April, 1827. C. & J. RIVINGTON HAVE THE FOLLOWING WORKS PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION. i. The LIFE of the Right Hon. WILLIAM PITT, Earl of CHATHAM ; containing his Speeches in Parliament, and his Correspondence when Secretary of State upon Foreign Affairs. With an Account of the principal Events con- nected with his Life and Administration. By the Rev. FRANCIS THACKERAY, A.M. In 2 vols. 4to. With a Portrait engraved by FINDEN. 3/. 3s. (just ready.) II. The CONNECTION of SACRED and PROFANE HISTORY, from the Death of Joshua until the Decline of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Intended to complete the Works of SHUCKFORD and PRIDE AUX. In 2 vols. 8vo. By the Rev. M. RUSSELL, LL.D. III. ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN The Rt. Hon. EDMUND BURKE and FRENCH LAURENCE, Esq. LL.D. In 1 vol. 8vo. IV. THE EIGHTH AND CONCLUDING VOLUME OF THE WORKS of the RIGHT HONOURABLE EDMUND BURKE. In 4to. V. HUG'S INTRODUCTION to the NEW TESTAMENT. Translated from the German. With Notes. In 2 vols. 8vo. By the Rev. D. G. WAIT, LL.D. VI. A FOURTH EDITION OF THE Rev. W. S. GILLY's NARRATIVE of an Excursion to the MOUN- TAINS of PIEMONT, and RESEARCHES among the VAUDOIS or WALDENSES. Embellished with TEN VIEWS OF SCENERY, drawn on Stone by NICHOLSON. In 8vo. VII. A POPULAR COMMENTARY on the BIBLE, in a Series of SER- MONS, following, in the Old Testament, the Course of the First Lessons at Morning and Evening Service on Sundays. In 2 vols. 8vo. (just ready.) By the Rev. J. PLUMPTRE, B.D. vni. A HISTORY of ENGLAND, for Young Persons, upon an Improved Plan. 12mo. By a CLERGYMAN of the CHURCH of ENGLAND. 2 WORKS PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION IX. HOMERI ILIAS : With ENGLISH NOTES, illustrating the Grammatical Construction; the Mytho- logy and Antiquities, Manners and Customs of the Heroic Ages; the Corre- spondence between the early Greek and Jewish Customs ; and with Preliminary Observations on the Life and Writings of Homer. In 2 vols. 8vo. The TEXT chiefly from HEYNE. By the Rev. 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A MINIATURE EDITION OF BISHOP WILSON'S SACRA PRIVATA. Uniform with the Above. XVII. A THIRD EDITION OF THE Rev. J. R. PITMAN'S EXCERPTAex VARIIS ROMANIS POETIS, qui in Scholiis variis leguntur. Notis illustrata. 12mo. BY C. AND J. RIVINGTON. 3 THE FOLLOWING ARE JUST PUBLISHED. i. THE HISTORY OF ROME, Now first translated from the German of G. B. NIEBUHR. By F. A. WALTER, Esq. F.R.S.L. One of the Librarians of the British Museum. With Two Large Maps. In 2 vols. 8vo. ll. 4s. "The History of Niebuhr has thrown new light on our knowledge of Roman affairs, to a degree, of which those, who are unacquainted with it, can scarcely form an adequate idea. We shall consider ourselves to have devoted some of our pages to an useful purpose if we make them instrumental in introducing the work before us to the knowledge of the British public, and in impressing our readers with a sense of its high excellence." Quarterly Review, July, 1825. II. The APOCALYPSE of St. JOHN, Or a Prophecy of the Rise, Progress, and Fall of the Church of Rome; the Inqui- sition; the French Revolution; the Universal War; and the Final Triumph of Christianity. Being a New Interpretation. In 8vo. 125. By the Rev. GEORGE CROLY, M.A. H.R.S.L. III. The NATURE and EXTENT of the CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION, with reference to the SALVABILITY of the HEATHEN. In 8vo. 12*. By EDWARD WILLIAM GRINFIELD, M.A. IV. SERMONS, Chiefly DOCTRINAL. With Notes. 8vo. 12*. By GEORGE D'OYLY, D.D. F.R.S. Rector of Lambeth ; and of Sundridge in Kent. V. FACTS and DOCUMENTS, Illustrative of the HISTORY of the PERIOD immediately preceding the Accession of WILLIAM III. referring particularly to Religion in England and France, and bearing on RECENT EVENTS. 8vo. 9s. 6d. By ARTHUR H. KENNEY, D.D. Rector of St. Olave's, Southwark. 4 WORKS JUST PUBLISHED. VI. A VINDICATION of the SENTIMENTS Contained in a LETTER to a CLERGYMAN on the PECULIAR TENETS of the PRESENT DAY/ 7 in Answer to the Letters of the Rev. Mr. WHISH, which were intended as a Reply to that Publication. With an Appendix, con- taining a few Remarks addressed to another Antagonist. 8vo. 10s. Qd. By R. BRANSBY COOPER, Esq. M.P. VII. A SELECTION from the PAPERS of ADDISON In the SPECTATOR and GUARDIAN. For the Use of Young Persons. 12mo. 4s. 6d. By the Rev. E. BERENS, M.A. VIII. REVIEW of a PAMPHLET entitled DECLARATION of the CATHOLIC BISHOPS, the Vicars Apostolic, and their Coadjutors in Great Britain," Paragraph by Paragraph. With an Appeal to the Roman Catholic Laity, who signed an " Address to their Protestant Fellow-Countrymen, founded on that Declaration." 8vo. 3s. 6d. By the Rev. GEORGE TOWNSEND, M.A. Prebendary of Durham, and Vicar of Northallerton. IX. HISTORY of the REFORMATION of the CHURCH of ENGLAND. Volume the Third. Containing the Reign of KING EDWARD VI. 8vo. 18s. By HENRY SOAMES, M.A. Rector of Shelley, in Essex. X. On the HISTORICAL TYPES of the OLD TESTAMENT. Twenty Discourses preached before the University of Cambridge in the year 1826, on the LECTURE founded by the Rev. JOHN HULSE. 8vo. 12*. By the Rev. TEMPLE CHEVALLIER, M.A. Late Fellow and Tutor of Catherine Hall. XI. A HISTORY of INVENTIONS and DISCOVERIES, Alphabetically Arranged. 8vo. 14s. By FRANCIS SELLON WHITE, Esq. F.A.S. Many years on the Military Staff in India. XII. DAVIDICA: TWELVE PRACTICAL SERMONS on the Life and Character of DAVID, King of Israel. 8vo. 10s. 6d. By HENRY THOMPSON, M.A. Assistant Minister of St. George's, Camberwell. PUBLISHED BY C. & J. RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL. BIBLICAL LITERATURE. i. The HOLY BIBLE, according to the Authorized Version ; with NOTES, EX- PLANATORY and PRACTICAL; taken principally from the most eminent Writers of the Church of England : with appropriate In- troduction, Table*, Index, Maps, and Plans. Prepared and arranged bv The Rev. GEORGE D'OYLY, D.D, and The Right Rev. RICHARD MANT, D.D. Lord Bishop of Down and Connor. 3 vols. 4to. 3/. 13s. 6d. Royal paper, 71. II. The OLD TESTAMENT, ar- ranged on the Basis of Lishtfoot's Chronicle, in HISTORICAL and CHRONOLOGICAL OIIDER, in such manner that the Books, Chapters, Psalms, and Prophecies may be read as one connected History, in the words of the Authorized Translation. With Six In- dexes. A NEW EDITION, with Marginal References. 2 vob. 8vo. 2^. By the Rev. GEORGE TOWNSEND, M. A. Prebendary of Durham, and Vicar of Northallerton. III. The NEW TESTAMENT, ar- ranged uniformly with the Above. The Gos- pels on the Basis of the Harmonies of Light- loot, Doddridge, Pilkington, Michaelis the Account of the Resurrection on the Authori- ties of West, Townson, and Cranfield. With Copious Notes on many of the principal Sub- jects in Theology. 2 vols. 8vo. <2L By THE SAME AUTHOR. BIBLICAL CRITICISM on the First Fourteen Books of the OLD TESTA- MENT; also on the First Nine Prophetical Books. 4 vols. 8vo. I 2l. 2s. By SAM. HORSLEY, LL.D. F.R.S. F.A.S. Late Lord Bishop of St. Asaph. V. RECENSIO SYNOPTICA AN- NOTATIONIS SACR.E; being a Critic;,! Digest 'and Synoptical Arrangement of the most important Annotations, Exegetical, Phi- lological, and Theological, upon the NEW TESTAMENT. Part I. 3 large vols. 8vo. (containing the Four Gospels.) 2/. 2s. By the Rev. S. T. BLOOM FIELD, M.A. * t * The Second Part, containing the Acts and the Epistles, is in the Press. VI. A KEY to the OLD TESTA- MENT and APOCRYPHA ; or an Account of their several Books, of the Contents and Authors, and of the Times in which they were respectively written. Eighth Edition. 13s. By the Right Rev. ROBERT GRAY, D.D. Lord Bishop of Bristol. VII. A KEY to the NEW TESTA- MENT, giving an Account of their several Books, their Contents, their Authors, and of the Times, Places and Occasions on which they were respectively written. Eighth Edi- tion. 8vo. 3s. 6d. An Edition in 12mo. 3s. By the Right Rev. THOMAS PERCY, D.D. Late Lord Bishop of Dromore. VIII. INTRODUCTION to the NE>W TESTAMENT. By SIR JOHN DAVID MICHAELIS, late Professor of the Univer- sity of Gottingen, &c. Translated from the Fourth Edition of the German, and consider- ably augmented, with Notes. Second Ed I' tion. 6 vols. 8vo. SI. 3s. By the Rt. Rev. HERBERT MARSH, D.D. Lord Bishop of Peterborough. IX. ANNOTATIONS on the FOUR GOSPELS and the ACTS OF THE APOS- TLES. Compiled and abridged for the Use of Students. Fifth Edition. 3 vols.Svo. I/. 4s. 6 THEOLOGICAL WORKS x. ANNOTATIONS on the EPIS- TLES ; being a Continuation of the Above, and principally designed for the Use of Can- didates for Holy Orders. 2 vols. 8vo. Se- cond Edition. 18s. By the Rev. JAMES SLADE, M.A. Late Fellow and Tutor of Emanuel College, Cambridge, and Vicar of Bolton-le-Moors. XI. The SCRIPTURE LEXICON ; or a Dictionary of above Four Thousand Pro- per Names of Persons and Places mentioned in the Old and New Testament; Explained and Accented. 8vo. 8s. By PETER OLIVER, LL.D. XII. The ARGUMENTS of the BOOKS and CHAPTERS of the OLD and NEW TESTAMENT; with Practical Observations. Translated from the French of the Rev. Mr. OSTERVALD, Professor of Divinity at Neufchatel, Switzerland. 3 vols. 12mo. 16s. 6d. XIII. CONTEMPLATIONS on the HISTORICAL PASSAGES of the OLD and NEW TESTAMENT. 3vols.12mo. 15s. By the Right Rev. JOSEPH HALL, D.D. Late Lord Bishop of Norwich. XIV. CONTEMPLATIONS on the LAST DISCOURSES of our BLESSED 3AVIOUR with his Disciples, as recorded in the Gospel of St. John. 8vo. 10s. 6d. By JOHN BREWSTER, M.A. Rector of Eglesclilfe, Durham. XV. A CONCORDANCE to the H'OLY BIBLE; to which is added a GEO- GRAPHICAL INDEX, with the Calendar and Table of lessons ; designed to accom- pany any Quarto Edition of the Bible, and adapted to the Maps and Notes of the FA- MILY BIBLE, published under the Direc- tion of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 5s. on Medium, and 7s. on Royal Paper. Edited by JAMES W. BELLAMY, M.A. Head Master of Merchant Taylors' School. and Prebendary of St. Paul's. %* Another Edition. Royal 8vo. 8*. XVI. A CONCORDANCE of PA- RALLELS, collected from Bibles and Com- mentaries, in various Languages, with the Authorities to each. 4to. I/. 5s. By the Rev. C. CRUTWELL, M.A. XVII. A COMPLETE CONCORD- ANCE to the HOLY SCRIPTURES ; or a Dictionary and Alphabetical Index to the Bible. The whole digested in an easy and regular method. A New Edition, Revised. 4to. 11. Is. By ALEXANDER CRUDEN, M.A. XVIII. CLAVIS PENTATEUCHI; sive Analysis Omnium Vocum Hebraicarum, suo ordine in PENTATEUCHI MOSEOS oc- currentium, unk cum Versione Latina et Anglica; Notis Criticis et Philologicis ad- jectis. 8vo. U. 8s. Auctore JAC. ROBERTSON, S.T.P. Ling. Oriental, in Acad. Edinb. Professore. Editio altera ex Recensione JOSEPHI KINGHORN. XIX. The VERACITY of the EVAN- GELISTS DEMONSTRATED, by a Com- parative View of their Histories. Second Edition. 8vo. 8s. By ROBERT NARES, M.A. F.R.S. Archdeacon of Stafford. XX. An INQUIRY into the INTE- GRITY of the GREEK VULGATE, or Re- ceived Text of the New Testament ; in which the Greek MSS. are newly classed. 8vo. 16s. By the Rev. F. NOLAN. XXI. VINDICATION* of the AU- THENTICITY of the NARRATIVES con- tained in the FIRST TWO CHAPTERS of the GOSPELS of ST. MATTHEW and ST. LUKE. In Opposition to the UNITARIAN VERSION. 8vo. lOs. 6d, By a LAYMAN. 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SERMONS, partly illustrative of the DEVOTIONAL SERVICES of the Church of England. 8vo. 10s. 6d. By the Rev. THOMAS SIMS, M.A. IX. The SUNDAY MORNING and EVENING LESSONS, taken from the Old Testament ; with short Notes. To which are added, the proper Psalms for particular days. Handsomely printed on fine paper, and in large type. 8vo. 8s. 6d. X. A CATECHETICAL EXPOSI- TION of the Apostles' Creed ; with Preli- minary Observations. 8vo. 9s. By JAMES THOMAS LAW, A.M. Archdeacon of Chester. XI. A COMMENT upon the COL- LECTS, appointed to be used in the Church of England, before the Epistle and Gospel, on Sundays and Hplydays throughout the Year. 8vo. 12s. By the Rev. J. JAMES, M.A. XII. A BRIEF ILLUSTRATION of the MORNING SERVICE of the UNITED CHURCH of ENGLAND and IRELAND. 12mo. 3s. 6d. By the Rev. J. CLARKE. XIII. LECTURES on the CHURCH CATECHISM, the CHURCH LITURGY, and the PENTATEUCH. Royal 8vo. 12s. By the Rev. Dr. PURDY. XIV. 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By JEAN RODOLPHE PEYRAN, Late Pastor of Pomaret, and Moderator oi the Waldensian Church. 8vo. 35s. With an Introduction and Appendix. By the Rev. THOMAS SIMS, M.A. IV. MEMOIRS of the LIFE and WRITINGS of the Right Rev. BRIAN WALTON, D.D. Lord Bishop of Chester, Editor of the London Polyglot Bihle. With Notices of his Coadjutor in that Illustrious Work; of the cultivation of Oriental Learning in this Country; and of the Authorized Eng- lish Version of the Bible. To which is added, Dr. Walton's own Vindication of the London Polyglot. 2 vols. 8vo. ll. Is. By the Rev. H. J. TODD, M.A. F.S.A. V. The LIFE of JOHN SHARPE, D.D. Lord Archbishop of York ; containing Select Original and Copies of Original Papers, collected from his Diary, Letters, and other authentic Testimonies, by his Son, THOMAS SHARPE, D.D. Archdeacon of Northum- berland, and Prebendary of York, Durham, and Southwell. With Portraits. In 2 vols. 8vo. 11. Is. 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With an Appendix, containing many Original Letters, never before published, from Bishop Berkeley, Archbishop Seeker, Bishop Lowth, and others, to Dr. Johnson. 8vo. 6s. With a Recommendatory Preface, By BISHOP HOBART. XI. An HISTORICAL CATALOGUE of the SCOTTISH BISHOPS, down to the Year 1688. By the RIGHT REVEREND ROBERT KEITH. Also an Account of all the Religious Houses that were in Scotland at the time of the Reformation. By J. SPOTTISWOODE, Esq. A New Edition, corrected and continued to the present Time. With a Life of the Author. In 8vo. I/. Is. or on Royal paper, I/. 10s. By the Rev. M. RUSSELL, LL.D. X. The LIVES of Dr. J. DONNE, Sir HENRY WOTTON, Mr. RICHARD HOOKER, Mr. GEORGE HERBERT, and Dr. ROBERT SANDERSON. A New Edition. 12mo. 5s. 6d. By IZAAC WALTON. XI. MEMOIRS of the LIFE of the Rev. and Venerable JOHN CONANT, D.D. Llector of Exeter College, Oxford, Regius Pro- r essor of Divinity in that University, Arch- leacon of Norwich, Prebendary of Worcester, and Vicar of All Saints, Northampton, at the ime that Town was destroyed by Fire; of hich dreadful Catastrophe, a particular Ac- count is given in a private Letter to a Friend. The whole written by his Son, JOHN CO- NANT, LL.D. Now first published. 4s. 6d By the Rev. W. STAN TON, M.A. PUBLISHED BY C. AND J. RIVINGTON. 9 PRIVATE DEVOTION. i. PRAYERS of EMINENT PER- SONS, selected and arranged and generally adapted to the Purposes of "FAMILY WOR- SHIP and PRIVATE DEVOTION. 8vo. 10s. 6d. By the Rev. HENRY CLISSOLD, A.B. Minister of Stockwell Chapel, Lambeth. FAMILY WORSHIP ; a Course of Morning and , Evening Prayers for every Day in the Month. To which is prefixed a Discourse on Family Religion. Fifteenth Edition. 8vo. 6s. By the Rev. JAMES BEAN, M.A. Late Librarian to the British Museum. III. PRAYERS selected from the se- veral Writings of JEREMY TAYLOR, D.D. Lord Bishop of Down and Connor. Adapted to the Family, the Closet, the Week before and after the Sacrament, to many Oc- currences in Life, and to the Use of the Clergy. Third Edition. I2mo. 4s. 6d. By the Rev. S. CLAPHAM, M.A. Vicar of Christ Church, Hants, and Rector of Grepage St. Michael, Dorset. IV. The DEVOTIONS of BISHOP ANDREW'S, translated from the Greek. 12mo. New Edition. 3s. bound. By DEAN STANHOPE. V. SACRA PRIVATA; the PRI~ VATE MEDITATIONS of the Right Rev. THOMAS WILSON, D.D. Lord Bishop of Sodor and Man, accommodated to General Use. A New Edition. 12roo. 3s. 6d. bd. %* A Miniature Edition is in the Press. A MANUAL of FAMILY PRAYERS. I8mo. Is. 6d. bound. New Edition. Or on Fine Paper, 3s. By the Rt. Rev. C. J. BLOMFIELD, D.D. Lord Bishop of Chester. VII. DEVOUT MEDITATIONS; or a Collection of Thoughts upon Religious and Philosophical Subjects. Third Edition. 12m 3s. By the Honourable CHARLES HOWE. VIII. 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AN attempt is made in this publication to trace,, in a plain and concise manner, the Origin and Progress of the various Arts and Sciences, and of those Discoveries and Institutions which have contributed to the improvement or civilization of mankind, or are intimately connected with the history of this country : by which the acquirements of the Ancients are brought into competition with those of the Moderns, and the introduction and cultivation of the liberal and me- chanical arts in England, compared with the advancement of them in other countries. It may, however, be necessary to premise, that most of the arts requisite to the subsistence, or conducive to the immediate comfort of mankind, are nearly co-eval with the human race, or have sprung up at different periods, and in various countries, so remote, as to preclude any satisfactory information with respect tu their origin ; and the history of many others which tend to the embellishments and luxuries of life, has been transmitted to us either by written docu- ments, which, during the lapse of ages, must have been greatly mutilated and corrupted, or, by the still less satis- factory channel of tradition, intermixed with fabulous and romantic conceits. IV PREFACE. In an Archaeological work of this description, it was difficult to fix upon any general term, by which the nature of it would be readily understood ; and hence it will be found to comprehend many subjects, which might otherwise appear foreign to the title. Each article has been compiled from the writings of dif- ferent authors of established reputation : and every attention has been paid to settle the chronology according to the most approved authorities. Without any design of soliciting unmerited indulgence, it is but just to observe that the present work was not com- menced upon with any view to publication, but solely for the purpose of amusement, and of employing some portion of that time, which the cessation of active professional services had rendered peculiarly irksome 5 but having in its pro- gress assumed a magnitude beyond the expectations of the Author, he has been induced to submit it to the public, under the hope that its utility may be admitted as an apology for any defect in its composition. In order to prevent the constant repetition of dates, it has been thought convenient to add a list of the most celebrated authors quoted or referred to in the work, with the period in which they flourished. HISTORY OP INVENTIONS & DISCOVERIES. ABACUS. The necessity of some method for facilitating mercantile computations must have been experienced in a very early pariod, and accordingly we find that long before either numeral letters or figures were known, a plain board or table divided into squares, each of which was of a different numerical value, was resorted to for this purpose : and re- ceived the name of Abacus from Pythagoras, the supposed inventor of it, about 550 B. C. A similar practice was adopted by the Chinese and Indians ; and also by the Romans till the dissolution of their empire, from which period this mode of calculation was lost in Italy till the tenth century ; when Malmsbury states it was revived by Pope John XV., who had made himself acquainted with the use of the Abacus, from the Saracens in Spain. That the English were early acquainted with a knowledge of arithmetic, is proved from a treatise having been written upon that science by Aldhelm, bishop of Sherborne, who lived in the seventh century, and it is not improbable that the method of computation by the Abacus was introduced into thia country by the Romans. So late as towards the close of the sixteenth century, the use of the Abacus was the first arithmetic taught to children of whatever rank, and the only method practised by the common people. The English Abacus was a table having six parallel lines drawn across it j the first of which was for units, the second for tens, the third for hundreds, the fourth for thousands, the fifth for tens of thousands, and the sixth for hundreds of thousands. In merchants' houses the lowest line served for pence, the next for shillings, the third for pounds, and the fourth for scores of pounds j upon these lines counters were placed, and as the intervals between them would admit of but one counter, it was considered of half the value only of the line above it : thus, the interval between the pence and shillings was sixpence, between the shillings and pounds ten shillings. Most of the counters employed for this purpose were, till the reign of Henry VIII., manufactured in France, and had some appropriate inscription, as, Gardez vous de mis comp- ter, &c., which counters being frequently found among the ruins of Abbies, are now generally known as Abbey-pieces. ABBEY. About the commencement of the second cen- tury, many of the most pious among the Christians began to form themselves into distinct societies, and to reside together in a kind of brotherhood, in places where they might per- form their religious duties without molestation. In the course of time the place of their residence acquired its name from the particular order by which it was inhabited, thus the abbies and priories were so called, from their being governed by an abbot or prior. According to Speed, the first abbey in the world was founded at Bangor, in Flintshire, about the end of the second century, when Lucius, king of Britain, sent Fagamus and Damainus to instruct the Welch in the Christian faith. Bede describes it as being in a very flourishing state at the time of Saint Augustin's arrival in England ; and Vaughan says, it bad then an establishment of two thousand four hundred monks, who in turns, one hundred every hour, read prayers and sung psalms without intermission. This celebrated monastery was destroyed in the year 605, and twelve hundred of its monks massacred by Ethelfrith, King of Northumber- land, in consequence, as Dugdale relates, of their praying for the success of their countrymen and fellow-christians against the Saxon infidels ; on the other hand, Godwin and others assert it to have been at the instigation of Saint Augustin, from their obstinacy in refusing to acknowledge the jurisdic- tion and supremacy of the Roman Pontiff. The greatest and richest monasteries and abbies were founded in England prior to the Norman conquest, at which period there were about one hundred, but towards the close of John's reign the number had increased to four hundred and seventy-six abbies and priories, and eighty-one alien priories, and afterwards many chantries, houses of friars, hospitals and colleges were erected. Cambden states the number of monasteries suppressed in England and Wales during the reign of Henry VIII., at six hundred and forty-three, besides ninety colleges, two thousand three hundred and seventy chantries and free chapels, and one hundred and ten hospitals. Sir Edward Coke mentions the following twenty- six abbies and two priories, as having the privilege of a seat in the great Council of the State. 1. Glastonbury. This monastery was founded by St. Patrick in 4'25, on the site of an ancient church supposed to have been built by Joseph of Arimathea, who had been sent by Philip the Apostle of Gaul, about the year 64, to preach the gospel in Britain. St. Patrick, who was the first Abbot, is said to have previously resided there thirty-two years as a hermit. Richard Whyting was the fifty-ninth and last Abbot j and for opposing the Reformation and refusing to surrender his Abbey, was, in the year 1540, hanged, drawn and quar- tered at Glastonbury j being drawn thither on a hurdle front Wells, where he had been condemned at the Assizes, and the* hanged upon the hill where St. Michael's church, now called the Torr, stands, after which his head was set upon the Abbey gate, and the Abbey itself demolished. The Abbot of Glastonbury took precedence of all the other mitred Abbots till the year 1154, when this honour was con- ferred upon that of St. Albans, it being the native place of Pope Adrian IV. 2. Canterbury. Ethelbert, King of Kent, at the solicita- tion of St. Augustin, founded a monastery at this place, in the year 6O5, which he dedicated to St. Peter, though it was afterwards more generally known as St. Augustin's Abbey. About the year 683, Pope Leo II. honoured the Abbot with a place in the general Council of Rome, which induced him to claim an exemption from episcopal jurisdiction, being under the immediate protection of the Pope. The privilege of a mint was also conferred upon the Abbey in the reign of Ethelstan. Peter, the first Abbot was nominated by St. Augustin. John Sturvey, alias Essex, was on the dissolution of monasteries the seventy-second Abbot. 3. Westminster, so named from its being West of St. Paul's, according to Dcgdale, had a church at a very early period, which was the burial-place of Kings, from the time of Lucius, AD. 180, till the persecutions under Diocle- sian, when it was converted into an idolatrous temple of Apollo. This edifice was situated in an island called Thorney, and was destroyed by an earthquake in the time of Antoninus Pius. Upon its ruins Sebert, King of the East Angles, about the year 610, founded an Abbey, and dedicated it to St. Peter, which being afterwards damaged by the Danes, was repaired by St. Dunstan, and considerably enlarged and beautified by Edward the Confessor, who established in it a society of Benedictines, and was there buried. This monastery was pulled down by Henry III., who erected the present building, to which Henry VII. added his chapel, called by Leland the wonder of the world. Silwardus was the first Abbot. Herebertus, the fifteenth Abbot, founded in 1121 Kilburn Abbey, in the County of Middlesex, making it a cell to West- minster. William Benson was the forty-second and last Abbot, and on the dissolution of monasteries was made by Henry VI1L, in 1539, the first Dean of Westminster 5 about two years afterwards Henry converted it into a Bishopric, and gave it to Thomas Thirlbey, who having wasted the patrimony of the See, was removed to Norwich in 155O, and it again reverted to a Deanery. In 1556 the monastic insti- tution was restored by Queen Mary, and continued till the accession of Elizabeth, who changed it to a collegiate church, of a Dean and twelve Prebendaries, as it still continues. The Abbot of Westminster had archiepiscopal jurisdiction, and the keeping of the regalia, with a chief service at the King's coronation, which rights are now held by the Dean. 4. Saint Albans, founded by King Ofla, in 794, in honour of St. Alban, who, in the year 283, first suffered martyrdom in this country. Richard Stevenage, alias Boreman, was the forty-first and last Abbot at the dissolution, and to prevent the destruction of the monastery, the townsmen paid ^640O to the King, for the privilege of converting it into a parish church. When the east end of the church of St. Albans was repaired in 1257, some leaden chests containing relics were found, and on a plate of leail the following inscription : In hoc mausoleum inventum est venerabile corpus Sancti Albani, proto martyris Anglorum. 5. St. Edmundsbury, founded by Canute in 1020, as an atonement for the murder of Edmund, King of the East Angles, by Sirenus, the father of Canute ; the thirty-third and last Abbot was John Melford, alias Reeve, or John Reve de Melford. 6. Peterborough, founded by Peada, the first Christian King of Mercia, in the year 655 j it was destroyed by the Danes in 87O, and repaired by bt. Adelwold in the reign of King Edgar, 6 who changed its ancient name of Medehamstede to that of Peterborough. Leofric, the fifth Abbot, at the time of the Conquest, held five abbies in his hands at once, viz. : Burton, Coventry, Croyland, Thorney, and Peterborough. John Chambers, the forty-fifth and last Abbot, on the Abbey being converted into an Episcopal See, was appointed Bishop thereof, by Henry VIII., in 1541. 7. Colchester, founded by Euclo, afterwards steward to Henry I., in the year 1 097. John Becke, the thirty-eighth and last Abbot, being attainted of high treason for denying the King's supremacy, was executed at Colchester, Dec. 1, 1539. 8. Eversham, founded by St. Egwin, third Bishop of Wor- cester, in the year 709. The fifty-first and last Abbot was Philip Hawford, alias Ballard, who on surrendering the Abbey was made Dean of Worcester. 9. Winchelcombe, founded by Kenwulf, King of Mercia, in 797, afterwards re-built by Oswald, Bishop of Worcester, in 985, and Germanus, Prior of Ramsey, appointed Abbot by King Edgar. Richard Mounslow was the twenty-sixth Abbot from Germanus at the dissolution. 10. Croyland, in Lincolnshire, founded by Ethelbeld, King of Mercia, in the year 716, to the honour of St. Guthlac, who, it is said, led the life of a hermit here, and by his sanctity, expelled certain frightful phantoms which infested the place ; this monastery was erected at a vast expense, it being situated in the deepest fens, where the soil is so moory that a pole may be thrust several feet into it. John Wells was the thirty-ninth and last Abbot. 1 1 . Battle, in Sussex, founded by William the Conqueror, in the year 1067, to commemorate his victory over the British, and that prayers might be offered for the souls of such as were slain. John Hammond was the thirty-first and last Abbot. 12. Reading, founded by Henry 1., in the year 1125. Hugh Faringdon, the thirty-second Abbot, together with two of hii monks, named Rugg and Onion, for refusing to surrender the Abbey, were hanged, drawn, and quartered, at Reading, in November, 1539. 13. Abington, founded by Cissa, King of the West Saxons, in the year 675. Thomas Penthecost, alias Rowland, was the fifty-first and last Abbot. 14. Waltham, founded by Earl Harold, afterwards King, in 1062. The last Abbot was Robert Fuller. 15. Shrewsbury, founded by Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Arundel and Shrewsbury, in 1083. Thomas Butler was the twenty-fourth and last Abbot. 16. Cirencesier, founded by Henry I, in 1117. John Blake was the twenty-ninth and last Abbot. 17. Gloucester, founded by Osric, afterwards King of Northumberland, in the year 681. William Malverne was the thirty-second and last Abbot. 18. Bardney, in Lincolnshire, founded by Ethelred, King of Mercia, in the year 7 12. William Morton was the last Abbot. 19. Hulm, in Norfolk, founded by Canute, in 1031. Wil- liam Rugge, alias Reppes, the thirty-seventh Abbot, was made Bishop of Norwich, by Hen. VIII., with permission to continue Abbot of Hulme. 20. Thorney, in Cambridgeshire, formerly called Ankeridge, from its being the favourite residence of a number of Ancho- rites. Saxulfus, a religious and devout man, founded at this place a monastery with hermit's cells, which was rebuilt by Ethelwold, Bishop of Worcester, in the year 972. Roger Blytt, or Blyth, was the thirty-second and last Abbot. 21. Ramsey, founded by Ail wine, Earl of the East Angles, in the year 979. John Lawrence was the thirty-fifth acd last Abbot. 22. Hyde, in Hampshire, founded by Edward the Elder, in compliance with the will of his father Alfred, about the year 903. It was first called New-minster, to distinguish it from the Old-minster, or Cathedral of Winchester, within the prcincti of \rhose cemetery it was founded ; but the near neighbourhood of these two great churches caused the monk* of New-minster to transplaat themselves, about two hundred years after the first erection of the monastery, to a place called Hyde, without the city walls of Winchester : at first it was governed by Seculars, but in the year 964 Elthelwold, Bishop of Winchester, introduced Monks and converted the college into a monastery. John Salcot, alias Capon, the- thirty- eighth Abbot, having been instrumental in procuring Henry's divorce from Catherine of Arragon, was, on the dis- solution of the Abbey, promoted to the Bishoprick of Salis- bury. 23. Malmsbury, founded by Ekutherius, Bishop of Win- chester, in the year 675. Richard Erampton was the forty- fifth and last Abbot. On the dissolution, one Stump, a rich clothier, purchased the Abbey of the Ring, and converted it into a parish church, and the offices into rooms for weaving. 24 . York, St. Mary.s, founded by Allan, Earl of Richmond, in 1093. William Dent, at the time of the dissolution, was the thirty-first Abbot. 25. Selby, in Yorkshire, founded by WiBiam the Conqueror, in the year 1069. Robert Roger was the thirty- third and last Abbot, and the Abbey was converted into a parochial church. 26. Coventry, , founded by Leofric, Earl of Chester, and Godiva his wife, in 1O43. Leofwine was appointed Abbot, and being in 1054 made Bishop of Lichfield, he ordained that his successors, superiors of this monastery, should be called Priors and not Abbots 5 upon his death Robert de Limesay, Bishop of Chester, about the year 1100, obtained the custody of the Abbey from Henry I., and removed his see thither, constituting it the chief cathedral of the diocese j but dying soon afterwards, the see reverted to Lichfield, when it was agreed, that the precedency in the style episcopal should be given to Coventry, and that both places should choose their Bishop alternately, and make one chapter, in which the Prior of Coventry should preside. Thomas; CamseU wag Prior at the dissolution. .7. St. Johns of Jerusalem, in London, founded by Jor- danus Briset, in the year 11OO, and governed by a Prior, who was styled Primus Angliae Baro. William Weston was the thirty -third and last Prior. 28. Tewksbury , founded by Oddo, Duke of Mercia, in 715. In the year 93O, Haylwardus Snew built a monastery at Craneborn, to which he subjected the Priory of Tewksbury ; but Robert Fitz-Hamon, in the year 11O2, re-built the Abbey of Tewksbury, and changed Craneborn into a Priory, dependent upon Tewksbury. John Wech, alias Wakeman, the twenty-sixth Abbot, was made Bishop of Gloucester by Hen. VIII, and the monastery became the parish church. 29. Tavistock, founded by Odgar, Earl of Devonshire, in 961. John Peryn was the thirty-sixth and last Abbot. The total revenue of the Abbey lands, at their resignation into the King's hands, was valued at two million eight hundred and fifty-three thousand pounds, an immense sum in those days. ABBOT. This title of dignity and honour among the Jews, appears to have been first assumed by the heads of monasteries, about the tune of St. Jerome, towards the close of the fourth century. At which period they were subject to the Bishops and ordinary Pastors, and on Sundays frequented the parish church with the rest of the people 5 at length, probably on account of the distance of the monastery from any place of worship, the monks were allowed to elect a priest from their own community, and the choice generally fell upon the Abbot, whose functions, how- ever, extended no further than to the spiritual assistance of his monastery, and he continued still in subjection to the Bishops, till about the middle of the fifth century, when the Abbots began to assume to themselves the title of Lord, with other badges of the episcopacy, particularly the mitre. In Britain the mitred Abbots, that they might be distinguished 10 from those of an inferior order, were called Abbots -sovereign and Abbots-general -, and the heads of those Priories who had become exempt from the jurisdiction of the Bishop, took upon themselves the dignity of Lords-Priors. On the dissolution of the Abbies and Monasteries by Hen. VIII, the title of Abbot was no longer permitted, with the exception of that of Hulm, in Norfolk, the Abbot of which Monastery being made by Henry, Bishop of Norwich, was by virtue of a private Act of Parliament, continued as Abbot of Hulm, and permitted to entertain a Prior and twelve monks 5 accordingly Montague, Bishop of Norwich, just before the grand rebellion, wrote himself in his leases, Richard, by divine permission, Lord Bishop of Norwich, and Lord Abbot of St. Bennets de Hulm, and which title it is said may still be assumed by the Bishops of Norwich. ABDICATION. Dioclesian, the Roman Emperor, first acquired the glory of giving to the world the example of a monarch abdicating his crown, which ceremony took place on the 1st of May, A. D. 305. He afterwards retired to his country seat in the neighbourhood of Salona, and died in 313. Several of the Saxon Kings, during the Heptarchy, abdicated or resigned their thrones to assume the monastic habit, and repaired to Rome, that they might receive the tonsure from the Pope's hands. James II. was declared by the British Par- liament to have abdicated his crown in 1688. ABLUTION. The antiquity of ablutions, as a religious ceremony, is equal to any recorded. Moses enjoined them j the Heathens adopted them, and they have been continued by Mahomet and his followers. The Egyptian priests had their iliurnal and nocturnal ablutions. The Indians purified them- selves in the sacred stream of the Ganges. The Grecians Jiad their sprinklings, and the Romans their lustrations and lavations j the ancient Christians had their ablutions before 11 communion, which custom is still retained in the Romish church ; thus the practice of ablution has acquired a footing amongst most nations,, and makes a considerable part of their established religions. ABSOLUTIONS. (See Indulgences .) ABSORPTION, a term used for the disappearance of large tracts of land ; several instances of which have occurred both in ancient and modern times. In 1 566, a considerable tract of mountainous country in China was absorbed into the earth, and all the towns with their inhabitants perished. In April 1647, Bassia, near Turin, in Piedmont, sunk with its inhabitants. In December 1735, one hundred yards of Portland Isle sunk into the sea ; and in ] 737 a great part of the Cliff of Scarborough. Penguin Island, near Table Bay, at the Cape of Good Hope, disappeared in 1809. As Islands have been destroyed and swallowed up by the sea, so also have they suddenly and unaccountably appeared ; thus an Island was raised in the Atlantic, near St. Michael's, in the year 1638, five miles in length. Also a mountain in the sea, near Puzzoli, which is called Mons Sanctus, or the Sacred Mount. Many similar phenomena might be mentioned. ACADEMY. Some attribute the name and origin of Academies to Cadmus, the Phoenician, as being the first who introduced learning among the Greeks ; though others, with more propriety, to one Academus, who having, about 125O B. C., a large grove at Athens, permitted the learned men of that city to assemble there for the purpose of philosophical conferences ; among these the followers of Plato were called Academics. The moderns by an Academy understand a society of learned persons, for the cultivation and improvement of arts and sciences, by a communication of their discoveries to each other - y 4he first Academy of this description was that founded by Ptolemy Soter, of Alexandria, about 286 B. C. Theo- dosius, the Younger,, also established one at Constantinople. Others again assert, that Charlemaigne is entitled to the honor of having first founded an Academy of this description, which was composed of the most learned men in his court, the Emperor himself being a member. Academies, considered as a kind of Collegiate School or Seminary, for the instruction of youth in the liberal sciences, were first established at Rome, in the time of Adrian, and were erected in various parts of Europe in the thirteenth century, under the denomination of Universities, as embrac- ing the whole circle of science. ACCENTS, Mr. West maintains that accents were origi- nally notes, set over words to direct the several tones and inflexions of the voice requisite to give the whole sentence its proper harmony and cadence, and that they were invented by Aristophanes, the Grammarian, a native of Byzantium, about the time of Ptolemy Philopater, 200 years before Christ. Vassius, in his treatise on the Greek accents, en- deavours to prove that accents to syllables are of modern invention, and that they are not to be found in any manuscript or inscription, till 170 years after Christ; it is alleged by others that accentual marks were not in common use till about the seventh century, at which time they are first noticed in MSS. ACHROMATIC. (See Telescope.} ACROSTICS 5 according to Cicero, the Sybilline Oracles were written in a kind of Acrostics ; some pretend to find Acrostics in the Psalms, particularly in those called the ABCDARIAN Psalms. 13 ACTOR. The drama in its original, consisted only of a simple chorus, who sung or recited an hymn in honour of Bacchus. Thespis first introduced an actor or persona to ease the chorus ; JEschylus added a second person to conduct a dialogue with the first. Sophocles brought forward a third actor. The actors were highly esteemed by the Greeks, and we find ^Eschylus, Sophocles, and Aristophanes taking a part in their own pieces, yet the Romans held them in contempt. (See Drama.} ACTRESSES, were unknown to the ancients, though Phrynichus, the pupil of Thespis, introduced women's parts on the stage, but these parts were always performed by men j hence one reason for the use of masks among them: Actresses, it is said, were not known on the English stage till after the restoration of Charles II., who has been charged with contributing to the corruption of m anners by importing this usage from abroad, but this can be only partly true j the Queen of James I. performed a part in a pastoral ; and Pryn in his Histriomatrix, speaks of Actresses in his time as women of a loose character, which was one reason of the severe persecution brought against him for that book. ACTS. (See Drama.') ADJUTANT. This officer was introduced into our military service in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and ranked above a Serjeant-Major ; but the situation was not usually held by a commissioned officer till the French revo- lutionary war in 1793. ADMIRAL. Anderson traces the name to the year 558, at which time, he says, there was an Admiral of the French navy , but authors differ very much as to the origin of this title. Sir Henry Spelman thinks, that both the name and dignity of Admiral were derived from the Saracens, and intro- 14 duced during the Crusades, by Edward I. into this country $ for Admiral, Admirante, in the Arabic tongue, signifies a Prince or Chief Ruler, and the Arabs called the commander of their navy by that name, as one of rank and consequence. The Sicilians, followed by the Genoese, borrowed this term from the Saracens, about the middle of the twelfth century 5 and it does not appear that there are any instances of Admirals in this part of Europe, prior to the commencement of the thirteenth century. The first time this title is noticed in the English history, is in the year 1224, when Richard de Lacy was appointed Admiral. In the year 1294, there were three Admirals, one of whom, John de Botetort, was Admiral of the Yarmouth or North Station , the second, William de Leiburne, Admiral of the Portsmouth or South station $ and the third, Admiral of the Western station. However, very soon afterwards, in 1306, there were but two officers of that rank, the one Admiral of the North, having the command from the Thames mouth to the Northern parts, and the other Admiral of the West, from the Thames mouth Westward ; which regulation continued till the year 1405, though in some few instances both these commands were vested in one person. The first who had this honor was John de Beauchamp, brother to the Earl of Warwick, in the year 1360 $ he was also Warden of the Cinque Ports. The next was Richard Fitz Allen, Earl of Arundel and Surry, who, in 1387, was the first person dignified with the title of Admiral of England, which was granted him by Rich. II. j he held this office but one year, when the navy was placed under the command of two Admirals as before. In 1406, the commands were united in the person of John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset, who was the second that had the rank of Admiral of England. The first who had the office of Lord High Admiral of England was John de Vere, Earl of Oxford, and Lord Great Chamberlain of England, in the year 1485, and this with little interruption "continued till the resignation, in conse- 15 quence of the test act, of James, Duke of York, afterwards James II., when, in the stead of Lord High Admiral of England, Commissioners were appointed for executing his duties, which continued till 1685, when James II., on his accession, took the management of the Admiralty Offices into his own hands ; on his abdication in 1688, they were again placed under the management of Commissioners, and have so continued to the present time, with a single excep- tion, in favor of George, Prince of Denmark, the husband of Queen Anne, who, during his life, had the title of Lord High Admiral of England, and when the union took place in 1707, Lord High Admiral of Great Britain. The Admiralty Court was erected by Edward III., though the jurisdiction is traced to the reign of John -, its power was much enlarged in the time of Henry IV., when it first took cognizance of criminal as well as civil matters. ADVENT. In the ancient church great austerity was practised during this season, as a pious preparation for the coming on of the feast of the Nativity , marriages were, consequently, prohibited , it was first directed to be observed A. D. 430 -, #nd formerly included five or six Sundays j the number was limited to four A. D. 1OOO. ENIGMA . Gale supposes that the Egyptians borrowed the use of ^Enigmas from the Hebrews. Solomon is said to have been particularly skilful in the solution of them j and we find, in Judges XIV. 12, 13, Sampson saying, " I will now put forth a riddle to you." The operation of cupping performed in ancient days by a machine of brass, the air being exhausted by fire, is ingeniously represented by the following ^Enigma of Aristotle's, thus translated. "I saw a man, who, unprovoked with ire, Stuck brass upon another's back with fire." Arist. Rhet. 16 ^EOLIPILE. An hydraulic instrument, which being filled with water and exposed to the fire, produces a strong blast of wind. This instrument is mentioned by Vitruvius, Des Cartes and others 5 and an ,/E.olipile of great antiquity, made of brass, was lately dug up in the site of the Basingstoke Canal, and presented to the Antiquarian Society of London j it is in the form of a grotesque human figure, and the blast proceeds from its mouth. Dr. Platt gives an instance where the ^Eolipile is actually used to blow the fire. The Lord of the Manor of Essington is bound by his tenure to drive a goose, every New Year's Day, three times round the hall of the Lord of Hilton, while Jack of Hilton (a brazen figure, formerly a Saxon Idol, having the structure of an ^Eolipile) blows the fire. JLOLUS'S HARP, an instrument producing agreeable sounds on being exposed to a current of air. Thomson, in a note to his celebrated ode on this instrument, ascribes the invention of it to Mr. Oswald ; but it appears to have been known to Kircher, and described by him in a book entitled Magia Phonotactica et Phonurgia. JEEA. This word, it is said, was first made use of by the Spaniards, to denote the period they became subject to the Roman Empire, under Augustus j the letters A : ER : A. sig- nifying the words Annus erat Augusti. The following are the principal ZEras or Epochas noticed in history. The Julian Period, which has been adopted by modern chronologers, and from which all ./Eras and Epochas are deduced, was invented by Joseph Justus Scalenger, an Italian and professor of the belles lettres in the University of Leyden, in 1593 j it is so called from its being composed of a series of 7980 Julian years, arising by the multiplication of the cycles of the moon, the sun and indiction, viz : 28 x!9 x!5, into one another j and the year in which our Saviour was born., 17 which is the common Epocha throughout Europe, is usually computed to be the 4713 year of the Julian Period. The World, according to Julius Africanus, was created 78? years before the Julian Period, answering to the year 550O before Christ $ but when this Epocha caine to be admitted into civil use, eight years were added to it, that so every year thereof divided by 15, might exhibit the Indiction, which the Eastern Emperors used in their charters and diplomas : this by some has been called the Epocha of the Period of Constan- tinople, and was common among the Greeks and also among the Russians, which last have, however, lately admitted the Julian Calendar, and began their year from the first of January. Panadorus, a monk of Egypt, in order to facilitate the computation of Easter, established the Alexandrian or Greek Ecclesiastical Epocha, assuming the creation of the world to have happened 5493 B. C. Eusebius, in his Chronicon, states it to have been created 4228 B. C. ; Archbishop Usher and Dupin, 4004 B. C. -, Melancthon, 3963 B.C.j Luther, 396O B. C. ; and Helvicus Calvisius and others, 395O B. C. ; but according to the computation of the Jews, and to which they still adhere, the world was created on the 7th day of October in the Julian Period 953, or 3761 B. C. The Olympiad Epocha, so famous in ancient history, had its origin from the Olympic Games, celebrated at the begin- ning of every fifth year, to commemorate the victories of Hercules and other fabulous heroes. The utility of the Olympiad, as an established aera in the Greek chronology and history is well known ; and Scaliger, who gave up a consi- derable portion of his time in an attempt to elucidate the origin of it, triumphs with no small degree of exultation, in the imagined success of his researches. "Hail!" says he, ' venerable Olympiad ! thou guardian of dates and aeras ! assertrix of historical truth, and curb of the fanatical licen- tiousness of chronologists !"&c. &c. Nevertheless, chrono- D is logers are far from being agreed about the precise time at which the Olympiads began, some dating them from the vic- tory of Coroebus the Elean, and others throwing their origi- nal thirteen, and even twenty-eight, Olympiads further back- ward. This was done by artificial chronologers, who, in order to accommodate the Olympiads to their systems and computations, have, as Sir Isaac Newton observes, added to their antiquity one hundred and twelve years. Chronologers, however, in all their computations, agree to reckon down- ward from that Olympiad, in which Coroebus the Elean was conqueror : the first year of which was the 776th B. C., answering to the Julian Period of 3938. The Epocha of the Building of Rome, or Urbis Conditee, IJ.C., according to Varro, whose opinion was adopted by the Roman Emperors in their proclamations, and the classical writers in general, and by most modern chronologers, com- menced on the 20th of April, in the year of the Julian Period, 3961, or 753 B. C. Sir Isaac Newton, however, states that Rome was built in the fifteenth age after the destruction of Troy, which took place 904 B. C., and allow- ing twenty- one years to each of the fourteen kings who reigned in Alba, previous to the building of Rome, it would bring forward that Epoch to the thirty-eighlh Olympiad, or 627 B. C. The Epocha of Nabonassar, King of Babylon, used by Hipparchus, Ptolemy and others, commenced on the 26th Feb. 747 B. C. The author of the Vulgar or Christian JEra, being the method of computation adopted by Christians in general, was Dionysius, by birth a Scythian, and Abbot of Rome, A. D. 507 j he began his account from the Conception or Incarna- tion, by us popularly called Lady-day or the Annunciation, which he stated to have happened in the year 4713 of the Julian Period : before his time the Christians usually com- puted their years either from the Building of Rome, or 19 according to the orders of the Emperors and Consuls, and by other ways in use with the people among whom they lived. Anderson, in his History of Commerce, asserts that the Emperor Justinian was the first who, about the year 533, sanctioned this JEra. ; but it was not followed in Germany or France, till the reign of the Emperor Charles the Great, in the commencement of the ninth century, nor in Spain, till after the expulsion of the Saracens in the fifteenth century. In England, this method of computation seems to have been practised soon after the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons by St. Augustin, and is first noticed by the Venerable Bede, in his ecclesiastical history, written in the year 731. Until the conquest by the Normans, the year was presumed to begin from the birth of our Saviour, but after the con- quest, no settled period for the commencement of the year seems to have been determined upon, it being sometimes stated by our early historical writers as commencing on the birth, and at other times on the conception of our Saviour } about the middle of the fifteenth century, the method of beginning the year from Lady-day appears to have been the most common, and to have prevailed until the year 1752, when the Gregorian Calendar, altering the commencement of the year to the first of January, was established by Act of Parliament, though in foreign mercantile transactions the Old Style is in many instances continued. (See Year.) The Epocha of the Hedjira commences on the 16th of July, the day of Mahomet's flight from Mecca to Medina, A. D. G22, and is used by all who profess the Mahometan faith, having been introduced by Omar the third Emperor of the Turks ; this year consists of but twelve lunar months. The first volcanic eruption from this mountain is that mentioned by Diodorus Siculus, which compelled the Sicani to relinquish the eastern coast of Sicily, but the exact time is not known ; the second, according to Eusebius, 20 happened 564 years before Christ, since which they have beer* frequently noticed in history. Livy records one which hap- pened 121 B. C., and occasioned so much injury to the country, that the inhabitants were excused the payment of taxes to the Romans for ten years. And in the year 1329* the eruptions from the mountain continued with little inter- mission for a whole year,, and created so much alarm to the inhabitants, that they clothed themselves in mourning. In the year 1669, the habitations of twenty-seven thousand people were destroyed, and near seventeen thousand people perished by one of these dreadful occurrences. AFRICA. This quarter of the globe received its name from the Romans, but the etymology of the word is much disputed ; it was anciently called Lybia, and considered as a part of Europe, the world being at that time divided into two parts only, viz : Asia and Europe > the period when Africa was accounted as a distinct portion cannot be exactly ascer- tained,, the Romans being merely acquainted with those provinces which stretch along the Mediterranean Sea, from Egypt westward to the Straits of Gibraltar. Africa was first circumnavigated by the Phoenicians in the reign of Necho, King of Egypt,, about 60O B. C. j they took their departure from a port in the Red Sea, doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and returned through the Straits of Gades to the mouths of the Nile. The destruction of Carthage by Scipio, 146 B. C., subjected Africa to the dominion of the Romans, from whom it was taken by the Vandals and other barbarous nations* A. D. 439. It was for a short time recovered by the Greek Empire under Belisarius, in 530, but was overrun and finally subdued by the Saracens and Moors, about the year 700. In the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Moors, apprehen- sive of being subdued by Spain, placed themselves under the protection of the Turks, and they are now subjects of the Ottoman Empire. 21 Vasco de Gama has the merit of first communicating 1 a geographical outline of the southern and western parts of Africa, as ascertained 'by him, during his voyages in 1497 and 1499. The first commercial voyage from England to the African shores was in 1536. Queen Elizabeth in 1588 granted a patent to some merchants at Exeter, for an exclusive trade to the rivers Senegal and Gambia, for ten years ; thus establish- ing the first company for trading to Africa. AGATE. This mineral is mentioned by Theophrastus and Pliny, as chiefly used for ornamental works. The engraved gems, those precious remains of ancient art, are principally of Agate, and several of exquisite beauty are preserved in the cabinets of the curious. AGRICULTURE. The art of cultivating the soil was carried to great perfection both by the Egyptians and Chal- deans, and no doubt from its importance must have attracted the attention of mankind from the earliest periods of the world. Hesiod, who is generally thought to have been con- temporary with Homer, was the first among the Greeks who wrote on this subject. According to his account, the earth originally produced corn without cultivation, and this aera he entitled the Golden Age : afterwards the earth became un- fruitful, and the Greeks for a long time subsisted on acorns and berries, till Ceres introduced the science of Agriculture. Hesiod entitled his poem " Weeks and Days/' because Agri- culture requires an exact observance of times and seasons. The early Britons acquired their knowledge of husbandry from the Gauls, yet it was little attended to till the arrival of the Romans, who by their encouragement of it, especially under Agricola, were enabled to export considerable quantities of corn annually to Rome. AIR. Aristotle, who nourished about 34O B.C., observed? that a bladder inflated with air weighed more than when it was empty j therefore, that the air had the property of gra- vity was known to the ancients. Its elasticity was also noticed by Ctesibius, of Alexandria, 120 B. C. Galileo, about the year 1630, proportioned the weight of air to water, and his scholar Torricelli improved on the discovery by substituting quicksilver. AIR BALLOON. The Romances of almost every nation have recorded instances of persons being carried through the air, both by the agency of spirits and by mechanical inven- tions ; but no rational principle appears to have been thought of, by which this might be accomplished, till near the end of the thirteenth century, when Friar Bacon informs us he knew how to construct a machine, capable of transporting a person through the air like a bird, and that the experiment had been successfully tried, by means of two large thin shells or hollow globes of copper, which being exhausted of air, and thus made lighter than the common atmosphere, were found capable of supporting the weight of a person sitting on a chair. No further experiments on the subject are noticed till the year 1709, when Friar Guzman, a Portuguese projector, applied to his sovereign to encourage his invention of a flying machine, which did not then prove successful 5 but in 1736, he constructed a wicker basket of about seven feet diame- ter, covered with paper, which on being deprived of air, rose to about two hundred feet from the ground, and the effect was. even in those days, attributed to magic. In 1766, Mr. Henry Cavendish, among other discoveries, ascertained the weight and other properties of inflammable air to be about seven times lighter than that of common air, and thus revived the subject of aerostation, and most probably suggested to Stephen and John Montgolfier, natives of An- noncey, in France, the mode of inflating their balloons by means of rarified air. They first made the experiment in 1782, with a fine silk bag, of about 40 cubic feet in capacity, the air being rarified by applying burning paper at the lower aperture, and the bag rose to the height of about 70 feet. In the following year, one on a larger scale was exhibited at Paris, having a sheep, a cock and a duck placed in a basket attached to the balloon, which ascended to the height of 15OO feet, and in eight minutes dropped to the ground at the dis- tance of two miles from Paris, without any injury to the travellers. Pilatre de Rozier was the first person who ventured to ascend in a balloon, which took place at Paris in October, 1783. The balloon was constructed upon the principle before mentioned, and was forty-eight feet in diameter, and seventy- four in height. M. Pilatre having placed himself in the gal- lery, the machine was inflated, and being fastened to the ground by ropes, ascended to the height of 84 feet, and at another time to the height of 330 feet ; he afterwards ventured, in company with the Marquis de Orlandes, to make an aerial voyage ; they ascended on the 21st November, 1 783, from the Chateau of Muette, to upwards of 1OOO yards, and after a journey of twenty-five minutes round the city of Paris, safely alighted beyond the Boulevards ; this intrepid aeronaut soon afterwards unfortunately perished in one of his aerial excursions, in consequence of his balloon taking fire. In 1783, Messrs. Roberts and Charles constructed a balloon with inflammable instead of rarified air, in which they ascen- ded from Paris, and alighted in safety at the distance of 27 miles from the city. The merit., however, of this discovery, is due to Dr. Black, of Edinburgh, who first suggested the idea in his lecture in 1768 ; it was afterwards experimentally tried by Cavallo, of which an account was read to the Royal * Society on the 2Oth of June, 1782. On the 7th January, 1785, Mr. Blanchard and Dr. Jefferies determined upon the 24 hazardous experiment of crossing the Straits of Dover in a balloon j they departed from Shakespeare's Cliff, and after some little difficulty, safely reached the opposite coast, and descended in the forest of Guinnes. In 1793, the French Republic established an academy for aeronauts, at Meudon, where a balloon was kept constantly filled and ready for experiments. On the 26th June, 1794, Coutel, captain of the ^Eronautic Corps, ascended twice with the Entreprenant balloon, to the height of 480 yards, and conducted the impor- tant service of reconnoitering the hostile armies at the battle of Fleuras j he was accompanied by a General and an Adju- tant, and by means of preconcerted signals, described the position and manoeuvres of the enemy, and carried on a cor- respondence with General Jourdan, the Commander of the French Army. The parachute was invented by M. Garnerin, in 1802, to facilitate the descent from the balloon in case of accident. AIR-GUN. This machine, for expelling bullets by the expansive force of air, is first noticed in the Elemens d f Artillerie, of David Rivant, the preceptor to Louis XIII. -, he gives the merit of the Invention to Marin, a burgher of Lesieux, who presented one to Hen. IV. of France, about the year 1592. AIR-PUMP. Otto de Guericke, the celebrated Consul of Magdeburgh, is the inventor of this instrument, and exhibited his first public experiment with it, before the Emperor and the States of Germany, at the breaking up of the Imperial Diet at Ratisbon, in the year 1654. Boyle, however, with the assistance of Dr. Hooke, very greatly improved upon the invention, and hence, or rather from the great variety of expe- riments that illustrious author applied it to, he has by many been considered as the inventor; and the instrument itself, is frequently named after him the Boylian machine. 25 ALABASTER. This mineral is noticed by Pliny, who mentions that vases were frequently made of Alabaster stone, for the purpose of containing odoriferous liquors. ALCHEMY. The origin and antiquity of this science are much controverted ; if regard may be had to legend and tradition, it must be as old as the flood, but in effect, not one of the ancient poets, philosophers, or chemists make mention of it. It is first noticed by the Empress Eudocia, in her Greek dictionary, wherein she observes as follows, concerning the famous golden fleece : "Dionysius, the Mytilenean, says, that a man, whose name was Krius, (which signifies a ram), was the pedagogue of Phryxus, and that the sheep -skin had a golden fleece, not conformable to poetic assertion, but tliat it was a book written in skins, containing the manner in which gold ought to be made, according to the chymic art." This Dionysius lived sometime prior to Cicero. Manetho, who lived in the tune of Ptolemy Philadelphus, also states, in his fourth book of Apotiles Matica, "that Venus, in conjunction with Phaeton, (the sun), points out makers of gold, and workers of Indian ivory." Alchemy seems to have been first regularly studied some short time prior to the Christian ^ra, and to have been known to the Romans, as both Caesar and Dioclesian directed all books which treated upon the subject to be burned, and banished such as practised the art ; though the word itself can be only traced to the time of Constan- tine, in whose reign Julius Fermicus Maternus, speak- ing of the influence of the heavenly bodies, affirms in his Mathesis, " that if the Moon be in the house of Saturn at the time a child is born, he shall be skilled in Alchemy." The art was much practised in Greece, in the time of Zosimus the Panoplite, who lived about the commencement of the fifth century, and wrote an express treatise on this subject, which he entitled "The Divine Art of making Gold." Alchemy was introduced into Europe in the thirteenth cen- 26 tury, when the learning of the east had been brought hither by the Arabians, and became the favourite pursuit of Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, Raymond, Lally, and others, not only with the view of changing the baser metals into gold or silver, but also under the expectation of discovering an universal medicine, which would cure all disorders, and prolong the duration of human existence to an indefinite period, an idea first suggested by Gaber, an Arabian, about the middle of the eighth century. The writings of these able men raised the study of Alchemy to a degree of-credit, which it little merited, especially among the ecclesiastics, who possessed, at that time, almost all the learning of the age j and even a Pope, John XXI. was weak enough to assert, in his treatise on the art of transmutation,, that he had himself made 200 ingots of gold, of one hundred weight each. Rymer, in his Fredera, first notices the introduction of the art into England he states, that, in the reign of Edward IV., a license was gran- ted to one John Mistleden and his three servants, " to work in the philosophical art of transubstantiating imperfect metals into pure gold and silver, as they are found in the mines." Nevertheless, we have had as severe laws against Alchemy and multiplying of metals, as against coining itself. ALCOHOL. Neither the Greeks or Romans have noticed the spirituous part of liquors which have undergone the vi- nous fermentations } the preparation of it from wine, and even the discovery of Alcohol, or pure spirit itself, is ascribed to Arnold de Villa Nova, who lived in the thirteenth century. ALCORAN. In Arabic, " The Book," a title given by way of eminence to the Mahometan gospel, which the Mahome- tans state was given to Mahomet (himself an illiterate man), by the Angel Gabriel, in small quantities, only a verse at a time, and in different places, during a period of twenty-three years. 27 There are seven principal editions of the Alcoran, two at Medina, one at Mecca, one at Cufa, one at Bassora, one in Syria, and the common or Vulgate edition. The first contains ,OOO verses ; the others surpassing this number by 200 or 236 verses : but the number of words and letters is the same, in all, viz : 77,639 words, and 323,015 letters. The Koran is universally allowed to be written with the utmost elegance and purity of language, in the dialect of the tribe of Koruish, the most noble and polite of all the Arabians, and is confes- sedly the standard of the Arabic tongue. ALCOVE. No mention is made either by Vitruvius or Pliny in their description of the Roman villas, of any recesses in their sleeping rooms for beds, except such as have windows, which may therefore be considered as separate rooms. This stile of architecture originated in Africa or Asia, for we read of alcoves perpetually in the Arabian stories, and in the de- scription of Asiatic palaces and gardens, it was introduced among the Spaniards by their Saracen conquerors, and by them called Alcoba, which, in the Spanish language, signifies a vaulted cabinet in a chamber, open on one side, without win- dows, and large enough to contain a bed. After the expul- sion of the Moors by the Spaniards, at the close of the fifteenth century, Alcoves were introduced into Germany, France^ England, and other nations. Swinburne mentions two Alcoves yet remaining in the royal bed-chamber of the Moorish palace of Alhambra, at Grenada, which are probably the oldest in Europe. ALDERMAN. Saxon, ^Elderman ; formerly the second rank of Nobility among our Saxon ancestors, equal to the Earl of the Dano-Saxon. There were also several magis- trates who bore the title of Alderman, and, according to Spelman, the Aldermanus totius Angliae seems to have been the same officer who was afterwards styled capitalis justiciarius 28 dnglice, or chief justice of England. Aldermen were first appointed to cities in the year 882. ALE. The art of making an infusion of corn, and particu- larly of barley, similar to our Ale, was known and practised in very ancient times, among the Egyptians. Diodorus Siculus notices the early introduction of this beverage among the Gauls, who, he says, made a strong liquor of barley, which they called Zyphus. The natives also of Spain, France, and of Britain, were acquainted with this liquor under the different appellations of cerea, cerevisia, and cumi. Pliny mentions, in his natural history, that all the nations who inhabit the west of Europe have a liquor with which they intoxicate themselves, made with corn and water, and which is brewed so well that it will keep good for a long time. " So exquisite is the ingenuity of mankind in gratifying their vicious appe- tites, that they have thus invented a method to make even water itself intoxicate." After the introduction of agriculture into, Britain, Ale or beer was substituted for mead, and be- came the general drink of its inhabitants 3 it was also the favourite liquor of the Anglo-Saxons and Danes, and is of such antiquity in England, that we find mention of it in the laws of Ina, king of Wessex. The beer used at the noble- men's tables was commonly of a year or two old, brewed in March, and the price of it in London in the time of Edward II. was a penny a gallon. The first assize of Ale was fixed by statute, 31 Hen. III. Ale, or public-houses, are noticed in the Saxon period under the names of Eala-hus, Cumen-hus, and Win-hus Ale-house, Inn, and Wine-house, they generally assumed the sign of the chequer-board, some say to intimate that the game of draughts might be there played ; also, from the colour of the board, which was red, and its similarity to a lattice, the term, red lattice, is frequently made use of by our ancient writers, to signify an Ale-house. Ale-houses were first licensed in 1551. 20 ALGEBRA. The origin of this art, as well as that of most other branches of mathematical science, is involved in obscu- rity there are, indeed, traces of it to be found in the works of some of the earliest philosophers and mathematicians, as Euclid, Plato, and Archimedes, the subject of whose writings must necessarily have led them to the discovery, and, in some measure, to the application of this science : but the most an- cient treatise on that part of analytics, which is properly called Algebra, now extant, is that of Diophantus, a Greek author of Alexandria, who nourished about the year of our Lord 350, and which was first published by Xy lander in 1575. Camden attributes the invention of Algebra to an Arabian, called Mahomet ben Musa, who lived about the middle of the eighth century, and obtained the appellation of Geber, from his knowledge of this art. But wherever Algebra was in- vented, or first cultivated, the science was brought into Europe in the commencement of the twelfth century, and the earliest European treatise on the subject now known, was written by Lucas Paciolus, or Lucas de Burgo, and published at Venice in 1457 : he acknowledges, however, that he derived considerable assistance from a work written upon Algebra, by Leonard, of Pisa, about the year 1202. In the year 159O, Vieta, a French mathematician, introduced what he called his specious arithmetic, which consisted in denoting the quantities, both known and unknown, by the letters of the alphabet, the former by the consonants, and the latter by the vowels, as also the r ~ 1 vinculuin over com- pound quantities. The characters -f plus, minus, and %/ are attributed to Stephilius, who lived in 1536 : the sign of = equality, to Robert Recorde, an Englishman, in 1552 : the character of X multiplication, and that of proportion : : : : to Oughtred, also an Englishman, who in his Clavis Mathe- matica, printed in 1631, considerably improved Vieta's method, and appears to have first applied Algebra to the purpose of geometry. 30 ALKALI, a mineral salt, found on the shores of several lakes in Lower Egypt, the Borith of scripture, and known to the ancients under the name of Natron or Nitre. Alkali, by us distinguished into Potash and Soda, was also procured by the Arabian chemists, from the ashes after the combustion of vegetables and minerals, and was termed by the Romans Lixiviary Ashes, and used by them for the purpose of scouring cloth, and with oil for ointments ; but the vola- tile salt or alkali procured by the dhlillalion of vege- table, and especially animal matter, is first noticed by modern chemists about the middle of the last century. The purest in which it is known to us is that of a gas, which readily unites with water, but unless combined with some other substance, this Alkali has never been procured in a solid state ; when made to unite with oils, it forms ammoniacal soaps. Eau de Luce, which is the union of oil of amber with ammonia, is first noticed by Dusie, in his he had juris- diction over Scotland till 1472, when Pope Sextus IV. created the bishop of St. Andrews, archbishop and metropolitan of that kingdom. During the wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster, Scrope, Archbishop of York, was be- headed for treason, which is the first instance of an ecclesi- astical officer of rank being capitally punished by the civil authorities. There was formerly for a short time, a third Archbishopric in England. In 785, Pope Adrian I. created Higbert Arch- bishop of Litchfield, giving him for his suffragans the bishops of Mercia and East Anglia, but in the year 800 it again fell under the jurisdiction of Canterbury. .ARCHDEACON. This ecclesiastical officer is first noticed at the Council of Nice, when he officiated as assistant to the bishop, having charge of the ornaments and utensils of the church, and a superintendance over the deacons and other inferior officers in their several duties. In the course of time he became superior to the Archimandrite or Rural Dean, but had no jurisdiction over the priests till the sixth century. ARCHERY. The most ancient and universal weapon of offence is the bow, which is said to have been invented by Apollo, who instructed the primitive inhabitants of Crete in the use of it j some, however, chuse to give the honour of the invention to Perses, the son of Perseus, while others again ascribe it to Scythes, son of Jupiter and progenitor to the Scythians, who excelled in the science of Archery, and communicated it to the Greeks, from whom the Romans acquired their knowledge of the art, and introduced it into their army during the second Punic war. The bow was also 57 (he principal weapon of those Northern hordes, who overran and finally subjugated Europe. The ancient Britons at the period of Caesar's invasion were chiefly armed with the lance and sword, the bow being brought into this country by the Anglo-Saxons and Danes, who were well acquainted with its use, though they princi- pally employed it for the purposes of food or pastime, and we are perhaps indebted to the Norman conquest for its introduction as a military weapon, at least of the Cross-bow, for the Long-bow is scarcely noticed till the reign of Henry III., when we first meet with the term Sagittarius, which most probably has particular relation to this instrument. The Cross-bow was of two kinds, the larger called the ballista and sometimes the catapulta, and the smaller called the arbalest ; the former was used for the throwing of stones of great weight, as also for discharging a number of long darts or javelins at one stroke ; we read that Uzziah, who began his reign about 809 years before the Christian sera, " made in Jerusalem engines invented by cunning men to be upon the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal." Livy in his description of the siege of Carthage, says there were three hundred and twenty great catapulta taken, and two hundred small ones, besides thirty- three great ballista and fifty-two small ones ; the surprising effects of these machines are particularly recorded by Jose- phus at the siege of Jerusalem. Cambden, besides the catapults and ballistas, mentions the mangonels, trebuches and bricolus, as being used by our ancestors to cast forth mill-stones ; and Holinshed relates that when Edward I. beseiged Strively Castle, he caused cer- tain engines of wood to be raised against it, which shot off stones of two and three hundred weight. Even some time after the introduction of gunpowder, and cannon had been brought into use, yet owing to the extreme awkward- ness of the latter in their construction, and the frequent 58 accidents occasioned by their mismanagement, this ancient kind of artillery was not totally given up till the reign of Hen. VI. The small cross-bow called the arbalet or arbalest, is said to have been invented by the Sicilians j it was carried by the foot soldiers,, and when used was charged with a quarrel or bar-bolt, that is, a small arrow with a flat head, one of which occasioned the death of Harold at the battle of Hastings, and of Richard I. at the siege of Chalez in Normandy, in 1199. In the reign of Hen. III. the long-bow seems, from its lightness and other advantages, to have acquired in England a superiority over the cross-bow, which in the course of a few years became confined to the defence of castles and other fortified places : we nevertheless find it noticed in 1627, as employed on an expedition undertaken against the Isle of Rhee. The Long-bow, generally called the English bow, was first applied to military purposes, about the middle of the thir- teenth century, though not generally adopted till towards the close of Edward the Second's reign. Under Edward III. the glory of the English long-bow was at its zenith. The battle of Cressy, in 1346, was attended by a circumstance that seems to have a particular reference to the use of the long- bow among the English ; for it is related that previously to the battle, a shower of rain so slackened the strings of the Genoese cross-bows, that they became almost unserviceable ; while the English were still capable of annoying their enemies with success. Both this victory, and that of Poictiers, ten years afterwards, were chiefly attributed to the skill of the English Archers j and during the reigns of Henry IV. and V. the victories of Homildon and Agincourt, proved they still maintained their reputation. Under Edward IV. an ordi- nance was made, that every Englishman should have a bow of his own height, to be made of yew, wych, hazel, ash, or auburne, or any other reasonable tree according to their 59 powers j and Rymer states that he sent a thousand archers to the assistance of the Duke of Burgundy, each archer receiving sixpence a day, a considerable sura at that time. Archery was also greatly encouraged during the subsequent reigns, and many amusements likely to interfere with the practice of it, strictly prohibited. In 1541 the Parliament under Hen. VIII. complain of the disuse of the long-bow, " heretofore the safe-guard and defence of the kingdom, and the dread and terror of its enemies." Even so late as the commencement of the reign of Charles I., which was some time after the introduction of fire-arms, the long-bow consti- tuted the chief strength of the army j it, however, yielded, during the civil wars, to the superiority of musketry, and soon afterwards, from being the glory of British warriors, dwin- dled into a mere recreation and amusement. The bows were chiefly imported from Venice : the price of them in 1482, being from forty shillings to eight pounds a hundred : they were made of Spanish or English yew 3 some- times of withem or elm : the bow-string was of hemp or silk. The range of a bow (the arrow being drawn to the ear), was from six to eighteen, and twenty score yards, and at a mo- derate distance the arrow would pierce through a well sea- soned inch board. The arrows were made of ash or asp, and of the length of a cloth yard. Henry V. directed six wing feathers to be plucked from every goose, for the purpose of improving his arrows. Whistling arrows are noticed in the reign of Henry VIII., and arrows with wild fire attached to them, are men- tioned among the stores at Newhaven and Berwick, in the reign of Edward VI. ARCHITECTURE. Nature and necessity early taught mankind a method of preparing for themselves, huts, tents, and cottages, from which they gradually advanced to more regular and stately habitations. The tower of Babel com- 60 -inenced upon, about 2247 B. C. is the earliest building recor- ded, and from its being constructed of brick proves the great antiquity of the art. The Cyclops, who founded the cities of Teryns and Mycene, are represented as being the earliest people who brought architecture to any degree of excellence, and Solomon had recourse to the Tyrians, to assist him in the building of his temple : in general, however, architecture is considered of Grecian origin, three of the regular orders, or manners of building, viz., the Corinthian, Ionic, and Doric, being denominated from them, and there is scarcely a single member of moulding but has a Greek appel- lation : the art was in its greatest glory under Pericles. The Romans, though they gave but little encouragement to the fine arts, seem under the Tarquins, who were of Tuscan origin, to have bestowed considerable attention to architecture in their public edifices, which was afterwards improved by their connection with Greece, so that long before the period when Vitruvius composed his treatise, the Romans could boast of many good architects, among whom was Cossutius, who was engaged by King Antiochus, about 200 years before the Christian aera, in the temple of Jupiter Olympus, which Pisistratus had begun. Sylla, on his return from the Mithri- datic war, introduced an expensive and luxurious style of decoration in architecture. Julius Caesar incrusted his whole house with marble. The private houses were also built of the most costly materials, and of great extent. An author, of the age of Tiberius, says, " The man thinks himself confined in his habitation now whose house is not as large as the farm of Cincinnatus," which was about four acres. Previous to the arrival of the Romans, who introduced the science of architecture into this country, the houses of the natives were built of wood and mud, in a cylindrical form, with an arched door, and a dome, with an opening on the top. In the winter they chiefly resided in caves. Some knowledge of the Cyclopean state of architecture, which consisted merely 61 of large pieces of stone, piled upon one another, without cement, is, however, observable at Stone-henge, which is said to have been erected about 50O B. C., and to have been the temple of the Sun, noticed by Diodorus. ARGOL, or Archil. The dye extracted from this moss, found in many parts of the Archilepago and in the Canary islands, is supposed to have been known to Theophrastus, and to be the Phycosthalassion of Dioscorides. Pliny informs us, that, with this substance, the dyers gave the ground, or first tint to those cloths which they intended to dye with the costly purple, and that the colour, when fresh, was equal to the Tyrian. Its virtues, in modern times, were accidentally discovered by Rucelli, a Florentine, who, in the commencement of the four- teenth century, traded to the Levant, and, returning with great wealth to Florence, introduced the process of dying with argol, which he first manufactured into a paste : the method of preparing it, was, however, a secret, for a considerable number of years, till at length it was divulged by Rosetti, a dyer, at Florence. The Dutch procure their argol from the Canaries, which they manufacture into a substance called lacmus, or litmus. ARITHMETIC. There can be no doubt but the know- ledge of the difference between greater and smaller numbers must be coeval with the human race. The first men must have counted their cattle, their days, their trees, &c., and it is plain that the formation of society, and the possession of property, suppose the necessity of calculation : it is possible, however, that mankind may have subsisted for a considerable time without bringing the science of arithmetic to any per- fection, or computing by any regular scale, as 1O, 2O, 30, &c. : yet, that this was very early introduced into the world, even before the flood, may be gathered from the expression in Enoch's prophecy, as quoted by the apostle, Jude " Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints -." the direc- tion also given to Noah, concerning the dimensions of the ark, leaves no room to doubt that he had a knowledge of numbers and measures. It is asserted by some that arithmetic was invented by the Phoenicians, and carried into Egypt by Abraham, from whence the science was transmitted to the Greeks by Pythagoras, who first made use of the letters of the alphabet to represent numbers, and which method was also adopted, both by the Hebrews and Romans, though each made use of their own letters for that purpose. All the nations of whom we have any knowledge (except the ancient Chinese) have chosen the same mode of numera- tion, namely, the decuple progression : the different periods of tens were distinguished, either by accents, which affected the numeral letters, as among the Greeks, or by different com- binations of the numeral letters, as among the Romans, which method, when the numbers were considerable, was very com- plicated and inconvenient. The ingenious system of numeration, which forms the basis of our modern arithmetic, was long familiar to the Arabians, before it penetrated into our quarter of the world : but the honor of the original invention, according to Alsiphadi, an Arabian author, belongs to the Indians. The Arabians, or Saracens, as they were then styled, introduced the art and Indian character into Europe, on their conquest of Spain, and it became generally known among the learned, about the com- mencement of the eleventh century. Ptolemy, in the second century, invented the sexagesimal numeration and notation, still used in astronomical calcula- tions, and for the subdivisions of the degrees of circles. The next considerable improvement was that of decimal parts, invented by John Muller, of Koningsberg, commonly called Regiomontanus r about the middle of the fifteenth cen- tury 3 though the first person who professedly treated on this 63 subject, and introduced the name of desme, was Simon Stef- nins, a German, in 1585. The discovery of logarithms by the celebrated Napier, at the close of the sixteenth century, has probably carried arith- metic to the utmost perfection of which it is capable 5 for, by this, multiplication is changed into addition, division into subtraction, the formation of powers into multiplication, and the extraction of roots into division. Arithmetic was introduced into Britain by the Romans, and a treatise is said to have been written on the subject by Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne, in the seventh century, and that Hugh, the Lincoln saint, gave lectures on the science, at Oxford : but the modern practice of arithmetic was not known in England till towards the middle of the sixteenth century. (See Abacus and Characters Numeral). ARMOUR. The expediency of protecting the person against hostile weapons by some kind of defensive armour, was no doubt discovered soon after the introduction of the weapons themselves. The sacred writings acquaint us with the earliest memorials of the ancient military habit, though little more than the names of the different parts of it occur. The defensive armour of the Israelites consisted principally of the shield, the open helmet, and the breast-plate, and greaves are noticed as being used by Goliah, the giant, of Gath. The armour of the Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans, very much resembled that worn by the Hebrews. The material anciently used for the making of armour, was leather, or the skins of wild beasts j but, as civilization ad- vanced, brass, iron, and other metals were preferred, and, in the time of Asiatic magnificence, even gold was not spared. Vegetius observes, that the Roman infantry was invariably covered with defensive armour, from the foundation of the city to the reign of the Emperor Gratian, when the relaxation of discipline, and the disuse of exercise, rendered it too 64 heavy for them to carry, and they successively obtained per- mission to lay aside both their cuirasses and helmets, and thus, by their pusillanimous indolence, became an easy prey to the missile weapons of the barbarians, and occasioned the destruction of the Roman empire. The early Britons are described as opposing the legions of Caesar with merely a light shield, and endeavouring to render themselves formidable by tracing wild and horrid images on their naked body, and the drawings of the eighth century represent the Anglo-Saxon soldier as still protected solely by his shield, though, towards the close of that century, the lorica, or coat of mail, which consisted of plates of metal interwo- ven with each other, was worn by people of rank. Greaves, or leg guards, were introduced by the Danes in the tenth cen- tury. The Normans, at the period of the conquest, wore the hauberk, or shirt of mail, and the helmet, to which, by the commencement of the twelfth century, they added various other pieces of armour, so as to be completely protected from head to foot, or armed cap-a-pie. Claude Fauchet, a French writer of great respectability, describes an ancient knight arming himself in the following manner : " having first put on the shirt and breeches, or drawers of cloth, as also stock- ings of cloth, he then drew on the chausses, or breeches of mail, which covered the feet arid the legs, and part of the thighs j next, a goubaison, or gambeson, generally made of cloth, but sometimes also of leather, doubled, stuiFed with wool, and quilted together, and descending to the middle of the thighs j to this succeeded the gorget, or throat piece, composed of iron or steel, and adjusted to the neck; and over the gorget and gambeson was placed the hauberk, or shirt of mail, having sleeves made to fit the arm, and so far lengthened, as to secure the hand completely ; this hauberk descended to the knees, and the breeches of mail were attached to it 3 so also was a capuchon, or hood of mail, which co- vered the head, and might occasionally be thrown back upon 65 the shoulders ; the hauberk was girt with a large belt or girdle of leather, called in English bauldricke, from which the sword depended j and besides this sword, the knight usually wore a small knife or rather dagger, called mercy, because when a combatant was cast to the ground, and saw the kn!fe in the hands of his opponent, he begged for mercy, if he desired to be respited from death. Instead of the cha- peau, various kinds of helmets were introduced, according to the fancy of the wearer, with different modes for defending the face by iron bars, or plates of iron, let down at pleasure, leaving only a small opening for the eyes : the gloves of mail appertaining to the ancient warriors were attached to the sleeves of the hauberk : the cointise, a species of surcoat or mantle, was generally worn over the armour : it was made of silk, and charged with armorial bearings. This appellation was also given to certain ornamental streamers or pennons, attached to the lances. When Geoffry, Duke of Normandy, was knighted, he was invested with an incomparible coat of mail, wrought with double chains, or links of iron, so closely interwoven that it was impenetrable to the point of the spear or the arrows : the chausses, or boots of mail, made also with double chain work, were then given to him, and a pair of gilt spurs put on his feet j this done, a shield was hung upon his neck ornamented with lions of gold, and a helmet richly decorated with precious stones, and so well tempered that no sword could make any impression upon it, set upon his head : a lance was then brought to him made of oak, and surmounted with a head of iron of Poicton ; and lastly, a sword from the royal treasury. Plated armour came into use about the year 1330, and continued till the time of Charles II., when it had dwindled down to the breast-plate and helmet. The gallantry of going to the battle naked, without any defensive armour, prevailed among the French during the reign of Louis XIV. to such an extent, that he was obliged to be continually issuing orders to restrain it. K 66 The investing of horses with defensive armour is very an- cient. The cavalry of Cyrus, according to Xenophon, were armed with forehead pieces, breast-plates, and side pieces ; and Plutarch informs us that when the Parthians opposed the younger Crassus, they were not only clothed with defensive armour themselves, but that their horses were completely armed in brass and steel. This practice was introduced into England by the Normans, and continued to the close of the sixteenth century, when the horse-armour consisted of achar- fron or kind of mask, which enclosed the face and ears, with sometimes a spike issuing from the centre of the forehead, a criniere to guard the mane, a poitrinal or breast-plate, and a croupiere or hind-piece, which usually descended to the hocks. After this time the barde or horse armour appears to have been neglected, except that in the thirteenth and fourteenth years of Charles II. the horses of the militia were ordered to be provided with a pectoral and crupper. ARMS, Coats of, or Armorial Bearings (see Heraldry). ARMS, Offensive. Revenge early produced hostile wea- pons, and the club seems to have been the first resorted to $ the spear and the dart are also obvious inventions not so the bow and arrow. Hesiod tells us that in the early ages the arms and instruments of the primitive heroes were composed entirely of brass, (or rather copper) ; for iron being seldom found in mines like other metals, but extracted with consider- able difficulty from the ore, was a late discovery. Caesar informs us that the ancient Britons had a dart or javelin, which they threw from their war chariots to annoy the enemy, and that the infantry made use of a short spear, having a ball at the nether end filled with brass, which they shook to intimidate the enemy, and a thong fixed to the upper end, that when employed as a missile weapon it might be recovered, and again used in close encounter : they had also 67 long and broad swords, without points, flung by a chain over the left shoulder, aud occasionally a short dirk fixed in their girdles. The Anglo-Saxons, besides swords, were armed with spears, axes, and clubs. The Danes were principally attached to the battle-axe, which they brought into more general use. The Normans introduced the arcubalisterii, or shooters with the cross-bow, and catapults : the long-bow is first noticed in the reign of Henry III. If the metrical life of Robert Bruce may be believed, Edward III. had cannon in his first campaign against the Scots in 1327. Fire-arms of a portable construc- tion were not invented till the beginning of the sixteenth cen- tury : a concise account of their introduction will be found? under their respective titles. ARMY. Menistheus, who succeeded Theseus in the king- dom of Athens, and led fifty ships to the siege of Troy, is stated to be the first person who marshalled an army in battle array. The first pitched battle, the particulars of which are mi- nutely recorded, is that described by Xenophon as having been* fought between Croesus and Cyras. In the republics of ancient Greece and Rome, the profes- sion of a soldier was not of that distinct character as to sepa- rate him from the ordinary occupations of a citizen 3 one of the first standing armies of which we have any distinct account, is that of Philip of Macedon, and with which, after repeated and violent conflicts, he vanquished the gallant and well exercised militias of the principal republics of ancient Greece. The frequent wars the Romans had with the Car- thaginians, necessarily led to the introduction of a permanent military force, which commenced about the close of the second Carthaginian war, and continued till the destruction of the Roman Empire. Charles VII., about the middle of the fifteenth century, appears to have been the first who attempted to establish a regular army in imitation of the Roman legions, and by this 68 measure, which gave a deep wound to aristoeratical power, an important revolution took place in the affairs and policy of Europe. By the Saxon laws every land-holder was obliged to keep armour and weapons suitable to his rank and possessions, and in case of foreign invasion every freeman was bound to join the army, it being one of the three services compre- hended under the title of the Trinoda Necessitas. The introduction of the feudal system in 1086, occasioned a division of the lands of the realm into certain portions called knight's -fees, each of which was held upon the condition of serving the King in his wars, either at home or abroad for forty days, with horse and arms, which was to be performed by the tenant at his own expense, either personally or by unexceptionable substitute. Many trace the first standing military force in Britain to the year 120O, when Sir Hubert de Bugo, who was Gover- nor of Dover Castle, considering that it was not for the safety of the fortress to have new guards every month, pro- cured an order that all who held of the Castle might, instead of performing a month's duty themselves, pay a fine of ten shillings, which was appropriated to the formation of a regu- lar, body of soldiers for the defence of the Castle. Our Kings indeed, at a very early period had a personal guard of honour for their immediate protection, and the support of their dignity ; but there seems to have been no permanent body of troops, whose services could be considered as avail- able upon any emergency, till the reign of Charles II., who in 1660 formed two regiments of guards, one of horse and the other of foot 5 the former was called the Oxford Blues, or the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards, and the latter the Coldstream Regiment of Guards, being raised by General Monk, in Scotland. Thus were established the two first corps of our present regular army, and which at the end of Charles's reign, including garrisons abroad, consisted of about 15,OOO men. 69 ARROW. (See Archery.) ARSENAL. The first public magazine of arms noticed in history is probably that established by David, who made a large collection of arras, and consecrated them to the Lord, in his Tabernacle ; and which on the elevation of the young King Joash to the throne, were taken out of the Temple by order of Jehoida, the high priest, to arm the people and Le- vites. Solomon deposited a great quantity of good arms in his palace, called the forest of Lebanon, and had well provided arsenals in all his cities of Judah. The Romans also esta- blished them along the frontier of their empire. ARSENIC. The ancients were acquainted with arsenic in its state of combination with sulphur j and Pliny records that the Emperor Claudius supposed, from its colour, it con- tained gold, and made several ineffectual attempts to extract this metal from it j it was, however, chiefly employed for the purposes of painting, and though Theophrastus was led by its weight to arrange it among metallic stones, it was not till the middle of the last century, that Monnet discovered it to be a distinct and peculiar metal. The first mention of white arsenic is in the works of Avicenna, who lived in the eleventh century. ARTICHOKE. This vegetable was introduced into Eng- land, in the reign of Henry VIII. ; it came originally from the Levant, and was first cultivated in Italy about the year 1474. The Romans used the calyx of the thistle kind, as we do the Artichoke. ARTICLES OF RELIGION, as established by the Church of England, were framed by Archbishop Cranmer and Bishop Ridley, about the year 1552, and originally consisted of forty- two ; these were first passed in the Convocation and con- firmed by Royal Authority, in the year 1562. They were afterwards reduced to thirty-nine, and ratified anew in 1571. ARUNDELIAN MARBLES, or Parian Chronicle, so called from being discovered in the island of Paros. This rare monument of ancient literature was brought from Greece by Mr. Petty, under the employment of the Earl of Arundel, in the year 1 627 ; they contain a chronological detail of the principal events in Greece, from the commencement of the reign of Cecrops, 1582 B. C., to the close of the Archonate of Diognetus, 264 B. C., but in an imperfect state, the last ninety years being lost. During the civil wars and the sub- sequent usurpation of Cromwell, the marble was unfortu- nately broken into smaller fragments, and almost entirely defaced ; the upper part containing nearly half the original tablet, is said to have been used in repairing a chimney-piece or hearth, in Arundel-house. The authenticity, however, of these marbles has been questioned in a learned dissertation on the subject, entitled, " The Parian Chronicle." ASBESTOS. A native fossil stone, which the industry of mankind has found a method of manufacturing into cloth and paper. Pliny informs us that the ancients made use of this kind of cloth in the making of shrouds, for from its extraor- dinary property of remaining unconsumed in fire, it prevented the ashes of the hero from mixing with those of the wood whereof the funeral pile was composed. A pattern of the linen made from this stone, twelve inches long and six broad, and which had given two proofs of its resisting fire, was some years ago presented to the Royal Society. ASPARAGUS. This plant was cultivated by the ancient Greeks and Romans. ASS. This quadruped, Whitakcr affirms, was brought 71 into Britain by the Romans, and made use of as a common beast of burthen, forming a chief part of the stock of Abbies. Asses' milk is noticed by the classical ancients, both as a cos- metic and a nutritive diet for invalids. ASSASSIN. This word is said to be a corruption of Al Hassan, the name of a certain prince of the family of the Arsacida?, who insisted upon his subjects paying a blind obedience to his commands, and employed them in murder- ing the princes with whom he was at enmity. In the year 1192 they destroyed Conrade, Marquis of Montserrat, a zealous crusader, and in 1213, Lewis of Bavaria. The whole race of these assassins were put to the sword by Heligan Khan, a Persian Chieftain, in 1261. ASSAY. In ancient statutes the trial of the purity of metals is called the touch, (probably the touch-stone being the only method then practised in assaying), and those who had the charge of the mint, keepers of the touch. The assay master of the Goldsmith's Company being to this day called the touch warden. A method of assaying by means of combustion, differing little from that now in use, was first introduced by the Bishop of Salisbury in the time of Hen. II. ASSOCIATION. This term was first used by the Parlia- ment and Gentry, to protect the person and government of Elizabeth, against the King of Spain and the Catholics $ and all officers, civil and military, were enjoined to subscribe to it. A similar association was formed to protect William III. and the Government against all conspirators in 1696. ASTROLABE. An Annillary Sphere, invented byHap- parchus, about 162 B. C., and lodged in a secure place at Alexandria, where it served for divers astronomical purposes. Ptolemy found this instrument of great use in his celestial 72 observations taken about ISO B. C. 5 but as several incon- veniences were attached to it, he contrived to change the figure of the Astrolabe, and to reduce it to a plain surface, which he denominated a Planisphere, and which many cen- turies afterwards was applied by the Portuguese to the pur- poses of navigation. ASTROLOGY. Judicial astrology is commonly said to have been invented in Chaldea, and thence transmitted to the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. Tiberius was extremely partial to the science, and while at Rhodes received lessons from Thrasyllus, by which he profited to such a degree, that he had the honour, in & credulous age, of having delivered predictions that were verified by the event j and the Roman people in general were so infatuated with the art, that the astrologers, who were then called mathematicians, maintained their ground in spite of all the edicts of the emperor to expel them from the city $ and even so late as the close of the sixth century, the subject of one of St. Augustin's homilies was the reconciliation of one of these pretended mathematicians with the church. The astrology adopted by the moderns was, however, de- rived from the Saracens : it was prevalent in England during the fifteenth century, and the predictions of astrologers were the common theme of conversation at the French court, even so late as the reigns of Henry III. and IV. of France. ASTRONOMY. The early history of this science, like that of many other ancient discoveries, is too much disfigured by fabulous and allegorical representations to admit of any regular or satisfactory elucidation. The generality of writers fix the origin of astronomy and astrology in Chaldea, and accordingly, among the ancients we find the word Chaldean frequently used for astronomer. Some choose, however, to attribute the invention to the ancient Hebrews, and some even to the first men, building on the authority of Josephus, and what he mentions about Seth's pillars, upon which it is said the science of astronomy was engraved. Parthyras informs us that astronomical observations were made at Babylon so early as 2234 B. C., a register of which for 1903 years was sent by Calisthenes to Aristotle, when that city was captured by Alexander the Great, 331 B. C. The Chinese carry their pre- tensions to the knowledge of astronomy to a still earlier period, dating it from a conjunction of five of the planets, which they say occurred 250O B. C , and mentioning an eclipse of the sun in the constellation of Scorpio, 2 ISO years before Christ. Thales, the Milesian, who died 548 B. C., was the first who taught the globular figure of the earth, the obliquity of the ecliptic, and the causes of solar and lunar eclipses, which latter phenomena he is said to have been able to predict. Pythagoras about forty years before had given a general idea of the solar system, which he had acquired from the Egyptians, and brought into Greece and Italy : he was the first among the Europeans who taught that the earth and planets turn round the sun, which stands immovable in the centre 5 that the diurnal motion of the sun and fixed stars is not real, but apparent, arising from the earth's motion round its own axis, &c., which system about the year 30O B. C. was completely reversed by Ptolemy, who maintained that the earth was im- movable, the celestial bodies performing their diurnal revolu- tions around it, and as this idea seemed afterwards to be confirmed by scriptural authority "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon ; and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajelon," it was for many ages considered heretical to dispute it. In 153O Copernicus, canon of Frauenberg in Prussia, published his system of astronomy, completely establishing that of the Egyptians, as communicated by Pythagoras ; but such was the ignorance and bigotry of the rtomish church, that when Galileo in 1615 attempted to confirm this system, and to prove from the authority of the fathers and orthodox divines L 74 that the language of scripture was not to be strictly followed ia questions merely physical : he was cited before the court of inquisition, accused of heresy, and was for some time thrown into prison : upon a repetition of the offence in 1633 he was again cited before the inquisition, and after a trial of two months, received sentence in full congregation, and so- lemnly ordered on his knees to abjure and condemn the Coperniean system, as contrary to the scriptures, and to bind himself by oath no longer to teach or support it : he was then condemned to perpetual imprisonment, from which, however, at the end of a year, he was enlarged by the solicitations of the Grand Duke. Even so late as the commencement of the last century, when the Copernican theory had been long fully admitted by the most eminent astronomers of Europe, and almost demon- strated by the immortal Newton, the Romish church perse- vered in their opposition to this system, which is thus noticed by Le Seur and Jacquier in their observations on the Princi- pia tc Newtonus in hoc tertio libro telluris motae hypothesim assumit, Autoris propositiones aliter explicari non poterant, nise eadem quoque facta hypothesi. Hinc alienam coacti sumus gerere personam, caeterum latis a summis pontificibus contra telluris mot urn decretis nos obsequi profitemur." The earliest treatise on astronomy that has been conveyed to us was written by Ptolemy, and seems to have been mi- raculously reserved from the general destruction of Grecian philosophy by the Arabians, at the capture of Alexandria, A. D. 64O. The Arabians entitled this work the Almagest, it having been translated into their tongue about the year 82?', by order of the caliph, Almamon. A latin version of it was procured about the year 1230 by the emperor, Frederick II. : but the Greek text was not known in Europe till about the beginning of the fifteenth century, when it was brought from Constantinople, then taken by the Turks, by George, a monk of Trebizond, who translated it into latin, and this translation has been frequently published. AUCTION. Public Auctions were not unfrequent among the ancient Romans, and as goods taken in war were sold in this way, they were performed by the public crier, " sub hasta/' under a spear stuck up on that occasion, and under the superintendence of some magistrate, who authenticated the sale and delivered over the goods to the purchaser. Petronius gives the following notice of a sale by auction, " Julius Procullus will make an auction of his superfluous goods to pay his debts." It is not known when the disposal of goods by auction was first practised in England ; the earliest instance noticed is that of an auction of books in 1676, being the library of Dr. Seaman, to the catalogue of which was prefixed an address, stating that though the disposal of books by auction was not usual in England, it had been practised in other countries, to the advantage of both buyers and sellers. The property of Governor Yule on his return from India in 1700, was disposed of by public sale. AUGMENTATION of Church Livings. (See Annates .} AURORA BOREALIS. This luminous appearance in the Northern part of the heavens, according to the account of Dr. Halley, was first observed January 30, 156O. AUTOMETA. (See Androides.} BACHELOR. The Degree of Bachelor in a college sense, was introduced in the thirteenth century, by Pope Gre- gory IX. In the middle ages the appellation appears to have been common for all degrees, between a mere gentleman and a baron. Thus we find the Lord Admiral, when he was neither an earl or baron, denominated a bachelor: "and it is too weet, that when the Admiral rideth to assemble a shippe of warre or other, for the business and affairs of the realme, if he be a bachelor he shall take for his day's wages four shil- lings sterling ; if he be an earl or baron he shall take wages after his estate and degree." The term bachelor was also given to those who had attained to knighthood, but were not rich enough to maintain the dignity of a knight. Edward II. directed all persons who had ^820 a year for life, to take the order of knighthood j they were distinguished by gilt spurs and a pennon or vane at the end of a lance. BACK-GAMMON. This game some pretend to have been invented in Wales, prior to the Conquest, and to have derived its name from two Welsh words, bach cammon, little battle j others give the merit to the Saxons in the tenth century, deriving it from the Saxon words, bac zamen, back game. The board of the thirteenth century is not divided in the middle, and the points are not pyramidal, but parallelo- grams. BAG-PIPE. The invention of this instrument is attributed to Mercury ; it was called by the Greeks askaulos, and by the rr Romans tibia utriculoris, and the players thereon utriculoriL Pennant says it was introduced into England by the Danes. BAKER. The invention of making and baking bread was by the ancients ascribed to Pan; and according to Pliny, barley was used before any other sort of corn for the food of man : the practice of making leavened bread appears, from the histories of the earlier nations, and particularly from the scriptures, to be very ancient ; this leaven, which was dough kept till it had become thin and sour, was also used by the Romans to raise their bread. Pliny says that yeast was employed for this purpose in his time, in Spain and Gaul ; but the general opinion is, that the introduction of yeast or barm, which is the mucilaginous froth that rises to the surface of beer in the first stages of its fermentation, is of more modern date, being first used at Paris, about the commencement of the seventeenth century, and soon after prohibited as pernicious -, however, we find it used in England in 1650. The ancients had various kinds of bread made for particular purposes j our sea biscuit, so named from its being bis coctus, twice baked, is the panis nauticus of the Romans. The bread of the Anglo-Saxons was merely baked before the fire. In the reign of the Norman Kings it was made like a twelfth cake. Henry III. directed the bakers not to mark their bread with the sign of the cross, Agnus Dei, or any other sacred emblem. In the time of James I. horses were fed with bread instead of oats. The learned are in great doubt as to the time when baking first became a particular profession. It is however agreed, that it had its origin in the East, and we find the baker of Pharoah, in the time of Joseph, cast into prison : from the East the profession found its way into Greece. And into Italy, after the war with Pyrrhus, A. U. C. 583 : till which time every housewife at Rome was her own baker j and this 78 custom was till very lately observed by the Mancunians, or inhabitants of Manchester. The Bakers were incorporated in London in 1307. The invention of Ovens is by some given to Anos, an Egyptian, by others to the goddess Fornex 5 originally they were applied to the purpose of roasting the wheat, before the method of grinding corn and making bread was discovered 5 the Jews were probably the first who had any regularly con- structed ovens, in which they were followed by the Romans, who erected bake-houses for the supply of their military stations. Furnaces for baking were known to the early Britons j this appears from the kiln burnt pottery which has been discovered in the British sepulchres, and from the Bri- tish appellation of an Odyn or Oven remaining among us to this day. BALANCES, or Scales, are noticed among the earliest, inventions $ we find Abraham weighing out the money he had given for the purchase of a burial-place for his wife. The steelyard, which was ^the ancient Roman balance, is still in common use. Scales with two basons have been found at Herculaneum. In the middle age John de Janua mentions a staff, with a thong leaded to weigh meat. The term "pair" of scales occurs in 1213. Ramaden lately constructed a balance for the Royal Society of so great a nicety, as to ascer- tain a weight to a seven millionth part -, it turns on steel edges npon planes of polished crystal. BALL. A species of game, which, according to Herodo- tus, had its origin among the Lydians; the most ancient amusement of this kind is distinguished with us by the name of hand-ball, and considered to be coeval with the destruc- tion of Troy. Nennius mentions the Roman-British boys, and Malmesbury the Anglo-Saxons, as playing at ball. During the reign of Charles V. of France, 137O, palm 79 play, hand tennis, or Jives, was exceedingly fashionable among the nobility, and played by them for large sams of money ; a line being traced on the wall, below which the stroke was faulty. Strutt also mentions this game as known in England about the same period. In the sixteenth century, tennis- courts, as now constructed, the ball being struck with a racket, were common m England, and the establishment of such places countenanced by the example of Monarehs, Henry VII. being esteemed a good tennis player j this game, it is supposed, was also known to the Romans. The game of cricket is first mentioned in one of the songs published by D'Urfey, the Poet Laureat to Charles II., and appears to have been- an improvement on a much more ancient game called club-ball, common in the time of Edward III. Foot-ball, the pila paganica of the Romans, is mentioned by Fitz-Stephen, who lived in the time of Henry II. ; this game was prohibited by Edward III., because it co-operated with other popular amusements to impede the progress of Archery. It was a favourite diversion, even among noble- nr.en in the reign of James I. The game of goth was also practised in the reign of Edward III. Trap- ball is noticed in the commencement of the fourteenth century. BALLADS popular songs, of a political nature, were not unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans, for we read that ballads were made to vilify Pericles. They are stated to have been introduced into England in the seventh century by Aldhelm, bishop of Sherborne, who, anxious to instruct his countrymen, then semi-barbarous and inattentive to their religious duties, took his station on the public bridge, as if a singer by profession, and by mixing sacred with lighter topicks, won their attention and ameliorated their minds. Cromwell during the Commonwealth, found himself under the necessity of prohibiting the singing of ballads $ and it is observed by 80 a political writer of some eminence, that if one could but make the ballads of a nation, it would be of little consequence who made the religion of it. The great Cecil, chief minister to Queen Elizabeth, is said, from political considerations, to have made a most ample collection of ballads. Ballads, considered as those trifling songs generally sung in the streets, Plutarch mentions to have been common among the Romans, and sold to servants and silly women. Our an- cient ballad singers usually sung to a fiddle at taverns and fairs : the most common ballads being the tales of Sir Topas, Bevis of Southampton, &c. Street singing was com- mon in the Anglo-Saxon aera, and the itinerants used to stand at the ends of bridges, like the Roman beggars. The most ancient English song, accompanied with the musical notes, perhaps anywhere extant, is the c< Sumer is i cumen :" the date is about the middle of the fifteenth century. Ballads were usually printed in the black letter, till the beginning of the seventeenth century. BALLOON (see Air Balloon). BALLOT. The method of determining events by ballot, with different coloured balls, was practised by the ancients, though we have borrowed the term from the ^Venetians : the box or vase into which the balls were put is noticed by Apu- leius, and is the hlot-bed of the Anglo-Saxons. BAND. Henry VIII. is said to have been the first who wore a band or collar to his shirt. Lawyer's bands were first used by Judge Finch in 1615, and by the clergy a few years afterwards. BANK. The republic of Venice may boast of having given the first example to Europe of an establishment alto- gether unknown to the ancients, by the formation of a public 84 company for money transactions. This republic, to relieve its necessities, levied in 1157 a forced contribution on the riches of its citizens, giving them in return a perpetual annuity of four pounds upon every hundred lent ) the lenders accord- ingly established a bureau or chamber for the receipt or repartition of this interest j and the perpetual payment of the interest being guaranteed by the Government, the lenders were enabled to sell their annuity to any individual, and thus to procure the capital sum they had advanced, being some* times more, and at other times less, according to the scarcity or value of money at the time the transfer was made. This bank supported itself with great credit till the invasion of the French in 1 797, when a total failure ensued. The bank of England was established at the suggestion of a person by the name of Pattison : and, in the year 1694, upon advancing to the Government the sum of ^ 1,200,000, was incorporated under the name of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England. In 1743 the bank commenced upon receiving the subscriptions to the loans, for the public service. The present building of the bank of England was finished in 1734. BANK NOTES. During the rebellion of 1745 a.consider- able run having been made upon t the bank by the Jacobites, the bank refused to issue gold, which was the most easy of carriage, but directed the payments to be made in silver, and, it is said, with the view of gaining time, in sixpences : at the same time the principal merchants of London, that they might uphold the public credit, agreed to take the notes of the bank instead of cash, and to this may be traced the origin of bank notes. Bank notes and bank post bills for ten and fifteen pounds were issued in 1759. In the year 1797 the bank sus- pended cash payments, and issued one pound notes. Saving Banks for encouraging industry and economy among the labouring classes were instituted in 1816. The ,82 first country bank was established by a Jew at Derby, m the year 1750. The number of private licensed banks in 1826 amounted to 764. BANKERS. The ancient bankers were called Trapezita? by the Grecians, and Argentarii or Nummulari by the Romans i their chief business was to put out the money of private per- sons to interest, or lend money upon interest, as also to ex- change worn for new money, with a profit : the Roman bankers had their boards and benches for this purpose at the Forum, under the inspection of the town magistrate j and Beckman asserts they gave cheques and draughts, and paid mo- ney by bills, and dealt besides in exchanges and discounts. The Jews had also at an early period bankers or money changers, who carried on their business at the porch, or within the outer court of the temple. The Italian merchants who followed this profession were called Lombards, and they are supposed to have been the first who introduced the practice into Eng- land, taking up their residence in a part of London, called from them Lombard-street. For some time previous to the year 1640, the merchants used to deposit their cash for safety in the royal mint in the tower of London j but Charles I. having in that year made free with their money, the mint lost its credit, and the merchants afterwards lodged their money in the hands of the goldsmiths, making them their bankers^ both to receive and pay for them, who in return allowed a small interest for the cash deposited. BANKRUPT. This word is derived from the Italian, banco rotto, broken bench, it being the custom in Italy, when a banker failed, to break his bench, by which the public was informed that the person to whom the bank belonged was na longer in a condition to continue his business. The first law in this country respecting bankrupts was passed in 1543, when lw>th their bodies and goods were placed under the controul of the Chancellor. In 1731 it was made death for a bank- rupt to secrete his property or books, and John Perrot suffered under this law in 1761. BANNERET an ancient order of knighthood, being the promotion of the knight bachelor by honoring him with a square banner instead of a streamer, and thus placing com- mon knights and esquires under his command : part of the ceremony was cutting off the end of the streamer, thereby making it a square banner. This order, the origin of which is not exactly known, is first noticed in our history in the year 1347, when Copeland, governor of Roxborough castle, having taken with his own hand David, king of Scotland, prisoner, was made knight banneret by Edward III., who was then laying siege to Calais, and to whom Copeland had repaired to make his excuses for not having delivered up his prisoner to Queen Matilda. The last person who was made Banneret was Sir John Smith, by Charles I., in the action at Edge-hill, for rescuing the royal standard. A knight banneret created by the king in person ranks by 5 Rich. II. next after barons, and has precedence before the younger sons of viscounts. BANS of MARRIAGE. (See Marriage}. BAPTISM. This religious ceremony is supposed bymatny learned authors to have had its origin in the Jewish churchy in which, as they maintain, it was the practice, long before our Saviour's time, to baptize proselytes or converts to their faith, as part of the ceremony of their admission : however, the general opinion seems to be that it is a ceremony peculiar to the Christian religion, and that no account of baptism, as a distinct religious rite, occurs before the mission of John the Baptist. In the earliest ages of the Christian church converts were admitted by baptism at any period of the year 5 but afterwards (except in cases of necessity) the feasts of 84 suntide, Easter, and Epiphany, were appropriated to this cere- mony. Sponsors, or godfathers, were instituted about the com- mencement of the second century, and were intended to guarantee the good conduct of such adult persons whom they had recommended as worthy of being admitted into the Chris- tian church 5 afterwards, when infant baptism was enjoined,, which was at a very early period of the church, they were required to answer for the child's being brought up in the faith they professed for them 5. however, catechumens in. general were not forward in coming to baptism. St. Ambrose was not baptized before he was elected bishop of Milan r and some of the fathers not till the time of their death, as was also the case with Constantino the Great, it being the pre- vailing opinion of the primitive times that baptism, whenever conferred, washed away all antecedent stains and sins. In the early ages of the church the ceremony of baptism was performed by immersion, according to the practice of St. John,, and agreeably to the etymology of the word baptize, ta plunge 3 and public baptistery's or baths were constructed for this purpose about the commencement of the fifth century,, and attached to the churches. Although there does not appear to be any direct command to baptize infants, yet as circumcision was administered to the infant offspring of the Jews,, by which they were admitted inta the covenant of grace> baptism, being its substitute and anti- type, ought also to be administered to the children of Chris- tians ; and we find that Irenseus, who was born about the time of St, John's death, mentions infants among the regene- rate or baptized ; andTertullian, about one hundred years after the apostles, though he advises parents to defer baptizing their children, except when their lives were in danger, speaks of the practice as generally received and observed in his time j and from this period the general and uniform practice of the Christian church is very much in favon of infant baptism* 85 Fonts or small baths, for the purpose of baptizing chil- dren, are noticed about the close of the second century, it not being in that case deemed necessary for the admi- nistrator himself to go into the water. These fonts were introduced into England soon after the arrival of St. Augustin, and each parish was enjoined to provide one, either of wood or stone, which order was afterwards renewed by Edmund, archbishop of Canterbury, in 1236, and the right to a font afterwards became the distinguishing characteristic of a parish church. In the old church of St. Peter at Oxford, built by Grymbold, who came from Flanders into England in the time of Alfred, there was till lately a very ancient baptismal font, of a circular form and elegant sculpture, eleven feet in cir- cumference, and of a proportionable depth, having the twelve apostles represented in separate niches. During the period of the commonwealth an order was issued for the removal of all fonts out of the churches, and that basons should be used in their stead, and though at the restoration this order was annulled, yet many of the fonts had been destroyed, and were not replaced. The custom of sprinkling children instead of dipping them into the font, first allowed only in case of sickness, was intro- duced into this country from Geneva in the reign of Elizabeth j others, however, affirm that it was practised in England so early as the ninth century. Tertullian is the first who mentions the signing of the cross as being used in private j it became general in the fourth century, and sometimes oil was used instead of water by the priest on this occasion. Lay Baptism seems to have been allowed in the rubric of the English liturgy till the time of James I., when there was a considerable difference of opinion among the bishops on that subject, and at length it was considered as improper. BAR. Throwing the bar of wood or iron was a common 86 exercise among the Saxons and Normans, and with other sports was prohibited by Edward III., lest it should interfere with the exercise of archery. BARBERS, as a distinct profession, were common in Greece/ but not known at Rome till about 299 years prior to the Christian sera, when it is stated Ticenius Mena brought seve- ral of them to that city from Sicily : they not only dressed the hair and beard, but cut nails. Plutarch mentions the cloth, the mirror, the chair, and their loquacity : the bason is the cantharus of the middle age. Barbers were probably the first surgeons, and in the middle ages were stiled barber-sur- geons : they chiefly confined themselves to phlebotomy, and the pole which is still the sign of the barber's shop, was to shew he could breathe a vein as well as take off a beard, such a staff being to this day put into the hand of a person about to be bled by a village practitioner j the white bind encom- passing the staff represents the ribband for binding the arm. Anciently the barbers had a lute, viol, or some such musical insfrument in their shop to amuse their customers while waiting. BARDS. (See Minstrels.) BARK, Peruvian. This most valuable medicine, was intro- duced into Europe, about the year 1643, and being strongly recommended by the Cardinal de Lugo, of the order of the Jesuits, was from him named the Jesuit's bark. The use of it as a cure for intermittent and other fevers, had been long known to the inhabitants of Peru, and other parts of the American Continent j but was not in much repute among the European settlers, till its efficacy had been fully esta- blished in the recovery of the Countess del Cinchon, the lady of the Spanish Viceroy from a dangerous fever, from which circumstance it, for some time, was called the Cinchona 87 Bark j it was brought into England in the year 1650, and is noticed in the Mercurius Politicus of Feb. 3, 1659, Sir Robert Tabor assuming the merit of having discovered the true method of administering it. BARLEY. Mills for the manufacture of pearl barley, by which all but the very heart of the grain is ground away, were invented in Germany, and first used in Holland in 1660. BAROMETER. About the commencement of the seven- teenth century Galileo discovered that the pressure of the atmosphere on water would raise it, in a tube deprived of air, to the height of thirty-three feet from the surface, and thus proved that the cause of the ascent of water in pumps was not owing to the power of suction, and nature's abhor- rence of a vacuum, the favourite opinion in those days, but to the weight of the atmosphere, pressing upon the surface of the water in the well, and forcing a part of it up the pipe. This experiment led Torricelli, the disciple of Galileo, about the year 1645, to invent the Barometer, now in general use, for he justly considered that if a column of water of thirty- three feet in height was equal in weight to one of air, having the same base, a column of mercury whose specific gravity is about fourteen times heavier than that of water, would be raised in a vacuum to a proportionable height, or about twenty-nine inches and a half; accordingly having filled a glass tube with mercury, and inverted it into a bason of the same liquid, he found the mercury in the tube to descend till it stood about twenty-nine inches and a half above the sur- face of that in the bason. It was, however, some time after the Torricellean experiment had been made, and even after it had been universally agreed that the suspension of the mer- cury was owing to the weight of the atmosphere, before it was discovered that this pressure of the air was in itself variable, though the tube was kept in the same place 5 at 88 length the variations of altitude in the mercurial column, began to attract general attention, and the philosophers, by carefully noting these variations, could not fail to remark that the changes in the height of the mercury were accom- panied or quickly succeeded by changes in the weather. Hence the instrument obtained the name of the weather-glass, and was generally made use of with a view to the fore- knowledge of the weather. About the year 1648, Pascal, a Frenchman, first applied the Barometer to the purpose of ascertaining the weight of air at different elevations from the level of the sea, which led to the suggestion of forming a scale by which the altitude of mountains and balloons might be ascertained. Various kinds of Barometers have been constructed, as the common circular or wheel one, by Dr. Hook, in 1668 j the upright or pendant by the Amatons, in 1695 ] the horizontal or rectangular Barometer, by Benonilli, in 1710. BARON, a degree of Nobility. The first mention of which in our history is to be found in a fragment of the laws of Canute, where the Baron is stated to be the next in rank to the Earl, and is directed to provide four horses, two sad- dled, and two not saddled, two swords, four lances and as many shields, one helmet, one coat of mail, and fifty marks of gold, as his quota towards the defence of the country. Some of our English Antiquarians are of opinion that the title began with the Normans, in the room of the Anglo- Saxon Thane, and that Barons were originally the same as our present Lords of Manors, to which the name of Court Baron (which is the Lord's Court and incident to every manor) gives some countenance. It seems formerly there were two orders of Barons, the great Barons who held immediately of the King in capite, and the lesser Barons who held of the first by military service. The former were sum- moned to Parliament by the King's Writs, while the latter were summoned by the Sheriff of the county j thus things continued till the 49th Henry III., when in the lieu of the lesser Barons, the Sheriffs were directed to cause two Knights in every shire to be chosen, and one or two Bur- gesses for each borough, to represent the body of the people residing in those counties or boroughs, which gave rise to the separation into two houses of Parliament. By degrees, therefore, the title of Baron became confined to those who held in capite of the King, and were in consequence sum- moned as Lords to the upper house, and which continued till the reign of Richard the Second, who, by his letters patent, first made the title of Baron a mere title of honour without reference to landed property. The first, raised to this dig- nity by patent was John de Beauchamp, of Holt Castle, who, in 1387, was created Baron of Kidderminster, in Worcestershire, to him and his heirs male. A Baron now ranks next to a Viscount, he wears a parliamentary robe of scarlet cloth, lined with white satin, having on the right side two guards of Minerva or ermine, to signify his degree ; his coronet is a ring of gold, having thereon six pearls, and was granted by Charles II. in 1661, before which time he wore a crimson cap turned up with ermine, and on the top a tassel of gold. The Prior of St. John's of Jerusalem was styled Primus Angliae Baro, but it was with respect to the Lay Barons only, for he was the last among the Spiritual Barons. The Judges of the Court of Exchequer are also called Barons, that office being formerly held by Barons of the realm. Among the Franks and other Northern nations the word Baron was synonimous with that of man, whence our Baron and femme in law. BARONET. This rank, which is hereditary, immediately follows that of a Baron, and has precedency above all Knights except those of the Garter. The dignity of Baronet is given 90 t>y patent, and was founded by James I. at the suggestion of Sir Robert Cotton, in 1611, as a means of raising money for the defence of the province of Ulster, in Ireland, then har- rassed extremely by the rebels ; for which purpose those who aspired to this rank, were to pay into the Exchequer a sum sufficient to maintain thirty soldiers for three years together, which at 8d. per head amounted to .361095. The title Sir, though he is not dubbed a Knight, was granted by a peculiar clause in the patent : and it is also declared that no interme- diate honour between Barons and Baronets should be created. The first person who had the honor of being made a Baronet of England was Sir Nicholas Bacon, of Redgrove, in Suffolk. Baronets of Ireland were instituted 30th Sept. 1619, and ;possess the same privileges as those of England. Baronets of Nova Scotia were instituted in Scotland by Charles I,, the 28th May, 1625, for advancing the plantations -of Nova Scotia, in America. BARRELS. (See Casks.) BARRISTER. The Romans, in the first ages of their state, held the profession of an advocate in great honor, and the seats of their bar were crowded with senators and con- suls, who thought it an honor to be employed in defend- ing the people j and as they would not condescend to receive pecuniary remuneration they affected to be styled comites and patroni, conceiving their clients were not less obliged to them than freedmen to their masters : but no sooner were luxury and corruption brought into the commonwealth than the bar became a sharer in them, and zeal and elo- quence were sold to the highest bidder : the tribune Cincius, to put a stop to this abuse, procured a law to be passed A. U. 549, whereby the advocates were forbid to take any money of their clients, and which law was frequently attempted to be enforced by the emperors. 91 Barristers among us were anciently called apprentices of the law, and seem to have been first appointed by an ordinance of King Edward I. about the year 1291. In the reign of Mary a consultation fee was ten shillings, and retaining fees were common. BASKETS, of elegant workmanship and high price, were exported in large quantities by the ancient Hritons, being mentioned by Juvenal, and also by Martial, amongst the extravagant and expensive furniture of the Roman tables at that period. A basket I by painted Britons wrought, And now to Rome's imperial city brought. BASONS. Large basons for washing are represented oa ancient Greek tombs. Du Cange mentions the water ewer and bason. In the Berkeley MSS. we have a shaving bason of silver weighing sixty oinces. BASSET. A game upon the cards, invented by a Noble Venetian, for which it is said he was banished. It was introduced into France by Signer Justiniani, Ambassador of Venice, in 1674. Louis XIV. issued severe laws against it, to elude which Basset was attempted to be disguised under the name of Pour et Contre, which occasioned new arrets and prohibitions of parliament. BATH. The practice of bathing in rivers was common among all the nations of antiquity : but it is doubtful whe- ther the ancient Greeks constructed any public baths, for they are not noticed at Rome till the time of Pompey, when the custom began of bathing every day : under the emperors the Thermae or public baths were extremely magnificent. The first instance of cold bathing being practised medicinally, is reported to be that of Melampus's bathing the daughter of 92 the king of Argos 5 and the use of warm bathing was intro- duced by Medea, who was said to boil people alive because Pelias, king of Thessaly, died in a warm bath under her hands. The city of Bath takes its name from the public baths constructed there by the Romans. BATH. An order of knighthood, which, it is supposed, originated with the Franks, and received its name from the candidates being required, among other ceremonies, to bathe themselves, thereby denoting that such as were ad- mitted to this degree should be of a pure mind and honest intentions. Antis asserts that the order was introduced into this country by the Normans, and that William the Conqueror, and the succeeding kings of England, conferred this degree of knighthood as well in Normandy as in England : however, we have no positive account of it till the reign of Richard II., who created four knights of the Bath, and his successor, Hen. IV., at his coronation, which took place on the 13th of Oct. 1339, conferred this honour on 46 esquires, " who had watched all night before, and had bathed themselves : " after- wards it became customary for the kings of England, pre- vious to their coronation, or that of their queens, to create a certain number of their friends knights of the Bath : but it does not appear that any were made from the time of Charles II. till the order was revived by Geo. I. on the 27th of May, 1725. His present majesty has divided this order into knights, grand crosses, knights companions, and companions. BATTLE-AXE an ancient military instrument noticed by Homer, and supposed to be the favourite weapon of the Amazons : it was also used by the Gauls, and not unknown to the ancient Britons, though brought into general use, especially that kind called bipennes, by the Danes. The Welch found this weapon serviceable in the battle of Agin- qourt in 1415. The last time it is mentioned in our history 93 was at the battle of Tewksbury, when Lord Wenlock was killed with a blow from a battle-axe by the Duke of Somei> set : battle-axes have since degenerated into the halberds or partisans, used on state occasions by the band of gentlemen- pensioners and yeomen of the guard. BATTLEDORE and Shuttlecock, was a common amuse- ment in the fourteenth century, and played by adults in the time of James I. BAYONET. Formerly the muskets were so long and heavy as to require a rest or kind of fork to support them when fired : sometimes these rests were armed with a kind of sword-blade, called a swine's feather, which being placed be- fore the musqueteer when loading, served to keep off the ca- valry. During the commonwealth rests were disused, and the swine's feathers were attached to the muzzles of the muskets : soon afterwards they were adopted on an improved principle by the French at Bayonne, from whence they were called bayonets, and were used with great success by them in 1689, and particularly at the battle of Turin in 1693. Bayonets were introduced into our army at the recommendation of the Duke of Alberaarle, in the time of Charles II. : at first they were fixed into the muzzle of the gun after firing, and this con- tinued to be the case till the commencement of the eighteenth century, when they were attached to the musket by means of rings, and afterwards a spring was added to make them more secure. BAYS or Baise. The manufacture of this coarse woollen stuff was introduced into England by the Flemings, who being persecuted by Philip II. of Spain on account of their religion, sought refuge in this country in the commencement of Elizabeth's reign. A considerable manufactory of it was established at Colchester in 1660. 94 BEACONS, or Lighthouses } were anciently called Pharos,, from the one constructed at Alexandria, by Ptolemy Phila- delphus about 300 B. C. During the Saxon Government individuals were appointed to erect beacons for the purposes of navigation as occasion might require, and the expences were defrayed by the county. In the reign of Edward III., pitch boxes were made use of for this purpose; but the importance of beacons does not appear to have been fully considered by Government, till about the year 1 565, when by an order of Council the authority of erecting them, wherever they might be deemed necessary, \vas vested in the Corporation of Trinity House. The first regular light-house in England was that con- structed by Winstanley at the Eddystone near Plymouth, in 1697, and in which he unfortunately perished in a dreadful storm in Nov. 1703. It. was afterwards rebuilt of wood, and accidentally burnt in 1755. Another of stone, erected by Smeaton in 1759, experienced the same fate in 1770. The present one was erected by the same architect in 1774. Ezekiel Walker, of Lynn Regis, first suggested the applica- tion of reflectors in lieu of wood, and which plan was adopted in the light-house on the coast of Norfolk, in 1779, BEADLE. From the Saxon bidel, a public crier, in which sense bishops, in some ancient manuscripts in the Saxon language, are called bedels of God. The church beadle was a kind of verger, whose station, in the thirteenth century, was at the door of the church, his dress being, as now, a blue gown. BEADS, made of amber, jet, ivory, bone, &c., have been frequently discovered in the ancient British barrows, and it is presumed were manufactured by the Druids. In the year 336, the Christians first made use of them in their devotions, which principally consisted in repeating the Lord's Prayer a 95 certain number of times, counted off by means of beads. Chaplets of beads were therefore in the middle ages called Paternosters. The Bead-roll was the catalogue of those who were to be mentioned at prayers, and the King's enemies, in the time of Henry VII., were thus cursed by name in the bead-roll at Paul's. The bidding of the beads was an ex- hortation from the priest to say prayers (or repeat a certain number of ave marias, &c.) privately, for the soul of a deceased person. BEAR. This animal was formerly an inhabitant of our Island, and frequently sent over to Rome, where it was in a certain degree tamed, and led about by showmen, as at present j the baiting of bears, according to Fitz Stephen, was a common amusement in England in the reign of Hen. IF. Stow relates that the first bear gardens in London were in the district of St. Saviour's parish, called Paris Garden. When Queen Mary visited her sister the Princess Elizabeth, during her confinement in Hatfield House, a grand exhibi- tion of bear-baiting was made for their amusement. Queen Elizabeth also indulged in this species of entertainment, after her accession to the throne 3 and we find from the Duke of Northumberland's Household Book, that Noblemen en- tertained servants called bear -wards, who had the care of the breeding and feeding of these animals. Bear grease, as a preservative of the hair, is noticed by Pliny. BEARDS. Athenseus observes that the Greeks wore their beards till the time of Alexander the Great, though Philip his father, as well as Amyntas and Archelaus, his predecessors, are represented on medals without beards. The Jews also wore a beard on their chin, but not upon their upper lip or cheek. Barbers, as before mentioned, were introduced at Rome, about 299 years before Christ, and Pliny 96 observes that Scipio Africanus was the first Roman who ven- tured on the bold experiment of shaving his beard regularly every day, which led to smooth chins being the universal fashion, and therefore servants and slaves were forbidden to shave themselves : thus a beard, once a mark of reverence and honour, became degraded into a badge of servitude. In this state of disgrace it continued till the time of Adrian, whose chin being disfigured by some natural scars, he was content to let his beard grow in order to conceal them, and thus by his example again brought beards into fashion among the Romans. The ancient Britons, in the time of Caesar, shaved every part except the head and upper lip, the hair of which they, as well as the Gauls, allowed to grow to a great length. The Anglo- Saxons were accustomed to wear their beards, except the clergy, who were obliged to shave in conformity to the Western churches. The Normans, soon after the conquest, compelled all the English to shave themselves, which at that time was considered so great an act of tyranny, that many preferred to abandon their country than submit to the loss of their hair. In the fourteenth century long beards came again into vogue, and continued so till towards the close of the sixteenth century, when they dwindled to mustachios and whiskers, and afterwards the practice of shaving the whole face became general. Henry VIII. directed all persons at court to cut their beard short : he used to wear his beard knotted. Queen Elizabeth ordered that no Fellow of Lincoln's Inn should have a beard of above a fortnight's growth. Clipped beards were however common during the reign of the Stuarts. BEDS. The ancient Greeks and Romans originally slept upon the skins of beasts, afterwards they made use of loose rushes and heath or mats j during the government of Caesar goose feather beds and pillows were introduced -, they were generally imported from Egypt, on account of the number 97 of geese there kept, sometimes the beds were stuffed with peacock's feathers, which were considered exceedingly soft and luxurious. The beds of the inns were usually filled with the soft down of reeds. The beds of the ancient Britons consisted also of the skins of beasts, dried leaves, rushes, &c. but on the introduction of agriculture into the interior of the island, straw being found more convenient than rushes was generally adopted, and continued in use even in the Royal Chambers of England till about the period of the Crusades, when beds filled with feathers, cotton and wool, were introduced from the East. In 1495 the materials for beds and mattresses were, with the view of preventing sick- ness, regulated by an Act of Parliament ; at this time feather beds were common, and those filled with horse hair, goat's hair, neat's hair and fen down, were prohibited. BEDSTEADS were common among the Egyptians and Hebrews. The Greeks and Romans, from the greatest sim- plicity, constructed them by degrees of the most surprising magnificence. Pliny assures us it was no new thing to see them covered over with plates of silver, and some were so high as to require steps to ascend them $ their common bed- steads are noticed as being infested with bugs. It is doubtful whether the Romans had any tester or curtains. Although it is probable the Romans introduced bedsteads into this country, yet the common people for many ages slept on the floor, and generally the whole family in one room. The bedsteads of the Anglo-Saxons had sometimes a thick boarded bottom, and sometimes sacking, they had also a tester and curtains which slid with rings upon an iron rod. BEE. Many authors among the ancients have written an account of this useful little insect ; Aristomachus is said to have studied their pursuits for sixty years j Philliscus retired into a desert wood that he might have the opportunity of observing them to better advantage j Aristotle has written on the subject, and the partiality for this little animal passed from the Romans to the Anglo-Saxons, among whom they were great objects of theft. BEE-HIVES. The Romans made them of transparent stone, that they might see the bees at work ; the ancient English bee-hives were made of unpeeled willows. 'BEER. It has been generally supposed there was no malt liquor known by the appellation of beer, as distinguished from the softer beverage of ale, till about the commencement of the sixteenth century, when the use of hops in brewing had been introduced into this country from the Netherlands : yet we find that mention is made of beer in 1482, when James III. of Scotland, to prevent the adulteration of wine, passed a law that no person should mix wine or beer under the pain of death j and the Faedera states that our Henry VII. in 1492 granted a license to a Fleming therein named, to export fifty tons of ale, called beer 5 and that in the same year Petrus Vanek, who attended the king into France, was a beer brewer of Greenwich, in Kent. Beer, as brewed with hops, might not, however, be known in England till the time before mentioned, especially as the juice of the plant was, for several years after its first application to this purpose, considered as extremely injurious, and prohibited on the continent 5 there- fore wormwood and other plants were made use of in brewing, and found in a great measure to answer the intention of hops, by preserving the malt liquor for a considerable time, and rendering it applicable to naval or military purposes. BEGGARS. Neither the Egyptians, Greeks, or Romans, permitted beggars to stroll about the streets. In the Anglo- Saxon period they were very common, and like those of the 99 present day, were generally ballad-singers. A law was passed in the reign of Henry VIII., by which all sturdy beggars pretending to be blind, &c., convicted of a second offence, should be executed as felons, which law was soon afterwards repealed. BEHEADING. A capital punishment of great antiquity, and common to all barbarous nations. It was applied by the Romans to the military under the term decollatio, and in modern times has become the punishment of nobles, being reputed not to derogate from nobility as hanging does. It was introduced into this country by the Normans, and Waltheof, earl of Northumberland, in 1075, was the first nobleman beheaded. BELFRY. This word is compounded of the Teutonic, " bell 3" and " fried," peace ; because bells were originally hung for preserving the peace. According to Du Cange, a belfry originally denoted a high tower, whereon centinels were placed to watch the motions of the enemy, and to give notice of danger by ringing the bell $ and where belfries were not erected the towers of churches were appropriated to that purpose, and thus received the name of belfries. BELL. Any attempt to trace the origin of bells would be useless, those of a small size being very ancient. According to the Mosaic law, the lower part of the blue robe worn by the high priest in religious ceremonies, was to be adorned with pomegranates and gold bells intermixed at equal dis- tances, which it is conjectured was meant to give notice of his approach to the sanctuary, and thus escape the punish- ment of death annexed to an indecent intrusion. At first bells seem to have been appropriated to religious purposes, and were common in all the heathen temples > afterwards the Greeks and Rowans used them for civil and military purposes. 100 Saint Paulinus, who about the year 400 was bishop of Nola, in Campania, is said to have been the first who intro- duced bells into churches, previous to which the Christians made use of rattles, " sacra ligna," to call the congregation together, no bells being allowed by Government to a pro- scribed sect hence bells were called by the Romans noise, and sometimes campanae. It is said that bells of a large size were applied to ecclesi- astical purposes in some of the monastic societies of Caledonia so early as the sixth century : they are noticed by the vene- rable Bede in 670, and appear to have been common from the first erection of parish churches in this kingdom. Ingul- phus informs us that Terketulus, abbot of Croyland, who died about the year 8/0, gave a great bell to the church of that abbey, which he named Guthlac, and it is stated that St. Dunstan about the year 970 cast two of the bells of Abing- don abbey with his own hands. The Chinese were formerly celebrated for the magnitude of their bells : at Nankin there was one twelve feet high, seven and a half in diameter, and twenty-three in circumference- but this has been greatly surpassed by one built at Moscow by order of Anne, late empress of Russia, which is stated by Mr. Cox to have been nineteen feet high, sixty-three feet eleven inches in circumference, and twenty-three inches thick, and weighed 432,OOOfos. Brand says the custom of muffling bells was introduced into this country after the restoration j and that the use of bells in the time of mourning was formerly prohibited. The passing bell, according to Mabillon, anciently served two purposes -, one of which was engaging the prayers of all good people for departing souls ; and the other was, driving away the evil spirits which were supposed to haunt the bed and house, and ready to seize their prey, but kept at a dis- tance by the ringing of this bell. Durand, in his Ritual, written about the end of the twelfth century, speaks of it as an old and well established custom : 101 tr When thou dost hear a toll or knell, " Then think upon thy passing bell." The bell of St. Sepulchre's commenced tolling for prisoners on the morning of their execution in 16O5. The custom of baptizing bells is very ancient : before bells were hung they were washed, crossed, blessed, and named by the bishop, generally after some saint, that the people might think themselves summoned to divine service by the voice of the saint whose name the bell bears : this practice was, how- ever, prohibited by Charlemagne in 789, but was soon after- wards revived, and on the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty the bell of the church of Notre Dame at Paris was regularly baptized, and received the name of the Duke and Duchess of Angouleme on the 15th of November, 1816. The practice of ringing the bells in change or regular peals is said to be peculiar to the British nation whence Britain has been termed the ringing island. This custom seems to have originated with the Anglo-Saxons. Ingulphus states that besides the large bell before noticed as having been given by Terketulus to Croyland abbey, he also, sometime after- wards, gave six other bells, all of which rang together, and were the first tuneable bells in England ; and it is certain this diversion was common in England long before the Con- quest. There are now several societies of ringers in London, particularly one known by the name of the college youths, of which Sir Matthew Hale, lord chief justice of the court of King's Bench, was in his younger days a member. The uses of bells are summed up in the following Latin distich : Laudo Deum vemm, plebem voco, congrego clerum, Defunctos plero, pestem fugo, festa decoro. The Mahometans make no use of bells, considering them as prophane > but the people are summoned to the mosques by the voice of the public crier from one of the towers or minarets. 103 BELL-MEN. Among the Greeks, those who went the nightly watch rounds in camps or garrisons carried with them a little bell, which they rung at each sentry box to keep the soldiers, appointed to watch, awake : a bell-man also walked in funeral processions, at a distance before the corpse, not only to keep off the crowd, but to advertise the flamen dialis to keep out of the way, lest he should be polluted by the sight or by the funeral music. The Romans in the time of Augustus, had bell-men whose occupations and duties seem to have been similar to those of the present time. They are. first noticed in London in 1556. BELLOWS. The invention of this machine is attributed by Strabo to Anacharsis, who flourished about 60O years before the Christian aera : but Homer, who lived long before his time, describes Vulcan as employing twenty pair of bel- lows at once in the formation of the shield of Achilles Soon as he bid them blow, the bellows turned Their iron mouths, and where the furnace burned Resounding breathed at once the blast expires, And twenty forges catch at once the fires. The invention of the wooden bellows, which have been introduced in metallurgic operations instead of those of lea- ther, is attributed to the Germans, though neither the time nor the author can be accurately traced. Reyher, in his disserta- tion on air, printed at Kiel in 1669, informs us that about eighty years ago a new kind of bellows, which ought to be called the pneumatic chests, was invented in the principality of Cobourg by two brothers, Martin and Nicholas Schelhorn, who kept the invention secret. Calver says that ' e these bel- lows were first employed in the forest of Hartz 5 and that in 1621 Lewis Psannenschmid, from Thuringia, settled at Ost- field, near Geslar, and began to make wooden bellows, which circumstance so irritated the bellows-makers of that place that they conspired against him, and threatened him with 103 death, so that he was under the necessity of procuring the particular protection of the Government ; he would not, however, disclose his art to any one except his son, who, as well as his grandson a few years ago, had the making of all the bellows in the forest." From Germany the art of making them was introduced into some parts of France and Sweden, and became general though various parts of Europe. Dr. Plott, in his Natural History of Staffordshire, describes one of these wooden bellows as being used in the copper works at Ellaston. In the oldest smelting houses the bellows were moved by a handle, like those of the smith's forge : but the art of put- ting them into motion by means of a water wheel having been also discovered by the Germans about the close of the sixteenth century, it became universally adopted till superse- ded by the more powerful effect of steam. In the thirteenth century bellows-blowers were attached to the royal kitchen, and formed part of the establishment : their duty was to see that the soup was neither burnt or smoked. A bellows for the purpose of inflating the lungs was in- vented by Mr. Gorcey in 1788. BELT. This military girdle is of great antiquity, being frequently mentioned in scripture. It was generally orna- mented in the richest style j and in some of the most magni- ficent illuminations of our ancient manuscripts, even in the same picture, the sword is represented as indiscriminately belted on the right side or the left. In later ages the belt was given to a person when he was raised to knighthood j whence it has also been used as a badge of the knightly order. BENEDICTINE MONKS. This order, which was founded by St. Benedict in 480, and had subsisted in this country from the time of the mission of St, Augustin in 596, and, besides 104 the metropolitan church of Canterbury, had founded most of the monasteries and all the cathedrals in England, was abo- lished by order of Henry VIII. 7 and by degrees reduced to one single man, Father Buckley, who in 1 607 procured a re- establishment of the congregation at Dowey in the Nether- lands, where it still subsists in a kind of dependency on that of St. Valladolid in Spain. Benedictines were also frequently called the black friars, from the colour of their habit. BENEDICTIONS. The custom of receiving benedictions by bowing the head before the bishop is very ancient, and was so universal that emperors themselves did not decline this mark of submission. BENEFICE. Till the fourth century the revenues of the church consisted principally in alms and voluntary contribu- tions, and were distributed under the directions of the bishop ; but when the church came to possess lands, parts thereof were assigned for the subsistence of the clerks, and called benefices, of which we find some traces in the fifth and sixth century : but it does not appear that the allotments were po- sitively defined till about the twelfth : at first each was con- tented with a single benefice j but pluralities were by degrees introduced on a plea that in some places a single benefice was not thought a competency. By a return made to Parliament in 1817> the number of benefices in England were stated to be 10,421 5 the glebe houses were 5,417, and the number of resident clergy 4,500 j there were then 11,743 churches and chapels, and about 150 have been since built. BIBLE. So called from the Greek Biblion, the book, and that from biblos, the Egyptian reed or papyrus from which the ancient paper was procured. The Jews called the Old Testament mikra, that is a lecture. The list of books con- 105 fained in the Bible, called the canon of scripture, consisted originally of bwt the five books of Moses, called the Penta- teuch, no others being added till after the Babylonish capti- vity, when the remaining books of the prophets and psalms were completed by Ezra, who collected and perfected a com- plete edition of the Holy Scriptures. The original of the Pentateuch had been carefully preserved in the ark, and being discovered in the Temple by Hilkiah during the reign of Josiah, copies of it were ordered to be taken and distri- buted among the people. The autograph or original copy of the law was afterwards burnt with the city and temple by the Babylonians. The long captivity of the Jews had tended greatly to cor- rupt the Hebrew language -, Ezra, therefore, thought proper to write the Bible in the Chaldean as more commonly spoken, though the Samaritans, who acknowledged no other part of the sacred writings but the Pentateuch, still retained the Hebrew character. The Banonians pretend they have the original compilation of Ezra, in their church of Dominic, and that it is written upon a sort of leather, made up in a roll according to the ancient manner. The books contained in the canon of the Jews were divided by Ezra into three parts, the Law, the Prophets, and the Cetubrim or Hagiographa j the first contains the five books of Moses ; the second includes Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, with Nehemiah, Esther, Isaiah, Jeremiah, with Lamen- tations, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the twelve minor Prophets ; and the third class contains Job, the Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. The whole number amounting to twenty-two being equal to the letters in the Hebrew Alphabet. The canon was closed by Malachi fifty years after Ezra, and about 400 B. C. With respect to the authors of the Old and New Testa- ment, it may be observed that the Pentateuch written by Moses is supposed, with some few additions, to have been put 10G 'together by Samuel, and that the books of Joshua and Judges, the book of Ruth, and the first part of the book of Samuel was also written by him , the latter part of the first book of Samuel, and the second book were, written by the Prophets, Nathan and Gad, who succeeded Samuel. The books of Kings and Chronicles are extracts from the records of the succeeding prophets concerning their own times, and from the public genealogical tables made by Ezra $ the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are collections of like records, some written by Ezra and Nehemiah and some by their predeces- sors 5 the book of Esther was written by some eminent Jew, in or near the times of the transactions there recorded, per- haps Mordecai : the book of Job by Moses, or a Jew of an uncertain period j the Psalms by David and other pious per- sons 'j the books of Proverbs and Canticles and perhaps Ecclesiastes by Solomon j the Prophecies by the Prophets whose names they bear, and the books of the New Testa- ment by the persons to whom they are usually ascribed. The New Testament was written in Greek, except the Gospel of St. Matthew, which is said to have been composed in Hebrew - } some few have thought that the Gospel of St. Mark and the Epistle to the Hebrews was written in Latin. As the Jews looked down with contempt on the neighbour- ing nations or Gentiles, and were in turn despised by them, it was not till after their captivity that any of their laws and ceremonies were divulged ; the first version of the Bible was that of the Septuagint into Greek, said to have been per- formed by seventy or seventy- two Jewish interpreters in obedience to the command of Ptolemy Philadelphus, about 283 years before the Christian ^Era. The manuscript Hebrew Bible preserved in the Bodleian Library is about 830 years old. The best Hebrew Bibles are those printed under the inspec- tion of the Jews at Pesaro and Bresse in Italy, and at Sonci- num, in 1486. 107 The first printed Greek Bible was published under the direction of Cardinal Ximines, of Spain, in 1515, and inserted in the Polyglot Bible, called the Complutensian Bible. The Ancient Vulgate, called also the the old Italian or vul- gar Latin Bible, was translated from the Greek Septuagint for the use of the Latins soon after their conversion to Chris- tianity ; nothing, however, is remaining of this but the Psalms, Wisdom and Ecclesiastes. The first Latin Bible that was printed, called the Modern Vulgate, seems to have been also performed under the direction of Cardinal Ximines, and included in the Bible of Complutum. R. Stephens and the doctors of the Louvain took great pains in correcting this edition ; and an improved one was published by Stephens in 154O : several other editions, with alterations and amend- ments were published till the time of Popes Sextus V. and Clement VIII., since which no alterations have been allowed, except in comments and separate notes. The correction of Clement VIII. in 1 592 is now the standard bible throughout all the Romish church. If we enquire into the version of the bible of our own country, we find that Aldhelm, bishop of Sherborne, in the commencement of the eighth century made an English Saxon version of the psalms, and that Eadfrid or Ecbert, bishop of Lendesferne, about the year 73O, translated several of the books of scripture into the same language. It is also said that the venerable Bede translated the whole bible into Saxon, and that he had just completed; with great difficulty, the trans- lation of the gospel of St. John on the very day and hour of his death, which happened on the 26th of May, 735, being then sixty-two years of age : his disciple, Cuthbert, asserts, however, that he only translated the gospels. Some will have it that Alfred in 890 translated a great part of the scriptures into his own language at least that he set about a translation of the psalter, which he did not live to finish. William of Mahnsbury states that king Ethclstan directed a translation 108 to be made of the Old Testament out of Hebrew into English- Saxon : probably some Jews, converted to Christianity, had the superintendance of this work. The earliest English translation of the bible is that by J. Wickliffe about the year 1360: it was never printed, but there are manuscript copies of it in several of the public libraries. William Tindall, assisted by Miles Coverdale, in 1526, first printed abroad the New Testament in the English language j but most of the copies were bought up and burnt by order of bishop Tunstal and Sir Thomas More : however, in the year 1532, Tindall and his associates finished the whole bible, ex- cept the apocrypha, and likewise printed it abroad j and while preparing for a second edition he was arrested and burnt for heresy in Flanders. On Tindall's death his work was carried on by Coverdale, under the assumed name of Matthews, in conjunction with John Rogers, superintendant of an English church in Germany, and who unfortunately became the first martyr in the reign of Queen Mary. Matthews, alias Cover- dale, printed his bible at Hamburgh in 1537, and dedicated it to Henry VT1L, and through the interest of Archbishop Cranmer procured a license for publishing it in England under the name of Matthews s Bible. The first bible printed by authority in England and pub- lickly set up in churches was the version by Tindal, compared with the Hebrew, and in many places amended by Miles Coverdale, afterwards bishop of Exeter : this was examined by Archbishop Cranmer, who added a preface to it, whence it was called Cranmer s Bible: it was printed by Grafton in 1540 j and by a royal proclamation every parish was obliged, under a penalty, to set one of the copies in its church. This bible was suppressed by Queen Mary, but restored by Eliza- beth, and a new edition published in 1562. In the year 1568 Archbishop Parker published a new trans- lation of the bible j and being assisted by several of the 109 bishops and other learned men it received the denomination of the Bishop's Bible, as also the Great English Bible. This translation was used in the churches for forty years, though a bible printed by some English exiles at Geneva in 1560 was more read in private houses. Many exceptions having been taken to the translation of the bible by Parker and the bishops, a conference on the ex- pediency of a new translation was held at Hampton Court in 1603, under the direction of James I., which led to his pro- clamation dated in 1604, wherein fifty-four learned persons were appointed to undertake a new translation, who imme- diately entered upon their work, and in 1613 published the bible now in common use, and dedicated it to James. The first polyglott bible was published by Cardinal Ximines in 1515 in six volumes : it contained the Hebrew text, the Chaldee paraphrase on the Pentateuch, the Greek version of the LXX., and the ancient latin version. With respect to the division of the bible into chapters and verses, it appears that the five books of the law were divided by Ezra into fifty-four sections a section being read on every sabbath in the year : afterwards when the Jews were prohibi- ted from reading the law by Antiochus Epiphanes, they sub- stituted fifty-four sections out of the prophets, the reading of which was ever after continued : thus, when the reading of the Law was restored by the Maccabees, the section which was formerly read every sabbath out of the Law served for their first lesson, and the section out of the prophets for their second lesson j and this practice was continued in the time of the apostles. These sections were divided into verses, called by the Jews, pesukim it being customary to read the Law, after the return of the Jews from their captivity, first in the Hebrew or dead language, and then. by an interpreter in the Chaldee language, period by period : the manner in which these divisions are now distinguished in the Hebrew bibles is by two great points at the end of them, called saph pesuk Hiat is, the end of the verse : but the division of the holy no scriptures into chapters as at present (except the psalms, which appear to have been always divided as they now are) is attributed by some to Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Can- terbury, in the reigns of John and Henry III., though it really owes its origin to Cardinal Hugo, about the year 124O, the author of the first scripture concordance, with the view of rendering this work an useful index to the scripture : these chapters were afterwards subdivided by him, not into verses, but by the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, placed in the margin of the page, at an equal distance from each other : in some all the seven letters were used j in others fewer, as the length of the page required : and this mode of indexing was com- mon till about the middle of the last century. In 1445 Nathan, a learned rabbi among the western Jews, finished a concordance to the Hebrew bible in the manner of Hugo, and introduced his division of the Hebrew bible into chapters, improving on the plan by introducing the ancient division of verses and numbering them, by placing the Roman numerical letters in the margin at every fifth verse. R. Stevens, in his latin bible, published at Paris in 1557, and his son, H. Stevens, in his Greek testament, made the same division of chapters into verses, which method was also adopted in the English bible published at Geneva in 1560, and those published in this country. In 1661 Athias, in his edition of the bible, intro- duced the Indian or Arabic figures instead of the Roman let- ters, and placed them at every verse, as is now customary. The price of a small well written bible in 1274 was thirty pounds, which is equal to 3620O of our present money. The following curious observations have been made on the bible, and which it is said employed three years : In the old Testament. Books 39 . Chapters . 929 . In the New. 27 .... 26O . . . . Total. 66 .... 1139 Verses 23,214 . Words .... 592,493 Letters . . 2,728, 1OO . 7959 181,253 .... 838,380 .. 31,173 . . 773,746 3,566,480 Ill The apocrypha has 183 chapters, 6O81 verses, and 152,18s words. The middle chapter and the least in the bible is the 1 17th psalm : the middle verse is the 8th of the 118th psalm : the middle line is in the second book of the Chronicles, 4th chapter, 16th verse. The word ' and ' occurs in the Old Testament 35,535 times, and in the New Testament 10,684 times j the word Jehovah occurs 6,855 times. In the Old Testament the middle book is Proverbs : the middle chapter the 29th of Job : the middle verse is in the 2nd book of Chronicles, 20th chapter and verse : the least verse is the 1st verse, 1st chapter of the 1st book of Chro- nicles. In the New Testament the middle book is the Thessalo- nians : the middle chapter is between the 13th and 14th of the Romans : the middle verse is the 17th of the 17th chapter of the Acts : the least verse is the 35th of the 1 1th chapter of the gospel by St. John. The 21st verse of the 7th chapter of Ezra has all the let- ters of the alphabet in it. The 19th chapter of the 2nd book of Kings and the 37th chapter of Isaiah are alike. The book of Esther has 1O chapters ; but neither the words Lord or God occur in it. The authenticity of the 7th verse of the 7th chapter of St. John's epistle has been much disputed, from its not being noticed by Erasmus. BIBLE SOCIETY. It is a singular fact that the first society for the distribution of bibles among the poor was established by some Roman-catholic prelates in France in 1774. BlBLIOMANCYa kind of divination by the bible, by consulting the passage that first presented itself to the eye on opening the book, was introduced into the church in th third century, and frequently used in the consecration of bishops : it was, however, forbidden by the Council of Vennes in 46'5, and by an edict of Charlemagne in 793 : yet this superstitious custom exists in many places to this day, and is much practised by the Mahometans with their Koran. BIGOT. Camden says this word was introduced by the Normans, and had its origin in the marriage of Duke Rollo, who on receiving Giffa, the daughter of King Charles in mar- riage, and with her the investiture of the dukedom, refused to kiss the king's foot in token of subjection unless he would hold it out for that purpose, and being urged to it by those present, answered hastily, No, by God ! whereupon the king turning about called him bigot, which name passed from him to his people. BILLS OF EXCHANGE. This kind of negociable secu- rity for money originated with the Jews, who, being banished France for some enormous crimes charged upon them, returned into Lombardy about the twelfth century, and found means to withdraw their effects, which they had lodged in the hands of friends, by secret letters and bills conceived in short precise terms, like the modern bills of exchange, and this by the assistance of merchants and travellers. The faction also of the Gibellines, on being expelled Italy by the Guelphs, adopted the same means for the recovery of their effects in Italy as the Jews had done hence the Dutch merchants took the hint of negociating bills of exchange, and soon spread the practice throughout Europe. Bills of exchange are first mentioned as being negociated at Hamburgh in 1188 : they were in use in England in 1307 ; for we find in the 2nd vol. of the Foedera that the Pope, having collected much money in England by the tenths, &c., Edward I. ordered that neither the English coin nor silver in mass, nor in bullion, should be carried out of the kingdom to 113 the Pope, but that the sums so raised should be delivered to merchants in England, to be remitted to the Pope by way of exchange however, it appears that, in general, bills of ex- change were then considered illegal, unless the king's licence had been previously obtained. By an ordinance passed at Barcelona in 1394, bills of exchange were directed to be accepted within twenty-four hours after they were presented. In 1404 bills were drawn in duplicate and protested on non- acceptance. Inland bills of exchange were not common in England before the reign of Charles II. Promissory notes came into use in the reign of William and Mary. BILLS OF MORTALITY. It is said that a registry of births, marriages, and deaths, was first ordered to be inserted in the parish books in 153O by that great, but unfortunate person, Thomas Cromwell, earl of Essex, while he was vicar- general to Hen. VIII. : and that this practice was continued in the reigns of Edward VI. and Eliz. It was afterwards discontinued in London, but resumed in 1603, after the great plague of that year, and has ever since been continued weekly by the company of parish clerks though others date the re- commencement from December, 1592. Ths London bills of mortality embrace ninety-seven parishes within the walls of the city seventeen parishes without the walls twenty-four out- parishes in Middlesex and Surrey and ten in the city and liberties of Westminster : in all one hundred and forty-eight parishes. The bills of mortality in London, on the present plan, were first published in 1723. The first bills containing the ages of the dead were those for the town of Breslau, in Silesia, from which calculations on the probable duration of human life were made, and published by Dr. Halley, and thus by establishing data for the foundation of life-assurance com- panies, first gave rise to that method of securing a provision for children after death. Q 114 BILLIARDS. This game was invented by the French in 1578 j and licensed tables were kept in Holland by the Lom- bards. Strutt says that at the commencement of the last century the table was square, having only three pockets and an ivory arch in the middle, through which the balls were driven. The oblong table with six; pockets is modern ; maces only till lately were used j the cue was introduced about forty years ago, but its powers have only been ascer- tained within the last twenty years. BISHOP. The first bishops were appointed by the Apos- tles : thus James was made bishop of Jerusalem, and Titus, bishop of Crete, by St. Paul, and Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, by St. John. Afterwards they were chosen by the Presbyters and congregations at large, till they were deprived of this right by the Council of Avignon, in the year 1050, from which time the bishops themselves have assumed the power of election. This ecclesiastical dignity had its origin in this country in the year 185, when Lucius, king of Britain, sent Elwin and Medwin ambassadors to Eleutherius, bishop of Rome, for religious advice, and these being baptized and consecrated bishops, were sent back to their own country 5 some affirm there were British bishops at the Council of Nice, A. D. 325, which are supposed to have been those of London, York and Ca.erleon. The bishops of England are all barons, and that in a three- fold manner 3 feudal, in regard of the lands and baronies annexed to their bishoprics 5 by writ, as being summoned by writ to Parliament -, and also by patent and creation. When William the conqueror thought proper to change the spiritual tenure of frank-almoign, or free alms, under which the bishops held their lands during the Saxon Government, into the feudal or Norman tenure by barony j their estates were subjected to all civil charges and assessments from which they were before exempt : and in right of succession to those 115 baronies, which were unalienable from their respective digni- ties, the bishops and abbots were allowed their seats in the house of lords, and distinguished under the name of Lords Spiritual ' } but not being ennobled in blood, they have no right to be tried as Peers, nor since the year 1388, have they been permitted to give judgment in capital offences : it being determined in the Earl of Danby's case, May, 1679, " that the Lords Spiritual have a right to stay and sit in court in capital cases, till the court proceeds to the vote of guilty or not." This resolution, however, extends only to trials in full parliament j for to the court of the Lord High Steward, in which no vote can be given but merely that of guilty, or not guilty, no bishop, as such, ever was or could be summoned. During the Saxon times the right of appointing to bishop- rics was invested in the crown, and was performed by the princes delivering to the prelate a ring, and pastoral staff or crosier : but as Gregory VII., about the close of the eleventh century, pretended that these symbols conferred a spiritual jurisdiction, the Bangs of France and England consented to alter the form of investiture in their kingdoms, and receive only homage from the bishops for their temporalities 5 and afterwards John ceded to th monasteries and cathedrals the right of electing their prelates, whether abbots or bishops. But the ancient right of appointment was in effect restored to the crown in 1533, and now, the King on being certified of the death of a bishop by the dean and chapter, issues his conge d f elire, or permission for them to elect another, nominating however the person whom he would have chosen, and which they are obliged to comply with ; no one how- ever is eligible to this dignity, unless he should have attained the age of thirty years. There are twenty-four bishoprics in England and Wales, of which the following twenty-one are under the jurisdiction of he Archbishop of Canterbury. 1. St. Asaph, founded about the year 560, Kentigern being the first bishop, his disciple St. Asaph was the second j this diocese has but one archdeacon. 2. Bangor. This diocese, of which St. Daniel was the first bishop, in 516, is divided into the three archdeaconries of Bangor, Anglesea, and Merioneth. 3. Bath and Wells, divided also into the three archdeacon- ries of Bath, Wells and Taunton j the bishopric of Wells is stated to have been founded in 607, yet Aldelm, according to Tindal, was its first bishop in 709. Bath was added to it in 1088. Joannes de Villula being appointed the first bishop of Bath and Wells. 4. Bristol. This bishopric was founded by Henry VIII., and taken out of the dioceses of Salisbury, Wells and Worcester ; it has but one archdeacon, that of Dorset j Paul Brush was the first bishop in 1542. 5. Chichester. This see was anciently ia the Isle of Selsey, Wilfrede being its first bishop in 686 : when Stigand was made bishop, in 107O, he removed the see to Chichester $ it has two archdeacons, viz. Chichester and Lewes. 6. Coventry. This see was originally fixed at Litchfield, of which Dwina was appointed first bishop, in 657 : Peter its thirty-fourth bishop, in the year 1O67, removed the see to Chester, and his successor, Robert de Limsey, in 1086, to Coventry. The diocese is divided into the four archdeacon- ries of Coventry, Stafford, Derby and Salop. 7. St. David's, founded by St. Dubritius in 519, who was succeeded by St. David : this diocese assumed archiepiscopal authority from its foundation to the year 1115, when Ber- nard, who was the forty-eighth archbishop, and chancellor to Queen Adelise, submitted himself and church to the see of Canterbury : it comprehends the four archdeaconries of Caer- digan, Caermarthen, Brecknock, and St. David's. 8. Ely. This diocese was taken from that of Lincoln by Henry L, in 1109. Harvey, bishop of Bangor, 117 being removed to this see $ it has one archdeacon, that of Ely. 9. Exeter. When Christianity was first planted in the West of England, the counties of Cornwall and Devon were placed under the see of Dorchester, of which Birinus was the first bishop in 636 j and on the removal of that episcopal seat to Winchester by Birinus, it still retained jurisdiction over them. About the year 705, the monastery of Sherborne being converted into a cathedral, the counties of Cornwall and Devon were separated from the diocese of Winchester and annexed to that of Sherborne, and the celebrated Aid- helm, abbot of Malmsbury, was promoted by Ina to the bishopric. In the commencement of the tenth century, Phlegmund, archbishop of Canterbury, at the command of Edward the Elder, created three new bishoprics in lieu of the diocese of Sherborne, viz. one at Wells for Somersetshire 5 another at Bedmin or Padstow, for Cornwall : and the third at Taw ton-bishops, afterwards removed to Crediton, for Devon- shire. About the year 1032 Liwring, the twelfth bishop of Devon, procured the bishopric of Cornwall to be annexed to his own ; and his successor, Leofric, (probably St. Lanfranc, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury) removed the see from Crediton to Exeter, about the year 105O, and was made the first bishop of Exeter : this diocese comprehends the four archdeaconries of Exeter, Barnstaple, Totness and Corn- wall. 10. Gloucester. In the year 657, Edwy, king of Nor- thumberland, having subdued Mercia, erected Litchfield into a bishop's see, and included Gloucestershire within its diocese. This bishopric was soon afterwards divided into the five smaller ones of Litchfield, Dorchester, Leicester, Hereford, and Worcester $ to the last of which Gloucester was annexed and continued subject, till the reign of Hen. VIII., who, in 1541, erected the city of Gloucester into a bishopric -, the abbey church being converted into a cathedral, and John 118 Wakeman, abbot of Tewkesbury, being elected bishop : this see has but one archdeacon, that of Gloucester. 11. Hereford. Putta is described as the first bishop of Hereford in 676 : the diocese contains the two archdeaconries of Hereford and Salop. 12. Llandaff. It is stated that a cathedral church was founded here in 1 86, soon after the introduction of Christia- nity into Britain 5 it was not, however, till the beginning of the sixth century, that Llandaff was raised to the dignity of a bishop's see, by Myric, king of the Silures, St. Debitrius being its first bishop : this diocese has one archdeacon; 13. Lincoln. This diocese was originally included in the sees of Dorchester and Sidnacester, a depopulated place near Gainsborough or Stow, and which see, together with a consi- derable portion of the diocese of Dorchester, about the year 737, formed the new bishopric of Leicester. On the death of Wielfin, the twenty-first bishop of Leicester, which hap- pened about the year 1067, his successor, Remigius, removed the see to Lincoln, of which he became the first bishop : it contains the six archdeaconries of Lincoln, Leicester, Stow, Bedford, Huntingdon, and Buckingham, and formerly comprehended the dioceses of Ely, Peterborough, and Oxford. 14. London. Lucius is reported to have founded this bishopric in 185 5 Miletus, however, in the commencement of the seventh century, is the first bishop that is mentioned ; a cathedral church having been erected in 610, on the scite of the present St. Paul's. The see of Westminster, which never had but one bishop, was united to that of London, in 1550 this diocese contains the five archdeaconries of Lon- don, Middlesex, Essex, Colchester and St. Albans. 15. Norwich. This was originally called the bishopric of the East Angles, of which St. Felix was appointed bishop in G30. Bisus, the fourth bishop, in 070, divided the diocese into the two bishoprics of Elmham-smA Dunwich ; which were 119 united in 955, by Athul, bishop of Dunwich. About the year 1070 the see was removed to Thetford, and in 1091 to Nor- wich. The diocese comprehends the four archdeaconries of Norfolk, Norwich, Suffolk and Sudbury. 16. Oxford was part of the diocese of Lincoln till 1542, when Henry VIII. erected it into a distinct bishopric, and Robert King, the last Abbot of Osney, was appointed bishop : this see has but one archdeacon, that of Oxford. 17- Peterborough was taken from the diocese of Lincoln by Henry VIII., in 1541, and converted into a bishopric. John Chambers, the last abbot of Peterborough, being nomi- nated bishop. The see has but one arch-deaconry, namely, that of Northampton. 18. Rochester. This diocese, the least in England, was founded by St. Justus in 6O4, though in the following year he was obliged to quit the see, on account of the apostacy of the inhabitants. 19. Salisbury. Soon after the separation of the sees of Wells and Exeter from Sherborne, it appears there was another bishopric established at Wilton, whose seat was some- times there, and at other times at Ramsbury and Sunning. On the death -of Elfwold, the twenty-fifth bishop of Sher- borae, Herman, who was the eleventh bishop of Wilton, was also elected bishop of Sherborne ; and the bishoprics being thus united, the episcopal chair was removed to Sarum, and Herman and his successors were afterwards entitled bishops of Salisbury. 20. Winchester. About the year 634, Birinus being deputed by Pope Honor ius to preach the gospel in those parts of Britain still involved in paganism, prevailed on King Kene- gils to found a cathedral at Winchester, and nominate him bishop thereof. This diocese contains the two archdeaconries of Winchester and Surrey. 21. Worcester. This diocese was, founded by Ethelred, king of Mercia, about 68O. Tatfrith being the first bishop, 120 but dying before consecration, Basil was appointed to the episcopal chair. The province of York comprehends the archbishopric of York, and the bishoprics of Carlisle, Chester, and Durham, as also the ancient bishopric of Hexham, founded in 678- The Diocese is divided into the four archdeaconries of York, East Riding, Cleveland, and Nottingham. Paulinus was con- secrated the first archbishop of York in 625. Carlisle. This see was originally an appendage to that of Lindisfarn, an island on the coast of Northumberland, of which the celebrated St. Cuthbert was bishop in 686, and so continued till the year 1 133, when Henry I. constituted it a separate bishopric, appointing Ethelwolfe to the chair. It has but one archdeacon, that of Carlisle. Chester. This bishopric was anciently part of the diocese of Litchfield ; but the seat being removed hither in 1075, though but for a very short period, the bishops of Litchfield became to be often called bishops of Chester : however, it was not formed into a distinct bishopric till after the suppres- sion of the monasteries by Henry VIII., when the abbey of St. Warburgh was converted into a cathedral. The diocese is di- vided into two the archdeaconries of Chester and Richmond Durham. This see is indebted for its wealth and impor- tance to St. Cuthbert, bishop of Lindisfarn, styled the apostle of the North, to whom Egfrid, king of Northumbria, in 685, granted all the lands between the rivers Weare and Tyne, from which time the county was invested with great privi- leges, and has been generally termed the bishopric and County Palatine. On the invasion and ravages by the Danes, of the island of Lindisfarn, about the close of the ninth century, the inhabitants determined upon abandoning it ; and having collected what was valuable, and especially the remains of St. Cuthbert, they, after a long series of temporary residences, about the year 1O40, fixed upon Dunholme, or Durham, for the lasting abode of St. Cuthbert's relics ; and this bishopric therefore dates its establishment from that period. The diocese contains the archdeaconries of Durham and Northum- berland . Man. The bishopric of this Island was founded by St. Patrick, about the close of the fourth century, and as it had jurisdiction over the Hebrides or Western Islands of Scotland, called Sodorenses, from Sodor, a village in lona, it formed the united bishopric of Sodor and Man ; but when the Island of Man became subject to the crown of England, the West- ern Isles which were attached to Scotland, chose a bishop of their own. In the year 1405, Henry IV. gave the island to Sir John Stanley, whose posterity, earls of Derby, have ever since enjoyed the patronage of nominating the bishop : he is consecrated by the archbishop of York j but the see not being baronial, he is not entitled to vote in the House of Lords, though Wood supposes he has, by courtesy, a seat above the bar. The three colonial bishoprics of Canada, Calcutta, and Jamaica are under the jurisdiction of the bishop of London. BISHOP- BOY. It was an ancient custom in such churches as had cathedral service, for the little choristers on Saint Nicholas day, Dec. 6, to elect one of their number to preside over the rest, with some degree of episcopal authority, until the 28th of December, or Innocent's day $ which custom pro- bably originated with the ancient plays or mysteries. In the wardrobe account of Edward I., in 129O, mention is made of a boy-bishop saying vespers before the king in his chapel at Heton, near Newcastle. In 1554 Mary issued an edict to all the clergy to have a boy -bishop in procession < and it was not till the reign of Elizabeth that the custom was abolished. In the cathedral church of Salisbury is the monument of a boy- bishop, who died in the exercise of his pontifical office, and whose funeral exequies were solemnized with the same pomp and ceremony as was customary on the death of a bishop. BISMUTH. This metal, it is supposed, was known to the ancients, to the alchemists, and some of the earliest minera- logists, but considered by them merely as a variety of some other metal, and generally of tin and lead. It was not till the year 1753, when its properties were particularly examined by Pott and other chemists, that it was ascertained to be a peculiar metal. BISSEXTILE or Leap Year, so named because Cresar in his reformation of the calendar appointed an additional day in every fourth year immediately to precede the sixth of the calends of March, and therefore, on account of that day being twice reckoned, this year was called the bis-sextile year. This double day is noticed in the time of Henry III., when, to prevent misunderstandings, the intercalary day, and that next before it, were ordered to be accounted as one day. BLANKET. This necessary piece of bed furniture is so called from one Thomas Blanket, who in the year 134O set up looms at Bristol for weaving them. The ancients used sheep- skins with the wool on, as also did the Anglo-Saxons, which they called bed-felts, that is, bed-skins. The ludicrous punishment of tossing in a blanket is alluded to by the Romans under the denomination sagatio, and is described graphically enough by Martial Ibis ab excusso, missus ad astra, sago. It is said that the emperor Otho was accustomed to stroll out in dark nights, and when he met with an helpless or drunken man to give him the discipline of the blanket. BLINDMAN'S BUFF was an amusement among the Greeks. BLEACHING. The origin of this art, like that of many others which are subservient to the comforts or conveniences of man, is involved in obscurity. The effects of the sun and air in whitening garments and in discharging the less perma- nent colours imprinted by the dyer, must have been early [observed by the ancients : we know that the Egyptians, to promote this effect, were accustomed to use certain kinds of clay 5 and PJiny states that a plant, to which he gives the name radicula, probably soap wort, was used by the Romans for the scouring and bleaching of wool. The art of bleaching was scarcely known in England about eighty years ago, it being the custom to send all the manufactured brown linen to Holland for that purpose. The application of the oxygenated muriatic acid to the purposes of bleaching was discovered by Bartholet in 1785 ; and in 1788 the establishment of a large bleaching concern on this principle was commenced upon at Bolton in Lancashire. BLEEDING. The hippopotamus, according to Pliny, first taught men the use of bleeding. He states that the animal being overcharged with blood, rubs itself against a pointed bulrush 5 a vein is opened $ and when a sufficient quantity of blood has been discharged, rolls himself in the mire to stop the bleeding. This art is however very ancient, and appears to have been resorted to among the Egyptians, Assyrians, Scy- thians, &c., at a time when anatomy had never been cultivated. The Greeks boast that Podalicius, the son of Esculapius, soon after the siege of Troy, was the first who inculcated the expediency of bleeding. BLOCK, or Pulley. This useful machine was invented by Archimedes, and is the malum ligneum of the Romans. One with two ropes appears on the triumphal arch erected by the Romans in the ancient city of Orange. BLOOD. The circulation of the blood, by which that fluid is alternately conveyed from the heart to all parts of the body, is said by Jansou Almalovean to have been known to 124 Hippocrates : others attribute the discovery to Michael Servetus, a French physician, in 1553 : but the most general opinion is that the merit is due to Hervey, an English physi- cian, in the year 1628. The first who tried the experiment of transferring the blood of one animal into the vascular system of another by means of a tube connected with the vein of the receiving animal, and an artery in the other, was Clark in the year 1657, who failed in his attempts. Lower in 1665 tried the experiment on dogs with success, as did Cox on pigeons j and various experiments were exhibited before the Royal Society. In France the blood of a sheep was transferred into the veins of an idiotic youth j and Lower in England practised the same on a literary man, who offered himself for the experiment : however, no positive benefit resulting from these transfusions, the practice was prohibited by the parliament of Paris, and fell into disuse in England. BLOW-PIPE. The origin of this useful invention must, from its simplicity, be very ancient : it seems to have been employed by glass-blowers, enamellers, and jewellers, long before it was used as an article of chemical apparatus. Dr: Hase, of Philadelphia, was the first who by his blow- pipe combined the oxygen and hydrogen gasses, thereby pro- ducing a greater heat than had ever been obtained before, except by the concentration of the sun's rays by large and powerful lenses. BLUE. It has been alleged that the ancients were ac- quainted with that beautiful colour, the Prussian blue, which they made use of for the purpose of painting : but Landriani has shewn, in his dissertation on this substance, from the evidence of Theophrastus and Pliny, and from the analysis of an Egyptian mummy, that the ancients employed ultra marine blue, and the smalt or azure of cobalt ; and that Prussian 125 blue, which is readily acted upon by the substances to which it must have been exposed in those countries, could not resist their influence for so many ages, and retain the beautiful colours which are admired in the paintings of Herculaneum. The discovery of Prussian blue, according to Stahl, was accidental ; he states that about the commencement of the last century Diesbach, a chemist of Berlin, wishing to pre- cipitate a decoction of cochineal with an alkali, borrowed some potash from Dippel, a brother chemist, on which he had several times distilled his animal oil, but as there was some sulphate of iron in the decoction of cochineal, the liquor instantly exhibited a beautiful blue in the stead of a red precipitate ; reflecting on the circumstances which had taken place, he discovered the cause of it, and thus found himself capable of producing at pleasure the same substance, which afterwards became an object of commerce, and the preparation of which he kept for a long time secret. It obtained the name of Prussian blue, from the kingdom in which it was discovered. This colour was sold at a great price, and consequently became the subject of research with other chemists ; at length Dr. Woodward got some informa- tion of its preparation from Germany, and published an account of the process in 1724, in which he was followed by Scheele in 1782. Blue, says Pliny, was the colour in which the Gauls clothed their slaves, and for many ages blue coats were worn by servants and apprentices among the Saxons 5 from hence we have Hue coat boys, blue schools, &c. BOAR. The whole boar, and boar's heads ornamented, were favorite dishes in the Norman ara, and were served up with considerable ceremony, music, &c. BOATS for the preservation of Lives. It is a singular circumstance that no attempt was made to construct a life- 126 boat, or any other machine for the same purpose, until the year 1789, when owing to a calamitous and heart-rending- shipwreck which took place on the Hind Sand, in Tynemouth Haven, in the sight of thousands of spectators, the gentry of South Shields formed themselves into a committee, and offered premiums for the best plan of a boat calculated to overcome the dangers of a heavy broken sea ; various plans being submitted to the committee, a preference was unani- mously given to Mr. Greathead's, and a boat built according to his suggestion, was launched on the 30th of January, 17 9O, and so well has it answered, that in Tyne alone, many hun- dreds of lives have been saved by it, and in no instance has it failed. BOATSWAIN. This officer is noticed in the time of the Anglo-Saxons : he is described as having a staff to direct the rowers. BOH. This word, which is frequently used to terrify children, according to the author of the Popular Antiquities, is the name of Boh, a great general, the son of Odin. BOILERS, with cocks, as commonly used in our kitchens, were discovered at Herculaneum. BOMB. Blondell asserts that this species of artillery was first made use of at the siege of Watchtendonch, in Guelder- land, in 1588 j though others pretend that bombs were em- ployed at the siege of Naples, by Charles VIII. in 1495, at which time they were made of brass and opened on hinges ; they were in common use among the Dutch and Spanish armies in 1634, and soon became general throughout Europe. BOMB-BOATS, or ships for throwing bombs, were invented by M. Reyneau, and first used at the bombardment of Algiers in IfiSl, till which time it had been judged im- practicable to bombard u place from the sea. BOMBAZINE. This word is derived from Bombycina, a kind of silk-dress, which the Romans obtained from Assyria, and conceived it to be the production of an insect of the moth kind, called bombyx, which most probably was the silk- worm j bombax was also the name given to the common cotton tree by the Arabs, and adopted by the Greeks, how- ever it is supposed that the bombazine was originally fabri- cated wholly of silk, but that on account of the preciousness of that material it became a practice to ravel or unweave such silken stuffs, and to employ both the warp and the shoot or the worp of mixed stuffs, and that these stuffs with silken warps and woollen or cotton shoots were called bombazines, after the name of the parent article ; and might be invented as Pliny asserts, by a lady named Pamphila, in Coos, an island in the Archipelago ; this kind of silk stuff was manufac- tured at Milan, in the thirteenth century. In the year 1675, the Dutch refugees who fled from the persecution of Philip II., introduced the manufacture of bombazine into Norwich, and presented several pieces of it to the court then held in that city. BONFIRE. Mahudel in his dissertation on the origin of bonfires, endeavours to prove that they were unknown to the ancients, and consequently are of modern date. He does not indeed deny that the ancients made use of large fires on occasion of public rejoicings, as a victory obtained, or on the conclusion of a peace, &c. j but according to him the fire was solely to burn the victims or incense, and as these sacrifices were mostly offered in the night time, the illuminations were only intended to afford light to perform the ceremonies. In this country bonfires were originally made to drive away evil spirits, and are first noticed as used for 138 rejoicings in the reign of Henry VII., who directed the Mayor to order bonfires and other rejoicings in the city, on account of the marriage of his daughter Mary with the prince of Castile. BOOKS. Plates of lead and copper, the barks of trees, bricks, stone, and wood were the first matter employed to engrave such things and monuments upon, as men were will- ing to have transmitted to posterity. The commandments we know were written on tables of stone, and Josephus speaks of two columns, one of stone and the other of brick, upon which the children of Seth wrote their inventions and astronomical discoveries. The prophet Ezekiel at Babylon is directed to "take a tile and lay it before him and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem,' * that is, to write upon it the prophetic sign of the destruction of Jerusalem by the king of Babylon. The works of Hesiod were at first written upon tables of lead -, the laws of Solon upon wooden planks j tables of wood, box, and ivory were likewise very common among the ancients. Afterwards books were written on the leaves of trees, chiefly the palm tree, which is still common in various parts of Asia ; as also upon the rinds and barks of the tilla or phylira, and of the Egyptian papyrus j also wax and the skins of various animals, even those of fishes, were made use of for this purpose. Zonores relates that the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer were written upon the intestines of a serpent in characters of gold, forming a roll of one hundred feet in length ; then came parchment prepared from the skins of animals, vellum, linen, silk, horn, and lastly paper itself. The most ancient books m of which we have any knowledge are those of Moses, though he himself cites several, and some say Adam himself was an author. The oldest profane books extant are those of Homer. The first books seem to have been written in verse. Herodotus's history is the oldest work of the prosaic kind. Originally books were made up 129 in the form of blocks and tables, afterwards in the manner of rolls, called by the Latins volumina. The mode of communicating ideas by letters among the ancient Britons was by cutting the letters upon sticks, which were most commonly squared, and sometimes formed into three sides : the square ones were used for general subjects, and for stanzas of four lines in poetry $ the trilateral ones were adapted to trades and for a peculiar kind of ancient metre, called anglyn milwyr, or the warrior's verse. Several sticks with writing upon them were put together, forming a kind of frame, which was called peithynen or eleucidator. An engraved specimen of ancient British writing may be seen in Fry's Pentographia. Towards the close of the seventh century books were so scarce in the papal library at Rome, that Pope St. Martin sent people to the remotest parts of Germany to procure them. Among the constitutions given to the monasteries of England by Archbishop Lanfranc in 1072, the librarian is directed at the beginning of Lent to deliver to each of the religious a book, which was to be returned at the end of the year, by which time the monk was expected to have read it : so late indeed as the commencement of the fifteenth century a present of a book was considered of great importance. The gift of a book to Lincoln cathedral by Bishop Reppendyn in 1422 occurs in this form : " I, Philip of Reppendyn, late bishop of Lincoln, give this book, called Peter de Aurelais, to the new library, to be built within the church of Lincoln, reserving the use and possession of it to Richard Troysley, clerk, canon, and prebendary of Miltown, in fee, and for the term of his life, and afterwards to be given up and restored to the said library : written with my hand, 1422." When a book was bought, the affair was of so much importance that it was customary to assemble persons of consequence and character, and make a formal record that they were present on the occasion. In the book of the " Sentences of Peter Lon- 3 130 bard " is this entry : " This book of the Sentences belongs to Master Robert, archdeacon of Lincoln, which he bought of Geoffry, trie chaplain, brother of Henry, the vicar of North Elkington, in the presence of Master Robert de Lee $ Master John, of Larling ; Richard of Luda, clerk ; Richard, the almoner j the said Henry, the vicar j and his clerk and others : and the said archdeacon gave the said book to God and St. Oswald, and to Peter, abbot of Barton, and the convent of Barden." The value of an early printed book may be disco- vered from the following circumstance : in January 1812, the Decameron of Boccacio, printed in 1471, was purchased at the Duke of Roxburgh's sale by the Marquis of Blandford for 362260. The famous library established in the University of Oxford by that munificent patron of literature, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, contained only 6OO volumes. The first book ever printed was the Vulgate Bible in two volumes, folio, in the year 1462 5 the second book was Cicero de Officiis, in 1466. The first book in the English language was the Recuyel of the history of Troy, printed at Cologne, Sept. 19, 1471, and the first book printed in England was a small Latin volume, called the " Exposition of St. Jerome,*' from the Oxford Press, dated 17th Dec. 1468. And the first in the English language was on the game of chess in 1474. The first book printed in the French language was Le Jardin de Devotion in 1473. The earliest printed books have only impressions on one side the leaf, the other being blank. The earliest instance of a title-page in this country is noticed in .the work of " Bartholomeus de Proprietatibus Rerum," printed by Wynkin about 1495. The earliest in- stance of figures placed beneath the title of the book occurs in the course of a year it was introduced into all Catholic countries, but not into the Protestant States of Germany till 170O, nor in England till the year 1752. The Dominical Letters were introduced by the primitive Christians, in lieu of the nundinal letters in the Roman calendar. (See Week.} CALICO. This species of cotton cloth receives its name from Calicut, a city on the coast of Malabar, being the first place at which the Portuguese landed on their discovery of India, and was first imported into England by the East India Company in 1631. (See Printing on Calico.) CALLIGRAPHY. The first person noticed as being able to write distinctly within a very confined space, is Callicrates, an Athenian sculptor, who lived about 472 years before Christ, and is said to have engraved some of Homer's verses on a grain of millet. Peter Ball, an Englishman, in 1575, wrote the Lord's prayer, creed, ten commandments, and two short prayers in Latin, with his own name, motto, day of the month, year of the Lord, and reign of the Queen, in the com- pass of a silver penny, enchased in a ring and bordure of gold, and covered with a crystal, all so accurately wrought as to be very legible. CAMBLET, a kind of stuff originally manufactured in Asia, of camel's hair, from whence its name; and form- ing to this day the clothing of the poorer class of people in that quarter of the globe. This kind of cloth being strangely coarse, rough, and prickly, was, after the example of St. John the Baptist, used among the monks by way of mortification. In the commencement of the thirteenth cen- tury, a species of cloth, in imitation of the camblet, but made of goat's instead of camef s hair, was manufactured in France, and garments of it were worn by St. Louis, as also by our x 154 kings on fast days from the time of Henry V. to Charles II. Watered camblets are often called moreens, moraine being the French term for that kind of wool which the tanner or currier removes from the hide by the application of quick lime. CAMBRICK, a fine species of linen, originally made at Cambray, from whence it was introduced into this country by the Dutch emigrants in 1563. The manufacture of it was first attempted in Scotland in 1760, and has been attended with considerable success. CAMEL. The name of a machine invented by Bekker, a Dutchman, in 1688, for carrying ships over shallow waters, which invention has been adopted by the Russians, for convey- ing their vessels over the banks formed at the mouths of the Neva. CAMERA OBSCURA. This instrument, which throws the images of objects in their natural colours and motions, on a white ground, according to Friend, was invented by Friar Bacon in the beginning of the thirteenth century ; others give the invention to Leo Baptista Alberto in 1437 ; but more gene- rally to BaptistaPorta, who published a description of it in 1589. CAMPHOR, a kind of gum, obtained from the laurus camphora, a large forest tree in the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, and from other species of lauri, the art of purifying which is carefully kept secret. Venice formerly had the monopoly of this manufacture ; afterwards it was success- fully practised in Holland ; and at present large quantities are refined by some of the English druggists. Proust discovered a method of extracting this gum from the essential oils pro- duced in the southern countries of Europe. CANALS. The advantages of navigable canals did not 155 escape the observation of the ancients. From the most early accounts of society, we read of attempts to cut through large isthmuses, in order to make a communication by water betwixt different nations, or distant parts of the same nation, where the carriage was long and expensive. According ta Herodotus, Necas, son of Psammitichus, attempted to open a communication between the Nile and the Red Sea by means of a canal 3 but was prevented from completing it by the advice of the oracle, after having lost 120,000 men in the enterprise. Strabo, however, ascribes the commencement of it to Sesostris, before the Trojan war : it was resumed and carried on by Darius, son of Hystaspes, who relinquished the undertaking on a representation being made to him by un- skilful engineers, that the Red Sea, being higher than the land of Egypt, would overwhelm and drown the whole coun- try. Ptolemy Philadelphus, however, finished the undertaking, and constructed in the most convenient part of the canal a dam or sluice, ingeniously contrived, which could be opened to give passage to the water as occasion might require, and is therefore the origin of modern locks to canals. Both the Greeks and Romans made several unsuccessful efforts to cut through the isthmus of Corinth, for the purpose of forming a navigable passage by the Ionian sea, into the Archipelago. The great canal of China, extending from Pekin to Canton, a distance of 825 miles, was commenced upon in the ninth century, and is sufficiently broad and deep to carry vessels of considerable burthen. This mode of inland navigation was introduced into En- gland by the Romans, who, when Domitian was emperor^ constructed a canal from the river Nyne, a little below Peter- borough, to the river Witham, three miles south of Lincoln j and in 1134, during the reign of Henry I., a canal was made to form a junction between the Trent and the Witham. CANARY BIRDS, formerly called sugar birds, froia 156 their partiality to the sugar cane, were first brought by the Spaniards from the Canary islands in the year 1555 5 who in order to secure the trade to themselves, forbid the exportation of males. The breed of these birds have, for upwards of two centuries, been particularly attended to by the Germans and Swiss 3 and it has been estimated that several thousand of them are annually imported into England from Inspruck and its environs. The Canary seed was about the same period brought from the islands into Spain, and from thence dispersed over Europe, CANDLES. The most ancient method of illuminating apartments during the night was apparently by burning dry and resinous wood, either in brasiers, or more simply, by single branches, like flambeaux : the use of oil succeeded to these imperfect and incommodious methods, and candelabra, for supporting lamps, are among the elegant and ornamental remains of antiquity. Pliny mentions that the Romans first made nse of candles, which originally were little strings, dipped in pitch or surrounded with wax $ afterwards they made them of the papyrus, covered likewise with wax, and sometimes of rushes, by stripping off the outer rind, and only retaining the pith. Pliny also observes that in his time wax candles were made use of for religious purposes, and those of tallon) for common occasions. Candles were introduced into churches in the year 274. St. Jerome mentions the custom of lighting up candles at the reading of the gospel, even at noon-day, describing it as an emblem of joy, and of that light which the Psalmist says was a lamp unto his feet and a light unto his paths. It is probable that the Romans might have introduced into this country the method of making candles, or at any rate that Augustine and his successors must have made use of wax candles in their cathedrals and churches ; we read that Alfred made use of a graduated wax candle, inclosed in a 157 lanthern, as the best mode then known for ascertaining the divisions of time. Candles were not in general use for domes- tic purposes till towards the close of the thirteenth century, when they are first noticed as being made of tallow. There was formerly a kind of excommunication by inch of candle, until the consumption of which the sinner was allowed to repent. CANDLEMAS. This festival was instituted by Pope Gelasius 5 some ascribe the origin to Pope Virgilius in 536. It takes its name from the number of candles used in the processions of the day, as also from the circumstance of the candles which were required for the church being then con- secrated j these popish ceremonies were prohibited in 1548. CANISTER, a small box for holding tea, and first men- tioned on the introduction of that vegetable. CANNON. It cannot be ascertained at what time guns were first invented, yet it is certain that in some parts of Asia a species of artHlery similar to our cannon, though in a very rude and imperfect state, must have been for many ages used. Pkilostrates speaks of a city near the river Hyphases, in India, which was accounted impregnable, and its inhabi- tants relations of the gods, because they threw thunder and lightning upon their enemies 5 hence some imagine that the use of cannon was not unknown to the Eastern nations in the time of Alexander the Great. And it is asserted by many of our modern travellers, that cannon was common in China when Kitey was Emperor, in the year 85 of the Christian aera. The word itself is probably derived from the Greek kanna, a reed or cane, which was the name given by the modern Greeks to those fiery tubes invented by them about the commencement of the seventh century, which being loaded with stones, exploded with a violent noise, but the 158 account of them is very unsatisfactory, and the composition of the Greek fire with which they were charged, has eluded the researches of modern chemists. The introduction of cannon into the Western part of Europe, cannot be traced to an earlier period than the commencement of the fourteenth century, at which time they were known un- der the appellation of bombardse, on account of the noise they made, and are described as mere cylinders constructed of long bars of iron soldered together lengthwise, and strength- ened by iron hoops, the upper part of the chambers being made to open for the admission of the can which held the charge j they were fixed on sledges and made of large calibres for the purpose of throwing stone balls, some of which were five feet in circumference. The Germans attribute the invention or introduction of cannon into Europe, to Albertus Magnus, a Dominican monk, about the middle of the thirteenth century, and mention is made of one found in the arsenal of Bamberg of the date of 1323 ,- it is certain that cannon was used by the Moors who defended Algesiras in Spain against Alonzo, king of Castile in the year 1343, at which time they must have been generally known, for we find thein a few years afterwards made use of as field-pieces by the English under Edward III. who planted five of them on a small hill near the village of Cressy, which chiefly contributed to decide the celebrated battle of that name in 1346. This seems however to have been the first time they were ever employed in the field, from which circumstance several of the French writers have laid claim to a greater degree of national humanity than they allow to the English : one of these in his Treatise on Gun- nery observes " Les Anglais mo ins humains sans doute nous devancerent et s'en servirent a la celebre bataille de Creci, qui eut lieu entre les troupes du roi d* Angleterre Edward III., qui fut si mechant, si perfide, qui donna tant de fil a retordre & Philippe de Valois, et aux troupes de ce dernier j et 159 ce fut en majeure partie a la frayeur et a la confusion qu' occasionnerent les canons, dont les Anglais se servoient pour la premiere fois, et qu'ils avoient postes sur une colline proche le village in which stood commonly a church or chapel : within this outer bayle was another ditch, wall, gate, and towers, inclosing the inner bayle or court, within which was the chief hill and tower, called the keep or dungeon. This tower, the palace of the prince or baron, and residence of the constable or governor, was a large square fabric, four or five stories high, having small windows in very thick walls, which rendered the apartments within it dark and gloomy : in it was the great hall, in which the owner displayed his hospitality, having at the top an elevated floor, called the dels, where the chief table stood, at which persons of the highest rank dined : the lower part of the keep consisted of dark rooms or vaults, often used for the confinement of prisoners ; and hence it has been inferred this principal tower derived its name of dungeon. Among the feudal castles, the gate-house was the favourite mark of dignity : the keep, as a super-eminent tower, appears to have been neglected about the time of Edward III. The old passes into our castles were usually arched bridges of stone : draw-bridges made their appearance in the fourteenth 169 Century, but were not much used till the time of Henry VIII. Castle architecture seems to have been a little on the decline during the reign of Edward III., its strength and solidity being then first sacrificed to convenience -, and in the reign of Henry VIII. it had descended from the lofty towers, which, displayed at Caernarvon, Conway, and Caerphilley, awed the beholder, to the block-houses of Calshot, Hurst, Sandown, Sandgate, and South Sea. Berkeley, originally founded in the reign of Stephen, is one of the best remains of an ancient feudal castle ,- and the most complete and genuine models of what a castellated mansion was in the days of Henry VIII. may be gathered from the ruins of Cowdray House, in Sussex, and Haddon house, in Derbyshire. CAT. This animal is said to have been brought into Corn- wall from Cyprus by some foreign merchants who came for tin, long before the Romans had any footing in the Island. CAT-gut. Strings made of sheep's bowels are mentioned by Homer, and supposed to have been invented by Lyrus for the use of his lyre. It is principally imported from Italy. CATALOGUE. The first catalogue of English books was compiled by Andrew Maunsell, a bookseller, who resided at Lothbury, near Cheapside, in 1595 j the work is dedicated "To the Queenes most sacred Maiestie, to the Reuerend Diuines and Louers of Diuine Books, and to the Worshipful the Master Wardens and Assistants of the Companie of Sta- tioners, and to all others Printers and Booksellers in generall." A catalogue of the stars was first published by Hipparchus Rhodius about 128 yeart before Christ. CATECHISM. First published by the Bishop of Winches- 170 ter, in 1552 j it was anciently the custom to catechise people before baptism. CATHEDRAL. This word takes its rise from the circum- stance of the bishop being seated at the assemblies of the primitive Christians in a kathedra, or chair, while the presby- ters, who were also styled assessores episcoporum, sat on either side on benches. Until the time of Constantine the Christians not being at liberty to build any places of public worship, their churches were considered merely as assemblies, and their cathedrals nothing more than consistories. The monastery of Sherborne was converted into a cathe- dral in the year 705, and this is the earliest mention of one in this country. CATHOLIC. Theodosius the Great is supposed to have introduced the term Catholic into the church, appointing by an edict, that the title should be applied, by way of pre-emi- nence, to those churches which adhered to the Council of Nice, in exclusion of the Arians, &c. - } but the term was used in much earlier times, as by the Fathers Polycarp and Ignatius, the latter of which says, stating that several chimnies, molti earning had been in that year thrown down by an earthquake. In some of the old English castles the wall at the bottom behind each fire-hearth had a flue, which continued to rise sloping, till it reached a loop of exit almost the height of the room. Leland speaking of Bolton Castle, in the time of Richard II., says, " One thing I much noted in the hall of Bolton, how chimnies were conveyed by tunnels made on the sides of the walls betwixt the lights in the hall, and by this means and by no covers is the smoke of the hearth in the hall wonder strangely conveyed." Chimnies, therefore, seem to have originated in the halls of castles, but were not attached to private dwellings till about the time of Henry VIII. ; they were common in the reign of Elizabeth, and apologies were made to visitors, if introduced into rooms which were merely warmed by chaffing-dishes or stoves. CHIMNEY-SWEEPERS, According to Beckman, the first chimney-sweepers in Germany came from Savoy, Pied- mont, and the neighbouring territories ; and these were for a long time the only countries where the cleaning of chimnies was followed as a trade. CHINA-WARE. The Chinese annals are quite silent as to the inventor of china, or even the period of its invention. The earliest historical notice of it is to be found in the annals of the province of Feou-lean, A. D. 442, which state that the workers of china in that district were alone entitled to the privilege of furnishing the imperial palace with it. This ware is called by the Chinese tse-ki, and by the Europeans, porce- lain, from the Portuguese word, porcelena, a cup, and is principally manufactured at King-te-tching 5 and though attempts have been made to introduce it into Pekin, Nankin, and other places, yet the porcelain in the new manufactories is by no means equal to that of the old. From the great perfection in which we find the porcelain of China as far back as history extends, there is great reason to believe that many centuries must have elapsed in bringing it to that state, could we even ascertain when it arrived at its climax ; for it is remarkable that the oldest specimen of china does not yield in beauty, or differ in its essential qualities, from the most recent manufacture. The Egyptians at one time had acquired the art of making china. C. Caylus mentions two porcelain statues of Isis, which were of the same colour within and without j and both Scaliger and Cardan agree, that the myrrhine vases at Rome, which were first seen on the occasion of Pompey's triumph, and afterwards valued at a high price, were the porcelain of our times. This kind of manufacture is supposed to have been brought into Europe from India or China by the Portuguese ; but the time is uncertain. The Venetians generally supplied Europe with it in the sixteenth century. 183 For several years back earthen-wares have been made in different parts of Europe so like the oriental, that they have acquired the name of porcelain, the art of manufacturing which was discovered by John Botticher, a German, while apprentice to one Zorn, an apothecary, at Berlin. It is stated that Botticher meeting with an old acquaintance to whom he had formerly been of some service, he was in return initiated by him in the art of making gold 5 and under the impression that he was really possessed of this valuable secret, he ran away from his master into Saxony, where he was protected by the emperor, and had apartments allotted to him at Dresden for the purpose of prosecuting his experiments. In this place in the year 1706, having mixed various earths together to make his crucibles sufficiently strong and durable, he accidentally hit upon the method of making porcelain, and thus in a certain degree realized his expectations by introducing a ware of so valuable a nature. China-ware was common in England in the reign of Elizabeth, and was imported by the East India Company in 1631. It was first manufactured in this country at Worces- ter in 1751 ; and the method of transferring impressions from engraved copper-plates to the surface of the porcelain was there discovered. It is not a little remarkable, that a considerable part of the export trade of the Worcester porcelain works, is to our settlements in the East Indies, and even to Canton : and the Chinese, who about a century ago furnished this country and all Europe with porcelain, are now excluded from our markets, and their extensive manu- factories nearly ruined. CHIVALRY. M. de Voltaire gives the following account of the origin of chivalry. When Europe, on the decline of the House of Charlemagne, had fallen into a state of anarchy and confusion, every proprietor of a manor or lordship became a petty sovereign, his house was converted into a castle, and 184 a number of armed men or followers retained, who under his command, were accustomed to make predatory excursions on the territory of the neighbouring chieftains, sometimes even attacking their castles, which they pillaged, and carried away the women in triumph. During this state of universal hostility there was no friendly communication between the provinces, nor any high roads from one part of the kingdom to another : the wealthy traders who then travelled from place to place with their merchandize and their families, were in perpetual danger the lord of almost every castle extorted something from them on the road ; and probably some more rapacious than the rest seized upon the whole cargo : thus castles became the warehouses of all kinds of rich merchandizes, and the prisons of the distressed females whose fathers or lovers had been plundered or slain : but as some are always distinguished for virtue even in the most general defection, it happened that many lords insensibly associated to repress these sallies of violence and rapine, and the association was at length strengthened by a solemn vow, and received the sanction of a religious ceremony : by this ceremony, these lords assumed a new character, and became knights, and the fraternity was soon regarded with a kind of reverence, even by those against whom it was formed ; and an admission into the order was regarded as the highest honour : from this time the knight devoted himself to the protection of the fair sex, and to the redress of those wrongs which were occasioned by acts of rapacity. From this view of the origin of chivalry, it will be easy to account for the castle, the moat, and the bridge, which are found in romances j and as to the dwarf, he was the constant appendage to rank in those times. The principal lords w ho entered into the fraternity of knights, used to send their sons to each other to be educated, far from their parents, in the mystery of chivalry, and these youths till they 185 arrived at the age of twenty-one, were called has chevaliers, or under knights, afterwards corrupted to bachelors. During the reigns of John and Henry III. of England, the spirit of chivalry had greatly declined, hut was revived under the Edwards j and till the close of the fifteenth century liad a wonderful influence on the fate of nations and manners of mankind. CHRISTIANITY. The followers of Christ, or the prose- lytes to his religion, from among both the Jews and Gentiles, were distinguished by various appellations : those which they generally appropriated to one another were brethren and disciples j but by their adversaries and the Gentiles they were called Nazarenes and Galileans. In consequence of the conversion of Cornelius and his family, the believing Jews and Gentiles were formed into one church ; and in order to prevent their separation, the new name of Christians, from their divine master, was first given them at Antioch by the Romans in the year 44. Though the exact time of the conversion of the Britons be uncertain, it is very probable the gospel was preached in the island soon after the death of Christ, and about the time of the victory of Claudius and the defeat of Boadicea j for at the time of this revolt there were in the island above 80,000 Romans, among whom (as the gospel had by this time got footing in many places, particularly at Rome) there must have been several Christians : upon this supposition, there is no absurdity in asserting, with several modern authors, that St. Paul preached the gospel in Britain 5 for it is allowed that this apostle, in the eight years between his first imprisonment at Rome and his return to Jerusalem, propagated the Chris- tian religion in several places, especially in the western countries j and it is not unlikely but his desire of converting the Britons might carry him into their island : however, Christianity does not appear to have taken any deep root, and 186 was nearly extinguished when Lucius, a British king, in the second century, sent Elwan and Medvvin, ambassadors to Pope Eleutharius, for some missionaries to instruct his people in the Christian religion, which ambassadors being baptized and consecrated bishops, were sent back, and by their means the gospel again flourished in Britain 5 and during the perse- cutions of Dioclesian several of the Britons sealed their faith with their blood, among whom was St. Alban : but the religion was now too firmly established to be easily put aside 5 and mention is made of three British bishops, supposed to have been those of London, York, and Caerleon, being at the Council of Aries in 314. The Saxons on their first arrival in Britain thought it their duty to persecute the Christians ; and therefore little is known respecting church affairs in the south of Britain till the time of Ethelbert, king of Kent, who having married Bertha, a Christian, and daughter of Cheribert, king of Paris, gave free encouragement to the missionaries sent by Pope Gregory I. into England to instruct the English in the knowledge of the gospel : at the head of those missionaries, who were Bene- dictine monks, was Austin, abbot of St. Gregory's at Rome, who, landing in the isle of Thane t in the year 597, got permission to settle at Canterbury, and in the course of a year the king himself and many of his subjects embraced his doctrine ; in consequence of which, the queen's chapel, which stood without the city, became too little for their accommodation, and one of the heathen temples was there- fore converted into a church, and dedicated to St. Pancrace : soon afterwards the foundations of Canterbury cathedral were laid, and dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul. Thus began the conversion of the Saxons in England, and a solid foundation was laid for the growth of Christianity in this country j for although this religion, as we have seen, was partially introduced under the Roman Government, and several bishoprics were founded, yet the church laboured 187 tinder so many difficulties, that its history until this period is extremely vague and unsatisfactory. CHRISTMAS. It is commonly maintained that Pope Telesphorus was the first who, about the year 130, ordered the feast of the Nativity to be held on the 25th of December j while, on the other hand, John, Archbishop of Nice, relates that Pope Julius, in 350, having procured a strict enquiry to be made into the day of our Saviour's Nativity, and ascer- tained that it happened on the 25th of December, directed that for the future the feast should be celebrated on that day j but, according to Benson, our Saviour was born in April or May of the Julian year 4709, and crucified on the 15th of April, 4742 : thus it appears that Christmas day, which is, in truth, unknown, we have in our Liturgy rendered cer- tain , and that Good Friday, which is historically established, is by us made of a fluctuating date. Christmas-box. The Athenian Oracle states the origin of this custom as follows : the Romish priests had masses said for almost every thing : if a ship went out to the Indies the priests had a box in her, under the protection of some saint, into which the sailors were to put money for the masses said for their safe return, until which time the box was not to be opened : th mass at that time was called christmass, and the box christmass box. Servants also used to keep boxes for the purpose of paying the priests for masses, to absolve them from the debaucheries of the seasons. The Christmas carrol which is generally sung on Christmas day and continues till twelfth day, is said to be in imitation of the " Gloria in Excelsis," sung by the angels on the morn- ing of the nativity, and is of ancient standing in the church. Tertullian assures us it was customary among the Christians at their feasts, to bring those who were able to sing into the midst, and make them sing a song unto God, either out of the Holy Scriptures, or of their own composing. 188 CHRONOLOGY was first reduced into a regular science by Ephorus, the disciple of Socrates, about the year 35O B. C., though Erastosthenes, who superintended the Alexandrian Library, about 20O B, C., is considered the great father of chronology, which he commenced from the sera of the taking of Troy, 860 years prior to the death of Alexander. Sir Isaac Newton has shewn that the chronology of ancient kingdoms is involved in the greatest uncertainty ; that the Europeans in particular had no chronology before the Persian Empire, which began 536 B. C., when Cyrus conquered Darius the Mede ; that the antiquities of the Greeks are full of fables, because their writings were in verse only, till the conquest of Asia by Cyrus the Persian, about which time Phericydes Syrius, and Cadmus Milesius introduced prose. After this time several of the Greek historians introduced the computation by generations. The chronology of the Latins was still more uncertain, their old records being burnt by the Gauls a hundred and twenty years after the expulsion of their Kings, or 388 B. C. The Chronologers of Gaul, Spain, Germany, Scythia, Britain and Ireland are of a still later date, for Scythia beyond the Danube had no letters till about A. D. 276, when Ulphilas, their bishop, invented the Gothic character, and Germany had none till it received them from the Western Empire of the Latins about the year 400. CHRONOMETER. A time-keeper was first used for the purpose of ascertaining the longitude of a ship at sea by Gimma Foisius in 1530. CHURCH. The term ecclesia, synonimous with our church, is used in the Greek and Latin profane authors for any kind of public assembly called together upon any public business 5 and from several places, in which it is mentioned in the Sacred Writings, it appears that the congregation and not the place formed the scriptural idea of a church. Consi- 189 dering a church however, in the light of a Christian temple consecrated to the service of the Deity, it would seem that the Christians in the first ages assembled for social worship in private houses and sequestered places. Tertullian and Eusebius inform us that they were frequently held in the cemeteries, and in the edict of Galian about the year 26O, which conferred several privileges upon the Christians, ceme- teries and places of worship are used as synonimous terms. It is the opinion of many learned men that the Christians had no public edifices till after this edict, when they were permit- ted to erect and consecrate convenient edifices called orato- ries, for the purpose of religious worship $ they were, how- ever, soon afterwards demolished by the persecuting edicts of Dioclesian, and though in some places the magistrates con- tented themselves with shutting up the places of worship, in others they proceeded to a more severe extreme, and after taking away the doors, the benches, and the pulpit, which they burnt, they completely destroyed the remaining edifice. The Christians were, therefore, again reduced to their ceme- teries and other secluded places, for the performance of their religious worship ; but when Constantino himself became a convert to the Christian religion, several churches of consi- derable magnificence were erected at Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Constantinople ; and the word temple was then first introduced from the circumstance of many of the heathen temples being converted into churches. It is by many supposed that the church of St. Saviour at Rome founded by Constantino, was the first church publicly built by the Christians. The first church in England, it is said, was erected at Glastonbury, at the commencement of the second century, and this tradition may seem to deserve credit because it was not contradicted in those ages, when other churches would have found it profitable to advance a similar pre- tension, The building is described as a rude structure of 190 wicker-work, like the dwellings of people in those days,, and differing from them only in its dimensions, which were three- score feet in length, and twenty- six in breadth. Churches in the first ages were generally of a plain and simple structure, and the description given by our Venerable Bede of the church built by Finan, the second bishop of Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, furnishes a just idea of their simplicity. The first stone church was built at Lincoln, by Paulinus in 628. The tower was added to churches in the time of Alfred, though there are many Anglo-Saxon churches which, instead of a tower or steeple, have a small arch to cover two very small bells, whose ropes are let down into the church by holes through the roof, as at Stretton, Whitwell, Esendine, and others. The first appearance of spires occurs in the eighth century, when they were low and roofed with shin- gles 3 in the eleventh they occur in the form of cones or pyramids of carpentry, clothed with shingles or tiles $ in the twelfth they begin to gain height 5 in the thirteenth they assume the tall modern form. The round churches of this country appear to have been indebted for their origin to those who returned from the crusades : on whose minds the venerable form of the church of the sepulchre at Jerusalem had left a strong and durable impression j that of St. Sepulchre, Cambridge, is supposed to have been erected in the time of Henry I. Camden says St. Martin's church, Canterbury, built en- tirely of Roman brick, was supposed the oldest Christian church in Britain in his time, and Sumner believes it was the see of a bishop 350 years before Austin's arrival. CHURCH Music: It appears from undoubted testimony that singing, which was practised as a sacred rite among the Egyptians and Hebrews at a very early period, and which likewise constituted a considerable part of the religious cere- 191 monies of the Greeks and Romans, made a part also of the religious worship of Christians, not only before churches were biult and their religion established by law, but from the first profession of Christianity. Socrates, the historian, acquaints us that St. Ignatius, who conversed with the Apostles, first instructed the primitive Christians of the East in the method of singing hymns and psalms, alternately, or in dialogue, and the custom soon prevailed in every place where Christianity was established. However, the aera of church music is gene- rally supposed to be during the time when Leontius governed the church of Antioch., in the year 350, and that from Antioch the practice spread through the other churches of the East, and both chanting and instrumental music was considerably cultivated under Constantine the Great} but till this period, no specimens of the music employed by them is to be found. From Constantinople, both musical instruments and chanting were introduced into the western churches by St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, about the year 374, and was improved upon by Gregory the Great, who established the Gregorian chant, a plain unisonous kind of melody, which he thought consistent with the gravity and dignity of the service, to which it was to be applied, and which prevails in the Roman church to the present time. The Venerable Bede informs us that when Austin and the companions of his mission had their first audience of king Ethelbert, in the Isle of Thanet, they approached him in procession singing litanies, and that afterwards when they entered the city of Canterbury, they sang a litany, and at the nd of it Allelujah. But though this was the first time the Anglo-Saxons had heard the Gregorian chant, yet Bede like- wise assures us that our British ancestors had been instructed in the rites and ceremonies of the Gallican church by St. Germanus, and heard him sing Allelujah many years before. St. Duns tan, who was himself an eminent musician, intro- duced organs into our churches and monasteries about the 192 year 950. In the "Liber niger domus Regis" of Edward IV., is first noticed the establishment of choristers in the Royal Chapel, which consisted of eight children under the age of eighteen, after which they were considered unfit for chanting, and were sent to the Universities until the king could provide for them , At the beginning of the reformation the whole English choral service, including the prayers and responses, was set to musical notes, and first published in 155O, by John Morbeck, organist of Windsor, whose premature reforming zeal, nearly made a martyr of him in the time of Henry VIII. ; he had indeed the honour of being condemned to the stake, with three other persons who were burnt for heresy, but was pardoned by the intercession of Sir Humphrey Forster. Latimer set his face against church music, which was abo- lished by the Puritans in the time of the commonwealth, so that at the restoration few musicians, till the publication in 1661, of Law's book, entitled " Short directions for Cathedral Service," were capable of performing it. The Church service was first directed to be performed in the English language, in the year 1559. Church wardens, anciently called church reves, were ap- pointed in 1127. Church yards. Among the earliest inhabitants of the world, neither the mode nor the appropriate place of burial can now be ascertained -, the Egyptians and the ancient Greeks were occasionally buried in their own houses. The Hebrews considered it a misfortune not to be buried with their ancestors, and therefore in the earliest period of their history we find Abraham purchasing a burial place or sepul- chre for Sarah his wife in the field of Machpelah, which afterwards received the bodies of himself, of Isaac, and of Jacob. In general, both among the Jews and Heathens, the place of interment was without the walls of the city -, but we find that Lycurgus, who governed Sparta about 900 B, C v 193 in order to overcome the prejudice entertained by the Lace- daemonians of being polluted by the touch of a [dead body, and to familiarize youth to the spectacle of death, directed that the dead should be buried near the temples, and within the walls of the city. It has been already noticed that Gregory the Great first authorized burial within churches or places adjoining to them, that the friends and relatives of the deceased on reading the monumental inscription, might be led to offer up prayers for them. Hence too, that striking and solemn address which marked the epitaphs of the monkish ages : Orate pro anima wiserrimi peccatoris ; and to this superstition, and the profits arising from it, may be ascribed the original of church yards, which were introduced into this country by Cuthbert, Arch- bishop of Canterbury, about the year 750, but were not universal till long after that time. CINQUE PORTS. Camden states that William the Conqueror, looking upon Kent as the key of England, set a constable over Dover Castle, and in imitation of the ancient Roman custom, constituted him governor or warden of the five ports of Dover, Hastings, Hythe, Romney, and Sand- wich : to which were afterwards added Winchelsea, Rye, and Seaford, attaching baronial and other privileges to them on condition of their furnishing him in time of war with a certain number of vessels free of expence : hence the mem- bers returned to Parliament for these ports are called barons. CIPHER. Letters were undoubtedly a much later inven- tion than emblematical or symbolical writing, but when this exquisite contrivance had become familiar to the vulgar eye, and would no longer serve to conceal the mysteries of states- men, the use of a fictitious character was assumed. Plutarch states that the Spartans, in the time of Alcibiades, about 400 194 B. C., had a method of carrying on a diplomatic correspon- dence by means of two rollers of wood, exactly resembling each other, called scytala j one of which was kept by the Ephori, and the other by the general commanding their army : when, therefore, they were desirous of transmitting any secret instructions to him, they took a slip of parchment, and rolling it accurately about the scytala which they had reserved, wrote their intentions, which appeared perfect and consistent while the parchment continued on the roller, but when taken off was maimed and unconnected, and could not be rendered intelligible unless rolled in the same manner upon the scytala in the possession of the general. Polybius states that ^Eneas Tacticus, who was contemporary with Aristotle, and has left several fragments on the duties of a general, was the inventor of writing with secret characters. Trithemius, a Benedictine monk, who lived about the middle of the fifteenth century, is the first writer among the moderns who has treated upon the subject of corresponding by ciphers, in which he has been followed by Baptist Porta, and many authors of celebrity who have written on diplo- matic affairs. This method of writing was very common in the commencement of the sixteenth century ; though so late as the time of Lord Chancellor Bacon, it was considered as an aggravation of Earl Somerset's crime to employ secret writing , and in Bacon's charge against him he says " They made play of all the world besides themselves $ so as they had ciphers and jargons for the king, queen, and all the great men -, things seldom used but either by princes and their ambassadors and ministers, or by such as work and practice against, or at least upon, princes." CITY. During the Saxon period all great towns were called burghs and cities indiscriminately : thus London was called Londonburgh, and the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh ; but after the Conquest the term, city, was confined in this 195 country to such corporate towns as had a bishop and a cathe- dral church ; therefore Cambridge, in all the public acts of Henry VII., is only called a town. Westminster having been once a bishop's see, retains its title and privilege of sending citizens to Parliament. CIVIL LAW. Papirius, soon after the commencement of the republican form of Government, is noticed as having made the first collection of the Roman laws, to which were afterwards added the laws of the twelve tables, so named from their being drawn by the decemviri from the laws of twelve of the principal cities of Greece. Justinian, about the year 5127, made a general collection of the whole Roman jurisprudence j and it is owing to the accidental discoveries of his te Digests," which were found at Amalfi, in Italy, about the year 113O, that his laws were again established in the Roman empire, and other nations on the continent. Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1138, introduced the study of the Roman or civil law in the University of Oxford, which for many ages was pursued with considerable alacrity by the clergy, who in those days of bigotry despised the common law of the country, esteeming it little better than heretical. The struggle between the laws of England and of Rome was continued from the time of Henry II. to Edward I., when the common law became more firmly established -, and though the civil law is still used in the Ecclesiastical Courts, and in the High Court of Admiralty, yet it is restrained and directed by the common law. CLERGY; On the commencement of our Saviour's ministry, his immediate followers and attendants were deno- minated disciples, who formed a kind of priesthood for the further promulgation and dispersion of the gospel among the Jews and Heathens : from these desciples twelve were selec- ted, who, under the appellation of apostles or delegates, were 196 gifted with supernatural powers to propagate the Christian religion in foreign countries. It has been conjectured that St. Paul began to establish episcopacy, immediately after his release from his first con- finement at Rome 5 and that in the apostolic period there were three distinct orders in the church, viz. : bishops, priests or presbyters, and deacons j though the presbyterians main- tain that in the time of the apostles, the terms bishop, and priest, were synonimous. However, towards the close of the second century, a notion prevailing that the ministers of the Christian church succeeded to the rights and privileges of the Jewish priesthood, a subordination of rank was conse- quently produced among them ; and we soon afterwards meet with patriarchs, exarchs, archbishops, metropolitans, &c. ; and in the third century the distinction between the clergy and the laity was established ; though it does not appear that the common or untitled clergy had any peculiar habits as distinct from the laity till the middle of the fourth century. Sincius, Bishop of Rome, in 385, endeavoured to make all the clergy throughout the western world renounce the privi- lege of marriage, extolling celibacy as the indispensable duty of priests, which however did not pass into a law till the time of Gregory the Great in 591 ; and though an attempt was made to free the clergy from this yoke at the period of the Reformation, it proved unsuccessful ; and the celibacy of the clergy is still deemed essential in all Catholic countries. In the middle ages the wives of the clergy received the oppro- brious epithet of concubines. The clergy of England were subject to the same laws and entitled to the same privileges, as those in Italy and France, till the arrival of William the Conqueror, who first made them subservient to secular power, directing that the mitred bishops and abbots should hold their lands according to the feudal principles of contributing their proportion of military 197 aid and personal attendance at the king's councils : and men- tion is made, that in the reign of Edward III. the clergy assembled themselves at Berwick, and with their heads uncovered, and without shoes, armed with swords, and bows and arrows, marched against the Scots, singing psalms. A convocation or general assembly of the representatives of the clergy was first summoned to meet, at the same time as the Parliament, by writ of Edward I., for the purpose of consulting on ecclesiastical affairs j and this continued to be the practice till the year 1717, when in consequence of its improperly connecting itself with the Bangorian controversy, it was prorogued, and dissolved by a special order from the king, and has never since transacted any public business. The clergy had formerly representatives of their own in the House of Commons j bat from a desire of independence on the state, to which they were incited more and more by the Pope, they gradually withdrew themselves from any attendance in Parliament, either personally or by representa- tives ; so that after the reign of Henry VI. they are hardly ever mentioned as present there ; but they nevertheless seem to have reserved the liberty of taxing themselves in their house of convocation. In the reign of Edward VI. an attempt was made to have the lower house of convocation united to the House of Commons, according to ancient custom; but this was rejected by Elizabeth ; and upon the restoration of Charles II. the clergy voluntarily agreed to be taxed in the same manner as the rest of the Commons, and have ever since been represented in Parliament by the same persons. The benefit of clergy was an indulgence granted to the church in its infant state, whereby the persons of clergymen were, in particular coses, exempted from criminal process before the secular judges, which privilege, originally confined to those who had the habit um et tonsuram clericalem, was, in process of tune, extended to every one who could read, though unconnected with the church ; so that after the inven- 198 tion of printing, ami the dissemination of learning, this became a very comprehensive test, including laymen as well as divines : in order therefore to render the law impartial, the benefit of clergy was granted by the 5th of Anne to all who had a right to ask it, whether they could read or not. The first vers6 of the fifty-first psalm, Miserere mei, Deus, was the verse given to the prisoner on this occasion, which was there- fore called the neck verse. An institution for the relief of the families of the clergy, since entitled the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy, originated during the Commonwealth ; and sermons for pro- moting it were preached at the anniversary meetings at St. Mary le Bow soon after the Restoration, if not before that event. In 1697 the anniversary meeting was first held at St* Paul's j since which the annual sermon has been accompanied with a grand musical service, in further aid of the charity. CLERKS. During the dark ages of ignorance in the western part of Europe, consequent on the subversion of the Roman empire, there were few, except those of the church, who were capable of carrying on a correspondence, or recording passing events ; so that the princes and barons were under the necessity of employing clerici or clerks, as secre- taries and registers, which appellation has continued to this day. CLIMACTERIC. Aulus Gellius states that the idea of certain critical years in a person's life is of considerable antiquity, being attributed to Pythagoras, whose philosophy turned much upon numbers : we find it adopted by the Romans j as Suetonius informs us that Augustus congratu- lated his nephew upon his having passed his first grand climacteric j and even St. Augustin, Ambrose, and the early fathers, countenanced this superstition. 199 CLOCK. In the middle ages the appellation, horologium, was indiscriminately applied to all instruments that had any thing to do with hours, whether regulated or not ; such as clepsydrae, sun-dials, and instruments like our planetaria and orreries for representing the motions of the heavenly bodies, and lastly to clocks. The most ancient machine for measur- ing the different portions of time was the clepsydra, which is said to have been invented by Thoth or Mercury, and was in common use among the Egyptians, Greeks, and Indians : this machine was put into motion by water, and at first was merely a copper cup or bason, having a small hole in it, which being placed in a vessel of water, sunk, after a certain quantity of it had been received : this method is still prac- tised in India, and the portion of time thus marked out, which is about twenty minutes, is called a gurhee. The Greeks improved on the principle, introducing wheel work, which being put into motion by water, the different portions of time were more regularly ascertained. These kind of clep- sydrae were introduced into Rome by Scipio Nasica about 150 B. C., previous to which the Romans had no other method of ascertaining the progress of time than by the sun- dial set up by Papilius Cursor, about 293 B. C. The word, clock, is derived from the French, la cloche^ a bell, from its indicating the hour by striking against a bell. Some maintain that clocks were invented by Boethius in the commencement of the sixth century $ and that Pope Paul !._, about the year 760, made a present of one to Pepin, King of France, which was then supposed to be the only clock in the world ; others give the honour to Pacificus, Archdeacon of Verona, in the ninth century 5 and Professor Hambergan, in a paper read before the Society of Gottingen in 1758, says that the striking part was invented by the Saracens. It is certain that a curious clock was sent to Charlemagne from the Caliph Haroun '1 Raschid, which the historians of the time speak of with surprise and admiration ; but it is now 200 generally admitted that the above horologies were put into motion by water, and were therefore clepsydrae, and that the striking part was added in the eleventh century, and is of monastic origin, or at least intended first for monastic pur- poses, when the stated periods of prayer required the atten- dance of the monks by night as well as by day. Mention is made of a clock having been put up at Westminster in the year 1288, during the reign of Edward I., at the expence of Rodolphus de Hingham, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, who, for some misdemeanour, had been fi ned eight hundred marks j and which clock, in the time of Henry VI., was kept in repair by the Dean of St. Stephen's, who was allowed six- pence a-day for that purpose : but the antiquity of this clock does not appear to be satisfactorily established -, and in fact the earliest account we have, upon which any reliance can be placed, of a clock or machine put into motion by a gravitating power, and regulated by an opposing one, is that made by Henry de Wyck or Henri de Vic, a German artist, in 1364, and placed in the tower of the palace of Charles V. of France, a parti- cular description of which has, on account of its antiquity, been published, from which it appears that the maintaining or gravitating power of this clock was regulated by a balance, having moveable weights attached to it, which balance was connected with the escapement wheel. This clock struck the hours, but did not notice so small a portion of time as minutes. According to Dr. Durham, the oldest English clock extant is in a turret of the royal palace at Hampton, constructed in the year 154O, by a maker whose initials are N. O. The substitution of a spring in lieu of a gravitating power forms a very important sera in the history of horology ; for to this discovery we are indebted for our portable clocks and watches. The honour of the invention is undoubtedly due to the Germans , but the period is uncertain : it would seem however that at first the arbor of the main spring was con- 201 nected with the great wheel, and the power of it regulated by another spring, called by the Germans, stack freed, which, by some meajis opposed the force of the main spring when immediately wound up, but assisted it as its power began to relax j and that this auxiliary spring was afterwards relin- quished for the more scientific introduction of the fusee, which is connected to the barrel of the main spring by a chain, and being of a conical form, accommodates itself to the force of that spring, by diminishing its resistance to it as its radius or lever increases from its apex to the base. The earliest portable clock, of which any account has been given, is one dated in 1525, made by Jacob Lech, of Prague, and some years ago in the possession of William Beckett, a clock-maker of London -, it had a spiral spring, with a fusee of soft metal; and struck one at the end of every hoar. The isochronal properties of a pendulum, and its utility in horology, seem to have been first noticed by the celebrated Galileo in his work, " L' Usage du Cadron ou de V Horloge physique universelle, 1639 :" but the honour of having first practically applied the pendulum to clocks in lieu of the balance was long contested between Galileo and Huygens, both of whom made clocks on this principle in 1650 : it appears however from an engraved plate, suspended in the vestry room of St. Paul's church, Co vent Garden, that the clock fixed in the turret of that church, previous to the fire, had a long pendulum attached to it, and was made by Richard Harris, of London, in 1641, which was eight years prior to that made by Galileo. The anchor pallets were in- troduced by Clement, in 168O, as also the custom of sus- pending the pendulum from a cock by means of a piece of watch-spring. The mechanism of repetition, by means of pulling a string, was invented by Barlow in 1676. The endless chord, to continue the clock in regular motion during the time of winding up, was invented by Huygens in 1660 ; but this was afterwards more readily effected by Harrison, by 3D 202 means of his auxiliary spring and additional ratchet. Huy- gens was also the contriver of the present dial work for changing the hour into sixty minutes, by the addition of a hand in the centre of the clock's face. Clocks were applied to the purposes of astronomy so early as 1484 j and in 153CX, Gemma Frosius, an astronomer, first suggested their use at sea for ascertaining the longitude. Musical or chiming clocks were most probably invented in some of the monastic institutions of Germany. Burney notices them so early as 1580. From the above concise account of the origin of clocks, it is evident they never could have been invented by any one person, but must, as Ferdinand Berthaud observes, be the result of successive discoveries. The earliest mention of a watch is that said to have belonged to Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, of which the following account is given by the Honourable Danes Bar- rington: "Seven or eight years ago some labourers were employed in Bruce castle in Fifeshire, where they found a watch, together with some coin, both of which they disposed of to a shop-keeper of St. Andrew's, who considering the watch as a curious piece of antiquity, sent it to his brother in London : the outer case is of silver, raised, in rather a handsome pattern, over a ground of blue enamel ; and I think I can distinguish a cipher of R. B., at each corner of the enchased work : on the dial-plate is written, Robertus B. Rex Scotorumj and over it is a convex transparent horn, instead of the glasses which we use at present : now Robertus B. Rex Scotorum can be no other King of Scotland than Robert Bruce, who began his reign in 1305, and died 1328 -, for the Christian name of Baliol, who succeeded him, was Edward, nor can Robertus B. be applied to any later Scottish king." There can be no doubt however that Barrington was imposed upon by some designing man j for we have no ac- count of watches for near two centuries afterwards, when 203 the Germans reduced the portable spring clock into the size of a watch j but the exact time cannot be ascertained. According to some, Lewis XI., of France, who died about the year 1483, is first noticed as being possessed of a watch j others however maintain they were not known till the time of the emperor Charles V. : it seems however they were common in France in 1544 j and that the corporation of the master clock-makers in Paris had at that time the exclusive privilege of making clocks, alarums, and watches, large or small, within the city. Beckman informs us that in Sir Aston Lever's museum was a watch made in 1541 ; and Durham in his " Artificial Clock-maker," published in 1714, mentions a watch of Henry VIII., which was still in order. In the time of Elizabeth watches were suspended to the neck or attached to bracelets. In Shakespeare's " Twelfth Night," Malvolio says, " I frown the while, and perchance, wind up my watch, or play with some rich jewel :" they must therefore at that period have been generally known in England ; but the hours were not then divided into minutes 5 and cat-gut sup- plied the place of a chain : they were consequently but indifferent measures of time till the introduction of the balance spring in 1658, which became to the balance what gravity is to the pendulum. The priority of this invention was for a considerable time disputed between the rival mathematicians, Huygens and Dr. Hook, but is generally attributed to the latter. It would seem that watches were made to strike the hour almost from the period of their invention; for it is stated that Lewis XI. baring his watch stolen from him in a crowd, the thief was detected from its striking the hour : the same circumstance is also related of Charles V. j and therefore little reliance can be placed on these statements ; but it is very probable that the early watches were in fact but very small clocks : striking watches are however noticed in the time of Elizabeth. 204 The repeating power which in 1676 had been given to the portable clocks by Barlow, led other artists to invent various ways of effecting the same purpose : but its application to pocket-watches was not known before the time of James II., when it is related Barlow solicited a patent for the same, but was opposed by a watch-maker, named Quare, on the ground of priority of invention $ the consequence was that the par- ties were directed to produce their watches before the king in council, who decided in favor of Quare : the difference between them was that Barlow's was made to repeat by pushing in two pieces, on each side the watch-box, one of which repeated the hours and the other the quarters j whereas Quare's was made to repeat by a pin, which being thrust in (as is now done by pushing in the pendant itself), repeated both the hour and quarter at once. The repeating motion is by some called the Stockton motion, from the improvements given to it by a clock-maker of that name, who worked under George Graham, the successor to Tompion -, others call it the French movement, in consequence of. the French having laid claim to the invention. CLOTH. The inventions of weaving and spinning, like many others, most probably originated from some accidental circumstances, for weaving, when reduced to its original principle, is nothing more than the interlacing of cross and parallel threads - } the first cloth was, probably, made from rushes, or the slender stalks of plants, and is now called matting, which is still worn by rude and savage nations j thus we fin4 that the art of weaving was prior to that of spinning, antTwhen it was discovered that the delicate and short fibres which animals arid vegetables afford, could be so firmly united by twisting, as to -form threads of any required length and strength, the manufacturing of cloth commenced j but it is impossible to ascertain the period when this was effected $ though it must have been known to the Antediluvians, for 205 garments of various kinds of thread, and even the ornamental parts of dress, are particularised by Moses as being in use soon after the deluge, and he speaks of them without the least indication of their novelty, or the most distant hint that the manufacturing of them was a recent invention. The Egyptians, who from their early state of civilization, lay claim to the invention of almost all the useful arts, state that their Goddess Isis was the inventress of weaving - t and Herodotus assures us, that, contrary to the custom of other ' nations, the men were left at home to spin and weave, while the women were employed abroad in trade and business, and it is certain that both linen and woollen garments were in use among the Egyptians at a very remote period. " Ves- tures of fine linen" were worn by the superior officers of Pharoah's court, as early as in the time of the Patriarch Joseph. Wool and cotton were also anciently used in the manufac- ture of cloth, and probably from their being natural produc- tions, preceded linen, made from the fibrous parts of plants, for we find by the Mosaic law, it was strictly forbidden to intermix linen and woollen threads in the making of cloth ; and although the word cotton is not to be found in any ancient author, there can be no doubt but that the bombyx, which has been improperly translated silk, is the common cotton tree of the East. The manufacturing of cloth from the hair of animals is also of great antiquity, the external covering of the taber- nacle being made of goat's hair. CLUBS. Social meetings somewhat similar to the modern clubs were common among the Greeks, as were also those called benefit clubs, having a common chest or bank for the relief of members in distress j in this country they are noticed during the Saxon government under the denomina- tion of Gilds. A Saxon manuscript in the Cottonian library 206 contains the constitution of a Gild or Sodalites, by Hicks called a friendly or benefit club, which was established at Cambridge. In Alcock's treatise on the poor laws, published in 1752, mention is made of a number of benefit clubs, as existing at that period in the West of England. COACHES, or covered carriages, are said to be the inven- tion of Erectorius, the fourth king of Athens, about 140O years before Christ -, the use of them must be of very ancient date in India, as well as in the greater part of Asia, from the circumstance of its being considered a great disgrace for a woman of rank to be seen by a stranger, while at the same time it was customary for them to accompany their husbands in their military expeditions. Coaches were introduced into Rome about the commencement of the Christian aera, and carriages resembling our post chaises drawn by two horses, the driver sitting upon one, are seen upon the paintings of Herculaneum. The continued wars in which the Romans were engaged with the Goths and Vandals, during the latter part of their empire, rendered it effeminate to be seen in a covered carriage, and afterwards the spirit of the feudal system totally banished the use of them. The invention of the modern coach is claimed by the Hungarians, even to the very name : they inform us that the place where coaches were first made was called Kotsee, and that king Matthias Cervinus was the first who rode in a kochy carriage, but the time is not mentioned. In an edict published by Philip the Fair of France in 1294, he directs, with a view of suppressing the luxuries of that period, that the wives of the citizens should be prohibited the use of car- riages, consequently they must have been at that period common in France j though it was for a long time consi- dered disgraceful for men to ride in carriages, and it seems that in the event of sickness, noblemen used to solicit this permission from their sovereigns 5 we find them, however, 207 made use of by the emperors and princes themselves on journies, about the middle of the fifteenth century, and on the occasion of public solemnities so early as 1433, when Don Ambrose Trevasi made his public entry as ambassador into Mantua in a coach j and in 1475, the Emperor Frederic III. visited Frankfort in a very magnificent covered carriage. The first mention of a carriage in this country is that stated by Sir William Dugdale in his history of St. Paul's, to have been used by St. Eokenwald about the year 675, for conveying him (who was lame and infirm) from place to place to preach ; and Stowe relates that the ladies of England at an early period made use of a kind of open cars, called Whirlicotes. When Richard II. was obliged to fly from his rebellious sub- jects, his mother rode in a carriage j and the Queen of Henry VI, was discovered in her chariot after the battle of Tewkesbury, in 1471. In 1487, on some state occasion, the Queen of Henry VII. and the king's mother, rode in a chaise covered with a rich cloth of gold, drawn by six coursers, also harnessed with the cloth of gold, and accompanied by twenty-one ladies, habited in crimson velvet, on white palfreys : but Stowe states that Walter Rippon made a coach for Henry Fitz Allen, Earl of Rutland, in 1555, which was the first, in the modern form, that was ever used in England; and that in 1564 the same Walter made the first hollow turning coach, with pillars and arches for her Majesty,Queen Elizabeth 5 Guylliam Boonen, a Dutchman, being appointed the Queen's coachman, who, by his skill in driving, contributed very much to the general introduction of coaches among the nobility. The coaches used at this time had a canopy supported by ornamented pillars, and the body was surrounded by curtains of stuff or leather, which might be drawn up as occasion required ; but the weight of them, the clumsiness of their construction, being without springs, and the state of the roads, prevented their being commonly employed in journies even by ladies, for Queen Elizabeth rode from London to Exeter behind the 208 Lord Chancellor, and even towards the close of the seven- teenth century, the highways in the immediate vicinity of London, were in such a neglected state, as to render it almost impracticable for vehicles of any description to be driven upon them. It was a long time before the coach box was added to the body of the coach 3 for Strut says " the coach- man joineth a horse fixed to match, a saddle-horse to the coach-tree, then he sitteth upon the saddle ; and when there are four horses, he drove those that went before him, guiding them with a rein." Coaches with glass windows are first noticed in 1631, when Mary, Infanta of Spain, the wife of theEmperor Ferdinand III,, rode in a glass carriage, in which no more than two persons could sit : that they were not invented earlier is probable from the circumstance, that if the coach of Henry IV. of France, who was assassinated in 16 1O, had been furnished with glass, he would have been saved. It cannot be exactly stated when the method of suspend- ing the body of the carriage from elastic springs was disco- vered, but the coach in which Lewis XIV. made his public entry into Paris, about the year 1643, appears to have been of this construction. The Duke of Buckingham, in 1619, was the first person who attached six horses to his carriage ; in ridicule of which the Earl of Northumberland had eight. The first state coach noticed in our history, was the one made for Charles I., which was of crimson velvet, adorned with gold. Hackney-coaches receive their appellation from their being first set up in the village of Hackney, for the accommodation of such who had any business in the metropolis. These coaches began to ply in the streets of London, or rather waited at the Inns, in the year 1625, they were twenty in number, and under the superintendence of Captain Bailey, an old sea officer. 209 Formerly the common method of travelling was ori horse* back, accompanied by a courier or guide, but about the year 1564 long waggons were introduced, and continued till the introduction of Stage-coaches, mentioned by Wood in his Diary to have commenced running in the year 1661, and he informs us that about six years afterwards, he travelled from London to Oxford by such a conveyance, the journey occupying two complete days. A coach was afterwards set up called the " Flying Coach," which completed the same journey in thirteen successive hours, but it was found neces- sary to discontinue it during the winter months. COAL. It would appear from the writings of Theophras- tus that this mineral substance was known to the Greeks, and used by their artificers as fuel about 300 B. C. j but no notice of it is taken by the Romans, unless it is the lapis amphilites which they manufactured into toys, nor are there any beds of coal to be found in Italy. It is highly probable that the Britons were acquainted with the use of coal long before the arrival of the Romans, parti- cularly within the precincts of Manchester, which are fur- nished with an inexhaustible abundance of it j and that the Romans themselves established a colliery at Benwell, near Newcastle. Whitaker assures us that coals were used as fuel in this country by the Saxons, though no notice is taken of them by the Danes, nor even by the Normans, till about the year 1234, when Henry III. confirmed the charter of his father to Newcastle, and gave the townsmen licence to dig coals and stones in the common soil, without the walls called the Castle-Moor j but the use of them seems to have been principally confined to the neighbourhood of Newcastle, for wood continued to compose the general fuel, at least so long as the forests and thickets afforded an ample supply for that purpose. In the time of Edward I. sea coal was in much request in 210 several of the city trades, though it was soon considered as a nuisance, and prohibited as prejudicial to the health of the people ; nevertheless these trades, observing the scarcity and price of wood daily to increase, conceived it was still their interest to use sea coal, notwithstanding the prohibition, they therefore, continued the trade with Newcastle, and in 1376 we find a regular duty of sixpence a ton on all coals brought from Newcastle, soon after which coals were used as fuel in the royal palaces. In the middle ages coal was generally known under the name of carlo, which was also the term for charcoal ; and, Fleetwood conjectures that whenever coals are mentioned in old accounts., we are to understand charcoal and not sea coal, which was brought into common use in London about the middle of the sixteenth century, and this most probably is correct, for the epithet marinus is generally added to carbo when sea coal is intended, as in the wardrobe accompts of the 28th of Edward I., 1300, where carbones marini occur among the garrison stores of Roxborough Castle j that wood and charcoal was, however, in common use in houses in the middle of the seventeenth century, ap- pears from an order in council by Cromwell, recommending coke for fuel, that the timber requisite for ship -building should not be encroached upon, The method of extracting the bituminous quality from coals had been discovered by John Hacket, in 1627, who obtained a patent for rendering coals as useful as wood for fuel in houses, without damaging the furniture, or incommoding the inhabitants with smoke. COCHINEAL. That species of the insect kermes called the coccus ilicis by the Romans, from its being found on the low evergreen oak of Asia, was used as a dye by the Egyp- tians, in the time of Moses ; and Pliny states that the Romans received it by way of tribute from Spain, where it was also produced in considerable quantities. Soon after the 211 discovery of America by the Spaniards, it was found that the Mexicans made a similar use of the kermes for dyeing their cloths and painting their houses j and that the properties of the cochineal of South America were so incomparably superior to those of any other dye, for its brilliancy and dura- bility, that the monopoly of it was considered by Spain as ex- tremely important. From the common appearance of the kermes in its dried state, it was formerly imagined to be the berry or an excres- cence of some vegetable : and that Pliny was of this opinion is evident from several passages in his writings. Plumier, a Jesuit, was the first who wrote the natural history of the kermes, and the method of collecting and extracting the dye from them, which he forwarded to Paris in 1692 5 and in 1756, Rolander, one of the scholars of Linnaeus, sent him an American plant with the insects upon it, but the gardener, unacquainted with the nature of the present, had, to the great mortification of Linnaeus, swept off the vermin, as he called it, previous to his planting the shrubs. An unsuccess- ful attempt was also made to introduce it into St. Domingo, in 1777. The kermes being now considered as a worm, the dye from it was named vermeil by the French, hence its derivative vermilion. Anderson, however, in his History of Commerce, states, that he had ascertained that the insect was in all respects the same as our British lady-bird, and that it was purely by the insects feeding on the fine red juice of the Mexican shrub, that it acquired its superior excellence. The Mexicans, according to Herrara, the Spanish historian, made use of alum, as a mordant for fixing the cochineal dye, which was also the general custom in Europe, till the com- mencement of the seventeenth century, when Drebbel, the celebrated German chemist, discovered the effect of the solution of tin in improving the dye. It is related that hav- ing placed in his window an extract of cochineal, some aqua regiei accidentally dropped into it from a phial above, which on its way had come in contact and dissolved a portion of the tin, connecting the small panes of glass together : this imme- diately converted the natural purple or crimson dye of the cochineal, into a most beautiful dark red or scarlet -, and the discovery was soon afterwards brought to perfection by his son-in-law, KufFelar, and introduced into England by Dreb- bel himself in 1640, under the denomination of the Bow dye, from its being manufactured at Bow, near London j however the word scarlet is of a much more ancient date, and is noticed in a grant of Henry III. of France to the Count of Cleves, of some territory in France on condition of delivering to him yearly three pieces of scarlet cloth made of English wool. The beautiful pigment carmine, used chiefly in miniature and water colour painting, and sometimes under the name of rouge, to give the natural bloom and appearance of youth, (for which purpose it was used by the Roman ladies in the the time of Augustus,) is made from the kermes. A crystal box containing some rouge, was discovered at Herculaneum. COCK-FIGHTING. The origin of this sport is of great antiquity, if credit may be given to Palmarius, who states that the sons of Midas, king of Phrygia, about the year 550 B. C., had a serious quarrel at a quail fight ; and cock-fighting has for ages been the favourite amusement in China, and among the Malays and natives of the Indian islands. ^Elian relates that the custom was introduced into Athens upon the following occasion : " Themistocles on his march against the Persians observed two cocks fighting, and availed himself of that opportunity to encourage his troops, by observing that those birds did not fight for their household gods, the monuments of their ancestors, or for liberty or glory, but solely because they had that god-like and noble spirit in them that they would sooner die than submit." This address had such aa 1 213 effect on the Grecians that by great exertions they obtained it complete victory, to commemorate which, and for the pur- pose of encouraging noble and heroic principles, cock-fight- ing was, by a particular order, directed to be annually exhi- bited to the Athenians. But this institution was afterwards abused and perverted to a common pastime and barbarous amusement j and it is even stated that the Greeks introduced the steel spurs with which they armed their cocks to expedite their destruction, and also by giving garlick and other modes endeavoured to increase their irritability and courage. From a passage in Columella, who wrote upon agriculture and domestic animals, in the time of the Emperor Claudius, it would seem that the diversion of cock-fighting, though still practised by the Greeks, was not then introduced among the Romans, though soon afterwards both quails and par- tridges, as well as cocks, are noticed as being pitted by them for the purposes of fighting. The game-cock is a native of Britain, at least was in the island before Caesar's arrival, and it is probable that cock- fighting was introduced by the Romans ; according to Stow the earliest historical notice of it is to be found in Fitz Ste- phen's Life of Archbishop Becket, written in the reign of Henry II., wherein he informs us that anciently on Shrove Tuesday, the school-boys used to bring cocks of the game to their master, and delight themselves in cock-fighting all the forenoon, since which a barbarous custom hath been instituted on this day of throwing at cocks: from this time the diversion has continued amongst us, and was much encouraged by Henry VIII., who, it is supposed, founded the celebrated national cockpit at Westminster, and it was after- wards renewed and encouraged by Charles II., who introduced a peculiar breed called the pile cocks, which are still in great request. COFFEE. This beverage was unknown to the Greek*- 214 and Romans, and is altogether a modern discovery ; some say it originated with the prior of an Arabian monastery, who being informed by his shepherd that his cattle, if they ate of the berries of a certain shrub in the plains would be restless and incapable of sleeping during the night, was curious to prove the effect of it upon his monks, whom he found very averse to midnight prayer ; others say that the custom of drinking coffee was brought into Arabia from Persia by Gem- maldan, High Priest of Aden, a city near the mouth of the Red Sea, who having found it in many respects beneficial, recommended it to his followers, and their example brought the beverage into repute at Aden, from whence it found its way into Mecca and Cairo. The introduction of it into Constantinople is thus related by Batchevi, the Turkish his- torian : " There was no coffee used either in Constantinople or any other part of Romelia, before the year 962 of the Hejira j in that year two persons, one of whom was a native of Damascus, called Chems, and another from Aleppo, named Hakim, came to Constantinople, and opened two shops in the quarter Takhtekala, where they sold that excellent beverage : at first these coffee-houses were only resorted to by the indo- lent j but they soon became popular among the wits and men of letters ; and their reputation was such that many distinguished personages, always excepting ministers, went to them without scruple j but the priests declaring that they were frequented more than the mosques, and that all sub- stances roasted to charcoal were prohibited by the law, it became necessary to remove the shops into bye streets : however, some years afterwards the priests revised their doc- trines and declared, that as the roasting of coffee did not really convert it into charcoal, it might be drank without endangering salvation j and at length the Grand Viziers themselves built coffee-rooms, and got a sequin or two daily rent for them." John Thevenot, the celebrated traveller, a native of Paris, 215 about the year 1650 introduced this beverage into France j and in 1652 it was brought into England by Edwards, a Turkey merchant : it is stated that his servant, a Greek, named Pasqua, established the first coffee-house in George- yard, Lombard-street ; though others assert that Bowman, a servant of Mr. Hodges, a Levant merchant, first set up a coffee-house in St. Michael's alley, Cornhill, in 1652, which four years afterwards was followed by the Rainbow coffee- house, near the Inner Temple Gate ; and the Bagnio opened by the Turkey merchants in 1679. The first mention of coffee in our statute-books is in the year 1660, when a duty of four-pence was imposed on every gallon of coffee sold. In the commencement of the eigh- teenth century the tree was brought from Mocca and planted in various parts of South America 5 and thus the berry, which, about three centuries ago, was only known as an article of food to some savage tribes in the confines of Abyssinia or Arabia, has made its way through the whole civilized world, as well Mahometan as Christian, and is in universal request on the continent of Europe ; though tea is more generally preferred in England. COFFIN. In the earliest times people were merely buried in their deaths j the Egyptians however made use of coffins -, and many of stone and of sycamore wood are frequently discovered in that country. Numa recommended this mode of burial to the Romans 70O B. C. 5 and we read that the body of Alexander was deposited in a golden coffin by his successor Ptolemy. The wealthy Romans, towards the close of their empire, were buried in coffins, and introduced the custom into this country. Arthur, who died in 542, was buried in a wooden coffin. Sarcophagus ligneus, at Glastonbury, and stone coffins, were common among the Saxons, and continued till the time of Henry VIII. j but burial in coffins, as a universal custom, cannot with us be traced much beyond a century, at which 216 period the poor were sewed up in sheets, and carried to the grave in a parish shell. COIF. Spelman conjectures that this kind of cap was introduced to hide the tonsure of such renegade clerks as were tempted to practise in the secular courts, notwith- standing their prohibition by canon, and that the antiquity of it can be traced to the time of Henry III. COIN. The exchange of one commodity for another according to the mutual wants of the parties, was the ordi- nary mode of traffic in the first ages of the world, but the inconvenience attending it must soon have pointed out the necessity of imposing an artificial value upon some metal, by which the barter might be facilitated, and silver, from its beauty and durability, was at an early period made use of for this purpose ; thus we read that when Abraham, about 185O B. C., purchased of the sons of Heth, the cave of Machpelah as a burial place for his wife Sarah, he gave for it four hundred shekels weight of silver (the shekel being equal to about 4dwt. 13|gr.) which he weighed to Ephron, for the Egyptians had no coin till the time of Alexander, nor the Hebrews till about 150 B. C. Afterwards, instead of cutting and weighing the metal every time a purchase was made, pieces ready cut and of a known weight were intro- duced : and to prevent fraud were stamped by the govern- ment, and in process of time the name of the prince or ruler was engraved upon them, and thus coins were esta- blished. According to Herodotus, the Lydians coined money a thousand years before the Christian sera, and about a century afterwards silver was coined in Greece by Phedon, king of Argos, and gold by Philip of Macedon, which he procured from the mines of Philippi in Thrace, 340 B. C. ; but Mace- don had a silver coinage long before this time, and it is said 217 that some of the coins of Alexander I., 500 B. C., are still to be met with in the cabinets of the curious, and are the most ancient (hat have been discovered. In the time of Alexander the Great, the Greek coinage was carried to a very high state of perfection. The first Roman coinage was of brass or copper, and had its rise in the reign of Servius Tullius, 578 B. C. j it was named the As libra, because actually weighing a pound, but in a short time various subdivisions of it were made, and about 190 B. C. the As itself had been reduced to the weight of half an ounce. Silver was coined 269 B. C., at which time the denarius weighed ninety grains, but in the time of Vespasian had fallen to fifty-three grains, and was worth about fifteen ases, or seven-pence halfpenny of our money. The aureus, or common gold coin, was first issued about 204 B. C., and weighed one hundred and sixty-six grains, but had fallen to ninety-six in the time of Heliogabalus, A. D. 218, and was equal in value to twenty-five denarii, and being nearly of the same size as the denarius, was called the aureus denarius. Shapeless pieces of copper and iron, though of a known weight, were employed by the early Britons, in the purchase of commodities till Cunobelin, king of the Trinobantes, who had been educated in the court of Augustus, established a coinage in imitation of the Romans, and paid his tribute to the Emperor in coins of gold and silver, but on the second subjugation of the Island by Claudius, the British mint was destroyed, and the coins of Rome were introduced, and con- tinued in circulation till the arrival of the Saxons. There seems to be little doubt but that the silver penny, pening or pending of the Saxons, (from pendo, to weigh) and the denarius of the Normans, was a Roman coin ; though it cannot be traced further back than the year 688, from which period it continued to be the common, and very frequently the only coin current, till the time of Edward ILL, and a regular 2F 2 18 Series of it extends without any intermission, except during the reigns of John and Richard I., from the time of Egbert to the present date ; these pennies weighed originally 22 Jgr. troy : this was the weight at the close of Edward the second's reign, but a gradual reduction from that time took place ; and at the end of Elizabeth's reign the silver penny had fallen to its present weight of 7 4-5th grains. Pinkerton states that the old English penny, or Anglicus, was a coin celebrated all over Europe in the middle ages, and almost the only money known in the Northern kingdoms. Till the reign of Edward I. the penny was struck with a cross so deeply indented, that it could be easily divided into halflings or half- pence, and feorthlings or farthings, though it is supposed a separate coinage of silver half-pennies was made in the reign of the two first Williams, or at any rate in the time of Henry I. The Saxons introduced the Sceatta, a coin similar to the penny j also a copper coin, called the styca, two of which were equal to a feorthling j and in Domesday-book is called a mite: this coin was chiefly confined to the kingdom of Northumbria. Henry III. in 1257 issued the first gold coin in this country, which was called the gold penny, and equal to twenty of the silver in value : no other gold coin was struck till the Flo- rence of Edward III. in 1344, about which time the old cross gave way to armorial bearings, which now first appear on English coins, and gold became common in Europe. In 1594 Elizabeth issued a small copper coinage called a half-penny, in order to check the circulation of the leaden tokens among the trades-people, which had been introduced in the reign of Henry VII. j and James issued his royal farthing tokens in 1616 : in 1672 Charles II. had copper half- pence and farthings, with the royal bust and Britannia : but disputes arising respecting the value of the copper, tin far- things and half-pence were coined in 1684, and continued till 1693, when they were called in, and a regular copper coinage established. Sovereigns of gold and crowns of silver were coined in the reign of Henry VIII., as also the silver shilling, so named from the German schilling, which was first struck at Ham- burgh in 14O7 : half-crowns and sixpences of silver were coined in the time of Edward VI. -, and the guinea, so called from its being made of the African gold, in 1663. It has been already stated that the Egyptians cut and weighed their metal in the presence of the seller, not having any coin of their own ; and that the first regular coinage had its rise in Lydia : this coinage was probably effected by the same means as those made use of by the Greeks, who after having purified the metal, made it into a small round ball, and placing it between two dies, fixed the impression by repeated strokes of the hammer, which method was also adopted by the Romans, though at first they cast their brass coins in, moulds j and was generally practised in the middle ages till the year 1553, when the more powerful operation of the mill-screw was invented by Antoine Bucher, a Frenchman ; and a few years afterwards introduced into England. Owing however to some defect in the machinery, it was soon laid aside, and the hammer resumed till 1602, when the mill was finally established in our mint : soon after which a method of graining was invented on the edge of the coins, to prevent their being injured by clipping or wearing : legends on the edge occur in 1651 5 though they had been used in France a century earlier j and milling, the crenation of the Romans, in 1663. The Macedonians first engraved upon their coins the por- trait of their kings, which custom was not adopted by the Romans till the time of Julius Caesar, when the prac- tice became general, and is now universally followed in all civilized states, except those governed by Mahometans, who, in detestation of images, inscribe only the name and 220 titles of the prince, and on the reverse the name of the coro y and the year of the Hejira in which it was issued. The Romans, according to Paucton, were the first who taught the world the criminal art, as he calls it, of debasing the purity of metals intended for coins by alloy ; but this had been previously practised by the Macedonians, who dis- covered that gold or silver in its pure state was of too soft and flexible a nature for common use, and therefore required some harder metal to be mixed with it. COKE, (See Coal) COLLARS, as an ornament of knighthood, were intro- duced in the reign of Henry IV. The collar of S. S. was first worn by the Society of S. Simplicius, in honour of Simplicius and Faustinas, Roman senators, who suffered martyrdom with a collar or chain round their necks, under Dioclesian. COLONELS, and Lieutenant-Colonels, are noticed in the commencement of the seventeenth century. COLUMN. This kind of architecture originated with the Assyrians, and was adopted by the Greeks and Romans. COMB. Neglect of combing the hair was deemed by the Romans a mark of military bravery : the Britons had combs, though they made little use of them till the arrival of the Danes. An ivory comb and looking-glass, or mirror, was presented by Pope Boniface in 597 to Etheburge, the daughter of Ethelbert, King of Kent. COMET. The Chinese astronomers noticed a comet near the star Antares, 525 B. C. : but the course of one was first regularly described by Nicephoras Gregoras, A.D. 1337- 221 COMMON Prayer. The liturgy of the English church was originally composed in 1547, and brought into general use the following year : it was revised in the year 1553, having the Confession and Absolution added to it, and the introduction of the ten commandments at the commencement of the communion service, whilst many prayers favouring of the Roman superstition were omitted : in this state it con- tinued, except during the short period of Mary's reign, until the accession of James I., when a review of the prayer-book became one of the first acts of his reign 5 and among other alterations, that part of the church catechism which treated of the sacraments, was introduced : some few alterations were made in the Liturgy in the 14th Charles II., since which no change worthy of notice has been attempted. COMMONS. This distinct portion of the British Parlia- ment commenced in 1264, when, in lieu of the lesser barons formerly summoned to the Parliament by the Sheriff of the County, the people were empowered to elect their own repre- sentatives, which privilege was general till the time of Henry VI., when the right of voting for county members was restricted to freeholders of forty shillings' rent. It is not certain at what precise time the Commons of England began to sit in a separate house ; but probably it took place soon after the system of election was established at any rate it was prior to the year 1376, as we find Peter de le More was then speaker : the members were remunerated for their attendance so late as Elizabeth's reign. Lord Francis Russell, son of the Earl of Bedford, was the first nobleman who in 1549 accepted of a seat in the House of Commons; COMPANY. The earliest association of persons in this country for the promotion of a particular branch of trade, and sanctioned by the authority of government, was that of the Company of Weavers, in the reign of Henry II., 1170 j and as in a work of this description a reference to the period of the establishment of the various trading companies may be frequently desirable, an alphabetical arrangement of them is given. Apothecaries ... - iUt& 1617 1423 1307 1308 1577 1622 1427 1568 1604 1344 1482 1632 1677 1636 1481 1500 1410 1605 1413 1473 1638 1438 1561 1701 1673 1604 1687 1536 1614 1604 IfilS Glass-sellers and look- \ ing-glass makers -> Glaziers and glass "1 painters - - - / 1664 1637 1638 1623 1392 1344 1638 1447 1638 1638 1515 1570 1462 1382 1488 1410 1393 1466 1604 1656 1580 1232 1670 1482 1500 1636 1611 1503 1289 Bakers Barber Surgeons - - Blacksmiths .... Gold and silver wire-1 drawers - - - J Goldsmiths .... Grocers,formerly call-1 ed Pepperers - J Gunsmiths - - - - Haberdashers ... Hatmakers - - - - Hat-band-makers - - Bricklayers and Tylers - Carpenters - - ~ Cloth-workers ... Clock-makers - - - Coach &Harness-makers Comb-makers - - - Prinks Coopers - - . - - Cordwainers - - - - Inn-holders - - - - Joiners and Ceilers - - Ironmongers - - - - Leather-sellers - - - T)ietillkic Embroiderers - - _ Fan-makers - - - - Merchant Taylors - - Needle-makers - - - Painter stainers - - Parish Clerks - - - Patten-makers - - - Pewterers - - - - Plaisterers .... Pin-makers .... Plumbers - - - - - Poulterers .... Sadfeni Felt-makers - - - - Fishermen - - - - Fishmongers . - - - Frame-work knitters,") or stocking weavers J Gardeners - - . 223 Salters 1568 Tobacco-pipe-makers - 1663 Scriveners .... 1616 Tin-plate-workers - - 1670 Shipwrights - - - - 1605 Turners 1603 Silk- throwers - - - 1629 Vintners 1340 Silk-men - 1631 Upholders - 1627 Skinners 1325 Watermen .... 1700 Soap-makers - - - 1630 Wax-chandlers - - - 1484 Starch-makers - - - 1622 Weavers 1170 Stationers ... - 1557 Wool-men - - - - Tallow-chandlers - - 1461 Wheel- wrights - - - 1670 East India Company. Some maintain that Alfred sent his ships to Alexandria to receive merchandise, which he procured from India and Persia, by means of the Red Sea j and that, in his reign Sighelm, Bishop of Sherborne, visited India, taking with him gifts for the Christians at St. Thomas, and bringing spices and precious stones, some of which, William of Malms- bury relates, were to be seen in the cathedral church of Sher- borne ; but it is generally understood that our first commer- cial intercourse with India commenced in 1591, when three ships were fitted out for that country, one of which only reached India in a very distressed state, and its commander, Captain Lancaster, returned in another vessel, having been three years absent ; but he gave such a favourable report of the advantages resulting from the prosecution of the trade, that a regular company was established for this pur- pose, on the 31st of December, 1600, which was dissolved by Cromwell in 1655, and the trade thrown open ; however, a new company was formed in 1661, which in 1698 was opposed by another body of merchants, that commenced trading to India. In 17O2, both these companies agreed to join their interests and form one company, under the title of the United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies. COMPASS. Though Pythagoras, Thales, and the ancient philosophers, were acquainted with the attractive property of 224 the magnet, they altogether overlooked its directive power, by which a commercial intercourse has been established between the most distant nations, and an accurate knowledge of the shape and size of the world acquired. Many suppose the compass was known in China in the time of the Empe- ror Cheninguis, 1 120 B. C., and that Tcheou Kong, about a century afterwards, gave to certain merchants who had visited China, a Tchi-nan or compass, which would enable them to return home by a shorter route. The earliest men- tion of the compass in Europe, is in the work of Guigit de Povins, a French poet, written in 1180, and quoted by Claude Fanchet in his Recuil de Vorigine de la langue et poesie Fran- cois, wherein he observes that Par la virtu de la manete Ou il fers volenter se joint, Quant il nuis est tenebre et brune, Con ne voit estoile ne lune, Parce sont il mariner ceinte, De la droit voir tenir. The Venetians state that their countnyman, Marco Paulo, brought the knowledge of the compass from China into Europe, in the year 1260 ; while the Neapolitans assert that John de Gioga, a noble citizen of Amalfi, first discovered the Mariner's Compass, about the year 1302, in consequence of which the compass is assumed in the arms of the territory of Principato, in which province Amalfi is situated, and that the fleur-derlis was placed at the North in compliment to Charles of Anjou, then prince of Naples. The variation or declination of the needle from its true meridian was noticed by Columbus in his voyage to America, and that the variation itself fluctuated, was discovered by Muir, in 1612. The dip, or inclination of the needle to point below the horizon, was first noticed by Norman in 1581. COMPASSES. This mathematical instrument is fabu- 225 kmsly ascribed to Talaus, the nephew of Daedalus : several were discovered at Herculaneum -, and among the number, a pair of reducing compasses : caliper compasses, with arched legs for taking the diameter of convex or concave bodies, were invented in 154O by Geo. Hartinan, a native of Nuremberg. CONCHOLOGY. From the works of Aristotle and Pliny, the great naturalists uf Greece and Home, it would appear that the study of conchology was not overlooked in their time. The first among the moderns who attempted a classi- fication of shells, was John Daniel, a Professor of Medicine, in the University of Keil, 1675. CONSTABLES of Hundreds, or High Constables, were first appointed by Edward I. j and the common or petty consta- bles in the reign of Edward III. CONSTELLATIONS. The division of the heavens into constellations is probably as ancient as astronomy itself: seve- ral of them are mentioned in Job : the Greeks had but forty- eight constellations, including the twelve signs of the Zodiac : to this number the moderns have added about forty-five. CONVOCATION, (See Clergy.) COPPER. This metal is noticed in the earliest periods of history, and was applied by the Egyptians to a variety of purposes. Hesiod notices its being used in the roofing of houses : the Romans fabricated the greatest number of their utensils with it : and vessels of copper, lined with silver, instead of the modern method of tinning, were discovered at Herculaneura, (See Brass.) CORDAGE. The Romans acquired from the Carthagi- nians the art of working up the vegetable production, called 226 the spartum or junci, into ropes, and taught it to the Britons hence to this day old cables and ropes are distinguished among British sailors by the name of junk. In the time of Augustus, hemp was cultivated for the purpose of sail-cloth j and afterwards hempen cordage became common. CORK. The bark of this tree, the phellus of the Greeks and suber of the Romans, seems to have been applied by the ancients to as many purposes as at present, viz. : as floats to the fishermen's nets, anchor buoys, soles for shoes, and (according to Pliny) as stoppers to jars and vessels ; though other substances, such as pitch, wax, &c., were generally made use of for that purpose : it is singular however that glass bottles, which were introduced in the fifteenth century, had no cork-stoppers till near the end of the seventeenth century, when they were first used in the apothecaries' shops in Ger- many, and the stoppers of wax, which were more trouble- some and expensive, laid aside. CORN. It is supposed that in the first ages men lived on the spontaneous fruit of the earth, as acorns, and the nut or mast produced by the beech. Any attempt to trace the cul- tivation of corn must be absurd - } for it was known to the Egyptians long before the fabulous accounts of Isis and Ceres. From the poor state of agriculture in England during the Saxon period, the exportation of corn was prohibited, whilst the importation of it was freely invited : however, in the seventeenth year of Richard II. an act was passed, permitting the exportation of corn, on payment of the customary duties $ and in 1436, it was directed that exportation should be allowed when wheat was under six shillings and eight-pence per quarter - } and that the importation should only be permitted when the wheat had risen to that price j and this system, with reference to th v e value of corn, as compared with that of specie, has ever since been acted upon. 227 Corn Factors or Brokers were not employed till about the year 1745 : the origin of them is thus noticed : " The farmers coast-ways used to attend Bear Quay once a-week with samples of the various sorts of grain then lying in the vessels on the river ; it however frequently happened that the farmers were forced to return home without having disposed of their grain j and as the Essex growers principally used the Bull Inn in Whitechapel, (which the buyers also on that account frequented) some of them who had a good opinion of the landlord, whose name was Johnson, began to leave their samples with him, to be sold at fixed prices ; and after- wards entrusted him with discretionary powers as to market prices, which he managed so much to the satisfaction of both buyers and sellers, that in a short time he opened a little counting-house on Bear Quay, and called himself the corn- factor of the Essex farmers, in which business he was suc- ceeded by his son and grandson." CORONETS were first assigned to earls by Henry III. ; but John of Eltham, second son of Edward II., was the first who wore a coronet. Selden says that Audomer d' Valence, Earl of Pembroke, had a coronet 16 Edw.II. The mar- quis's coronet was granted by Richard II. ; and the viscount's in the time of James I. : the barons' had only a crimson cap, turned up with fur, till the coronet was allowed them by Charles II. COTTON. It is stated that the cotton plant was anciently to be found only in Egypt, and that the down of it was fabri- cated into garments, to be exclusively worn by the priests : the raw material was introduced into Europe long before the discovery of the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope f and it appears in Hacluyt's Collection of Voyages, that this country was supplied with it from the Levant by the Genoese vessels in 1430 j but afterwards the trade was entirely en- 228 grossed by the merchants of Antwerp ; and the manufacture of cotton cloth had been brought to considerable perfection in Flanders, when the persecution of the Protestants com- menced, under Philip II. It is singular, that in the time of Henry VIII., the term cotton was frequently applied to goods manufactured wholly of wool ; aqd therefore the Manchester cottons and Welch cottons of that day were a species of woollen cloth, as is the case with the present Kendal cottons, which ure manufactured entirely of wool, and that of the coarsest kind, and this has existed for near five centuries. The first certain information respecting the cotton manu- facture of this country is contained in Lewis Robert's " Treasure of Traffic," published in 1641, wherein he states that the people of Manchester buy cotton -wool that comes from Cyprus and Smyrna, and work the same into fustians, vermilions, and dimities, which are sent to London, and sold or exported. Prior to the year 1767 the mode of spinning was confined to the well-known domestic machine called the one-thread wheel; and the manufacture of cotton cloth was one of the humblest of our domestic arts, and confined chiefly to the fire-side and cottage of the labouring poor of Lancashire : but the introduction of the spinning jenny by Hargreaves in that year, and the improvements made to it by Arkwright's rollers in 1769, brought the manufacture, from a com- parative state of insignificance, at once into a vigour and activity which has no parallel -, and it became, in the short period of thirty years, one of the most flourishing and im- portant branches of our national industry. The following history of a pound weight of manufactured cotton may shew the importance of the trade to this country : the wool came from the East Indies to London, from thence it went to Lancashire, where it was manufactured into yarn j from Manchester it was sent to Paisley, where it was woven ; 329 it was next sent into Ayrshire to be tamboured ; from thence to Dumbarton to be hand-sewed, and again returned to Paisley; from whence it was sent to a distant part of the county of Renfrew to be bleached ; it was afterwards finished at Glasgow, and prepared for the London market 5 the ser- vices of one hundred and fifty people being required in the manufacture of this small quantity of cotton, by which the value had increased two thousand per cent. The total value of the cotton manufacture of Britain is computed at thirty millions sterling, and the number of per- sons employed at half a million. COUNTY. In the time of Ethelred, 978, the counties of England were but thirty-two in number, viz. : Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire, Dorsetshire, Wilts, Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, Hereford, Worcester, Shropshire, Cheshire, Berks, Oxford, Gloucester, Stafford, Derby, Nottingham, Lincoln, Northampton, Leicester, Norfolk, Suffolk, Huntingdon, Cam- bridge, Bedford, Warwick, Hertford, Essex, Middlesex, and Buckingham : William the Conqueror added Yorkshire, and afterwards Lancashire and Durham, which were probably parts of Yorkshire : the re-uniting of the three counties of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Northumberland, formerly held by the Scots, made up thirty-eight counties : it is not known when Rutland was made a distinct county : the thir- teen Welch counties were added by Edward I. and Henry VIII. j and thus the present number of fifty-two counties for England and Wales were completed. COUHSING was a favourite amusement among the Gauls, and is noticed by Arian, who flourished A. D. 150 : it was introduced into this country by the Romans, and both the Saxons and Normans were partial to it : the present laws of coursing were drawn up by the Duke of Norfolk in the time of Elizabeth : formerly the deer and fox were coursed as well as the hare. 230 COVENTRY. The popular phrase of sending those whom you dislike to Coventry,, Hutton says, originated during the civil wars, when the Birmingham people sent the royalist prisoners for safety to Coventry. COVERCHIEF, or Kerchief, a part of the female dress, is as ancient as the eighth century, at which time it was worn by the Anglo-Saxons. COWS. One or more milch cows were formerly kept for the general use of the village 5 cow-houses were not general till the thirteenth century. COW-POX. (See Vaccination.) CRADLE. The first we read of in this country is that of Henry V., which was swung between two posts j they were used by the Romans, and in the middle ages Theocritus men- tions rocking. CRANES. In the Saxon period we hear of tame cranes, who stood before the table at dinner. Cranes for raising weights were used by the Romans. CRANIOLOGY. The science of discovering the different faculties of the mind from the form of the cranium has been attributed to Dr. Gall, a physician of Vienna, in 1800 ; but Hamilton, in his late work on this subject, refers the origin of the art to John Raban de Retham, who published a tract upon craniology in the year 1500, in which the terms have the same general termination of iva as given to them by Gall ; thus the ancient German speaks of the cellula imaginativa, memoritiva, estimativa, cogitiva, &c. ; the fable therefore, he adds, is obsolete and absurd, and presents but the organic remains of a science exploded above three centuries ago. 231 CRAPE. The invention of this light transparent stuff is very ancient, and came originally from Bologna. Robbery with the face concealed by black crape, is noticed by Matthew Paris. CRAVATS, or Neck-cloths, were introduced in the latter part of Charles II. 's reign, and being worn by him and the courtiers became exceedingly fashionable, and in a short time entirely superseded the shirt bands, the only vestige of which ornament now remaining is in the collars of children's shirts, made wide and turned back over their coats upon their shoul- ders. CRAYONS were known to the French early in the fif- teenth century. Hans Holbein drew portraits in crayons. CREED. That of the Apostle's is so called, because for many ages it was believed to have been framed by the Apostles before they left Jerusalem, at least this is the account given of it by St. Ambrose and several others -, at any rate it is a very ancient composition, and upon the whole an unexceptionable summary of the Christian Doctrine. It may indeed in part have been transmitted down from the Apostles, and afterwards gradually enlarged in its present form as occasion required. The Athanaslan Creed is generally attributed to Athana- sius. bishop of Alexandria, who wrote in the fourth century ; yet it is neither mentioned nor referred to in any of his genu- ine works, nor notice taken of it by the writers who imme- diately succeeded him : nor indeed earlier than the tenth century. Fabricius is of opinion that it was first written in Latin, long after the fifth century, and afterwards translated into Greek. The Nicene Creed was composed and established as a proper summary of the Christian faith by the Council of Nice, A. IX 325> against the Arians j this is also called the Coostantinopolitan Creed, because it was confirmed with some few alterations by the Council of Constantinople, A. D. 381. The custom of turning to the altar while the congregation are repeating the creed, is very ancient. St. Austin says, when we pray standing we turn our faces to the East, from whence the day springs, that we might Ix; reminded of turn- ing to a more excellent nature, namely, the Lord ; secondly, that forasmuch as man was driven out of paradise, which is towards the East, he ought to look that way which is an emblem of his desire to return thither ; lastly, they prayed that, way, believing that our Saviour would come to judgment from that quarter of the heavens. "For as the lightning cometh out of the East and shineth unto the West, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be, and he is to come in like manner as he ascended." CROCUS, or Saffron, a plant which was introduced into Spain by the Arabs, and first brought into this country from the Levant, in the reign of Edward III., by a pilgrim, who, at the hazard of his life, found means to conceal the root in his palmers staff, which had been made hollow for that purpose ; it was first cultivated at Saffron Walden. CROISADE. The Mahometans, during the reign of Charlemagne, made a most formidable irruption into Europe, and France in particular felt the weight of their fury ; but the honour which was obtained by the knights who wore the badge of the cross on their right shoulder, drew the youth of every Christian power to the standard of that political mo- narch, and in fact (a circumstance however neglected by historians) gave birth to the crusades, which are generally supposed to have originated from the instigations of Peter the hermit in the year 1096. 233 CROSIER. The pastoral-staff was originally no longer than a walking-stick, and used as such in the second century by bishops and abbots, though at the same time as an emblem of authority, one part of it was made crooked to draw the meek, the other to punish the contumacious. Curva trahit mites, pars pungit ocuta rebelles. In process of time the crosiers were made larger and mote ornamental until they reached the height, richness and exqui- site workmanship displayed in that which formerly belonged to William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, in 1367, and now preserved in the New College, Oxford. The crosier of an Archbishop consists of a lofty professional cross with a single bar to it j that of a Patriarch of such a cross with two bars to it ; and that of Pope, of a triple barred cross ; but Du Cange says that, for some mystical reason, the crosier was not used by the Pope. The Archbishop of Canterbury was entitled to have his crosier carried before him in every county in England ; but the Archbishop of York could not exhibit his south of the H umber. Abbots and abbesses were obliged to have a veil attached to their crosiers, to signify that their authority was of a private nature, and confined to their respective com- munities 'j and for the same reason the crooked head of the crosiers was always turned towards their own persons, whereas bishops held them outwards. CROWNS. This mark of regal dignity, in modern times, was first assumed by the Emperor Aurelian j yet the ornament did not become common till the time of Constantine. Seldea thinks the crowns mentioned in the bible were not intended to be worn, and appear to be more of a religious than a civil ornament. Our Anglo Saxon kings wore only a plain fillet of gold, till Egbert added rays to the circle, and Edward, surnamed Ironside, tipped the points with pearl ; the imperial double 9m 234 arched crown was first worn by Edward IV., since whose time there has been but little alteration. The globe, as the symbol of dominion, was common on the imperial coins j Constantine is supposed to have added the cross, though Selden first noticed it on the coins of Theo- dosius. Our kings have generally used it from the time of Edward the Confessor, or as others state, Alfred. CRYSTAL. The Romans were but little acquainted with the nature of crystal, which they considered as petrified water j they manufactured it into cups, as did also the Saxons. Cupboards of crystal glass were imported from Venice in the time of James I. CURRANT. The tree, or shrub, is by several authors said to have been brought into England from Zante, an island belonging to Venice, in 1533 j its fruit was then called the grapes of Corinth, and from this place the dried currant is still imported. CURTAINS. The Romans had window curtains; for- merly Judges in criminal causes had a curtain drawn before them when they gave sentence. CUSTOMS. This tax originally commenced under the Roman kings. A custom house existed among the Anglo Saxons. CYDER is supposed to have been first known in Africa, and introduced by the Carthaginians into Biscay, from whence the Normans obtained it. Cyder was made in England in the thirteenth century. 235 , or the art of discoursing with the fingers* was practised by the ancient Romans. DAMASK. This beautiful method of weaving silk or linen with flowers and figures raised above the ground, was originally invented at Damascus, from whence it was intro- duced into Europe by the Crusaders, and brought into this country by the Dutch and Flemish weavers, during the reign of Elizabeth. In the fourteenth century a yard of damask was valued at four guineas. DAMASKEENING, the art of enlaying gold and silver upon steel and other metals, had also its origin in Damascus, and was first attempted in Europe about the middle of the sixteenth century, and brought to considerable perfection by Cursinet, a Frenchman, in 1596. The people of Damascus were also celebrated for their method of tempering steel for sword blades, until Tamerlane transferred the art into Persia^ by carrying away with him all the manufacturers of it into that country. DANCING; This amusement, which is common to all nations, both civilized and barbarous, is said to have been invented by Minerva, who danced for joy after the defeat of the giants. By the Levitical law, dancing was directed to be practised at the solemn feasts of the Jews, and both the Greeks and Romans had their sacred and military dances. According to Scaliger, the solemn dances of the Hebrews 236 and Romans were, in great festivals, practised by the pri- mitive Christians, in which the bishops and dignified clergy joined. Menestrier, who wrote in the time of Lewis XIV, observes that the name of choir still retained in our churches is derived from the Greek koros, a dance, and that formerly the choir was separated from the altar, and elevated in the form of a theatre, enclosed on all sides with a balustrade, for the purposes of dancing 5 and on particular occasions, danc- ing is permitted in the churches of Spain to this day. The hornpipe air, so frequently danced to by our sailors, is of high antiquity, and can be traced to the ancient Britons, perhaps before the invasion of Julius Caesar. The morris or morescoe dance was brought into England from Spain, in the reign of Edward III., and continued to be the favourite dance till the period of the Commonwealth. It is stated that after the coronation of Richard II., the king, prelates, and all the nobility and company, spent the remainder of the day in dancing to the music of the minstrels, in Westmin- ster Hall. Italian dancing was first publicly performed in England, at York Buildings, in 1697. The exhibition of Rope dancing was practised by the Greeks, from the first institution of their scenic games. Elephants were taught to walk the rope in the time of Galba and Nero. Dancing dogs are noticed by Plutarch 3 and in the carousal of Lewis XIII. of France, there were dances of horses. In the Anglo Saxon period the rope dancers were called rap-ganga ; and monkies, as well as men and women, danced upon ropes and wires in the middle ages. DATE. Anciently our deeds had no date, except the month and year, to shew that they were not made in haste, or in the space of a day. In charters the days of the week and month are frequently expressed by the names of the Festivals. " I deliver this as my act and deed," occurs in a 237 charter of 933. Deeds began to be regularly dated in tbe reign of Edward I. DAY. Originally the day began about sun-set, for " the evening and the morning were the first day ;" and this is still the general custom throughout the East and in all Maho- metan countries, and from the circumstance of our principal festivals commencing on the preceding eve, seems to have been practised in this country. Tacitus relates that the Gauls and Germans divided their time not by days but by nights, which was common among our Saxon ancestors, as we read in the Council of Cloveshoe, held in 824, "Ibi finita et proscripta contentione coram episcopo, post XXX noctes ilium jtiramentum ad Westminster deductum est." Hence our method of reckoning time by the se'nnight and fortnight, for seven nights and fourteen nights. Our method of commencing the civil day at midnight is derived from the Romans, who practised it from the earliest period of their history. In Monasteries the boys used to name the day of the month after Prime. The days of the week have received their names chiefly from the Romans : thus Sttnday and Monday from their being dedicated to the sun and moon. Tuesday was conse- crated to Mars, the Tyr of the Saxons j Wednesday to Mer- cury, the Wodin or Odin of the Saxons ; Thursday to Jupi- ter, the Thor of the Saxons j Friday to Venus, the Freya of the Saxons 5 and Saturday to Saturn, the Seator of the Saxons. BEACON. This rank in the church, as well as that of deaconesses, was instituted by the Apostles j the former had the superintendency of the people's charities, and also the charge of the altar ; and the latter were generally widows, and assisted in baptising the women and attending the sick. By the Council of Nice deaconesses were permitted to be 238 ordained, and had rank among the clergy } but this was pro- hibited by the Council of Laodicea, and about the twelfth century the office of deaconesses expired in the Western church, and soon afterwards in the Eastern. DEAN. A distinguished officer in the church, so named from his being supposed to preside over ten canons or pre- bendaries 5 it is stated that Constantine erected an office of nine hundred and fifty persons at Constantinople, whom he exempted from all impositions, and bestowed them in the Cathedral Church, to render the offices of burial gratis to the defunct j these he called decani, from their being divided into tens, each whereof had a bier or litter to carry the bodies in. DECIMATION. A military punishment with the Romans, in cases of desertion or mutiny, when every tenth man was selected by lot for death ; this practice has been occasionally recurred to in modern times j as particularly in France, for the punishment of the garrison of Treves, in 1675, who capi- tulated and surrendered that place in opposition to the remon- strance of their commandant, the Marshal de Cregni. There was also a decimation during the government of Cromwell, in 1655. DEER. The Anglo Saxons had tame deer who were great favourites, and taught to decoy wild ones into the hunter's nets $ but they are not noticed in parks till the fourteenth century. James I. imported a great number from Norway into Scotland, and on his accession to the British throne, introduced them into his chases of Enfield and Epping. DEGREE. The division of the circle into three hundred and sixty parts, is attributed to the ancient Egyptians : but it would be fruitless to enquire why this number, in preference 239 to any other, was selected for that purpose. There can he no doubt that as soon as the spherical figure of the earth had been once ascertained, the philosophers would have been desirous of becoming acquainted with its magnitude j and that the idea of accomplishing this purpose by measuring a portion or degree of it, must readily have suggested itself : but we have no authentic account of any attempt being made to carry this into effect previously to the establishment of the Alexandrian school, about 300 B. C., when Aristophanes, the successor of Aristarchus, determined the difference of latitude between Syene and Alexandria in Egypt, to be 7 12'$ and which distance on measurement being found equal to 500O stadia, he concluded the circumference of the earth to be 250,000 stadia. No satisfactory account of any further at- tempt is noticed till the year 1528, when Fernel, a Frenchman, undertook to measure the length of a degree between Paris and Amiens, by counting the revolutions of a carriagewheel. Snellius, a German, in 1617, is the first who measured a portion of the meridian by a series of triangles, the only method now adopted, and which was carried to considerable perfection by Picard, Cassini, and others, in the beginning of the last century. Norwood, an Englishman, in 1635, measured the distance from London to York, which he stated to be 905,751 feet 3 and having by altitudes of the sun deduced the latitudes of the two places, the difference of which he found to be 2 28', he determined the quantity of one degree to be sixty-nine miles and 1 158 yards. DEGREES, Academical, seem to have been instituted at a very early period, though the precise time cannot be ascer- tained. Doctors of the Law were people of consequence among the Jews, and are mentioned in Luke XI., 52 v. : ' ' Woe unto you, Doctors of the Law -, for you have taken away the key of knowledge j you entered not in yourselves, 240 and them that were entering you hindered." The title of Doctor, it is said, was conferred upon the venerable Bede, at Cambridge j and upon John de Beverley, at Oxford, in 71O ; while others contend that academical honours were first con- ferred by the University of Paris about the close of the ele- venth century, and in the course of a few years became established in other countries j and Spelman states that the appellation of Doctor was not among the degrees granted to graduates in England till the reign of John, about 1207. Degrees in medicine occur in 1384 ; and those in the faculty of music may be traced up to the year 1463, when Henry Hobington was admitted to the degree of Bachelor of Music> at Cambridge 5 and Thomas Sainturx, Doctor in Music, was made master of King's college in the same University. DEIST. Viret, in his " Instruction Chretienne," published in 1563, is the first who notices this term as given to those who professed to believe in God, but shewed no regard to the doctrines contained in the New Testament. DESKS, resembling those now common, have been disco- vered at Herculaneum, though the ancients generally wrote upon the knee, as is still customary in Asia and Africa. The reading desks used in cathedrals are of Saxon origin ; that of the brazen eagle, meant to designate St. John, is very ancient. DIAL. This instrument for measuring time must be of very great antiquity, if the following lines in Homer's Odyssey, xv. v., 402, have any reference to it : " Above Ortygia lies an isle of fame, Far hence remote, and Syria is the name ; There curious eyes, inscribed with wonder, trace The sun's diurnal and his annual race." The island of Syria is supposed to have been inhabited by the Phrenicians ; and it is presumed they were the people 241 who left this monument of their skill in astronomy : however> the first certain mention of the dial is that noticed in Isaiah> chap, xxxviii., v. 8, belonging to Ahaz, who commenced his reign about 741 B. C. Interpreters disagree very much concerning the form of this dial; for the Hebrew word maaloth, which in the Vulgate is translated horologium and gradus, signifies literally a stair-case ; which both St. Cyril of Alexandria, and St. Jerome, believe was disposed with so much art, that the sun in its course shewed the hours upon it by the shadow : others state that this dial was a pillar, erected in the middle of a smooth pavement, upon which the hours, or rather the different portions of time, were engraved ; for it does not appear that even long after the reign of Ahaz, the Jews had adopted the method of dividing their time by hours. The Greeks attribute the invention of the dial to Anaxi- mander or his scholar, Anaximenes Milesius, who flourished about 550B.C. Aristophanes, who lived in the time of Socrates, 45O B. C., makes one of his actors ask what the hour is by the sun-dial. Pliny informs us that the first sun-dial at Rome was erected near the temple of Quirinus by JPapilius Cursor, the Roman general, about 293 B. C. j before which period the Romans make no mention of any other account of time than the sun's rising and setting. About thirty years after this, Marcus Valerius Messala brought another dial from Catena, in Sicily, being part of the spoils of that city, which he erected in the Forum ; and though not adapted to the latitude of the place, was the only measure of hours the Romans had till about the year 160 B.C., when the censor, Marcius Philippus, constructed a regular dial for the meridian of Rome. Sun-dials were most probably introduced into this country by the Romans ; but the nature of the climate prevented their being of any great utility, and the history of them is consequently but little known. 242 DIAMOND. Notwithstanding the number of precious stones made use of by the ancients, it is probable that they were unacquainted with the diamond, on which modern re- finement has stamped so immense a value. Some have imagined that Homer and Mesiod have mentioned this stone by the name of adamus and adamantinusj but it has been more generally supposed that these Greek terms have not any relation to it $ and Pliny, who has taken much pains to inves- tigate the discovery of precious stones, declares that he can find no mention of the diamond till near the beginning of the Christian sera ; nor was any diamond discovered at Hercula- neum or Pompeii. This valuable jewel in modern times seems to have been introduced into Europe by the Arabians, when they established themselves in Spain, and was then sup- posed to be possessed of a number of miraculous virtues, being an amulet against poisons and witchcraft, and an in- fallible specific in many diseases. The art of cutting and polishing diamonds was probably known to the artists of China and India at a very early pe- riod 5 but the extreme hardness of this gem had baffled the attempts of the jewellers of Europe till the year 1456, when Berghen, a native of Bruges, constructed a wheel, which, by means of diamond powder, enabled him to cut and polish this substance in the same way as other gems are wrought by emery. Previously to this discovery diamonds were set in jewellery, precisely in the same state in which they arrived from India. The discovery of the Brazilian mines in 1730 has tended very greatly to depreciate the value of this jewel ; to pre- vent, therefore, its becoming too common, the Portuguese Government have limited the number of slaves to be em- ployed by those to whom leases of these mines had been granted. Diamonds being now imported in their rude state, are cut 243 by the jewellers into brilliants and rose diamonds 5 the former are first noticed about the year 165O, and are considered by far the most valuable. In ] 564 Clement Beragne engraved on a diamond the por- trait of Don Carlos, the unfortunate son of Philip II., of Spain . The first mention of a diamond being used for writing on glass occurs in the sixteenth century, when Francis I. of France, in 1527, wrote some lines with a diamond ring upon a pane of glass, at the castle of Chamboud, in order to let Ann of Pisseleau, Duchess of Estampes, know he was jea- lous. The glaziers were accustomed to use emery, sharp- pointed steel, and a red-hot iron, for the purpose of cutting glass. The largest diamond recorded was one belonging to the Great Mogul, dug from the Golconda mines in 1550, and weighing two hundred and ninety- seven carats, which, if cut, would be worth 36622,738. DICE are said to have been invented by Palamedes, the son of Naupleus, King of Eubcea, for the amusement of the officers and soldiers during the siege of Troy 3 but Herodotus assigns the invention of both dice and chess to the Lydians, a people of Asia, in the reign of Atys. Various kinds of dice, similar to ours, were discovered at Herculaneum. The Romans were acquainted with the secret of cogging dice. In the middle ages the dice were spotted with gold and silver. Our kings were partial to gaming with dice. Hazard, the alea of Sue- tonius, is a very ancient game. Raffling with dice is also of great antiquity. The dice-box, the fritillia of the Romans, was made in the shape of a funnel, the interior being fluted, to agitate the dice and prevent false throws. DICTIONARY. The oldest Latin Dictionary was com- piled by Solomon, bishop of Constance, about the year 1410. 244 DISPENSARY. During the early ages the monks were accustomed to practise the healing art, and had small depots of medicine in their monasteries j the first regular dispen- sary, from which medicine was distributed to the poor gratui- tously, was established in the ducal palace of Stutgard, in the sixteenth century. The charitable dispensation of medicines by the Chinese is well deserving notice j they have a stone which is ten cubits high erected in the public squares of their cities, and on this stone is engraved the names of all sorts of medicines with the price of each : when therefore, the poor stand in need of any relief, they go to the Treasury where they receive the price each medicine is rated at. DISPENSATORY. The first book written for the use of apothecaries, was according to Beckman, drawn up by Vale- rius Cordus, or at least his was the first made known by the approbation of public magistrates ; in which the word dis- pensatorium was made use of for a collection of receipts, with directions how to prepare the medicines most in use. DISTILLATION. The Egyptians were well acquainted with the method of distilling in the time of Dioclesian, who began his reign A. D. 287, and being enraged at them on account of an insurrection, is said to have burnt their writ- ings relating to the distilling of gold and silver. It is certain that this art was not known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, since neither Pliny nor any other Latin or Greek writer makes mention of it. The African Moors, in theie conquest of Spain, introduced this important branch of che- mistry into Europe, in the middle of the twelfth century. DIVING. Anciently a class of people called divers were employed to recover goods thrown overboard, and allowed a share of the wreck proportionate to the depth to which they 245 had gone in search of it ; and we read that when Alexander invested Tyre, his works were considerably damaged by the divers of that city. Extraordinary accounts have been given of the length of time that the divers employed in the pearl- fishery could continue under water : and many attempts have been made to discover some method by which it could be rendered more safe and easy. Those who dive for sponges in the Mediterranean, derive some advantage by carrying down sponges dipt in oil in their mouths ; but this, from the small quantity of air contained in the pores of a sponge, can not afford any great assistance. The earliest information we have of any machine resem- bling the diving-bell, is to be found in Aristotle, who informs us of a kind of kettle, by which the divers could supply themselves with fresh air under water j and it is related by Jerome that Alexander the Great entered into a machine called a colympha, having a glass window to it, in which he de- scended to the bottom of the ocean. The application of the diving-bell in Europe is first noticed by John Tasnier, who had a place at court under the Emperor Charles V., whom he attended on his voyage to Africa : he relates that he saw at Toledo, in Spain, in the year 1538, and in the presence of the Emperor and several thousand spectators, two Greeks let themselves down under water, in a large inverted kettle, with a light burning, and rose up again without being wet. After this period the use of the diving-bell became generally known, and is noticed in the works of Sir Francis Bacon. In the year 1687, the sum of 3$200,OOO was recovered from a Spanish ship which had been wrecked on the coast of Hispaniola, by means of a diving bell, invented by William Phipps, the son of a blacksmith in America, who was after wards knighted. Several improvements in the invention have been since made by Halley, Spalding, Joachim and others, by means of which a person may now by practice remain upwards of an hour under water. 246 DOCKS. Artificial basons with locks, enabling ships to lie afloat while loading or unloading, were first constructed in this country at Liverpool, in the commencement of the eighteenth century. DOGS. Pennant observes, that the little Maltese dogs,, called shocks, were as much esteemed as lap-dogs by the Greek and Roman ladies, as those of Bologna, which were so much in request in the time of Elizabeth, are among the moderns. The great household dog, the greyhound, so called from pursuing greys or badgers, the bull-dog, the ter- rier, and the large slow hound, are thought to be natives of Britain. Spaniels appear on the sepulchral monuments of ladies in the middle ages j the celebrated Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, was the first who taught a dog to lie down when within the scent of game. DOME. Although the construction of arches seems to have been known to both the Greeks and Romans, at least four hundred years before the Christian sera -, yet that species of it called the dome cannot be traced to an earlier period than the building of the Pantheon, in the time of Augustus ; soon after which domes were common in the public buildings, and especially in the Eastern part of the Empire. It is not in- deed improbable that the Romans introduced this style of architecture from the East, as it is of considerable antiquity both in China and Persia. The dome of the Santa Sophia at Constantinople, was constructed in the reign of Justinian, that of St. Peters in Rome, in 1513, and St. Paul's in Lon- don in 171O. DOMESDAY-BOOK. The first general survey of the land and property of England, was undertaken by order of Alfred in the commencement of the tenth century, and was deposited in the Cathedral of Winchester, and in existeace in 247 the reign of Edward IV. William the Conqueror directed a new survey to be made in 1081, which was finished in 1087, and is called the Book of Domesday j it was directed to be kept in the Chapter House of the Abbey of Westminster, under the custody of the Chancellor and two Chamberlains of the Exchequer, and any one may consult it on paying a small fee. DOWER. This provision for the widow was first or- dained by Swein, king of Denmark, father of our Canute the Great, out of gratitude to the Danish ladies, who sold their jewels to ransom him when taken prisoner by the Vandals, and was brought into this country by the Danes. DOXOLOGY. The Gloria Patri was introduced in the church service, by the Catholics of Antioch called Eusta- thians, about the middle of the fourth century. DRAGOONS. This term was formerly given to such regiments of cavalry, as were also exercised in the Infantry movements, and occasionally fought on foot ; they are first noticed in England in the commencement of the seventeenth century, when they had buff coats and gambado boots. The first regular regiment of dragoons was raised in 1683, and called the Scotch Greys. DRAMA. The first dramatic representations were exhi- bited by Susarion on his stage, about 5SO B. C. 5 and Thespis on his cart, who performed the tragedy of Alcestes, 536 B. C. Heddin informs us that the word tragedy, is derived from the Greek tragos, a goat, and odee, a song, and originally consisted of an hymn, sung by several persons in honour of Bacchus, to whom the goat was sacrificed. Thespis, in order to ease the chorus, introduced a persona or actor, to recite, as occasion required, something to amuse 24S the audience : JEschylus added a second person to keep up a dialogue, and gave to his actors appropriate clothing for the characters they were to assume : Sophocles brought forward a third 5 and thus the dramatis personse of the Greek stage was completed $ for no more than three persons were allowed in the same scene. Prologues, explaining the subject of the drama, were in- troduced by Euripides, The Greek plays were chiefly tragedies founded on the misfortunes of mankind, the vengeance of the Gods, and the submission due to them. The Romans delighted principally in comedies; and in displaying the incidents which might naturally occur iii society -, they consequently added very con- siderably to the number of the actors, and neglected the chorus of the Greeks. The division of the drama into acts was introduced by the Romans ; and five acts to a play are recommended by Horace : ' ' If you would have your play deserve success, Give it five acts complete, nor more or less." The origin of dramatic entertainments in England may be traced to the theatrical exhibitions called mysteries or miracles, which were common in the twelfth century, being the repre- sentation of the miracles wrought by the holy confessors, and the sufferings of the martyrs : the first play of this de- scription specified by name was called St. Catherine, and is stated by Matthew Paris to have been written by Geoffry, a Norman, abbot of St. Alban's, in 1 110 : for the exhibition of these plays temporary scaffolds were erected in the churches or church-yards, and, according to Strut, consisted of three several platforms, raised one above another : in the upper- most sat God, surrounded by his angels j in the second ap- peared the holy saints ; and in the last and lowest, mere mortals : on one side was a dark corner, meant to represent the infernal regions, from which the devils occasionally issued to amuse or terrify the spectators. 249 In the reign of Richard II. the parish clerks of London acted a play at Skinner's wells, which lasted three days, the king, queen, and many of the nobility being present at the performance. Another play was performed in 14O9 at the same place, which continued eight days j the drama commencing with the creation of the world, and containing the greater part of the history of the Old and New Testament. Afterwards, when the mysteries ceased to be played, the subjects for the drama were not taken from historical facts, but consisted of moral reasonings in praise of virtue and condemnation of vice j the dialogue being carried on by allegorical characters, such as Good -doctrine, Charity, Faith, Prudence, Death, &c. Of this kind of play we have a specimen in the celebrated enter- tainment of Don Juan, which is a modernized morality, being taken from the old Spanish piece, entitled " El combidado de Piedra :" to this succeeded plays, founded on the probable occurrences of life - } and the first attempt of our modern tra- gedy is to be found in "Gorbeduej" otherwise called "Ferrax," and " Porrax," written by Lord Buckhurst in 1560 ; though, in fact, this was a melo-dramatic exhibition, being accompanied with music and dumb shew 5 and " Gam- mer Gurton's Needle," written at the end of the sixteenth century, is considered as our first comedy : these plays were generally performed by itinerant actors or nobleman's ser- vants, on temporary stages, erected in the yards of inns, even so late as the close of the sixteenth century. Dryden has truly observed, that the present stage was not found, but created by Shakespeare, of which no one can doubt who considers, that of all the plays issued from the press prior to the year 1592, (when, there is good reason to believe, he commenced a dramatic writer), the titles are scarcely known, except to antiquarians, nor is there any one of them that will bear a second perusal. Plays were frequently exhibited on Sundays j and thii practice was not prohibited till 1628. 2K 250 The actors first assumed the title of " His Majesty's Ser- vants" in consequence of a license granted to them by James I. in 1603, previous to which they were styled the Servants of the Lord Chamberlain. Both the prompter or book-holder, as he was sometimes called, and the property-man, were regular appendages of our ancient theatres. It is well known that in the time of Shakespeare, and for many years afterwards, the female characters were represented by boys or young men. Sir William Davenant, in imitation of the foreign theatres, first introduced females in the scene ; and it is stated that Mrs. Betterton first appeared on the public stage as an actress about the year 1663 ; soon after which, some plays, particularly the " Parson's Weddings," were represented entirely by women. The amusements of our ancestors before the commence- ment of the play were of various kinds ; while some part of the audience entertained themselves with reading or playing at cards, others were employed in drinking wine or ale, or smoking tobacco 3 a custom which, about forty years ago, was still common at the minor theatres. Immediately before the exhibition began, three flourishes or pieces of music were played, or, in the ancient language, there were three soundings : music was likewise played be- tween the acts, the band sitting in an upper balcony, over the stage-box. The person who spoke the prologue was ushered in by trumpets, and usually wore a long black velvet cloak. The dress of the ancient prologue -speaker is still retained in the play that is exhibited in Hamlet, before the King and Court of Denmark. An epilogue does not appear to have been a regular appen- dage to a play in Shakespeare's time, for many of his dramas are without it at least they have not been preserved. At the end of the performance the actors in the private 251 theatres kneeled down on the stage, and prayed for their patrons j and those belonging to the public theatres, for the king and queen : this prayer sometimes made part of the epilogue hence probably the addition of Vivant Rex et Regina to the modern play-bills. The prices paid in our old theatres in the commencement of the seventeenth century, were extremely low, the pit and gallery being only one penny : some of the gay gallants used to sit upon the stage on stools, and paid a shilling for their superior accommodation, which was also the price of a pri- vate box, then called a room. On the first day of exhibiting a new play, the prices of admission were sometimes raised, and this seems to have been occasionally practised on the benefit nights of authors. It is uncertain at what time the usage of giving authors a benefit on the third day of the exhibition of their piece com- menced ; it however seems to have been an established cus- tom in 1612 ; for Decker in the prologue to one of his comedies, printed in that year, speaks of the poet's third day. Southern was the first dramatic writer who obtained the emoluments arising from two representations ; and Farquhar, or, according to others, Howe, first received the advantages of a third representation. The custom of passing a kind of censure on plays on their first exhibition, is as ancient as the time of Shakespeare j for no less than three plays of his rival, Ben Johnson, appear to have been damned. Persons were hired to applaud both by the Greeks and Romans j and hissing and clapping of hands are of equal antiquity. The most ancient play-houses were the Curtain, in Shore- ditch, and the Theatre, in Blackfriars. In the time of Shake- speare, there were no less than ten theatres open, viz. : the Theatre, the Cock-pit or Phoenix, in Drury-lane 5 the Globe, the Swan, the Rose, and the Hope, on the Bank-side -, the Red Bull, at the upper end of St. John-street j the Fortune, in White-cross-street ; one in Whitefriars j and another in Salisbury-court. Most, if not all, of Shakespeare's plays, were performed either at the Globe, or at the Theatre in Blackfriars. The time of acting during the reign of Charles, was about three in the afternoon ; and flags were exhibited to invite company. In the early part of Shakespeare's time, the want of sce- nery seems to have been supplied by the simple expedient of writing the names of the different places where the scene was supposed to lie during the progress of the play, in some particular part of the stage, and which names were disposed in such a manner as to be visible to the audience -, for the me- chanism of our ancient stage seldom went beyond a painted chair or a trap-door. In 1605 Inigo Jones exhibited an enter- tainment at Oxford, in which moveabje scenes were used : but the theatres are principally indebted to Sir W. Davenant for their scenes, curtains, and other decorations. Tickets of bone for admission to the theatre are ancient- some were discovered at Pompeii. The ancients also affixed play-bills at the entrance of their theatre. All theatrical representations and public amusements were suppressed by the Parliament from 1647 till 1656, when Sir W. Davenant procured permission to exhibit a kind of dramatic entertainment of " Declamation and Music" at Rut- land-house, which was soon afterwards followed by the opera, of the " Siege of Rhodes," in the same place. DRUM. This musical instrument is stated by Le Clerc to be of oriental invention, and brought by the Arabians into Spain : originally the drum was made of brass. The kettle-drum was so called because it resembled the large kettle or boiler standing upon three short legs. Throughout Asia, kettle- drums of an immense size are carried across camels in the 253 trains of governors of provinces ; but are never sounded in cities, except at the royal palaces. DUCK Hunting with dogs was a favourite amusement in the twelfth century. Decoys for ducks are noticed in the time of Henry VIII. DUEL. The custom of deciding a quarrel by single com- bat, under the impression that Providence would not fail to declare itself in favour of the innocent, took its rise among the northern nations, and according to M.Godeau, was first introduced into Italy by the Lombards, towards the conclu- sion of the fifth century. In a short time it spread through- out the rest of Europe, and was generally resorted to as a mode of trial, where the evidence was not sufficiently con- clusive to admit of a satisfactory judgment being pronounced by the civil judge. This mode of trial was introduced into England, among other northern customs, by William the Conqueror, and it appears from Madox's History of the Exchequer, was so fre- quently resorted to, that the fines paid on these occasions made no inconsiderable branch of the King's revenue. The last trial of this kind was in the reign of Elizabeth. One was appointed to take place in the year 1631, between Donald Lord Rey, or Rhee, appellant, and David Ramsey, Esq., defendant, in the painted chamber at Westminster j but that quarrel terminated amicably by the interposition of Charles I. The practice of duelling was thus converted, by the sanc- tion of the Governments, into a public mode of trial, but when the enlightened state of Europe would no longer admit of this superstitious method of judicature, and the established power of the crown enabled it to administer the laws with strict impartiality, the custom of private duelling was intro- duced as the only means of avenging such injuries of a personal nature, which could not be regularly noticed in a court of 254 law, and the origin of it is thus noticed by Robertson : " At the breaking up of a treaty, in consequence of some misunder- standing between the Emperor Charles V. and Francis I., the former desired Francis's herald to acquaint his Sovereign, that he should henceforth consider him, not only as a base violator of public faith, but as a stranger to the honour and integrity becoming a gentleman. Francis, too high spirited to bear such an imputation, had recourse to an uncommon expedient to vindicate his character: he instantly sent back the herald with a cartel of defiance, in which he gave the Emperor the lie in form, challenged him to single combat, requiring him to name the time and place of the encounter, and the weapons with which he chose to fight ; and Charles, not inferior to his rival in spirit or bravery, readily accepted the challenge ; but after several messages between them, all thought of the duel was laid aside ; however the example of two persons so illustrious, drew such general attention and carried with it so much authority, that it had a considerable influence in intro- ducing an important change in manners all over Europe, and led to duels which at first could be appointed by the civil judge alone, to be fought without the interposition of his authority, and in cases to which the laws did not extend." Private duelling with small swords is first noticed in England in the year 1558. (Vide Fencing.} The most remarkable duel in our history was that between his Royal Highness the Duke of York, and Colonel Lennox, (the then nephew and heir of the Duke of Richmond,) on the 26th May, 1789. The dispute originated in an observa- tion of his Royal Highness, namely, that " Colonel Lennox had heard words spoken to him at the club at Daubigny's, to which no gentleman ought to have submitted." This obser- vation being reported to the Colonel, he took the opportunity while his Royal Highness was on the parade to address him, desiring to know what were the words which he had sub- mitted to hear, and by whom they were spoken. To this his 255 Royal Highness, at that time, gave no other answer than by ordering the Colonel to his post. The parade being over his Royal Highness went into the orderly room, and sending for the Colonel intimated to him, in the presence of all the officers, that he desired to derive no protection from his rank as a prince, and his station as a commanding officer ; but that when not on duty he wore a brown coat, and was desi- rous to be considered in every respect as a private gentleman. After this declaration Colonel Lennox wrote a circular letter to every member of the club at Daubigny's, requesting to know whether any such words had been used to him, and appointing a day for an answer from each, intimating at the same time that their silence should be considered as a decla- ration that no such words could be recollected. On the expiration of the term limited for an answer to this circular letter, the Colonel sent a written message to his Royal High- ness to this purport, that not being able to recollect any occasion on which words had been spoken to him at Dau- bigny's, to -which a gentleman ought not to submit, he had taken the step which appeared to him the most likely to gain information of the words to which his Royal Highness had alluded, and of the person who had used them j that none of the members of the club had given him information of any such insult being in their knowledge, and therefore, he ex- pected, in justice to his character, that his Royal Highness should contradict the report as publicly as he had asserted it. This letter was delivered to his Royal Highness by the Earl of Winchelsea, and the answer returned not proving satisfactory, a message was next sent to his Royal Highness desiring a meeting, the time and place for which were settled that evening. The following authenticated account of the duel was given by the noblemen who were present on that occasion : In consequence of a dispute of which much has been said in the public papers, His Royal Highness the Duke of York, attended by Lord Rawdon, and Lieutenant Colonel Lennox, 256 accompanied by the Earl of Wmchelsea, met at Wimbledon common j the ground was measured at twelve paces j and both parties were to fire upon a signal agreed upon : the sig- nal being given, Lieutenant Colonel Lennox fired, and the ball grazed His Royal Highness's curl : the Duke of York did not fire : Lord Rawdon then interfered, and said " That he thought enough had been done." Lieutenant Colonel Lennox observed " That His Royal Highness had not fired." Lord Rawdon said, " It was not the duke's intention to fire : His Royal Highness had come out upon Lieutenant Colonel Lennox's desire, to give him satisfaction, and had no animo- sity against him." Lieutenant Colonel Lennox pressed that the Duke of York should fire j which was declined, upon a repetition of the reason. Lord Winchelsea then went up to the Duke of York, and expressed his hope " That His Royal Highness could have no objection to say, he considered Lieutenant Colonel Lennox as a man of honour and courage ;" His Royal Highness replied, (f That he should say nothing : he had come out to give Lieutenant Colonel Lennox satisfac- tion, and did not mean to fire at him : if Lieutenant Colonel Lennox was not satisfied, he might fire again." Lieutenant Colonel Lennox said, " He could not possibly fire again at the Duke, as His Royal Highness did not mean to fire at him." On this both parties left the ground. The seconds think it proper to add, that both parties behaved with the most perfect coolness and intrepidity. (Signed) RAWDON. WINCHELSEA. Tuesday Evening, \ May 26, 1789. > In August 1808, Major Campbell and Captain Boyd fought a duel in a room without seconds, and Captain Boyd was killed. The Major, in consequence of expressions made use of by Captain Boyd on his death-bed, was tried for murder and executed. 25? DUKE. During the Saxon times the officers and com- manders of armies were, according to Camden, called dukes, duces, after the ancient Roman manner, without any addition j but after the Conquest, the title lay dormant, or was synoni- mous with that of earl till the reign of Edward III., who, in 1337, created his son, Edward, called the Black Prince, from the armour he wore, Duke of Cornwall, which title hath ever since been the peculiar inheritance of the king's eldest son, during the life of his father ; afterwards the king's other sons were created dukes, under the titles of Clarence, Lancaster, York, and Gloucester, in such manner as that their titles descended to their posterity : however, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, A. D. 1579, the whole order of dukes became utterly extinct, and continued so for about fifty years, when it was revived by her successor James I., in the person of his favourite, George Villiers, whom he created Duke of Buckingham. The first instance of the title of Duchess is in 1397, when Margaret, Countess of Norfolk, was created Duchess of Nor- folk, in full Parliament ; which at that time was the common mode of creating peers j nor dees it appear that any writ was necessary j but that the person advanced to the rank, after undergoing the usual ceremonies of investiture, had his pa- tent delivered to him, and did homage to the king. DYEING. The art of colouring cloths and other substan- ces, is of that antiquity as to render it impossible to give any satisfactory account of its origin ; it is probable that the juice of certain fruits, leaves, &c. accidentally crushed, furnished the first hints of dyeing, which at an early period was carried to considerable perfection in the East ; and in some instances superior to what the moderns, with all the aid of chemistry, have been enabled to effect , we read that blue, purple, crimson, scarlet, and scarlet double-dyed, are colours parti- cularized for the decoration of the tabernacle, and for the embellishment of Aaron's pontifical habit. 25S The Tyrian purple, an animal juice found in a shell-fish called murax and purpura, on the coast of Tyre, is the most ancient dye recorded in history. The discovery of the tinging quality contained in the fish, was owing to a dog having caught one in the rocks, and by bruising it stained his mouth with the liquor, which appeared of so beautiful a colour to the eyes of a Tyrian nymph, that she refused her lover, Hercules, any favours till he had brought her a mantle of the same colour. This event is stated to have happened fifteen hundred years before the Christian ^Era, and fortu- nately for Hercules he succeeded in procuring a sufficient number of shells to colour the robe for his mistress. The Greeks had made but little progress in the art of dye- ing, till the conquests of Alexander, and the discoveries resulting from his invasion of India, had opened new re- sources to them 5 for the art of printing calicoes had been for many ages practised in India $ and flowered cloths or chintz were common in that country at the period of Alex- ander's invasion. The Greeks in general, however, despised the useful arts, and the Romans paid but little attention to them, for the use of vegetable dyes, was, in a great measure, unknown to them, though their neighbours, the Gauls, according to Pliny, imitated all colours, even the Tyrian purple, and the scarlet, by means of certain herbs : Pliny also notices the Egyptian method of dyeing linen, by staining the white cloth with certain drugs, which exhibited no appearance of dye till it had been sometime boiled in a cauldron, but when drawn out was found to be painted or stained of various colours ; and what is most extraordinary, Pliny adds, is that the cauldron containing only colour of one kind, should im- part to the cloth shades of various hues, according to the nature of the drugs previously laid on it. On the general dissolution of the Roman empire in the fifth century, the art of producing permanent colours on cloths was totally lost ; nor was it recovered till the period of the Crusades, when Europe became a second time indebted to 259 the East for her knowledge of the different drugs necessary for that purpose. The Jews in the middle ages were the principal people who carried on the business of dyeing, having formed several establishments or dyeing-houses in the Levant, which about the middle of the thirteenth century they introduced into Italy, under the denomination of tincta or tintoria, and from which the Popes derived a considerable portion of their reve- nue. Italy, and especially Venice, for about three centuries, almost exclusively practised the art of dying, having discovered several valuable mordants for fixing the colours, as archil and allum, the process of manufacturing which they kept to themselves. For many ages the art of dyeing in England was confined to the apparent colours produced from vegetable juices, the cloth being merely plunged into the coloured liquor, without any previous chemical process for fixing the dye being attended to j so late as the commencement of the seventeenth century the method of dyeing and dressing woollen cloths, was very imperfectly understood, for although a Company of Dyers was regularly incorporated by Edward IV., in 1473, yet Sir Walter Raleigh in his report on the state of the British com- merce, submitted to James I., in 1603, observes, that there were upwards of eighty thousand undressed and undyed cloths annually exported from England, and also fifty thou- sand bays and Devonshire kerses, which were sent to Amster- dam, and there dyed, dressed, and shipped for Spain, Portu- gal and other countries, under the name of Flemish bays. The great difficulty seems to have been the discovery of proper mordants for making the colours permanent 5 for though the manufacturing of alum was about this time introduced into England, yet till the middle of the seven- teenth century, the art of dyeing had met with no assistance from the experiments of the learned. The first work pub- lished on the subject being entitled, in aiio-ia:??! fxn FABLE. Homer and Hesiod frequently indulged in fables 5 but ^Esop, who flourished in the time of Solon, about 55O B. C., has, by his success, quite effaced all former fables, and may in fact be justly considered as the inventor of them 5 unless, as some will have it, those attributed to him were in feet written by Socrates. Phaedrus, a servant of Augustus, and Pilpay, a person of distinction in the court of an Indian king, are celebrated for their happy method of thus conveying instruction. FAIRS were first instituted by Romulus, who directed a kind of market should be held, under the superintendance of proper officers, for the purposes of traffic, as also of hearing the laws promulgated, upon every ninth day : hence they were called by the Romans Nundinae. About the eighth century these kind of meetings assumed the name of fairs, from their being held in places where the wakes or feasts of the dedica- tion of churches, called /erue, were celebrated, in order that trade and pleasure might be made subservient to the cause of religion. These fairs, though probably introduced by the Romans are not however noticed till the time of Alfred, who made some regulations concerning them in 886, at which period the Pie-powder Courts were established : upon these occasions booths were erected and public shews exhibited they were also attended by jugglers and buffoons. FALCONRY. Aristotle informs us that the art of em- ploying birds of prey in the pursuit of game had its origin among the Thracians, and was common among the Grecians. It is said that the primaeval Britons were much attached to hawking, every chief among them maintaining a considerable number of birds for that purpose, and that the Romans borrowed this diversion from the Britons : however this may be, it was certainly known at an early period in this country ; for Ethelbert in the year 76O received a present of one hawk and two falcons from Winefred or Boniface, Archbishop of Mens. Under the Norman Government none but such as were of the highest rank were permitted to keep hawks ; and Edward III. made it felony for any one to steal a hawk 5 and to take its eggs, even in one's own ground, was punishable with imprisonment for a year and a day, besides a fine at the king's pleasure. Hawking continued to be the fashionable diversion of the nobility and gentry during the reigns of Elizabeth and James, when a thousand pounds was given by Sir Thomas Marson for a pair or cast of hawks. FAN. This little instrument for putting the air in motion was used by the Romans, and is noticed by Ovid. Fans made of ostrich and other feathers, set in gold or silver, were common in the time of Elizabeth. According to Evelyn, our modern paper fans were introduced by the Jesuits from Japan and China. FAST. This method of penance by abstaining from food seems to have been practised by almost every nation, from the earliest antiquity, and to have been adopted by the Chris- tians in the time of the apostles, at which period Morheim is of opinion the Wednesdays and Fridays were considered as days of fasting. FEATHERS. The fashion of wearing feathers on the head was brought from France in 178O. 284 FENCING. The method of using the small-sword or rapier was first taught about the middle of the sixteenth century by the Italians, who made a great mystery of their art, never suffering any but the scholar to be present, and even examin- ing closets., beds,, and other places of possible concealment. vfH "iff* iov-.vvofs ; iffoJhH or!./ r:< nt KIK-.V.JV; 9 *df b^w0T!Q*f FIDDLE. The earliest mention of this musical instru- ment in England is in the legendary tale of St. Christopher, written about the commencement of the thirteenth century "The king loved the melody of fithele and of songe." It is also noticed by Chaucer ; but was not common till the time of Charles II., who, in imitation of Louis XIV., esta- blished a band of twenty-four fiddlers. Sirft Ji; ?.-{i\ j: asfu^ .YE{.' n b'?n T^' si TO* *tt*jinfiri>{rRfifJfi &?\tt 3FIFE. This instrument was brought into France by the Swiss, after the battle of Marignan, under Francis I., and has ever since been admitted in regimental music. .8jf"f/JBc{ *o isB'j in jL'u] r, io' noun :-,l FIGURES in Arithmetic. The numeral characters of the ancients were composed of the letters of their alphabet 5 thus the Greeks, in the time of Homer, or soon after, are supposed to have assigned to their letters a numerical value, corresponding to their order in the alphabet - } it being after this manner that the books of the Iliad and Odyssey are numbered : but how the Roman numerals originally received their value is not accurately ascertained j for as not above one- third of their letters are numerals, so neither is the numeral value of those that are so, more or less, according to their place in alphabetic order j for D and C, which are among the first letters of the alphabet, and M and L, which are in the middle, are of much greater numeral value than X and V, which are near the end. An ingenious author has therefore endeavoured to trace the origin of their numeral characters as follows r " It is not improbable therefore that the Romans put down 285 a single stroke, I, for one, which they doubled, trebled, and quadrupled, till they came to five, which number they expressed by joining two strokes in an acute angle thus, V to this they added single strokes to the number of four, for six, seven, eight, and nine - } and then, as the minums could not be further multiplied without confusion, they doubled their acute angle by prolonging the two lines beyond their intersection, X, to denote two fives or ten 3 after they had doubled, trebled, and quadrupled this double acute angle, to denote twenty, thirty, and forty, they then, for the same reason which induced them first to make a single angle, and then to double it, joined two single strokes in another form, to denote fifty, |_ when this fifty, with the addition of the X, amounted to ninety, they then doubled the right angle, C, to denote a hundred ; and having numbered this double right angle four times, for one, two, three, and CCCC four hundred, when they came to the five hundred they reverted the double right angle, and put a stroke before it, Qj and when they came to nine hundred IH.CCCC, in order to make the thou- sand they set down two double right angles opposite each other, with a single stroke between them, CiU 5 when this note for one thousand had been four times repeated, then they put down 1 33 for five thousand -, CC IHH for ten thousand ; I HDD for fifty thousand j CCGDDD for one hundred thou- sand; 1 33313 for five hundred thousand ; and LCCDDDDD for one million. " That the Romans did not originally write M for one thou- sand, and C for one hundred, but square characters as they are written above, we are expressly informed by Paulus Manutius ; but the corners of the angles being cut off by transcribers for dispatch, these figures were gradually brought into what are now numeral letters. When the corners of Cl "3 were made round, it stood thus CO, which is so near the Gothic CO that it soon deviated into that letter ; so I D having the corners rounded, 10, easily deviated into D 5 also C by the same means was turned into C 5 the single right angle which denoted fifty, was, without any alteration, the capital L ; the double acute angle, an X, and the single one, a V conso- nant, and a plain single stroke, the letter I : thus these seven Roman letters, M D C L X V I, became numerals." The numeral character now commonly used in Europe is the Arabic, so named from its having been supposed to have originated with the Arabian astronomers : but the honour of the invention appears to belong to the Indians -, and Aben Ragel, an Arabian author of the tenth century, expressly ascribes the invention of this scheme of arithmetic to the Indian philosophers. It is generally admitted that the Arabic figures were intro- duced into Europe by the Moors during their occupation of Spain 5 but there seems to be considerable uncertainty as to the time when they became known in France and the neigh- bouring countries : some will have it that Gerbert or Girbert, a native of Auvergne, where he was a monk, travelled into Spain at the close of the tenth century, and there made such a progress in the Arabian philosophy, particularly mathema- tics, that he soon excelled his instructors ; and on his return into France carried with him the Arabic method of arithmetic, which he soon afterwards published in a treatise called " Rythmomachia, or the Battle of Numbers and Figures." This Girbert was in the year 999 elevated to the Papal Chair, under the name of Sylvester II., and died in 1003. Dr. Wallis, from some ancient dates, supposed to consist wholly or in part of Arabian figures, conjectures they were used in this country in the tenth century j he notices that of 975 over a gate-way at Worcester j 1011 on the north part of the parish church of Rurnsey, in Hampshire j 1016, with the Roman M for a thousand, at Widgell-hall, near Bunting- ford, in Hertfordshire j 1090 at Colchester, in Essex; and M 133, that is, 1133, on a chimney-piece at Helmdon, in Northamptonshire j but various objections against the autho- 287 rity of these dates have been urged by Dr. Ward, a cele- brated antiquarian, who states, that the first authenticated account of the appearance of the Indian figures in manu- script, is in some copies of Johannes de Sacro Bosco, who died in 1236, and that it would be absurd to suppose these figures were in common use at a time when they were scarcely known to the learned ; the Helmdon date, accord- ing to his opinion, should be 1233 ; the Colchester, 149O, that at Widgell Hall, he says, has no Arabian figures, the 1 and 6 being I and G, probably the initial letters of the builder's name, and the date at Worcester consists of Roman numerals only, and is in fact MXV. Astle, Du Cange, and Mabillon, however, will not admit of the introduction of the Arabic characters into France and England, prior to the fourteenth century, stating that one of the oldest dates that has been discovered in this character, is supposed to be in the hand-writing of the celebrated Petrarch, on his copy of St. Augustin, in the year 1375 j and the appearance of them in charters before that period would invalidate their authenticity $ it seems indeed now to be the general opinion, that these figures very rarely occurred in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and that they did not become in general use till about the middle of the sixteenth century, at which time the forms of their cyphers were per- manently fixed. The rent-roll of the diocese of St. Andrews in Scotland, has the date 1490, in Arabic figures. The proclamation of Henry VIII., in 1 544, directing cer- tain news pamphlets, to be destroyed within XXIII hours after the proclamation should have become known, is a proof that the Arabic characters were not in common use in public documents even at that period. The College accounts, in the English Universities, were usually kept in the Roman numerals, till the middle of the sixteenth century. The Churchwarden's accounts of Scheme, a parish near Rochester, are entered in the same character, so late as the year 1 63 1.. -JHiBrrrrr*! p-yi?rgft nr',:I -jr{j jo -.:. -.;::- , r FIl,LIGREE. This kind of work which is beautifully wrought in gold or silver wire, twisted together so as to form festoons, flowers, and various ornaments, is of great antiquity, and was originally brought into Europe from the East. In the middle ages it was made use of in decorating the images of saints and other church furniture, and is now principally confined to the manufacturing of small caskets, needle-cases and trinkets ; there was till lately to be seen, in an Abbey at Paris, a cross ornamented with filligree work, made by St. Eloy, who died in the year 665. FIRE, As mankind, for some time after the creation, Uved entirely on fruit and other vegetable productions, fire was not necessary for culinary purposes j and although sacri- fices appear to be almost coeval with the birth of man, yet the acceptance of them was signified by the miraculous sup- ply of lire from heaven. The Egyptians attribute the invention of fire to Vulcan, who Booerhave conjectures was the Tubal Cain of the Hebrews, who first applied it to the fusion of metals, and in other chemical preparations. The Greeks state that Prome- theus discovered the method of procuring fire, by the violent concussion of flint and steel, about 170O B. C. Probably the most ancient method of procuring a flame was by the rub- bing of two pieces of wood against each other, which method is still practised in many parts of the world - f forests of bamboo are frequently set on fire, in India, during the period of the hot winds, by the constant friction of the branches against each other. TheGreek Fire, so celebrated in modern history, was invented by Callinacus, an engineer of Heliopolis, in Syria, and first made use of in a naval engagement, with the Saracens, in 66O. This fire is described as a kind of liquid, forced out of a pump through pipes against the enemy, and as possessing the quality of burning with greater violence under water than above it. The Greeks, by various precautions, were enabled to keep the secret of its composition to themselves, for a period of four hundred years, till at length it was either discovered by or communicated to the Mahometans, who dur- ing the Crusades, employed it with such success, against the Christians, that it then assumed the new appellation of the Saracen fire it finally however, submitted to the still more destructive discovery of gunpowder, and the composi- tion of the ancient Greek fire is now totally unknown. The first intimation we have of portable fire-arms, is that given by Bellius, a nobleman of Milan, who acquaints us that the garrison of Lucca, when besieged by the Florentines, in 143O, besides darts and ballistas for arrows, had a new kind of weapon, consisting of a club about a cubit and a half loag, having at one end an iron barrel, or small cannon, which they carried in their hands, and thus armed made frequent sallies against the Florentines, discharging their guns as they approached, and ultimately compelled them to abandon the siege. Hand-guns or hange gunnes, as they were then called, of a description somewhat similar to the above, were used by oar soldiers, about the year 146O, having been introduced by some Flemings in the service of Edward IV. j these pieces were fired by a match carried in the hand ; but afterwards the match was attached to a trigger in the stock, and brought down on a pan which held the priming, and then the weapon assumed the name of harquebuss. The next improvement was in the shape of the stock, by giving it the German bend or butt, which ad- mitted of its bein placed close to the shoulder 5 this took place in the commencement of the sixteenth century, ao4 the instrument was then called the haggebutt ; and in a short time the harquebuss from being a heavy unwieldy machine, of about twice the calibre of our blunderbuss, had got to the opposite extreme of being so small and light as to be of little use against the armour worn in those days, so that Henry VIII., in 1541, directed that no hand-gun Or hagge- butt should be used of less dimensions than one yard in length, gun and stock together. About this time also the demi-hagge, being about half the weight of the haggebutt, is noticed as being used for the purposes of fowling. The musket, carrying a bullet of double the weight of the haggebutt, was introduced into England from Spain, about the middle of the sixteenth century, but at first was so long and heavy as to require a rest when fired ; this was discharged by a match, in the manner of the haggebutt, till about the close of Mary's reign, when the Spanish invention of the spring wheel lock, whick struck fire, when opposed to a flint, was substituted in its room, and the musket or fire-lock assumed its present form during the period of the Common- wealth. The pistol, or short demi-hagge, so called from its being principally manufactured at Pistoria, in Tuscany, was in- vented in the middle of the sixteenth century. 'FIRE-^engines. The Roman syphon noticed by Pliny, is by many conjectured to have been used for the purpose of extinguishing accidental fires, and this idea is strengthened from the circumstance of Apollodorus, the celebrated ar- chitect, describing a method of extinguishing a fire in a high building, when the machine called a sypho was not at hand. Isidorus also, who lived in the beginning of the seventh century, mentions fire-engines, under the appellation of syphons, as being then common at Constantinople, but the description and account of them is altogether very confused and unsatisfactory. 291 The modern kind of fire-engine is first noticed as having been used in the city of Augsburg, in 1518, under the deno- mination of the water syringe. In 1699, a patent was granted in Paris, to Duperrier, for his construction of a machine called the Pompe Portative, for the extinguishing of fires, but these engines were imperfect till the invention of the air-chamber, suggested by Perrault, in 1684, and carried into effect by Leopold, a German, about the commencement of the last century. The leathern hose applied to the engine which can be lengthened or shortened as necessary, and to which the fire pipe is applied, was added by Heide, a Dutch- man, in 1672, and in the course of a few years became com- mon in the Netherlands. Hooks and fire-ladders were intro- duced about the same period. The introduction of the fire-engine into England maybe pro- bably stated about the year 1 650 5 those of the present construc- tion were common in the middle of the last century j fire-cocks were directed to be laid down in the public streets, in 1710. About forty years ago Daniel Maseres invented a machine, called a fire-escape, which being fastened to the window, would enable any one to descend into the street in safety. The origin of this amusing branch of pyrotechny is involved in considerable obscurity j the Chi- nese are supposed to have been acquainted with the use of gunpowder long before it was known in Europe, and to have attained, at an early period, to a degree of perfection in the manufacturing of fire-works, which none of the European artists have been able to equal. Fire-works are said to have been first used in Europe, on the occasion of public rejoicings, by the Florentines, and are mentioned as being applied to this purpose in England, at the marriage of Henry VIII. with Anne Bullen j they are however but little noticed in the reign of Elizabeth, though they were common under her successor. FISHERY. The Norwegians appear to have been the first people who established a regular system of fishery, for we read that at a very early period, they had formed a society for the prosecution of the whale fishery, which, from the oil it afforded, was an object of great national importance to the people of that climate. Our King Alfred procured consider- able information from some Norwegians who had visited this country, relative to this fishery, which he was desirous of re- commending to his subjects : what attempts were made in his time to establish this fishery is unknown, as no further men- tion of it occurs in our history till the close of the sixteenth century. (See Whale .) The cod fishery on the extensive banks at Newfoundland, is stated to have been discovered by the Biscayans, in the pursuit after whales on that coast, at least a century before the arrival of Columbus j and it is by many affirmed that it was owing to the information of a Biscayan Newfoundlander, that this celebrated navigator received the first intimation of the great continent of America. The origin of the British cod fishery is thus noticed by Anderson : " In the year 1536 King Henry VIII. gave encouragement to certain merchants to send out two ships on discovery to the north coasts of America, where they visited Cape Breton and Newfoundland 5 and being in great distress for want of provisions there, they returned home in October, the same year j and although this voyage proved unfavoura- ble to the principal design of finding a north-west passage to India, yet it gave rise to the very beneficial fishery of the English on the banks of Newfoundland j on which barren island one Mr. Hoare, of London, merchant, attempted a settlement at this time, though he met with much misfortune in that unsuccessful attempt." It ig generally supposed that the Hollanders were the first who commenced upon the herring fishery, which they formed into a regular system about the middle of the twelfth century, 293 when they had become acquainted with the several stations or places on the coast where that fish was to be found, at the different seasons of the year. (See Herring J FISHING. The art of taking fish by the line or net. is of great antiquity : we find the hook and spear mentioned for this purpose in the forty-first chapter of Job : fishing-lines made of horse-liair are noticed by Aristotle. The ancient Britons were averse to fish 5 and it is said that Wilfred, Bishop of York, who converted the South Saxons to Christi- anity, A. D. 686, first instructed them in the method of procur- ing fish from the sea. During the middle ages the cormorant was domesticated for the purpose of procuring fish. A method of fattening fish, and rendering them more deli- cate for the table by depriving them of their strength, was first practised by Tall about forty years ago, though his object at that time was only to prevent their excessive increase in his ponds. FLASK. This word is derived from the Greek, Phlaskeion, which, according to Suidas, was a vessel woven of twigs, and originally procured from Syracuse. The thin glass bottle wrapped round with rushes or straw, similar to the present Italian oil-flasks, were common in Germany in the commence- ment of the sixteenth century. FLEECY HOSIERY. This kind of manufacture being an intermixture of fine fleeces of wool with cotton, first made its appearance about forty years ago. FLOWERS. Garden flowers were in considerable request among the ancients, being required at their public entertain- ments for decorating their tables, and to give an agreeable perfume to the apartments j they were also used for the adorning of their persons, and to scatter over the tombs of S94 those who died in the spring of life : but it does not appear that the ancients cultivated the plants of foreign countries till about the" year 70 B. C., when Lucullus, the Consul, introduced into Rome various kinds of flowers and plants from Greece, Asia, and Africa. The greater part of the productions of our flower-gardens were procured from the east in the sixteenth century, when a taste for horticulture was introduced on the continent j and some German and French gardeners commenced a trade in flowers, from whom the botanists of that time procured many rarities. The tube-rose was brought from Ceylon and Java ; the auricula from Switzerland ; the common fritillary or che- quered lily from France and Italy ; the fritillaria imperialis or crown imperial from Persia ; the marygolds and the amaryllis formosissima from South America ; the amaryllis sarniensis from Japan, but having been first discovered on the coast of Guernsey, (in consequence of a vessel having a number of its bulbs being there wrecked, and which bulbs took root in the sands,) it was called by Ray the Guernsey lily : the ranunculus and crocus from the Levant, during the period of the crusades j the jessamine from India j the, tulip from Cappadocia; the daffodil, gilly flower, carnation, and pink, from Italy ; damask and musk roses from Damascus, &c. Botanists have been long desirous of discovering some mode of preserving flowers, so that their colours should not fade : sand was first made use of for this purpose in 1633. Artificial flowers were used by the Italian nuns in the six- , teenth century. FONT. In addition to what has been said respecting the antiquity of fonts, under the head Baptism, we may observe that in the time of the venerable Bede they were called lavacra. And in the history of Sherbourne monastery a conten- tion is noticed between the monks and the parishioners, in which the former complain, that though a font had been 295 established from the foundation of the monastery (about the commencement of the eighth century) in the nave of the conventual church, the inhabitants had set up another in that part of the church where divine service was performed. These fonts were originally formed of stone, because, as Durandus observes, the water which issued out of the rock was a type of baptism j some were however made of lead, and one of brass, in which the children of the Kings of Scotland used to be baptized, was presented to the monastery of St. Alban's by Richard Lee, being a part of the spoils he had acquired in that country : at the bottom of the font was a pipe for letting off the consecrated water after the ceremony was over, lest it should be applied to superstitious purposes. The republican Parliament considering these ancient fonts as relics of Popery, ordered their removal, and that basons should be used in their stead j and though many of the fonts were afterwards restored, yet in most of our modern churches and chapels, the vessel used for christening consists of a small marble bowl, placed on a slender column or stand of the same material. FOOLS, Clowns or Buffoons, who were generally people of ready wit, are noticed as forming a part of the establish- ment of the Roman Emperors, and were common at the court and in the castles of the Nobility of this country, from the period of the Saxon Government, till the middle of the seventeenth century. FORGERY. The first person who suffered death for this crime was Richard Cowper, in June 1731. Robert and Daniel Pereau, twins, were also executed for it in January 1775, and the celebrated Dr. Dodd on the 29th January 1777. The facility of committing the offence, and its injurious effects in a commercial country, seemed for a long time to render it imperative on the part of government to enforce the full penalty of the law ; and it is reported the first 296 person to whom mercy was extended, was at the interces- sion of a dissenting- minister, whom his late Majesty, for some reason, had promised to serve, and who now claimed the fulfilment of that promise, in behalf of an unfortunate man who had been convicted of forgery at the York Assizes, in 1803. The first trial for forging a Bank of England note occurred at Stafford, in April 1758. FORKS. Neither the Greeks or Romans have any name for these instruments, it being customary with them to have all their articles of food cut into small morsels before they were served up, besides which it was dressed in such a man- ner as to be exceedingly tender, and easily divided by spoons* The fork, which takes its name from the Italian forca, is therefore a modern invention, and is said to have been used at Constantinople, in the eleventh century. A pair of knives in sheaths of enamelled silver, and a fork of crystal, are mentioned in the wardrobe accounts of Edward I., which probably had been brought from Constantinople, during the period of the Crusades. Voltaire, in his General History, says that forks were used by the Lombards in the fourteenth century, and Galeatus Martius states they were common in Italy, at the end of the fifteenth century, though another century elapsed before they are noticed in France 5 soon after which, in 1610, Thomas Coryate, an Englishman, who had travelled into Italy, introduced them into this country, and the method of using them is thus noticed, in the book he published of his travels, which he entitled his " Crudities :" - " The Italians, and also most strangers that are commorant in Italy, do alwaies at their meals use a little forke when they cut their meate, for while with their knife, which they held in one hand, they cut the meate out of the dish, they fasten their forke, which they hold in their other hand, upon the same dish, so that whatsoever he be, that sitting in the com- 297 pany of any others at meale, should unadvisedly touch the dish of meate with his fingers, from which all at the table doe cut, he will give occasion of offence unto the company, as having transgressed the lawes of good manners, insomuch that for his error, he shall be at least brow-beaten, if not reprehended in wordes -, hereupon, I myself thought good to imitate this Italian fashion, often times in England, since I came home, and was once quipped for that frequent using of my forke, by my friend Mr. Thomas VVhitaker, who, in his merry humour, doubted not to call me at table furcifer, only for using a forke at table." FORTIFICATION. The progress of fortification, founded first on necessity, has been, like that of other important and useful arts, gradual. Instruments of defence are made neces- sary by those of offence - 3 trunks of trees interlaced with branches, and supported with earth, were probably the first attempts of artificial security j this was succeeded by a wall furnished with a parapet for shooting, in safety, arrows at the enemy, but as a parapet covers but half the body, the walls were increased in height, and loop-holes made in it, through which the missiles could be discharged ; the besiegers now, in order to effect an entrance, were under the necessity of making a breach in the wall 3 they therefore invented the battering-ram, which was first used by Pericles, the Athenian, and perfected by the Carthaginians at the siege of Gades ; to oppose that formidable machine, projecting towers were made to flank the walls , the besiegers next had recourse to a large wooden house or booth sometimes made higher than the walls of the city, upon the upper stories of which were the archers, while underneath the battering-ram was put into motion by the soldiers j but this machine was rendered inef- fectual by surrounding the wall with a deep and broad ditch, which reduced the besiegers to the necessity of throwing stones and darts from a distance, by means of their catapulta 84 298 and balista, and until the introduction of gunpowder the advantage was considerably in favour of the besieged. To resist however the dreadful effects of cannon, a considerable alteration in fortification was requisite, bastions, crown-works, half-moons, and horn-works were crowded one upon another, and military architecture was reduced to a regular science, governed by general and fundamental rules. FRESCO. This method of painting on plaister was prac- tised in the earliest ages of Greece and Rome j the Italians called it Fresco on account of its being used for walls and parts of buildings exposed to the open air. FULLING. Pliny informs us, that the art of scouring cloths and woollen stuffs was invented by Nicras, the son of Hermias, who, according to Sir George Wheeler, was a Governor of Megaera, under Augustus. The Romans, having divested the cloth of grease, by means of lye, urine, and fuller's earth, which they procured from Sardinia, afterwards washed it in a vat in which the struphium and other sapona- ceous plants had been boiled, and then fumigated it with sul- phur for the purpose of bleaching. FUNDS. According to an official account made by the Bank of England, in 1824, the number of persons holding public property, or in other words, creditors of England, were 288,000 j of these the number who received half-yearly dividends, were as follows : of 5, 9,6OO ; under a$!O, 4 1,OOO 5 between 10 and 50, 96,000 ; between 50 and 500, 33,000; between 5OO and 2,000, 22,000 5 and above 2,OOO, 213. The sinking-fund was established at the recommendation of the Earl of Stanhope, in 1716, and was first broken in upon by Sir Robert Walpole, in 1733, who remarked that the cir- cumstances of the nation had altered so much since the establishment of the sinking-fund, that the competition among the public creditors was not now who should be the first, but who should be the last to be paid. FUR. Skins of beasts with the hair on were probably the first kind of dress worn by the inhabitants of cold climates : but at what period furs became an article of luxury, cannot be ascertained j for they are not noticed as constituting any part of the dress worn by the patrician orders in the enlightened nations of Greece and Rome, being probably at first confined to the northern parts of Asia and Europe. The Romans first acquired a partiality for them in their intercourse with the Germans, who being well acquainted with the art of dressing them, and wearing them in a graceful manner, rendered dresses of fur so fashionable among the young Romans, that Honorius, in 397, prohibited the use of them, considering that the rage for adopting the German customs was a melan- choly presage that the dominion of the Goths would ulti- mately prevail. It seems probable that the Saxons introduced the use of furs into Britain, though they became more general under the Normans, especially during the period of the crusades ; for when Richard I. and Philip II. of France embarked for the Holy Land, in order to discourage extravagance, they mutually resolved not to wear either ermine, sable, or any other costly fur. Previously to the discovery of the New World by Columbus, the furs in general demand for Europe were procured from Russia and Siberia. The British fur trade with America commenced in 1540. GALVANISM. The discovery of this interesting branch of science, formerly called Animal Electricity, is first noticed in the " General Theory of Pleasures," published by Sultzer, in 1750, wherein he states, that if a piece of zinc is placed, the one in contact with the upper, and the other with the under surface of the tongue, and their projecting edges brought together, a taste will be produced resembling vitriol of iron, which sensation he ascribes to a vibration of the particles of the metals affecting the nerves of the tongue ; but the discovery not meeting with the public support was soon forgotten, and this new system of electricity is now generally attributed to Lewis Galvani, Professor of Anatomy, at Bologna. It appears that the wife of Galvani being in a bad state of health, was recommended a soup made from frogs as a restorative, and some of these animals skinned for the purpose, happening to lie on a table in Galvani's labora- tory, on which was placed an electrical machine, one of his assistants in his experiments, by accident, brought the point of a scalpel near the crural nerves of a frog lying near the conductor, when the muscles of the animal became immedi- ately strongly convulsed : a repetition of the experiment being- attended with similar effects, led to a regular inves- tigation of the cause, an account of which was published by Galvani, in 1791, and entitled, " Aloyfii Galvani de viribus electricitatis in motu musculari commentarius." This work attracted the attention of the Philosophers, both on the conti- 301 nent and in this country j none,, however, added any thing new to what Galvani had discovered, till about the year 18OO, when Signor Volta, of Pavia, communicated his important discovery of accumulating the effects of this species of elec- tricity by means of his battery or pile, which consisted of a certain number of pairs of zinc and silver plates separated from each other by pieces of wet cloth, and this Voltaic pile has been since considerably improved upon by Cruickshauk and others. GAME. At the time of the Romans this island is repre- sented as abounding with all sorts of game, which was the common property of the inhabitants -, but as the system of agriculture introduced by the Romans, became in progress of time to be generally adopted, the beasts were driven into desert tracts called forests, which, under the Saxon Govern- ment, were reserved for the sole diversion of its princes, while the husbandmen or freeholders were only permitted to sport on their own soil, as is expressed in the laws of Canute and Edward the Confessor. The Norman princes, however, who were desirous that such of the natives as were not mili- tary tenants, should be prohibited the use of arms, forbade the diversion of hunting and sporting, except to the principal feudatories or Barons, and in 1209 John issued a proclama- tion against the taking of all sorts of feathered game, which is said to have been the first edict of the kind ever made ; and thus the law stood till 139O, when Richard II. established certain qualifications, entitling those who possessed them, to the privilege of keeping dogs, nets and hawks for the pur- poses of sporting. GARDENING. The art of forming and cultivating flower gardens and pleasure grounds is of great antiquity, and must have been brought to considerable perfection in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, who about 60O B. C., with a view of grati- 302 fying his wife Amyatis, constructed the raised or hanging gardens from the walls of Babylon, upon which trees, plants and flowers were introduced, and aqueducts for the purposes of irrigation. The employment of gardening was considered by the Greeks and Romans, to be worthy their greatest heroes and philosophers j and Plato and Democritus, Cato, Cicero and Dioclesian, are celebrated for the beauty and magnificence of their gardens, which are described as planted with various odoriferous flowers and shrubs, and embellished with a variety of statues and aqueducts. Previous to the commencement of the sixteenth century, most of our vegetables and fruit were procured from the Netherlands, but at this period a taste for horticulture and botanical researches sprung up in Italy and Germany, and soon extended into this country, and the seeds of various kinds of fruit and flowers, as also of different sorts of vege- tables, having been procured from Flanders, were first culti- vated in this country on scientific principles. The introduction of different plants and fruits from Ame- rica, about the close of the sixteenth century, rendered the erection of hot-houses necessary, it being hoped that the oranges and pine apples might be brought to perfection in that artificial climate. About this time also forcing- beds, made of tanner's bark, were introduced into the system of gardening by the Dutch, though they are first mentioned as being used in England in 1688, when some forcing-beds were made at Blackheath, in Kent, for rearing orange trees. GARTER. The Order of the Garter (which is under the patronage or protection of St. George of Cappadocia, the tutelar saint of this kingdom) was instituted, according to Papebroche, in his Acta Sanctorum, by Richard Coeur de Lion, who, accompanied only by six-and-twenty knights, was sur- rounded by a large party of Saracens near Acre, and but for this faithful and valiant band, would have fallen into their 30S hands. To commemorate this exploit, the king directed that these knights should be distinguished by a thong of blue leather below their knee, which he himself also condescended to wear, and afterwards this body received the appellation of the Knights of the Blue Thong. Rustel, who notices the above account of its origin in his Chronicle, states that Edward III., in the nineteenth year of his reign, 1344, " made a solemn feast at Windsor, and a great just and tour- nament, when he devysed and perfected substancyally the Order of the Knights of the Garter," which, according to common opinion (though considered fabulous by our best antiquaries) originated from the circumstance of the garter of Joan, Countess of Salisbury, having dropped while dan- cing, and being presented to her by the king, with the obser- vation of " Honi soit qui mal y penae," which was afterwards adopted as the motto. This Order was known under the title of the Order of St. George till the time of Edward VI., who changed it to that of the Garter, and made several alterations in the ritual of it, which are still extant in his own hand-writing : it is considered the most ancient and noble lay order in the world, being prior to the French Order of St. Michael by fifty years ; to that of the Golden Fleece by eighty years j to that of St. Andrew by one hundred and ninety years j and to that of the Elephant by two hundred and nine years. The college of the Order is held at the castle of Windsor, within the chapel of St. George, the Bishop of Winchester being its prelate ; the Bishop of Salisbury its chancellor -, and the Dean of Windsor its register. The mantle originally was of fine woollen cloth, of a blue colour, which was changed to purple by Elizabeth, but restored to its original colour by Charles I. Mantles made of velvet, occur about the beginning of the reign of Henry VI. The surcoat or kirtle was also made of woollen cloth, till Edward IV. changed it to crimson velvet. 304 The hood, also of blue cloth, was formerly worn on the head, but it is now attached to the mantle, and instead of it, a black velvet cap, adorned with a plume of ostrich feathers, was introduced about the time of Henry VIII. ; though the custom of wearing it was not fully established till the tenth year of James I. : the George and Collar was also added by Henry VIII., and the Star by Charles II. In the cathedral church at Hereford is the figure of Sir Richard Pembridge, having the Garter over his armour, which is the earliest instance of its being so worn. GARTERS. The Anglo-Saxons wore their garters, crossing up the leg in the same manner as the Highlanders of the present day. GAS-LIGHTS. The word " gas," which in German sig- nifies a ghost or spirit, was first applied by the celebrated chemist John Von Helmont, about the commencement of the seventeenth century, to signify those elastic fluids which are invisible, and not condensible by cold : but it is to the disco- veries of Priestley and Lavoisier that we are indebted for its being applied to useful purposes. The inflammability of the gas produced from the distillation of pit-coal has long been a fact familiar to chemists, and is noticed in the Philosophical Transactions of the year 1667 j and in 1733 there is an account of the carborated hydrogen issuing from a coal-work in Cumberland, having been collected in a bladder, and made use of for the purpose of illumination, the gas being ignited at the extremity of a small tube attached to the bladder. The Rev. J. Clayton, in 1739, appears to have been the first who endeavoured, by chemical means, to procure the gas neces- sary for this purpose : he acquaints us, that having distilled coal in a close retort, he obtained therefrom a black oil and a permanent gas or spirit, which he confined in bladders, and burnt through small orifices. It is therefore singular that 305 this discovery should not have been applied to any purposes of public utility till 1792, when Mr. William Murdoch, of Soho, first made use of coal-gas for lighting his house and offices at Badruth in Cornwall, and in 1798 applied it for the lighting part of the very extensive manufactory of Messrs. Boulton, Watt, and Co., at Soho, near Birmingham. The illumination of the Soho works by gas in 1802, at the time of the peace, seems to have brought it into general notice, and it was soon afterwards adopted in many places by different individuals, who, proceeding from their own ideas, introduced various modes of collecting and purifying it. In 18O4 Mr. Windsor took out a patent for purifying coal-gas : but the first public exhibition of it in London was near Carlton- house, on the fourth of June, 1806, in which year a company was established for the purpose of conveying the gas by pipes along the streets of London, so that they, as w<*ll as the houses, might be regularly supplied with it. Gas, extracted from wood, was used in Paris in 1802 ; and from oil, by Dr. Henry, in 18O5. GAUZE, in the middle ages, was called gauzetum, from Gaza in Palestine, supposed to be similar to the celebrated coavestus mentioned by Isaiah, as worn by the Oriental women. The Chinese have long been famous for their rich gauzes, embroidered with flowers of gold. A manufacture of gauze was first established at Paisley in 1759. GAZETTE. It is related that the first news-pamphlet published at Venice was called Gazetta, from a kind of coin there current of that name, which was the ordinary price paid for it j the period of the publication of this paper is however unknown, the earliest Gazette noticed beidg the one published at Paris in 1631, by Theophrast Renaudot, in his office of " Court newsman," The first Gazette published in this country was the Oxford 306 one, dated the seventh of November, 1665, where the court then was, and is printed in a folio half-sheet. On the removal of the Court to London the title was changed to the " London Gazette/' first published on the fifth of February, 1666. The Oxford Gazette was published on Tuesdays, and the London Gazette on Saturdays, and this continued till June, 18*26, when the London Gazette was ordered to be published for the future on a Friday. The London Gazette being published under the directions of Government, all notices and proclamations in it are consi- dered as official; upon which account, in November, 1787, a Gazette was ingeniously forged to answer a stock-jobbing purpose. GENERAL. This rank in the army is first noticed under Henry VIII. j the Commander-in-Chief being styled the Captain-General, and the next in dignity the Lieutenant- General. GENTLEMAN. Chamberlyne observes that a Gentleman is one whose ancestors have been freemen, and owed obe- dience to none but their prince j and Cambden that a Gen- tleman of Blood is one who bears arms from his grand- father. We read that J. Kingston was made a Gentleman by Richard II. in 143O : the addition of Knight is very ancient j but that of Esquire or Gentleman was seldom used before the reign of Henry IV. GEOGRAPHY. The Chaldeans and Egyptians, who were early distinguished for their knowledge of geometry and astronomy, were naturally led to pay particular attention to geography j and Moses, who was well skilled in all their learning, has given us the most ancient geographical descrip- tion of a country in his account of Arabia and Egypt, written 1450 B. C. Neco, King of Egypt, ordered a survey to be taken 307 of the whole coast of Africa j and Darius of the Ethiopian sea and the mouths of the Indus. Diognates and Baton were directed by Alexander to measure and describe the countries through which his army marched : and Artemidorus, of Ephesus, published a description of the earth in eleven books, which is often referred to by Pliny and Strabo j and several other Greek writers might be mentioned who distinguished themselves by the cultivation and improvement of this science. Geography was transmitted with the other arts from Greece to Rome. Polybius, under a commission from Scipio jEmilia- nus, reconnoitred the coasts of Africa, Spain, and France, and measured the distances of all those places which Hannibal had visited in his march over the Pyrenees and Alps. Varro's works comprehend a great deal of geographical information. Zenodoxus, Theodorus, and Polycletus, were employed under the consulship of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, in surveying and measuring the Roman empire. The commentaries of Caesar, which contain a geographical description of the coun- tries he conquered, and of the manners and customs of their respective inhabitants, are still perused with pleasure. Augustus was also a distinguished patron and promoter of this science : under him Strabo nourished. Pliny has given us an account of the world, as then known in the fourth, fifth, and sixth books of his Natural History. Under the Emperor Theodosius, the provincial and itinerary chart or table, called the pentenger, was digested and formed > and the last work which may be classed with those of the ancients, was the Notitia Imperil of Ethicus, published about the year 450. The aera of barbarism succeeded the fall of the Roman empire j and during the middle ages, geography, like most of the other sciences, rather retrograded than advanced, till about the close of the fourteenth century, when the doubling of the Cape of Good Hope by the Portuguese seemed at once to revive the spirit of geographical enquiries ; and voyages, of discovery, though principally for the purposes of gain, 308 were undertaken by the different naval powers of Europe . the result was the establishment of an extensive commercial intercourse with the inhabitants of India and China, a people of whom we had no knowledge, except from some obscure communications of M egasthenes, the ambassador of Alexander at the Indian court of Palibothra. The discovery of America by Columbus, and the settlements of the Spaniards and British in that new quarter of the globe, of the extensive island of New Holland, added to the civilization of Russia, the esta- blishment of various colonies, and the circumnavigation of the globe by enterprising and skilful commanders, have now so greatly increased our geographical knowledge as to make that of the ancients appear trifling and insignificant. GEOMETRY. The origin of this science is attributed by Josephus to the Hebrews ; but Herodotus, Diodorus, and Strabo, maintain that the Egyptians were the inventors of it ; for the annual inundations of the Nile bearing away all the bounds and land-marks of men's estates, it became necessary for the owners to have recourse to some method of distin- guishing their property, when the waters had subsided, by the consideration of their figure and quantity, and thus the foundation of geometry was established ; and was introduced into Greece by Thales, where it was considerably improved upon by Plato and Euclid, about 30O B. C. : these philo- sophers were succeeded by several illustrious geometri- cians, and even after the Greeks were subdued by the Romans, they continued to cultivate this favourite study. The Romans, on the contrary, were so little acquainted with this science, even in the most flourishing period of their re- public, that they gave the name of Mathematician, as Tacitus informs us, to those who pursued the chimeras of divination and judicial astrology ; and we find that after the revival of letters, there was scarcely one European capable of appreci- ating or understanding the works of the ancient geometers, 309 till Descartes, published his treatise on the subject, in 1637} he was soon followed by a number of celebrated writers, among whom Sir Isaac Newton stands pre-emi- nently distinguished for his valuable work, entitled "Phi- losophia Naturalis Principia Mathematica," published in 1687, which has advanced the science of geometry far beyond the boasted acquirements of the ancients. GILDING. Herodotus informs us that the Egyptians were acquainted with the art of gilding wood and metals, and we read that Moses caused several parts of the Sanctuary to be overlaid with gold ; Homer also describes the bull sacri- ficed by Nestor to Minerva, as having its horns first covered over with ductile gold. He said, and busy each his care bestow'd, Already at the gates the bullock low'd ; Already come the Ithacarsian crew, The dexterous smith the tools already drew ; His ponderous hammer and his anvil sound, And his strong tongs to turn the metal round 5 With reverend hand the king presents the gold, Which round the intorted horns the gilder roll'd, So wrought as Pallas might with joy behold. Odyssey. Lib. III. The Carthaginians are stated to have been the first people who decorated the walls of their houses with plates of gold, and on the destruction of their city this species of extrava- gance was introduced into Rome. Pliny states that the Capitol was the first building upon which this enrichment was bestowed, but he adds that in a little time it became common even in the houses of private people : at first the gold was beat into plates, and fastened by nails to the walls, but after- wards a method was discovered of making the plates thinner, and the expeuce was consequently considerably lessened. Pliny says, the Romans made from seven to eight hundred 310 leaves, four fingers square, from one ounce of gold, which caused Seneca to exclaim, that the Romans in covering their houses with gold delighted in deceit, as they knew that wood was concealed under it j these thin leaves of gold were attached to marble with a kind of varnish, and to wood with a cement called leucopheron, the composition of which is unknown to our antiquaries. The Romans were also ac- quainted with the art of fixing the gold to metals by means of quicksilver, with the assistance of heat. The method of artificial gilding, by covering metal with a varnish of a gold colour, is noticed by Theophilus, a German Monk, who lived in the twelfth century, and was revived by Evelyn, an Englishman, in 1633, but it seems to be doubtful whether the ancients were acquainted with it. The art of gilding in oil, which, though not so brilliant as the burnished gilding, is valuable from its not being injured by exposure to the atmosphere, is also a modern discovery. The dry or cold gilding used in the ornamenting of fans and toys, was invented by the Germans. The gilding of paper has been practised in China from a very remote period. It is not known what means the Romans adopted for beat- ing their gold to the requisite fineness for gilding, Theo- philus states that in his time it was beaten between parch- ment previously covered over with burnt ochre reduced to a fine powder, but during the progress of the art the parchment being found too thick and hard, the skin of an unborn calf was made use of in its stead, and the gold leaves were made much thinner than had ever before been possible -, but the art was brought to still greater perfection, about the commence- ment of the last century, by the German introduction of the fine pellicle detached from the gut of an ox, which was used by them instead of vellum for this purpose -, and by means of which Reaumur found that an ounce of gold could be so extended by the gold-beaters, as to cover a surface of more than one hundred and forty-six square feet. 311 GLASS. This word is supposed to be derived from the German glessum, the name for amber, which it was thought to resemble in its transparency and brightness ; some imagine glass to have been invented before the flood, and that Moses alluded to the sands that glass was made of, when he said to Zebulon " They shall suck of the abundance of the seas, and of treasures hid in the sand j" for in the inheritance of that tribe, or very near the frontier of it, ran the little river Belus, where a particular kind of sand was to be found, of great use in the manufacture of glass j which Pliny corrobo- rates by informing us, that glass was first accidentally dis- covered in Syria, at the mouth of the river Belus, by certain merchants driven thither by the fortune of the sea, who being obliged to live there and dress their victuals by making a fire on the ground, collected some of the plant kali, of which there was abundance on the spot, for that purpose : this herb being burnt to ashes occasioned a vitrification of the sand and stones that adhered to it, thus producing glass, and afford- ing a hint for the fabrication of it. The period when this discovery was made is involved in considerable obscurity, for it seems to be the general opinion that what has been denominated glass, in the Old Testament as well as in some of the translations from ancient Greek authors, ought rather to have been termed crystal, however our knowledge of this invention is principally derived from the Romans 5 though Theophrastus who lived about 30O B. C., has given us some account of glass, which he also describes as being made of the sand of the river Belus. The first glass-houses were erected at Sidon near the mouth of the Belus ; but the glass-houses of Alexandria were most celebrated among the ancients for the skill and ingenuity of the workmen employed in them, and from these the Romans for a long time procured all their glass ware. Lucretius, who wrote about 60 B. C., is the earliest among the Latins who makes any mention of glass, which appears 312 to have been brought into use at Rome in the time of Augus- tus ; and if the following 1 anecdote be true, the manufacture of it, under his successor was carried to a far greater degree of perfection than the moderns are capable of. It is related, that in the time of Tiberius, an artificer in Rome made a glass vessel of so tenacious a temper, that it was as difficult to break as if it had been made of metal ; and which being thrown with great violence on the ground in the presence of the Emperor, was not broken, but bruised, and was immediately beaten into its former shape, by an instrument which the artificer had ready for that purpose. The Emperor, who appeared to have been rather more alarmed than pleased with the experiment, enquired of the inventor if any other person besides himself was privy to this method of tempering of glass and rendering it malleable, and being answered in the negative, he ordered the unfortu- nate artificer to be put to death, saying that if the art should become generally known, gold and silver would be of as little value as dirt. Pliny observes that in his time glass was made with the sand found at the mouth of the river Vulturnus, between Cumse and the Lucrine Bay ; this sand was very fine, and being mixed with three parts of the fossil alkali and fused, was conveyed in a liquid state into other furnaces, where it was formed into a mass called ammonitrum, which being again melted became pure glass, and was brought to the shape required by blowing with the breath, though some pieces were ground on a lathe, and others embossed in the same manner as gold and silver j he further notices, that no substance was more manageable in receiving colours, or being formed into shape than glass. And it appears from Martial, that glass was not only in common use, for drinking vessels, but was likewise formed into bottles in which wine was kept j and a regular company of glass-manufacturers was soon afterwards established near the Porta Capena, at 313 Rome, but the Romans in general preferred silver and gold to glass for the composition of their drinking vessels. Some square panes of a glazed window were discovered at Herculaneum, which proves that the Romans made use of glass, as well as of the lapis specularis and phengitas, noticed by Seneca, for the admission of light into their rooms. It is presumed that the manganese was made use of to purify glass in the time of Pliny, as he more than once remarks that the magnet was employed in glass 5 and under this name the ancients comprehended manganese, though the term itself was first used by Albertus Magnus. The art of manufacturing glass into such ornaments as beads and amulets, was known to the ancient Britons long before the arrival of the Romans ; they also, according to Strabo, made vessels of glass which were generally of a blue green cast, but as no notice is taken of this manufacture during the period of the Roman government, it was probably one of those arts which, being only known to the Druids, was lost on the extermination of that people by Suetonius Paulinus. The Venerable Bede informs us, that the Abbot Benedict, about the year 674, first brought from Italy artificers skilled in making of glass, for the purpose of glazing the church and monastery at Weremouth 5 and as St. Jerome, who wrote early in the fifth century, and Gregory of Tours in the sixth century, make mention of windows formed of glass melted and cast into thin plates, being used in their time, it would seem that this was one of the few arts, which, from its great utility, was able to withstand the shock of Gothic devastation j yet glass windows were but rarely used on the Continent even in the twelfth century. Among Ma- dox's Collections of the 49th Henry III., is an abstract of a roll marked Woodstock, evincing that so long ago as 1265, glass windows were used in his palace at that place, as also at Westminster ; and that Chaucer's chamber windows were glazed, we gather from his Dreame. 2s 3*4 My windows wherein shet echone, And through the glasse the sunne yshone, Upon my bed with bright bemis, With many glad gildy stremis. /, 333. In a charter of Richard II., 1386, mention is made of glass together with the manufacture of it for windows. The glass for Warwick Chapel, in the time of Hen. VI., was procured from abroad at two shillings a foot ; and it seems to be the general opinion, that most of the windows in this country were made of lattice, and not of glass, till the commence- ment of the sixteenth century. William Harrison, who wrote in 1577, observes, " that of old time, our countrie houses instead of glasse did use much lattice, and that made either of wicker or fine rifts of oke in checkerwise j I read also that some of the better sort, in and before the times of the Saxons, did make panels of home instead of glass, and fix them in wood calmes, but as home in windows is now quite laid down in every place, so our lattices are also growne into lesse use, because glasse is nearly as cheape if not better than the other." But glass windows were not introduced into the better sort of farm-houses in the country, till the commence- ment of the seventeenth century. The Venetians, about the commencement of the fourteenth century, became celebrated for their glass manufactories at Mureno, and from that time till the middle of the seventeenth century, they generally supplied the rest of Europe with thi& article. Our ancestors generally drank out of cups, made either of wood, horn or metal j cups of crystal glass were imported from Venice during the reign of James I., and were placed in recesses as objects of value and curiosity along with the china and plate, in the time of Charles II. A manufac- ture of glass was first established in London, in 1557, and was considerably improved in 1635, by the adoption of pit or sea coal instead of wood. Soon afterwards a monopoly was 315 granted to Sir Robert Mansell, to import the fine Venetian flint glasses for drinking, the art of making which was not brought to perfection before the reign of William III. In 167O, the Duke of Buckingham having procured some artists from Venice, introduced the manufacture of fine glass into England with so much success, as in the course of a century, to have surpassed the productions of the Venetians themselves. The art of casting glass in plates was invented by Abraham Thevant, a Frenchman, in 1688, and first practised in this country at Prescott, in Lancashire, in 1773. (See Mirror.) The art of tinging the glass with various colours was known to the ancients, and practised at Alexandria, for we read that cups manufactured at that place, were presented to the Em- peror Adrian, which sparkled with colours of every kind, and Strabo says this was effected by a peculiar earth which was only to be mot with in Egypt. In some collections of anti- quities at Home, are pieces of glass so perfectly coloured and transparent throughout, that they were frequently taken for jewels. What materials the ancients used for colouring glass is unknown, but it is certain that metallic calces must have been employed, as these pigments alone are capable of with- standing the heat of the glass furnaces. The process of tinging glass and enamels, by preparations of gold, is first detailed by Neri, in his Art of Making Glass, published in 1611, which was improved upon by the gold calx or precipitate invented by Kulkel, who about the year 168O, made a cup of ruby glass for the Elector of Cologne, weighing not less than twenty-four pounds, a full inch in thickness, and of an equally beautiful colour throughout. Drinking glasses with gilt edges, were first manufactured at Bohemia and other places in Germany. Painting on glass and in enamel may in certain respects be considered as branches of the art of colouring glass : origi- nally it consisted in the arrangement of pieces of glass of different colours, in some sort of symmetry, constituting a 316 kind of Mosaic work ; afterwards when an attempt was made to represent figures, and to delineate the different shades of their draperies, the figures were drawn in black, with water colours, and the draperies attached to it by separate glasses of the colour required. About the year 1500, a French painter at Marseilles, discovered a method of incorporating the coloured drawings themselves on the glass, by exposing it to a proper degree of heat after the colours had been laid on, and this invention was considerably improved upon by Albert Durer, and Lucas of Leyden. This art is supposed to have been introduced into England in the reign of John, and was at first exercised by ordinary tradesmen, from plans drawn by artists j Walpole produces instances of it in the reign of Henry III., and he traces the history of it from the Reformation, (when misguided zeal destroyed most of the monuments of it in our churches,) through a series of professors to the present time. The art of cutting or engraving on glass by means of the lapidary's wheel is noticed by Pliny, and was revived by Caspar Lehmann in the beginning of the seventeenth century. The diamond is first mentioned as being applied to this pur- pose by Francis I. of France 5 soon after which, festoons and other ornaments cut with a diamond became extremely common on the Venetian glasses. Previous to this discovery, emery and sharp-pointed instruments of hard steel, and sometimes a red-hot iron, were used by the glaziers for the purpose of dividing the glass. For the method of engraving on glass by means of acids, see Engraving. A method of forming glass to resemble porcelain, by reducing it to a less vitrified state, was invented by Reaumur about 1740. The property which glass possesses, in common with other substances, of being extended by heat and contracted by cold, was communicated by Hooke to the Royal Society in 1660. 317 Musical glasses are of German origin, and were introduced into England in 176O. GLEANING was the common privilege of the poor Egyptians and Israelites ; and it is ordained by the law of Moses, that " When ye reap of the harvest of your land thou shall not make clean riddance of the corners of the field, neither shalt thou gather any gleanings of thy harvest : thou shalt leave them to the poor and to the stranger." GLEE. This word, signifying joy, is first met with in Chaucer : it is not noticed as a technical phrase in music before the middle of the seventeenth century. A collection of songs and glees was published by Playford in 1 667- GLOBE. Atlas, King of Mauritania, is stated by Diodorus Siculus to have been the inventor of globes, and he is con- sequently generally represented as bearing a globe on his shoulders. The ecliptic was added by Aniximander, and the signs by Cleostratus : Parmenides first divided it by zones. Hipparchus invented the celestial globe ; and Popidonius, the philosopher, according to Cicero, made a globe on which he represented the course of the sun, moon, and planets. In the museum of the Cardinal Borgia was a celestial globe, made by an Arabian astronomer in 1225. GLORIA PATRI, or the Doxology, was in use, according to Baronius, in the time of the Apostles, and was first directed to be said or sung at the end of the psalms by Pope Demascus about the year 382. The response, " As it was in the begin- ning, &c.," was ordered by the fifth Canon of the Council of Vaison, held in the year 529, to refute the heresy of those days in which it was contended that the Son of God had his beginning in time. 318 GLOVES. The Persians, according to Xenophon, wore thick gloves. Homer, speaking of Laertes at work in his garden, represents him with gloves on his hands, as a guard against thorns. Pliny the younger, in the account of his uncle's journey to Vesuvius, informs us that his secretary wore gloves on his hands, that the coldness of the weather might not prevent him from writing whatever might appear worthy of notice. About the close of the eighth century Charlemagne granted to the abbots and monks of Sethin an unlimited right of hunting, that they might be enabled to make gloves and gir- dles of the skins of the deer they killed, and covers for their books. It is generally supposed that our Saxon ancestors intro- duced the use of gloves from the continent, and that they were unknown in England prior to the commencement of the eleventh century, at which time they were used only by per- sons of the most exalted rank ; for we read that five pair of gloves were presented to Ethelred II. by a society of mer- chants, to secure his protection for their trade : gloves are also mentioned as a part of the royal habit of Henry II., when his body was laid in state after his decease. Stowe relates that Edward Vere, Earl of Oxford, having travelled into Italy, was the first who brought into England embroidered gloves and perfumes ; and presenting Queen Elizabeth with a pair of them, she was so delighted as to have her portrait drawn with them on. There is a proverb, that cc A glove to be well made, three kingdoms must contribute to it :" Spain to dress the leather, France to cut it, and England to sew it. In the age of chivalry the challenge was given and accepted by throwing the glove on the ground, which was taken up by the opposite parties on the point of their swords -, and this custom is still retained in the coronation of our king. 319 GOLD. This metal is first noticed in the sacred writings about 192O B. C., when Abraham, on his return from Egypt, is represented as being " rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold." Gold and silver ornaments were also given to Rebekah by Abraham's servant, on her being betrothed to Isaac ; and most of the costly ornaments and utensils for the tabernacle were of gold, brought by the Israelites out of Egypt. Four hundred shekels of silver were given by Abraham for the pur- chase of a burial place for his wife Sarah j and this metal seems to have been that commonly used by the Israelites as an article of barter : but though gold was equally well known to them, and considerable quantities of it were discovered in Canaan, it never seems to have been applied to this purpose, at least prior to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylo- nians, about 588 B. C. According to Herodotus, gold and silver were coined by the Lydians about 90O B. C. ; the Sicilians coined gold about 491 B. C. j and the Greeks in the time of Philip, the father of Alexander, 35O B. C. j the gold coinage of Rome took place, according to Pliny, about sixty-seven years after silver, that is, in the five hundred and forty-seventh year of the city, (by vulgar account) or 204 B. C. After the arrival of the Romans in this island, the Britons imitated coining both gold and silver, with the images of their kings stamped on them ; but this coinage was afterwards suppressed by the Romans ; and the silver penny or denarius seems to have been the only coin in circulation till about the year 1257, when a gold coin, weighing two denarii, was struck by Henry III., which was followed by the gold florin of Edward III. in 1344. The comparative value of gold and silver has fluctuated considerably in different ages and in different countries : the earliest account we have of it is given by Herodotus, who states the proportion to have been in Persia in the time of Darius as thirteen to one ; other historians state that it was as 326 twelve to one in Greece in the early period of her history ; but that about the time of Alexander the Great it was only as ten to one, which was also the proportion at Rome, and so continued to the time of Julius Caesar, when, on account of the quantity of gold brought from conquered countries, it was for a short time in proportion to silver only as seven and a half to one. In England, from the time of the Saxons to the discovery of America, the relative value of gold and silver was as about eleven to one j in the time of Elizabeth, thirteen to one - } and is now about fifteen to one. GOLD FISH came originally from China, where they grew to the size of a herring : they were brought to this country in 1690, and were common about the middle of the last century. GRACE. The ancients commenced their feasts by pouring out libations to the Gods, and offering them the first fruit of the viands : the Jews were also accustomed to give thanks previous to their meals, and this was continued by the Chris- tians : the dishes of the Anglo-Saxons were sometimes signed with the cross. GRAMMAR. The first grammar for the use of children was published at Rome by Donatus, the grammarian, about the commencement of the fourth century hence grammars were formerly called Donats. GREEK. We may distinguish three different ages of the Greek tongue, which, notwithstanding the revolutions to which the country where it is spoken has been subject, has preserved its purity better than any other known language : the first age terminates about the period when Constantinople became the capital of the Roman empire in the east, when a great 321 variety of new words and phrases, both in the religious, eiriT, and military departments of the state were introduced ; and the second ends soon after the destruction of the city by the Mahometans - } for these barbarians considering all books as useless, except the Koran, destroyed such as fell into their hands, and punished those who ventured to preserve them > and thus the language being reduced to a common oral communication, gradually lost its classical purity. The Greek language was introduced into this country in the thirteenth century, by John de Basinge, or Basingstoke, Archdeacon of Leicester, who was partly educated in the University of Oxford, and partly in that of Paris, from which place he travelled to Athens, and on his return to England brought with him a great number of Greek manuscripts, and translated from the Greek into Latin a grammar, which he entitled " The Donatus of the Greeks :" he died in 1252 : but the beauties of the Greek language were not generally appreciated in Europe till some time after the fall of Con- stantinople, and the study of it was revived in this country by Erasmus in the commencement of the sixteenth century. GRENADE, or Grenado. Thuasius observes that gre- uades were first used by the military, at the siege of Wach- tendorch, about the close of the sixteenth century, and that the inventor of them, who was an inhabitant of Venlo, occa- sioned the destruction of two-thirds of that city by the acci- dental bursting of one. A company of grenadiers, so called from then- making use of hand grenades, which they flung into the enemy's works previous to the assault, was estab- lished in France in 1667, and grenadier regiments are still common in France and England, though the use of the gre- nade has been long exploded. GRUB-STREET. Pennant says, this street has long been* proverbial for the residence of authors of the less fortunate tribe, and the trite and illiberal jest of the most favoured, which character it seems to have obtained so far back as during the Protectorate of Cromwell, when the street con- sisted of low and mean houses, which were let out in lodg- ings, in many instances, to persons whose occupation was publishing anonymously, what were then deemed libellous or treasonable works. GUARDS. The remotest antiquity affords instances of a domestic body of guards being established for the protection of the chief person in the state : no doubt therefore they are as ancient as monarchy itself. The Roman emperors had for their guard the prostorian cohorts as established by Augustus. The corps called the yeomen of the guards, vulgarly beef-eaters (from their being stationed in the King's presence near the beaufeter, or sideboard), was raised by Henry VII. in 1485, and armed with bows and harquebusses, afterwards changed for the halbert or partizan ; they are at present dressed after the fashion of Henry VIII.'s time} their first commander or captain was the Earl of Oxford. GUILD, a Fraternity or Company. The origin of these societies is thus related : " It being a law among the Saxons that every freeman of fourteen years of age should find sure- ties for his good conduct, certain neighbours consisting of ten families, entered into an association and became bound for each other, either to produce him who committed an offence, or make a satisfaction to the party injured in money j but the precise period when these Guilds were first consti- tuted in England is uncertain, since they existed long prior to their having any formal license for that purpose. Anderson, in his History of Commerce, says that Merchant Guilds or Fraternities, afterwards styled Corporations, came into use about the close of the eleventh century, and proba- bly originated from the constitutions of the free cities in 393 Italy, where trade and manufactures had been some time established j the first on record is the licence to the men of Coventry, to erect a Merchant's Guild, by Edward III., in 1339. GUNS. (See Cannon, Fire-arms.) GUNPOWDER. If we are not indebted to the Hindoos or Chinese for the invention of gunpowder, it is most pro- bably a discovery of the Greeks, and was originally employed for the entertainment of mankind in the fabrication of fire- works. The earliest authentic account that we have of this compo- sition, is to be found in a work written by our Roger Bacon; at Oxford, in 1216, and entitled "The Secrets of Art and Nature 5" wherein he states, that <( from saltpetre and other ingredients, we are able to make a fire that shall burn at what distance we please 5 and that sounds and corruscations resem- bling thunder and lightning might be formed in the air, much more to be dreaded than those that happen naturally, inasmuch as by its power armies and cities might be destroyed. As Bacon does not mention this as a new discovery, it is supposed he acquired his information from a work on Pyrotechny, by Marcus Gracchus, an ancient author, who lived about the beginning of the nintii century, and in his treatise entitled " Liber Ignium," describes the nature of the composition requisite for the making of rockets. A knowledge of its destructive powers, and the advantages to be derived from it in war, is said to have originated early in the fourteenth century, in consequence of Bartholdus Schwartz, a German chemist, having left some nitre and charcoal in a mortar, which by some accident took fire, and blew the stone to a considerable distance 5 hence Schwartz is by Polydore Virgil represented as the inventor of gunpowder, and the name of mortar was afterwards given to a species of artillery employed for throwing balls at a great elevation. Du Cange states that mention is made of gun-powder in the registers of the Chambers of Accounts in France, as early as the year 1338 ; and Peter Mexia, in his " Various Readings," informs us that the Moors being besieged in 1343 by Alphonsus XI., King of Castile, discharged a sort of iron mortars upon them, which made a noise like thunder : by others it is affirmed that the Venetians, in their war with the Genoese in 1380, first made use of gun-powder, and that all Italy made complaints of it as a manifest contravention of fair warfare. It appears by an order of Henry V. in 1418, (noticed in the ninth volume of the Fsedera) that gun-powder was then manufactured in this country. GYPSIES. The origin of this tribe of vagabonds is some- what obscure at least the reason of the denomination is so. It is certain the ancient Egyptians had the character of great cheats, and were famous for the subtility of their impostures, whence the name might afterwards pass proverbially into other languages : be this as it will, there is scarce any country of Europe but has its Egyptians, though not all of them under that denomination : the Italians call them cin- gani 5 the Germans, zigeuner j the French, Bohemians, &c. Munster relates that they made their first appearance in Germany in 1517, exceedingly tawny and sun-burnt : ten years afterwards they came into France, and thence passed into England : several historians inform us that when Sultan Selim conquered Egypt in the year 1517, many of the natives refused to submit to the Turkish yoke, but being at length subdued and banished, they agreed to disperse in small parties over the world, when they endeavoured to impose on the credulity of the people by a pretended knowledge of futurity, and gained a number of proselytes to their party in most of the states of Europe. It is conjectured that there are upwards of eight hundred thousand of these 325 adlers in Europe, of which the Desolated Greek provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia contain about 150,000, a vast pro- portion to a population of only a million and a-half : here they are in a state of perfect slavery, being purchased and disposable ; and though not legally punishable with death by their masters, are nevertheless frequently subjected to cruel treatment. The first accounts we have of gypsies in England is in the year 1530, when they were directed to leave the -country in fifteen days, or be imprisoned. 326 HABERDASHERS were anciently called Milliners of Milaners, on account of their dealing in articles imported from Milan -, they were incorporated into a company in the year 1447, but it is probable their number was not great, since in the reign of Hen. VI. there were not more than a dozen of Haberdashers in the whole city j however, during the reign of Elizabeth, they had increased so greatly, and their shops made so gay an appearance, that complaints were made of their seducing persons into extravagant expenditure. The business of the Haberdasher was not at that time merely confined to the articles of the ladies' wardrobe, but extended to the sale of cutlery, china and toys. HAIR. The ancient Greeks and Romans wore their hair long and flowing, till about the year 300 B. C., when Ticenius Mena introduced barbers, or hair-dressers, into Rome from Sicily, and with them the fashion of dressing or curling the hair with crisping irons and oils, as also of various dyes and perfumes j and even false hair was occasionally worn. The Britons as well as the ancient Gauls delighted in long hair, and permitted it to grow to a very inconvenient length $ for this reason Julius Csesar on subduing the Gauls, made them cut off their hair, as a token of subjection j and hence, according to some, has arisen the custom of those who made choice of a cloistered life, of having their hair shaven off, to shew that they bid adieu to all earthly ornaments, and made a vow of perpetual subjection to their superiors. 327 The Anglo-Saxons, Danes, and afterwards the Normans, considered the luxuriancy of their locks as an important per- sonal ornament j nor were they easily prevailed upon to retrench them, though instigated thereto by the repeated admonitions of the clergy. We are informed that Bishop Serle preached a Sermon before Henry I., against the detest- able fashion of wearing long hair, with such effect upon the King and his courtiers, that they consented to part with their curls, and the prudent prelate not willing to give them an opportunity of changing their mind, instantly drew out a pair of shears from his sleeves, and performed the operation upon the greater part of them with his own hands, beginning with the Sovereign himself; for the parade of long hair, had become more and more obnoxious according to the progress of Christianity, being not only considered as effeminate, but as utterly inconsistent with the profession of those who bore the cross, and who were under a vow to assist in the recovery of the Holy Land. The practice of shaving the head as a religious ceremony is extremely ancient, and was probably adopted by the Israel- ites from the Egyptians, and hence found its way into our church, at a very early period, though the precise time is not known j according however to Isidore Hispalensis, the cleri- cal tonsure is of apostolical institution. It was the custom of people of quality in the eighth century to have their children's hair cut the first time by persons they had a particular honour and esteem for, who in virtue of this ceremony were reputed a sort of spiritual parents or godfathers to them. Hair-cloth was worn in the middle ages, by monks and penitents, next their skin, probably in imitation of the cloth of camel's hair worn by St. John the Baptist. HAIR-POWDER. The Romans conceived the sprink- ling of gold dust in their hair improved their appearance > 328 for we read that the Emperor Commodus used to wear a wig powdered with scrapings of gold, which adhered to it by means of glutinous perfumes. The present kind of hair- powder is supposed to have been first used by some ballad- singers at a fair, held near Paris, in 1614 ; and afterwards by Mary of Medicis, Queen of France, in 163O j it was not, how- ever, introduced into this country till the time of George I., when it is noticed that two ladies of rank wore powder in their hair j yet it is stated that at the coronation of George II., there were only two hair-dressers in London. In 1795, when a tax was laid on such as used hair-powder, it was estir- mated there were 5O,000 hair-dressers in Great Britain, and the produce of the tax, at one guinea a head, though subject to a great many exemptions, amounted to 56187,085. HARE. The ancient Britons made use of this animal for the purposes of divination j a considerable number of them were imported from the Continent in 1517. HARLEQUIN. (See Pantomime.! HALBERD. A military weapon, formerly called alle-berd> as being double- winged or edged, the same as the Bipennes, used by the Danes and Normans. HAND. The hand was used by the Saxons for the pur- pose of measuring the height of persons, which is still con- tinued with respect to horses. HANDKERCHIEF. The Anglo-Saxons had one hang- ing to the left side. HARNESS. The French still make use of rope harness, and frequently have nine horses to their Diligences, or stage- coaches, which are driven three a-breast, by two postillions 3S9 only; the ancients always harnessed their horses a-breasi, never lengthways. HARP. This instrument is said to have been invented by Jubnl before the flood. Bruce discovered the painting of one in an excavated mountain, near Thebes, which had been used as a sepulchre for her kings. The harp of David, called in Hebrew Chinner, ought, according to the opinion of the learned, to have been translated Lyre, from its having but three strings. The harp was the favourite musical instrument of all the Northern nations, and was in great esteem under the British, Saxon, Danish, and Norman kings j the harper, or minstrel, being always treated with great respect, and permitted to wander unmolested in the camps of opposing armies. It was also, formerly, considered a part of the regalia of Ireland, for history acquaints us that the son of Brion Booromh, a king of Ireland, who was slain in 1014, sought protection at Rome, carrying with him the crown, harp, and other regalia of his father, which he resigned to the Pope; and Adrian IV., in his bull constituting Henry II. King of Ireland, alleges this circumstance as a proof of his sovereignty over the island, these regalia were preserved in the Vatican till the time of Henry VIII., when the Pope sent the harp to that King, with the title of Defender of the Faith, but kept the crown, which was of massive gold. The harp is now deposited in Trinity College, Dublin. The harp was introduced into the arms of Ireland, in the time of Henry II., and on coins in the time of Henry VIII. j it was quartered with the arms of England by James I. Pedals to the harp, by which the half notes are produced* were invented by a German, in 1757. HARPSICHORD. This instrument was invented at Florence about the close of the seventeenth century. The 2 u 330 first brought to England was made by Father Wood, an English monk, at Rome, for Mr. Crisp, and purchased of him by Fulk Greville, Esq. ; the pedals were invented by Loeschman. HAT. Both the Greeks and Romans were many ages without any regular covering for the head : when either the rain or sun was troublesome, the lappet of the gown was thrown over them j and hence it is that all the ancient statues appear bareheaded, excepting sometimes a wreath or the like j afterwards a hood was attached to the gown, and occasionally thrown over the head j and at length a small covered cap, made of the same materials as the gown, became to be usually worn ; and to this day caps of broad cloth, like those made for the convenience of travelling, are com- mon throughout France. According to Father Daniel, hats were introduced about the commencement of the fifteenth century ; and Charles VII. is described as making his public entry into Rouen in 1449, having on his head a hat lined with red velvet, and sur- mounted with a plume or tuft of feathers : in process of time the clergy also adopted this part of the habit ; but it was considered irregular j and several decrees were published, for- bidding any priest or religious person to appear abroad in a hat without a coronet, and enjoining them to keep to the use of chaperoons, made of black cloth, with decent coronets fastened to them, under the penalty of suspension and ex- communication. The word " hat" itself, is of Saxon origin j for we read of a fellen b own fortune, and by his perseverance established the most important manufacture that Ireland ever possessed. The filamentous parts of different vegetables have been employed in different countries, for the same mechanic uses as hemp and flax among us. In Madagascar different kinds of cloth are prepared from the filaments of the bark of certain trees, boiled in strong ley, and some of these cloths are very fine, and approach to the softness of silk j the stalks of nettles are sometimes used for like purposes, even in France. In the Transactions of the Swedish Academy for 1750, we have an account of a strong kind of cloth being made of hop stalks. LITANY. In the'first ages of the church the litany was only used upon occasion of solemn processions, when the people walking barefoot made the responses with great devotion; but by the Council of Toledo the litany was directed to be used every month throughout the year, and afterwards upon every Wednesday and Friday, to which our rubric has added Sunday. Before the last review of the Common Prayer in 1661 the litany was a distinct service by itself, and used some tune after the morning prayer was over. LITHOGRAPHY. (See Engraving.^ LITHOTOMY. The art of cutting for the stone is as ancient as the time of Hippocrates. LITTER. This kind of carriage, similar to the Asiatic Palenqueen, was common to the Romans under the name of Lectica Though no mention is made of it in our history as being carried by men, yet horse litters for the convenience of 380 travelling were frequent during the Norman period, and even so late as the time of Elizabeth. LITURGY. (See Common Prayer.} LIVERIES for servants and dependents are first noticed under the Roman Emperors. The royal liveries of England were under the Plantagenets, white and red the house of Lancaster, white and blue of York, murrey and blue of Tudor, white and green of the Stuarts, yellow and red and of Hanover, scarlet and blue Formerly the Barons, with the view of implicating their dependents in their quarrels, made them assume a kind of livery, but this was prohibited by Richard II. LOGARITHMS. A series of artificial numbers, invented by John Napier, Baron of Murchiston, in Scotland, in 1616. LONGEVITY. Immediately after the creation, when the world was to be peopled by one man and woman, the ordinary period of life was nine hundred years and upwards, but none of the Patriarchs after the Flood, except Shem, reached the age of five hundred years. In the second generation, none exceeded two hundred and forty -, and in the third generation, two hundred years. As population increased, longevity be- came more rare, and at length seventy or eighty years was considered as the probable duration of human life, and to this extent it has generally been estimated from the time of Moses to the present day. There are however many instances in modern times of people living to an extraordinary great age. Abstinence has been found extremely beneficial in prolonging life the noble Venetian, Cornero, who was in so delicate a state of health at the age of forty that his life was despaired of, recovered, and lived to near 10O, by the mere effect of abstinence ; and 381 the primitive Christians of the East, who retired from the persecutions of the Romans into the deserts of Arabia and Egypt, are represented as being healthful and cheerful, with, as Cassian informs, only bread and water for their food. With this frugal fare St. Anthony reached the age of 105 years j James the Hermit, lO4j Arsenus, the tutor of the Emperor Arcadius, 120; St. Epethonius, 115; Simeon the Stylote, 112; and Renauld, 120. Others by temperance and labour have in our own and other countries, arrived at a still greater age, and even to exceed that of Terah in the third generation after the flood, as the following list of per- sons of 11O years of age and upwards, will testify. NAMES. AGE. REMARKS. John Stewart 1 1 1 of Aberfeldie, Perthshi re, died 1 804. Thomas Warden, 111 Epping. Elizabeth Williams, 111 Devon. * John North, 111 Yorkshire. Thomas Robinson 1 1 1 Newcastle. Ann Pickup, 111 Lancashire. James Congham, 112 Mayo. James Beaty, 112 Meath. James Healy, 112 Cheshire, Middlewich, died March, 1781. James Sager, 112 Lancashire, 1668. Phil. Trans. III. Ann Harris, 113 Cornwall. Mary Harris, 1 13 Falmouth. Ann Taylor, 114 Worcester. Isabella Sharpe, 114 Gateshead. Robert Blakeney, Esq. 1 1 4 Armagh. Patrick Ryan, 115 Lisbury, Northumberland. James Ramsey, 115 Collercoates. A French Soldier, 115 Living. Gent. Mag. Sep. 1822. Belinda Crawford, 115 Galway. Charles Haveram, 115 Ireland. Elizabeth Burnet, 116 Ireland. 382 William Ruthven, John Wilson, Elizabeth Freer, Alice, a slave girl, Cornelius Madigan, Mrs. Sands, William Postell, Sarah Malcomsome Francis Bons, A poor woman, Robert Parre, Mrs. Bowles, Margaret Sect, John Trice, Martha Hannah, Robt. Montgomery, John Beyles, John Scrimshaw, Mary Innes, Mary Yates, Mary Meigham, David Cameron, John de la Samol, George King, John Taylor, William Beattie, William Watson, AGE. REMARKS 116 Scotland. 116 Suffolk. 116 Wigston Poor House. 116 Pennsylvania. 117 Clare. 120 Staffordshire. Fuller's 120 France. Bacons Hist. 1*21 Drumgerlin. 121 France. 123 Belfast. 124 Salop. His father died at the age of 109, and his grandfather 113 j. his great-grandfather was the ce- lebrated Thomas Parre, who died at the age of 152. 124 April, 1719. 125 See her tombstone, Dalkeith, Scot- land. 125 Worcester. Daily ^dv. March 1774, 126 Ireland. 126 Yorkshire. 126 Northampton, April 1706. See In- scription in the portico of AU Saints. 127 Dec. 6, 1711. 127 Glasnakelly Sky. 128 Shropshire. 129 Donoughmore. 130 1795. 130 1766. 130 1766. 130 1767. 130 1774, 130 1778. 383 NAMES. AGE. REMARKS. Robert Macbridge, 13O 178O. William Ellis, ISO Liverpool, Aug. 1C, 1780. F.ilzabeth Taylor, 131 1764. Elizabeth Merchant, 133 1761. Richard Lloyd, Mrs. Keith, Francis Agna, James Brockey, Catharine Lopez, James Harrison, Evan Williams, James Shele, Catharine Noon, Margaret Forster, John Mount, John Richardson, Robertson, Lucius Tultulla, William Sharpley, John Macdonough, 138 1768. Fairbrother, 138 177O. Mrs. Clumb, Margaret Patten, Thomas Dobson, Dumitur Raduly, 133 Lynches Guide to Health. 134 177^. 134 1777- 134 Devonshire ; living 1777- Daily Adv. Nov. 18. 134 Kingston, Jamaica, 1SO6. 135 1744. 135 Carmarthen Work-house, 1782. 136 1759. 136 1768. 136 Cumberland; living in 1771, and her daughter aged 1O4. 136 Scotland, 1776. Morning Post, Feb. 29th. 137 1772. 137 1793. 137 Fulgosusy Lib. VIII. 138 1757. 138 1722. 138 Lynches Guide to Health. 139 1766. 140 Transylvanai, 1782. Gen. Gazetteer. Galen, the Physician, 14O Pergamus. Michael Lawrence, 140 Buchanans Hist, of Scotland. William Leyland, 140 1752. Countess of Desmond 140 Ireland. RawleigKs Hist. A. Goldsmith, 140 Daily Adv. June 24, 1776. James Sands, 140 Staffordshire. Fullers Worthies-, his 384 &AMBS. AGE. REMARKS. wife died at the age of 12O. Pulo Timan, I4O A Surgeon at the village of Vander- mont, in Lorrain j the day before his death he performed, with a steady hand, and with profes- sional dexterity, the operation of cutting for the Cancer. Paris Paper, Oct. 25, 1825. Simon Sack, 141 Trionia, May 30, 1764. Abraham Paiba, 142 Charlestown, South Carolina. Gen. Gazetteer. Swarling, a monk, 142 1773. Countess of Ecclistonl43 Ireland. Fuller's Worthies. Charles M. Finday, 143 1773. John Effingham, 144 1757- Evaii Williams, 145 1782. Col. Thos. Winslow, 146 Ireland, Aug. 26, 1766. Chris. Drakenburgh, 146 Norway. Ann. Reg. 1770. St. David, William Mead, Album Marc, Francis Consist, Titus Fullonius, Thomas Newman, James Bowles, Thomas Parre, Thomas Danme, A Polish Peasant, Joseph Surringtonj William Edwards, 146 Cornwall. Rapins England. 148 1652. 150 Ethiopia. Hakew ell's Appendix. 150 Yorkshire, Jan. 1768. 15O Bononia. Fulgosus, Lib. VIII. 152 1542. 152 Warwickshire, Killingsworth, Aug. 15, 1656 152 Shropshire, Nov. 16, 1635. Phil. Trans.; at the age of 12O he married his second wife and had a son by her. 154 164S. 157 1762. 160 1796. 168 1668. 385 Name unknown, 168 The last annual obituary published at Petersburgh records the death of this person, who resided near Polatsk, on the frontier of Livo- nia. He had seen seven sove- reigns on the throne of Russia ; and remembered the death of Gustavus Adolphus : he had been a soldier in the thirty years' war ; and at the battle of Pultowa in 1709 he was fifty-one years of age 5 at the age of ninety-three he married his third wife, with whom he lived fifty years. The two youngest sons of this marriage were eighty-six and sixty-two, respectively, in the year 1796; the eldest of his other sons in the same year were ninety-five and ninety-two, re- spectively. The entire family of this patriarch comprises one hundred and thirty-eight descen- dants, who all lived together in the village of Polytyka, which the Empress Catherine the Second caused to be built for them, granting at the same time a con- siderable tract of land for their support. In the one hundred and sixty-third year of his age, this modern Nestor was in the enjoyment of the most robust health. Times Newspaper, Dec. 30, 1825. 3 D 386 Henry Jenkins, 169 Yorkshire j he was born twelve years before the battle of Flodden Field, which he perfectly remem- bered, and died at Ellerton-upon- S wale, December 8, 1670. Phil. Trans., Gent. Mag. 1822. Louise Truxo, a slave, 175 Tucoman, South America, living in 17SO. See London Chron. Oct. 5. A Mulatto Man, 180 North America; died in Frede- rick-town, 1797. Ctzartan Petrarch, 185 Mentioned in a letter from Hamel Brenix, the Dutch Envoy at Vienna, to the States-General, dated Jan. 29, 1724. Thomas Cam, 207 London. According to the Parish Register of St. Leonard, Shore- ditch, died 28th Jan. 1588. See County Chronicle, Dec. 13, 1791. LONGITUDE. It may be necessary to premise that in taking the longitude of a place, there must be a certain known position or meridian to which the place of observation refers, and which must have been ascertained by the same course of calculation this is effected either by the observations being made on the same day at both places, marking the difference in time, or by a reference to an astronomical Ephemis, in which the celestial phenomena are calculated for a known meridian, and the difference in time of the observation of the same phenomena in a distant part of the globe, gives the longitude in hours and minutes, being to the east of the known meridian, if occurring sooner than the time there mentioned ; and to the west, if later. Hence we may infer that, although, as already noticed, the ancients had a very accurate method of determining the 387 latitude of any place on the earth by means of the gnomon, they had no mode of ascertaining their longitude by celestial observations, as we read of no Ephemerises in those days, nor had they indeed the requisite instruments for that pur- pose, and therefore were reduced to the more simple expedient of admeasurement, which, without the assistance of a com- pass, must have been faulty in the extreme : eclipses of the sun and moon were indeed recorded at a very early period, and Thales is even said to have predicted them 5 but it is absurd to suppose that the ancients were capable of deducing the longitude by this method. The coasts of the Mediterra- nean, which might be presumed as well known to the Romans, were very inaccurately described by them : the difference of longitude between Alexandria ad Issum, the present Scandaroon, and Gibraltar, according to Ptolemy, being sixty-two degrees, whereas the real difference is only about forty-one and a half, making a geographical error in that distance of about twelve hundred miles. In the sixteenth century the eclipses of the sun and moon were strongly recommended, as a means of discovering the longitude ; and it was by a lunar eclipse that M. de Peirisk in 1635 ascertained the difference of longitude between Mar- seilles and Aleppo to be only thirty instead of forty-five degrees : the ablest astronomers however soon found that no clear deduction could be made of the longitude of any one place to any sufficient degree of exactness by these eclipses, which are frequently obscured at the time of observation, neither did they happen sufficiently often to be of any great utility hence several eminent astronomers, among whom was Ricciolus, who had collected the observations of no less than fifty-six eclipses of the sun and moon, between the years 156O and 1658, gave up the correction of geography by the application of eclipses of the sun and moon alone, as a fruit- less and desperate undertaking : at length, about the middle of the seventeenth century, John Dominic Cassini, Professor 33S of Astronomy at Bologna, suggested the expedient of having recourse to the eclipses of Jupiter s satellites (which had been discovered by Gallileo in 161O) for the purpose of ascertaining the longitude, and he therefore with much labour settled with accuracy their periodic revolutions, which he published in 1666, and in the years 1671 and 1672 had an opportunity of applying his theory to the rectifying of geography, in con- junction with M. Picard, who at the observatory of Tycho Brahc at Uraniburgh took the exact times of two immersions and three emersions of the first satellite of Jupiter, which were afterwards compared with the same phenomena as observed by- M. Cassini at the observatory at Paaris. This first experiment gave at once the difference of longitude in the dearest manner, and likewise afforded the certain prospect of rectifying the whole extent of geography as to longitude, upon principles that were self-evident, and not liable to any mistake whatever : in consequence of this suc- cess M. Picard and M. de la Hire were immediately employed in correcting the map of France, in doing which they were obliged to contract it every where within less boundaries than it was supposed, according to their former maps, to have occupied, insomuch that Louis XIV. jocosely observed that he found by their journey he had suffered a loss of half his kingdom. However accurately the longitude of places might be taken by these means on land, the motion of a vessel ren- dered them impracticable at seat and the early navigators had no means of estimating their longitude but by the computed run of the ship, ascertained by a log line, first used in 1570 ; and the dangers they incurred by this inaccurate method were sufficient to convince every enlightened Government, particularly of maritime states, of the importance of encou- raging, to the utmost effort of human ingenuity, what could be directed to the improvement of this defective state of navigation, and it became the general opinion of astronomers 389 that the moon's motion was the most promising phenomenon to select ; though long after the idea was suggested, neither lunar tables nor instruments were sufficiently exact to render any method founded on this theory practically useful. The first person who suggested a mode of discovering the longitude from observing the distance between the moon and some star or the sun, was John Werner of Nuremberg, who printed his annotations on the first book of Ptolemy's Geo- graphy in 1514, and his plan was recommended by Gemma Frisius in 1530 $ Kepler in 163O; and more particularly by John Morin, Professor of Mathematics, in Paris, in 1635, who reduced the theory to practice, and procured from Cardinal Mazarine a pension of two thousand livres : those however who attempted to practise his method, had to struggle with great difficulties ; and the requisite calculations were so formidable that none but astronomers, or at least very able calculators, could possibly attempt them : at length, from the very considerable improvements made by Sir Isaac Newton in the theory of the moon, in which he was followed by Euler, Halley, and others, a set of lunar tables were cal- culated by Mayer in 176*0, which, in connection with tlie improved state of mathematical instruments, has so greatly facilitated the operation, that it has now become the general and most correct method of ascertaining the longitude at sea j and calculations which could not be performed by the most expert mathematicians in less than four hours, can now be effected in ten minutes. Clocks were applied to the purposes of astronomy so early as 1484, and the first person who proposed to ascertain the relative longitude of any place or ship at sea, by means of an horological machine for indicating the time of the first meridian, was Gemma Frisius, about the year 153O. This method was also described and recommended in Carpenter's Geography, published in 1635 ; but the imperfect state of horological machines at that time, prevented his 390 accomplishing the design ; the idea, however, once suggested, was valuable, and stimulated ingenious mechanists in times succeeding, to attempt the accomplishment of an object of such national importance. The discovery of the isochronism of the pendulum turned the minds of ingenious men to the improvement of clocks : and we find that Lord Kincardine tried a marine pendulum clock, constructed by Dr. Hook, in the year 16623 and that Christian Huygens, the celebrated Dutch mathematician and mechanician, contrived a time keeper, actuated by a spring, and regulated by a pendulum, which was tried at sea by Major Holmes, in the year 1664, and spoken of by him in favourable terms. The pendulum, however, was not only unsteady in its action during the tossing of a ship, but subject to a variation in its length by change of temperature, and therefore the balance which had preceded the pendulum was again resorted to, as a regulator of portable time-keepers; and though it was found incompetent to its office in a detached state, yet by the aid of a slender spring to quicken and regulate its vibra- tions, it has ultimately turned out to be of eminent utility. The introduction of this spring, which is also called the pen- dulum spring, from its possessing the isochronal property of the pendulum, is attributed by F. Berthond to Hooke, who applied it first in a straight form, which Huygens soon afterwards changed to a spiral form, as being more favou- rable to isochronism. In the year 1762, Harrison conside- rably improved upon this balance or pendulum spring, by forming it of different metals, which by opposing each other, checked the alteration in its powers, which would otherwise arise from the change of climate, and thus first established a regular horological machine of such perfection, as to deterr mine the difference of the longitudes of places with great accuracy, and for which lie received the parliamentary reward of 3610,000. Since his time many other improvements have been effected in time-keepers by Arnold, Mudge, Brockbank, 391 Earnshaw and others ; and chronometers are now brought 10 that perfection, that they are generally resorted to both at sea and land, as the readiest method of ascertaining the longitude, by comparing the apparent time of the place, as discovered by the mean of a series of observations of the sun's altitude, with the mean of the times indicated by the chronometer., reduced to apparent time : the difference (regard being; had to the daily rate of going of the chrono- meter) giving the longitude of the place of observation. The Spanish Government under Philip III. in 1598, first offered a reward for the best practical mode of discovering the longitude at sea j and this example was soon afterwards followed by the States of Holland, but not adopted by the British Parliament till 1714. LOOKING-GLASSES. (See Mirrors.} LORD. This title of honour, according to Camden, is of Saxon origin, being derived from llaford, afterwards written lofordj which literally signifies a bread giver. LOTTERIES. The Romans in the time of Augustus used to entertain their friends with lotteries j the tickets being all prizes were handed round in a vase, gratis. The Emperors also indulged themselves in this amusement ; and we read of tickets entitling the holder to six slaves, and of others being only of the value of six flies. The modern system of raising a fund by means of a lottery had its rise in Italy, in the fifteenth century, and was adopted by the French, in 1539. The first public lottery in England was raised for the purpose of repairing the roadsteads and harbours of the kingdom, and was drawn at the west door of St. Paul's cathedral, on the llth of June, 1569, the tickets being two shillings each and no blanks. The following is a copy of the lottery scheme : " A proposal for a very rich lottery without any blanks, containing a great number of good prizes, as well of ready money as of plate and certain sorts of merchandize, having been valued and prized by commandment of the Queen's most Excellent Majesty's order, to the intent that such commodities as may chance to arise thereof, after the charges borne, may be converted to- wards the reparation of the havens and strength of the realm, and towards such other further good works j the number of lots shall be 4O,OOO and no more, and every ?lot shall be the sum of ten shillings sterling and no more, to be filled by the feast of St. Bartholomew. The shew of prizes ate to be seen in Cheapside, at the sign of the Queen's Arms, at the house of Mr. Drick, goldsmith, servant to the Queen j printed by Henry Bynneman, 1567." The next lottery was in 1612, from which period they have been frequently intro- duced as a means of increasing the revenue ; they were, how- ever, suppressed in the time of Queen Anne, as injurious to the morals of her subjects j and this idea having been lately adopted by our Parliament, a law to prohibit the continuance of them was passed in 1826. LUES VENERKA. This disorder ,was totally unknown to the ancients ; and to the close of the fifteenth century we have ao description of local appearances that can be mistaken for it; yet in the following century it had become so well known as to have employed the pen of at least a hundred authors. It is generally admitted that the disease was ouiginally brought from Hispaniola in the West Indies by some of the followers of Columbus, and made its appearance in Europe in the year 1494 at Barcelona in Spain, when it soon spread through the whole city : but it does not appear to have attracted general attention till the following year, when it broke out with great virulence in the army of Charles VIII. of France, then besieging Naples. Caradinus Gilmus, in his " they might have been little inclined to receive. There is a certain class of people in India, which probably has existed from a remote period, who .are by profession story-tellers, and procure their livelihood by amusing their audience with the fertility of their invention j they also frequently form a part of the regular establishment of the wealthy. The tales of the Saracens, which are supposed to have been written in the eighth century, and known under the title of " The Arabian Nights' Entertainments," are still read with delight by all classes of people, and remain an unrivalled composition of romantic fiction. It is not impro- bable, that a taste for romances was first introduced into Europe by the Saracens, soon after their conquest of Spain, from whence it found its way into France and other countries, and received considerable strength during the period of the crusades. These romances were generally in rhyme, and were probably the composition of the minstrels. An excellent specimen of one is given in the Fairie Queen of Spenser, who 443 flourished during the reign of Elizabeth. About the close of the seventeenth century a more refined style of writing was introduced, and knights, dragons, and enchanted castles, were banished, for stories which, under the title of novels, conveyed a closer imitation of the manners of the age, and of the probable occurrences of life. 444 OATHS. The first mention of an oath in the sacred writings, is that taken by Abraham when he ratified the cove- nant entered into between him and Abimelech, King of Gerah " And it came to pass at that time that Abimelech and Phicol, the chief captain of his host, spake unto Abraham, saying, God is with thee in all thou doest : now, therefore, swear unto me here, by God, that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son j but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned : and Abraham said, I will swear." It is not, however, stated in what manner this oath was taken j but we find soon afterwards that when Abraham was desirous of securing a wife for his son Isaac from his native country of Mesopotamia, he called the chief servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, and said unto him, " Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh ; and I will make thee swear, by the Lord, the God of heaven^, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, but thou shalt go unto my country and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac j and the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning that 445 matter :" and thus a form seems to have been established, when the oath was to be taken by a servant to his master, or a subject to his sovereign, and probably gave rise to the feudal method of swearing homage by putting the hands between the knees, and within the hands of the Lord para- mount j but amongst equals, or when the oath was to be obligatory on people of superior rank, it seems to have been the custom among the Hebrews for the juror to hold up his right hand towards heaven, which explains a passage in the one hundred and forty-fourth psalm, " Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood 5" and although the forms of oaths, like other religious cere- monies, have varied in different countries, yet that of laying one hand on the altar, while the other was raised to heaven, seems to have been generally practised by the Greeks and Romans, Carthaginians and Germans, and even among the early Christians, though afterwards various other modes were adopted, according to the importance of the subject, and the rank of the parties interested. Oaths are said to have been first introduced in our judicial proceedings, in the commencement of the ninth century. Archbishop Paley is of opinion that the term corporal oath is borrowed from the ancient custom of swearing over the host or corpus christi, when it was customary to touch the corporate, or cloth, which covered the consecrated elements. The coronation oath was first taken by Ethelred II. in 979. OBSERVATORY. Most of the nations which have en- couraged astronomical enquiries, boast of having established observatories by which the motions of the celestial bodies could be more accurately ascertained j for this purpose, according to some, the lofty temple of Belus and the pyra- mids of Egypt were erected. The earliest building however noticed as exclusively appropriated to astronomical observa- tions is the observatory at Pekin in China, said to have been 446 founded so early as the thirteenth century, and which was supplied with proper mathematical instruments by Father Verbiest, who had been appointed to the charge of it in 1669. There are still the remains of some observatories con- structed at Benares, Delhi, and at Jeypour in India, in the six- teenth century 5 the one at Delhi appears to have been a large circular building, having a number of openings or windows in the walls, and a pillar or a gnomon in its centre ; each of these windows had an appropriate astronomical term, and at night the position of the heavenly bodies was defined by the window or house, in which it might be seen by a person stationed at the pillar, and during the day the time was regulated from the particular window through which the sun shone on the gnomon. The first regular observatory in Europe was erected under the superintendence of Tycho Brahe, at Cassel, in 1561, by order of William I., landgrave of Hesse, and in 1577, the celebrated observatory, called Uramburgh, was built for Tycho Brahe, by Frederick II. of Denmark, in the small island of Hwen in the Sound. Here the motions of the celestial bodies were accurately defined, a new catalogue of the stars, which had not been attempted since the days of Hipparchus, was formed ; and a method of ascertaining the longitude by the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites discovered, which for its accuracy and simplicity stands unrivalled. Near a century, however, elapsed before the impor- tance of fixed observatories, in promoting the science of navigation, began to be duly appreciated by the European states, and it was not till 1675, that any public measures were taken by our government for the encouragement of astrono- mical pursuits : in this year, however, a building was erected at Greenwich, on the scite of the ancient moated tower of Duke Humphrey, uncle to Henry VI., and received the ap- pellation of the Royal Observatory. Previous to the erection of observatories, it seems to have 447 been generally agreed upon by astronomers to consider the first meridian as passing through Ihe island of Ferroej but afterwards the European states assumed their first meridian from their principal cities, where they generally had an ob- servatory established : hence in all English maps the longi- tude is deduced from the meridian of Greenwich, while in foreign maps, it is taken from Paris, Rome, Madrid, &c. OIL. The fat of animals was probably used for the pur- poses of affording light, long before the method of extracting oil from vegetables was discovered, the period of which is, however, of great antiquity, for we find that olive oil was used in the consecration of the vessels in the tabernacle, and for the anointment of the high priest, and from many parts of the Old Testament, it is evident that oil was used as well for culinary purposes, as for that of illumination. Oil- cloth is stated to have been first manufactured by Richard Bailey, of Ludgate-hill, in 166O. OPERA. This species of theatrical amusement had its rise in Florence, about the close of the sixteenth century j from whence it passed into Italy and France. An English opera was introduced by Sir William Davenant, in 1656, and Psyche was performed in 1673 j but the first musical drama attempted in England, after the manner of the Italians, was in 1707, being a translation of the Italian opera of Arsinoe, Queen of Naples, in which the English words were set to Italian airs j the first opera performed wholly in Italian and by Italian singers, was Almaheide, in 172O. Dancing was introduced about the year 177O. Opera-glasses or telescopes, for viewing obliquely, were invented by Hevelius, in 1637. OPIUM. The narcotic powers of this extract from the poppy were known to the Greeks, about 300 B. C., and it was 448 used as an opiate both by them and the Romans ; its medi- cinal properties, however, were not fully understood till about the middle of the seventeenth century, when Sydenham administered it in a liquid state, which, from its soothing powers and beneficial effects, received the name of laudanum, from the Latin, laudare, to praise. ORATORIO. The origin of theatrical representations con- nected with Sacred History, and set to music, is by many traced to the ancient plays called Mysteries, which were com- mon in the twelfth century; but that particular kind of sacred music, which is occasionally exhibited at our theatres under the name of an oratorio, is so called from its having been first performed in the oratory, or chapel, of Fileppo Neri, a nobleman of Florence, about the year 1550 ; and afterwards becoming fashionable throughout Europe, was introduced on the English stage during Lent, about the year 1730, at the recommendation of Handel. ORGAN, The invention of the organ, as now constructed, is generally attributed to the modern Greeks, during the period of their first emperors, and a description of one, differ- ing from the hydraulicon from its being blown by a bellows, and played by keys, is given in a Greek epigram in the Anthologia, attributed to the Emperor Julian, in 364, of which the following is a translation : " I see reeds of a new species, the growth of another and a brazen soil, agitated by a blast rushing from a leathern cavern beneath their roots, and producing melodious sounds, as the keys dance under the skilful fingering of a robust performer." The first organ which has been noticed in the western part of Europe was that sent from Constantinople, by Cons tan- tine IV. as a present to King Pepin, in 757- The period when this instrument was introduced into churches, is involved in considerable obscurity, though there 449 is little doubt but the Greeks set the example j we read that Lewis le Debonnaire, about the year 840, furnished the Chapel at Aix la Chapelle with an organ, which was probably procured from the East j this organ seems to have answered as a model for the manufacturing of several others by the Germans, and for the general introduction of them into the western part of Europe 5 for it is stated that John VIII. and his successors placed several organs made by the Germans in the Italian churches, and that the art of manufacturing them became the employment of the order of monks de- voted to manual labour. WilHam of Malmsbury, who wrote about the year 1120, informs us that St. Dunstan gave an organ to the abbey of Malmsbury during the reign of King Edgar, or about the year 965, which was made under his direction. Du Cange, on the authority of Walstan, men- tions that the organ in Westminster Abbey, probably placed there by St. Dunstan, had twenty-six pair of bel- lows, four hundred pipes, and required seventy men to work it 5 from which it appears that the first organs were constructed in a very clumsy manner, nor was any material improvement made in them till about the com- mencement of the fifteenth century. The monastery of St. Alban's was celebrated for its organ in 1450; at which time organs were common in the abbies and cathe- drals, though they are not noticed in parish churches till the commencement of the seventeenth century. The pedals to organs were invented by Bernard in 148O ; and stops were introduced about the year 1650. Barrel or table-organs are noticed in 1680. ORRERY. According to Desagulier, George Graham invented a machine in 1715, for Prince Eugene, which re- presented the annual and diurnal motions of the earth, and the synodic period of the moon; and Rowley, one of the work- men employed, from its model constructed a similar machine, 3 M with the addition of the planetary movements, for the Earl ojf Orrery, from which circumstance it was afterwards called *fc Orrery. PAGE. Until the commencement of the crusades the term " page" was commonly bestowed on all children employed in menial offices, it being derived from the Greek word, " pais," an infant ; but at that period it became customary for the knights to have a youth in constant attendance, to carry part of their armour, and to be occasionally sent on messages ; and as he was probably selected for his appearance, well dressed, and had the advantage of being always in good company, the term " page" became one of distinction, and children of respectable parents, under this appellation, were introduced into the establishment of all people of rank, being, while young, employed by the ladies to hold up their trains, and amuse them with their prattle, and when of a proper age, transferred to their lord, and instructed in the military exercises of those days. PAINTING^ It would be in vain to attempt tracing the origin of an art of so great an antiquity as that of painting or drawing, and which was practised by the Egyptians at a very early period of their history, and by them communicated to the Greeks. Pliny informs us that the most ancient Greek painting recorded in history, was a representation of the battle of the Magnetes, purchased, for its weight in gold, by Condaules, King of Lydia, of Bularchus, the artist, in the sixteenth Olympiad, or about 70O B. C. Zeuxis and Apelles, who flourished during the fourth and third centuries before 452 the Christian era, have been highly celebrated for their exquisite productions of the pencil, especially in that branch of it which may be styled portrait-painting, for it is supposed that the ancient Greeks bestowed little attention on perspec- tive, and were but indifferently acquainted with the just dis- tribution of light and shade, and consequently their best pro- ductions would not bear competition with the highly-finished performances of the modern Italian school. The Romans were too much occupied in their ambitious projects, to devote much of their time to the cultivation of the liberal arts ; but mention is made of .Fabius, a noble Patrician, who acquired the surname of Pictor, from his having made a painting of the temple of Salus, about 30O B,C. The em- ployment, however, was generally considered as effeminate, and even under the emperors, when Rome rioted in magnifi- cence and luxury, and the paintings of Greece were in great request, there does not appear to have been any Roman artist, whose name was worthy of being transmitted to future ages. Painting, when considered as uniting under that term, in- vention, composition, design, chiaro obscuro, perspesiive and colouring, may be fairly stated to have had its rise in Florence, under Giotto, in the commencement of the fourteenth century, and more particularly from the period of the foundation of the Academy of St. Luke's, in Florence, in 1350, which has pro - duced some of the greatest luminaries in the art, among whom may be mentioned Leonardo di Vinci, Bonarotti, and Raphael. One of the most important discoveries in the modern practice of painting, was the combining of colours with oil, instead of size and water, which is attributed to John Van Eyck, a native of Brussels, in the commencement of the fifteenth century. Many, however, date it from an earlier period, and it may probably have some connection with the system of encausting adopted by the ancients for the preservation of their paintings ; however this may be, it is certain that oil as a vehicle for colour, was not generally introduced till after the death of Eyck. Dibdin informs us that the earliest known specimen of portrait painting in Great Britain, is in the time of Richard III. : but the English appear to have been so much engaged in foreign wars and domestic troubles during the whole of the fifteenth century, that painting is scarcely noticed $ and though Henry VIII. invited over Holbein and Titian, and Charles I. Rubens and Vandyke, yet no British artist of any eminence is mentioned prior to Sir Godfrey Kneller, who commenced as portrait painter about the year 168O, and practised for five successive reigns almost without a rival. PALACE. The term palatium was given by the Roman emperors to their residence on the Palatine Mount. M PANTOMIME. Dr. Clark states that the modern panto- mime was brought to Italy from ancient Greece, that Harle- quin is Mercury, the sword or wand being the substitute for the harp, and the cap the fez worn by that god on the coins of Elnos ; the Columbine, Psyche -, the Clown, Momus, (his painted face and wide mouth being taken from the ancient masks), and the Pantaloon, Charon. PAPER. Previous to the invention of this necessary article, mankind were accustomed to record their sentiments upon various materials, such as stone, lead, skins, cotton, or linen cloth, and the bark and leaves of trees, the characters being generally cut on them by a sharp pointed instrument, as is still customary in many parts of India. Paper, so called from its having been originally made from the pith or inner filaments of the Egyptian plant, papyrus, is said to have been manufactured at Memphis, about a thousand years before the Christian era, though it was not known in Europe till some time after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the 454 Great. The Romans introduced several improvements, by bleaching it to an extraordinary whiteness, and reducing it to a smooth and polished surface j how long this kind of paper continued in use cannot be ascertained ; according to Maffei, it was not employed for the recording of public transactions after the commencement of the fifth century, while others state it was common in the tenth century. The Romans had "HI , ./::; fna -"<*.. <.-/-> bo;;:?.- >M /' -, rr-.T* ,,V ,.-,.,( also a method of manufacturing paper from the bark of the philura and other trees, and hence the term liber as well as that of volumen, was frequently given to their works. i"he paper manufactured by the Chinese from the bark of the bamboo, is probably of equal antiquity with that made from the papyrus. Martini informs us that the Chinese, about 120, B.C., had invented a superior kind of paper, made from silk, the art of manufacturing which found its way into Persia and Arabia about the commencement of the seventh century. The Arabs, however, substituted cotton, the produce of their own country, in the place of silk, and thus paper made from cotton being imported into Europe, and found in many re- spects more convenient, and less liable to tear than that of the papyrus, became to be generally used. The most ancient specimen of this kind of paper in Europe, is a manuscript of the tenth century, in the royal library at Paris. The kind of paper, now in common use, is made from linen ra^s, and is by some stated to liave been first manufactured at Constantinople, and to have been brought into Spain,' after the destruction of that city, by some refugee Greeks, who settled at Valencia Others, however, with more probability, assert it to have been the invention of the Arabs, who, at an early period, introduced it into Spain, from whence^ in the thirteenth century, it was carried into Germany and France According to Prideaux, one of the earliest specimens of this description of paper is deposited in the university of Rentelm, in Germany, having the seal and signature of Adolphus, Count of Schomberg, dated 1239; and there is a letter from Joinville to St. Louis, written on this paper, about the year 1260. Prideaux also assures us, that this piiper was brought to England in the commencement of the fourteenth century, and that he had seen the register of some acts of John Crom- den, prior of Ely, made on paper dated in 132O. In the Cotton Library there are several manuscripts on paper made from linen, which can be traced to the year 1335. We have no means of ascertaining at what period paper was first manufactured in England -, but a paper-mill was erected at Dartford, in 1588, by Spellman, a German ; which probably was the first of the kind. However, the paper was of a very inferior description, till about the year 169O, when in consequence of hostilities with France, a considerable dif- ficulty attended the importation of good paper, which neces- sarily led to a greater attention being paid to our own manu- facture, and now the English paper may be put in competi- tion with any of foreign production. Paper-hangings were first attached to walls in the stead of silk or tapestry, early in the seventeenth century ; at which time also marbled or Turkish paper was manufactured in M Germany. " Paper pictures and portraits are first noticed as having been beautifully cut by Elizabeth Pyberg, who took the like- ness of William and Mary in 1699. PARCHMENT. Dr. Prideaux is of opinion that the copy of the law which Hilkiah found in the Temple, and sent to . King Josian, was written on this material, as no other could J; u '} , :. : Hi;, i be of so durable a nature as to last for 83O years ; and both Herodotus and Diodorus state that the Persians and lonians wiiiriM LII^ IMV^UUUU a utbiiuu L\^VI. JL lie use ui it woa Ccriainiy common in Rome, and all public acts were written on parch- ment in England, previous to the discovery of the manufac- 456 ture of paper from rags. Vellum is probably of equal anti- quity with that of parchment, yet no vellum manuscripts have been discovered prior to the sixth century. PARISH. By some this word is derived from Parochia, the name formerly given to the principal church in every city, and originally had the same signification as a diocese, being under the jurisdiction of a bishop. Such was the case in the early ages of Christianity in this island $ there was then no appropriation of ecclesiastical dues to any particular church, but every man was at liberty to contribute his tithes to what- ever priest or church he pleased, provided only that he did it to some, or if he made no special appropriation thereof, they were paid into the hands of the bishop, whose duty it was to distribute them amongst the clergy, and to apply them to other pious purposes, according to his discretion. Dioceses are supposed to have been first divided into parishes, about the close of the tenth century. According to Blackstone, the boundaries of parishes were originally ascertained by those of a manor or manors, the lords of which, as Christianity spread itself, began to build churches on their own demesnes, for the convenience of their tenants and retainers, directing them in return to appropriate their tithes to the maintenance of the officiating minister, instead of distributing them among the clergy of the diocese in general : this will account well enough for the frequent intermixture of parishes one with another ; for if a lord had a parcel of land detached from the main of his estate, but not sufficient to form a parish of itself, it was natural for him to endow his newly erected church with the titles of those disjointed lands : thus parishes were gradually formed, and parish-churches endowed with the tythes that arose within the circuit assigned : but some lands, either because they were in the hands of irreligious or careless owners, or were situate in forests or desert places, were never united to 457 any parish ; and therefore continue to this day extra-paro- chial, and their tithes are payable to the king instead of the bishop. Perambulations round parochial boundaries on Holy Thurs- day, are of considerable antiquity, and were performed with peculiar ceremonies to perpetuate the jurisdiction of the church. Parish- Clerks were formerly poor priests, whose business it was to officiate at the altar, and to visit the sick and sprin- kle them with holy water. Parish Settlements had their rise ia the time of Richard II. Parish Registers commenced on the suppression of mo- nasteries. Formerly it was the custom to assemble the parishioner? by tolling the largest bell. PARK. The Saxons had long tracts of land inclosed, which were called deor folds, or deer folds. Du Cange says the first park was built at Woodstock by Henry I., and was seven miles in circumference j or according to Shaw, it wa* the first park inclosed with a stone wall ; some suppose it to have been intended as a menagerie for wild beasts of the forest and chase, and not for deer j yet Mezerai in- forms us that Philip Augustus of France, having surrounded his park of Bois de Vincennes with a wall, stocked it with deer, which Henry II. of England sent to him. And there- fore the supposition that deer were not common in parks prior to the fourteenth century, or to the reign of Edward III., seems to be erroneous. In the time of Charles I., a park was defined to consist of vert, venison, and inclosure ; and therefore if all the deer were destroyed, k should no more be accounted a park. The word park properly signifies an enclosure, from the Latin parcus, but yet it is not every field or common which a gentleman pleases to surround with a wall or paling, and to stock with a herd of deer, that is thereby 3 N constituted a legal park 5 for the king's grant, or at least immemorial prescription, is necessary to make it so. PARLIAMENT. Long before the introduction of the Norman language into England, all matters of importance were debated and settled in the great councils of the realm, a practice which seems to have been universal among the northern nations, particularly among the Germans, and carried by them into all the countries of Europe which they overran at the dissolution of the Roman Empire, With us in England, this general council had been held immemorially under the several names of Michel Syuoth, or great council j Michel Gemote, or great meeting; and more frequently Wit- tena Gemote, or the meeting of wise men; and instances of its meeting are recorded so early as the reign of Ina, King of the West Saxons, or the commencement of the ei-hth cen- tury. After the union of the Heptarchy, Alfred ordained that this Wittena Gemote should meet twice, or oftener in every year $ and that our succeeding Saxon and Danish Mo- narchs held frequent councils of a similar description appear from their respective codes of laws, the titles of which usually declare them to have been enacted by the King, with the con- sent of his council. William the Conqueror divided the greatest part of Eng- land among his followers, each of whom, under the title of baron, held his lands of the King in capite, and it was part of his duty to give his advice and assistance at the public councils held at Christmas, Easter, and Whitsun- tide, at which the King used also to appear in his royal robes j and we find that in Edwaid III.'s time, an Act of Par- liament which had been passed in the reign of William the Conqueror, was pleaded in the case of the Abbey of St. Ed- mund Bury, and judicially allowed by the court. How these parliaments were composed, has been matter of great dispute among our learned antiquaries. Pryne, Sir Henry Spelman, and Camden, assert that the Commons con- stituted a part of the parliament in the time of the Saxons, but not by that name, or elected as consisting of knights, citizens, and burgesses. It is, however, generally agreed, that in the main the constitution of parliament, as it now stands, was marked out in the great charter granted by John, in 1215, wherein he promises to summon all archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and greater barons, personally ; and all other tenants in chief under the crown, by the sheriff and bailiffs, to meet at a certain place, with forty days' notice, to assess aids and scutages, when necessary ; and this constitu- tion has subsisted in fact at least from the year 1266", there being still extant writs of that date, to summon knights, citizens, and burgesses, to parliament, The word parliament was first applied to the general assem- blies of the state under Louis VII. of France, about the middle of the twelfth century. The first mention of it in our statute law is in the preamble to the statute of West. 3d, Edw. I- A.D. 1272. It is supposed that the Commons of England began to sit in a separate house, or at least give their assents separately, soon after the privilege of electing members in lieu of the lesser barons had been granted to the people, as we find that Peter de Montford was the Speaker for the Commons in the year 126O. It is a branch of the royal prerogative that no parliament can be convened, except it is summoned by authority from the King, which is performed by the issuing of a writ out of Chancery at least forty days before it begins to sit, but to remedy the evil of discontinuing Parliaments, it was enacted by 16 Car. I. and again by 6 William and Mary, that a new Parliament shall be called within three years after the deter- mination of the former. Parliaments were always opened by the King in person, or if a minor, or beyond sea, by the guardian or protector of the realm. The r$t ti.^e of its being opened by commission, when the Sovereign might have attended, was in the twenty- eight^ of Elizabeth, in which commission it was stated, that for urgent reasons, she eould not be present in her royal person. Before any Member of the House of Commons can take his seat, he roust take the oaths of supremacy, allegiance, and abjura&on, both before the Lord Steward of the King's JHousehold, and at the table of the House. Sir John Leach, who in 1620., had inadvertently taken his seat previous to being sworn, was declared to be in the situation of one not duly elected or returned. Each House of Parliament has its own Speaker the Speaker of the House of Lords is the Chancellor, or any person appointed by the King's commission, and if none be so appointed, the Lords may elect an instance of which occurred in the Irish House of Lords, but till the time of Peter de Mpntford, the Commons had no regular Speaker, and ^therefore, after consultation, their manner of proceeding was to agree upon some person of great abilities to deliver their resolutions. The Speaker of the House of Commons is however now regularly chosen by the House, immediately after the Members are sworn, and when elected, he is con- ducted to the chair by the two Members who have moved and seconded his nomination. The mace is then placed on the table, and the House may be considered as constituted, subject only to the King's approval of the Speaker, which has always been the case, except in the year 1678, a precedent not likely to be followed. It is rather singular that Speakers, like Bishops, always affect reluctance to undertake the office, which cannot be easily accounted for, unless it be true that it was formerly the custom to buffet them when elected. Sir Richard Welgrew, 5 Rich. II., was tfye first Speaker who made any formal apology for inability. Sir John Bushby, 17 Rich. JL, was the first Speaker presented to the King in full Parliament, y the Commons. The Commons were 46 1 required by the King to choose a Speaker, in the second year of Henry IV. Richard Rich, 28 Henry VIII., was the first Speaker who made request for access to the King ; Thomas Moyle, 34 Henry VIII., for freedom of speech j and Sir Thomas Congrave, 1 Eliz._,for privilege from arrests. Attendance in parliament was originally considered a great inconvenience and hardship, and therefore, according to Prynne, the expences of the members of the House of Com- mons were allowed to them so early as the 49th of Hen. III., which expences were reduced to the sums of %s. and 4s. per day, in the 16th of gdward II., though there are some instances where a less sum was allowed. Andrew Marvell, member for Hull, in the parliament after the Restoration, was, it is said, the last member who received these wages j which were considered so burthensome, that many boroughs pe- titioned to be excused from sending members to parliament on account of the expence. And from the 33 of Edw. III., uniformly through the five succeeding reigns, the sheriff of Lancashire returned, that there were no cities or boroughs in his county that ought, or were used, or could, on account of their poverty, send any citizens or burgesses to parliament. The privilege of letters coming free of postage, to and from Members of Parliament, was claimed by the House of Commons in 166O, soon after the Post Office was established, but dropped on a private assurance that it would be allowed j and accordingly a warrant used to be issued to the Postmaster General to attow the same, till at length it was expressly con- firmed by Stat. 4. Geo. III. The first instance in the English history of any of the Oppo- sition Members behig advanced on account of their influence in the House, was in the person of Sir John Saville, who, in the reign of James I. was made comptroller of the household, a privy counsellor, and soon afterwards a baron. Parliamentary journals were first directed to be kept, at the motion of Sir Edward Sandys, in the year 1 607. 46*. With respect to the Clergy, their right or capacity of sitting in Parliament was for a long time contested, but at length by 41 Geo. III. it was enacted that no person having been or- dained to the office of priest or deacon, or being a minister of the Church of Scotland, should be capable of being elected to serve in Parliament as a member of the House of Commons- PASQUINADE. This satirical kind of libel is so named from one Pasquin, a cobbler at Home, who was celebrated for his method of representing the actions of public or private persons, in a ludicrous or unfavourable light. Upon his de- cease the maimed statue of a gladiator which had been found in his house, was setup at the corner of his shop, and called after him, Pasquin ; and from that time it became customary for those who indulged in satirical writings, to affix them to this figure, from whence they received the name of pasqui- nades, and were sometimes answered by another statue called Marfario. PAVING. Strabo informs us that the city of Babylon was paved in the time of Semiramis j the streets of Carthage, according to Isidore, were also paved, but the Romans had no paved streets or roads till about 1 80 years after the abolition of the monarchical form of government, when Appius Claudius being censor, constructed the celebrated road called after him, the Appian way. The Romans began to pave their streets about 250 B.C. Of the modern cities, Cordova in Spain is stated to have been paved in the middle of the ninth century. The capital of France was originally called Lutitia, from the dirty state of its streets, but on orders being issued for the paving of them about the close of the twelfth century, it received the name of Paris. All historians agree that paving was not practised in Lon - don at the end of the eleventh century, for it is related 405 that when the roof of Bow Church, in Cheapside, was blown off by a violent gale of wind, in 109O, four of its beams, each twenty-six feet long, were so deeply buried in the soil, that little more than four feet remained above the surface, the city of London being, as Howell observes, not only unpaved, but built on moorish ground. In the year 1346, the Foedera states, that a grant was made by Edward III. to the master of the hospital of St. Giles in the Fields, without the city of London, nnd to John of Holborn, to lay a toll on all carriages passing through the highway leading from the said hospital to the bar of the old temple of London, that is to Holborn Bar, and also the highway from Holborn to Charing, which roads t( were so miry as to be almost impassable." How- ever it appears, from a toll granted in 1353, for repairing the road leading from the gate of London, called Temple Bar, to the gate of the Abbey at Westminster, there was then a pavement for the convenience of pedestrians, as the grant states that, " the highway being, by the frequent passing of carts and horses carrying merchandize and provision to the said staple, became so deep and miry, and the pavement so broken and worn, as to be very dangerous both to men and carriages j and as the proprietors of houses near and leading to that staple have, by means of the said staple, greatly raised their rents, the way before these houses should at their charge be paved j and that part of the said way, where no houses are, should be paved anew, out of the said duties.'' In the year 1417, Henry V. directed two vessels to be em- ployed at his expence for bringing stones for paving and mending the highway called Holborn j and other streets were paved by order of Henry VIII. In the year 1672, it was ordered by the Common Council, that thenceforward all streets within the city, known as high-streets, should be paved round, or causey fashion, the kennel being in the raid- die." In this state they continued till 1776, when Purbeck curb and slabs were first used. The present system of Mac 464 Adamizing, so named from the inventor, was introduced in London, in 18<24. PAWNBROKERS. Loan banks or lending houses are of considerable antiquity ; we read that the Emperor Augustus established a fund arising from confiscated property, from which he lent money without interest to those who would deposit property of double the sum required, and Alexander Severus, for the promotion of agriculture, advanced money to the poor to purchase lands, receiving the principal only, by instalments. These examples were afterwards followed in modern Italy, and banks under the denomination of Mounts of Piety, were established under the auspices of the Roman Pontiff, fiom which for a considerable time money was advanced to the poor on s&fficient security, without interest} but this kind of charity requiring a stimulus, a moderate interest was afterwards allowed, far the purpose, as declared by the Papal bull, of indemnifying the lenders from loss. From this time lending houses began to be established in most cities, and chiefly by the Lombardi or Lombards, who were the principal merchants of the middle age, and their arms, three blue balls, are to this day the common sign of a Pawnbroker's shop, though, according to the vulgar opinion, they are meant to indicate that it is two to one the things pledged are ever redeemed. Michael de Northberg, Bishop of London, in the reign of Edward III., was the first person who established a Mount of Piety, or introduced the system of pawnbroking into this country. PEARLS. Writers upon Natural History have assumed various hypotheses as to the manner in which pearls are produced j according to Reaumur, they are apparently the effects of disease in the fish, and are formed in the same way as stones are in animals. Olearius inform us, that the Indians for several centuries before the Christian era, had a 466 method of forcing shell-fish to produce pearls, by piercing them with a sharp pointed instrument, and receiving the liquor which Ho wed from them, in small holes made in an iron vessel, in which they hardened into real pearls. The Chinese are also sani to have a method of procuring pearls from a particular kind of muscle, by causing it to swallow five or six small beads made of mother-of-pearl, which at the end of a year are found covered with a pearly crust, in such a manner that they have a perfect resemblance to real pearls. Pearls have been used as ornaments from the earliest ages. In the time of Job pearls were accounted to be of great value. Artificial pearls were invented by the people of Murano, being made of small glass beads, incrusted on the inside with a pearl-coloured varnish. About the middle of the seventeenth century, Janin, or Janquin, a Frenchman, discovered that the scales of the bleak had not only all the lustre of the real pearl, but that after beating them to powder in water, they returned to their former brilliancy upon drying; he therefore, by an ingenious contrivance, managed to force some of the liquid in the cavity of a small bead or grain of girasol, which is a kind of counterfeit opal made of glass, and these beads are what are now generally worn as artificial pearls. PEDOMETER. This small instrument for measuring distances, which is carried in the fob, and by means of a catch and spring, shews the number of times the thigh is moved, or in other words, the number of steps taken, was invented by Mr. Gont, of Bunhill-row, in 179O. PENCILS. The ancients drew their lines with leaden stiles ; afterwards a mixture of lead and tin fused together was used. The mineral known under the name of plumbago is supimscd to have been first employed for the purpose of drawing in the 1 ith century. Gesner, in his book on I'ossilb, 3 o 466 written in 1565, says, that people had pencils for writing, which consisted of a wooden handle, in which was a piece of lead, called by some " English lead j" and he has given a drawing of the pencil as a matter of curiosity. In a continuation of Aldrovendi's Natural History, by Ambrosinus, written in 1648, plumbago is mentioned under the name lapis plumbarius, and its use for drawing is there noticed j the figure of the pencil is also copied from Gesner which proves that black lead pencils were still uncommon. However, in 16S3, John Pettus, in his Metallurgic Diction- ary, printed at London, informs us under the article lead, that pencils were made, having black lead inclosed in fir or cedar. Red and black chalk pencils were used in Germany about the middle of the 15th century. Hans Holbein drew portraits in crayons in 1540. PENS. Reeds cut in the same manner as our pens are of great antiquity. In India, the lower classes and children write with sharp pointed instruments on the leaves of various plants. Both of these methods were common to the Romans. Pens made from quills are noticed by Isidore, who died in 636. Mabillon mentions a manuscript of the Gospels, written in the ninth century, in which the evangelists were represented with quills in their hands, which quills were called by the ancient authors " calami;" and it is probable that this word was employed by older writers than Isidore to signify writing pens, where, for want of other proofs, we understand reeds. PENTAGRAPH, This instrument, for facilitating the copying of plans or prints in any proportion, was invented in 1770. PERAMBULATOR. The Romans, in the time of their Emperors, had a method of measuring the distance of their journey by an instrument which pointed out the number of o t. 467 revolutions which a wheel of the carriage had performed. In the year 1550, a degree of the meridian between Paris and Amiens, was measured by John Fennel, physician to Catherine of Medici, Queen of France, by means of a perambulator ; those now in use are an improvement on the invention of Hokfield, a Prussian, in 1748. PERFUME. The use of perfumes was common among the Hebrews, and the Orientals in general, before it was known to the Greeks and Romans, and seems to have been at first entirely devoted to sacred offices as an incense to the gods, the anointing of the priests, or the embalming of the dead. Afterwards perfumes, such as musk, myrrh, and saffron, were carried in small boxes suspended from the neck $ perfumed or scented boxes, called pouncet boxes, are noticed by Shakespeare as being used by the fops in the time of Henry IV. PERUKE. (See Wig.J PEWTER, A factitious metal, resembling silver, is stated by Whiitaker, to have been invented by the Romans j but as the principal component part of pewter is tin, it most probably had its origin in this country about the commencement of the sixteenth century. During the reign of Elizabeth, pewter plates and mugs were of the value of our best plated arti- cles, and only used occasionally : the metal was, however, common in the time of James II., who turned all the pewter vessels or the Protestants in Ireland that he could lay hold of into money, which he ordered to be current in all payments, so that creditors absconded lest they should be paid their debts. The harder kind of metals, made of tin and brass, or cop- per, with antimony instead of lead, under the names of Britannia metal, plate metal, and Queen's metal, are of recent invention. 468 'PHILOSOPHER. This title was first assumed by Pytha- goras, who made it applicable to all such as sought after wisdom, in opposition to the sophists, who conceived they had no need of instruction. 3fff no JftsntaiYG'iqm! rr,i i?ir 3-?'f ni~ .v-^JTt seou") : tOs^udfniJitin PHOSPHORUS. The method of making artificial phos- phorus, for the purpose of burning, was first discovered by Brandt, a citizen of Hamburgh, in 1677. PHYSICIANS. It has been already observed, that the Egyptian Thouth or Taut was the first person who established a system of medicine, which the physicians or priests were bound strictly to observe 5 for the priests were the only people who practised medicine, the superior order of them taking the higher branches of the profession, which consisted of as- trological and magical observances, and the inferior order the more obvious method of curing by the application of medi- cinal herbs. The Jews considered diseases as proceeding from the wrath of an offended God, and therefore prayer and sup- plication was the chief means to be adopted for their re- moval j thus Asa, who died of a diseased foot, is reproved, because " he sought not to the Lord but to the Physicians." 2 Chron. ch. 16. Probably these physicians affected to cure disorders more by charms and superstitious observances, than from the medicinal properties of plants. ^The Greeks are said to have acquired their medical know- ledge from the Egyptians ; like them the practice of it was confined to their priests, ^Esculapius and others ; till the time of Hippocrates, who was born about 400 B.C. and established a system of medicine which was received with implicit vene- ration by his successors, during a period of more than 2OOO years. He was followed by Aristotle and Theophrastus, and soon afterwards a college was established at Alexandria, under the patronage of the Ptolemies, which became the chief resort of men of science from all parts of the world, and produced n succession of eminent physicians. 409 The Romans had no regular physicians till about 1OO years before the Christian era, when it is related that Ascle- piades, a native of Prusa, in Hithynia, who had studied at Alexandria and Athens, came to Home as a teacher of rhetoric j but not finding that profession sufficiently lucrative, he sud- denly turned physician, and brought himself in a short time into considerable notice ; he was succeeded by Themison, of Laodicea, v\ ho introduced the custom of being attended by his pupils when he visited his patients, in allusion to which we have the epigram of Martial : 1 Languebara j sed tu comitatus protinus ad me Venisti, centum, Symmache, discipulis Centum me tetigere manus aquilone gelatae Non habui febrem, Symmache : nunc habeo ! Galen, however, who flourished under Marcus Aurelius, was the most celebrated physician among the Romans, and divided with Hippocrates the admiration of the medical world. On the destruction of the Roman Empire the science of medicine was for many ages lost, but at length was revived in the Sth century, by the Arabians, under the patronage of the Caliph Almansor, who had the works of several of the Greek philo- sophers and physicians translated into Arabic, and it is to the conquest of Spain by the Saracens we owe the re-introduction of the medical art into Europe. About the commencement of the twelfth century, the Ara- bian system of medicine began to find its way from Spain into the other countries of Europe, and particularly to be studied by the monks of Salerno, near Naples, a place much frequent- ed by the Crusaders, and which soon became highly celebrated for its medical acquirements ; soon afterwards the science was regularly taught at the different Universities in Europe, and in the fourteenth century the physicians began to consti- tute themselves a separate body, and leave the preparation of the medicine to the dealers in herbs and drugs, who were called pigmentarii, pharmacopolse. and apotheci. 470 The first mention of any regular medical practitioner in the English history is to be found in the fourth volume of the Foedera for the year 1333, being a grant of no less a sum than one hundred pounds a-year, for life, to Magister Pantius de Controne, physician to Edward II L, in consequence of his having been very serviceable to his parents ; and in the 1345 we meet with another grant from the same king of sixpence a-day to Counsus de Gangeland, an apothecary of London, for his care and attendance on him while he formerly lay sick in Scotland. Henry V.'s physician had forty marks for his annual salary, besides twelve-pence a-day whilst abroad, and his surgeon (surgein) the same allowance ; but each of them were obliged to transport a certain number of archers for the service of the war, far which they had the usual pay : and the surgeon for each of his twelve servants in surgery, had sixpence per day. At this time a knowledge of astrology was indispensably requisite for a physician the herbs were not to be gathered except when the sun and planets were in certain constella- tions, and certificates of their being so were requisite to give them reputation. In 1444 a salary of one hundred pounds a-year was given to the magister in medicines to the king and queen. In 1518 Henry VIII., in order to raise the reputation of the medical profession, and to prevent people being imposed upon by bold and ignorant adventurers, incorporated several persons of the medical class into a body community and perpetual college, since called the College of Physicians. PIGEONS. The method of conveying intelligence by these birds, which is still occasionally resorted to, is of con- siderable antiquity. Ovid informs us that Taurosthenes, by a pigeon stained with purple, gave notice to his father of his victory at the Olympic games. Hortius and Brutus, at the siege of Modena, held a correspondence with one another by 471 means of pigeons : the custom of transmitting information between Scandaroon, Aleppo and Bagdad, by means of pigeons was common in the sixteenth century, and only dis- continued about sixty years ago. Carrier pigeons were also made use of at the seige of Leyden, in 1675, by whose means the place was saved, and the siege being raised the Prince of Orange ordered that the pigeons who had rendered such essential service, should be maintained at the public expence, and at their death embalmed and preserved in the Town-house as a perpetual token of gratitude. PINS. Anderson states that before the invention of brass pins there were many pretty and ingenious contrivances for the convenience of the dress and ornament of both sexes, such as ribbons, loop-holes, laces with pearls and tags, clasps, hooks and eyes, and skewers made of brass, silver and gold ; and that from the last, skewers, it is very probable that pins naturally proceeded, being no other than smaller and more convenient and delicate skewers ; he furthe. informs us that the first mention of the common brass pin in our Statutes is in the reign of Richard III., 14S3, when the importation of them was prohibited j we may therefore date the manufac- ture of them in England from this period, but they seem to have been but clumsy articles in the time of Henry VIII., as an act was passed in 1543, directing that " no person should put to sale any pinnes, but only such as shall be double- headed, and have the heads soldered fast to the shank of the pinne well smoothed, the shank well shaven, the point well and round filed, cauted and sharpened." However, about three years afterwards the present ingenious and expeditious manner of making them was invented. PLANETARIUM. The earliest planetary machine is sup- posed to have been that made by Archimedes, about 2OO B.C. A horologe, exhibiting some of the phenomena of the heavenly bodies, is stated to have been made in this country, by Wil- liam, abbot of Hirbhum, in the eleventh century, and another by Wallingford, abbot of bt, Albans, in the fourteenth cen- tury. A Planetarium on a large scale, founded on the Newto- nian system, was made at Paris, by Janvier, in 1801, and is put in motion by a second pendulum clock of the best con- struction. !>iiiii;j 'j\li 3tf !;;;ribjJA:.u;j tti hia>U,, c ^< p:^ Js*n;jv-;;> I-.~,UA PLATE. Tyrrell, in his History of England, states, that silver dishes and other articles of plate were introduced on the tables of the Saxon nobility, in the commencement of the eighth century. John de Raby Lord Neville, in the year 1386, among other things., by his will bequeathed, four gold cups and covers, twelve dozen of silver dishes, four dozen of salts, four dozen of spoons, twenty-one silver-gilt cups, ten pots, sixteen basons (several of these with lavatories) six ewers, eight chargers, three dozen of saucers, and three pecia, or silver vessels with covers. The art of covering inferior metals so as to give them the appearance of solid silver, was probably practised by the Romans, and originally done by covering the metal with a thin sheet of silver ; afterwards a me: hod was introduced of placing leaf-silver on copper while hot, and immediately rubbing it wUh a hardened steel burnisher : but this has given way to the introduction of a superior plan of plating, by combining the silver, when on the verge of fluidity, with ingots of copper, and forming the utensils out of the sheets beaten or drawn fiom the ingots. Gold plate is also made in a similar way, upon silver plated ingots. PLATINA was first brought to Europe from America by Wood in 1749, and soon afterwards was ascertained to be a distinct metal by Scheffer, a chemist of Sweden. The ore is supposed to contain about eighty per cent, of the pure metal ; the remainder being a mixture of other minerals, and par- 47* ticularly of the four oew metals, iridium, osmium, rhodium, and palladium j the two former of which were discovered by Tenoant in J8Q4, and the latter by Dr. Woilaston about the same time. Wollaston has also the merit of haviqg first discovered a method of purifying the ore, so as to bring it into a malleable state, and thus rendering it particularly ser- viceable to chemists, who manufacture it into large vessels for holding muriatic and other acids. The South American States had it in contemplation to establish a coinage of platina, which would be about four limes the value of silver, and submitted their proposals to Mr. Percival Johnson, an English assayer of great eminence, who forwarded to them a medal of the si$e of half-a-crown for their approbation. This gentleman's platina (on account of his peculiar method of purifying it) has been in great demand as well among the chemists in foreign countries as in England ; and as he has lately discovered a method of plating with it, by which the expense will be considerably diminished, there seems to be little doubt but that plathia, from its quality of resisting acids, will soon be brought into general use. PLAY. POOR-RATES. Formerly the maintenance of Jfce poor was an ecclesiastical concern, and a fourth part of the titfves in every parish was set apart for that purpo$ ; after- wards when the tithes of many parishes w,sre appropriated to the monasteries, these societies became the principal resource of the poor, and on their abolition in 1536, an or4er was issued directing the inhabitants of towns to maintain their poor by voluntary contributions, but this proving insufficient, it was directed by a statute passed in M>63j "' that if any parishioner shall obstinately refuse to pay reasonably towawl* 3 F 4T4 the relief of the said poor, or shall discourage others, then the Justices of the Peace, at their Quarter Sessions, may tax him to a reasonable weekly sum, which if he refuses to pay, they may commit him to prison ; yet, where the parishes have more poor than they can relieve, the Justices may licence so many of their poor as they shall think good to beg in one or more hundreds of the respective county," However, in 1 57& voluntary contributions were altogether laid aside, and an Act was passed, empowering the Justices of the Peace ;to lay an assessment for the relief of the poor, which assessments are supposed now to amount to the annual sum of four millions and a-half sterling. The origin of placing poor-boxes in the parish churches may be dated from 1663, when in consequence of disorders and abuses which arose from the poor begging in and about the church on communion days, an order was made in the vestry books of St. Giles's parish, for a box to be placed in the church, in which ail charitable donations were to be deposited. Hogarth, in one of his prints of the " Hake's Progress," has represented the inside of the old Mary-le- bonne church as furnished with one of these poor-boxes, and which the artist, to satirize the coldness of charity in that parish, has ludicrously covered with a large cobweb. PORCELAIN. (See China.) ' f PORPHYRY. We are not acquainted with the ancient mode of cutting porphyry j the modern tools will scarcely touch it. The Italians make use of a brass saw without any teeth, and with the assistance <>f emery and water, rub and wear the stone with infinite patience. Cosmo de Medicis, in 1555, is sakl to have distilled a water from certain herbs, which gave such a hardness and temper to his tools, that his sculptor was enabled to cut the porphyry with considerable facility. POUTER. The origin of this favourite malt liquor is thus related by the Author of the " Picture of London." " Before the year 1730, the malt liquors in general use in London, were ale, beer, and twopenny, and it was customary for the drinkers of malt liquor to call for a pint or tankard of half-and-half, that is, half of ale and half of beer, a half of ale and half of twopenny, or half of beer and half of twopenny. la course of time it also became the practice to call for a pint or tankard of three threads, meaning a third of ale, beer and twopenny, and thus the publican had the trouble to go to three casks, and turn three cocks for a pint of liquor ; to avoid this inconvenience and waste, a brewer of the name of Harwood, in 1~3O, conceived the idea of making a liquor which should partake of the same united flavours of ale, beer and twopenny : he did so and succeeded, calling it ' Entire/ or entire butt, and as it was a very hearty and nou- rishing liquor, it was found very suitable to common work- ing people, and particularly to porters, from which circum- stance it obtained the name of porter," Messrs. Meux and Co. have a cask at their brewery, in Liquorpond-street, which holds twenty thousand barrels of porter, and was four years in building ; it is sixty-five feet and a half in diameter, and twenty-five feet and ;i h ilf .high, containing three hundred and fourteen staves of English oak, each two inches and a half thick, united by means of fifty- six iron hoops of from one to three tons each. : POST. The conveyance of dispatches by post was first adopted by Cyrus, on . his Scythian expedition, about 50O, B.C., for which purpose he built houses at several stations, large enough to contain a number of men and horses, and erery couiier on his arrival delivered his dispatches to the postmaster, who immediately forwarded them by fresh horses. There must also have been some regular mode of forwarding letters among the Greeks and Romans, Sueto- nius informs us that previous to the time ef Augustus, run- ning footmen were stationed at different places along the high toads, for the conveyance of dispatches, and that afterwards horses were employed on this service, and that chariots and Other carriages were made use of for the convenience of tra- velling, horses being readily procured at proper stations. There is srwne account of posts being established in this ebtthtry so early as the reign of Edward III. : and that this method of travelling was known in the time of Henry VIII. thay be inferred from an act passed in 1548, fixing the rate isf post-horses at a penny a mile; A chief postmaster for England is mentioned in Camden's Annals for 1581. Ar* office for the conveyance of letters to and from foreign parts was erected by James I., and placed under the controul of Matthew de Questor, which, for the better accommodation of the English merchants, was confirmed and continued to William Frezill and Thomas Withering, by Charles I., in 1689. This was followed up in 1635, by the establishment of a letter office for Scotland, the horses being furnished by the post-masters at the rate of two-pence half-penny a mile. In 1 64$, Edward Prideaux was appointed post-master by the Parliament $ and in 1649;, letters were forwarded once a week into all parts of the kingdom. In 1657, a Government post-office was erected in London, and confirmed by Charles II. in 166Oj some idea of its inefficiency maybe formed from the circumstance that in 1678;, notice is given of a new conveyance of letters, &c. by post, three times a week, within fifty miles of London, " and no money was to be required till the letters were delivered." Between the years lf$0 and 174O> letters were otily transmitted three times a week from London to Edinburgh, and an instance occurs of only one letter being sent by the post, which was for Sir William Pulteney, the banker. In the year 1784 a great improvement was made in the mode of conveying letters, by forwarding them in coach** 477 with a guard instend of by horsemen, and the delivery was thus rendered more certain and secure. The penny-post was set up in London and its suburbs in 168%, by an individual of the name of Murray, an upholsterer; it was afterwards claimed rather in an arbitrary manner by Go- vernment as connected with the General Post ( >fnce> but art annuity of <2OO a year was granted to the assigns of Mur- ray. This post is first noticed in the Statute books in 1710 j the charge was increased to two-pence in 18O1. The revenue of the post-office in the time of Queen Anne was .60,000 it now amounts to 361,600,000. POTATOES. This most valuable vegetable was brought into England from Virginia in America, by Hawkins, in 1563, though others attribute its introduction lo th* ill-fated Sir Walter Raleigh, who on his return homeward in 1623, put into an Irish port, where he landed a great number of pota- toes, which being planted, multiplied exceedingly, and in the" course of a few years became common both in Ireland and England. POTTERY. The art of manufacturing vessels of clay for holding liquor was well known to the Egyptians and Hebrews* in the earliest period of their history j and there seems to be but little doubt that the Britons, like the Gauls, had a pottery ef their own, though of a rude and coarse description, previous to the arrival of the Romans, by whose assistance they brought it to considerable perfection. The principal pottery in England is at Buralem, in Stafford- shire, where the soil is peculiarly suited for this manufacture, and has been employed for that purpose for at least three cerii turiea j yet the articles manufactured were of a ve>y Xhferfor^ description till about 1690, when two ingenious Dutchmen 6f the name oi Euler settled near Burslem, and introduced the method of glaring stone ware by casting salt into the kiln while hot, which at that time was considered a great improve- ment. No further advancement worthy of notice was made in the art till 1763, when Wedgwood, by a peculiar process of his own, astonished the people of England, by producing the most beautiful specimens of various kinds of earthenware for the table, quite new in their appearance, and covered with a rich and brilliant glaze. ! ^nms aav? urn a OOS& 1o vJiurttus \ til* I riff b>tood 9?!jsi8 9'rfJ ni fottfton'teift' &i JWKJ gWP -Y*i PRIMOGENITURE. Gibbon says, the insolent preroga- tive 'of primogeniture was unknown among the Romans j the two sexes were placed on a just level, the sons and daughters being entitled to an equal portion of the patrimonial estate, which was also the case with the early Britons and Saxons, and gave rise to the custom of gavelkind, still preserved in some parts of our Island;- i*bniJni PRINTING. The honour of giving rise to this art has been claimed by the cities of Haarlem, Mentz, and Stras- burgh j but it seems now to be generally allowed that the real inventor was one Laurentius, the son of John Castor, or Gustos, of the cathedral of Haerlem, who commenced prin- ting from solid blocks of wood, on which the characters were cut, about the year 1430 j but afterwards he bethought him- self of an improvement, by making separate wooden types or letters, which having formed into words and sentences, he attached to a form to print from. Some of these type 3,;. it is related, were stolen from him by one of his apprentices named Gensfleisch, which, serving as a model for the formation of others, enabled him to commence the business of a printer, at ; Mentz, in 1442, where he published "Alexandri -Galli Doctrinale" and " Petri Hispani Tractatus." In 1443, Gensfleisch took John Faust into partnership, and shortly afterwards his brother Gensfleisch, of Guttenberg, who, instead of wooden, invented cast-inetal types, with which the first editioo of the Bible was printed, in the Latin tongue, 47$ hi 1450. Seven years afterwards a magnificent editiou of the Psalter was published in the same manner, by Faust and his son-in-law, Schoeffer j which Psalter is the earliest book known to have a genuine date, and is lodged in the Imperial Library at Vienna. This Peter Schoeffer, in 1458, invented a mode of casting- the types in matrices, instead of cutting them, which was deemed so important a discovery, that the people employed by Faast and Schoeffer were bound by an oath not to reveal the secret, and it consequently remained unknown till the sacking of Mentz by the Archbishop Adol- phus, in 1462. The first book printed by these improved types was " Durandi Rationale Divinorum Officiorum," H59, and which was lately in the library of the Earl of Pembroke^ It appears that Gensfleich Guttenburgh, previous to his partnership with his brother and Faust, had unsuccessfully attempted to establish a printing concern at Strasburgh, for which reason this city, together with Mentz, has assumed to itself the merit of having given rise to the invention, but there is no certain proof of any book being printed there before 1462. The house in which Laurentius Castor resided at Haerlem is still to be seen, ami the first book he printed, entitled the " Speculum Salutis," which consists of a variety of pictures, representing some of the most remarkable occurrences in the Bible, with some of the verses underneath, is preserved in a silver case in the Town House, and is shewn with great caution as a most valuable relic. Each page is printed from a single block of wood, in the same manner as a wooden cut. Laarentius died in 1440. Through the efforts of Thomas Bouchier, archbishop of Canterbury, R. Tournour, master of the robes, and William Caxton, merchant, wore sent to Haerlem, to be instructed in the art of printing, and these having prevailed upon one Con- sellis, an under workman, to accompany them privately to England, set up a press at Oxford, in 1458, but the first book known to have been printed there is only dated in 1468, being a email volume in quarto, consisting of forty-one leaves, and entitled " Expositio Sancti Jeronimi in Symbol urn Apostolo- ruin ad Papam Laurentium ;" and at the end are the follow* ing words: "Impress* Gxoniae et Finita. Anno Domini MCCCCLXVIII, xvii die Decembris." This book was printed with separate eut types in wood, being the only method Con- sellis had acquired at- Haerlem. A press wag afterwards es- tablished by Caxton, at St. Albans, and another in the almonry or eleemosynary adjoining to Westminster-abbey, in 1471, in which fusile types were first introduced. A book on the game of chess, printed in 1474, may be regarded as the first production of the English press in this country, though the first book published in the English tongue, was the liecuyell of the History of Troy, printed at Cologne, Sept. 19, 1471. Books were originally made to resemble manuscripts, and printed only on one side of the vellum or parchment ; the method of printing on both pages being not then discovered, therefore the blank sides were pasted together, which made them appear like one leaf. B< oks printed after this fashion may be seen in his Majesty's library. Another imperfection during the infancy of the art was the want of capital letters, which induced the printers to leave the places of the initial letters commencing the chapter vacant, in order that the illuminers might paint them in gold or azure ; though others say this was done designedly, that the work might bear the greater resemblance to a manuscript ; and we are informed that Faust haying taken a parcel of his books tp Paris, and offered them for sale * 3 manuscripts, was actually indicted, or threatened to be go, as a conjuror j for, from the number of the copies, and their exact conformity with one another, Ve Horse-racing .) RAILWAYS. Wooden rails or planks were first laid dmn and imbedded 0:1 dilapidated roads, to facilitate the conveyance of coals in waggons, from the mines to the wharfs, about the middle of the seventeenth century. These roads were uftmvurds improved by making- ledges to confine the carriages to a certain track. Cast-iron rails on the same principle were introduced in 1738, and their utility in saving horse-labour became so apparent, that they were soon brought Into use for connecting canals with each other, and for other purposes of traffic. RHYME. The verses of the ancients were regulated by the peculiar position of words, whose syllables being long or short, formed the number of feet required, ihit about the decline of the Roman empire, the modern Greeks and Romans affected a certain cadence of periods, by which a similitude of sound was preserved between the teiminating words of two contiguous lines, and which affectation increased as the purify of the Latin tongue declined, so that it became very common among the later authors. The French and English adopted this cadence of rhyme, which was much in vogue in the twelfth century, under the denomination of Leonine verses, from a French author of the name of Leom'nus, who was celebrated for his poetical compositions, 451 RIBBAND. In order to encourage our own manufac- tures, the importation of silk ribbands was expressly prohibited by a statute passed in 14S2, which necessarily infers that they must have been common at that period. The ribband- loom first appeared at Dantzic, in 1586, and the inventor is said to have been strangled, lest the general introduction of it should occasion distress among the lower classes of people, who gained their livelihood by weaving. For the same rea- son it was prohibited in Holland, in 1(3*23. It is first noticed in England in 16/6, and in 168O, figured ribbands came inlo fashion, which were at first made by being pressed on orna- mented steel plates, but afterwards by being passed be- tween steel cylinders, having the figure intended to be re- presented engraven upon them. RING. The introduction of this little personal ornament is of great antiquity, being common among the ancient Egyptians and Hebrews. Pliny informs us that the Sabines had rings in the time of Romulus, which fashion they had probably adopted from the Greeks, and that they were worn by the Romans in the time of Numa, being made chiefly of iron, till about the third century before the Christian era, when rings of gold, accoiding to Livy, were common : but I'liny states thai Ma: ins was the fir*t person who wore a gold ring, during: his third consulate, about loo B. C. 1 he Hritons wore rings on their fingers, previous to the Roman inva-ion. The rin^ was in general the emblem of fidelity j hence its ancient ue in many functions and distinctions : during tlie middle ages it was often received as the credential of a mission. The bishop's ring, by which he was wedded to the church, was very early deemed a necessary part of the pontifical ap- paratus. The fourth council of Toledo, held in 633, appoints that a bishop condemned by ooe council, and found innocent 493 bjr another, should be restored by giving him his ring and staff, &c. Wedding-rings are supposed to have originated with the Jews, and the custom to have been adopted by the first Chris- tians. The wearing the ring on the fourth finger was com- mon to the Greeks, because, as Aul. Gellius informs us, they had discovered from anatomy that this finger had a little nerve that went straight to the heart, and therefore they es- teemed it the most honourable from its being connected with that noble part. - ;':-) , >'i ' ;-':.,." ,:, ...;.:, :! ia ;; ,ritii- .rt ROADS, Public. (See Highways.^ ROPE. (See Cordage, ) RUFFS. This part of the ladies' dress came into fashion about the middle of the sixteenth century, and was borrowed from the men, who had worn them for a considerable time. Both sexes seemed now emulous to outdo each other in the size of them. R.USSET. A coarse sort of grey cloth, in common use among the religious orders and poorer class of people, in the thirteenth century. SADDLE. According to Pliny, Pelethorius first introduced saddles or rather coverings for horses j others attribute the invention to the Saiii, from whence the Latin " sella," a saddle ; yet neither the ancient Greeks nor Romans were acquainted with it. In the time of Caesar it was com- mon to have cloaths or housing thrown over the horst.', after the manner of the Persians, and fastened by a girth or surcingle. Saddles made of wood, rising both before and behind, appear about the commencement of the fourth cen- tury. In the Theodosian code, published about the year 385, there is a rescript, which directs that the weight of a saddle and bridle for post-horses, should not, together, exceed sixty pounds. According to Whitaker, the saddle was introduced into this country by the Romans j and under the Saxons the form of it differed but little from that now used by the cavalry : it was generally covered with cloth instead of leather, and was frequently enriched with jewels. Strutt says that the Saxon and Norman ladies, whenever they are represented on horse-back, are seated side ways upon the horse, according to the present custom ; others assert that the side-saddle was introduced by Anne, daughter of the King of Bohemia, and Queen of Richard II. We are informed that Queen Elizabeth rode from London to Exeter on a pillion, behind the Lord Chancellor j and this method of travelling was common among ladies till the middle of the 494 last century, and is still practised in various parts of the kingdom. No mention is made of the stirrup in any ancient Latin or Greek authors, nor is any figure resembling it to be seen in any ancient statue or monument. Galen, in several places, remarks that the Roman cavalry in his time were subject to diseases of the hips and legs, for want of having their feet sustained on horseback ; and Hippocrates, long before him, had noticed that the Scythian?, who were much on horse- back, were frequently troubled with defluxions in their leg?, because of their hanging down. The first allusion to stirrups is to be found under the term scalae, in a book written by the Emperor Mauritius in the sixth century, though several years elapsed before they were brought into general use. According to Strutt, the stirrup was in' reduced into Erg- land by the Saxons, who had them attached to their saddles, as now : stirrups, as well as spurs, appear on seals in the eleventh century. Footed stirrups occur in the reign of Henry IV. SALT. This useful mineral which is naturally produced in great abundance in hot climates, was in the early ages of the world regarded as a symbol of extreme sterility, and the Egyptians in particular held it in the greatest abhorrence j hence we find that Lot's wife about 1900 li.C. was turned into a pillar of salt, which, from a passage in Deuteronomy, ch. XXIX. v. 23. was considered as a proof of the barrenness to which the country was to be devoted, " that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it in not sown, nor beareth, nor any grciss groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah j" and when Abime- lech took Shechem, " he beat down the city, and sowed it with salt." Salt was nevertheless used at a very early period for culinary purposes, and to give an agreeable flavour to food j it was therefore considered as a symbol of hospitality, and to thia 495 day it is a common expression among the nations of the East, to say, " I eat such an one's salt," for "I am fed or main- tained by him." Herodotus, Strabo, Arian, and others, speak of rock salt as being dug up in various parts of Africa. Pliny relates that a piece of it, which, when in the pit, was very light, became much heavier on exposure to the atmosphere, and that this salt could be split or broken into smooth pieces, and was very transparent. Salt was imported into this country by the Phoenicians, prior to the arrival of the Romans, who instructed the Britons in the method of manufacturing or procuring it. The salt springs at Droitwich, in Worcestershire, are noticed in the year 816, yet for several centuries afterwards, the art of making salt was very imperfectly understood. Henry VI. invited several people from Zealand and other parts of the Low Countries, to instruct his subjects in the art of manu- facturing it j salt mines were discovered in Staffordshire in 1670. Salt was used as a manure in Cornwall, so early as the time of Henry III., but its general introduction into husbandry, as well as for the fattening of animals, had its rise about the close of the last century. SALTPETRE. This substance, which is spontaneously produced from the soil of many countries in Europe, espe- cially Spain, on the discovery of gunpowder, became an object of considerable political importance. Various methods were resorted to for extracting it from different substances, and regular associations or companies, with extensive privi- leges, were incorporated for that purpose at Paris, about the close of the sixteenth century, and in England in the time of James I, SARCENET. This kind of silk was worn by the ladies in i ' the thirteenth century. Chaucer describes Largesse as being doathed in a splendid robe of purple sarcenet. SATIN. This species of silken stuff is also noticed by the writers of the thirteenth century, though the high price of it necessarily prevented its being brought into general use. 1 SAW. The Greeks attributed the invention of this instru- ment to Icarus, who took the hint from the back-bone of a fish* By a painting which has been rescued from the ruins of Herculaneum, it appears that the saws of the Greeks were similar to those now used. Saw-mills are said to have been erected in Germany in the fourth, though most probably mistaken for the four- teenth century, for they were considered as rare in the commencement of the fifteenth. Anderson states that " in lb'33 a Dutchman erected a wind saw-mill or engine for sawing of timber on the river Thames, opposite Durham- yard in the Strand, London j by which machine, with the sole attendance of one man and one boy, as much work was sawed as twenty men can perform in the usual way j but this method was afterwards put down, lest our labouring people should want employment." SCARLET. (See Cochineal.} SCEPTRE. This ensign of royalty is of greater ajltf- quity than the crown j ornamented golden sceptres are men- tioned by Homer. Tarquin the elder was the first among the Romans who assumed the sceptre, which custom was cohti^ nuedby the Consuls and Emperors. Phocas, A.D. 600, added a cross to itj both the sceptre, and verge for the left hand, were used by the Anglo-Saxon Kings. SCHOOL. The first school established in England for the study of the classics and arithmetic, was at Craikdale, iri Wiltshire, in 669. SEAL. We read of seals, or engraved genis, being attached to rings almost as early as of rings themselves, and that they were used to authenticate writings, appears from the circum- stance of Jezebel's affixing the seal of Ahab to the document authorizing the death of Naboth. Pliny however informs us, that in his time seals were not used any where except in the Roman empire, and then only by private persons, neither does it appear that any of the public edicts or instruments of the Romans were sealed, even in the time of the Emperors. Seals as distinct from rings are not noticed till the commence- ment of the ninth century. The Anglo-Saxons were accustomed to subscribe their names to instruments of importance, and such of them as could nut write affixed the sign of the cross, which practice is still resorted to in the present day j but the Normans, who were, a brave, though illiterate people, at their first settlement in France, adopted the practice of sealing only, without the addition of their names 5 and which custom continued long after learning had made a considerable progress among them : hence the charter of Edward the Confessor to Westminster, himself being educated in Normandy, was witnessed only by his seal, and this is generally thought to be the oldest sealed charter in England. Seals are however noticed in the manuscript history of Offa, and it is said that, the genuine charters of Offa and Ethel- wolf, sealed with their seals representing their portraits was formerly to be seen in the Abbey of St. Denis, Paris. The former visited Rome about the year 790, where he founded a college for the education of the Saxon youth, and subjected England to a tax called Peter pence, from its being collected on the festival of St. Peter ad Vincula, for its support : this grant was confirmed by Ethel wolf, when he visited 3 49ft Home in 847, and these probably are the charters above alluded to. At the Conquest, the Normans introduced their own cus- toms into this country, and among others, that of waxen seals, instead of the English method of signature, (which was not again resorted to till about the close of the fourteenth century). These seals were distinguished by various devices, according to the fancy of the owner, those most common were a dove, cross, anchor, &c , sometimes a knight on horse- back, but the seals of kings had always their portraits. Coats of arms were not engraved on seals, nor indeed used at all till the period of the Crusades, or about the commence- ment of the twelfth century, when they were first assumed and painted on the shields of the knights, to distinguish them, when clad in complete steel, from each other. The first seal which has been noticed as having armorial bearings, was one belonging to King John, when he was Earl of Morton. The privy, as we.l as the public or Great Seal of England, was introduced by Edward the Confessor. Impressions from seals seem originally to have been made upon metal, generally on lead, but sometimes on silver and gold, according to the nature of the grant and the dignity of the parties concerned in it. The Komans, also used a kind of bitumen brought from Asia, which they called terra sigil- laris : wax also was early resorted to for taking the impressions of seals. Grants from the Crown, and from some corporate bodies, are still made by having the large waxen seal attached to them. The custom of sealing common letters with wax had its rise in the sixteenth century, and it is said that a wax prepared from gum-lac, was known to the Germans about the year 155O, but the present kind of sealing wax is supposed to have been invented in Paris, in 1630. SECRETARIES OF STATE. Formerly the King's Se- 499 trataries were stiled clerks and notaries, afterwards clerks of the secret, hence the word secretary, and at length Secre- taries of the Commands. At the ratification of a treaty of peace between France and Spain, in 1559, the Spanish Ministers assumed the title of Secretaries of State, which has since been adopted by the Ministers of other nations. SHIELD. This defensive species of armour is the most. ancient of any recorded, and was originally made of basket- work covered with leather or metal. Among the Greeks and Romans, the shield was not only necessary for the defence of the body, but was considered as a badge of honour to the wearer, afid it was therefore dis- graceful to return from battle without it. Most of the ancient knights were armed with triangular shields a little convex, which form gradually gave place to those of a circular or oval figure, or to square ones rounded and pointed at the bottom. These shields had on the inside two or more loops of leather, through which the arm and hand were passed when prepared for action ; at other times they were carried by a leathern thong worn round the neck. Shields or bucklers were occasionally used in the time of Elizabeth j many of those with which the Spaniards were armed on their invasion of this couutry, had small pistols in the centre. SHIP. Mythologists relate, that Argus, assisted by Minerva, constructed the first ship from timber procured from the sacred grove of Dodona, consecrated to Jupiter, from which circumstance it was consulted as oracular, and gave verbal responses. This ship was built about 1260 B.C., and was named the Argo. The Phoenicians, however, had ships three hundred years before this period, for we find that the patriarch Jacob, in blessing his son Zebulon alludes to the commerce at that time carried on by the Phoenicians ia their ships. 600 The Romans had no regular naval establishment till after the first Punic war, or about 25O B.C. According to Livy, fire- ships were invented by the Rhodians, and used by the Romans in an engagement with the Syrians, about 190 B.C. j they were first introduced in our navy to destroy the invincible armada, in 1588. SHOE. The Egyptians and Hebrews had some protec- tion for their feet in the time of Abram, for we read that the Patriarch refused to take even as much as a shoe-latchet from the King of Sodom, " lest he should say he had made Abram rich." Xenophon relates that the ten thousand Greeks who had followed the young Cyrus, wanting shoes in their retreat, were forced to cover their feet with raw skins, which occa- sioned them great inconveniences. The Roman emperors, like the Persians, wore shoes, enriched with jewels, and embroidered with gold and silver. In England shoes were worn by the lowest class of the people in the eighth century, being made nearly in the same form as at present, without the appearance of any aperture further than was barely necessary for the insertion of the foot ; but till the eleventh century the greatest princes in Europe had but wooden soles to their shoes. In 1382 shoes were worn with such long points or beaks to them, that it was common to fasten them to the knees by a silver chain. SHOE- Buckles. fSee Buckles .) v . iU..|.- : , f :>-*v,'|.,.*.>.,| ;fe?*A SIGNS. Besides the custom of attaching signs to inns and public -houses, which may be traced to the Romans, it was common during the middle ages for every shop to have its peculiar sign suspended in the street, and this by ob- structing the free circulation of the air, is supposed to have been one of the causes of the frequent epidemical dis- orders in London. 501 SILK. Though cloths of silk are mentioned in several parts of the Old Testament, yet it seems to be now the gene- ral opinion that the translators have given a wrong interpre- tation to the Hebrew text, and that silk was really unknown to the ancient Hebrews. The ancients assert, that the art of manufacturing silk was invented in the Isle of Cos, by Pamphila, the daughter of Platis j the thread being produced from an insect, called Ser, bred for this purpose by the Seres, a people of Scyihia, whom we now call the Chinese. Others again state, that the Greeks of Alexander the Great's army, were the first who brought wrought silk from Persia into Greece, about three hundred and twenty-three years before Christ, and that a manufacture of it was esta- blished at Berytus and Tyre, in Phsenicia, from whence it was dispersed over the west : it appears, however, that the Greeks for many ages afterwards, were ignorant of the manner in which it was produced, or in which way it was manu- factured. Some maintain that silk was known to the Romans in the time of the Emperor Tiberius about A. D. 2O ; yet we are in- formed it was extremely scarce under Heliogobalus in the commencement of the third century, and that he was the first person who wore a garment wholly made of it $ and Aurelian, who died in the year 275, is said to have refused his wife a suit of silk, on account of its great price. At length about the middle of the sixth century, when Justinian was Emperor, two monks who had long resided in China, and were fully acquainted with the mode of preparing and manufacturing silk, concealed in a hollow cane the eggs of the silk worm, and brought them in safety to Con- stantinople. At a proper season the eggs were hatched, and the Greeks were instructed in the method of rearing and feeding the worms, and of preparing the silk for the loom. In the succeeding reign, the manufacture of it was consi- sot dered equal to that of the Chinese, and thus a regular trade of manufactured silk was established not only at Constantino- ple, but at Athens, and other places in the Greek empire, from whence, by means of Venetian vessels, the rest of Eu- rope was supplied. About the year 113O, Roger II., King of Sicily, returning from Palestine, plundered the cities of Athens and Corinth, and compelled many of the workmen engaged in the manu- facture of silk, to introduce the art into his own dominions, which, in process of time, was communicated to Italy and Spain, and ultimately to France, about the commencement of the sixteenth century. Silk was most probably introduced into England by the monks from Rome, who made use of it for covering the altars of the churches j but there is no sufficient authority to support the supposition of its having been manufactured in England during the Saxon aera, or indeed earlier than the middle of the fifteenth century, at which time it is rel ited there was a company of silk women in England, though probably these were merely employed in needle- work or embroidery, for most of the broad manufacture was at that period imported from Italy. In 1C08 James I. sent circular letters into all the counties of England, recommending this branch of com- merce to his subjects, and that mulberry trees should be generally planted in such soils as were favourable to their growth j he also published instructions relative to the feeding and breeding of silk-worms, having observed, as he states, that " In a few years' space, our brother, the French King, hath, since his coming to the crown, both begun and brought to perfection, the making of silk in his country, whereby he hath won to himself honour, and to his subjects a marvel- lous increase of wealth." Though the climate was found unfavourable to the propagation of the insect, yet the manu- facture of cloth from the raw silk was greatly improved by the encouragement afforded by James, who procured some Ml artisans from abroad : and still more by the French Protes- tants, many of whom were weavers, who sought an asylum in this country in consequence of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1665. A method of procuring and preparing silk from spiders was discovered by Bonn, a Frenchman, in 1710, who manu- factured with this material a pair of stockings and gloves : he estimated twelve house-spiders to be equal to one silk* worm. SKAITING. Fitz-Stephen informs us that it was custo- mary for the English to amuse themselves on the ice in the thirteenth century, by fastening the bones of animals to the soles of their shoes, and by means of a stick with an iron spike pushing themselves forward with great velocity. The wooden skaites shod with iron and steel, were introduced from the Low Countries about the middle of the seven- teenth century. SLAVERY. From the earliest periods of history there seems to have existed a class of people devoted to slavery j thus we find that Hagar, the bondwoman of Sarah, was an Egyptian, and was most probably purchased in Egypt, or given to Abraham by Pharoah, on his departure from that country j and Joseph, when he was sold to the Ishmaelites, was immediately carried to Egypt, where he was bought by Potiphar, the captain of the King's guard : which proves that this nefarious trafic of the human species was prevalent in that remote era, and that Egypt was the principal market for that purpose. Even the Israelites, who for near two cen- turies had groaned under the severity of Egyptian bondage, encouraged a system of slavery among themselves. In the time of Homer, who flourished about 900 B. C., Cyprus and Egypt are celebrated as the principal depots for slaves, and this species of commerce was not only common through- 504 x*ut Asia, but was practised both by the ancient Greeks, and Romans, and even among the barbarous nations, who finally overturned the Roman empire. From the most remote period, the prisoners taken in war were considered the absolute property of the captors, and esteemed themselves fortunate in saving their lives by the sacrifice of their liberty ; this custom seems to have been universal : hence some trace the commencement of slavery to the time of Nimrod, King of Babel, who first began to make war "Proud Nimrod first the bloody chase began, Almighty hunter, and his prey was man." Under the government of the Anglo-Saxons, slaves were publicly sold in the market place, and these were not only the prisoners taken in war, but parents used even to sell their children, and the young of both sexes were taken to the ships in droves, tied by ropes so that in fact there was a regular commerce of slaves established in this country. The first check put to this inhuman and barbarous custom was the gradual introduction of Christianity, whose mild doctrines could not fail of producing a proper influence upon those who considered them as divine ; that this was evidently the cause, not only appears from the grants of manumission common in the middle ages, which are repre- sented as proceeding te pro amore Dei, pro mercede animae," but from the circumstance of the system of slavery being still in full force in all countries where the Christian religion is not established j but although the condition of slaves was considerably ameliorated in all parts of civilized Europe, yet the system itself was not abolished ; for we find in 1514 an Act of Manumission granted by Henry VIII. to two persons, commencing in these words: "Whereas originally God created all men free, but afterwards the laws and customs of nations subjected some under the yoke of servitude : we think it pious and meritorious with God to make certain 505 persons absolutely free from servitude, who are at preserrt under vtttenage to us, together with aH their issue born, or hereafter to be born, and all their goods, chattels, and lands already acquired, or to be acquired, &c." Again, so late as the fifth year of Edward VI., it was ordered that "a runa- gate servant, or any other who liveth idly, being brought before a Justice of the Peace, shall be marked with a iiot iron on the breast, with the letter V, and be the slave of him Who brought him for two years, and if daring- thai time he should absent himself without leave for fourteen days, he shall be marked on the forehead or ball of the cheek with the letter S, and shall be the slave of his said master for ever, and it shall be lawful for every person to whom aiiy such shall be adjudged a slave, to put a ring of iron round his neck, arms, or legs. A charter of manumission, similar to that of Henry VIII., was granted by Mizabeth m 157'2. Hence we find that hereditary viltenage, which probably existed in this country prior to the introduction of th^ feudal system by the Normans, was still common in Europe, though the custom of trafficking in slaves appears to have ceased hi the thirteenth century. However, within two centuvtes after the suppression o this species of commerce. whic> had been exploded oh 1 account of its impiety, the Portuguese, in imitation of thos piracies which existed in the uncivilized ages of the world, made their descents in Africa, under their leader, Al6nzo Gonzales, carrying off ninny of the inhabitants as slave?, and afterwards, for the better prosecution of their design, made * settlement in that country, and erected tfceir first fort a"t D'Eimina in 148!. Attout thfc year 1508 ttie Spaniards, who, by their barbari- ties, had destroyed almost all the natural subjects of their newly-discovered dominions in America, were at a loss for people to work their mines, and readily granted to the Por- tuguese an exclusive right of supplying their colonies- vritfc it tot slaves from Africa. This power, under the name of the Assiento Contract, was afterwards given to the French, and from them transferred to the English in 1689, and acted upon till the year 1750 3 but it appears that the English had pro- cured slaves on their own account from Guinea in 1640, in order to cultivate their sugar-cane, which had lately been introduced into the West India islands, then thinly inhabited. Mr. Granville Sharp was the first public advocate for the oppressed Africans : he spent whole years in collecting docu- ments for proving the cruelty and wickedness of the traffic to the Government j and undertook, at his own expense, the celebrated case of Somerset, tried in the Court of King's Bench in 1772, in which it was declared to be the law of the land that "AS SOON AS ANY SLAVE SET HIS FOOT ON ENGLISH TERRITORY, HE BECAME FREE." " Slaves cannot breathe in England j if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free ; They touch our country, and their shackles fall " In 1783, the Quakers petitioned Parliament against the continuance of the slave trade, but the first notice for taking the trade into consideration was made by Pitt, in 1788, and by the persevering exertions of Wilberforce, during a period of twenty years, the trade was declared illegal on the 25th March, 1807. SNUFF. The custom of taking snuff was probably in- troduced into Europe about the same period as that of smoking, and appears to be first publicly noticed in a decree of excommunication, published by Urban VIIL,, in 16*24, against all who should take snuff in church, which it seems the Spanish ecclesiastics were in the habit of doing during the celebration of mass : this edict was renewed by Innocent XII. in 1690, but revoked by Benedict XIV. in 1724, as his Holiness himself had rather a partiality for this iiiukting commodity. In England, it was formerly the 507 practice to take snuff in a small spoon, and not by the pinch. Two ancient snuff boxes are represented in the Archaeologia, which resemble the modern smelling boxes, having a spoon, like the cayenne sj>oon, fastened to the topper. SOAP. Cloaths were formerly washed by rubbing or stamping upon them in water, or beating them against rough boards. The Greeks, in the time of Aristophanes, used a kind of lye for cleansing the images of their gods, and nitrum was common in the baths of the Ptolemies. The Romans made use of various saponaceous plants, particularly the struthium, and had al=o a kind of soft soap or ointment, made from alkali and oil j but the hard soap, according to Pliny, was invented by the Gauls, and was made of goat's tallow and the ashes of the beech-tree. The Saxons were accustomed to smear their cloaths with some kind of soap, but Holinshed, the historian, says, that in his time, 155O, it was customary to scour and wet the cloaths with pig-dung, henlocks and nettles j " but such was the savour of cloaths touched withal, that I can- not abide to wear them on my body." About this period, soap was manufactured in London, yet during the reigns of Charles I. and II., and as recently as that of Queen Anne, many opulent families used to send their household and family linen all the way to Holland, to be washed and bleached. SPECTACLES. The first hint for the construction and use of spectacles, is supposed to have been derived either from the writings of Alhazon, who lived in the twelfth century, or of our own countryman, Roger Bacon, who flourished in the middle of the thirteenth century, and to whom the invention of reading glasses is generally attributed. Francisco Recli says spectacles were invented between the years 1280 and 1311, by Alexander de Spina, a monk of the order of Predi- *. afehcriae, at Pisa j who communicated tke o grinding the glasses to the public, in COD sequence of his being informed that another person had hit upon a similar invention, linger. the vyord Qcchiale, in the Dictionary of the Academy della Crusca, there is a quotation from Jourdan ? s Sermons, written in 1333, which says, that the use of specta- cles had been at that time known for about twenty years. fh^rot Ssningn crroifi ^niifistf to /ss.'r.v/ ni rn:)al noqo ^ftjU^f/ifila SPINNING. Tih most ancient method of twisting the vegetable fibres of flax or cotton into thread, was by the .spindle and distaff, mentioned by Homer ; the instrument calle/d the oce-ihread wheel, now in common use, was in- vented io Germany^ in 1530 j and the addition of the treadle appears in the commencement of the eighteenth century. But the first improvement of any importance in spinning, was that of the spinning -jenny, invented by Hergraves, in L7^7 ) whick has been superseded by a complicated macfa.in of stiii greater power*, invented by Sir Richard Arkwrigbt^ Although it i not known when spurs we*e first introdttced, they appear to have been common among the Anglo-Saxons, being made of brass or iron, and fastened to the foot by a leather thong, much in the same manner as at pteseot ; but instead of a rowel, the hinder part of the spur was lengthened to a single point, like the gaffle of the fight- ing cock. The rondle, or rowel, is noticed in the time of Henry III. Anciently, the great mark of distinction between the knight and the squire was, that the former wore gold, and the latter silver spurs. STAMPS were introduced in order to increase the diffi- culty of fw^epy, by Justinian, in 537. They were first resorted to as a mode of taxation, by the Dutch, in 1624, and in this country in 1604. STAKCH. Pliny informs us that starch was prepared from wheat, by the inhabitants of Chio. The method of starching linen was publicly taught in England in the year 156O, by a Dutch woman, the wife of Queen Elizabeth's coachman, for which she charged four or five pounds, and an additional pound for shewing the method of making starch. ,fllri STATUARY. This branch of sculpture is firs* noticed in the book of Genesis, in which the Teraphim, or household gods, are represented as having been clandestinely carried away by Rachel, the wife of Jacob, when she left her father's house. The golden calf erected by the Israelites in the Wil- derness was first cast or molten, and afterwards ef fashioned with a graven tool j" and the Cherubims, which extended their wings over the Ark of the Testimony, are described as beaa- tiful specimens of sculpture, and prove that the art was brought to considerable perfection by tfae Hebrews, fifteen hundred years before the Christia Mm. The Egyptians, in the time of Sesostris, had colossal statues, pyramids, and magnificent palaces, vestiges of which are still discoverable for an extent of five hundred miles along the course of the Nile. The palace of Memnon, situated near the ancient city of Thebes, contains two of the largest sta- tues now remaining in Egypt $ they are both in a sitting position, and about fifty-eight feet in height j one of them, according to the description of Diodorus and Strabo, was the famous statue of Osymandue or Memnon. The Greeks are stated to have been instructed in the art of carving images, by Daedalus, about 12OO B.C., but nothing worthy of notice occurs till Phidias, about 500 B. C., con- structed those celebrated statues of Jupiter at Elis, and of Minerva in the Parthenon at Athens. He was followed by Praxiteles, who in hrs Cupids and statues of Venus, particu- larly the one purchased by the citizens of Gnidos, is allowed 51O to have excelled all other sculptors in the graces of youth and beauty. A statue of Venus, supposed to have been exe- cuted by Cleomenes, the son of Apollodorus, about 300 B. C., was discovered in the fifteenth century amona: the ruins of ancient Rome, and placed in the palace of the Medicis, from which circumstance it is called the Venus de Medicisj and another of Apollo, recovered about the same time from the ruins of Antium, and placed in the Belvidere of the Vatican, by Pope Julius II., hence called the Apollo Belvidere, are considered as the most excellent and sublime of all the ancient specimens of sculpture, and to be superior to any of modern workmanship. From the time of Phidias till about 140 B. C., Greece delighted the world by her inimitable productions, but when the Achaean league was dissolved, and she became a Roman province, most of the Greek artists were reduced to slavery, and the science rapidly declined ; nevertheless some admira- ble busts and statues of the imperial families from Julius to Domitian, occasionally evinced the extraordinary skill and genius of that people. The Romans found it easier to enrich their city with the spoils of other countries, than to imitate the workmanship of foreign artists, though, after the ravages of Corinth and Athens, they exhibited an inordinate degree of cupidity and ostentation for works of superior art, which passed in some instances for patronage, and filled their palaces and public edifices with the statues and paintings of Greece. The formation of the Academy of Sciences at Florence, in 1350, and the subsequent discovery of several valuable remains o Grecian sculpture, occasioned the revival of the liberal arts in Europe, and in the course of a short time, under the protection of the Medici family, many illustrious artists were produced -, at length Michael Angelo Buonarotti, under the patronage of Lorenzo de Medicis and Pope Julius II., advanced the sciences of sculpture, architecture and 511 painting to a height which has not since been surpassed ; this great man, who died at Rome, in 1564, at the advanced age of ninety years, had acquired the affection and esteem of all the sovereigns of Europe, and even of Solyman, emperor of the Turks, being no less celebrated for the sublimity and originality of his genius, than for his unimpeached integrity, generosity and piety. STEAM. Stuart informs us that Hero, the elder, in his Pneumatica, written about ISO B.C., has described two machines, in one of which a rotatory motion was produced by the emission of heated air, and a similar motion imparted to the other by the action of vapour arising from boiling water. The first writer in modern times who alludes to the power of steam, is Bancas, an Italian, who in his work entitled " The Machine," written in 1629, states that he had put into motion the floats or vanes of a small mill, by allowing the steam issuing from a large oeolopile to act upon them. The Marquis of Worcester, in his " Hundred Inventions," pub- lished in 1663, informs usthatfrom the accidental circumstance of a cover of a vessel in which he was dressing his food while a prisoner in the Tower, being suddenly driven wilh great violence up the chimney, he had been induced to try a number of experiments relative to the expansive force of steam, and at length had invented an engine by x which it could be made conducive to the public interests, in raising water from pits or wells, which engine was afterwards recommended to Lewis XIV. by Sir Samuel Morland, for the purpose of irri- gating his grounds at St. Germain's. In 1698, Captain Savary obtained a palent for a new method of clearing coal and other mines of water, and he may justly be considered as the first person who rendered steam applicable to manufacturing purposes ; but various important improvements have, since his time, been effected in the construction of steam engines, among which may be numbered the piston and safety valve, by Pftpnn, in 17H) ; tTre separate condenser fey Watt, hv 1765 ; the dotftfe-ae'ting en- gine, by Filk, in 178O, amd the high pressure engine, for the propelling of carriages on rail- ways, by Vivian, in 18O2. The power of steam was first applied to boats, by Hart, fn' 1736, for towitig vessels into arid out of port, but Was not generally employed for the purposes of navigation till the year 1807, when Fulton, an American, in connexion with Mf. Bell, 6f Glasgow, nd with engines of Boltott and Watt's cofrstrtictiott, established several $teaTn vessels fa North America; these- boats answering e^rrfcineiy Well, Bell, oft his f^tiwh to Scotland in HSfl-lr,- built the Comet, steam boat;, of twenty-five tons, with aft- engine of foiar horse power, to navigate the Clyde befttveeh Glasgow and the Betensbury bkthe, which ted tk> tfee general mtrbduttJion of steam vessels in various other pafts of the kingdom, but it wa not tilt the ; y&u 1818 hat they ventuted tb fcnder- t&ke regla* voyages at se*. STEEIy. Although the invention of steel is of great anti- quity, it seei&s to be donbtftil Whether it fe alluded to in any pfirt of the OldTestamettk Among the Greeks, irt thfc time of HMtter, it was known under the names of stomomaand ade- Aias, a-nd also of chalybs y from the Chalybes, a people on the borders of the Euxuie sea, who carried on a large trade ft* frbti and steel, which latter name was also given to'it: b"y the Romans, because they procured their best steel from Spaitt, near the river* Ghalybs, whose waters had the peculiar pro- perty of hardening or tempering it. The Greeks and Romans were only acquainted with the method of preparing steel by fusion, aa practised by thfe halybes. The superior method of forming steel by cemen- tiotl- Was however known to the Asiatics in the time of Alexander, as the Persian sword -blades, and those of Damascus, were at that period in high repute ; and thest* are 513 composed of slips or thin rods of iron and steel, bound together with iron wire, and then firmly cemented by welding. Diodorus, in his account of iron, says, "It was custo- mary among the Celtiberians in Spain to bury the iron in the earth, that the baser part of it might be converted to rust, and then what remained was forged into swords, and other sharp-edged intruments." The method of melting or casting steel, was brought into this country from Germany, in 1720; and that of joining steel to iron, by welding instead of rivetting, is said to have been discovered by Sir Thomas Frankland. STENOGRAPHY. The Roman poet Ennius, is reported to have invented a method of short-hand writing, by which the notarii were enabled to transcribe the identical speeches of the most rapid orator. STIRRUP. (See Saddle.} STOCKINGS. Suetonius informs us that this part of dress was introduced under the Roman emperors, and that Augustus himself had coverings for his legs, called tibialia. The Anglo-Saxons also wore stockings, and sometimes only slips of linen of different colours, crossed up the leg, after the manner of the Highlanders. In a wardrobe roll, contain- ing an account of apparel purchased for the use of King John, there is frequent mention made of hosearum vacciniarum, or stockings of calf-skin. However, the Normans of rank generally had stockings made of woollen cloth, or of costly stuffs interwoven and embroidered with gold and silver. Knit worsted stockings imported from Italy were worn by the gentry in the time of Henry VIII. ; and in 153O, a pair of silk stockings was sent to that Monarch, from Spain. The ward- robe of Henry on his decease contained, " one pair of short hose of black silk and gold woven together, one pair of hose 514 t)f purple silk aud Venice gold, woven like a caul and lined with blue silver sarsnet, edged with a passemain of purple silk and of gold wrought at Milan ; one pair of hose of white silk and gold knit, bought of Christopher Millener, and six pair of black silk hose knit." In the time of Elizabeth it was common for young men of rank, to wear stockings of different fashions and different colours upon each leg j and in the year 1561, the first pair of silk stockings was knit in this country, and presented to the Queen by Mrs. Montague, her silk-woman ; about the same period the method of knitting worsted stockings was introduced by William Ryder. (See Knitting.) The unfortunate Mary, Queen of Scots, at her execution wore stockings of blue worsted, clocked, and edged at the top with silver, and under them another pair of white stockings. In the year 1589 a machine for weaving stockings was invented by William Lee, Master of Arts, of St. John's College, Cambridge. This gentleman, it appears, having been expelled the University for marrying at an age not allowed by the statutes of the College, was reduced to the necessity of living upon what his wife could earn by knitting of stockings $ and by curiously observing the working of the needles, formed in his mind a method of facilitating the operation : having completed the model of a machine for that purpose, he applied to Elizabeth for protection and encouragement, but meeting with no success, he went to France, and established himself at Rouen, in Nor- mandy, under a promise of being patronized and recom- pensed by Henry IV. The assassination of this monarch in 1610 occasioned another disappointment in his expectations, and he soon afterwards died of a broken heart at Paris. After his decease, seven of his workmen, with their frames, returned to England, and in conjunction with one Ashton, who had been apprentice to Lee, laid the foundation of this manufacture in England, which soon superseded the stock- 515 ings made of woollen cloth or leather, still worn by the common people in this country. STOVES. The ancients generally warmed their rooms by portable braziers, the wood being prepared in such a manner as to occasion little inconvenience from smoke ; but in the time of Seneca, the Romans had a method of heating their rooms by flues. In 1680, Delasme, invented a stove which might be placed in the middle of the room, the smoke being made to descend and pass through flues under the floor, till it found a vent in the walls. SUGAR. It is suppossed that the Hebrew word, " Aene," which occurs frequently in the Old Testament, and is in our translation rendered sometimes " calamus/* and sometimes " sweet cane," was in fact the sugar-cane, and that the Hebrews extracted from it a kind of fermented beverage, which they called "sacher," from which the Greek, "sukker," or " sugar," is derived. The sugar-cane is first distinctly noticed as growing in India by Nearchus, who conducted the fleet of Alexander down the Indus j but no mention is made of the manner of expressing the juice from it. Dr. Douglas asserts, that the ancient Greeks and Romans used only honey for sweetening, and that sugar was unknown to them. Galen, however, describes it as a kind of honey concreted in reeds, and which came from Arabia Felix and India. Albertus Aquensis informs us that the Crusaders found in Syria sweet honied reeds, which afforded great relief to them during the sieges of Albaria and Archos 5 he also notices the method of expressing and purifying the juice, as practised by the inhabitants of Acre and Tripoli ; the cane appears to have been early cultivated in Sicily, for Latifan recites a donation of William II., King of Sicily, to the monastery of St. 516 Bennet, dated in 1166, of a mill for grinding sugars, with all its rights members and appurtenances. From Sicily the cane was transplanted by the Portuguese to Madeira, in 1420, and soon afterwards to the Canaries, from which place it was sent to Brasil, about the commencement of the six- teenth century, and to St. Domingo, by Columbus, in 1493. In the year 1641, sugar canes were transplanted from Brasil to Barbadoes, and thence to our other West India Islands. Dr. Haylin, in his Cosmography, states that the boiling and baking of sugars was first practised in Europe about the year 1420, before which time the juice was used rough as it came from the cane, and that the art of refining sugar and forming it into loaves, was communicated by a Venetian about the year 1550 ; but whether this was a discovery of his own, or had been acquired from China, where it had been practised for several ages, cannot be ascertained. SUNDAY/ The ancient Christians observed the Jewish sabbath as well as the Sunday or " Lord's Day," both to satisfy the law of Moses, and to imitate the Apostles. Constantine the Great was the first who made it a law, that Sunday should be peculiarly devoted to religious observances throughout the Roman empire ; but he allowed the country people to follow their usual occupations ; and though the Council of Orleans,heldin 538, prohibited this country labour, yet it declares that to hold it unlawful to travel with horses, cattle, and carriages, to prepare food, or to do any thing necessary for comfort or cleanliness, upon this day favours more of Judaiasm than Christianity. SURGERY. Pliny tells us, on the authority of Cassius Hermeria, that Archagathus, a Greek, first practised the art of Surgery, at Rome, about 180 B. C., and so frequently employed the knife, hot irons, and other cruel methods of cure, that he was branded with the name of butcher, and ex- pelled the city j and from that period, to the time of Galen, 517 A.D. 16O, no person ventured to perform any surgical oper- ation. From this time nothing worthy of notice occurs till the year 11G3, when the council of Tours prohibited the eccle- siastics, who then shared with the Jews the practice of medi- cine in Christian Europe, undertaking any bloody operation, and thus a separation was first established, between medicine and surgery, the latter being abandoned to the laity, who, in these ages of barbarism, were almost all entirely unlettered and destitute of education. In this state surgery remained till about the commence- ment of the sixteenth century, when the writings of Vesalius gave a turn for anatomical investigations, and under the skilful management of Ambrose Pere, a Frenchman, the art began to be first treated with respect and consider- ation. This person was the surgeon of Henry II., Francis II., Charles IX., and Henry III. of France ; and his mere presence, in a besieged town, was sufficient to re-animate those who were employed in its defence. Instead of sear- ing the arteries, or steeping the mutilated limb into hot pitch, as had been the custom, he introduced the ligature and needle, and was the restorer, if not the inventor, of the art of tying the blood vessels : indeed, so great was his reputation, that though a Protestant, he was excepted by Charles IX. from the general massacre of the night of St. Bartholomew, being concealed in the King's chamber, who, as Brontome expresses it, was not willing that the man who was capable of saving half the world, should himself be put to death. Henry V. of England, besides his physician, had his surgeon, who attended him in his wars, and received the same allowances as the physician : but surgery itself does not appear to have been held in much estimation in this country, till the commencement of the last century. 518 I APRSTRY. The ancient Persians and Babylonians were accustomed to decorate their temples with tapestry, upon which, the adventures of their most celebrated gods or heroes were worked or embroidered j and from them the art was most probably acquired by the Greeks. According to Pliny, it was first noticed by the Romans, at the court of Attalus, king of Pergamus, about the year 130 B.C., whose hall or principal apartment, is described as having been lined with silk or cloth, having figures worked upon it, in gold and silver. The fashion was soon afterwards intro- duced into Rome, under the name of Aulea, and we find that in the Anglo-Saxon times, the embroidered work of the Eng- lish ladies was highly celebrated in foreign countries j and like that of the Persians, was generally consecrated to reli- gious purposes. Notice has already been taken of the golden vail, which Wigloff, king of Mercia, gave to the Abbey of Croyland j and on which, was embroidered the destruction of Troy, and a specimen of ancient English tapestry, sixty-seven yards long by nineteen inches in breadth, is still preserved in the cathedrel of Bayeaux, de- scribing the history of the conquest of this country, by William of Normandy, from Harold's embassy, in 1065, to his death at the battle of Hastings, and supposed to have been executed by Matilda, the wife of William the Con- queror, and the ladies of her court. The particular species of woven or embroidered stuffs, now known under the name of tapestry, according to Guicciarden, 519 was invented at Brussels in the commencement of the fif- teenth century, and attempted to be introduced into Eng- land by William Sheldon, about the end of the reign of Henry VIII. The manufacture was afterwards revived by Sir Francis Crane, under the patronage of James I. in 1619, and had arrived at considerable reputation, when the civil war commenced. The French established a manufacture for tapestry, at Paris, in the time of Henry IV., which was brought to great perfection by the Gobelins under Louis XIV. The Arras received its name from the principal manufactory at Artois. The principal apartments in the palaces and houses of the wealthy were lined with tapestry, or with painted canvas, till the commencement of the eighteenth century, when paper- hangings of various descriptions were introduced. TEA. About the year 1591, the Dutch East India Com- pany brought into Europe the dried leaves of the tea shrub, with the method of producing an agreeable beverage, by infusing them in boiling water : this seems to have been so much approved of, that it was drank in the coffee-houses of England before the year 166O, as appears, from a duty of eight-pence a gallon being then imposed upon the liquor sold in those places. The first importation of tea by the English East India Company, was in 1669, when two canis- ters, weighing 143fcs, were forwarded to England by the resident merchants at Canton. About the year 172O, tea was generally drank by the middle classes of society. TELEGRAPH. It is slated that the fall of Troy was communicated to Argos by preconcerted signals ; and Poly- bius assures us it was effected by a chain of columns, upon which torches were placed in particular positions, corres- ponding to certain letters in the alphabet. In modern times, the utility of telegraphic signals was first 520 suggested by the Marquis of Worcester,, in his Century of Inventions, published in 1663, but was not practically carried into effect till the year 1793, when the French Government,, at the recommendation of Citizen Chappe, erected telegraphs in various parts of France. The Admiralty Telegraph, the first of the kind in England, was erected in 1796. TELESCOPE. It seems to be doubtful whether this noble invention originated from some casual circumstance, or was the offspring of ratiocination ; neither can it be de- termined exactly to whom the honor of the invention is due. Molyneux, in his " Dioptrica Nova," asserts, that from various phrases in the " Opus Majus" of Friar Bacon, it is evident he not only understood the nature of all optical glasses, but how to combine them so as to form some such instru- ment as the telescope j and this observation is confirmed by Thomas Digges, in his " Stiatisticon," published in 1579, wherein he assures us, that his father, Leonard Digges, actually constructed telescopes from a manuscript descrip- tion of one by Bacon. The general opinion however seems to be, that Jenson or Hanson, a spectacle maker at Middleburgh, was the real inventor of the telescope, about the year 1590, and that he presented one of his making to Prince Maurice, under the idea that it might be serviceable to him in his military ope- rations 5 soon after which the celebrated Galileo, having heard that an optical instrument had been constructed, by which distant objects were made to appear as if near, commenced upon the formation of a similar instrument, and without either any model or instructions, produced a refracting tele- scope, which he presented to the Doge and Senate of Venice, with an account of the uses to which the instrument might be applied. These refracting telescopes were found to magnify in pro- portion to their length, and therefore, if required, for astrono- 531 rnical observations, they were necessarily constructed of a size very inconvenient to manage ; hence they obtained the name of aerial telescopes, from their being always exposed to the weather. At length, a method of making short teles- copes, of much greater powers than any of the refracting telescope*, by means of a reflecting speculum, was disco- vered by James Gregory, of Aberdeen, assisted by Sir Isaac Newton, in 1663 j and by a series of gradual improvements, Hadley in 1723, presented to the Royal Society a reflecting telescope, in which tbe focus of the speculum being ten feet s inches, was equal in power to the Huygenian refractor of 123 feet. Achromatic Lenses were invented by Chester Moore, Esq., in 1729, for his own private use ; but being applied by Dollond in 1 758 to bis telescopes, it gave occasion to a trial at Westminster respecting the priority of invention and consequent right of patent, which was determined in favour of Dollond, Lord Mansfield observing that the person who locked up his invention in his secretaire was not (he one who ought to profit by a patent, but he who produced it for the benefit of the public. THERMOMETER. The earliest account we have of an instrument for measuring the heat of the atmosphere, is that noticed in the " Spiritalia," of Hero of Alexandria, written about 130 B. C,, which is described as a large weatherglass, in which water was made to rise or fall by the changes of heat and cold. About the close of the sixteenth century Sanctonio, an Italian, reduced the hydraulic machine of Hero into a more compendious form, which he called the aerial thermometer : it consisted of a glass tube, having at one end a large glass ball, and open at the other : this tube having been heated to rarify the internal air, had its open end placed in a trough of coloured liquor, which, by the presur 3x of the atmosphere, was forced up the tube till it was resisted by the spring of the internal air, and which spring was more or less, according to the heat of the atmospheric air. This instrument was brought to England by Drebbel in the time of James I. ; but the plan was afterwards altered, and consi- derably improved upon by the Academists del Cimento of Florence, who, by hermetically sealing the open end of the tube, the air being previously exhausted, caused the coloured fluid, it contained, which was spirits of wine, to expand or rise instead of fall by the accession of heat. The application of mercury, instead of spirits of wine, was first suggested by Dr. Halley j though the honour of reducing it to practice is due to Fahrenheit, a Dutchman, in 17^0, who also first affixed a graduated scale to the tube, commencing from the greatest known degree of artificial cold, which he called zero, and extending to the boiling part of mercury, which he considered as equal to six hundred degrees, which degrees were indicative of the expansion or magnitude of the quicksilver, in so many minute portions, beyond the extreme of artificial cold, or its original bulk. TIN. This metal was employed as an alloy to others by the Egyptians and Greeks, and is noticed by Moses. Great quantities of tin were exported from Cornwall by the Phoeni- cians, 600 B. C. Pliny ascribes to the Gauls the art of tin- ning or covering copper and other metals with a thin coat of tin, for culinary purposes. TOBACCO. This plant was probably used for smoking in various parts of Asia, and especially in China, long before the discovery of it in the New World j it was first brought to Europe from America, and received its name from its having been first discovered in the Island of Tobago, or, as others state, from the Spaniards having been first acquainted 523 with its uses at Tobaco, a province in Yutican An account of the plant under the name of Cohoba, was published in 1496, by Romanus Fere, a Spanish monk, whom Columbus, on his second departure from America, had left at St. Do- mingo j and it was shortly afterwards imported in consider- able quantities both by Spain and Portugal. In 1559 Jean Nicot, the French Ambassador at the Portuguese Court, sent some seeds of tobacco to his own country, where it was cul- tivated under the name of Nicotania. It was introduced into this country by Sir Francis Drake, in 1560. The custom of smoking was common to the natives of America, and therefore came into Europe with the plant it- self. James I., by many heavy imposts, endeavoured to abo- lish the use of tobacco, which he considered as prejudicial to the health of his subjects ; and in 1619 wrote a treatise ex- pressly against the use of it, which he entitled " A Counter- blast to Tobacco," wherein he complains " that some of the gentry of the land bestowed three and some four hundred a-year on this precious stink j" hence, probably, its great scarcity in England, for Aubrey, who wrote about the year 1680, says, " I have heard some of our old yeomen neigh- bours affirm, that when they went to market, they culled out their biggest shillings to lay in the scales against the tobacco ;" thus making it in value equal to its weight in silver. Aubrey further informs us that the pipes used by the opulent were made of silver, in the form of woodcocks heads, which was the name given to them, and that the common people made use of walnut-shell and a straw : pipes made of clay, were used by the native Indians of Virginia in 1585, though our common pipes did not appear till the commence- ment of the eighteenth century. The practice of chewing tobacco is cotemporary with that of smoking. The Romans are said to have been partial to the chewing of mallow, and the stalks of the asphodel. 534 TRANSPORTATION was first inflicted as a punishment in the time of Elizabeth, though but little resorted to till the reign of Charles II., When persons found guilty of offences entitled to the benefit of clergy, and sentenced to be im* prisoned, were transported to the British settlements, in North America, not as slaves, but servants, being bound by indenture to their masters for seven years j the last three of which, they were entitled to Wages. When the American revolution restricted the transportation of convicts to that country, the system of confining prisoners to hard labour was adopted, but this form the number of the prisoners proving inconvenient, it was determined, in 1787> to establish a colony in New South Wales, and to send the convicts there to assist in the cultivation Of the soil. TRUMPET. This instrument is said to have been in- vented by the Egyptians, and from the earliest period was made use of on all solemn or grand occasions j it was pro- bably introduced into this country by the Romans, and so early as 775 we reftd of its being sounded to command respect and silence, on the approach of majesty. The invention of the speaking trumpet is attributed to Athanasius Kircher, about the middle of the seventeenth century, but his works were written in so confused a stile ; that they were for a considerable time neglected, and the credit of the invention is, therefore, more generally given to Sir Samuel Morland, who made trial of one of five feet six inches in length, in the presence of Charles II., in 1670 $ and, though speaking in his ordinary pitch of voice, was heard at the distance of one thousand yards. Another person, selected probably for the loudness and distinctness of his voice, was perfectly understood at the distance of four miles and a half. The speaking trumpet said to have been used by Alexander the Great, is considered as fabulous. 535 The Ear-trumpet, for the convenience of those who are deaf, is supposed to have been invented by Baptist a Porta j and Kircher describes a method of constructing a funnel, by which people in separate apartments might converse with one another, as is now common in many mercantile houses. 526 . A beautiful blue pigment, procured from the Lapis Lazuli, and supposed to have been introduced from Persia into Europe in the sixth century 5 the word itself, Ultramarine, first occurs in the sixteenth century. UNIFORM. About the middle of the fifteenth century, Charles VII. of France having formed a regiment of cavalry, consisting of fifteen companies of six hundred men each, directed, that in order that the men might be known in action, or discovered, if guilty of irregularities, they should wear the livery of the Captain of the corps to which, they belonged j for which purpose their coats were ornamented with appropriate colours, and hence proceeded that uni- formity in clothing which has been established among the European troops. In this country, the soldiers being the tenants or retainers of particular Barons, wore the badges of their respective Commanders, in a dress somewhat similar to that of the firemen or watermen of London -, till about the time of Charles II. when a national uniform was introduced. The naval uniform appeared in the commencement of the eighteenth century. URN. Among the curiosities discovered at Pompeii, was an urn containing a hollow metallic cylinder for the insertion of a red hot iron, and in every respect similar to the common tea urn. 527 VACCINATION. (See Inoculation.) VELLUM. (See Parchment.) VIOLIN. It has been much disputed by the learned, whether any instrument resembling the violin was played upon by the ancients : the general opinion seems to be, that it was invented by the Italians in the tenth century, at which time it was called the rebec, and had but three strings : when the fourth string was added is unknown. The viol played with a bow is noticed in the legendary tale of St. Christopher, written in the year 1200: In the time of Chaucer the fiddle was called a crowd, and the performer upon it a crowder. Beltazarini, a celebrated performer in the time of Lewis XIV., first brought this instrument into repute, and a regular band of violin players was established for the entertainment of that Monarch. In imitation of which Charles II. formed a similar company for his court. VISCOUNT. This rank, considered only as a title of honour, was first conferred by Henry VI. on John Lord Beaumont, in 1440. 528 Vr AITS are supposed to have been formerly poor min- strels, part of whose duty it was during the winter nights to parade and guard the streets, and occasionally to call the hour. WALKING-STICKS are first noticed as being used by young men of fashion in this country about the middle of the seventeenth century, when they were formed with an indented head in order to afford a more easy pressure of the hand which they supported ; this was afterwards altered for a round hollow top, which sometimes contained nutmeg or ginger to warm the stomach of the valetudinarian j but snuff soon after coming into general use, the cavifcy was exclusively appropriated to its reception, and the meeting of two friends was invariably marked, after the first salutation, by the un- screwing the tops of their walking-sticks, and offering to each other their titulating treasure. WALNUTS, originally called Gaul nuts, having been in- troduced into this country from France in the time of the Saxons. ' ' ;'' WATCH. (See Clock). WATCHMEN, with the exception of the waits, are not noticed in London prior to the sixteenth century $ they are mentioned with their rattles in the middle of the seventeenth. Hi WATER. London was first supplied with water by mean* of leaden pipes in 1237, which water was procured from springs at Tyburn, and made to communicate with a large cgnduit at Cheapside in 1285. In 1613 Sir Hugh Middleton finished his canaj for supplying London witfc water, which Was brought from Ware to a reservoir at Islington, and soon afterwards wooden pipes were laid in the streets, with smajl leaden pipes for conveying the water inlo private houses ; but water-carriers were stiti attached to Aldgate pump in the time of Anne. WEATHERCOCK. It is related tfcat Andronicus Cyrr- hestes built an octagonal tower at Athens, having at each side a statue of the God, to whom the wind blowing from Ifcat quarter was dedicated ; and in the middle of the tower was a. small spire, having a copper Triton, which being pu$ in motion by the wind, pointed to the deity from whpm it pn eeeded. The custom of placing vanes on the top of church steeples, is at least a* old 33 the middle of the ajnth century -, aad as these aas were, frequently made to resemWa a cock, the emblem of clerical vigilance, they received the appella- tion of weathercocks. In the ages of ignorance the, clergy fcequeotly styled themselves the copks of the Almighty, Vaimis said to have been the first who connected the motion of the vane by a rod to a dial, in tfce interior Q a building. (See Anemoscope). WEEK. The division of the naontkinta weeks of seven days, was practised by the Hebrews from the earliest period of their history, and ia of great antiquity in India. The Greeks divided their month into decades or portions of ten^ days, and the Romans into nine days each, the test of wbich, the great market-day, called the Nundinal. The week of seven days WAS introduced into Europe by. the Christian^ and 530 seems to have been generally adopted about the end of the fourth century. WHALE. The Norwegians are represented as having been employed in the whale fishery in the commencement of the ninth century, in which they were soon followed by the Biscayans. The first mention that occurs in the English history of whalebone, formerly called whale fin, is in 1593, when a considerable quantity of it was brought from America, having been recovered from the wreck of some Biscayan vessels. In 1599 the English commenced upon their whale fishery at Spitzbergen. WIG. Folard asserts that wigs were used in the time of Hannibal, and introduced into Rome under Augustus, when baldness was considered a deformity j and we are told that Otho had a kind of scalp of fine leather, with locks of hair upon it, so well arranged as to appear natural. About the middle of the seventeenth century, during the reign of Lewis XIV., the fashion of wearing full-bottomed or dress perukes was brought into this country from France, and continued to be worn till the middle of the last century, though now confined to the Lord High Chancellor and the Judges. Bag-wigs became fashionable in the commence- ment of the eighteenth century. WIND. The Greeks generally acknowledged eight diffe- rent kinds of winds, which they inform us ^Eolus communi- cated to navigators ; and we find that the four principal or cardinal- winds are mentioned by Homer in his account of the storm raised by Neptune, to prevent the escape of Telema- chus from the island of Calypso : . * ,v . '<' ' '! !..'JI//Ir-- . i/. '*.. .'(,, *"?". L *>-i. " He spoke, and high the forky trident hurl'd, Rolls clouds on clouds, and stirs the watery world ; 531 Al once the face of earth and sea deforms, Swells all the winds, and rouses all the storms Down rush the night east, west, together roar, And south and north roll mountains to the shore." The present names by which the winds are generally known throughout Europe, are said to have originated in the time of Charlemagne, and the division of them into thirty- two points, soon after the invention of the compass. WINDMILL. (See Mill). WINDOW. Previous to the introduction of glass, we find that windows were generally made of fret -work, and the insterstices occasionally filled up with oiled paper, horn, or some other transparent substance. The mother of Sisera is described as looking out of a latticed window for the return of her son. The Romans, about the time of Augustus, first began to glaze their windows, and several panes of glass used for this purpose were discovered at Herculaneura. (See Glass}. WINE. The art of procuring wine from the fermented juice of the grape, may be fairly ascribed to Noah, who is represented as having first planted a vineyard j but almost every country has boasted of some individual or Deity, to whom the honour of having invented fermented liquors has been attributed $ nor has there been any nation or class of people discovered, however uncivilized, who have not been enabled to procure some intoxicating beverage, either from the production of animals, as honey, from corn, the juice of fruits, or the sap of trees and plants. Little is known respecting the ancient wines, except from the writings of Pliny, from which it appears, that the vine was not caltivated at Rome till about 60O B. C., and that both the Greeks and Romans had a method of concentrating S32 their wines, either by spontaneous evaporation or boiling, and of reducing them to a syrup or even to a solid cake, in which state they were preserved for many yetors. Pliny notices wine of two hundred years old, the a^e of the wine being consi- dered a criterion of its goodness. Great attention was paid to the cultivation of the xtine when Probus was Emperor, about the close of the third century j at that time it is supposed to have been planted along the banks of the Rhine, the Maine, and the Moselte, and to have been introduced into Britain. About the close of the tenth century, wine was procured in considerable (quantity and of excellent flavour, from the counties of Lincoln, Glou- cester, and Somerset^ and even now better wine is produ- ced in England from the grape, than from any other fruit whatever. The importation of foreign wines commenced soon after the Conquest, and was greatly increased by the acquisition of Guienne, under Henry II. Spanish wines were common in the reign of Richard II., and continued to grow in estittia 1 - tion, especially sack, which was produced from the grape of Xeres, in Spain. Hollingshed asserts, there were upwards of eighty-six different kinds of wine imported from France and other countries into England, in the sixteenth century j aor does this importation appear to be disproportionate to the demand for them. On the enthronization of Neville, Arch- bishop of York, in 1553, upwards of one hundred tons of wine were consumed, and his predecessor is reported to have used, besides other wines, eighty tons of claret yearly. At this period it was even customary for the princes and nobles to bathe in wine. During the long wars with Lewis XIV., the wines of Portugal were introduced in opposition to those of France, whose trade in them it was deemed impolitic to encourage -, and being in general found more congenial to the tempe- rature of this climate, have ever since been the favourite beverage of Englishmen. 533 Dioscorides, Acteus, and others among the ancients, were acquainted with the art of rendering the add in spoilt wine imperceptible, and of stopping the fermentation or corruption by litharge, The introduction of sugar of lead for this purpose, is modern. The oldest prohibition against the adulteration of wine, is ah order of William, Count of Hennegan, Holland> and Zealand, in 1327. The mixture of litharge with witae, was made death in the Duchy of Wir^ temburg, in 1697* WIRE was origiaally made by beating the metal into thin {dates, and then cutting it into slip's and rounding it with a hammer. The art of drawing the metal through a hole in a steel plate, was practised at Augsburg in 1350 j and in this country in the middle of the sixteenth century. A wire mill was erected at Sheen, near Richmond, in 1663. WOOLLEN CLOTH. The art of manufacturing woollen cloth is mentioned in the Pentateuch and other parts of scrip- ture, and probably preceded that of cotton and flax. In the time of Augustus, woollen garments were in general use throughout Rome, and the manufacture of the cloth was brought to great perfection, the sheep being pro- cured from Tarentum and other parts of Greece, cele- brated for the fineness of their fleece. Though many of the arts were lost on the destruction of the empire by the barbarians, yet that of producing a warm clothing from wool, was, from its utility, partially preserved, and began to revive about the middle of the tenth century in the Low Countries, from whence it soon after spread into other parts of Europe. It seems to be now generally allowed, in opposition to Caesar's opinion, that the art of dressing, spinning, and weaving, both flax and wool, was known to the southern parts of Britain previous to the Roman invasion, though it 534 is little noticed till about the eleventh century, when a num- ber of Flemings having been driven out of their own country by an extraordinary encroachment of the sea, settled themselves near Carlisle, and introduced the woollen manu- facture into England as a separate trade. In the year 1 197, a law was made for regulating the fabrication and sale of this cloth, but it was not till 1330, when John Kemp, a master manufacturer, was prevailed upon to quit Flanders, and to settle at Kendal, in this country, that our woollen cloths were considered of any repute : they were afterwards brought to great perfection by the skill of the Flemish refugees, who sought an asylum in this country from the persecutions of Philip II. of Spain. WORSTED, called by the Flemings " Ostardi," was manufactured in England in the time of Edward II., as appears from a patent granted to John Peacock, for the mea- suring of every piece of worsted made in the city of Norwich. WRITING. Pictures are supposed to have been first resorted to, for the purpose of conveying ideas by signs or letters to others > these, in process of time, gave way to hieroglyphical characters, and they in their turn to arbitrary marks, representing words or sentences, as is still practised in China. At last some happy genius arose, and tracing the sounds made by the human voice to their most simple ele- ments, reduced them to a few vowels and consonants, and by affixing to each of them the signs we now call letters, taught men by their combinations to describe in writing, the different words or sounds which they employed in speech. These kind of arbitrary marks or letters are supposed to have been invented by the Egyptians, and communicated to the Israelites by Moses : the Phoenicians also acquired them from Egypt, and, by means of Cadmus, they were transmit- ted to Greece ; and it is a curious circumstance that the 535 letters we now use can be traced back to the alphabet of Cadmus ; for the Roman character is evidently derived from the Greek, and the Greek bears a strong resemblance to the Hebrew or Samaritan, made use of by the Phoenicians. Letters were at first written from the right hand to the left, as still common in many parts of Asia and Africa : after- wards the Greeks adopted the method of writing their lines alternately, from the right to the left, and from the left to the right, called boustrophedon : at length the motion from the left hand to the right being found most convenient, has generally prevailed throughout Europe. The Britons were ignorant of the use of letters till the arrival of the Romans, and were little acquainted with the art of writing till the commencement of the eighth century. 536 - YEAR. According to Diodorus Siculus, Pliny and others, the Egyptian year consisted originally of but one lunation, and a considerable time elapsed before it was in any way regulated by the course of the sun. At length, by atten- tively comparing the motions of the sun and moon together, the Egyptians found that one revolution of the former, was equal to about twelve of the latter, and they therefore esta- blished a luni-solar year, consisting of twelve lunar months, or 355 days, which was adopted by the Hebrews, and is still adhered to by the Arabians and all other Mahometans. In the course of time, however, it was discovered, that the different seasons of the year were continually changing with respect to the months in which they had been formerly ob- served 5 in order therefore to remedy this defect, and to make the same parts of the year correspond to the same seasons, a method of intercalating a few days at certain intervals, was resorted to j at first five days were deemed requisite for this purpose, but that number proving insufficient, a similar addition was given, by Mercurius Trismegistus, the Hermes, or Thouth of the Egyptians, and the year was made to consist of 365 days. There still remained a deficiency of nearly six hours in the solar year, which is said to have been known to the Egyp- tians, and communicated by them to Plato and Eudoxus about 400 B. C., however this may be, Julius Ca3sar was the first, who, by the advice of Sosigenes, an Egyptian mathe- 537 matician directed that it should be regularly accounted for by the addition of a day in every fourth year, which, though approximating very nearly to the truth, was still an error in excess of nearly eleven minutes a year. It seems to have been at all times considered a point of considerable importance in the church, that the festival of Easter should be simultaneously held in all parts of the Christian world, and as this was to be regulated by the fiwt full moon after the vernal equinox, it was necessary that the precise day when the vernal equinox took place, should be generally known. It appears, that in the year 1582, Pope Gregory III. discovered, that since the reformation of the calendar by Caesar, the trifling error of eleven minutes a year had increased to thirteen days, and that the vernal equinox since the council of Nice, held in 325, had advanced ten days : in order, therefore, to restore the equinoxes to their proper place in the calendar, he determined upon throwing out the ten days of excess^ which had shifted the fifth of October ta the fifteenth, and this correction, which was called the Grego- rian year, was immediately adopted by all the Catholic governments, but not by the Protestant States till the year 1700, nor in England till 1752. Most countries commenced their year from the first ap- pearance of the moon at the time of the equinoxes, either vernal or autumnal -, but, the first Christians chose to begin their year from the Annunciation or Incarnation of Our Saviour j and this was at length directed to be generally observed by Dionysius, Abbot of Rome, in the sixth century $ it appears, however, to have been the custom of the Anglo- Saxons to consider Christmas-day as the first day of the year, and, which continued till the arrival of the Normans, who commenced their year from the circumcision. Hence our early historians differ very much from each other on this point, some dating the year to commence from the Annun- ciation, others from the Nativity, and others again from the 3z 538 Circumcision j nor does it appear to have been at all settled till the time of the Reformation, when both the civil and ecclesasitical authorities interposed, to fix it to the feast of the Annunciation, which continued, till the Act for altering the style in 1752, when the civil year was ordered to commence on the first of January, and thus, according to Stowe, made to agree with the historical year, which had its rise from the time of William the Conqueror, though, in fact, he was crowned on Christmas-day, 1066. The custom of computing the number of years elapsed from the epoch of Our Saviour's birth, is first noticed in the ecclesiastical history, written by Bede, about the year 730, and is supposed to have been introduced by Augustin j never- theless, it seems to have been the common practice of most of the European nations, in all civil transactions, to num- ber the years from the accession of the reigning monarch, and it was not till the establishment of the Republican form of government by Cromwell, that the year of our Lord was generally used. 539 ZlNC is first noticed by Albertus Magnus, under the term of Marchasita Aurea in the thirteenth century : the name Zinc was given to it by Paracelsus, about the year 1530 j it was first purposely procured from Calamine, by the addition of some inflammable substance by Henkel, in 1730. 541 A LIST OF AUTHORS, s &C. QUOTED OR REFERRED TO IN THIS VOLUME. .ESCHYLUS, the tragic poet, bora at Athens, 525 B.C., died 456. /Esculapiusj the god of medicine, born at Epaudarus about 1200 B.C. Albertus Magnus, the German mathematician and philoso- pher, died 1280. Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne, an eminent scholar, died 709, Aldrovendi, the naturalist, died at Bologna, 1605. Alexander the Great, died at Babylon, 323 B.C., aged 32. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, died 397. Anacharsis, the Scythian philosopher, flourished about 600 B.C. Anaximander, the Greek philosopher, flourished about 580 B.C. Anderson, James, the commercial writer, died 1643. Anthony, St., the Egyptian monk, died 356, aged 105. Apollodorus, the grammarian, died about 130 B.C. Apollodorus, the architect, died 110. Appian, the historian, died about 160. Aquinas, Thomas, a famous scholastic divine, died 1274, 542 Archimedes, the mathematician, killed at Syracuse, 208 B.C. Aristapchus, the Greek astronomer, died about 250 B.C. Aristophanes, the Greek comic poet, flourished about 450 B.C. Aristotle, the philosopher and preceptor of Alexander, died 322 B.C. Arius, the founder of the sect called the Arians, died 336. Artetnidorus, the geographer, of Ephesus, died about 90 B.C. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, died 373. Augustin, or Austin, first archbishop of Canterbury, died about 609. Augustus, emperor, died 14 Bacon, Roger, the philosopher and mathematician, died 1292. Barrington, Danes, the antiquarian, died 1800. Barrow, Isaac, an eminent divine and mathematician, died 1677. Basil, St., bishop of Caesarea, died 379. Baskerville, the celebrated printer, died 1775. Bede, a learned monk, sur-named the Venerable, died 735. Blair, John, the chronologist, died 1782. Bochart, Samuel, the geographer, died 1667- Boethius, the mathematician and musician, killed 526. Boetius, the historian, died 1450. Boyle, Robert, the philosopher, died 1691. Brahe, Tycho, the astronomer, died 1601. Bruce, James, the traveller, died 1794. Buchanan, George, the historian, died 1582. Buffon, George Louis, the naturalist, died 1784. Cadmus, first king of Thebes, flourished, according to Blair, and the Arundelian marbles, 1500 B. C. j but according to Sir Isaac Newton, 1045 B.C. Caligula, emperor of Rome, died 41. Calvin, John, the reformer, died 1564. Caesar, Julius, killed 44 B. C. Camden, William, the antiquarian, died 1623. Cange, Charles Du, the antiquary, died 1688. 543 Cartes, Rene, Des, the philosopher, died 1560. Cassini, John, the astronomer, died 1712. Cassini, James, his son, died 1756. Caxton, William, the printer, died 1491. Caylus, Count, the antiquary, died 1765. Cecrops, first king of Athens, flourished about 1550 B.C. Celsus, the physician, flourished 15O. Chaucer, Geoffrey, the poet, died 1409. Cicero, the orator, died 43 B.C. Claudius, emperor, died 54. Cleostratus, the astronomer, flourished about 500 B.C. Coke, Sir Edward, a celebrated lawyer, died 1634. Columbus, Christopher, the discoverer of America, died 15O6. Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, died about 470 B.C. Constantine the Great, died 337. Copernicus, Nicholas, the astronomer, died 1543. Cotton, Sir Robert, the antiquary, died 1631. Ctesibius, the Alexandrian mathematician, flourished about 120 B.C. Dante, the Italian poet, died 1321. Democritus, the philosopher, flourished 430 B.C. Dioclescan, emperor, died 304. Diodorus, Siculus, the historian, died about 30 B.C. Diogenes, the cynic, died about 330 B.C. Dioscorides, the physician, died about the year 56. Domitian, emperor, died 96. Dugdale, Sir William, the antiquary, died 1685. Dunstan, St., died 988. Epictetus, the philosopher, died about the year 12O. Epicurus, the philosopher, died about 270 B.C. Erasistratus, the physician, flourished about 250 B.C. Erasmus, a learned divine, died 1536. Esop, the fabulist, died 550 B.C. Euclid, the mathematician, died about 28O B.C. Eutropius, the historian, died about the year 400. 544 Faust, or Faustus, the printer, died 1466. Fitz Stephen, William, the historian, died 1191. Fleet wood, William, the antiquarian, died 1593. Froissart, John, the historian, died 1402. Galen, the physician, died about the year 2OO. Galileo, the mathematician and astronomer, died 1642. Geber, the chemist, supposed to have flourished in the eighth century. Geoffry of Monmouth, the historian, died about 116O. Gibbon, Edward, the historian, died 1794. Gildas, Badonias, the historian, died in the monastery of Bangor, 590. Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome, died 604. Grotius, Hugo, the civilian, died 1645. Guericke, Otto, the philosopher, died 1654. Guicciardini, the historian, died 1540. Hacklyut, the navigator and geographer, died 1616. Halley, Edmund, the astronomer, died 1742. Handel, George, the musician, died 1759. Heath, James, the chronological historian, died 1664. Heliodorus, the mathematician, flourished about the year 40. Henry, Richard, the historian, died 1790. Herculaneum, an ancieat city of Campania, in Italy, destroyed by an irruption of Vesuvius, about the year 79. The situation of it was accidentally discovered by some labourers, in 1713, and many valuable remains of anti- quity have been recovered from its ruins. Herodotus, the historian, flourished 450 B.C. Hipparchus, the astronomer, died about 125 B.C- Hippocrates, the physician, died about 370 B.C. Hollingshed, Ralph, the historian, died 1580. Homer, the poet, flourished about 900 B.C. Hooke, Nathaniel, the historian, died- 1764. Hooke, Robert, the mathematician, died 1635. Horace, the poet, died about 8 B.C. 545 Hume, David, the historian, died 1776. Huygens, Christian, the mathematician, died about 1695. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, died 107. Ingulphus, the historian, died 11O9. Isidore, St., died about the year 45O. Jerome, St., died 42O. Josephus, Flavius, the Jewish historian, died 93. Justinian, the emperor, died 565 Juvenal, the poet, died 127. Kircher, Athanasius, the mathematician, died 168O. Kepler, John, the astronomer, died 163O. Knolles, Richard, the historian, died 1610. Knox, John, the reformer, died 1572. Leland, John, the antiquarian, died 1552* Linnaeus, Charles, the naturalist, died 1778. Livy, the historian, died about the year 17. Lucretius, the poet, died 52 B.C. Lycurgus, the legislator of Sparta, died 870 B.C. Maffceus, Francis Scipio, the antiquarian, died 1755. Mahomet, the prophet of the Turks, died 631. Martial, the poet, died 1O9. Medici, Cosmo, died 1464. Lorenzo, 1492. Melancthon, the reformer, died 156O. Mercator, the geographer, died 1594. Montfaucon, Bernard, the antiquary, died 1741. Muller, John, or Regiomontanus, the mathematician, died 1476. Munster, Sebastian, the mathematician, died 1552. Napier, John, baron of Merchisten, died 1617. Nero, emperor, died 68. Newton, Sir Isaac, the mathematician, died 1727. Ovid, the poet, died 15. Palladio, the architect, died 1580. Paracelsus, the physician, died 1541. Paris, Matthew, the historian, died about 12 6O. 4 A 540 Pausanias, the tourist, died 140; Phsedrus, the fabulist, died about 31. Pindar, the poet, died 435 B. C. Pliny the Elder, the naturalist, suffocated by the eruption of Vesuvius, 79. Plot, Robert, the antiquarian, died 1696. Plutarch, the biographer, died 120. Polybius, the historian,died about ISO B.C. Porta, Baptista/the mathematician and philosopher, died 1615. Prideaux, Humphrey, the historian, died 1724. Ptolemy, Claudius, the astronomer and mathematician, died about 15O. Pythagoras, the philosopher, flourished about 550 B. C. Quintilian, the orator, died about 95. Rapin, Thoyras, the historian, died 1725. Reaumur, Antoine, the mathematician, died 1757. Robertson, William, the historian, died 1798* Roger de Hoveden, the historian, flourished 125O. Rymer, Thomas, the antiquary, died 1713. Sallust, the historian, died 35 B. C. Schwartz, Bartholomew, the chemist, died 134O. Selden, John, the antiquarian, died 1654. Seneca, the philosopher, died 65. Shaw, Thomas, the traveller, died 1751. Simonides, the poet, 500 B. C. Skinner, James, the antiquarian,,died 1667. Socrates, the celebrated moral philosopher, died about 40O B.C. Solon, the legislator, died 460 B. C. Sophocles, the poet, died 410 B. C. Speed, John, the historian, died 1629. Spelman, Henry, the antiquarian, died 1641 Spencer, the poet, died 1598 Sprat, Bishop of Rochester, the historian, died 1T13 Stow, John, the historian, died, 1605. 547 Strabo, the geographer, died about 25 B. C. Suetonius, the historian, died about 124. Sulpicius, the ecclesiastical historian, died about 420. Sydenham, the physician, died 1689. Tacitus, the historian, died about 117. Tavernier, John, the traveller, died 1689. Terence, the poet, died about 150 B. C. Thales, the philosopher, died 490 B. C. Theocritus, the poet, flourished 250 B. C. Theodosius, emperor, died 395. Theophrastus, the philosopher, died 290 B. C. Thespis, the poet, flourished 55O B. C. Tiberius, emperor, died 3?. Tindal, the historian, died 1774. Torricelli, the mathematician, died 1647. Trajan, emperor, died 117. Usher, the chronologer, died 1656. Varro, the historian and philosopher, died about 27 B.C. Virgil, Polydore, the historian, died 1555. Virgil, the poet, died 18 B.C. Vitruvius, the architect, died about 20 B.C. Walsingham, Thomas, the historian, died about 1460. Wedgewood, Josiah, the manufacturer of porcelain, died 1795. Westminster, Matthew of, the historian, died 138O. Wickliffe, the reformer, died 1385. William of Malmsbury, the historian, died 1150. Xenophon, the historian, died 359 B.C. Zoroaster, the Persian philosopher, supposed to have flourished about 12OO B.C. Creasy and Baker, Printers, North-street , Brighton. 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