and embodied all the traditions about him in the ordinary measure, in which he was well skilled. By the recitation of these in the presence of the great, he procured, as indeed he deserved, food and clothing.” Major was born about 1469, and the only MS. copy of Henry’s works is that in the Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh, dated 1488. It was first printed at Edinburgh in 1570. In his Lives of Scottish Worthies, P. F. Tytler claims for it a certain historical worth, as “the work of an ignorant man, who was yet in possession of valuable and authentic materials.” On account of its glorification of the national hero it has enjoyed a long popularity among the Scottish peasantry, but it possesses no poetical merit except a certain rude fire and energy, and as a literary production its place must be reckoned a very humble one.
HARTE-BEEST (Alcelaphus caama), a species of antelope, occurring in considerable numbers throughout southern and central Africa. It stands nearly 5 feet high at the shoulders, and is somewhat ungainly in form owing to the disproportionate development of its fore and hind quarters—a difference which gives to the posterior limbs when in motion an appearance of weakness. The head is long and narrow, and is crowned in both sexes by a pair of nearly cylindrical horns, ringed throughout their lower half and smooth above. The hair of this species is short, soft, and recumbent, and is of a brownish-yellow colour above and nearly white beneath, the colour, however, being to some extent dependent on age and sex and on the season of the year. The harte-beest is gregarious, living in herds of from five to ten individuals, and frequenting tracts of uninhabited wilderness, or the light brush forest in the neighbourhood of rivers. It is exceedingly wary, and consequently difficult of approach, and when suddenly come upon, the entire herd, according to Sir Andrew Smith, scampers off in the train of a leader,—the herd being rarely seen, when in flight, otherwise than in a string, one treading on the footsteps of another. Of a mild and gentle disposition, the harte-beest seeks safety, whenever it can, in flight; when at bay, however, it does not hesitate to turn upon its pursuers and to make use of its powerful horns as weapons of offence.
Harte-beest.
During the heat of the day it is said to rest leaning against the trunks of trees, when the colour of its body so harmonizes with that of the bark as frequently to enable it to elude observation. Dr Schweinfurth, who had frequent opportunity of observing those animals in central Africa, describes a curious and as yet unexplained habit of which he was himself a witness. Having approached nearer to a herd of harte-beests than usual without attracting their attention, he observed them running in couples like the horses in a circus, “going round and round a clump of trees, whilst the others stood in groups of three or four intently watching them. After a time these in turn took their places, and, two at a time, ran their own circuit in a similar fashion.” He conjectures that the performance had probably some connexion with pairing time. The flesh of this species is considered superior to that of any other South African antelope, the eland alone excepted.
