as a landing-place had been secured. On 16 Aug. the enemy were off Plymouth, while Hardy, ignorant of their presence or of their numbers, was looking out for them beyond the Scilly Islands. While they were deliberating an easterly gale blew them out of the Channel, and on 29 Aug. they were in presence of the English fleet. It was Hardy's first certain knowledge of the danger; he had with him only thirty-nine ships of the line, and thinking that the larger fleet would be at a disadvantage in narrower waters he retreated up the Channel, and anchored at Spithead on 3 Sept. The French and Spanish admirals declined to follow, or to attempt a territorial attack, while Hardy's fleet, still formidable, was free to operate on their flank. Their ships became very sickly, and after cruising for a fortnight in the chops of the Channel, but never again coming higher than the Lizard, they returned to Brest. The gigantic scheme of invasion had failed mainly from the difficulty of the two allied admirals working in concert, and from the filthy and sickly condition of the allied ships. The English admiralty had done but little towards warding off the danger; and, with the great apparent disparity of force, Hardy's cautious policy was doubtless the most correct, though, in the disabled state to which the French and Spanish ships were actually reduced, more dashing tactics might have led to a brilliant success. At the close of the season Hardy struck his flag and returned to Greenwich, but the following spring was about to resume the command of the fleet when he died of an apoplectic fit at Portsmouth on 18 May 1780.
He was twice married: first, in 1749, to Mary, daughter of Bartholomew Tate of Delapre in Northamptonshire; and secondly to Catherine, only daughter of Temple Stanyan, by whom he left issue three sons and two daughters. His portrait, a half-length by Romney, has been engraved; the original is in the Painted Hall at Greenwich, to which it was presented by his daughter Catherine, the wife of Mr. Arthur Annesley of Bletchingdon, Oxfordshire.
[Charnock's Biog. Nav. v. 99; Naval Chronicle, xix. 89 (with portrait); Beatson's Nav. and Mil. Memoirs; Chevalier's Histoire de la Marine Fran9aise pendant la Guerre de l'Independance Americaine, p. 156; official documents in the Public Record Office; Armorial of Jersey [see Hardy, Sir Thomas].]
HARDY, ELIZABETH (1794–1854), novelist, born in Ireland in 1794, was a zealous protestant. She wrote 'Michael Cassidy, or the Cottage Gardener,' 1845; 'Owen Glendower, or the Prince in Wales,' 2 vols., 1849; 'The Confessor, a Jesuit Tale of the Times,' 1854, and possibly some other works. All were published anonymously. Mrs. Hardy died on 9 May 1854, in the Queen's Bench Prison, where she had been imprisoned 'for about eighteen months for a small debt.'
[Gent. Mag. 1854, i. 670; Cat. of Advocates' Library; Halkett and Laing's Dict. of Anonymous and Pseudonymous Lit.]
HARDY, FRANCIS (1751–1812), biographer, a native of Ireland, graduated as B.A. in the university of Dublin in 1771, and was called to the bar in 1777. He acquired an intimate knowledge of Latin and Greek authors, as well as of continental literature. In politics he was an associate of Henry Grattan. In 1782, through the interest of the Earl of Granard, Hardy was returned as member for Mullingar in the parliament of Ireland. He co-operated with Lord Charlemont in the establishment of the Royal Irish Academy at Dublin in 1786, and in 1788 contributed to its publications a dissertation on some passages in the 'Agamemnon' of Æschylus. Hardy sat as representative for Mullingar from his first entrance into parliament till 1800. He was an effective speaker, but only took part in the House of Commons in important debates. In person he was short, with penetrating eyes, and a strong voice of much compass. Although in straitened circumstances, Hardy declined governmental overtures, by which it was sought to induce him to vote for the legislative union. After that measure had been carried Hardy retired to the country, and passed much of his time with Grattan and his family. The publication of some of the writings of Lord Charlemont, who had died in 1799, was projected by Hardy, and he subsequently undertook a biography of that peer, at the suggestion of Richard Lovell Edgeworth. For this work he received assistance from the Charlemont family, as well as from Grattan and others. It appeared at London in 1810, in a quarto volume entitled 'Memoirs of the Political and Private Life of James Caulfield, Earl of Charlemont, Knight of St. Patrick, &c.' An edition,with little alteration, was issued at London in 1812, in two volumes 8vo. The memoirs contain much interesting matter, but are rather diffuse, and not free from inaccuracies. Hardy was appointed a commissioner of appeals at Dublin in 1806. He died on 26 July 1812, and was interred at Kilcommon, co. Wicklow. An engraved portrait of Hardy was published in 1833.
