in law, is the submission, loyalty, and service, which a tenant promised to his lord when he was first admitted to the land which he held of the lord in fee: also that owing to a king, or to any superior.

HOMBURG (William), a celebrated physician, chemist, and philosopher, was the son of a Saxon gentleman, and born in Batavia, in the East Indies, in 1652. His father afterwards settling at Amsterdam, William there prosecuted his studies; and from thence removed.

Stephen, that king being jealous of his attachment to Maud, daughter of Henry I. Irritated at this, Fitz-John delivered the castle of Alnwick to David king of Scotland, and brought to his aid all the forces he could raise; he was, however, afterwards reconciled to king Stephen, and held the manors of Burg and Knareborough in Yorkshire, but never recovered the government of this castle.

In the 16th of Henry II. some great repairs seem to have been done here, as in Madox's history of the exchequer, under the article of Amercements, it appears one William, son of Waldef, was fined five marks for refusing his assistance in the king's works at Baenburg castle. Its keep is supposed to have been the work of this reign.

Edward I. summoned Baliol to meet him here 1296; and on his refusal invaded Scotland, and took him prisoner. Edward II. sheltered Gaveston here 1310. It was taken by the Yorkists after the battle of Hexham. In the reign of Elizabeth Sir John Forster, warden of the marches, was governor of it, and made a knight banneret after the battle of Muffelburgh; and his grandson John obtained a grant of both cattle and manor from James I. His descendant Thomas forfeited it in 1715; but his maternal uncle Nathaniel Crew bishop of Durham purchased and bequeathed them to unconfined charitable uses. The ruins are still considerable; but many of them now filled with sand, caught up by the winds which rage here with great violence, and carried to very distant places. The remains of a great hall are very singular; it had been warmed by two fireplaces of a vast size, and from the top of every window ran a flue like that of a chimney, which reached the summits of the battlements. These flues seem designed as so many supernumerary chimneys to give vent to the smoke that the immense fires of those hospitable times filled the rooms with; for halls smoky, but filled with good cheer, were in those days thought no inconvenience. In the year 1757, the trustees for lord Crew's charity began the repairs of the keep or great tower; the direction and management being committed to Dr Sharp archdeacon of Durham, one of their number; who has made a most judicious and humane application of his lordship's generous bequest. The walls are from 9 to 12 feet thick. The upper parts of the building have been formed into granaries; whence, in times of scarcity, corn is sold to the indigent without any distinction at four shillings per bushel. A hall and some small apartments are reserved by the Doctor, who frequently resides here to see that his noble plan is properly executed.—Among the variety of distressed who find relief from the judicious disposition of this charity, are the mariners navigating this dangerous coast, for whose benefit a constant watch is kept on the top of the tower; from whence signals are given to the fishermen of Holy Island when any ship is discovered in distress, these fishermen by their situation being able to put off their boats when none from the land can get over the breakers. The signals are so regulated as to point out the particular place where the distressed vessel lies. Besides which, in every great storm, two men on horseback patrol the adjacent coast from fun-set to fun-rise, who, in case of any shipwreck, are to give immediate notice at the castle. Premiums are likewise paid for the earliest information of any such misfortune. By these means the lives of many seamen have been, and will be, preserved, who would otherwise have perished for want of timely assistance. Nor does this benevolent arrangement stop here. The shipwrecked mariner finds an hospitable reception in this castle; and is here maintained for a week or longer, as circumstances may require. Here, likewise, are store-houses for depositing the goods which may be saved; instruments and tackle for weighing and raising the sunken and stranded vessels; and, to complete the whole, at the expense of this fund, the last offices are decently performed to the bodies of such drowned sailors as are cast on shore. Homberg, removed to Jena, and afterwards to Leipzig, where he studied the law. In 1642, he was made advocate at Magdeburg, and there applied himself to the study of experimental philosophy. Some time after he travelled into Italy; and applied himself to the study of medicine, anatomy, and botany, at Padua. He afterwards studied at Bologna; and at Rome learned optics, painting, sculpture, and music. He at length travelled into France, England, and Holland; obtained the degree of doctor of physic at Wittemberg; travelled into Germany and the North; visited the mines of Saxony, Bohemia, Hungary, and Sweden; and returned to France, where he acquired the esteem of the learned. He was on the point of returning into Germany, when M. Colbert being informed of his merit, made him such advantageous offers, as induced him to fix his residence at Paris. M. Homberg, who was already well known for his phosphorus, for a pneumatic machine of his own invention more perfect than that of Guericke, for his microscopes, for his discoveries in chemistry, and for the great number and variety of his curious observations, was received into the academy of sciences in 1691, and had the laboratory of that academy, of which he was one of its principal ornaments. The duke of Orleans, afterwards regent of the kingdom, at length made him his chemist, settled upon him a pension, gave him the most superb laboratory that was ever in the possession of a chemist, and in 1704 made him his first physician. He had abjured the Protestant religion in 1682, and died in 1715. There are a great number of learned and curious pieces of his writing, in the memoirs of the academy of sciences, and in several journals. He had begun to give the elements of chemistry in the memoirs of the academy, and the rest were found among his papers fit for printing.