BASIL

See also:

• HALL
• HALL (O.E. heall, a common Teutonic word, cf. Ger. Halle)
• HALL (generally known as SCHWABISCH-HALL, tc distinguish it from the small town of Hall in Tirol and Bad-Hall, a health resort in Upper Austria)
• BASIL HALL (1788-1844)
• HALL, CARL CHRISTIAN (1812–1888)
• HALL, CHARLES FRANCIS (1821-1871)
• HALL, CHRISTOPHER NEWMAN (1816—19oz)
• HALL, EDWARD (c. 1498-1547)
• HALL, FITZEDWARD (1825-1901)
• HALL, ISAAC HOLLISTER (1837-1896)
• HALL, JAMES (1793–1868)
• HALL, JAMES (1811–1898)
• HALL, JOSEPH (1574-1656)
• HALL, MARSHALL (1790-1857)
• HALL, ROBERT (1764-1831)
• HALL, SAMUEL CARTER (5800-5889)
• HALL, SIR JAMES (1761-1832)
• HALL, WILLIAM EDWARD (1835-1894)

HALL (1788-1844)  , British naval officer, traveller and miscellaneous writer, was born at Edinburgh on the 31st of December 1788 . His father was Sir James Hall of Dunglass, the geologist . Basil Hall was educated at the High School, Edinburgh, and in 1802 entered the navy, where he rose to the rank of post-captain in 1817, after seeing active service in several fields . By observing the ethnological as well as the physical peculiarities of the countries he visited, he collected the materials for a very large number of scientific papers . In 1816 he commanded the sloop " Lyra," which accompanied Lord Amherst's embassy to China; and he described his cruise in An Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea and the Great Loo-choo Island in the Japan Sea (London, 1818) . In 1820 he held a command on the Pacific coast of America, and in 1824 published two volumes of Extracts front a Journal written on the Coasts of Chili, Peru and Mexico in the Years 1820–21–22 . Retiring on half-pay in 1824, Halt in 1825 married Margaret, daughter of Sir John Hunter, and in her company travelled (1827–1828) through the United States . In 1829 he published his Travels in North America in the Years 1827 and 1828, which was assailed by the American press for its views of American society . Schloss Hainfeld, or a Winter in Lower Styria (1836), is partly a romance, partly a description of a visit paid by the author to the castle of the countess Purgstall . Spain and the Seat of War in Spain appeared in 1837 . The Fragments of Voyages and Travels (9 vols.) were issued in three detachments. between 1831 and 1840 . Captain Hall was a fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, and of the Royal Astronomical, Royal Geographical and Geological Societies .

His last

work, a collection of sketches and tales under the name of Patchwork (1841), had not been long published before its author became insane, and he died in Haslar hospital, Ports-mouth, on the rrth of September 1844 .