expedition for the measurement of the arc of the meridian in 1816–1852. Nor is this its only association with science; for it was one of the spots chosen by Sir Edward Sabine for his series of pendulum experiments in 1823. The ascent of the Sadlen or the Tyven in the neighbourhood is usually undertaken by travellers for the view of the barren, snow-clad Arctic landscape, the bluff indented coast, and the vast expanse of the Arctic Ocean.
HAMMER-KOP, or Hammerhead, an African bird, which has
been regarded as a stork and as a heron, the Scopus umbretta of
ornithologists, called the “Umbre” by T. Pennant, now placed
in a separate family Scopidae between the herons and storks.
It was discovered by M. Adanson, the French traveller, in Senegal
about the middle of the 19th century, and was described by
M. J. Brisson in 1760. It has since been found to inhabit nearly
the whole of Africa and Madagascar, and is the “hammerkop”
(hammerhead) of the Cape colonists. Though not larger than
a raven, it builds an enormous nest, some six feet in diameter,
with a flat-topped roof and a small hole for entrance and exit,
and placed either on a tree or a rocky ledge. The bird, of an
almost uniform brown colour, slightly glossed with purple and its
tail barred with black, has a long occipital crest, generally borne
horizontally, so as to give rise to its common name. It is somewhat
sluggish by day, but displays much activity at dusk, when
it will go through a series of strange performances. (A. N.)
HAMMER-PURGSTALL, JOSEPH, Freiherr von (1774–1856),
Austrian orientalist, was born at Graz on the 9th of June
1774, the son of Joseph Johann von Hammer, and received his
early education mainly in Vienna. Entering the diplomatic
service in 1796, he was appointed in 1799 to a position in the
Austrian embassy in Constantinople, and in this capacity he
took part in the expedition under Admiral Sir William Sidney
Smith and General Sir John Hely Hutchinson against the
French. In 1807 he returned home from the East, after which
he was made a privy councillor, and, on inheriting in 1835 the
estates of the countess Purgstall in Styria, was given the title
of “freiherr.” In 1847 he was elected president of the newly-founded
academy, and he died at Vienna on the 23rd of November
1856.
For fifty years Hammer-Purgstall wrote incessantly on the most diverse subjects and published numerous texts and translations of Arabic, Persian and Turkish authors. It was natural that a scholar who traversed so large a field should lay himself open to the criticism of specialists, and he was severely handled by Friedrich Christian Diez (1794–1876), who, in his Unfug und Betrug (1815), devoted to him nearly 600 pages of abuse. Von Hammer-Purgstall did for Germany the same work that Sir William Jones (q.v.) did for England and Silvestre de Sacy for France. He was, like his younger but greater English contemporary, Edward William Lane, with whom he came into friendly conflict on the subject of the origin of The Thousand and One Nights, an assiduous worker, and in spite of many faults did more for oriental studies than most of his critics put together.
Von Hammer’s principal work is his Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches (10 vols., Pesth, 1827–1835). Another edition of this was published at Pesth in 1834–1835, and it has been translated into French by J. J. Hellert (1835–1843). Among his other works are Constantinopolis und der Bosporos (1822); Sur les origines russes (St Petersburg, 1825); Geschichte der osmanischen Dichtkunst (1836); Geschichte der Goldenen Horde in Kiptschak (1840); Geschichte der Chane der Krim (1856); and an unfinished Litteraturgeschichte der Araber (1850–1856). His Geschichte der Assassinen (1818) has been translated into English by O. C. Wood (1835). Texts and translations—Eth-Thaālabi, Arab. and Ger. (1829); Ibn Wahshiyah, History of the Mongols, Arab. and Eng. (1806); El-Wassāf, Pers. and Ger. (1856); Esch - Schebistani’s Rosenflor des Geheimnisses, Pers. and Ger. (1838); Ez - Zamakhsheri, Goldene Halsbänder, Arab. and Germ. (1835); El-Ghazzālī, Hujjet-el-Islám, Arab. and Ger. (1838); El-Hamawi, Das arab. Hohe Lied der Liebe, Arab. and Ger. (1854). Translations of—El-Mutanebbi’s Poems; Er-Resmi’s Account of his Embassy (1809); Contes inédits des 1001 nuits (1828). Besides these and smaller works, von Hammer contributed numerous essays and criticisms to the Fundgruben des Orients, which he edited; to the Journal asiatique; and to many other learned journals; above all to the Transactions of the “Akademie der Wissenschaften” of Vienna, of which he was mainly the founder; and he translated Evliya Effendi’s Travels in Europe, for the English Oriental Translation Fund. For a fuller list of his works, which amount in all to nearly 100 volumes, see Comptes rendus of the Acad. des Inscr. et des Belles-Lettres (1857). See also Schlottman, Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall (Zurich, 1857).
HAMMERSMITH, a western metropolitan borough of London,
England, bounded E. by Kensington and S. by Fulham and the
river Thames, and extending N. and W. to the boundary of
the county of London. Pop. (1901) 112,239. The name appears
in the early forms of Hermodewode and Hamersmith; the derivation
is probably from the Anglo-Saxon, signifying the place
with a haven (hythe). Hammersmith is mentioned with Fulham
as a winter camp of Danish invaders in 879, when they occupied
the island of Hame, which may be identified with Chiswick
Eyot. Hammersmith consists of residential streets of various
classes. There are many good houses in the districts of Brook
Green in the south-east, and Ravenscourt Park and Starch Green
in the west. Shepherd’s Bush in the east is a populous and poorer
quarter. Boat-building yards, lead-mills, oil mills, distilleries,
coach factories, motor works, and other industrial establishments
are found along the river and elsewhere in the borough.
The main thoroughfares are Uxbridge Road and Goldhawk
Road, from Acton on the west, converging at Shepherd’s Bush
and continuing towards Notting Hill; King Street from Chiswick
on the south-west, continued as Hammersmith Broadway and
Road to Kensington Road; Bridge Road from Hammersmith
Bridge over the Thames, and Fulham Palace Road from Fulham,
converging at the Broadway. Old Hammersmith Bridge,
designed by Tierney Clark (1824), was the earliest suspension
bridge erected near London. This bridge was found insecure
and replaced in 1884–1887. Until 1834 Hammersmith formed
part of Fulham parish. Its church of St Paul was built as a
chapel of ease to Fulham, and consecrated by Laud in 1631.
The existing building dates from 1890. Among the old monuments
preserved is that of Sir Nicholas Crispe (d. 1665), a
prominent royalist during the civil wars and a benefactor of the
parish. Schools and religious houses are numerous. St Paul’s
school is one of the principal public schools in England. It
was founded in or about 1509 by John Colet, dean of St Paul’s,
under the shadow of the cathedral church. But it appears that
Colet actually refounded and reorganized a school which had
been attached to the cathedral of St Paul from very early times;
the first mention of such a school dates from the early part of
the 12th century (see an article in The Times, London, July 7,
1909, on the occasion of the celebration of the quatercentenary
of Colet’s foundation). The school was moved to its present site
in Hammersmith Road in 1883. The number of foundation
scholars, that is, the number for which Colet’s endowment
provided, is 153, according to the number of fishes taken in
the miraculous draught. The total number of pupils is about
600. The school governors are appointed by the Mercers’
Company (by which body the new site was acquired), and the
universities of Oxford, Cambridge and London. Close to the
school is St Paul’s preparatory school, and at Brook Green is a
girls’ school in connexion with the main school. There are,
besides, the Edward Latymer foundation school for boys (1624),
part of the income of which is devoted to general charitable
purposes; the Godolphin school, founded in the 16th century
and remodelled as a grammar school in 1861; Nazareth House
of Little Sisters of the Poor, the Convent of the Sacred Heart,
and other convents. The town hall, the West London hospital
with its post-graduate college, and Wormwood Scrubbs prison
are noteworthy buildings. Other institutions are the Hammersmith
school of art and a Roman Catholic training college.
Besides the picturesque Ravenscourt Park (31 acres) there are
extensive recreation grounds in the north of the borough at
Wormwood Scrubbs (193 acres), and others of lesser extent.
An important place of entertainment is Olympia, near Hammersmith
Road and the Addison Road station on the West London
railway, which includes a vast arena under a glass roof; while
at Shepherd’s Bush are the extensive grounds and buildings
first occupied by the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908, including
