galleries are open to the public, as is the home park. The gardens, with their ornamental waters, are beautifully laid out in the Dutch style favoured by William III., and contain a magnificent vine planted in 1768. In the enclosure north of the palace, called the Wilderness, is the Maze, a favourite resort. North again lies Bushey Park, a royal demesne exceeding 1000 acres in extent. It is much frequented, especially in early summer, when its triple avenue of horse-chestnut trees is in blossom.
Among several residences in the vicinity of Hampton is Garrick Villa, once, under the name of Hampton House, the residence of David Garrick the actor. Sir Christopher Wren and Sir Richard Steele are among famous former residents. Hampton Wick, on the river E. of Bushey Park, is an urban district with a population (1901) of 2606.
See E. Law, History of Hampton Court Palace (London, 1890).
HAMPTON, a city and the county-seat of Elizabeth City
county, Virginia, U.S.A., at the mouth of the James river, on
Hampton Roads, about 15 m. N.W. of Norfolk. Pop. (1890),
2513; (1900) 2764, including 1249 negroes; (1910) 5505. It is
served by the Chesapeake & Ohio railway, and by trolley lines
to Old Point Comfort and Newport News. Hampton is an
agricultural shipping point, ships fish, oysters and canned crabs,
and manufactures fish oil and brick. In the city are St John’s
church, built in 1727; a national cemetery, a national soldiers’
home (between Phoebus and Hampton), which in 1907–1908
cared for 4093 veterans and had an average attendance of 2261;
and the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (coeducational),
which was opened by the American Missionary
Association in 1868 for the education of negroes. This last was
chartered and became independent of any denominational
control in 1870, and was superintended by Samuel Chapman Armstrong
(q.v.) from 1868 to 1893. The school was opened
in 1878 to Indians, whose presence has been of distinct advantage
to the negro, showing him, says Booker T. Washington, the most
famous graduate of the school, that the negro race is not alone
in its struggle for improvement. The National government
pays $167 a year for the support of each of the Indian students.
The underlying idea of the Institute is such industrial training
as will make the pupil a willing and a good workman, able to
teach his trade to others; and the school’s graduates include the
heads of other successful negro industrial schools, the organizers
of agricultural and industrial departments in Southern public
schools and teachers in graded negro schools. The mechanism
of the school includes three schemes: that of “work students,”
who work during the day throughout the year and attend night
school for eight months; that of day school students, who attend
school for four or five days and do manual work for one or two
days each week; and that of trade students, who receive trade
instruction in their daily eight-hours’ work and study in night
school as well. Agriculture in one or more of its branches is
taught to all, including the four or five hundred children of the
Whittier school, a practice school with kindergarten and primary
classes. Graduate courses are given in agriculture, business,
domestic art and science, library methods, “matrons’” training,
and public school teaching. The girl students are trained in
every branch of housekeeping, cooking, dairying and gardening.
The institute publishes The Southern Workman, a monthly
magazine devoted to the interests of the Negro and the Indian
and other backward races. In 1908 the Institute had more
than 100 buildings and 188 acres of land S.W. of the national
cemetery and on Hampton river and Jones Creek, and 600 acres
at Shellbanks, a stock farm 6 m. away; the enrolment was
21 in graduate classes, 372 in day school, 489 in night school
and 524 in the Whittier school. Of the total, 88 were Indians.
Hampton was settled in 1610 on the site of an Indian village, Kecoughtan, a name it long retained, and was represented at the first meeting (1619) of the Virginia House of Burgesses. It was fired by the British during the War of 1812 and by the Confederates under General J. B. Magruder in August 1861. During the Civil War there was a large Union hospital here, the building of the Chesapeake Female College, erected in 1857, being used for this purpose. Hampton was incorporated as a town in 1887, and in 1908 became a city of the second class.
HAMPTON ROADS, a channel through which the waters of
the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers of Virginia, U.S.A.,
pass (between Old Point Comfort to the N. and Sewell’s Point
to the S.) into Chesapeake Bay. It is an important highway of
commerce, especially for the cities of Norfolk, Portsmouth and
Newport News, and is the chief rendezvous of the United
States navy. For a width of 500 ft. the Federal government
during 1902–1905 increased its minimum depth at low water
from 2512 ft. to 30 ft. The entrance from Chesapeake Bay is
defended by Fortress Monroe on Old Point Comfort and by
Fort Wood on a small island called the Rip Raps near the middle
of the channel; and at Portsmouth, a few miles up the Elizabeth
river, is an important United States navy-yard.
Hampton Roads is famous in history as the scene of the first engagement between iron-clad vessels. In the spring of 1861 the Federals set fire to several war vessels in the Gosport navy yard on the Elizabeth river and abandoned the place. In June the Confederates set to work to raise one of these abandoned vessels, the frigate “Merrimac” of 3500 tons and 40 guns, and to rebuild it as an iron-clad. The vessel (renamed the “Virginia” though it is generally known in history by its original name) was first cut down to the water-line and upon her hull was built a rectangular casemate, constructed of heavy timber (24 in. in thickness), covered with bar-iron 4 in. thick, and rising from the water on each side at an angle of about 35°. The iron plating extended 2 ft. below the water line; and beyond the casemate, toward the bow, was a cast-iron pilot house, extending 3 ft. above the deck. The reconstruction of the vessel was completed on the 5th of March 1862. The vessel drew 22 ft. of water, was equipped with poor engines, so that it could not make more than 5 knots, and was so unwieldy that it could not be turned in less than 30 minutes. It was armed with 10 guns—2 (rifled) 7 in., 2 (rifled) 6 in., and 6 (smooth bore Dahlgren) 9 in. Her most powerful equipment, however, was her 18 in. cast-iron ram. In October 1861 Captain John Ericsson, an engineer, and a Troy (N.Y.) firm, as builders, began the construction of the iron-clad “Monitor” for the Federals, at Greenpoint, Long Island. With a view to enable this vessel to carry at good speed the thickest possible armour compatible with buoyancy, Ericsson reduced the exposed surface to the least possible area. Accordingly, the vessel was built so low in the water that the waves glided easily over its deck except at the middle, where was constructed a revolving turret[1] for the guns, and though the vessel’s iron armour had a thickness of 1 in. on the deck, 5 in. on the side, and 8 in. on the turret, its draft was only 10 ft. 6 in., or less than one-half that of the “Merrimac.” Its turret, 9 ft. high and 20 ft. in inside diameter, seemed small for its length of 172 ft. and its breadth of 41 ft. 6 in., and this, with the lowness of its freeboard, caused the vessel to be called the “Yankee cheese-box on a raft.” Forward of the turret was the iron pilot house, square in shape, and rising about 4 ft. above the deck. The “Monitor’s” displacement was about 1200 tons and her armament was two 11 in. Dahlgren guns; her crew numbered 58, while that of the “Merrimac” numbered about 300. She was seaworthy in the shallow waters off the southern coasts and steered fairly well. The “Monitor” was launched at Greenpoint, Long Island, on the 30th of January, and was turned over to the government on the 19th of the following month. The building of the two vessels was practically a race between the two combatants.
On the 8th of March about 1 p.m., the “Merrimac,” commanded by Commodore Franklin Buchanan (1795–1871), steamed down the Elizabeth accompanied by two one-gun gun-boats, to engage the wooden fleet of the Federals, consisting of the frigate “Congress,” 50 guns, and the sloop “Cumberland,” 30 guns, both sailing vessels, anchored off Newport News, and
- ↑ For the idea of the low free-board and the revolving turret Ericsson was indebted to Theodore R. Timby (1819–1909), who in 1843 had filed a caveat for revolving towers for offensive or defensive warfare whether placed on land or water, and to whom the company building the “Monitor” paid $5000 royalty for each turret.
