wall of some 38 ft. above low water, and on the wall a promenade sheltered by a parapet. The lighthouse is at the end of the breakwater, of which the whole cost was nearly 112 million sterling. Additional works, begun in 1873 by the company, to extend the old harbour and lengthen the quay by 4000 ft., were opened by King Edward VII. (as prince of Wales) in 1880. These cost another half million. George IV. passed through Holyhead in 1821 on his way to Ireland, and there is a commemorative tablet on the old harbour pier. The church is said to occupy the site of the old monastery (6th or early 7th century) of St Cybi, of whom there is a rude figure in the porch. The churchyard wall, 6 ft. thick, is possibly partly Roman. On the south of the harbour is an obelisk in memory of Captain Skinner, of the steam packets, washed overboard in 1833. Pen Caergybi rises perpendicularly from the sea to the height of 719 ft., at some 2 m. from the town; it is a mass of serpentine rocks, off which lie the North and South Stacks, each with a lighthouse with a revolving light, visible for 20 m., and 197 ft. above high water on the South Stack. On the hill are traces of British fortification, including a circular building, probably a Roman watch-tower. Coasting trade and fishing, with some shipbuilding and the Irish traffic, occupy most of the inhabitants.
See Hon. W. Stanley’s Holy Island and Holyhead.
HOLY ISLAND, or Lindisfarne, an irregularly shaped island
in the North Sea, 2 m. from the coast of Northumberland, in
which county it is included. Pop. (1901) 405. It is joined to
the mainland at low water by flat sands, over which a track,
marked by wooden posts and practicable for vehicles, leads to the
island. There is a station on the North-Eastern railway at
Beal 9 m. S.E. of Berwick, opposite the island, but 114 m. inland.
The island measures 3 m. from E. to W. and 112 N. to S., extreme
distances. Its total area is 1051 acres. On the N. it is sandy
and barren, but on the S. very fertile and under cultivation.
Large numbers of rabbits have their warrens among the sands,
and, with fish, oysters and agricultural produce, are exported.
There are several fresh springs on the island, and in the north-east
is a lake of 6 acres. At the south-west angle is the little
fishing village (formerly much larger) which is now a favourite
summer watering-place. Here is the harbour, offering good
shelter to small vessels. Holy Island derives its name from a
monastery founded on it by St Aidan, and restored in 1082 as a
cell of the Benedictine monastery at Durham. Its ruins, still
extensive and carefully preserved, justify Scott’s description
of it as a “solemn, huge and dark-red pile.” An islet, lying off
the S.W. angle, has traces of a chapel upon it, and is believed to
have offered a retreat to St Cuthbert and his successors. The
castle, situated east of the village, on a basaltic rock about 90 ft.
high, dates from c. 1500.
When St Aidan came at the request of King Oswald to preach to the Northumbrians he chose the island of Lindisfarne as the site of his church and monastery, and made it the head of the diocese which he founded in 635. For some years the see continued in peace, numbering among its bishops St Cuthbert, but in 793 the Danes landed on the island and burnt the settlement, killing many of the monks. The survivors, however, rebuilt the church and continued to live there until 883, when, through fear of a second invasion of the Danes, they fled inland, taking with them the body of St Cuthbert and other holy relics. The church and monastery were again destroyed and the bishop and monks, on account of the exposed situation of the island, determined not to return to it, and settled first at Chester-le-Street and finally at Durham. With the fall of the monastery the island appears to have become again untenanted, and probably continued so until the prior and convent of Durham established there a cell of monks from their own house. The inhabitants of Holy Island were governed by two bailiffs at least as early as the 14th century, and, according to J. Raine in his History of North Durham (1852), are called “burgesses or freemen” in a private paper dated 1728. In 1323 the bailiffs and community of Holy Island were commanded to cause all ships of the burthen of thirty tons or over to go to Ereswell with their ships provisioned for a month at least and under double manning to be ready to set out on the kings service. Towards the end of the 16th century the fort on Holy Island was garrisoned for fear of foreign invasion by Sir William Read, who found it very much in need of repair, the guns being so decayed that the gunners “dare not give fire but by trayne,” and the master gunner had been “miserably slain” in discharging one of them. During the Civil Wars the castle was held for the king until 1646, when it was taken and garrisoned by the parliamentarians. The only other historical event connected with the island is the attempt made by two Jacobites in 1715 to hold it for the Pretender.
HOLYOAKE, GEORGE JACOB (1817–1906), English secularist and co-operator, was born at Birmingham, on the 13th of April 1817. At an early age he became an Owenite lecturer, and in 1841 was the last person convicted for blasphemy in a public lecture, though this had no theological character and the incriminating
words were merely a reply to a question addressed
to him from the body of the meeting. He nevertheless underwent
six months’ imprisonment, and upon his release invented
the inoffensive term “secularism” as descriptive of his opinions,
and established the Reasoner in their support. He was also
the last person indicted for publishing an unstamped newspaper,
but the prosecution dropped upon the repeal of the tax. His
later years were chiefly devoted to the promotion of the co-operative
movement among the working classes. He wrote
the history of the Rochdale Pioneers (1857), The History of
Co-operation in England (1875; revised ed., 1906), and The
Co-operative Movement of To-day (1891). He also published
(1892) his autobiography, under the title of Sixty Years of an
Agitator’s Life, and in 1905 two volumes of reminiscences,
Bygones worth Remembering. He died at Brighton on the 22nd
of January 1906.
See J. McCabe, Life and Letters of G. J. Holyoake (2 vols., 1908); C. W. F. Goss, Descriptive Bibliography of the Writings of G. J. Holyoake (1908).
HOLYOKE, a city of Hampden county, Massachusetts,
U.S.A., in a bend of the Connecticut river, about 8 m. N.
of Springfield. Pop. (1880) 21,915; (1890) 35,637; (1900)
45,712; (1910 census) 57,730. Of the total population in
1900, 18,921 were foreign-born, including 6991 French-Canadians,
5650 Irish, 1602 Germans and 1118 English; and 33,626 were
of foreign parentage (both parents foreign-born), including
12,370 of Irish and 11,050 of French-Canadian parentage. The
city’s area is about 17 sq. m. The city is served by the Boston
& Maine, and the New York, New Haven & Hartford railways,
and by an interurban line. Holyoke is characteristically an
industrial and mercantile city; it has some handsome public
buildings (the city hall and the public library, founded in 1870,
being especially noteworthy) and attractive environs. Holyoke
is the railway station for Mt Holyoke College, in South Hadley,
about 4 m. N. by E. of Holyoke; the city is connected with
South Hadley by an electric line. Just above Holyoke the
Connecticut leaves the rugged highlands through a rift between
Mt Tom (1214 ft.; ascended by a mountain-railway from
Holyoke) and Mt Holyoke (954 ft.), and begins a meandering
valley course, falling (in the Hadley halls) in great volume some
60 ft. in about 112 m. The water-power was unutilized until
1849, when a great dam (1017 ft. long) was completed, which
enabled vast power to be developed along a series of canals
laid out from the river. This was, in its day, a colossal undertaking;
and its success transformed Holyoke from a farming
village into a great manufacturing centre—in 1900 and 1905
the ninth largest of the commonwealth. In 1900 a stone dam
(1020 ft.), said to be the second largest in New England, was
completed at a cost of about $750,000. Cotton manufactures
first, and later paper products were chief in importance, and
Holyoke now leads all the cities in the United States in the
manufacture of fine paper. In 1905 the total value of all factory
products was $30,731,332, of which $10,620,255 (or 34.6% of
the total) represented paper and wood pulp; $5,019,817, cotton
goods; $1,318,409, woollen goods; $1,756,473, book binding
and blank books, and $2,022,759, foundry and machine-shop
