HERRICK, ROBERT (1591-1674).--Poet, _b._ in London, was apprenticed as a goldsmith to his uncle, Sir William H., with whom he remained for 10 years. Thereafter he went to Camb., took orders, and was in 1629 presented by Charles I. to the living of Dean Prior, a remote parish in Devonshire, from which he was ejected in 1647, returning in 1662. In the interval he appears to have lived in Westminster, probably supported, more or less, by the gifts of wealthy Royalists. His _Noble Numbers or Pious Pieces_ was _pub._ in 1647, his _Hesperides or Works both Human and Divine_ in 1648, and the two together in one vol. in the latter year. Over 60, however, of the lighter poems included in _Hesperides_ had previously appeared anonymously in a collection entitled _Wit's Recreations_. H.'s early life in London had been a free one, and his secular poems, in which he appears much more at ease than in his sacred, show him to have been a thorough Epicurean, though he claims that his life was not to be judged by his muse. As a lyric poet H. stands in the front rank for sweetness, grace, and true poetic fire, and some of his love songs, _e.g._ _Anthea_, and _Gather ye Rose-buds_, are unsurpassed in their kind; while in such exquisite little poems as _Blossoms, Daffodils_, and others he finds a classic expression for his love of nature and country life. In his epigrams, however, he falls much below himself. He has been described as "the most frankly pagan of English poets." Poems ed. by Nutt (1810), Grosart (1876), Pollard (preface by Swinburne, 1891). HERSCHEL, SIR JOHN FREDERICK WILLIAM (1792-1871).--_S._ of Sir William H., the eminent astronomer and discoverer of the planet Uranus, was _b._ at Slough, and _ed._ at Camb., where he was Senior Wrangler and first Smith's prizeman. He became one of the greatest of English astronomers. Among his writings are treatises on Sound and Light, and his _Astronomy_ (1831) was for long the leading manual on the subject. He also _pub._ _Popular Lectures_ and _Collected Addresses_, and made translations from Schiller, and from the _Iliad_. HERVEY, JAMES (1714-1758).--Religious writer, Rector of Weston Favell, Northants, was the author of _Meditations among the Tombs_ (1745-47), _Theron and Aspasio_, and other works, which had a great vogue in their day. They are characterised by over-wrought sentiment, and overloaded with florid ornament. H. was a devout and unselfish man, who by his labours broke down a delicate constitution.