HOORN, a town of Holland, at the head of an arrondissement in the province of North Holland, 20 miles N.N.E. of Amsterdam and 10 miles S.W. of Enkhuizen, with which it is connected by the road called De Streek, or The Stroke. The Hoornerhop, a bay of the Zuyder Zee, forms a good outer harbour, and the inner harbour is shut in by a sluice which can be opened only when the water within and without has nearly the same level. Of the massive walls by which Hoorn was formerly surrounded few indications are left except in the shape of promenades and gardens; but two of the old gateways, the East Gate and the Cow Gate, and a few towers still remain. The West Gate is gone, with its monument to the filial piety of Lambert Meliszoon, a young man who by heroic exertions managed to bring his aged mother to refuge within the town when the country around was overrun by the Spaniards in 1579. Most of the ordinary houses are old-fashioned, and interesting from the sculptures or carvings with which they are decorated; but the public buildings have little to boast of in the way of architectural excellence or peculiarity. It is enough to mention the town-house (formerly the state college), the weigh-house, the old admiralty-house or princes’ court, the house of correction (formerly the admiralty magazine), the old mint, occupied as barracks, the new infirmary, the orphanage, and the old women’s hospital. Of the eight churches the principal is the Groote Kerk, occupying the site of the famous 14th century edifice of the same name, which perished by fire in 1838. A communal high school, a Latin school, a medical and chemical society, and a branch of the society Tot nut van 't Algemeen are the main educational institutions. The extensive foreign commerce which Hoorn enjoyed in the 16th ...