Erskine, was born 16 Jan. 1803, and was educated at Westminster School and at Worcester College, Oxford (B.A. 1825, M.A. 1828). He was for some years vicar of Oving, Sussex, then rector of Greatham, Hampshire, and in 1846 succeeded his father as rector of Poynings, where he died 18 Oct. 1888. He married Madalena, daughter of Major Philip Stewart, and left surviving him four sons and three daughters.
Holland was a writer of verse from the time when his earliest effort, suggested by a visit to Dryburgh Abbey, received the warm commendation of Sir Walter Scott, almost to the close of his long life. His poetical range was a wide one, passing from the paraphrase of a mediæval hymn to playful skit and epigram, from the romance of Scottish history to the scenery and bird-life of his Southdown parish. ‘Dryburgh Abbey and other Poems,’ originally published in 1826, reached a second edition in 1845, and a third, with many changes and additions, in 1884. Holland was also the author of several occasional sermons and pamphlets, and of a very complete history of Poynings, published in the Sussex Archæological Society's ‘Transactions’ for 1863.
[Private information.]
HOLLAR, WENCESLAUS (1607–1677), in Bohemian Vaclav Holar, engraver, was born at Prague on 13 July 1607. He was the son of Jan Holar, a lawyer, who held an official appointment in that city, and Margaret, his wife, daughter of David Löw von Löwengrün and Bareyt, a burgher of the same place. He was the eldest of the family. There were two other sons. Hollar asserted that he belonged to the Bohemian nobility, his father having received a patent from the Emperor Rudolf in 1600, and having taken the style of Hollar of Prachna. The family is now extinct in Bohemia, and no clear traces of it are to be found after 1643, but a house still standing in the Neustadt, Prague, is said to have belonged to them. It has undergone considerable alterations. The elder Hollar died in 1630, and his wife predeceased him. Wenceslaus seems at first to have been intended by his father for the profession of the law, but his passion for art soon showed itself, and we are told that he was placed under the instruction of Matthew Merian, a celebrated engraver, then residing at Prague; it is noticeable that he seems at an early age to have been especially attracted by the works of Dürer.
There seem to be no grounds for Aubrey's story that the father of Hollar was a protestant and an adherent of Frederick, the ‘Winter King.’ Whatever may have been the motives of Wenceslaus for leaving Prague, he could not have done so from any persecutions which his family underwent, for his father continued throughout his life in the enjoyment of his emoluments, and remained in the confidence of the Emperor Ferdinand II till his death. Evelyn in his memoirs has a story that the engraver was a protestant, and became a Roman catholic during his second stay at Antwerp; but this account seems to be mere gossip.
Young Wenceslaus first went to Frankfort, where he resided two years, then to Cologne, and afterwards to Antwerp, where he spent some time, and according to Vertue had ‘difficulty enough to subsist.’ He continued drawing and engraving with more or less success. Thomas Howard, earl of Arundel, when ambassador to the German emperor, saw at Cologne in 1635 his engraving of the city of Prague. He was much pleased with it, and brought Hollar to England in his train. Hollar was now in fairly flourishing circumstances, and works by him appeared in rapid succession, among which may be mentioned views of Richmond and Greenwich. Soon after his arrival he married, according to Aubrey, who knew him well, ‘at Arundel house my ladie's wayting woman, Mrs. Tracy, by whom he had a daughter, that was one of the greatest beauties I have seen; his son by her dyed in the plague, an ingeniose youth; drew delicately.’ About 1639 or 1640 Hollar was appointed teacher of drawing to the prince, afterwards Charles II. A volume of sketches by the royal pupil, to which Hollar has given the finishing touches, may be seen among the Harleian MSS. at the British Museum.
In 1640 appeared one of the most interesting of his works, the ‘Ornatus Muliebris Anglicanus, or the Severall Habits of English Women from the Nobilitie to the Country Woman, as they are in these times.’ The following year he engraved the portraits of Charles I and his queen from the originals by Vandyck; but according to Vertue, who was able to gain much information from persons who had known Hollar, he was no favourite with the great painter, ‘because he could not so well enter into that master's true manner of drawing.’ In 1643 appeared his ‘Theatrum Mulierum sive Varietas atque Differentia Habituum Fœminei sexus.’ In this well-known work are figured the various styles of female dress in the leading nations of Europe.
On the outbreak of the civil war Arundel, his patron, was obliged to leave the country. Hollar remained in England, and entered the
