Henley existed at a very early period, and according to some authorities was a Roman station. It obtained a charter of incor poration from Elizabeth, in which it is named Hanleygang or Haiineburg. In 1643 it was occupied by the Parliamentary forces, who successfully repelled an attack made upon them by the Royalists.
See History of Hcnlcy-on- Thames, by John Southerden Burns, London, 1861, and An Account of the Races at the Annual Henley Regattas from their commencement June 1839 to the year 1879, Henley, 1879.
HENNA is the Persian name for a small shrub found in the East Indies, Persia, the Levant, and along the African coasts of the Mediterranean, where it is frequently culti vated. It is the Lawsonia alba of botanists, and from the fact that young trees are spineless, while older ones have the branchlets hardened into spines, it has also received the names of Lawsonia inermis and L. spinosa. It forms a slender shrubby plant of from 8 to 10 feet high, furnished with opposite oval-lanceshaped smooth leaves, which are entire at the margins, and bears small white four-petalled sweet-scented flowers disposed in panicles. The four spreading petals are obovate, and furnished with claws; and alternating with them are eight stamens approximating by pairs. Its Egyptian name is Khenna, its Arabic name Al Khaiina, its Indian name Mendee, while in England it is called Egyptian privet, and in the "West Indies, where it is naturalized, Jamaica mignonette.
Henna or Henne" is of ancient repute as a cosmetic. This consists of the leaves of the Lawsonia powdered and made up into a paste ; this is employed by the Egyptian women, and also by the Mahometan women in India, to dye their finger nails and other parts of their hands and feet of an orange-red colour, which is considered to add to their beauty. The colour lasts for three or four weeks, when it requires to be renewed. It is moreover used for dyeing the hair and beard, and even the manes of horses ; and the same material is employed for dyeing skins and morocco- leather a reddish-yellow, but it contains no tannin. The practice of dyeing the nails was common amongst the Egyptians, and not to conform to it would have been con sidered indecent. It has descended from very remote ages, as is proved by the evidence afforded by Egyptian mummies, the nails of which are most commouly stained of a reddish hue. Henna is also said to have been held in repute amongst the Hebrews, being considered to be the plant referred to as camphire in the Bible (Song of Solomon i. 14; iv. 13). "The custom of dyeing the nails and palms of the hands and soles of the feet of an iron-rust colour with henna," observes Dr Royle, " exists throughout the East from the Mediterranean to the Ganges, as well as in Northern Africa. In some parts the practice is not con fined to women and children, but is also followed by men, especially in Persia. In dyeing the beard, the hair is turned to red by this application, which is then changed to black by a preparation of indigo. In dyeing the hair of children, and the tails and manes of horses and asses, the process is allowed to stop at the red colour which the henna pro duces." Mahomet, it is said, used henna as a dye for his beard, and the fashion was adopted by the caliphs. " The use of henna," remarks Lady Callcott in her Scripture Herbal, " is scarcely to be called a caprice in the East. There is a quality in the drug which gently restrains perspiration in the hands and feet, and produces an agree able coolness equally conducive to health and comfort," She further suggests that if the Jewish women were not in the habit of using this dye before the time of Solomon, it might probably have been introduced amongst them by his wife, the daughter of Pharaoh, and traces to this proba bility the allusion to " camphire " in the passages in Canticles above referred to.
The preparation of henna consists in reducing the leaves and young twigs to a fine powder, catechu or lucerne leaves in a pulverized state being sometimes mixed with them. When required for use, the .powder is made into a pasty mass with hot water, and is then spread upon the part to be dyed, where it is generally allowed to remain for one night.
It has been already noted that the flowers of the Laiv- sonia are very fragrant, whence they derive in the West Indies the name of Jamaica mignonette. According to Lady Callcott, they are often used by the eastern women to adorn their hair ; and Mr Sinamonds states that the distilled water from the flowers is used as a perfume. The plant is further credited with the possession of vulnerary and astringent properties.
HENNEBONT, a town of France, arrondissement of Lorient, and department of Mor-bihan, is situated on the Blavet, not far from its mouth, and 25 miles W.N.W. of Vannes. It is a picturesque old town, and contains some remains of its former fortifications. The church of Notre Dame de Paradis, a beautiful building of the 16th century, possesses some fine wood carving. The town has an im portant corn-market, and considerable shipping trade in iron, corn, honey, wax, hemp, cider, and wine. Shipbuild ing, sawing, and tanning are also carried on. Henncbont is famed for the resistance which it made, under the widow of John de Montfort, when besieged by the armies of Philip of Valois and Charles of Blois. The population in 1876 was 4844.
HENNEQUIN, Philippe Auguste (1763–1833), French painter, was a pupil of David. He was born at Lyons in 1763, distinguished himself early by winning the "grand prix," and left France for Italy. The disturbances at Rome, during the course of the Revolution, obliged him to return to Paris, where he executed the Federation of the 14th of July, and visiting his native town was at work there on a large design commissioned for the town-hall, when in July 1794 he was accused before the revolutionary tribunal and thrown into prison. Hennequin escaped, only to be anew accused and imprisoned in Paris, and after running great danger of death, seems to have devoted himself thenceforth wholly to his profession. At Paris he finished the picture ordered for the municipality of Lyons, and in 1801 pro duced his chief work, Orestes pursued by the Furies (Louvre, engraved by Landon, Annales du Jfusee, vol. i. p. 105). He was one of the four painters who competed when in 1802 Gros carried off the official prize for a picture of the Battle of Nazareth, and in 1808 Napoleon himself ordered Hennequin to illustrate a series of scenes from his German campaigns, and commanded that his picture of the Death of General Salomon should be engraved. After 1815 Hennequin retired to Liege, and there, aided by subventions from the Government, carried out a large historical picture of the Death of the Three Hundred in defence of Liege a sketch of which he himself engraved. In 1824 Hennequin settled at Tournay, and became director of the academy ; he exhibited various works at Lille in the following year, and continued to produce actively up to the day of his death, which took place in May 1833. The Orestes of the Louvre is his capital work ; it shows a certain style and finish of draughtsmanship, but the attitudes are melodramatic, the composition stagy, and the colour false and violent.
