HALF-TIMBER WORK, an architectural term given to those buildings in which the framework is of timber with vertical studs and cross pieces filled in between with brickwork, rubble masonry or plaster work on oak laths; in the first two, brick nogging or nogging are the terms occasionally employed (see [Carpentry]). Sometimes the timber structure is raised on a stone or brick foundation, as at Ledbury town hall in Herefordshire, where the lower storey is open on all sides; but more often it is raised on a ground storey, either in brick or stone, and in order to give additional size to the upper rooms projects forward, being carried on the floor joists. Sometimes the masonry or brickwork rises through two or three storeys and the half-brick work is confined to the gables. There seems to be some difference of opinion as to whether the term applies to the mixture of solid walling with the timber structure or to the alternation of wood posts and the filling in, but the latter definition is that which is generally understood. The half-timber throughout England is of the most picturesque description, and the earliest examples date from towards the close of the 15th century. In the earliest example, Newgate House, York (c. 1450), the timber framing is raised over the ground floor. The finest specimen is perhaps that of Moreton Old Hall, Cheshire (1570), where there is only a stone foundation about 12 in. high, and the same applies to Bramall Hall, near Manchester, portions of which are very early. Among other examples are Speke Hall, Lancashire; Park Hall, Shropshire (1553-1558); Hall i’ th’ Wood, Lancashire (1591); St Peter’s Hospital, Bristol (1607); the Ludlow Feather’s Inn (1610); many of the streets at Chester and Shrewsbury; the Sparrowe’s Home, Ipswich; and Staple Inn, Holborn, from which in recent years the plaster coat which was put on many years ago has been removed, displaying the ancient woodwork. A similar fate has overtaken a very large number of half-timber buildings to keep out the driving winds; thus in Lewes nearly all the half-timbered houses have had slates hung on the timbers, others tiles, the greater number having been covered with plaster or stucco. Although there are probably many more half-timber houses in England than on the continent of Europe, in the north of France and in Germany are examples in many of the principal towns, and in some cases in better preservation than in England. They are also enriched with carving of a purer and better type, especially in France; thus at Chartres, Angers, Rouen, Caen, Lisieux, Bayeux, St Lô and Beauvais, are many extremely fine examples of late Flamboyant and early Transitional examples. Again on the borders of the Rhine in all the small towns most of the houses are in half-timber work, the best examples being at Bacharach, Rhense and Boppart. Far more elaborate examples, however, are found in the vicinity of the Harz Mountains; the supply of timber from the forests there being very abundant; thus at Goslar, Wernigerode and Quedlingburg there is an endless variety, as also farther on at Gelnhausen and Hameln, the finest series of all being at Hildesheim. In Bavaria at Nuremberg, Rothenburg and Dinkelsbühl, half-timber houses dating from the 16th century are still well preserved; and throughout Switzerland the houses constructed in timber and plaster are the most characteristic features of the country.
HALFWAY COVENANT, an expedient adopted in the Congregational churches of New England between 1657 and 1662. Under its terms baptized persons of moral life and orthodox belief might receive the privilege of baptism for their children and other church benefits, without the full enrolment in membership which admitted them to the communion of the Lord’s Supper.
See [Congregationalism]: American.
HALHED, NATHANIEL BRASSEY (1751-1830), English Orientalist and philologist, was born at Westminster on the 25th of May 1751. He was educated at Harrow, where he began his intimacy with Richard Brinsley Sheridan (see [Sheridan Family]) continued after he entered Christ Church, Oxford, where, also, he made the acquaintance of Sir William Jones, the famous Orientalist, who induced him to study Arabic. Accepting a writership in the service of the East India Company, Halhed went out to India, and here, at the suggestion of Warren Hastings, by whose orders it had been compiled, translated the Gentoo code from a Persian version of the original Sanskrit. This translation was published in 1776 under the title A Code of Gentoo Laws. In 1778 he published a Bengali grammar, to print which he set up, at Hugli, the first press in India. It is claimed for him that he was the first writer to call attention to the philological connexion of Sanskrit with Persian, Arabic, Greek and Latin. In 1785 he returned to England, and from 1790-1795 was M.P. for Lymington, Hants. For some time he was a disciple of Richard Brothers (q.v.), and his unwise speech in parliament in defence of Brothers made it impossible for him to remain in the House, from which he resigned in 1795. He subsequently obtained a home appointment under the East India Company. He died in London on the 18th of February 1830.
His collection of Oriental manuscripts was purchased by the British Museum, and there is an unfinished translation by him of the Mahābhārata in the library of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.