Chapter Hare's Bread to Harold of H by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Harlweston Fountains, near St. Neot’s, in Huntingdon. There are two, one salt and the other fresh. The salt fountain is said to cure dimness of sight, and the sweet fountain to cure the itch and leprosy. Drayton tells the legend of these two fountains at the beginning of song xxii. of his Polyolbion (1622).

Harm set, Harm get.

On est souvent près dans son propre piège. (See HOIST.)

In German—

Wer einem eine Grube grätt
Feillt oft selbst hinein.

Harmachis, the hypothetical writer of Rider Haggard’s Cleopatra. Harmachis is supposed to be a model of manly strength and beauty, and, being the direct descendant of the Pharaohs of Egypt, was crowned king by the revolters against the Macedonian Cleopatra. He entered the court with intent to kill Cleopatra, but fell in love with her, and Cleopatra, to serve her ends, encouraged his suit till Antony came on the scene. Charmion, the favourite of Cleopatra, being in love with Harmachis, was jealous of the queen, and plotted with him to compass her death and the downfall of the triumvir. They succeed. Charmion kills herself, and Harmachis ends his life in captivity.—H. Rider Haggard Cleopatra (1889).

Harmon (John), alias JOHN ROKESMITH, Mr. Boffin’s secretary. He lodged with the Wilfers, and ultimately married Bella Wilfer. He is described as “a dark gentleman, 30 at the utmost, with an expressive, one might say, a handsome face.”—Dickens: Our Mutual Friend (1864).

For explanation of the mystery, see vol I. ii. 13.

Harmonia’s Necklace or Bracelet, an u nlucky possession, something which brings ev il to its possessor. Harmonia was the daughter of Mars and Venus. On the day of her marriage with king Cad mos, she received a necklace made by Vulcan for Venus. This unlucky ornament afterwards passed to Semelê, then to Jocasta, then to Argia (wife of Polynices), then Eriphylê, but was equally fatal in every case. Finally it was hung in the temple of Apollo at Delphos. It was made by the Cyclops, of emeralds and cut diamonds. (See Unlucky.)—Ovid: Metaph., iv. 5; Statius: Thebaid, ii.

“Harmonia,” also called Hermonea, i s frequently confounded with Hermioonê (called in English Hermi-o-ne) daughter of Menelaos and Helen, quite another person; but many persons talk of “Hermionê’s Necklace.” (See Hermione; Gold of Nibelungen; and Gold of Tolosa.)

Harmonious Blacksmith (The). The tale is that one day, while Handel was walking through Edgware, he sought shelter from a shower in a smithy, where the blacksmith was singing, and accompanied himself with the strokes of his hammer on the anvil; and this furnished Handel with the score of his famous “Harmonious Blacksmith.” In Whit-church, Middlesex, there is a tombstone to William Powell, buried February 27, 1780, commemorating the event, erected by subscription in 1868. The blacksmith Powell was parish clerk at the time. (See Schoelcher: Life of Handel, 65)

The truth of this very plausible tale is denied by a correspondent in Notes and Queries, March 21, 1896, p. 230 At any rate, the name of Powell seems to be incorrect.

A similar tale is told of Pythagoras.

Intently considering whether it would be possible to devise a certain instrumental aid to the hearing,…he one day passed near a stithy, and was struck by to sound produced as the hammers beat out a piece of iron on an anvil.…He recognized in these sounds the diapason, the diapente, and the diatessaron harmony.… Going then into the stithy, he discovered that the difference of sound arose from the different sizes of the hammers, and not from the difference of force employed in giving the strokes, nor yet from any difference