SCUDÉRY, MADELEINE DE, French novelist, born at Havre, came to Paris

in her youth, and there lived to an extreme old age; was a prominent

figure in the social and literary life of the city; collaborated at first

with her brother Georges, but subsequently was responsible herself for a

set of love romances of an inordinate length, but of great popularity in

their day, e. g. "Le Grand Cyrus" and "Clélie," &c., in which a real

gift for sparkling dialogue is swallowed up in a mass of improbable

adventures and prudish sentimentalism (1607-1701).

SCULPTURED STONES, a name specially applied to certain varieties of

commemorative monuments (usually rough-hewn slabs or boulders, and in a

few cases well-shaped crosses) of early Christian date found in various

parts of the British Isles, bearing lettered and symbolic inscriptions of

a rude sort and ornamental designs resembling those found on Celtic MSS.

of the Gospels; lettered inscriptions are in Latin, OGAM (q. v.),

and Scandinavian and Anglican runes, while some are uninscribed;

usually found near ancient ecclesiastical sites, and their date is

approximately fixed according to the character of the ornamentation; some

of these stones date as late as the 11th century; the Scottish stones are

remarkable for their elaborate decoration and for certain symbolic

characters to which as yet no interpretation has been found.

SCUTARI (50), a town of Turkey in Asia, on the Bosporus, opposite

Constantinople; has several fine mosques, bazaars, &c.; large barracks on

the outskirts were used as hospitals by Florence Nightingale during the

Crimean War; has large and impressive cemeteries; chief manufactures are

of silks, cottons, &c. Also name of a small town (5) in European Turkey,

situated at the S. end of Lake Scutari, 18 by 16 m., in North Albania.

SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS, two rocks opposite each other at a narrow pass

of the strait between Italy and Sicily, in the cave of one of which dwelt

the former, a fierce monster that barked like a dog, and under the cliff

of the other of which dwelt the latter, a monster that sucked up

everything that came near it, so that any ship passing between in

avoiding the one become a prey to the other.

SCYTHIANS, the name of a people of various tribes that occupied the

steppes of SE. of Europe and W. of Asia adjoining eastward, were of

nomadic habit; kept herds of cattle and horses, and were mostly in a

semi-savage state beyond the pale of civilisation; the region they

occupied is called Scythia.

SEABURY, SAMUEL, American prelate, born at Groton, Connecticut,

graduated at Yale and studied medicine in Edinburgh; entered the Church

of England in 1753, and devoted himself at first to missionary work;

subsequently held "livings" in Long Island and New York State in 1782;

was appointed bishop by the clergy of Connecticut; sought consecration at

the hands of the English archbishops who were afraid to grant it, and had

to resort to the bishops of the Scotch Episcopal Church for the purpose;

did notable work in establishing and consolidating Episcopacy in America

(1729-1796).

SEALED ORDERS, the orders given the commanding officer of a ship or

squadron that are sealed up, which he is not allowed to open till he has

proceeded a certain length into the high seas; an arrangement in order to

ensure secrecy in a time of war.

SEA-SERPENT, a marine monster of serpent-like shape whose existence

is still a matter of question, although several seemingly authentic

accounts have been circulated in attestation. The subject has given rise

to much disputation and conjecture on the part of naturalists, but

opinion mostly favours the supposition that these gigantic serpent-like

appearances are caused by enormous cuttlefish swimming on the surface of

the water, with their 20 ft. long tentacles elongated fore and aft. Other

fishes which might also be mistaken for the sea-serpent are the

barking-shark, tape-fish, marine snake, &c.

SEBASTIAN. ST., a Roman soldier at Narbonne, and martyred under

Diocletian when it was discovered he was a Christian; is depicted in art

bound naked to a tree and pierced with arrows, and sometimes with arrows

in his hand offering them to Heaven on his knees, he having been shot

first with arrows and then beaten to death.

SEBASTIANO DEL PIOMBO, Italian painter, born at Venice; was an

excellent colourist, and collaborated with Michael Angelo (1485-1547).

SEBASTOPOL (34), a fortified seaport of Russia, situated on a

splendid natural harbour (4½ m. by ½), on the SW. of the Crimea; during

the Crimean War was destroyed and captured by the French and English

after a siege lasting from October 9, 1854, to September 18, 1855; has,

since 1885, been restored, and is now an important naval station; exports

large quantities of grain.

SEBILLOT, PAUL, celebrated French folk-lorist; _b_. 1843.

SECKER, THOMAS, archbishop of Canterbury, born at Sibthorpe,

Nottinghamshire; first studied medicine and graduated at Leyden in 1721,

but was induced to take orders, and after a year at Oxford was ordained a

priest in 1723; held various livings till his appointment to the Primacy

in 1758; noted as a wise and kindly ecclesiastic (1693-1768).

SECOND-SIGHT, name given to the power of seeing things future or

distant; a power superstitiously ascribed to certain people in the

Highlands of Scotland.

SECULARIST, name given to one who, discarding as irrelevant all

theories and observances bearing upon the other world and its interests,

holds that we ought to confine our attention solely to the immediate

problems and duties of this, independently of all presumed dependence on

revelation and communications from a higher sphere.

SEDAN (20), a town of France, in department of Ardennes, on the

Maas, 164 m. NE. of Paris; once a strong fortress, but dismantled in

1875, where in 1870 Napoleon III. and 86,000 men under Marshal Macmahon

surrendered to the Germans; noted for its cloth manufactories. Previous

to the Edict of Nantes was a celebrated centre of Huguenot industry and

theological learning.

SEDGEMOOR, district in central Somersetshire, 5 m. SE. of

Bridgwater, scene of a famous battle between the troops of James II. and

those of the Duke of Monmouth on July 6, 1685, in which the latter were

completely routed.

SEDGWICK, ADAM, geologist, born at Dent, Yorkshire; graduated at

Cambridge in 1808, became a Fellow in the same year, and in 1818 was

elected to the Woodward chair of Geology; co-operated with Murchison in

the study of the geological formation of the Alps and the Devonian system

of England; strongly conservative in his scientific theories, he stoutly

opposed the Darwinian theory of the origin of species; his best work was

contributed in papers to the Geological Society of London, of which he

was President 1829-1831; published "British Palæozoic Rocks and Fossils"

(1785-1873).

SEELEY, SIR JOHN ROBERT, author of "Ecce Homo," born in London;

studied at Cambridge, became professor of History there in 1869 on

Kingsley's retirement; his "Ecce Homo" was published in 1865, a piece of

perfect literary workmanship, but which in its denial of the

self-originated spirit of Christ offended orthodox belief and excited

much adverse criticism; wrote in 1882 a work entitled "Natural Religion,"

in which he showed the same want of sympathy with supernatural ideas, as

also several historical works (1834-1895).

SEGOVIA (14), a quaint old Spanish city, capital of a province (154)

of the same name; crowns a rocky height looking down on the river Eresma,

32 m. NW. of Madrid; its importance dates from Roman times; has a great

aqueduct, built in Trajan's reign, and a fine Moorish castle and Gothic

cathedral; cloth-weaving the only important industry.

SEGU (36), a town of West Africa, on the Joliba, 400 m. SW. of

Timbuctoo; chiefly occupied by trading Arabs; once the capital of a now

decayed native State.

SEINE, an important river of France, rises in the tableland of

Langres, takes a winding course to the NW., passing many important towns,

Troyes, Fontainebleau, Paris, St. Denis, Rouen, &c., and discharges into

the English Channel by a broad estuary after a course of 482 m., of which

350 are navigable.

SEINE (3,142), the smallest but most populous department of France,

entirely surrounded by the department of Seine-et-Oise; Paris and its

adjacent villages cover a considerable portion of the area; presents a

richly wooded, undulating surface, traversed by the Seine in a NW.

direction.

SEINE-ET-MARNE (356), a north-midland department of France lying E.

of Seine; the Marne crosses the N. and the Seine the S.; has a fertile

soil, which grows in abundance cereals, vegetables, and fruits; many fine

woods, including Fontainebleau Forest, diversify its undulating surface.

Melun (capital) and Fontainebleau are among its important towns.

SEINE-ET-OISE (628), a department of NW. France, encloses the

department of Seine; grain is grown in well-cultivated plains and the

vine on pleasant hill slopes; is intersected by several tributaries of

the Seine, and the N. is prettily wooded. Versailles is the capital;

Sèvres and St. Cloud are other interesting places.

SEINE-INFÉRIEURE (839), a maritime department of North-West France,

in Normandy, facing the English Channel; is for the most part a fertile

plain, watered by the Seine and smaller streams, and diversified by fine

woods and the hills of Caux; is a fruit and cider producing district; has

flourishing manufactures. Rouen is the capital, and Havre and Dieppe are

important trading centres.

SELBORNE, ROUNDELL PALMER, EARL OF, Lord Chancellor, born in

Oxfordshire; called to the bar in 1837, and after a brilliant career at

Oxford entered Parliament in 1847, and in 1861 became Solicitor-General

in Palmerston's ministry, receiving at the same time a knighthood; two

years later was advanced to the Attorney-Generalship; in 1872 was elected

Lord Chancellor, a position he retained till 1874, and again held from

1880 to 1885; refused to adopt Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule policy for

Ireland and joined the Liberal-Unionists, but declined to take office

under Lord Salisbury; was raised to an earldom in 1882, received various

honorary degrees; greatly interested himself in hymnology, and edited

"The Book of Praise"; wrote also several works on Church questions

(1812-1895).

SELBY (6), a market-town of Yorkshire, on the Ouse, 15 m. S. of

York; has a noted cruciform abbey church, founded in the 12th century,

and exhibiting various styles of architecture; has some boat-building;

manufactures flax, ropes, leather, bricks, &c.

SELDEN, JOHN, born at Salvington, Sussex; adopted law as a

profession, and was trained at Clifford's Inn and the Inner Temple,

London; successful as a lawyer, he yet found time for scholarly pursuits,

and acquired a great reputation by the publication of various erudite

works bearing on old English jurisprudence and antiquities generally; a

"History of Tithes" (1618), in which he combats the idea that "tithes"

are divinely instituted, got him into trouble with the Church; was

imprisoned in 1621 for encouraging Parliament to repudiate James's

absolutist claims; from his entrance into Parliament in 1623 continued to

play an important part throughout the troublous reign of Charles;

sincerely attached to the Parliamentary side, he was one of the framers

of the Petition of Right, and suffered imprisonment with Holies and the

others; sat in the Long Parliament, but, all through out of sympathy with

the extremists, disapproved of the execution of Charles; held various

offices, e. g. Keeper of the Rolls and Records in the Tower; continued

to write learned and voluminous works on biblical and historical

subjects, but is best remembered for his charming 'Table-talk, a book of

which Coleridge remarked, "There is more weighty bullion sense in this

book than I can find in the same number of pages of any uninspired

writer" (1584-1654).

SELENE, in the Greek mythology the moon-goddess, the sister of

Helios, and designated Phoebe as he was Phoebus; she became by Endymion

the mother of 50 daughters.

SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE, a resolution of the Long Parliament passed

in 1644, whereby the members bound themselves not to accept certain

executive offices, particularly commands in the army.

SELIM I., a warlike sultan of Turkey, who, having dethroned and put

to death his father, Bajazet II., entered upon a victorious career of

military aggrandisement, overcoming the Persians in 1515, conquering and

annexing Egypt, Syria, and the Hejaz in 1517, finally winning for himself

the position of Imâm or head of the Mohammedan world; greatly

strengthened his country, and strove according to his lights to deal

justly with and ameliorate the condition of the peoples whom he conquered

(1467-1520).

SELJUKS, a Turkish people who in the 10th century, headed by a chief

named Seljuk (whence their name), broke away from their allegiance to the

khan of Kirghiz, adopted the Mohammedan faith, and subsequently conquered

Bokhara, but were driven across the Oxus and settled HI Khorassan; under

Toghril Beg, grandson of Seljuk, they in the 11th century won for

themselves a wide empire in Asia, including the provinces of Syria and

Asia Minor, whose rulers, by their cruel persecution of Christian

pilgrims, led to the Crusade movement in Europe. The Seljuks were in part

gradually absorbed by the advancing Mongol tribes, while numbers fled

westward, where they were at length incorporated in the Ottoman Empire in

the 14th century.

SELKIRK (6), county town of Selkirkshire, on the Ettrick, 40 m. SE.

of Edinburgh; famed at one time for its "Souters"; is a centre of the

manufacture of tweeds.

SELKIRKSHIRE (27), a south inland county of Scotland; extends S.

from the corner of Midlothian to Dumfriesshire, between Peebles (W.) and

Roxburgh (E.); the grassy slopes of its hills afford splendid pasturage,

and sheep-farming is a flourishing industry; manufactures are mainly

confined to Galashiels and Selkirk; is traversed by the Ettrick and the

Yarrow, whose romantic valleys are associated with much of the finest

ballad literature of Scotland.

SELWYN, GEORGE, a noted wit in the social and literary life of

London in Horace Walpole's time, born, of good parentage, in

Gloucestershire; was expelled from Oxford in 1743 for blasphemy; four

years later entered Parliament, and supported the Court party, and

received various government favours; his vivacious wit won him ready

entrance into the best London and Parisian society; is the chief figure

in Jesse's entertaining "George Selwyn and his Contemporaries"

(1719-1791).

SELWYN, GEORGE AUGUSTUS, the first bishop of New Zealand, in which

capacity he wrought so zealously, that his diocese, by his extension of

Episcopacy, was subdivided into seven; on his return to England he was

made bishop of Lichfield (1809-1878).

SEMAPHORE, a name applied to the mechanism employed for telegraphing

purposes prior to the discovery of the electric telegraph; invented in

1767 by Richard Edgeworth, but first extensively used by the French in

1794, and afterwards adopted by the Admiralty in England; consisted at

first of six shutters set in two rotating circular frames, which, by

opening and shutting in various ways, were capable of conveying

sixty-three distinct signals; these were raised on the tops of wooden

towers erected on hills; later a different form was adopted consisting of

a mast and two arms worked by winches. The speed at which messages could

be transmitted was very great; thus a message could be sent from London

to Portsmouth and an answer be received all within 45 seconds. The

railway signal now in use is a form of semaphore.

SEMELE, in the Greek mythology the daughter of Cadmus and the mother

of Dionysus by Zeus, was tempted by Hera to pray Zeus to show himself to

her in his glory, who, as pledged to give her all she asked, appeared

before her as the god of thunder, and consumed her by the lightning. See

DIONYSUS.

SEMINOLES, a nomadic tribe of American Indians who from 1832 to 1839

offered a desperate resistance to the Americans before yielding up their

territory SE. of the Mississippi (Florida, etc.); finally settled in the

Indian Territory, where they now number some 3000, and receive an annuity

from the American Government; missionary enterprise among them has been

successful in establishing schools and churches.

SEMIPALATINSK (586), a mountainous province of Asiatic Russia,

stretching between Lake Balkash (S.) and Tomsk; encloses stretches of

steppe-land on which cattle and horses are reared; some mining of silver,

lead, and copper is also done. Semipalatinsk, the capital (18), stands on

the Irtish; has two annual fairs, and is an important trading mart.

SEMI-PELAGIANISM. See PELAGIUS.

SEMIRAMIS, legendary queen of Assyria, to whom tradition ascribes

the founding of Babylon with its hanging gardens, and is said to have

surpassed in valour and glory her husband Ninus, the founder of Nineveh;

she seems to have in reality been the Venus or Astarte of the Assyrian

mythology. The story goes that when a child she was deserted by her

mother and fed by doves.

SEMIRAMIS OF THE NORTH, a name given to Margaret, Queen of Denmark;

also to Catharine II. of Russia.

SEMIRETCHINSK (758), a mountainous province of Asiatic Russia,

stretches S. of Lake Balkash to East Turkestan and Ferghana on the S.; is

traversed E. and W. by the lofty ranges of the Alatau and Tian-Shan

Mountains; the vast bulk of the inhabitants are Kirghiz, and engaged in

raising horses, camels, and sheep.

SEMITIC RACES, races reputed descendants of Shem, including the

Jews, the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, the Syrians, the Phoenicians, and the

Arabs, and are "all marked," as the editor has observed elsewhere, "by

common features; such appear in their language, their literature, their

modes of thinking, social organisation, and religious belief. Their

language is poor in inflection, has few or no compound verbs or

substantives, has next to no power of expressing abstract ideas, and is

of simple primitive structure or syntax. Their literature has neither the

breadth nor the flow of that of Greece or Rome, but it is instinct with a

passion which often holds of the very depths of being, and appeals to the

ends of the earth. In their modes of thinking they are taken up with

concrete realities instead of abstractions, and hence they have

contributed nothing to science or philosophy, much as they have to faith.

Their social order is patriarchal, with a leaning to a despotism, which

in certain of them, such as the Jews and Arabs, goes higher and higher

till it reaches God; called, therefore, by Jude 'the Only Despot.'"

SEMMERING, a mountain of Styria, Austria, 60 m. SW. of Vienna, 4577

ft. above sea-level; is crossed by the Vienna and Trieste railway, which

passes through 15 tunnels and over 16 viaducts.

SEMPACH (1), a small Swiss town, 9 m. NW. of Lucerne, on the Lake of

Sempach; here on the 9th of July 1386 a body of 1500 Swiss soldiers

completely routed the Austrians, 4000 strong, under Leopold, Duke of

Austria.

SEN, CHUNDER. See CHUNDER SEN.

SÉNANCOUR, ÉTIENNE PIVERT DE, French writer, born at Paris; delicate

in his youth; was driven by an unsympathetic father to quit his home at

19, and for some time lived at Geneva and Fribourg, where a brief period

of happy married life was closed by the death of his young wife; returned

to Paris in 1798; supported himself by writing, and latterly by a small

Government pension granted by Louis Philippe; is best known as the author

of "Obermann," a work of which Matthew Arnold wrote, "The stir of all the

main forces by which modern life is and has been impelled, lives in the

letters of Obermann.... To me, indeed, it will always seem that the

impressiveness of this production can hardly be rated too high"

(1770-1846).

SENATE (i. e. "an assembly of elders"), a name first bestowed by

the Romans on their supreme legislative and administrative assembly; its

formation is traditionally ascribed to Romulus; its powers, at their

greatest during the Republic, gradually diminished under the Emperors; in

modern times is used to designate the "Upper House" in the legislature of

various countries, e. g. France and the United States of America; is

also the title of the governing body in many universities.

SENECA, ANNÆUS, rhetorician, born at Cordova; taught rhetoric at

Rome, whither he went at the time of Augustus, and where he died A.D.

32.

SENECA, L. ANNÆUS, philosopher, son of the preceding, born at

Cordova, and brought to Rome when a child; practised as a pleader at the

bar, studied philosophy, and became the tutor of Nero; acquired great

riches; was charged with conspiracy by Nero as a pretext, it is believed,

to procure his wealth, and ordered to kill himself, which he did by

opening his veins till he bled to death, a slow process and an agonising,

owing to his age; he was of the Stoic school in philosophy, and wrote a

number of treatises bearing chiefly on morals; _d_. A.D. 65.

SENEGAL, an important river of West Africa, formed by the junction,

at Bafulabé, of two head-streams rising in the highlands of Western

Soudan; flows NW., W., and SW., a course of 706 m., and discharges into

the Atlantic 10 m. below St. Louis; navigation is somewhat impeded by a

sand-bar at its mouth, and by cataracts and rapids in the upper reaches.

SENEGAL (136), a French colony of West Africa, lying along the banks

of the Senegal River. See SENEGAMBIA.

SENEGAMBIA, a tract of territory lying chiefly within the basins of

the rivers Senegal and Gambia, West Africa, stretching from the Atlantic,

between Cape Blanco and the mouth of the Gambia, inland to the Niger;

embraces the French colony of Senegal, and various ill-defined native

States under the suzerainty of France; the interior part is also called

the French Soudan; the vast expanse of the contiguous Sahara in the N.,

and stretches of territory on the S., extending to the Gulf of Guinea,

are also within the French sphere of influence, altogether forming an

immense territory (1,000), of which ST. LOUIS (q. v.) in

Senegambia proper, is considered the capital; ground-nuts, gums,

india-rubber, &c., are the chief exports.

SENESCHAL, an important functionary at the courts of Frankish

princes, whose duty it was to superintend household feasts and

ceremonies, functions equivalent to those of the English High Steward.

SENNAAR (8), capital of a district of the Eastern Soudan, which lies

between the Blue and the White Nile, situated on the Blue Nile, 160 m.

SE. of Khartoum.

SENNACHERIB, a king of Assyria, whose reign extended from 702 to 681

B.C., and was distinguished by the projection and execution of extensive

public works; he endeavoured to extend his conquests westward, but was

baffled in Judea by the miraculous destruction of his army. See 2 Kings

xix. 35.

SENS (14), an old cathedral town of France, on the Yonne, 70 m. SE.

of Paris; the cathedral is a fine Gothic structure of the 12th century;

has also an archbishop's palace, and is still surrounded by massive stone

walls; does a good trade in corn, wine, and wool.

SENUSSI, a Mohammedan brotherhood in the Soudan, founded by

Mohammed-es-Senussi from Mostaganem, in Algeria, who flourished between

1830 and 1860. The brotherhood, remarkable for its austere and fanatical

zeal, has ramified into many parts of N Africa, and exercises

considerable influence, fostering resistance to the encroachments of the

invading European powers.

SEPOY, the name given to a native of India employed as a soldier in

the British service in India.

SEPTEMBER, the ninth month of the year, so called as having been the

seventh in the Roman calendar.

SEPTEMBER MASSACRES. An indiscriminate slaughter in Paris which

commenced on Sunday afternoon, September 2, 1792, "a black day in the

annals of men," when 30 priests on their way to prison were torn from the

carriages that conveyed them, and massacred one after the other, all save

Abbé Secard, in the streets by an infuriated mob; and continued

thereafter through horror after horror for a hundred hours long, all done

in the name of justice and in mock form of law--a true Reign of Terror.

SEPTUAGINT, a version, and the oldest of any known to us, of the

Hebrew Scriptures in Greek, executed at Alexandria, in Egypt, by

different translators at different periods, commencing with 280 B.C.; it

is known as the Alexandria version, while the name Septuagint, or LXX.,

was given to it on the ground of the tradition that it was the work of

70, or rather 72, Jews, who had, it is alleged, been Drought from

Palestine for the purpose, and were fabled, according to one tradition,

to have executed the whole in as many days, and, according to another, to

have each done the whole apart from the rest, with the result that the

version of each was found to correspond word for word with that of all

the others; it began with the translation of the Pentateuch and was

continued from that time till 130 B.C. by the translation of the rest,

the whole being in reality the achievement of several independent

workmen, who executed their parts, some with greater some with less

ability and success; it is often literal to a painful degree, and it

swarms with such pronounced Hebraisms, that a pure Greek would often fail

to understand it. It was the version current everywhere at the time of

the planting of the Christian Church, and the numerous quotations in the

New Testament from the Old are, with few exceptions, quotations from it.

SEPULVEDA, JUAN GINES, Spanish historian, born at Pozo-Blanco, near

Cordova; in 1536 became historiographer to Charles V. and tutor to the

future Philip II.; was subsequently canon of Salamanca; author of several

historical works, of which a "History of Charles V." is the most

important, a work characterised by broad humanistic proclivities unusual

in his day and country; _d_. 1574.

SERAGLIO, in its restricted sense applied in the East to a harem or

women's quarters in a royal household; the former residence of the sultan

of Turkey, occupies a beautiful site on the E. side of Constantinople, on

a projecting piece of land between the Golden Horn and the Sea of

Marmora, enclosing within its 3 m. of wall government buildings, mosques,

gardens, &c., chief of which is the harem, which occupies an inner

enclosure.

SERAING (34), a manufacturing town of Belgium, on the Meuse, 4 m.

SW. of Liège; noted for its extensive machine-shops (locomotives, &c.);

established in 1817 by John Cockerill, and now, with forges, coal-mines,

&c., giving employment to some 12,000 men.

SERAMPUR (36), a town of modern aspect in India, on the Hooghly, 13

m. N. of Calcutta; originally Danish, was purchased by the British in

1845; manufactures paper and mats, and is associated with the successful

missionary enterprise of the Baptists Carey, Marshman, and Ward.

SERAPHIC DOCTOR, appellation applied to ST. BONAVENTURA (q. v.); also by

Carlyle to the doctors of the modern school of Enlightenment, or

march-of-intellect school. See _AUFKLÄRUNG_.

SERAPHIM, angels of the highest order and of etheriel temper,

represented as guarding with veiled faces the Divine glory, and

considered to have originally denoted the lightning darting out from the

black thunder-cloud.

SERAPIS, an Egyptian divinity of partly Greek derivation and partly

Egyptian, and identified with Apis.

SERASKIER, a Turkish general, in especial the commander-in-chief or

minister of war.

SERBONIAN BOG, a quagmire in Egypt in which armies were fabled to be

swallowed up and lost; applied to any situation in which one is entangled

from which extrication is difficult.

SERFS, under the feudal system a class of labourers whose position

differed only from that of slaves in being attached to the soil and so

protected from being sold from hand to hand like a chattel, although they

could be transferred along with the land; liberty could be won by

purchase, military service, or by residing a year and a day in a borough;

these and economic changes brought about their gradual emancipation in

the 15th and 16th centuries; mining serfs, however, existed in Scotland

as recently as the 18th century, and in Russia their emancipation only

took place in 1861.

SERINGAPATAM (10), a decayed city of S. India, formerly capital of

Mysore State, situated on an island in the Kaveri, 10 m. NE. of Mysore

city; in the later 18th century was the stronghold of Tippoo Sahib, who

was successfully besieged and slain by the British in 1799; has

interesting ruins.

SERJEANT-AT-ARMS, an officer attendant on the Speaker of the House

of Commons, whose duty it is to preserve order and arrest any offender

against the rules of the House.

SERPENT, THE, is used symbolically to represent veneration from the

shedding of its skin, and sometimes eternity, and not unfrequently a

guardian spirit; also prudence and cunning, especially as embodied in

Satan; is an attribute of several saints as expressive of their power

over the evil one.

SERPUKOFF (21), an ancient and still prosperous town of Russia, on

the Nara, 57 m. S. of Moscow; has a cathedral, and manufactures of

cottons, woollens, &c.

SERRANO Y DOMINGUEZ, Duke de la Torre, Spanish statesman and

marshal; won distinction in the wars against the Carlists, and turning

politician, became in 1845 a senator and favourite of Queen Isabella; was

prominent during the political unrest and changes of her reign; joined

Prim in the revolution of 1868, defeated the queen's troops; became

president of the Ministry; commander-in-chief of the army, and in 1869

Regent of Spain, a position he held till Amadeus's succession in 1871;

won victories against the Carlists in 1872 and 1874; was again at the

head of the executive during the last months of the republic, but retired

on the accession of Alfonso XII.; continued in active politics till his

death (1810-1885).

SERTORIUS, Roman statesman and general; joined the democratic party

under MARIUS (q. v.) against Sulla; retired to Spain on the

return of Sulla to Rome, where he sought to introduce Roman civilisation;

was assassinated 73 B.C.

SERVETUS, MICHAEL, physician, born at Tudela, in Navarre; had a

leaning to theology, and passing into Germany associated with the

Reformers; adopted Socinianism, and came under ban of the orthodox, and

was burnt alive at Geneva, after a trial of two months, under sanction,

it is said, of Calvin (1511-1553).

SERVIA (2,227), a kingdom of Europe occupying a central position in

the Balkan Peninsula between Austria (N.) and Turkey (S. and W.), with

Roumania and Bulgaria on the E.; one-third the size of England and Wales;

its surface is mountainous and in many parts thickly forested, but wide

fertile valleys produce in great abundance wheat, maize, and other

cereals, grapes and plums (an important export when dried), while immense

herds of swine are reared on the outskirts of the oak-forests; is well

watered by the Morava flowing through the centre and by the Save and

Danube on the N.; climate varies considerably according to elevation; not

much manufacturing is done, but minerals abound and are partially

wrought; the Servians are of Slavonic stock, high-spirited and patriotic,

clinging tenaciously to old-fashioned methods and ideas; have produced a

notable national literature, rich in lyric poetry; a good system of

national education exists; belong to the Greek Church; the monarchy is

limited and hereditary; government is vested in the King, Senate, and

National Assembly; originally emigrants in the 7th century from districts

round the Carpathians, the Servians had by the 14th century established a

kingdom considerably larger than their present domain; were conquered by

the Turks in 1389, and held in subjection till 1815, when a national

rising won them Home Rule, but remained tributary to Turkey until 1877,

when they proclaimed their independence, which was confirmed by the

Treaty of Berlin in 1878.

SERVIUS TULLIUS, the sixth king of Rome from 578 to 534 B.C.,

divided the Roman territory into 30 tribes, and the people into 5

classes, which were further divided into centuries.

SESOSTRIS, a legendary monarch of Egypt, alleged to have achieved

universal empire at a very remote antiquity, and to have executed a

variety of public works by means of the captives he brought home from his

conquests.

SESTERTIUS, a Roman coin either bronze or silver one-fourth of a

denarius, originally worth 2½ asses but afterwards 4 asses, up to the

time of Augustus was worth fully 2d., and subsequently one-eighth less;

Sestertium, a Roman "money of account," never a coin, equalled 1000

sestertii, and was valued at £8, 15s.

SETTLE, ELKANAH, a playwright who lives in the pages of Dryden's

satire "Absalom and Achitophel"; was an Oxford man and littérateur in

London; enjoyed a brief season of popularity as author of "Cambyses," and

"The Empress of Morocco"; degenerated into a "city poet and a puppet-show

keeper," and died in the Charterhouse; was the object of Dryden's and

Pope's scathing sarcasms (1648-1723).

SETUBAL (English, St. Ubes) (15), a fortified seaport of Portugal,

at the mouth of the Sado, on a bay of the same name, 17 m. SE. of Lisbon;

has a good trade in wine, salt, and oranges; in the neighbourhood is a

remarkable stalactite cave.

SEVEN CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTENDOM, St. George, of England; St. Denis,

of France; St. James, of Spain; St. Anthony, of Italy; St. Andrew, of

Scotland; St. Patrick, of Ireland; and St. David, of Wales--often alluded

to by old writers.

SEVEN DEADLY SINS, Pride, Wrath, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, Avarice, and

Sloth.

SEVEN DOLOURS OF THE VIRGIN, the prediction of Simeon (Luke ii. 35);

the flight into Egypt; the loss of the child in Jerusalem; the sight of

her Son bearing the cross; the sight of Him upon the cross; the descent

from the cross; and the entombment--the festival in connection with which

is celebrated on the Friday before Palm Sunday.

SEVEN SAGES OF GREECE, Solon of Athens, his motto "Know thyself";

Chilo of Sparta, his motto "Consider the end"; Thales of Miletus, his

motto "Whoso hateth suretyship is sure"; Bias of Priene, his motto "Most

men are bad"; Cleobulus of Lindos, his motto "Avoid extremes"; Pittacus

of Mitylene, his motto "Seize Time by the forelock"; Periander of

Corinth, his motto "Nothing is impossible to industry."

SEVEN SLEEPERS, seven noble youths of Ephesus who, to escape the

persecution of Decius, fled into a cave, where they fell asleep and woke

up at the end of two centuries.

SEVEN WISE MASTERS, the title of a famous cycle of mediæval tales

which centre round the story of a young prince who, after baffling all

efforts of former tutors, is at last, at the age of 20, instructed in all

knowledge by Sindibad, one of the king's wise men, but having cast his

horoscope Sindibad perceives the prince will die unless, after

presentation at the court, he keeps silence for seven days; one of the

king's wives, having in vain attempted to seduce the young man, in

baffled rage accuses him to the king with tempting her virtue, and

procures his death-sentence; the seven sages delay the execution by

beguiling the king with stories till the seven days are passed, when the

prince speaks and reveals the plot; an extraordinary number of variants

exist in Eastern and Western languages, the earliest written version

being an Arabian text of the 10th century: a great mass of literature has

grown round the subject, which is one of the most perplexing as well as

interesting problems of storiology.

SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD, the pyramids of Egypt, the hanging

gardens of Babylon, the tomb of Mausolus, the temple of Diana at Ephesus,

the Colossus of Rhodes, the statue of Jupiter by Phidias at Olympia, and

the Pharos at Alexandria.

SEVEN YEARS' WAR, the name given to the third and most terrible

struggle between Frederick the Great of Prussia and Maria Theresa,

empress of Austria, for, the possession of Silesia, which embroiled

almost all Europe in war, and which had far-reaching effects on the

destinies of England and France as well as Prussia; began in 1756 by

Frederick's successful advance on Dresden, anticipating Maria Theresa's

intention of attempting the recovery of Silesia, lost to her in the

previous two wars. With Austria were allied France, Sweden, Poland, and

Russia, while Prussia was supported till 1761 by England. In 1762 Peter

III. of Russia changed sides, and Frederick, sometimes victorious, often

defeated, finally emerged successful in 1763, when the war was brought to

a close by the Peace of Hubertsburg. Besides demonstrating the strength

and genius of Frederick and raising immensely the prestige of Prussia, it

enabled England to make complete her predominance in North America and to

establish herself securely in India, while at the same time it gave the

death-blow to French hopes of a colonial empire.

SEVERN, the second river of England, rises on the E. side of

Plinlimmon, in Montgomeryshire, and flows in a circuitous southerly

direction through Montgomeryshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire, and

Gloucestershire, falling into the Bristol Channel after a course of 210

m.; is navigable to Welshpool (180 m.); chief tributaries are the Terne,

Wye, and the Stratford Avon; there is a "bore" perceptible 180 m. from

the mouth.

SEVERUS, L. SEPTIMIUS, Roman emperor, born in Leptis Magna, in

Africa; was in command at Pannonia, and elected emperor on the murder of

Pertinax, and after conquering his rivals achieved victories in the East,

especially against the Parthians, and thereafter subdued a rebellion in

Britain, and secured South Britain against invasions from the north by a

wall; died at York (146-211).

SÉVIGNÉ, MADAME DE, maiden name Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, the most

charming of letter-writers, born at Paris; married at 18 the dissolute

Marquis de Sévigné, who left her a widow at 25; her beauty and rare

charms attracted many suitors, to one and all of whom, however, she

turned a deaf ear, devoting herself with touching fidelity to her son and

daughter, and finding all her happiness in their affection and in the

social intercourse of a wide circle of friends; her fame rests on her

letters, written chiefly to her daughter in Provence, which reflect the

brightest and purest side of Parisian life, and contain the tender

outpourings of her mother's heart in language of unstudied grace

(1626-1696).

SEVILLE (144), a celebrated Spanish city and river port on the

Guadalquivir, 62 m. NE. of Cadiz; an iron bridge connects it with Triana,

a large suburb on the other side of the river; many of the old

picturesque Moorish buildings have given place to modern and more

commodious structures and broader streets; the great Gothic cathedral

(15th century), containing paintings by Murillo, &c., is among the finest

in Europe; the Moorish royal palace, the great Roman aqueduct (in use

until 1883), the museum, with masterpieces of Murillo, Velasquez, &c.,

the university, archbishop's palace, Giralda Campanile, and the vast

bull-ring, are noteworthy; chief manufactures embrace cigars, machinery,

pottery, textiles, &c.; while lead, quicksilver, wines, olive-oil, and

fruits are exported; is capital of a province (545).

SÈVRES (7), a French town on the Seine, 10½ m. SW. of Paris,

celebrated for its fine porcelain ware (especially vases), the

manufacture of which was established in 1755; has a school of mosaic work

and museums for pottery ware of all ages and countries.

SÈVRES, DEUX- (354), a department of West France; is watered by two

rivers, and in the N. thickly wooded; a varied agriculture, cattle and

mule breeding, and cloth manufacture are the principal industries. Niort

is the capital.

SEWARD, ANNA, poetess, born at Eyam, Derbyshire, but from the age of

seven spent her life at Lichfield, where her father was residentiary

canon; was a friend and indefatigable correspondent of Mrs. Piozzi, Dr.

Darwin, Southey, Scott, and others; author of "Louisa," a novel in

poetry, "Sonnets" and other poems, which had in their day considerable

popularity; her correspondence is collected in 6 vols. (1747-1809).

SEWARD, WILLIAM HENRY, American statesman, born at Florida, New York

State; was called to the bar at Utica in 1822, and soon took rank as one

of the finest forensic orators of his country; engaged actively in the

politics of his State, of which he was governor in 1838 and 1840; entered

the U.S. senate in 1849 as an abolitionist, becoming soon the recognised

leader of the Anti-Slavery party; was put forward by the Republican party

as a candidate for presidential nomination, but failing in this he

zealously supported Lincoln, under whom he served as Secretary of State,

conducting with notable success the foreign affairs of the country during

the Civil War and up to the accession of President Grant in 1869; spent

his closing years in travel and retirement (1801-1872).

SEXTANT, an instrument used in navigation (sometimes also in

land-surveying) for measuring the altitudes of celestial bodies and their

angular distances; consists of a graduated brass sector, the sixth part

of a circle, and an arrangement of two small mirrors and telescope;

invented in 1730 by John Hadley.

SEYCHELLES (16), a group of some 30 islands, largest Mahé (59 sq.

m.), situated in the Indian Ocean, 600 m. NE. of Madagascar; taken from

the French by Britain in 1798, and now under the governor of Mauritius;

are mountainous and mostly surrounded by coral reefs; export fibres,

nuts, palm-oil, &c.; Victoria, in Mahé, is the chief town, and an

imperial coaling station.

SFORZA (i. e. stormer), Italian family celebrated during the 15th

and 16th centuries, founded by a military adventurer, a peasant of the

name of Muzia Allendolo, and who received the name; they became dukes of

Milan, and began by hiring their services in war, in which they were

always victorious, to the highest bidder, the first of the number to

attain that rank being Francesco Sforza, the son of the founder, in 1450

(1401-1466), the last of the series being François-Marie (1492-1535).

SGRAFFITO, a decorative wall painting, produced by layers of plaster

applied to a moistened surface and afterwards operated on so as to

produce a picture.

SHADWELL, THOMAS, dramatist, who lives as the "MacFlecknoe" of

Dryden's "Absalom and Achitophel," born, of a good family, in Norfolk;

studied law and adopted literature, in which he made a successful start

with the comedy "The Sullen Lovers" (1668); his numerous plays, chiefly

comedies, are of little poetic value, but serve as useful commentaries on

the Restoration period; quarrelled with and satirised Dryden in the

"Medal of John Bayes," which drew forth the crushing retort in Dryden's

famous satire; succeeded Dryden as poet-laureate in 1688 (1640-1692).

SHAFITES, a sect of the Sunnites or orthodox Mohammedans, so called

from Shafei, a descendant of Mohammed.

SHAFTESBURY, ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, EARL OF, a notable politician,

prominent in the times of Cromwell and Charles II., born, of good

parentage, in Dorsetshire; passed through Oxford and entered Lincoln's

Inn; sat in the Short Parliament of 1640; changed from the Royalist to

the Parliamentary side during the Civil War, and was a member of

Cromwell's Council of State, but latterly attacked the Protector's

Government, and was one of the chief promoters of the Restoration;

Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1661, and later a member of the "Cabal";

he in 1672 was created an earl and Lord Chancellor, but, hoodwinked by

Charles in the secret Treaty of Dover, went over to the Opposition, lost

his chancellorship, supported an Anti-Catholic policy, leagued himself

with the Country Party, and intrigued with the Prince of Orange; came

into power again, after the "Popish Plot," as the champion of toleration

and Protestantism, became President of the Council, and passed the Habeas

Corpus Act; his virulent attacks on James and espousal of Monmouth's

cause brought about his arrest on a charge of high treason (1681), and

although acquitted he deemed it expedient to flee to Holland, where he

died; one of the ablest men of his age, but of somewhat inscrutable

character, whose shifting policy seems to have been chiefly dominated by

a regard for self; is the "Achitophel" of Dryden's great satire

(1621-1683).

SHAFTESBURY, ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, EARL OF, grandson of the

preceding, philosopher, born in London; was an ardent student in his

youth, made the grand tour, and entered Parliament in 1694, moving to the

Upper House on the death of his father in 1699, where, as a staunch Whig,

he gave steady support to William III.; withdrew from politics, never a

congenial sphere to him, on the accession of Anne, and followed his bent

for literature and philosophy; in 1711 his collected writings appeared

under the title "Characteristics," in which he expounds, in the polite

style of the 18th century, with much ingenuity and at times force, a

somewhat uncritical optimism, enunciating, among other things, the

doubtful maxim that ridicule is the test of truth (1671-1713).

SHAFTESBURY, ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, SEVENTH EARL OF, statesman and

philanthropist, born in London; was a distinguished graduate of Oxford,

and entered Parliament as a Conservative in 1826, took office under

Wellington in 1828, and was a lord of the Admiralty in Peel's ministry of

1834; succeeded to the earldom in 1851; but his name lives by virtue of

his noble and lifelong philanthropy, which took shape in numerous Acts of

Parliament, such as the Mines and Collieries Act (1842), excluding women

and boys under 13 working in mines; the Better Treatment of Lunatics Act

(1845), called the Magna Charta of the insane; the Factory Acts (1867);

and the Workshop Regulation Act (1878); while outside Parliament he

wrought with rare devotion in behalf of countless benevolent and

religious schemes of all sorts, notably the Ragged School movement and

the better housing of the London poor; received the freedom of Edinburgh

and London; was the friend and adviser of the Prince Consort and the

Queen (1801-1885).

SHAH (Pers. "King"), an abbreviation of Shah-in-Shah ("King of

Kings"), the title by which the monarchs of Persia are known; may also be

used in Afghanistan and other Asiatic countries, but more generally the

less assuming title of Khan is taken.

SHAH-JEHAN ("King of the World"), fifth of the Mogul emperors of

Delhi; succeeded his father in 1627; a man of great administrative

ability and a skilled warrior; conquered the Deccan and the kingdom of

Golconda, and generally raised the Mogul Empire to its zenith; his court

was truly Eastern in its sumptuous magnificence; the "Peacock Throne"

alone cost £7,000,000; died in prison, a victim to the perfidy of his

usurping son Aurungzebe; _d_. 1666.

SHAKERS, a fanatical sect founded by one Ann Lee, so called from

their extravagant gestures in worship; they are agamists and communists.

SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM, great world-poet and dramatist, born in

Stratford-on-Avon, in Warwickshire; his father, John Shakespeare, a

respected burgess; his mother, Mary Arden, the daughter of a well-to-do

farmer, through whom the family acquired some property; was at school at

Stratford, married Anne Hathaway, a yeoman's daughter, at 18, she eight

years older, and had by her three daughters; left for London somewhere

between 1585 and 1587, in consequence, it is said, of some deer-stealing

frolic; took charge of horses at the theatre door, and by-and-by became

an actor. His first work, "Venus and Adonis," appeared in 1593, and

"Lucrece" the year after; became connected with different theatres, and a

shareholder in certain of them, in some of which he took part as actor,

with the result, in a pecuniary point of view, that he bought a house in

his native place, extended it afterwards, where he chiefly resided for

the ten years preceding his death. Not much more than this is known of

the poet's external history, and what there is contributes nothing

towards accounting for either him or the genius revealed in his dramas.

Of the man, says Carlyle, "the best judgment not of this country, but of

Europe at large, is slowly pointing to the conclusion that he is the

chief of all poets hitherto--the greatest intellect, in our recorded

world, that has left record of himself in the way of literature. On the

whole, I know not such a power of vision, such a faculty of thought, if

we take all the characters of it, in any other man--such a calmness of

depth, placid, joyous strength, all things in that great soul of his so

true and clear, as in a tranquil, unfathomable sea.... It is not a

transitory glance of insight that will suffice; it is a deliberate

illumination of the whole matter; it is a calmly _seeing_ eye--a great

intellect, in short.... It is in delineating of men and things,

especially of men, that Shakespeare is great.... The thing he looks at

reveals not this or that face, but its inmost heart, its generic secret;

it dissolves itself as in light before him, so that he discerns the

perfect structure of it.... It is a perfectly _level_ mirror we have

here; no _twisted_, poor convex-concave mirror reflecting all objects

with its own convexities and concavities, that is to say, withal a man

justly related to all things and men, a good man.... And his intellect is

an unconscious intellect; there is more virtue in it than he himself is

aware of.... His art is not artifice; the noblest worth of it is not

there by plan or pre-contrivance. It grows up from the deeps of Nature,

through this noble sincere soul, who is a voice of Nature.... It is

Nature's highest reward to a true, simple, great soul that he got thus to

be _part of herself_." Of his works nothing can or need be said here;

enough to add, as Carlyle further says, "His works are so many windows

through which we see a glimpse of the world that was in him.... Alas!

Shakespeare had to write for the Globe Playhouse; his great soul had to

crush itself, as it could, into that and no other mould. It was with him,

then, as it is with us all. No man works save under conditions. The

sculptor cannot set his own free thought before us, but his thought as he

could translate into the stone that was given, with the tools that were

given. _Disjecta membra_ are all that we find of any poet, or of any

man." Shakespeare's plays, with the order of their publication, are as

follows: "Love's Labour's Lost," 1590; "Comedy of Errors," 1591; 1, 2, 3

"Henry VI.," 1590-1592; "Two Gentlemen of Verona," 1592-1593;

"Midsummer-Night's Dream," 1593-1594; "Richard III.," 1593; "Romeo and

Juliet," 1591-1596 (?); "Richard II.," 1594; "King John," 1595; "Merchant

of Venice," 1596; 1 and 2 "Henry IV.," 1597-1598; "Henry V.," 1599;

"Taming of the Shrew," 1597 (?); "Merry Wives of Windsor," 1598; "Much Ado

about Nothing," 1598; "As You Like It," 1599; "Twelfth Night," 1600-1601;

"Julius Cæsar," 1601; "All's Well," 1601-1602 (?); "Hamlet," 1602,

"Measure for Measure," 1603; "Troilus and Cressida," 1603-1607 (?);

"Othello," 1604; "Lear," 1605; "Macbeth," 1606; "Antony and Cleopatra,"

1607; "Coriolanus," 1608; "Timon," 1608; "Pericles," 1608; "Cymbeline,"

1609; "Tempest," 1610; "Winter's Tale," 1610-1611; "Henry VIII.,"

1612-1613 (1564-1616).

SHAKESPEARE OF DIVINES, an epithet sometimes applied to JEREMY

TAYLOR (q. v.) on account of his poetic style.

SHALOTT, LADY OF, subject of a poem of Tennyson's in love with

Lancelot; wove a web which she must not rise from, otherwise a curse

would fall on her; saw Lancelot pass one day, entered a boat and glided

down to Camelot, but died on the way.

SHAMANISM, the religion of the native savage races of North Siberia,

being a belief in spirits, both good and evil, who can be persuaded to

bless or curse by the incantations of a Priest called a Shaman.

SHAMMAI, an eminent Jewish rabbi of the time of Herod, who held the

position of supreme judge in the Sanhedrim under the presidency of

HILLEL (q. v.), and whose narrow, rigid orthodoxy and repressive

policy became the leading principles of his school, "the House of

Shammai," which, however, carried the system to a pitch of fanatical zeal

not contemplated by its originator.

SHAMROCK, a small trefoil plant, the national emblem of Ireland; it

is matter of dispute whether it is the wood-sorrel, a species of clover,

or some other allied trefoil; the lesser yellow trefoil is perhaps the

most commonly accepted symbol.

SHAMYL, a great Caucasian chief, head of the Lesghians, who combined

the functions of priest and warrior; consolidated the Caucasian tribes in

their resistance to the Russians, and carried on a successful struggle in

his mountain fastnesses for thirty years, till his forces were worn out

and himself made captive in 1859; _d_. 1871.

SHANGHAI (380), the chief commercial city and port of China, on the

Wusung, an affluent of the Yangtse-kiang, 12 m. from the coast, and 160

m. SE. of Nanking; large, densely-peopled suburbs have grown round the

closely-packed and walled city, which, with its narrow, unclean streets,

presents a slovenly appearance; the French and English occupy the

broad-streeted and well-built suburbs in the N.; the low-lying site

exposes the city to great heat in the summer, and to frequent epidemics

of cholera and fever; an extensive system of canals draws down a great

part of the interior produce, and swells the export trade in tea, silk,

cotton, rice, sugar, &c.

SHANNON, the first river of Ireland, and largest in the British

Islands, rises in the Cuilcagh Mountains, Co. Cavan; flows in a

south-westerly direction through Loughs Allen, Ree, and Derg, besides

forming several lough expansions, to Limerick, whence it turns due W.,

and opens out on the Atlantic in a wide estuary between Kerry (S.) and

Clare (N.); has an entire course of 254 m., and is navigable to Lough

Allen, a distance of 213 m.

SHANS or LAOS, the name of a people, descendants of aborigines

of China, forming several large tribes scattered round the frontiers of

Burma, Siam, and South China, whose territory, roughly speaking, extends

N. as far as the Yunnan Plateau of South China; some are independent, but

the bulk of the tribes are subject to Siam, China, and the British in

Burma; practise slavery, are Buddhists, somewhat superstitious, indolent,

pleasure-loving, and for the most part peaceable and content; chased gold

and silver work, rice, cotton, tobacco, &c., are their chief exports.

SHARON, a fertile region in Palestine of the maritime plain between

Carmel and Philistia.

SHARP, ABRAHAM, a schoolmaster of Liverpool, and subsequent

bookkeeper in London, whose wide knowledge of mathematics, astronomy,

&c., attracted FLAMSTEED (q. v.), by whom he was invited in 1688

to enter the Greenwich Royal Observatory, where he did notable work,

improving instruments, and showing great skill as a calculator; published

"Geometry Improved," logarithmic tables, &c. (1651-1742).

SHARP, BECKY, an intriguing character in Thackeray's "Vanity Fair,"

very clever, but without heart.

SHARP, GRANVILLE, a noted abolitionist, born in London; trained for

the bar, but accepted a post in the London Ordnance Office, which he held

until the outbreak of the American War; was a voluminous writer on

philology, law, theology, &c., but mainly devoted himself to the cause of

negro emancipation, co-operating with Clarkson in founding the

Association for the Abolition of Negro Slavery, and taking an active

interest in the new colony for freedom in Sierra Leone; won a famous

decision in the law-courts to the effect that whenever a slave set foot

on English soil he becomes free; he was also one of the founders of the

Bible Society (1734-1813).

SHARP, JAMES, archbishop of St. Andrews, born in Banff Castle;

educated at Aberdeen University, visited England, where he formed

important friendships, and in 1643 was appointed "regent" or professor of

Philosophy at St. Andrews, a post he resigned five years later to become

minister of Crail; during the Protectorate he sided with the

"Resolutioners" or Moderates, and appeared before Cromwell in London to

plead their cause; in 1660 received a commission to go to London to

safeguard the interests of the Scottish Church, a trust he shamefully

betrayed by intriguing with Charles at Breda, and with Clarendon and the

magnates of the English Church to restore Prelacy in Scotland, he himself

(by way of reward) being appointed Archbishop of St. Andrews;

henceforward he was but a pliant tool in the hands of his English

employers, and an object of intense hatred to the Covenanters; in 1668

his life was attempted in Edinburgh by Robert Mitchell, a covenanting

preacher, and ultimately on Magus Muir, May 1679, he was mercilessly

hacked to pieces by a band of Covenanters headed by Hackston and John

Balfour (1618-1679).

SHASTER, a book containing the institutes of the Hindu religion or

its legal requirements.

SHAWNEES, a tribe of American Indians located originally in the

eastern slopes of the Alleghanies, but now removed to Missouri, Kansas,

and the Indian Territory.

SHEBA, believed to be a region in South Arabia, along the shore of

the Red Sea.

SHECHINAH, a glory as of the Divine presence over the mercy-seat in

the Jewish Tabernacle, and reflected from the winged cherubim which

overshadowed it, the reality of which it is the symbol being the Divine

presence in man.

SHEEPSHANKS, JOHN, art collector, born at Leeds, son of a

manufacturer; presented in 1856 a collection of works by British artists

to the nation, now housed in South Kensington (1787-1863).

SHEERNESS (14), a fortified seaport and important garrison town with

important naval dockyards in Kent, occupying the NW. corner of Sheppey

Isle, where the Medway joins the Thames, 52 m. E. of London; is divided

into Blue-town (within the garrison, and enclosing the 60 acres of

docks), Mile-town, Banks-town, and Marina-town (noted for sea-bathing).

SHEFFIELD (324), a city of Yorkshire, and chief centre of the

English cutlery trade, built on hilly ground on the Don near its

confluence with the Sheaf, whence its name, 41 m. E. of Manchester; is a

fine, clean, well-built town, with notable churches, public halls,

theatres, &c., and well equipped with libraries, hospitals, parks,

colleges (e. g. Firth College), and various societies; does a vast

trade in all forms of steel, iron, and brass goods, as well as plated and

britannia-metal articles; has of late years greatly developed its

manufactures of armour-plate, rails, and other heavier goods; its

importance as a centre of cutlery dates from very early times, and the

Cutlers' Company was founded in 1624; has been from Saxon times the

capital of the manor district of Hallamshire; it is divided into five

parliamentary districts, each of which sends a member to Parliament.

SHEFFIELD, JOHN, Duke of Buckinghamshire, son of the Earl of

Mulgrave, whose title he succeeded to in 1658; served in the navy during

the Dutch wars of Charles II.; held office under James II., and was by

William III. created Marquis of Normanby; a staunch Tory in Anne's reign,

he was rewarded with a dukedom, lost office through opposing Marlborough,

but was reinstated after 1710, and in George I.'s reign worked in the

Stuart interest; wrote an "Essay on Poetry," &c. (1649-1721).

SHEIKH, the chief of an Arab tribe; used often as a title of

respect, Sheikh-ul-Islam being the ecclesiastical head of Mohammedans in

Turkey.

SHEIL, RICHARD LALOR, Irish patriot, born in Tipperary; bred to the

bar; gave himself for some time to literature, living by it; joined the

Catholic Association; was distinguished for his oratory and his devotion,

alongside of O'Connell, to Catholic emancipation; supported the Whig

Government, and held office under Melbourne and Lord John Russell

(1791-1851).

SHEKEL, among the ancient Hebrews originally a weight, and

eventually the name of a coin of gold or silver, or money of a certain

weight, the silver = 5s. per oz., and the gold = £4.

SHELBURNE, WILLIAM PETTY, EARL OF, statesman, born in Dublin;

succeeded to his father's title in 1761, a few weeks after his election

to the House of Commons; held office in the ministries of Grenville

(1763), of Chatham (1766), and of Rockingham (1782); his acceptance of

the Premiership in 1782, after Rockingham's death, led to the resignation

of Fox and the entry of William Pitt, at the age of 23, into the Cabinet;

his short ministry (July 1782 to Feb. 1783) saw the close of the

Continental and American wars, and the concession of independence to the

colonies, collapsing shortly afterwards before the powerful coalition of

Fox and North; in 1784, on his retirement from politics, was created

Marquis of Lansdowne; was a Free-Trader, supporter of Catholic

emancipation, and otherwise liberal in his views, but rather tactless in

steering his way amid the troublous politics of his time (1737-1805).

SHELDONIAN THEATRE, "Senate House" of Oxford; so called from Gilbert

Sheldon, archbishop of Canterbury, who built it.

SHELLEY, MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT, author of "Frankenstein," daughter of

William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft; became the wife of the poet

Shelley in 1816 after a two years' illicit relationship; besides

"Frankenstein" (1828), wrote several romances, "The Last Man," "Lodore,"

&c., also "Rambles in Germany and Italy"; edited with valuable notes her

husband's works (1797-1851).

SHELLEY, PERCY BYSSHE, born at Field Place, near Horsham, Sussex,

eldest son of Sir Timothy Shelley, a wealthy landed proprietor; was

educated at Eton, and in 1810 went to Oxford, where his impatience of

control and violent heterodoxy of opinion, characteristic of him

throughout, burst forth in a pamphlet "The Necessity of Atheism," which

led to his expulsion in 1811, along with Jefferson Hogg, his subsequent

biographer; henceforth led a restless, wandering life; married at 19

Harriet Westbrook, a pretty girl of 16, a school companion of his sister,

from whom he was separated within three years; under the influence of

WILLIAM GODWIN (q. v.) his revolutionary ideas of politics and

society developed apace; engaged in quixotic political enterprises in

Dublin, Lynmouth, and elsewhere, and above all put to practical test

Godwin's heterodox view on marriage by eloping (1814) to the Continent

with his daughter Mary, whom he married two years later after the

unhappy suicide of Harriet; in 1816, embittered by lord Eldon's decision

that he was unfit to be trusted with the care of Harriet's children, and

with consumption threatening, he left England never to return; spent the

few remaining years of his life in Italy, chiefly at Lucca, Florence, and

Pisa, in friendly relations with Byron, Leigh Hunt, Trelawney, &c.;

during this time were written his greatest works, "Prometheus Unbound,"

"The Cenci," his noble lament on Keats, "Adonais," besides other longer

works, and most of his finest lyrics, "Ode to the South Wind," "The

Skylark," &c.; was drowned while returning in an open sailing-boat from

Leghorn to his home on Spezia Bay; "An enthusiast for humanity

generally," says Professor Saintsbury, "and towards individuals a man of

infinite generosity and kindliness, he yet did some of the cruellest and

some of not the least disgraceful things from mere childish want of

realising the _pacta conventa_ of the world;" Shelley is pre-eminently

the poet of lyric emotion, the subtle and most musical interpreter of

vague spiritual longing and intellectual desire; his poems form together

"the most sensitive," says Stopford Brooke, "the most imaginative, and

the most musical, but the least tangible lyrical poetry we possess"

(1792-1821).

SHENANDOAH, a river of Virginia, formed by two head-streams rising

in Augusta Co., which unite 85 m. W. of Washington, and flowing NE.

through the beautiful "Valley of Virginia," falls into the Potomac at

Harper's Ferry, after a course of 170 m.; also the name of a town (16) in

Pennsylvania, 138 m. NW. of Philadelphia; centre of an important coal

district.

SHENSTONE, WILLIAM, poet, born, the son of a landed proprietor, at

Hales-Owen, Shropshire; was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, and

during the years 1737-42 produced three vols. of poetry, the most noted

being "The Schoolmistress"; succeeded to his father's estate in 1745, and

entered with much enthusiasm and reckless expenditure into

landscape-gardening, which won him in his day a wider reputation than his

poetry; his "Essays" have considerable critical merit and originality,

while his poetry--ballads odes, songs, &c.--has a music and grace despite

its conventional diction (1714-1763).

SHEOL, the dark underworld or Hades of the Hebrews, inhabited by the

shades of the dead.

SHEPHERD KINGS or HYKSOS, a tribe of shepherds, alleged to have

invaded Lower Egypt 2000 years before Christ, overthrown the reigning

dynasty, and maintained their supremacy for 200 years.

SHEPHERD OF SALISBURY PLAIN, name of the hero, a shepherd of the

name of Saunders, in a tract written by Hannah More, characterised by

homely wisdom and simple piety.

SHEPPARD, JACK, a notorious criminal, whose audacious robberies and

daring escapes from Newgate Prison made him for a time the terror and

talk of London; drew some 200,000 people to witness his execution at

Tyburn; figures as the hero of a well-known novel by Harrison Ainsworth

(1702-1724).

SHEPPEY, ISLE OF, an islet in the estuary of the Thames, at the

mouth of the Medway, belonging to Kent, from which it is separated by the

Swale (spanned by a swing-bridge); great clay cliffs rise on the N., and

like the rest of the island, are rich in interesting fossil remains; corn

is grown, and large flocks of sheep raised; chief town is

SHEERNESS (q. v.), where the bulk of the people are gathered; is

gradually diminishing before the encroaching sea.

SHERBORNE (4), an interesting old town of Dorsetshire, pleasantly

situated on rising ground overlooking the Yeo, 118 m. SW. of London; has

one of the finest Perpendicular minsters in South England, ruins of an

Elizabethan castle, and King Edward's School, founded in 1550, and

ranking among the best of English public schools.

SHERBROOKE, ROBERT LOW, VISCOUNT, statesman, born, the son of a

rector, at Bingham, Notts; graduated at Oxford; obtained a Fellowship,

and in 1836 was called to the bar; six years later emigrated to

Australia; made his mark at the Sydney bar, taking at the same time an

active part in the politics of the country; returned to England in 1850,

and entered Parliament, holding office under Lord Aberdeen (1853) and

Lord Palmerston (1855); education became his chief interest for some

time, and in 1866 he fiercely opposed the Whig Reform Bill, but

subsequently made amends to his party by his powerful support of

Gladstone's Irish Church Disestablishment Bill, and was included in the

Liberal ministry of 1868 as Chancellor of the Exchequer, a post he held

till 1873, when he became Home Secretary; a man of great intellectual

force and independency of judgment; created a viscount in 1880; was

D.C.L. of Oxford and LL.D. of Edinburgh (1811-1892).

SHERE ALI, Ameer of Afghanistan, son and successor of Dost Mohammed,

at first favoured by Britain, but at last distrusted and was driven from

the throne (1823-1879).

SHERIDAN, PHILIP HENRY, a distinguished American general, born, of Irish

parentage, in Albany, New York; obtained a cadetship at West Point

Military Academy, and entered the army as a second-lieutenant in 1853;

served in Texas and during the Civil War; won rapid promotion by his

great dash and skill as commander of a cavalry regiment; gained wide

repute by his daring raids into the S.; cleared the Confederates out of

the Shenandoah Valley in 1864, and by his famous ride (October 19, 1864)

from Winchester to Cedar Creek snatched victory out of defeat, routing

the conjoined forces of Early and Lee; received the thanks of Congress,

and was created major-general; took an active part under Grant in

compelling the surrender of Lee, and in bringing the war to a

close; subsequently during Grant's presidency was promoted to

lieutenant-general; visited Europe in 1870 to witness the Franco-German

War, and in 1883 succeeded Sherman as general-in-chief of the American

army (1831-1888).

SHERIDAN, RICHARD BRINSLEY BUTLER, dramatist and politician, born in

Dublin; educated at Harrow; was already committed to literature when, in

1773, he settled down in London with his gifted young wife, Elizabeth

Linley, and scored his first success with the "Rivals" in 1775, following

it up with the overrated "Duenna"; aided by his father-in-law became

owner of Drury Lane Theatre, which somewhat lagged till the production of

his most brilliant satirical comedy, "The School for Scandal" (1777) and

the "Critic" set flowing the tide of prosperity; turning his attention

next to politics he entered Parliament under Fox's patronage in 1780, and

two years later became Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs in

Rockingham's ministry; his great speech (1787) impeaching Hastings for

his treatment of the Begums placed him in the front rank of orators, but

although he sat for 32 years in Parliament, only once again reached the

same height of eloquence in a speech (1794) supporting the French

Revolution, and generally failed to establish himself as a reliable

statesman; meanwhile his theatrical venture had ended disastrously, and

other financial troubles thickening around him, he died in poverty, but

was accorded a burial in Westminster Abbey (1751-1816).

SHERIF or SHEREEF, a title of dignity among Mohammedans of

either sex bestowed upon descendants of the Prophet through his daughters

Fatima and Ali; as a distinguishing badge women wear a green veil, and

men a green turban.

SHERIFF, in England the chief officer of the Crown in every county,

appointed annually, and intrusted with the execution of the laws and the

maintenance of peace and order, with power to summon the _posse

commitatus_. The office originated in Anglo-Saxon times, when it

exercised wide judicial functions which have been gradually curtailed,

and such duties as remain--the execution of writs, enforcement of legal

decisions, &c., are mostly delegated to an under-sheriff (usually a

lawyer) and bound-bailiffs, while the sheriff himself, generally a person

of wealth (the office being unsalaried and compulsory, but not

necessarily for more than one year) discharges merely honorary duties. In

Scotland the sheriff, or sheriff-depute as he is called, is the chief

judge of the county, and has under him one or more sheriffs-substitute,

upon whom devolves the larger portion of the important and multifarious

duties of his office. In America the sheriff is the chief administrative

officer of the county, but exercises no judicial functions at all.

SHERIFFMUIR, a barren spot stretching N. of the Ochils, in

Perthshire, 5 m. NE. of Stirling; was the scene of an indecisive conflict

between 9000 Jacobites under the Earl of Mar and 3500 Royalists under the

Duke of Argyll, November 13, 1715.

SHERLOCK, THOMAS, English prelate, born in London; became bishop in

succession of Bangor, Salisbury, and London, declining the Primacy; wrote

several theological works, and took up arms against the rationalists of

the day, such as Collins and Woolston (1678-1761).

SHERLOCK HOLMES, an amateur detective, a creation of Dr. Conan

Doyle.

SHERMAN, WILLIAM TECUMSEH, a distinguished American general, born,

the son of a judge, in Lancaster, Ohio; first saw service as a lieutenant

of artillery in the Indian frontier wars in Florida and California;

resigned from the army in 1853, and set up as a banker in San Francisco,

but at the outbreak of the Civil War accepted a colonelcy in the

Federalist ranks; distinguished himself at the battles of Bull Run (1861)

and Shiloh (1862); received promotion, and as second in command to Grant

rendered valuable service in reducing Vicksburg and Memphis; was present

at the victory of Chattanooga, and during 1864 entered into command of

the SW.; captured the stronghold of Atlanta, and after a famous march

seaward with 65,000 men took Savannah, which he followed up with a series

of victories in the Carolinas, receiving, on 26th April 1865, the

surrender of General Johnston, which brought the war to a close; was

created general and commander-in-chief of the army in 1869, a position he

held till 1869; published memoirs of his military life (1820-1891).

SHERWOOD FOREST, once an extensive forest, the scene of Robin Hood's

exploits, in Nottinghamshire, stretching some 25 m. between Worksop and

Nottingham, but now a hilly, disafforested tract occupied by country

houses and private parks, several villages, and the town of Mansfield.

SHETLAND or ZETLAND (29), a group of over 100 islands, islets,

and skerries, of which 29 are inhabited, forming the northernmost county

of Scotland, lying out in the Atlantic, NNE. of the Orkneys; Mainland

(378 sq. m.), Fell, and Unst are the largest; the coast-line is boldly

precipitous and indented, while the scenery all over the island is very

grand; the soil is peaty, ill adapted to cultivation, but there is

considerable rearing of stock, and the little shaggy pony is well known;

fishing is the chief industry, herring, cod, ling, &c. LERWICK

(q. v.) is the capital.

SHIBBOLETH, a word by which the Gileadites distinguished an

Ephraimite from his inability to sound the _sh_ in the word, and so

discovered whether he was friend or foe; hence it has come to denote a

party cry or watchword.

SHIELDS, NORTH, a flourishing seaport of Northumberland, on the

Tyne, near the mouth, 8 m. NE. of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and lying within

the municipal borough of Tynemouth (47); is of quite modern growth, and

of a plain, uninteresting appearance; has a theatre, free library,

Mariners' Home, fine park, &c.; the docks cover 79 acres, and a large

export trade in coal is carried on.

SHIELDS, SOUTH (78), a busy seaport and popular watering-place in

Durham, with a frontage of 2 m. on the south bank of the Tyne, 9 m. NE.

of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a place of residence from ancient times, with

Roman remains, &c.; has a theatre, public library, marine school, two

fine parks with central parade, 50 acres of docks, &c.; exports immense

quantities of coal and coke.

SHIITES, a sect of the Mohammedans, who reject the "SUNNA"

(q. v.) and championed the claims of Ali Mahommed's cousin and

son-in-law to succeed to the Caliphate, and maintain the divine right of

his descendants to represent the prophet in the Mohammedan Church. The

Persians belong to this sect.

SHIKARPUR (42), capital of a district (853) in N. Sind, India,

situated on rich alluvial ground, 18 m. W. of the Indus, and 330 m. N. of

Karachi; since the opening of the Indus Valley Railway it has lost much

of its importance as a commercial entrepôt between India and Khorassan;

vicinity produces excellent grain crops, and carpets, cottons, &c., are

manufactured in the town.

SHILOH, a village 20 m. N. of Jerusalem, sacred as the site of the

resting-place of the Tabernacle on the settlement of the Jews in the land

of promise. Is a name also of the Messiah.

SHINAR, the vast alluvial plain extending along the Tagus and

Euphrates, forming the country of Chaldea and Babylonia.

SHINTOISM, the native religion of Japan; a system of ancestor

worship chiefly, combined with which is a religious homage paid to the

Mikado.

SHIP-MONEY, a tax levied by Charles I. at the suggestion of Noy, the

Attorney-General, who based its imposition on an old war-tax leviable on

port-towns to furnish a navy in times of danger, and which Charles

imposed in a time of peace without consent of Parliament, and upon inland

as well as port-towns, provoking thereby wide-spread dissatisfaction, and

Hampden's refusal to pay, which with the trial and decision in favour of

Charles contributed to bring about the Civil War, which cost Charles his

life; was declared illegal by the Long Parliament in 1640.

SHIPTON, MOTHER, a prophetess of English legend, whose preternatural

knowledge revealed in her prophecies, published after her death, was

ascribed to an alliance with the devil, by whom it was said she became

the mother of an ugly impish child.

SHIRAZ (30), a celebrated city of Persia, occupying a charming site

on an elevated plain, 165 m. NE. of Bushire; founded in the 8th century;

was for long a centre of Persian culture, and a favourite resort of the

royal princes; its beauties are celebrated in the poems of Häfiz and

Sádi, natives of the place; has been thrice wrecked by earthquakes, and

presents now a somewhat dilapidated appearance.

SHIRÉ, a river of East Africa, flows out of Lake Nyassa, and passes

in a southerly course through the Shiré Highlands, a distance of 370 m.,

till it joins the Zambesi; discovered by Livingstone.

SHIRLEY, JAMES, dramatist, born in London, educated at Oxford and

Cambridge; entered the Church, but turning Catholic resigned, and after

trying teaching established himself in London as a play-writer; wrote

with great facility, producing upwards of thirty plays before the

suppression of theatres in 1642; fell back on teaching as a means of

livelihood, and with a temporary revival of his plays after the

Restoration eked out a scanty income till fear and exposure during the

Great Fire brought himself and his wife on the same day to a common

grave; of his plays mention may be made of "The Witty Fair One," "The

Wedding," "The Lady of Pleasure," "The Traitor," etc. (1596-1666).

SHISHAK, the name of several monarchs of Egypt of the twenty-second

dynasty, the first of whom united nearly all Egypt under one government,

invaded Judea and plundered the Temple of Jerusalem about 962 B.C.

SHITTIM WOOD, a hard, close-grained acacia wood of an orange-brown

colour found in the Arabian Desert, and employed in constructing the

Jewish Tabernacle.

SHOA (1,500), the southmost division of ABYSSINIA (q. v.);

was an independent country till its conquest by Theodore of Abyssinia in

1855; is traversed by the Blue Nile, and has a mixed population of Gallas

and Abyssinians.

SHODDY, a stuff woven of old woollen fabrics teased into fibre and

of new wool intermixed.

SHOEBURYNESS, a town in Essex, near Southend, a stretch of moorland

utilised by the Government for gunnery practice.

SHOLAPUR (61), chief town in the Presidency of Bombay, in a district

(750) of the name, 283 m. E. of Bombay; has cotton and silk manufactures.

SHORE, JANE, the celebrated mistress of Edward IV.; was the young

wife of a respected London goldsmith till she was taken up by the king,

through whom, till the close of the reign, she exercised great power,

"never abusing it to any man's hurt, but to many a man's comfort and

relief"; was ill-treated and persecuted by Richard III. for political

purposes; subsequently lived under the patronage of Lord Hastings, and

afterwards of the Marquis of Dorset, surviving till 1527; the story of

her life has been made the subject of many ballads, plays, etc.

SHOREDITCH (120), parliamentary borough of East London; returns two

members to Parliament; manufactures furniture, boot and shoes, beer, etc.

SHOREHAM, NEW, a seaport 6 m. W. of Brighton; has oyster and other

fisheries, and shipbuilding yards.

SHORTHOUSE, JOSEPH HENRY, author of "John Inglesant," born in

Birmingham; wrote also "Sir Percival" and "Little Schoolmaster Mark,"

etc.; is remarkable for his refined style of writing, latterly too much

so; his first work, "John Inglesant," published in 1881, is his best;

_b_. 1834.

SHOVEL, SIR CLOUDESLEY, a celebrated English admiral, born at Clay,

in Norfolk; was apprenticed to a cobbler, but ran away to sea, and rose

from grade to grade till in 1674 we find him a lieutenant in the

Mediterranean fleet; was knighted in 1689 for his gallantry as commander

of a ship in the battle of Bantry Bay, and in the following year as

rear-admiral was prominent at the engagement off Beachy Head; in 1692

gave heroic assistance to Admiral Russell at La Hogue, and in 1702 to

Rooke at Malaga; elevated to the commandership of the English fleets he

in 1705 captured Barcelona, but on his way home from an unsuccessful

attack upon Toulon was wrecked on the Scilly Isles and drowned

(1650-1707).

SHREWSBURY (27), county town of Shropshire, situated on a small

peninsula formed by a horse-shoe bend of the Severn, 42 m. W. by N. of

Birmingham; three fine bridges span the river here, connecting it with

several extensive suburbs; a picturesque old place with winding streets

and quaint timber dwelling-houses, a Norman castle, abbey church, ruined

walls, etc. The public school, founded by Edward VI., ranks amongst the

best in England; figures often in history as a place where Parliament met

in 1397-98, and in 1403 gave its name to the battle which resulted in the

defeat of Hotspur and the Earl of Douglas by Henry IV.; it was taken by

the Parliamentarians in 1644; chief industries are glass-painting,

malting, and iron-founding.

SHROPSHIRE or SALOP (236), an agricultural and mining county of

England, on the Welsh border, facing Montgomery chiefly, between Cheshire

(N.) and Hereford (S.); is divided into two fairly equal portions by the

Severn, E. and N. of which is low, level, and fertile, excepting the

Wrekin (1320 ft.), while on the SW. it is hilly (Clee Hills, 1805 ft.);

Ellesmere is the largest of several lakes; Coalbrookdale is the centre of

a rich coal district, and iron and lead are also found. Shrewsbury is the

capital; it consists of four Parliamentary divisions.

SHROVETIDE, confession-time, especially the days immediately before

Lent, when, in Catholic times, the people confessed their sins to the

parish priest and afterwards gave themselves up to sports, and dined on

pancakes, Shrove Tuesday being Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, or the first

day of Lent.

SHUMLA or SHUMNA (24), a fortified city of Bulgaria, 80 m. SE.

of Rustchuk; has an arsenal, barracks, etc., is an important strategical

centre between the Lower Danube and the East Balkans.