[1] The care of his posthumous publications devolved upon his
domestic chaplain and son-in-law, Squier Payne, who soon after the
bishop's death edited "_Sanchoniato's Phoenician History_, translated
from the first book of Eusebius, _De praeparatione evangelica_: with
a continuation of Sanchoniato's history of Eratosthenes Cyrenaeus's
Canon, which Dicaearchus connects with the first Olympiad. These
authors are illustrated with many historical and chronological
remarks, proving them to contain a series of Phoenician and Egyptian
chronology, from the first man to the first Olympiad, agreeable to
the Scripture accounts" (London, 1720). The preface contains an
account of the life, character and writings of the author, which was
likewise published in a separate form, and exhibits a pleasing
picture of his happy old age. A German translation appeared under the
title of _Cumberlands phonizische Historie des Sanchoniathons,
ubersetzt von Joh. Phil. Cassel_ (Magdeburg, 1755). The sequel to the
work was likewise published by Payne--_Origines gentium
antiquissimae; or Attempts for discovering the Times of the First
Planting of Nations: in several Tracts_ (London, 1724).
CUMBERLAND, RICHARD (1732-1811), English dramatist, was born in the
master's lodge of Trinity College, Cambridge, on the 19th of February
1732. He was the great-grandson of the bishop of Peterborough; and his
father, Dr Denison Cumberland, became successively bishop of Clonfert
and of Kilmore. His mother was Joanna, the youngest daughter of the
great scholar Richard Bentley, and the heroine of John Byrom's once
popular little eclogue, _Colin and Phoebe_. Of the great master of
Trinity his grandson has left a kindly account; he afterwards collected
all the pamphlets bearing on the _Letters of Phalaris_ controversy, and
piously defended the reputation of his ancestor in his _Letter_ to
Bishop Lowth, who had called Bentley "aut caprimulgus aut fossor."
Cumberland was in his seventh year sent to the grammar-school at Bury St
Edmunds, and he relates how, on the head-master Arthur Kinsman
undertaking, in conversation with Bentley, to make the grandson as good
a scholar as the grandfather himself, the latter retorted: "Pshaw,
Arthur, how can that be, when I have forgot more than thou ever
knewest?" Bentley died during his grandson's Bury schooldays; and in
1744 the boy, who, while rising to the head of his school, had already
begun to "try his strength in several slight attempts towards the
drama," was removed to Westminster, then at the height of its reputation
under Dr Nicholls. Among his schoolfellows here were Warren Hastings,
George Colman (the elder), Lloyd, and (though he does not mention them
as such) Churchill and Cowper. From Westminster Cumberland passed, in
his fourteenth year, to Trinity College, Cambridge, where in 1750 he
took his degree as tenth wrangler. His account of his degree
examination, as well as that for a fellowship at his college, part of
which he underwent in the "judges' chamber," where he was born, is
curious; he was by virtue of an alteration in the statutes elected to
his fellowship in the second year of his degree.
Meanwhile his projects of work as a classical scholar had been
interspersed with attempts at imitating Spenser--whom, by his mother's
advice, he "laid upon the shelf"--and a dramatic effort (unprinted) on
the model of Mason's _Elfrida_, called _Caractacus_. He had just begun
to read for his fellowship, when he was offered the post of private
secretary by the earl of Halifax, first lord of trade and plantations in
the duke of Newcastle's ministry. His family persuaded him to accept the
office, to which he returned after his election as fellow. It left him
abundant leisure for literary pursuits, which included the design of a
poem in blank verse on India. He resigned his Trinity fellowship on his
marriage--in 1759--to his cousin Elizabeth Ridge, to whom he had paid
his addresses on receiving through Lord Halifax "a small establishment
as crown-agent for Nova Scotia." In 1761 he accompanied his patron (who
had been appointed lord-lieutenant) to Ireland as Ulster secretary; and
in acknowledgment of his services was afterwards offered a baronetcy. By
declining this he thinks he gave offence; at all events, when in 1762
Halifax became secretary of state, Cumberland in vain applied for the
post of under-secretary, and could only obtain the clerkship of reports
at the Board of Trade under Lord Hillsborough. While he takes some
credit to himself for his incorruptibility when in Ireland, he showed
zeal for his friend and secured a bishopric for his father. On the
accession to office of Lord George Germaine (Sackville) in 1775,
Cumberland was appointed secretary to the Board of Trade and
Plantations, which post he held till the abolition of that board in 1782
by Burke's economical reform. Before this event he had, in 1780, been
sent on a confidential mission to Spain, to negotiate a separate treaty
of peace with that power; but though he was well received by King
Charles III. and his minister Floridablanca, the question of Gibraltar
proved a stumbling-block, and the Gordon riots at home a most untoward
occurrence. He was recalled in 1781, and was refused repayment of the
expenses he had incurred, towards which only L1000 had been advanced to
him. He thus found himself L4500 out of pocket: in vain, he says, "I
wearied the door of Lord North till his very servants drove me from it";
his memorial remained unread or unnoticed either by the prime minister
or by secretary Robinson, through whom the original promise had been
made. Soon after this experience he lost his office, and had to retire
on a compensation allowance of less than half-pay. He now took up his
residence at Tunbridge Wells; but during his last years he mostly lived
in London, where he died on the 7th of May 1811. He was buried in
Westminster Abbey, a short oration being pronounced on this occasion by
his friend Dean Vincent.
Cumberland's numerous literary productions are spread over the whole of
his long life; but it is only by his contributions to the drama, and
perhaps by his _Memoirs_, that he is likely to be remembered. The
collection of essays and other pieces entitled _The Observer_ (1785),
afterwards republished together with a translation of _The Clouds_,
found a place among _The British Essayists_. For the accounts given in
_The Observer_ of the Greek writers, especially the comic poets,
Cumberland availed himself of Bentley's MSS. and annotated books in his
possession; his translations from the Greek fragments, which are not
inelegant but lack closeness, are republished in James Bailey's
_Comicorum Graecorum_ (part i., 1840) and _Hermesianactis, Archilochi,
et Pratinae fragmenta_. Cumberland further produced _Anecdotes of
Eminent Painters in Spain_ (1782 and 1787); a _Catalogue of the King of
Spain's Paintings_ (1787); two novels--_Arundel_ (1789), a story in
letters, and _Henry_ (1795), a "diluted comedy" on the construction and
polishing of which he seems to have expended great care; a religious
epic, _Calvary, or the Death of Christ_ (1792); his last publication was
a poem entitled _Retrospection_. He is also supposed to have joined Sir
James Bland Burges in an epic, the _Exodiad_ (1807), and in _John de
Lancaster_, a novel. Besides these he wrote the _Letter to the Bishop of
O[xfor]d_ in vindication of Bentley (1767); another _to the Bishop of
Llandaff_ (Richard Watson) on his proposal for equalizing the revenues
of the Established Church (1783); a _Character of the late Lord
Sackville_ (1785), whom in his _Memoirs_ he vindicates from the stigma
of cowardice; and an anonymous pamphlet, _Curtius rescued from the
Gulf_, against the redoubtable Dr Parr. He was also the author of a
version of fifty of the Psalms of David; of a tract on the evidences of
Christianity; and of other religious exercises in prose and verse, the
former including "as many sermons as would make a large volume, some of
which have been delivered from the pulpits." Lastly, he edited, in 1809,
a short-lived critical journal called _The London Review_, intended to
be a rival to the _Quarterly_, with signed articles.
Cumberland's _Memoirs_, which he began at the close of 1804, and
concluded in September 1805, were published in 1806, and a supplement
was added in 1807. This narrative, which includes a long account of his
Spanish mission, contains some interesting reminiscences of several
persons of note--more especially Bubb Dodington, Single-Speech Hamilton,
and Lord George Sackville among politicians, and of Garrick, Foote and
Goldsmith; but the accuracy of some of the anecdotes concerning the
last-named is not beyond suspicion. The book exhibits its author as an
amiable egotist, careful of his own reputation, given to prolixity and
undistinguished by wit, but a good observer of men and manners. The
uneasy self-absorption which Sheridan immortalized in the character of
Sir Fretful Plagiary in _The Critic_ is apparent enough in this
autobiography, but presents itself there in no offensive form. The
incidental criticisms of actors have been justly praised.
Cumberland was hardly warranted in the conjecture that no English author
had yet equalled his list of dramas in point of number; but his plays,
published and unpublished, have been computed to amount to fifty-four.
About 35 of these are regular plays, to which have been added 4 operas
and a farce; and about half of the whole list are comedies. The best
known of them belong to what he was pleased to term "legitimate comedy,"
and to that species of it known as "sentimental." The essential
characteristic of these plays is the combination of plots of domestic
interest with the rhetorical enforcement of moral precepts, and with
such small comic humour as the author possesses. These comedies are
primarily, to borrow Cumberland's own phraseology, designed as "attempts
upon the heart." He takes great credit to himself for weaving his plays
out of "homely stuff, right British drugget," and for eschewing "the
vile refuse of the Gallic stage"; on the other hand, he borrowed from
the sentimental fiction of his own country, including Richardson,
Fielding and Sterne. The favourite theme of his plays is virtue in
distress or danger, but safe of its reward in the fifth act; their most
constant characters are men of feeling and young ladies who are either
prudes or coquettes. Cumberland's comic power--such as it was--lay in
the invention of comic characters taken from the "outskirts of the
empire," and professedly intended to vindicate from English prejudice
the good elements in the Scotch, the Irish and the colonial character.
For the rest, patriotic sentiment liberally asserts itself by the side
of general morality. If Cumberland's dialogue lacks brilliance and his
characters reality, the construction of the plots is as a rule, skilful,
and the situations are contrived with what Cumberland indisputably
possessed--a thorough insight into the secrets of theatrical effect. It
should be added that, though Cumberland's sentimentality is often
wearisome, his morality is generally sound; that if he was without the
genius requisite for elevating the national drama, he did his best to
keep it pure and sweet; and that if he borrowed much, as he undoubtedly
did, it was not the vicious attractions of other dramatists of which he
was the plagiary.
His debut as a dramatic author was made with a tragedy, _The Banishment
of Cicero_, published in 1761 after its rejection by Garrick; this was
followed in 1765 by a musical drama, _The Summer's Tale_, subsequently
compressed into an afterpiece _Amelia_ (1768). Cumberland first essayed
sentimental comedy in _The Brothers_ (1769). The theme of this comedy is
inspired by Fielding's _Tom Jones_; its comic characters are the jolly
old tar Captain Ironsides, and the henpecked husband Sir Benjamin Dove,
whose progress to self-assertion is genuinely comic, though not
altogether original. Horace Walpole said that it acted well, but read
ill, though he could distinguish in it "strokes of Mr Bentley." The
epilogue paid a compliment to Garrick, who helped the production of
Cumberland's second comedy _The West-Indian_ (1771). The hero of this
comedy, which probably owes much to the suggestion of Garrick, is a
young scapegrace fresh from the tropics, "with rum and sugar enough
belonging to him to make all the water in the Thames into punch,"--a
libertine with generous instincts, which in the end prevail. This early
example of the modern _drame_ was received with the utmost favour; it
was afterwards translated into German by Boden, and Goethe acted in it
at the Weimar court. _The Fashionable Lover_ (1772) is a sentimental
comedy of the most pronounced type. _The Choleric Man_ (1774), founded
on the _Adelphi_ of Terence, is of a similar type, the comic element
rather predominating, but philanthropy being duly represented by a
virtuous lawyer called Manlove. Among his later comedies may be
mentioned _The Natural Son_ (1785), in which Major O'Flaherty who had
already figured in _The West-Indian_, makes his reappearance; _The
Impostors_ (1789), a comedy of intrigue; _The Box Lobby Challenge_
(1794), a protracted farce; _The Jew_ (1794), a serious play, highly
effective when the character of Sheva was played by the great German
actor Theodor Doring; _The Wheel of Fortune_ (1795), in which John
Kemble found a celebrated part in the misanthropist Penruddock, who
cannot forget but learns to forgive (a character declared by Kotzebue to
have been stolen from his _Menschenhass und Reue_), while the lawyer
Timothy Weasel was made comic by Richard Suett; _First Love_ (1795);
_The Last of the Family_ (1795); _False Impressions_ (1797); _The
Sailor's Daughter_ (1804); and a _Hint to Husbands_ (1806), which,
unlike the rest, is in blank verse. The other works printed during his
lifetime include _The Note of Hand_ (1774), a farce; the songs of his
musical comedy, _The Widow of Delphi_ (1780); his tragedies of _The
Battle of Hastings_ (1778); and _The Carmelite_ (1784), a romantic
domestic drama in blank verse, in the style of Home's _Douglas_,
furnishing some effective scenes for Mrs Siddons and John Kemble as
mother and son; and the domestic drama (in prose) of _The Mysterious
Husband_ (1783). His posthumously printed plays (published in 2 vols. in
1813) include the comedies of _The Walloons_ (acted in 1782); _The
Passive Husband_ (acted as _A Word for Nature_, 1798); _The Eccentric
Lover_ (acted 1798); and _Lovers' Resolutions_ (once acted in 1802); the
serious quasi-historic drama _Confession_; the drama _Don Pedro_ (acted
1796); and the tragedies of _Alcanor_ (acted as _The Arab_, 1785);
_Torrendal_; _The Sibyl, or The Elder Brutus_ (afterwards amalgamated
with other plays on the subject into a very successful tragedy for
Edmund Kean by Payne); _Tiberius in Capreae_; and _The False Demetrius_
(on a theme which attracted Schiller). Cumberland translated the
_Clouds_ of Aristophanes (1797), and altered for the stage Shakespeare's
_Timon of Athens_ (1771), Massinger's _The Bondman_ and _The Duke of
Milan_ (both 1779).
In 1806-1807 appeared _Memoirs of R. Cumberland, written by himself_.
Cumberland's novel, _Henry_, was printed in Ballantyne's Novelists'
Library (1821), with a prefatory notice of the author by Sir Walter
Scott. A so-called _Critical Examination_ of Cumberland's works and a
memoir of the author based oh his autobiography, with the addition of
some more or less feeble criticisms, by William Madford, appeared in
1812. An excellent account of Cumberland is included in "George
Paston's" _Little Memoirs of the Eighteenth Century_ (1901). Hettner
well characterizes Cumberland's position in the history of the English
drama in _Litteraturgesch. d. 18. Jahrhunderts_ (2nd ed., 1865), i.
520. Cumberland's portrait by Romney (whose talent he was one of the
first to encourage) is in the National Portrait Gallery. (A. W. W.)
CUMBERLAND, WILLIAM AUGUSTUS, DUKE OF (1721-1765), son of King George
II. and Queen Caroline, was born on the 15th of April 1721, and when
five years of age was created duke of Cumberland. His education was well
attended to, and his courage and capacity in outdoor exercises were
notable from his early years. He was intended by the king and queen for
the office of lord high admiral, and in 1740 he sailed as a volunteer in
the fleet under the command of Sir John Norris; but he quickly became
dissatisfied with the navy, and early in 1742 he began a military
career. In December 1742 he was made a major-general, and in the
following year he first saw active service in Germany. George II. and
the "martial boy" shared in the glory of Dettingen (June 27), and
Cumberland, who was wounded in the action, displayed an energy and
valour, the report of which in England founded his military popularity.
After the battle he was made lieutenant-general. In 1745, having been
made captain-general of the British land forces at home and in the
field, the duke was again in Flanders as commander-in-chief of the
allied British, Hanoverian, Austrian and Dutch troops. Advancing to the
relief of Tournay, which was besieged by Marshal Saxe, he engaged that
great general in the battle of Fontenoy (q v.) on the 11th of May. It
cannot now be doubted that, had the duke been supported by the allies in
his marvellously courageous attack on the superior positions of the
French army, Fontenoy would not have been recorded as a defeat to the
British arms. He himself was in the midst of the heroic column which
penetrated the French centre, and his conduct of the inevitable retreat
was unusually cool and skilful.
Notwithstanding the severity of his discipline, the young duke had the
power to inspire his men with a strong attachment to his person and a
very lively _esprit de corps_. As a general his courage and resolution
were not sufficiently tempered with sagacity and tact; but he displayed
an energy and power in military affairs which pointed him out to the
British people as the one commander upon whom they could rely to put a
decisive stop to the successful career of Prince Charles Edward in the
rebellion of 1745-1746. John (Earl) Ligonier wrote of him at this time:
"Ou je suis fort trompe ou il se forme la un grand capitaine."
He was recalled from Flanders, and immediately proceeded with his
preparations for quelling the insurrection. He joined the midland army
under Sir John Ligonier, and was at once in pursuit of his swift-footed
foe. But the retreat of Charles Edward from Derby disconcerted his
plans; and it was not till they had reached Penrith, and the advanced
portion of his army had been repulsed on Clifton Moor, that he became
aware how hopeless an attempt to overtake the retreating Highlanders
would then be. Carlisle having been retaken, he retired to London, till
the news of the defeat of Hawley at Falkirk roused again the fears of
the English people, and centred the hopes of Britain on the royal duke.
He was appointed commander of the forces in Scotland.
Having arrived in Edinburgh on the 30th of January 1746, he at once
proceeded in search of the young Pretender. He diverged, however, to
Aberdeen, where he employed his time in training the well-equipped
forces now under his command for the peculiar nature of the warfare in
which they were about to engage. What the old and experienced generals
of his time had failed to accomplish or even to understand, the young
duke of Cumberland, as yet only twenty-four years of age, effected with
simplicity and ease. He prepared to dispose his army so as to withstand
with firmness that onslaught on which all Highland successes depended;
and he reorganized the forces and restored their discipline and
self-confidence in a few weeks.
On the 8th of April 1746 he set out from Aberdeen towards Inverness, and
on the 15th he fought the decisive battle of Culloden, in which, and in
the pursuit which followed, the forces of the Pretender were completely
destroyed. He had become convinced that the sternest measures were
needed to break down the Jacobitism of the Highlanders. He told his
troops to take notice that the enemy's orders were to give no quarter to
the "troops of the elector," and they took the hint. No trace of such
orders remains (see MURRAY, LORD GEORGE), and it is probable that
Cumberland had merely received word of wild talk in the enemy's camp,
which he credited the more easily as he thought that those who were
capable of rebellion were capable of any crime. On account of the
merciless severity with which the fugitives were treated, Cumberland
received the nickname of the "Butcher." That the implied taunt was
unjust need not be laboured. It was used for political purposes in
England, and his own brother, the prince of Wales, encouraged, it
appears, the virulent attacks which were made upon the duke. In any case
there is a marked similarity between Cumberland's conduct in Scotland
and that of Cromwell in Ireland. Both dared to do acts which they knew
would be cast against them for the rest of their lives, and terrorized
an obstinate and unyielding enemy into submission. How real was the
danger of a protracted guerrilla warfare in the Highlands may be judged
from the explicit declarations of Jacobite leaders that they intended to
continue the struggle. As it was, the war came to an end almost at once.
Here, as always, Cumberland preserved the strictest discipline in his
camp. He was inflexible in the execution of what he deemed to be his
duty, without favour to any man. At the same time he exercised his
influence in favour of clemency in special cases that were brought to
his notice. Some years later James Wolfe spoke of the duke as "for ever
doing noble and generous actions."
The relief occasioned to Britain by the duke's victorious efforts was
acknowledged by his being voted an income of L40,000 per annum in
addition to his revenue as a prince of the royal house. The duke took no
part in the Flanders campaign of 1746, but in 1747 he again opposed the
still victorious Marshal Saxe; and received a heavy defeat at the battle
of Lauffeld, or Val, near Maestricht (2nd of July 1747). During the ten
years of peace Cumberland occupied himself chiefly with his duties as
captain-general, and the result of his work was clearly shown in the
conduct of the army in the Seven Years' War. His unpopularity, which had
steadily increased since Culloden, interfered greatly with his success
in politics, and when the death of the prince of Wales brought a minor
next in succession to the throne the duke was not able to secure for
himself the contingent regency, which was vested in the princess-dowager
of Wales. In 1757, the Seven Years' War having broken out, Cumberland
was placed at the head of a motley army of allies to defend Hanover. At
Hastenbeck, near Hameln, on the 26th of July 1757, he was defeated by
the superior forces of D'Estrees (see SEVEN YEARS' WAR). In September of
the same year his defeat had almost become disgrace. Driven from point
to point, and at last hemmed in by the French under Richelieu, he
capitulated at Klosterzeven on the 8th of the month, agreeing to disband
his army and to evacuate Hanover. His disgrace was completed on his
return to England by the king's refusal to be bound by the terms of the
duke's agreement. In chagrin and disappointment he retired into private
life, after having formally resigned the public offices he held. In his
retirement he made no attempt to justify his conduct, applying in his
own case the discipline he had enforced in others. For a few years he
lived quietly at Windsor, and subsequently in London, taking but little
part in politics. He did much, however, to displace the Bute ministry
and that of Grenville, and endeavoured to restore Pitt to office. Public
opinion had now set in his favour, and he became almost as popular as he
had been in his youth. Shortly before his death the duke was requested
to open negotiations with Pitt for a return to power. This was, however,
unsuccessful. On the 31st of October 1765 the duke died.
A Life of the duke of Cumberland by Andrew Henderson was published in
1766, and anonymous (Richard Rolt) _Historical Memoirs_ appeared in
1767. See especially A. N. Campbell Maclachlan, _William Augustus,
Duke of Cumberland_ (1876).
CUMBERLAND, the north-westernmost county of England, bounded N. by the
Scottish counties of Dumfries and Roxburgh, E. by Northumberland, S. by
Westmorland and Lancashire, and W. by the Irish Sea. Its area is 1520.4
sq m. In the south the county includes about one-half of the celebrated
LAKE DISTRICT (q.v.), with the highest mountain in England, Scafell Pike
(3210 ft.), and the majority of the principal lakes, among which are
Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite, Buttermere and Crummock Water,
Ennerdale, Wastwater, and, on the boundary with Westmorland, Ullswater.
From this district valleys radiate north, west and south to a flat
coastal belt, the widest part of which (about 8 m.) is found in the
north in the Solway Plain, bordering Solway Firth, which here intervenes
between England and Scotland. The valley of the Eden, opening upon this
plain from the south-east, separates the mountainous Lake District from
the straight westward face of a portion of the Pennine Chain (q.v.),
which, though little of it lies within this county, reaches its highest
point within it in Cross Fell (2930 ft.). A well-marked pass, called the
Tyne Gap, at the water-parting between the rivers Irthing and South
Tyne, traversed by the Newcastle & Carlisle railway, intervenes between
these hills and their northward continuation in the hills of the
Scottish border. Besides the waters of the Eden, Solway Firth receives
those of the Esk, which enter Cumberland from Scotland. Liddel Water,
joining this river from the north east from Liddisdale, forms a large
part of the boundary with Scotland. The Eden receives the Irthing from
the east, and from the Lake District the Caldew, rising beneath Skiddaw
and joining the main river at Carlisle, and the Eamont, draining
Ullswater and forming part of the boundary with Westmorland. The
principal streams flowing east and south from the Lake District are the
Derwent, from Borrowdale and Derwentwater, the Eden from Ennerdale, the
Esk from Eskdale, and the Duddon, forming the greater part of the
boundary with Lancashire. There are valuable salmon fisheries in the
Eden, and trout are taken in many of the streams and lakes.
_Geology._--The mountainous portion of Cumberland is built up of two
different types of rock. The older, a sedimentary slaty series of
Ordovician age, the Skiddaw slates, surrounds Bassenthwaite,
Saddleback, Crummock Water, Keswick and Cockermouth and the western
end of Ennerdale Water. The same formation is found in the northern
flanks of Ullswater also north and east of Whitbeck. The other type of
rock is volcanic; it gives a more rugged aspect to the scenery, as may
be seen in comparing the rough outlines of Scafell and Honister Crags
or Helvellyn with the smoother form of Saddleback or Skiddaw. These
volcanic rocks, owing to much alteration, are often slaty; they have
been called the "green slates and porphyries" or the Borrowdale
Series. The Skiddaw slates are usually separated from the newer green
slates above them by a plane of differential movement, for both have
been thrust by earth-pressures from south to north, but the former
rocks have travelled farther than the latter which have lagged behind;
hence Messrs Marr and Harker describe the plane of separation as a
"lag-fault." Much general faulting and folding have resulted from the
movement; the thrusting took place in Devonian times. About the same
period great masses of granitic rock were intruded into the slates in
the form of laccolites, which often lie along the lag planes. Such
rocks are the granophyre hills of Buttermere and Ennerdale, the
microgranite patches on either side of the Vale of St John, and the
great mass of Eskdale granite which reaches from Wastwater to the
flanks of Black Combe. At Carrock Fell, N.E. of Skiddaw, is an
extremely interesting complex of volcanic rocks, and in many other
places are diabase and other forms, e.g. the well-known rock at Castle
Head, Keswick.
From Pooley Bridge, Ullswater, on the east, by Udale round to Egremont
on the west, the mountainous region just described, is surrounded by
the Carboniferous Limestone series, with a conglomerate at the base.
Upon these rocks the coalfield of Whitehaven rests and extends as far
as Maryport. The coal seams are worked for some distance beneath the
sea. The vale of Eden between Penrith, Hornsby and Wreay is occupied
by Permian sandstone, usually bright red in colour. Red Triassic rocks
form a strip about 4 m. broad east of the Permian outcrop; a similar
strip forms a coastal fringe from St Bees Head to Duddon Sands. The
same formations are spread out round Carlisle, Brampton, Longtown,
Wigton and Aspatria. East of Carlisle they are covered by an outlier
of Lias. A great dislocation, the Pennine Fault, runs along the
eastern side of the vale of Eden; it throws up the Lower Carboniferous
limestones with their associated shales and sandstones to form the
elevated ground in the north and north-east of the county. Several
basic intrusions penetrate the limestone series, the best known being
the Whin Sill, which may be traced for a number of miles northward
from Crossfell. Evidences of glacial action are abundant; till with
sands and gravel lie on the lower ground; striated rocks and _roches
moutonnees_ are common; perched blocks are found on the plateau by
Sprinkling Tarn and elsewhere. Moraine mounds are quite numerous in
the valleys, and have frequently been the cause of small lakes.
_Climate and Agriculture._--The climate is generally temperate, but in
the higher parts bleak, snow sometimes lying fully six months of the
year on Cross Fell and the mountains of the Lake District. As regards
rainfall, the physical configuration makes for contrast. At Carlisle, on
the Solway plain, the mean annual fall is 30.6 in. At Penrith, on the
north-eastern flank of the Lake District, it is 31.67; on the western
flank 42.3 in. are recorded at Ravenglass, close to the coast, and 51.78
at Cockermouth, some miles inland. In the heart of the district,
however, the fall is as a rule much heavier, in fact, the heaviest
recorded in the British Isles (see LAKE DISTRICT). Somewhat less than
three-fifths of the total area of the county is under cultivation, the
proportion being higher than that of the neighbouring counties of
Northumberland and Westmorland, but still much below the average of the
English counties. Black peaty earth is the most prevalent soil in the
mountainous districts; but dry loams occur in the lowlands, and are well
adapted to green crops, grain and pasture. Wheat and barley are
practically neglected, but large crops of oats are grown. Turnips and
swedes form the bulk of the green crops. Hill pasture amounts to nearly
270,000 acres, and a good number of cattle are reared, but the principal
resource of the farmer is sheep-breeding. The sheep on the lowland farms
are generally of the Leicester class or cross-bred between the Leicester
and Herdwick, with a few Southdowns. Throughout the mountainous
districts the Herdwicks have taken the place of the smaller black-faced
heath variety of sheep once so commonly met with on the sheep farms.
They are peculiar to this part of England; the ewes and wethers and many
of the rams are polled, the faces and legs are speckled, and the wool is
finer and heavier in fleece than that of the heath breed. They
originally came from the neighbourhood of Muncaster in the Duddon and
Esk district, and tradition ascribes their origin variously to
introduction by Scandinavian settlers, or to parents that escaped from a
wrecked ship of the Spanish Armada. In general they belong to the
proprietors of the sheep-walks, and have been farmed out with them from
time immemorial, from which circumstance it is said they obtained the
name of "Herdwicks." Long after the Norman Conquest Cumberland remained
one of the most densely forested regions of England, and much of the
low-lying land is still well wooded, the Lake District in particular
displaying beautiful contrasts between bare mountain and tree-clad
valley. The oak, ash and birch are the principal natural trees, while
sycamores have been planted for shelter round many farmsteads.
Plantations of larch are also numerous, and the holly, yew, thorn and
juniper flourish locally.
Landed property was formerly much divided in this county, and the
smaller holdings were generally occupied by their owners, who were known
as "statesmen," i.e. "estatesmen," a class of men long noted for their
sturdy independence and attachment to routine husbandry. Most of these
estates were held of the lords of manors under customary tenure, which
subjected them to the payments of fines and heriots on alienation as
well as on the death of the lord or tenant. According to the
_Agricultural Survey_ printed in 1794, about two-thirds of the county
was held by this tenure, in parcels worth from L15 to L30 rental. On
large estates, also, the farms were in general rather small, few then
reaching L200 a year, held on verbal contracts, or very short leases,
and burdened like the small estates with payments or services over and
above a money rent. In modern times these conditions have changed, the
"statesmen" gradually becoming extinct as a class, and many of the small
holdings falling into the hands of the larger landed proprietors.
_Other Industries._--Carlisle is the seat of a variety of manufactures;
there are also in the county cotton and woollen industries, pencil mills
at Keswick, and iron shipbuilding yards at Whitehaven. But the mining
industry is the most important, coal being raised principally in the
district about Whitehaven, Workington and Maryport. Side by side with
this industry much iron ore is raised, and there is a large output of
pig-iron, and ore is also found in the south, in the neighbourhood of
Millom. Gypsum, zinc and some lead are mined. Copper was formerly worked
near Keswick, and there was a rich deposit of black lead at the head of
Borrowdale. Granite and limestone are extensively quarried. Stone is
very largely used even for housebuilding, a fine green slate being often
employed. Shap and other granites are worked for building and
roadstones.
_Communications._--The chief ports of Cumberland are Whitehaven,
Workington, Maryport, Harrington and Silloth. The London & North-Western
railway enters the county near Penrith, and terminates at Carlisle,
which is also served by the Midland. The Caledonian, North British and
Glasgow & South-Western lines further serve this city, which is thus an
important junction in through communications between England and
Scotland. The North-Eastern railway connects Carlisle with Newcastle.
The Maryport & Carlisle, the Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith, and the
Cleator & Workington Junction lines serve the districts indicated by
their names, while the Furness railway passes along the west coast from
the district of Furness in Lancashire as far north as Whitehaven, also
serving Cleator and Egremont. The Ravenglass & Eskdale light railway
gives access from this system to Boot in Eskdale. Coaches and motor cars
maintain passenger communications in the Lake District where the
railways do not penetrate.
_Population and Administration._--The area of the ancient and the
administrative county is 973,086 acres, with a population in 1891 of
266,549 and in 1901 of 266,933. The county contains five wards,
divisions which in this and neighbouring counties correspond to
hundreds, and also appear in Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire in Scotland.
The municipal boroughs are Carlisle (pop. 45,480), a city and the county
town, Whitehaven (19,324), and Workington (26,143). The other urban
districts are Arlecdon and Frizington (5341), Aspatria (2885), Cleator
Moor (8120), Cockermouth (5355), Egremont (5761), Harrington (3679),
Holme Cultram (4275), Keswick (4451), Maryport (11,897), Millom
(10,426), Penrith (9182), Wigton (3692). Of these all except Keswick,
Millom and Penrith are in the industrial district of the west and
north-west. The urban district of Holme Cultram includes the port of
Silloth. Among lesser towns may be mentioned St Bees (1236), on the
coast south of Whitehaven, until 1897 the seat of a Church of England
theological college. The grammar school here, founded in 1533, is
liberally endowed, with scholarships and exhibitions. Cumberland is in
the northern circuit, and assizes are held at Carlisle. It has one court
of quarter sessions and 12 petty sessional divisions. The city of
Carlisle has a separate commission of the peace and court of quarter
sessions. There are 213 civil parishes. Cumberland is in the diocese of
Carlisle, with a small portion in that of Newcastle. There are 167
ecclesiastical parishes or districts within the county. There are four
parliamentary divisions, the Northern or Eskdale, Mid or Penrith,
Cockermouth and Western or Egremont, each returning one member; while
the parliamentary boroughs of Carlisle and Whitehaven each return one
member.
_History._--After the withdrawal of the Romans (of whose occupation
there are various important relics in the county) little is known of the
region which is now Cumberland, until the great battle of Ardderyd in
573 resulted in its consolidation with the kingdom of Strathclyde. About
670-680 the western district between the Solway and the Mersey was
conquered by the Angles of Northumbria and remained an integral portion
of that kingdom until the Danish invasion of the 9th century. In 878 the
kingdom of the Cumbri is referred to, but without any indication of its
extent, and the first mention of Cumberland to denote a geographical
area occurs in 945 when it was ceded by Edmund to Malcolm of Scotland.
At this date it included the territory north and south of the Solway
from the Firth of Forth to the river Duddon. The Scottish supremacy was
not uninterrupted, for the district at the time of its invasion by
Ethelred in 1000 was once more a stronghold of the Danes, whose
influence is clearly traceable in the nomenclature of the Lake District.
At the time of the Norman invasion Cumberland was a dependency of the
earldom of Northumbria, but its history at this period is very obscure,
and no notice of it occurs in the Domesday Survey of 1086; Kirksanton,
Bootle and Whicham, however, are entered under the possessions of the
earl of Northumbria in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The real Norman
conquest of Cumberland took place in 1092, when William Rufus captured
Carlisle, repaired the city, built the castle, and after sending a
number of English husbandmen to till the land, placed the district under
the lordship of Ranulf Meschines. The fief of Ranulf was called the
Power or Honour of Carlisle, and a sheriff of Carlisle is mentioned in
1106. The district was again captured by the Scots in the reign of
Stephen, and on its recovery in 1157 the boundaries were readjusted to
include the great barony of Coupland. At this date the district was
described as the county of Carlisle, and the designation county of
Cumberland is not adopted in the sheriff's accounts until 1177. The five
present wards existed as administrative areas in 1278, when they were
termed bailiwicks, the designation ward not appearing until the 16th
century, though the bailiwicks of the Forest of Cumberland are termed
wards in the 14th century. In the 17th and 18th centuries each of the
five wards was under the administration of a chief constable.
Owing to its position on the Border Cumberland was the scene of constant
warfare from the time of its foundation until the union of England and
Scotland, and families like the Tilliols, the Lucies, the Greystokes,
and the Dacres were famous for their exploits in checking or avenging
the depredations of the Scots. During the War of Independence in the
reign of Edward I. Carlisle was the headquarters of the English army. In
the Wars of the Roses the prevailing sympathy was with the Lancastrian
cause, which was actively supported by the representatives of the
families of Egremont, Dacre and Greystoke. In 1542 the Scottish army
under James V. suffered a disastrous defeat at Solway Moss. After the
union of the crowns of England and Scotland in 1603, the countries
hitherto known as "the Borders" were called "the Middle Shires," and a
period of comparative peace ensued. On the outbreak of the Civil War of
the 17th century the northern counties associated in raising forces for
the king, and the families of Howard, Dalston, Dacre and Musgrave
rendered valuable service to the royalist cause. In 1645 Carlisle was
captured by the parliamentary forces, but in April 1648 it was retaken
by Sir Philip Musgrave and Sir Thomas Glenham, and did not finally
surrender until the autumn of 1648. Cumberland continued, however, to
support the Stuarts; it was one of the first counties to welcome back
Charles II.; in 1715 it was associated with the rising on behalf of the
Pretender, and Carlisle was the chief seat of operations in the 1745
rebellion.
In 685 Carlisle and the surrounding district was annexed by Ecgfrith
king of Northumbria to the diocese of Lindisfarne, to which it continued
subject, at least until the Danish invasion of the 9th century. In 1133
Henry I. created Carlisle (q.v.) a bishopric. The diocese included the
whole of modern Cumberland (except the barony of Coupland and the
parishes of Alston, Over-Denton and Kirkandrews), and also the barony of
Appleby in Westmorland. The archdeaconry of Carlisle, co-extensive with
the diocese, comprised four deaneries. Coupland was a deanery in the
archdeaconry of Richmond and diocese of York until 1541, when it was
annexed to the newly created diocese of Chester. In 1856 the area of the
diocese of Carlisle was extended, so as to include the whole of
Cumberland except the parish of Alston, the whole of Westmorland, and
the Furness district of Lancashire. In 1858 the deaneries were made to
number eighteen, and in 1870 were increased to twenty.
The principal industries of Cumberland have been from earliest times
connected with its valuable fisheries and abundant mineral wealth. The
mines of Alston and the iron mines about Egremont were worked in the
12th century. The Keswick copper mines were worked in the reign of Henry
III., but the black-lead mine was not worked to any purpose until the
18th century. Coal-mining is referred to in the 15th century, and after
the revival of the mining industries in the 16th century, rose to great
importance. The saltpans about the estuaries of the Esk and the Eden
were a source of revenue in the 12th century.
Cumberland returned three members for the county to the parliament of
1290, and in 1295 returned in addition two members for the city of
Carlisle and two members each for the boroughs of Cockermouth and
Egremont. The boroughs did not again return members until in 1640
Cockermouth regained representation. Under the Reform Act of 1832,
Cumberland returned four members for two divisions, and Whitehaven
returned one member. The county now returns six members to parliament;
one each for the four divisions of the county, Egremont, Cockermouth,
Eskdale and Penrith, one for the city of Carlisle and one for the
borough of Whitehaven.
_Antiquities._--Very early crosses, having Celtic or Scandinavian
characteristics, are seen at Gosforth, Bewcastle and elsewhere. In
ecclesiastical architecture Cumberland is not rich as a whole, but it
possesses Carlisle cathedral, with its beautiful choir, and certain
monastic remains of importance. Among these are the fine remnants of
Lanercost priory (see BRAMPTON). Calder Abbey, near Egremont, a
Cistercian abbey founded in 1134, has ruins of the church and cloisters,
of Norman and Early English character, and is very beautifully situated
on the Calder. The parish Church of St Bees, with good Norman and Early
English work, belonged to a Benedictine priory of 1120; but according to
tradition the first religious house here was a nunnery founded c. 650 by
St Bega, who became its abbess. Among the parish churches there are a
few instances of towers strongly fortified for purposes of defence; that
at Burgh-on-the-Sands, near Carlisle, being a good illustration.
Castles, in some cases ruined, in others modernized, are fairly
numerous, both near the Scottish border and elsewhere. Naworth Castle
near Brampton is the finest example; others are at Bewcastle, Carlisle,
Kirkoswald, Egremont, Cockermouth and Millom. Among many notable country
seats, Rose Castle, the palace of the bishops of Carlisle; Greystoke
Castle and Armathwaite Hall may be mentioned.
See J. Nicolson and R. Burn, _History and Antiquities of the Counties
of Westmorland and Cumberland_ (London, 1777); W. Hutchinson, _History
of Cumberland_ (Carlisle, 1794); S. Jefferson, _History and
Antiquities of Cumberland_ (Carlisle, 1840-1842); S. Gilpin, _Songs
and Ballads of Cumberland_ (London, 1866); W. Dickinson, _Glossary of
Words and Phrases of Cumberland_ (London, English Dialect Society,
1878, with a supplement, 1881); Sir G. F. Duckett, _Early Sheriffs of
Cumberland_ (Kendal, 1879); J. Denton, "Account of Estates and
Families in the County of Cumberland, 1066-1603," in _Antiquarian
Society's Transactions_ (1887); R. S. Ferguson, _History of
Cumberland_ (London, 1890); "Archaeological Survey of Cumberland," in
Archaeologia, vol. liii. (London, 1893); W. Jackson, _Papers and
Pedigrees relating to Cumberland_ (2 vols., London, 1892); T. Ellwood,
_The Landnama Book of Iceland as it illustrates the Dialect and
Antiquities of Cumberland_ (Kendal, 1894); _Victoria County History,
Cumberland_; and _Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland
Antiquarian and Archaeological Society_.
CUMBERLAND, a city and the county-seat of Allegany county, Maryland,
U.S.A., on the Potomac river, about 178 m. W. by N. of Baltimore and
about 153 m. S. by E. of Pittsburg. Pop. (1890) 12,729; (1900) 17,128,
of whom 1113 were foreign-born and 1100 were of negro descent; (1910)
21,839. Cumberland is served by the Baltimore & Ohio, the Western
Maryland, the Pennsylvania, the Cumberland & Pennsylvania (from
Cumberland to Piedmont, Virginia), and the George's Creek & Cumberland
railways, the last a short line extending to Lonaconing (19 m.); by an
electric line extending to Western Port, Maryland; and by the Chesapeake
& Ohio Canal, of which it is a terminus. The city is about 635 ft. above
sea-level, and from a distance appears to be completely shut in by lofty
ranges of hills, which are cut through to the westward by a deep gorge
called "The Narrows," making a natural gateway of great beauty.
Cumberland has a large trade in coal, which is mined in the vicinity. As
a manufacturing centre it ranked in 1905 second in the state, the chief
products being iron, steel, bricks, flour, cement, silk and leather;
there is also a large dyeing and cleaning establishment. The value of
the city's factory products increased from $2,900,267 in 1900 to
$4,595,023 in 1905, or 58.4%. Cumberland is an important jobbing centre
also. The municipality owns and operates its water-works and electric
lighting plant. The first settlement of the place was made in 1750; in
1754 Fort Cumberland was erected within what are now the city limits,
and in the year following this fort was occupied by General Edward
Braddock. Cumberland was laid out in 1763, but there was little growth
until 1787, and it was not incorporated as a town until 1815; it was
chartered as a city in 1850.
CUMBERLAND, a township of Providence county, Rhode Island, U.S.A., in
the N.E. part of the state, about 6 m. N. of Providence and having the
Blackstone river for most of its W. boundary. Pop. (1890) 8090; (1900)
8925, of whom 3473 were foreign-born; (1910) 10,107; area, 27.5 sq. m.
It is served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway. Within its
borders are the villages of Cumberland Hill, Diamond Hill, Arnold Mills,
Abbott Run, Berkeley, Robin Hollow, Happy Hollow, East Cumberland, and
parts of Manville, Ashton, Lonsdale and Valley Falls. The surface of the
township is generally hilly and rocky. In the N. part is a valuable
granite quarry; and limestone, and some coal, iron and gold are also
found. Cumberland has been called the "mineral pocket of New England."
The Blackstone and its tributaries provide considerable water power; and
there are various manufactures, including cotton goods, silk goods, and
horse-shoes and other iron ware. The value of the township's factory
product in 1905 was $3,171,318, an increase of 80.6% since 1900, this
ratio of increase being greater than that shown by any other
"municipality" in the state having a population in 1900 of 8000 or more.
At Lonsdale, William Blackstone (c. 1595-1675), the first permanent
white settler within the present limits of Rhode Island, built his
residence, "Study Hall," about 1635. Cumberland was originally a part of
Rehoboth, and then of Attleborough, Massachusetts, and for many years
was called, like other sparse settlements, the Gore, or Attleborough
Gore. In 1747, by the royal decree establishing the boundary between
Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Attleborough Gore, with other territory
formerly under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, was annexed to Rhode
Island, and the township of Cumberland was incorporated, the name being
adopted in honour of William Augustus, duke of Cumberland. In 1867 a
part of Cumberland was set off to form the township of Woonsocket.
CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS (or more correctly the Cumberland Plateau or
Highlands), the westernmost of the three great divisions of the
Appalachian uplift in the United States, composed of many small ranges
of mountains (of which Cumberland Mountain in eastern Kentucky is one).
It extends from Pennsylvania to Alabama, attaining its greatest height
(about 4000 ft.) in Virginia. The plateau is rich in a variety of
mineral products, of which special mention may be made of coal, which
occurs in many places, and of the beautiful marbles quarried in that
portion of the plateau which lies between Virginia and Kentucky and
crosses Tennessee. The plateau has an abrupt descent, almost an
escarpment, into the great Appalachian Valley on its E., while the W.
slope is deeply and roughly broken. The whole mass is eroded in Virginia
into a maze of ridges. Cumberland Mountain parts the waters of the
Cumberland and Tennessee rivers. This range and the other ranges about
it are perhaps the loveliest portion of the whole plateau. The peaks
here and in the Blue Ridge to the E. are the highest of the Appalachian
system. Forest-filled valleys, rounded hills and rugged gorges afford in
every part scenery of surpassing beauty. The Cumberland Valley between
the Cumberland range and the Pine range is one of special fame. In the
former range there are immense caverns and subterranean streams.
Cumberland Gap, crossing the ridge at about 167 ft. above the sea, where
Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee meet, is a gorge about 500 ft. deep,
with steep sides that barely give room in places for a roadway. The
mountains, river and gap were all discovered by a party of Virginians in
1748, and named in honour of the victor of Culloden, William, duke of
Cumberland. Afterwards the gap gained a place in American history as one
of the main pathways by which emigrants crossed the mountains to
Kentucky and Tennessee. During the Civil War it was a position of great
strategic importance, as it afforded an entrance to eastern and central
Tennessee from Kentucky, which was held by the Union arms; and it was
repeatedly occupied in alternation by the opposing forces.
The mountaineers of Kentucky and Tennessee are a strange stock, who
retain in their customs and habits the primitive conditions of a life
that has elsewhere long since disappeared. They have been pictured in
the novels of Miss Murfree and John Fox, Junr. They are a tall,
straight, angular folk, of fine physical development; the volunteers for
the Union army from Kentucky and Tennessee during the Civil War--most of
whom came from the non-slave-holding mountain region--exceeded in
physical development the volunteers from all other states. For the
education of these mountaineers Major-General Oliver Otis Howard founded
in 1895 at Cumberland Gap, Tennessee, the Lincoln Memorial University
(co-educational; non-sectarian; opened in 1897), which has collegiate,
normal training and industrial courses, and an affiliated school of
medicine, Tennessee Medical College, at Knoxville. The university had in
1907-1908 14 instructors and 570 students. Berea College in Kentucky was
a pioneer institution for the education of mountaineers.
CUMBERLAND RIVER, a large southern branch of the Ohio river, U.S.A.,
rising in the highest part of the Cumberland plateau in south-east
Kentucky, and emptying into the Ohio in Kentucky (near Smithland) after
a devious course of 688 m. through that state and Tennessee. It drains a
basin of somewhat more than 18,000 sq. m., and is navigable for
light-draught steamers through about 500 m. under favourable
conditions--Burnside, Pulaski county, 518 m. from the mouth, is the head
of navigation--and through 193 m.--to Nashville--all the year round; for
boats drawing not more than 3 ft. the river is navigable to Nashville
for 6 to 8 months. At the Great Falls, in Whitley county, Kentucky, it
drops precipitously 63 ft. Above the falls it is a mountain stream, of
little volume in the dry months. It descends rapidly at its head to the
highland bench below the mountains and traverses this to the falls, then
flows in rapids (the Great Shoals) for some 10 m. through a fine gorge
with cliffs 300-400 ft. high, and descends between bluffs of decreasing
height and beauty into its lower level. Save in the mountains its
gradient is slight, and below the falls, except for a number of small
rapids, the flow of the stream is equable. Timbered ravines lend charm
to much of its shores, and in the mountains the scenery is most
beautiful. Below Nashville the stream is some 400 to 500 ft. wide, and
its high banks are for the most part of alluvium, with rocky bluffs at
intervals. At the mouth of the river lies Cumberland Island, in the
Ohio. During low water of the latter stream the Cumberland discharges
around both ends of the island, but in high water of the Ohio the
gradient of the Cumberland is so slight that its waters are held back,
forming a deep quiet pool that extends some 20 m. up the river. A system
of locks and dams below Nashville was planned in 1846 by a private
company, which accomplished practically nothing. Congress appropriated
$155,000 in 1832-1838; in the years immediately after 1888 $305,000 was
expended, notably for deepening the shoals at the junction of the
Cumberland and the Ohio; in 1892 a project was undertaken for 7 locks
and dams 52 ft. wide and 280 ft. long below Nashville. Above Nashville
$346,000 was expended on the open channel project (of 1871-1872) from
Nashville to Cumberland Ford (at Pineville); in 1886 a canalization
project was undertaken and 22 locks and dams below Burnside and 6 above
Burnside were planned, but by the act of 1907 the project was
modified--$2,319,000 had been appropriated up to 1908 for the work of
canalization. During the Civil War Fort Donelson on the Cumberland, and
Fort Henry near by on the Tennessee were erected by the Confederates,
and their capture by Flag-officer A. H. Foote and General Grant (Feb.
1862) was one of the decisive events of the war, opening the rivers as
it did for the advance of the Union forces far into Confederate
Territory.
CUMBRAES, THE, two islands forming part of the county of Bute, Scotland,
lying in the Firth of Clyde, between the southern shores of Bute and the
coast of Ayrshire. GREAT CUMBRAE ISLAND, about 1(1/2) m. W.S.W. of
Largs, is 3(3/4) m. long and 2 m. broad, and has a circumference of 10
m. and an area of 3200 acres or 5 sq. m. Its highest point is 417 ft.
above the sea. There is some fishing and a little farming, but the
mainstay of the inhabitants is the custom of the visitors who crowd
every summer to Millport, which is reached by railway steamer from
Largs. This town (pop. 1901, 1663) is well situated at the head of a
fine bay and has a climate that is both warm and bracing. Its chief
public buildings include the cathedral, erected in Gothic style on
rising ground behind the town, the college connected with it, the
garrison, a picturesque seat belonging to the marquess of Bute, who owns
the island, the town hall, a public hall, library and reading room, the
Lady Margaret fever hospital, and a marine biological station. The
cathedral, originally the collegiate church, was founded in 1849 by the
earl of Glasgow and opened in 1851. In 1876 it was constituted the
cathedral of Argyll and the Isles. Millport enjoys exceptional
facilities for boating and bathing, and there is also a good
golf-course. Pop. (1901) 1754, of whom 1028 were females, and 59 spoke
both English and Gaelic. LITTLE CUMBRAE ISLAND lies to the south,
separated by the Tan, a strait half a mile wide. It is 1(3/4) m. long,
barely 1 m. broad, and has an area of almost a square mile. Its highest
point is 409 ft. above sea-level. On the bold cliffs of the west coast
stands a lighthouse. Robert II. is said to have built a castle on the
island which was demolished by Cromwell's soldiers in 1653.
The strata met with in the Great and Little Cumbrae belong to the
Upper Old Red Sandstone and Carboniferous systems. The former,
consisting of false-bedded sandstones and conglomerates, are confined
to the larger island. The Carboniferous rocks of the Cumbrae belong to
the lower part of the Calciferous Sandstone series with the
accompanying volcanic zone. In the larger island these sediments,
comprising sandstones, red, purple and mottled clays with occasional
bands of nodular limestone or cornstone, occupy a considerable area on
the north side of Millport Bay. In the Little Cumbrae they appear on
the east side, where they underlie and are interbedded with the lavas.
The interesting geological feature of these islands is the development
of Lower Carboniferous volcanic rocks. They cover nearly the whole of
the Little Cumbrae, where they give rise to marked terraced features
and are arranged in a gentle synclinal fold. The flows are often
scoriaceous at the top and sometimes display columnar structure, as in
the crags at the lighthouse. Those rocks examined microscopically
consist of basalts which are often porphyritic. In Great Cumbrae the
intrusive rocks mark four periods of eruption, three of which may be
of Carboniferous age. The oldest, consisting of trachytes, occur as
sheets and dikes trending generally E.N.E., and are confined chiefly
to the Upper Old Red Sandstone. They seem to be of older date than the
Carboniferous lavas of Little Cumbrae and south Bute. Next come dikes
of olivine basalt of the type of the Lion's Haunch on Arthur's Seat,
which, though possessing the same general trend as the trachytes, are
seen to cut them. The members of the third group comprise dikes of
dolerite or basalt with or without olivine, which have a general east
and west trend, and as they intersect the two previous groups they
must be of later date. They probably belong to the east and west
quartz dolerite dikes which are now referred to late Carboniferous
time. Lastly there are representatives of the basalt dikes of Tertiary
age with a north-west trend.
CUMIN, or CUMMIN (_Cuminum Cyminum_), an annual herbaceous plant, a
member of the natural order Umbelliferae and probably a native of some
part of western Asia, but scarcely known at the present time in a wild
state. It was early cultivated in Arabia, India and China, and in the
countries bordering the Mediterranean. Its stem is slender and
branching, and about a foot in height; the leaves are deeply cut, with
filiform segments; the flowers are small and white. The fruits, the
so-called seeds, which constitute the cumin of pharmacy, are fusiform or
ovoid in shape and compressed laterally; they are two lines long, are
hotter to the taste, lighter in colour, and larger than caraway seeds,
and have on each half nine fine ridges, overlying as many oil-channels
or vittae. Their strong aromatic smell and warm bitterish taste are due
to the presence of about 3% of an essential oil. The tissue of the seeds
contains a fatty oil, with resin, mucilage and gum, malates and
albuminous matter; and in the pericarp there is much tannin. The
volatile oil of cumin, which may be separated by distillation of the
seed with water, is mainly a mixture of cymol or cymene, C10H14, and
cumic aldehyde, C6H4(C3H7)COH. Cumin is mentioned in Isaiah xxviii. 25,
27, and Matthew xxiii. 23, and in the works of Hippocrates and
Dioscorides. From Pliny we learn that the ancients took the ground seed
medicinally with bread, water or wine, and that it was accounted the
best of condiments as a remedy for squeamishness. It was found to
occasion pallor of the face, whence the expression of Horace, _exsangue
cuminum_ (_Epist._ i. 19), and that of Persius, _pallentis grana cumini_
(_Sat._ v. 55). Pliny relates the story that it was employed by the
followers of Porcius Latro, the celebrated rhetorician, in order to
produce a complexion such as bespeaks application to study (xx. 57). In
the middle ages cumin was one of the commonest spices of European
growth. Its average price per pound in England in the 13th and 14th
centuries was 2d. or, at present value, about 1s. 4d. (Rogers, _Hist. of
Agric. and Prices_, i. 631). It is stimulant and carminative, and is
employed in the manufacture of curry powder. The medicinal use of the
drug is now confined to veterinary practice. Cumin is exported from
India, Mogador, Malta and Sicily.
CUMMERBUND, a girdle or waistbelt (Hindostani _kamar-band_, a
loin-band). In the East the principle of health is to keep the head cool
and the stomach warm; the turban protects the one from the sun, and the
cummerbund ensures the other against changes of temperature. In India
the cummerbund consists of many folds of muslin or bright-coloured
cloth.
CUMMING, JOSEPH GEORGE (1812-1868), English geologist and archaeologist,
was born at Matlock in Derbyshire on the 15th of February 1812. He was
educated at Oakham grammar school, and Emmanuel College, Cambridge,
taking the degree of M.A., and entering holy orders in 1835. In 1841 he
was appointed vice-principal of King William's College, Castletown, in
the Isle of Man, and this position he held until 1856. During this
period his leisure time was devoted to a study of the geology and
archaeology of the island. The results were published in a classic
volume _The Isle of Man; its History, Physical, Ecclesiastical, Civil
and Legendary_ (1848). In 1856 he became master of King Edward's grammar
school at Lichfield, in 1858 warden and professor of classical
literature and geology in Queen's College, Birmingham, in 1862 rector of
Mellis, in Suffolk, and in 1867 vicar of St John's, Bethnal Green,
London. He died in London on the 21st of September 1868.
CUMNOCK AND HOLMHEAD, a police burgh of Ayrshire, Scotland, on the
Lugar, 33(3/4) m. S. of Glasgow by road, with two stations (Cumnock and
Old Cumnock) on the Glasgow & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 3088.
It lies in the parish of Old Cumnock (pop. 5144), and is a thriving
town, with a town hall, cottage hospital, public library and an
athenaeum. Coal and ironstone are extensively mined in the
neighbourhood, and the manufactures include woollens, tweeds,
agricultural implements and pottery. When Alexander Peden (1626-1686),
the persecuted Covenanter, died, he was buried in the Boswell aisle of
Auchinleck church; but his corpse was borne thence with every indignity
by a company of dragoons to the foot of the gallows at Cumnock, where
they intended to hang it in chains. This proving to be impracticable
they buried it at the gallows-foot. After the Revolution the inhabitants
out of respect for the "Prophet's" memory abandoned their then
burying-ground and turned the old place of execution into the present
cemetery. Five miles S.E. lies the parish of New Cumnock (pop. 5367) at
the confluence of Afton Water and the Nith. It is rich in minerals,
iron, coal, limestone and freestone, and has a station on the Glasgow &
South-Western railway. Two miles N.W. of Cumnock is Auchinleck
(pronounced Affleck), with a station on the Glasgow & South-Western
railway. Coal and iron mining and farming are important industries. It
is the seat of the Boswell family, three generations of which
abbreviated greatness--Lord Auchinleck, the judge (who dubbed Dr Johnson
"Ursa Major"), his son James, the biographer, and his grandson Sir
Alexander, the author of "Gude nicht and joy be wi' you a'," "Jenny's
Bawbee," "Jenny dang the weaver," and other songs and poems, who
perished miserably in a duel. Pop. of Auchinleck parish (1901) 6605.
CUNARD, SIR SAMUEL, Bart. (1787-1865), British civil engineer, founder
of the Cunard line of steam-ships, was born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on
the 21st of November 1787. He was the son of a merchant, and was himself
trained for the pursuits of commerce, in which, by his abilities and
enterprising spirit, he attained a conspicuous position. When, in the
early years of steam navigation, the English government made known its
desire to substitute steam vessels for the sailing ships then employed
in the mail service between England and America, Cunard heartily entered
into the scheme, came to England, and accepted the government tender for
carrying it out. In conjunction with Messrs Burns of Glasgow and Messrs
MacIver of Liverpool, proprietors of rival lines of coasting steamers
between Glasgow and Liverpool, he formed a company, and the first voyage
of a Cunard steamship was successfully made by the "Britannia" from
Liverpool to Boston, U.S.A., between July 4 and 19, 1840 (see STEAMSHIP
LINES). In acknowledgment of his energetic and successful services
Cunard was, in 1859, created a baronet. He died in London on the 28th of
April 1865.
CUNAS, a tribe of Central American Indians. Their home is the Isthmus of
Panama, from the Chagres to the Atrato. They are sometimes called Darien
or San Blas Indians. They are a small active people, with remarkably
light complexions.
CUNDINAMARCA, till 1909 a department of the eastern plateau of Colombia,
South America, having the departments of Quesada and Tundama on the N.,
Tolima on the W. and S., and the Meta territory on the S.E. and E. The
territorial redistribution of 1905 deprived Cundinamarca of its
territories on the eastern plains, and a part of its territory in the
Eastern Cordillera out of which Quesada and the Federal district were
created--its area being reduced from 79,691 to 5060 sq. m., and its
estimated population from 500,000 to 225,000. A considerable part of its
area consists of plateaus enjoying a temperate climate and producing the
fruits and cereals of the temperate zone, and another important part
lies in the valley of the Magdalena and is tropical in character. The
district of Fusagasuga in the southern part of this region is celebrated
for the excellence of its coffee. The capital of the department was
Facatativa (est. population, 7500), situated on the western margin of
the _sabana_ of Bogota, 25 m. N.W. from that capital by rail. Other
important towns are Caqueza, Sibate, La Meza and Tocaima.
CUNEIFORM (from Lat. _cuneus_, a wedge), a form of writing, extensively
used in the ancient world, especially by the Babylonians and Assyrians.
The word "cuneiform" was first applied in 1700 by Thomas Hyde, professor
of Hebrew in the university of Oxford, in the expression "dactuli
pyramidales seu cuneiformes," and it has found general acceptance,
though efforts have been made to introduce the expression "arrow-headed"
writing. The name "cuneiform" is fitting, for each character or sign is
composed of a wedge ([symbol] or [symbol]), or a combination of wedges
([symbol]), written from left to right. The wedge is always pointed
towards the right ([symbol]) or downwards ([symbol]) or aslant
([symbol]), or two may be so combined as to form an angle ([symbol])
called by German Assyriologists a _Winkelhaken_, a word now sometimes
adopted by English writers on the subject. The word cuneiform has passed
into most modern languages, but the Germans use _Keilschrift_ (i.e.
wedge-script) and the Arabs _mismari_ ([Arabic: mismari]) or
nail-writing.
[Illustration]
Discovery and decipherment.
In Persia, 40 m. N.E. of Shiraz, is a range of hills, Mount Rachmet, in
front of which, in a semicircular form, rises a vast terrace-like
platform. It is partly natural, but was walled up in front, levelled off
and used as the base of great temples and palaces. The earliest
European, at present known to us, who visited the site was a wandering
friar Odoricus (about A.D. 1320), who does not seem to have noticed the
inscriptions cut in the stone. These were first observed by Josaphat
Barbaro, a Venetian traveller, about 1472. In 1621 the ruins were
visited by Pietro della Valle, who was the first to copy a few of the
signs, which he sent in a letter to a friend in Naples. His copy was not
well made, but it served the useful purpose of directing attention to an
unknown script which was certain to attract scholars to the problem of
its decipherment. To this end it was necessary that complete
inscriptions and not merely separate signs should be made accessible to
European scholars. The first man to attempt to satisfy this need was Sir
John Chardin, in whose volumes of travels published at Amsterdam in 1711
one of the small inscriptions found at the ruins of Persepolis was
carefully and accurately reproduced. It was now plainly to be seen, as
indeed others had surmised, that these inscriptions at Persepolis had
been written in three languages, distinguished each from other by an
increasing complexity in the signs with which they were written. The
three languages have since been determined as Persian, Susian and
Babylonian. But before the decipherment could begin it was necessary
that all the available material should be copied and published. The
honour of performing this great task fell to Carsten Niebuhr, who
visited Persepolis in March 1765, and in three weeks and a half copied
all the texts, so well that little improvement has been made in them
since. When Niebuhr returned to Denmark he studied carefully the little
inscriptions and convinced himself that the guesses of some of his
predecessors were correct, and that the inscriptions were to be read
from left to right. He observed that three systems of writing were
discernible, and that these were always kept distinct in the
inscriptions. He did not, however, draw the natural conclusion that they
represented three languages, but supposed that the proud builders of
Persepolis had written their inscriptions in threefold form. He divided
the little inscriptions into three classes, according to the manner of
their writing, calling them classes I., II. and III. He then arranged
all those he had copied that belonged to class I., and by careful
comparison decided that in them there were employed altogether but
forty-two signs. These he copied out and set in order in one of his
plates. This list of signs was so nearly complete and accurate that
later study has made but slight changes in it. When Niebuhr had made
his list of signs he naturally enough decided that this language,
whatever it might be, was written in alphabetic characters, a conclusion
which later investigation has not overthrown. Beyond this Niebuhr was
not able to go, and not even one sign revealed its secret to his
inquiry. When, however, he had published his copies (in 1777) there were
other scholars ready to take up the difficult task. Two scholars
independently, Olav Tychsen of Rostock and Friedrich Munter of
Copenhagen, began work upon the problem. Tychsen first observed that
there occurred at irregular intervals in the inscriptions of the first
class a wedge that pointed neither directly to the right nor downward,
but inclined diagonally. This he suggested was the dividing sign used to
separate words. This very simple discovery later became of great
importance in the hands of Munter. Tychsen also correctly identified the
alphabetic signs for "_a_," "_d_," "_u_" and "_s_," but he failed to
decipher an entire inscription, chiefly perhaps because, through an
error in history, he supposed that they were written during the Parthian
dynasty (246 B.C.-A.D. 227). Munter was more fortunate than Tychsen in
his historical researches, and this made him also more successful in
linguistic attempts. He rightly identified the builders of Persepolis
with the Achaemenian dynasty, and so located in time the authors of the
inscriptions (538-465 B.C.). Independently of Tychsen he identified the
oblique wedge as a divider between words, and found the meaning of the
sign for "b." These may appear to be small matters, but it must be
remembered that they were made without the assistance of any bilingual
text, and were indeed taken bodily out of the gloom which had settled
upon these languages centuries before. They did not, however, bring us
much nearer to the desired goal of a reading of any portion of the
inscriptions. The whole case indeed seemed now perilously near a
stalemate. New methods must be found, and a new worker, with patience,
persistence, power of combination, insight, the historical sense and the
feeling for archaeological indications.