HUCHOWN, or SIR HUGH of EGLINTON (fl. 14th cent.).—­Unless identified with Sir Hugh, Huchown is shrouded in mystery.  He was a writer of alliterative verse, referred to by Andrew of Wyntoun.  If he be identified with Sir Hugh, he was an Ayrshire nobleman related to Robert II., b.c. 1300-20, Chamberlain of Cunningham, Justiciar of Lothian, and Commissioner for the Borders.  He also held office under David II.  In that case also he is believed by some scholars to have translated the poems bearing the titles The Destruction of Troy and The Wars of Alexander.

HUGHES, JOHN (1677-1720).—­Essayist and dramatist, was a clerk in the Ordnance Office, then sec. for the Commission of the Peace.  He contributed to the Spectator, Tatler, and Guardian, ed.  Spenser, and wrote several dramas, of which the best is The Siege of Damascus.  It was his last, he having d. on the first night of its performance.  Addison thought so well of his dramatic talent that he requested him to write the conclusion of Cato.  He, however, finished it himself.  H. was a highly respectable person, and is affectionately commemorated by Sir Richard Steele.

HUGHES, THOMAS (1823?-1896).—­Novelist and biographer, s. of a Berkshire squire, was ed. at Rugby and Oxf., and called to the Bar in 1848.  Much the most successful of his books was Tom Brown’s School-days (1856), which had an immense popularity, and perhaps remains the best picture of English public-school life in the language.  Its sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford (1861), was a comparative failure, but his Scouring of the White Horse deals in a charming way with his own countryside.  He also wrote Lives of Alfred the Great, Bishop Fraser, and D. Macmillan, the publisher.  H. devoted much attention to philanthropic work in conjunction with Kingsley and Maurice.  In 1882 he was appointed a County Court Judge.

HUME, ALEXANDER (1560-1609).—­Poet, s. of Patrick, 5th Lord Polwarth, ed. at St. Andrews, and on the Continent, was originally destined for the law, but devoted himself to the service of the Church, and was minister of Logie in Stirlingshire.  He pub. in 1599 Hymns and Sacred Songs, including the beautiful “Day Estival,” descriptive of a summer day.

HUME, DAVID, (1711-1776).—­Philosopher and historian, second s. of Joseph H., of Ninewells, Berwickshire, was b. and ed. in Edin., and was intended for the law.  For this, however, he had no aptitude, and commercial pursuits into which he was initiated in a counting-house in Bristol proving equally uncongenial, he was permitted to follow out his literary bent, and in 1734 went to France, where he passed three years at Rheims and La Fleche in study, living on a small allowance made him by his f. In 1739 he pub. anonymously his Treatise on Human Nature, which attracted little attention.