[1] i.e. of the first creation; for the present title see above.
ASHBURTON, a river of Western Australia, rising in the mountains west of
the Great Sandy Desert, and following a course north-westward for 400
m., into Exmouth Gulf. In its upper reaches it flows through a rich
gold-bearing district to which it gives name, and nearer its mouth it
traverses a vast tract of fine pastoral country. The outlet for both
these districts is the port of Onslow, at the mouth of the river, near
which there are several pearl-fishing stations. The river is not
navigable.
ASHBURTON, a market-town in the Ashburton parliamentary division of
Devonshire, England, 24 m. N.W. by W. of Plymouth, on a branch of the
Great Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 2628. It lies in a
valley surrounded by hills, at a short distance from the river Dart; the
scenery, towards Dartmoor and in the neighbourhood of Buckland and Holne
Chase, being unsurpassed in the county. The church of St. Andrew is
cruciform with a lofty tower. It was built early in the 15th century,
and contains a fine old oak roof over the north aisle, and a tablet in
memory of John Dunning, solicitor-general and 1st Baron Ashburton
(1731-1783). The inscription is by Dr Johnson. Lord Ashburton was
educated at the grammar school, which was founded as a chantry in 1314.
Serge is manufactured in Ashburton, and there are breweries, paint
factories and saw-mills. A large deposit of umber is worked in the
neighbourhood. Slate quarries and copper and tin mines were formerly
valuable. A neighbouring centre of the serge industry is the urban
district of BUCKFASTLEIGH (pop. 2520), 3 m. S S.W. Between the two towns
is Buckfast Abbey, said to have been, before the Conquest, a Benedictine
house, and refounded for Cistercians in 1137. It was restored to use in
1882 by a French Benedictine community, the fine Perpendicular abbot's
tower remaining, while other parts have been rebuilt on the original
lines.
Ashburton (Essebretona, Asperton, Ashperton) is a borough by
prescription and an ancient stannary town. It was governed by a
portreeve and bailiff, elected annually at the court leet held by the
lord of the manor. According to Domesday, Ashburton was held in chief
by Osbern, bishop of Exeter, and rendered geld for six hides. In 1552,
as the two manors of Ashburton Borough and Ashburton Foreign, it was
sold by the bishop, and subsequently became crown property. Finally,
it was acquired in moieties by the Clinton family, and the present
Lord Clinton is joint lord of the manor with Sir Robert Jardine. In
1298 and 1407 Ashburton returned two members, from 1407 until 1640 one
member only, and then again two members, until deprived of one by the
Reform Act of 1832 and of the other by the Reform Act of 1885. In the
reign of Edward II. Bishop Stapledon obtained a Saturday market, and
two annual fairs lasting three days at the feasts of St Laurence
(August 10) and St Martin in winter (November 11). In 1672 John Ford
was granted a Tuesday market for the sale of wool and woollen goods
made from English yarn, and in 1705 Andrew Quicke obtained two annual
fairs, on the first Thursdays in March and June, for the sale of
cattle, corn and merchandise.
ASHBY, TURNER (1824-1862), American cavalry leader in the Confederate
army, was born in Fauquier county, Virginia, in 1824. Before the Civil
War he was a planter in Markham, Fauquier county, and a local
politician. When hostilities began he raised a regiment of cavalry,
which he led with conspicuous success in the Valley campaigns of
1861-62, under Joseph Johnston and Stonewall Jackson. He was promoted a
brigadier-general shortly before his death, which took place in a
cavalry skirmish at Harrisonburg, Va., on the 6th of June 1862. By his
early death the Confederates lost one of the best cavalry officers in
their service.
ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH, a market-town in the Bosworth parliamentary division
of Leicestershire, England; 118 m. N.W. by N. from London by the Midland
railway, on the Leicester-Burton branch. Pop. of urban district (1901)
4726. The church of St Helen is a fine Perpendicular building, restored
and enlarged (1880); it contains monuments of the Huntingdon family, and
an old finger-pillory for the punishment of misbehaviour in church. The
Ivanhoe baths, erected in 1826, are frequented for their saline waters,
which, as containing bromine, are found useful in scrofulous and
rheumatic complaints. The springs are at Moira, 3 m. west. There is a
Queen Eleanor cross commemorating the countess of Loudoun, by Sir
Gilbert Scott. To the south of the town are the extensive remains of
Ashby Castle. There are extensive coal-mines in the neighbouring
district, as at Moira, whence the Ashby-de-la-Zouch canal runs south to
the Coventry canal.
At the time of the Domesday survey Ashby-de-la-Zouch formed part of
the estates of Hugh de Grentmaisnel. Soon after it was held by Robert
Beaumeis, from whom it passed by female descent to the family of la
Zouch, whence it derived the adjunct to its name, having been hitherto
known as Ashby or Essebi. The earliest record of a grant of market
rights is in 1219, when Roger la Zouch obtained a grant of a weekly
market and a two days' fair at the feast of St Helen, in consideration
of a fine of one palfrey. In the 15th century the manor was held by
James Butler, earl of Ormond, after whose attainder it was granted in
1461 to Lord Hastings, who in 1474 obtained royal licence to empark
3000 acres and to build and fortify a castle. At this castle Mary
queen of Scots was detained in 1569 under the custody of the earls of
Huntingdon and Shrewsbury. During the Civil War Colonel Henry Hastings
fortified and held it for the king, and it was visited by Charles in
1645. In 1648, at the close of the war, it was dismantled by order of
parliament. It plays a great part in Sir Walter Scott's _Ivanhoe_. In
the 18th century Ashby was celebrated as one of the best markets for
horses in England, and had besides prosperous factories for woollen
and cotton stockings and for hats.
See _Victoria County History--Leicestershire; History of
Ashby-de-la-Zouch_ (Ashby-de-la-Zouch, 1852).
A-SHE-HO (Manch. _Alchuku_), a town of Manchuria, China, 125 m. N.E. of
Kirin, and 30 m. S. of the Sungari. It is governed by a mandarin of the
second class. Pop. about 60,000.
ASHER, a tribe of Israel, called after the son of Jacob and Zilpah,
Leah's maid. The name is taken by the narrator of Gen. xxx. 12 seq. (J)
to mean happy or propitious, possibly an allusion to the fertility of
the tribe's territory (with which cf. Gen. xlix. 20, Deut. xxxiii. 24);
on the other hand, like Gad, it may have been originally a divine title.
The district held by this tribe bordered upon Naphtali, and lay to the
north of Issachar and Zebulun, and to the south of Dan. But the
boundaries are not definite and the references to its territory are
obscure. Asher is blamed for taking no part in the fight against Sisera
(Judg. v. 17), and although it shares with Zebulun and Naphtali in
Gideon's defeat of the Midianites (Judg. vi. 35, vii. 23), the narrative
in question is not the older of the two accounts of the event, and the
incorporation of the name is probably due to a late redactor. Lying as
it did in the closest proximity to Phoenicians and Aramaeans, its
population must have been exceptionally mixed, and the description of
the occupation of Palestine in Judg. i. 31 seq. shows that it contained
a strong Canaanite element. In the Blessing of Moses it is bidden to
defend itself--evidently against invasion (Deut. xxxiii. 25).
Even in the time of Seti I. and Rameses II. (latter half of 14th cent.
B.C.) the district to the west of Galilee appears to have been known to
the Egyptians as Aser(u), so that it is possible to infer either (a)
that Asher was an Israelite tribe which, if it ever went down into
Egypt, separated itself from its brethren in Egypt and migrated north,
"an example which was probably followed by some of the other tribes as
well" (Hommel, _Ancient Hebrew Tradition_, p. 228); or (b) it was a
district which, if never closely bound to Israel, was at least regarded
as part of the national kingdom, and treated as Israelite by the
genealogical device of making it a "son" of Jacob. It is possible that
some of its Israelite population had followed the example of Dan and
moved from an earlier home in the south. Two of the clans of Asher,
Heber and Malchiel, have been associated with Milk-ili and Habiri, the
names of a hostile chief and people in the Amarna Tablets (Jastrow,
_Journal Bibl. Lit._ xi. pp. 118 seq., xii. pp. 61 seq., Hommel), but it
is scarcely probable that events of about 1400 B.C. should have survived
only in this form. This applies also to the suggestion that the name
Asher has been derived from a famous Abd-ashirta of the same period
(Barton, _ib._ xv. p. 174). Some connexion with the goddess Ashir(t)a,
however, is not unlikely.
See further H.W. Hogg, _Ency. Bibl._ col. 327 seq.; E. Meyer,
_Israeliten_, pp. 540 sqq. (S. A. C.)
'ASHER BEN-YEHIEL (known as _Rosh_), Jewish rabbi and codifier, was born
in the Rhine district c. 1250, and died in Toledo 1327. Endangered by
the persecutions inflicted on the German Jews in the 13th century,
'Asher fled to Spain, where he was made rabbi of Toledo. His enforced
exile impoverished him, and from this date begins an important change in
the status of medieval rabbis. Before the 14th century, rabbis had
obtained a livelihood by the exercise of some secular profession,
particularly medicine, and received no salary for performing the
rabbinic function. This was now changed. A disciple of Meir of
Rothenburg, 'Asher's sole interest was in the Talmud. He was a man of
austere piety, profound and narrow. He was a determined opponent of the
study of philosophy, and thus was antipathetic to the Spanish spirit.
The Jews of Spain continued, nevertheless, devotees of secular sciences
as well as of rabbinical lore. 'Asher was the first of the German rabbis
to display strong talent for systematization, and his chief work partook
of the nature of a compendium of the Talmud. Compiled between 1307 and
1314, 'Asher's _Compendium_ resembled, and to a large extent superseded,
the work of 'Al-phasi (q.v.). 'Asher's _Compendium_ is printed in most
editions of the Talmud, and it differed from previous Compendia in
greater simplicity and in the deference shown to German authorities.
'Asher's son Jacob, who died at Toledo before 1340, was the author of
the four _Turim_, a very profound and popular codification of rabbinical
law. This work was the standard code until Joseph Qaro directly based on
it his widely accepted Code of Jewish law, the _Shulhan 'Arukh_.
(I. A.)
ASHEVILLE, a city and the county-seat of Buncombe county, North
Carolina, U.S.A., in the mountainous Blue Ridge region in the west part
of the state, about 210 m. W. of Raleigh. Pop. (1890) 10,235; (1900)
14,692, of whom 4724 were negroes; (1910, census) 18,762. Asheville is
situated at the junction of three branches of the Southern railway, on a
high terrace on the east bank of the French Broad river, at the mouth of
the Swannanoa, about 2300 ft. above the sea. The city is best known as
one of the most popular health and pleasure resorts in the south, being
a summer resort for southerners and a winter resort for northerners. It
has a dry and equable climate and beautiful scenery. Among its social
clubs are the Albemarle, the Asheville, the Elks, the Tahkeeostee and
the Swannanoa Country clubs. An extensive system of city and suburban
parks, connected by a series of beautiful drives, adds to the city's
attractiveness. There are great forests in the vicinity. Among the
public buildings are the city hall, the court house, the Federal
building, the public library and an auditorium. In or near Asheville are
a normal and collegiate institute for young women (1892), and, occupying
the same campus, a home industrial school (1887) for girls, both under
the control of the Woman's Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian
Church; the Asheville farm school for boys, an industrial school for
negroes; the Asheville school for boys (5 m. west of Asheville); and the
Bingham school (1793), founded at Pittsboro, N.C., by William Bingham
(d. 1826), and removed to its present site (3 m. north-west of
Asheville) in 1891. About 2 m. south-east of the city is Biltmore, the
estate of George W. Vanderbilt, its 125,000 acres constituting what is
probably the finest country place in the United States. The central
feature of the estate is a chateau (375 X 150 ft.) of French Renaissance
design, after the famous chateau at Blois, France. In the neighbourhood
is a model village, with an elementary school, an industrial school for
whites, a hospital and a church, maintained by Mr Vanderbilt. Both the
chateau and the village were designed by Richard M. Hunt; the landscape
gardening was done by Frederick Law Olmsted. A collection of woody
plants, one of the largest and finest in the world, and a broad forest
and hunting preserve, known as Pisgah Forest (100,000 acres), are also
maintained by the owner. Asheville is a market for live-stock, dairy
products, lumber and fruits, and has various manufactories (in which a
good water-power is utilized), including tanneries, cotton mills, brick
and tile factories, and a wood-working and veneer plant. The value of
the city's factory products increased from $1,300,698 in 1900 to
$1,918,362 in 1905, or 47.5%. The city was named in honour of Samuel
Ashe (1725-1813), chief-justice of North Carolina from 1777 to 1796, and
John Ashe (1720-1781), a North Carolina soldier who distinguished
himself in the War of Independence, was settled about 1790, and was
incorporated in 1835. The city's boundaries were enlarged in 1905.
ASHFORD, a market-town in the Southern or Ashford parliamentary division
of Kent, England, 56 m. S.E. of London by the South-Eastern & Chatham
railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 12,808. It is pleasantly situated
on a gentle eminence near the confluence of the upper branches of the
river Stour. It has a fine Perpendicular church dedicated to St Mary,
with a lofty, well-proportioned tower and many interesting monuments.
The grammar school was founded by Sir Norman Knatchbull in the reign of
Charles I. Ashford has agricultural implement works and breweries; and
the large locomotive and carriage works of the South-Eastern & Chatham
railway are here. At Bethersden, between Ashford and Tenterden, marble
quarries were formerly worked extensively, supplying material to the
cathedrals of Canterbury and Rochester, and to many local churches. At
Charing, north-west of Ashford, the archbishops of Canterbury had a
residence from pre-Conquest times, and ruins of a palace, mainly of the
Decorated period, remain. On the south-eastern outskirts of Ashford is
the populous village of Willesborough (3602).
Ashford (Esselesford, Asshatisforde, Essheford) was held at the time
of the Domesday survey by Hugh de Montfort, who came to England with
William the Conqueror. A Saturday market and an annual fair were
granted to the lord of the manor by Henry III. in 1243. Further annual
fairs were granted by Edward III. in 1349 and by Edward IV. in 1466.
In 1672 Charles II. granted a market on every second Tuesday, with a
court of pie-powder. James I. in 1607, at the petition of the
inhabitants of Ashford, gave Sir John Smith, Kt., the right of holding
a court of record in the town on every third Tuesday. The fertility of
the pasture-land in Romney Marsh to the south and east of Ashford
caused the cattle trade to increase in the latter half of the 18th
century, and led to the establishment of a stock market in 1784. The
town has never been incorporated.
See Edward Hasted, _History and Survey of Kent_ (Canterbury,
1778-1799, 2nd ed. 1797-1801); _Victoria County History--Kent_.
'ASHI (352-427), Jewish _'amora_, the first editor of the Talmud, was
born at Babylon. He was head of the Sura Academy, and there began the
Babylonian Talmud, spending thirty years of his life at it. He left the
work incomplete, and it was finished by his disciple Rabina just before
the year 500 A.D. (See TALMUD.)
ASHINGTON, an urban district in the Wansbeck parliamentary division of
Northumberland, England, 4 m. E. of Morpeth, on the Newbiggin branch of
the North Eastern railway. Pop. (1901) 13,956. The district, especially
along the river Wansbeck, is not without beauty, but there are numerous
collieries, from the existence of which springs the modern growth of
Ashington. At Bothal on the river (from which parish that of Ashington
was formed) is the castle originally belonging to the Bertram family, of
which Roger Bertram probably built the gatehouse, the only habitable
portion remaining, in the reign of Edward III. The ruins of the castle
are fragmentary, but of considerable extent. The church of St Andrew
here has interesting details from Early English to Perpendicular date,
and in the neighbouring woods is a ruined chapel of St Mary. The mining
centre of Ashington lies 2 m. north-east, on the high ground north of
the Wansbeck.
'ASHKENAZI, SEBI (1656-1718), known as Hakham Sebi, for some time rabbi
of Amsterdam, was a resolute opponent of the followers of the
pseudo-Messiah, Sabbatai Sebi (q.v.). He had a chequered career, owing
to his independence of character. He visited many lands, including
England, where he wielded much influence. His _Responsa_, are held in
high esteem.
ASHLAND, a city of Boyd county, Kentucky, U.S.A., on the Ohio river,
about 130 m. E. by N. of Frankfort. Pop. (1890) 4195; (1900) 6800 (489
negroes); (1910) 8688. It is served by the Chesapeake & Ohio (being a
terminal of the Lexington and Big Sandy Divisions) and the Norfolk &
Western railways, and is connected with Huntington, West Virginia, by an
electric line. The city has a fine natural park (Central Park) of about
30 acres; and Clyffeside Park (maintained by a private corporation), of
about 75 acres, just east of the city, is a pleasure resort and a
meeting-ground (with a casino seating 3000 people) for the Tri-State
"Chautauqua" (for certain parts of Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia).
The surrounding country abounds in coal, iron ore, oil, clay, stone and
timber, for which the city is a distributing centre. Ashland has
considerable river traffic, and various manufactures, including pig
iron, nails, wire rods, steel billets, sheet steel, dressed lumber
(especially poplar), furniture, fire brick and leather. Ashland was
settled in 1854, and was chartered as a city in 1870.
ASHLAND, a borough of Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., about 50
m. N.E. of Harrisburg and about 100 m. N.W. of Philadelphia. Pop. (1890)
7346; (1900) 6438 (969 foreign-born); (1910) 6855. It is served by the
Lehigh Valley and the Philadelphia & Reading railways, and by the
electric lines of the Schuylkill Railway Company and the Shamokin &
Mount Carmel Transit Company. The borough is built on the slope of
Locust Mountain, about 885 ft. above sea-level. Its chief industry is
the mining of anthracite coal at several collieries in the vicinity; and
at Fountain Springs, 1 m. south-east, is a state hospital for injured
persons of the Anthracite Coal Region of Pennsylvania, opened in 1883.
The municipality owns and operates the waterworks. Ashland was laid out
as a town in 1847, and was named in honour of Henry Clay's home at
Lexington, Ky.; in 1857 it was incorporated.
ASHLAND, a village of Hanover county, Virginia, U.S.A., 17 m. N.W. of
Richmond. Pop. (1900) 1147; (1910) 1324. It is served by the Richmond,
Fredericksburg & Potomac railway, and is a favourite resort from
Richmond. Here is situated the Randolph-Macon College (Methodist
Episcopal, South), one of the oldest Methodist Episcopal colleges in the
United States. In 1832, two years after receiving its charter, it opened
near Boydton, Mecklenburg county, Virginia, and in 1868 was removed to
Ashland. The college in 1907-1908 had 150 students and a faculty of 16;
it publishes an endowed historical series called _The John P. Branch
Historical Papers of Randolph-Macon College_; and it is a part of the
"Randolph-Macon System of Colleges and Academies," which includes,
besides, Randolph-Macon Academy (1890) at Bedford City, Virginia, and
Randolph-Macon Academy (1892) at Front Royal, Virginia, both for boys;
Randolph-Macon Woman's College (1893) at Lynchburg, Virginia, which in
1907-1908 had an enrolment of 390; and Randolph-Macon Institute, for
girls, Danville, Virginia, which was admitted into the "System" in 1897.
These five institutions are under the control of a single board of
trustees; the work of the preparatory schools is thus correlated with
that of the colleges. About 7 m. out of Ashland is the birthplace of
Henry Clay, and about 15 m. distant is the birthplace of Patrick Henry.
Ashland was settled in 1845 and was incorporated in 1856.
ASHLAND, a city and the county-seat of Ashland county, Wisconsin,
U.S.A., situated about 315 m. N.W. of Milwaukee, and about 70 m. E. of
Superior and Duluth, in the N. part of the state, at the head of
Chequamegon Bay, an arm of Lake Superior. Pop. (1890) 9956; (1900)
13,074, of whom 4417 were foreign-born; (1910, census) 11,594. It is
served by the Chicago & North-Western, the Northern Pacific, the
Chicago, St Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha, and the Wisconsin Central
railways, and by several steamboat lines on the Great Lakes. The city is
attractively situated, has a dry, healthful climate, and is a summer
resort. It has a fine Federal building, one of the best high-school
buildings in Wisconsin, the Vaughn public library (1895), a Roman
Catholic hospital, and the Rinehart hospital, and is the seat of the
Northland College and Academy (Congregational). Ashland has an excellent
harbour, has large iron-ore and coal docks, and is the principal port
for the shipment of iron ore from the rich Gogebic Range, the annual ore
shipment approximating 3,500,000 tons, valued at $12,000,000, and it has
also an extensive export trade in lumber. Brownstone quarried in the
vicinity is also an important export. The lake trade amounts to more
than $35,000,000 annually. Ashland has large saw-mills, iron and steel
rolling mills, foundries and machine shops, railway repair shops (of the
Chicago & North-Western railway), knitting works, and manufactories of
dynamite, sulphite fibre, charcoal and wood-alcohol. In 1905 its total
factory product was valued at $4,210,265. Settled about 1854, Ashland
was incorporated as a village in 1863 and received a city charter in
1887.
ASHLAR, also written ASHLER, ASHELERE, &c. (probably from Lat. _axilla_,
diminutive of _axis_, an axle), hewn or squared stone, generally applied
to that used for facing walls. In a contract of date 1398 we
read--"Murus erit exterius de puro lapide vocato _achilar_, plane
incisso, interius vero de lapide fracto vocato _roghwall_." "Clene hewen
ashler" often occurs in medieval documents; this no doubt means tooled
or finely worked, in contradistinction to rough-axed faces.
An "ashlar piece" in building is an upright piece of timber framed
between the common rafters and the wall plate.
ASHLEY, WILLIAM JAMES (1860- ), English economist, was born in London
on the 25th of February 1860. He was educated at St Olave's grammar
school and Balliol College, Oxford, and became a fellow of Lincoln
College. In 1888 he was appointed professor of political economy and
constitutional history in Toronto University, a post which he resigned
in 1892, in order to become professor of economic history at Harvard
University. In 1901 he was appointed professor of commerce and finance
in Birmingham University and in 1902 dean of the faculty of commerce.
Professor Ashley became well known for his work on the early history of
English industry, and for his prominence among those English economists
who supported Mr Chamberlain's tariff reform movement. His most
important works are _Early History of the English Woollen Industry_
(1887); _Introduction to English Economic History and Theory_ (2 parts,
1888-1893); _Surveys, Historic and Economic_ (1900); _Adjustment of
Wages_ (1903); the _Tariff Problem_ (2nd ed. 1904); _Progress of the
German Working Classes_ (1904).
ASHMOLE, ELIAS (1617-1692), English antiquarian, and founder of the
Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, was born at Lichfield on the 23rd of May
1617, the son of a saddler. In 1638 he became a solicitor, and in 1644
was appointed commissioner of excise. At Oxford, whither this brought
him when the Royalist Parliament was sitting there, he made friends with
Captain (afterwards Sir) George Wharton, through whose influence he
obtained the king's commission as captain of horse and comptroller of
the ordnance. In 1646 he was initiated as a Freemason--the first
gentleman, or amateur, to be "accepted." In 1649 he married Lady
Mainwaring, some twenty years his senior and a relative of his first
wife who had died eight years before. This marriage placed him in a
position of affluence that enabled him to devote his whole time to his
favourite studies. His interest in astrology, aroused by Wharton, and by
William Lilly,--whom with other astrologers he met in London in
1646,--seems, in the following years, to have subsided in favour of
heraldry and antiquarian research. In 1657 his wife petitioned for a
separation, but failing to gain her case returned to live with him.
Between this crisis in his domestic life and the time of her death in
1668, Ashmole was in high favour at court. He was made successively
Windsor herald, commissioner, comptroller and accountant-general of
excise, commissioner for Surinam and comptroller of the White Office. He
afterwards refused the office of Garter king-at-arms in favour of Sir
William Dugdale, whose daughter he had married in 1668. In 1672 he
published his _Institutions, Laws and Ceremonies of the Order of the
Garter_, a work which was practically exhaustive, and is an example of
his diligence and years of patient antiquarian research. Five years
later he presented the Ashmolean Museum, the first public museum of
curiosities in the kingdom, the larger part of which he had inherited
from a friend, John Tradescant, to the university of Oxford. He made it
a condition that a suitable building should be erected for its
reception, and the collection was not finally installed until 1683.
Subsequently he made the further gift to the university of his library.
He died on the 18th of May 1692.
ASHRAF (SHUREFA, SHERIFS), a small scattered tribe of African "Arabs"
settled near Tokar, in the valleys of the Gash and Baraka, and in the
Amarar country north of Suakin. They call themselves Beni Hashin, and
claim descent from Mahomet; hence their name, _sherif_ (plural _ashraf_)
being the title applied to descendants of the prophet. In the time of
the khalifa Abdulla (1885-1898), Ashraf was the name by which the family
and adherents of his late master the mahdi were known, the mahdi's
family claiming to be Ashraf. The Ashraf of Tokar remained loyal to
Egypt during the Sudan troubles.
See _Anglo-Egyptian Sudan_, edited by Count Gleichen (London, 1905);
_Fire and Sword in the Sudan_, by Slatin Pasha (London, 1896); for the
Ashraf or Sherifs in Arabia, see ARABIA: _Geography_.
ASHREF, a town of Persia in the province of Mazandaran, about 50 m. W.
of Astarabad and 5 m. inland from the Caspian Sea, in 36 deg. 42' N. and
53 deg. 32' E. The population is about 6000, comprising descendants of
some Georgians introduced by Shah Abbas I. (1587-1629) and a number of
Gudars, a peculiar pariah race, probably of Indian origin. The place was
without importance until 1612, when Shah Abbas began building and laying
out the palaces and gardens in the neighbourhood now collectively known
as Bagh i Shah (the garden of the shah). The palaces, completed in 1627,
are now in ruins, but the gardens with their luxuriant vegetation and
gigantic cypress and orange trees ate well worth a visit. There were
originally six separate gardens, all contained within one large wall but
separated one from another by high walls. The principal palace was the
Chehel Situn (forty pillars), destroyed by the Afghans in 1723, and,
although rebuilt by Nadir Shah in 1731, already in ruins in 1743. About
3/4 m. north of the town is the Safi-abad garden, with a palace built by
Shah Safi (1629-1642) for his daughter. It is situated on a lovely
wooded hill, and was repaired and in part renovated about 1870 by
Nasiru'd-Din Shah.
ASHTABULA, a city of Ashtabula county, Ohio, U.S.A., in Ashtabula
township, on the Ashtabula river and Lake Erie, and 54 m. N.E. of
Cleveland. Pop. (1890) 8338; (1900) 12,949, of whom 3688 were
foreign-born; (1910, census) 18,266. There is a large Finnish-born
population in the city and in Ashtabula county, and the _Amerikan
Sanomat_, established here in 1897, is one of the most widely read
Finnish weeklies in the country. Ashtabula is served by the
Pennsylvania, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, and the New York,
Chicago & St Louis railways, and by inter-urban electric lines. The city
is built on the high bank of the river about 75 ft. above the lake, and
commands good views of diversified scenery. There is a public library.
Ashtabula has an excellent harbour, to and from which large quantities
of iron ore and coal are shipped. More iron ore is received at this port
annually than at any other port in the country, or, probably, in the
world; the ore is shipped thence by rail to Pittsburg, Youngstown and
other iron manufacturing centres. In 1907 the port received 7,542,149
gross tons of iron ore, and shipped 2,632,027 net tons of soft coal.
Among the city's manufactures are leather, worsted goods, agricultural
implements, and foundry and machine shop products; in 1905 the total
value of the factory product was $1,895,454, an increase of 114.3% in
five years. There are large green-houses in and near Ashtabula, and
quantities of lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes are raised under glass and
shipped to Pittsburg and other large cities. The first settlement here
was made about 1801. Ashtabula township was created in 1808, and from it
the townships of Kingsville, Plymouth and Sheffield have subsequently
been formed. The village of Ashtabula was incorporated in 1831, and
received a city charter in 1891. The name _Ashtabula_ is an Indian word
first applied to the river and said to mean "fish river."
ASHTON-IN-MAKERFIELD, an urban district in the Newton parliamentary
division of Lancashire, England, 4 m. S. of Wigan, on the Great Central
railway. Pop. (1901) 18,687. The district is rich in minerals, and has
large collieries, and a colliery company's institute; iron goods are
manufactured.
ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE, a market-town and municipal and parliamentary borough
of Lancashire, England, on the river Tame, a tributary of the Mersey,
185 m. N. W. by N. from London and 6-1/2 E. from Manchester. Area, 1346
acres. Pop. (1891) 40,486; (1901) 43,890. It is served by the London &
North-Western and the Lancashire & Yorkshire railways (Charlestown
station), and by the Great Central (Park Parade station). The church of
St Michael is Perpendicular, but almost wholly rebuilt. In the vicinity
are barracks. The Old Hall, or manor house of the Asshetons, remains in
an altered form, with an ancient prison adjoining, and the name of
Gallows Meadow, still preserved, recalls the summary execution of
justice by the lords of the manor. In the vicinity of Ashton a few
picturesque old houses remain among the numerous modern residences.
Stamford Park, presented by Lord Stamford, is shared by the towns of
Ashton and Stalybridge, which extends across the Tame into Cheshire. A
technical school, school of art and free library, and several hospitals
are maintained. Chief among industries are cotton-spinning, hat-making
and iron-founding and machinery works; and there are large collieries in
the neighbourhood. The parliamentary borough, which returns one member,
extends into Cheshire. The corporation consists of a mayor, 8 aldermen
and 24 councillors.
The derivation from the Saxon _aesc_ (ash) and _tun_ (an enclosed place)
accounts for the earliest orthography Estun. The addition _subtus
lineam_ is found in ancient deeds and is due to the position of the
place below the line or boundary of Cheshire, which once formed the
frontier between the kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia. The manor was
granted to Roger de Poictou by William I., but before the end of his
reign came to the Greslets as part of the barony of Manchester. It was
held by the Asshetons from 1335 to 1515, when it passed by marriage to
the Booths of Dunham Massey, and is now held by the earl of Stamford,
the representative of that family. The lord of the manor still holds the
ancient court-leet and court-baron half-yearly in May and November, in
which cognizance is taken of breaches of agreement among the tenants,
especially concerning the repair of roads and cultivation of lands. The
place had long enjoyed the name of borough, but it was not till 1847
that a charter of incorporation was granted. Under the Reform Act (1832)
it returns one member. One of the markets dates back to 1436. The
ancient industry was woollen, but soon after the invention of the
spinning frame the cotton trade was introduced, and as early as 1769 the
weaving of ginghams, nankeens and calicoes was carried on, and the
weaving of cotton yarn by machinery soon became the staple industry. A
chapel or church existed here as early as 1261-1262.
ASH WEDNESDAY, in the Western Church, the first day of Lent (q.v.), so
called from the ceremonial use of ashes, as a symbol of penitence, in
the service prescribed for the day. The custom, which is ultimately
based on the penance of "sackcloth and ashes" spoken of by the prophets
of the Old Testament, has been dropped in those of the reformed Churches
which still observe the fast; but it is retained in the Roman Catholic
Church, the day being known as _dies cinerum_ (day of ashes) or _dies
cineris et cilicii_ (day of ash and sackcloth). The ashes, obtained by
burning the palms or their substitutes used in the ceremonial of the
previous Palm Sunday, are placed in a vessel on the altar before High
Mass. The priest, vested in a violet cope, prays that God may send His
angel to hallow the ash, that it become a _remedium salubre_ for all
penitents. After another prayer the ashes are thrice sprinkled with holy
water and thrice censed. Then the priest invites those present to
approach and, dipping his thumb in the ashes, marks them as they kneel
with the sign of the cross on the forehead (or in the case of clerics on
the place of tonsure), with the words: _Memento, homo, quid pulvis es et
in pulverem reverteris_ (Remember, man, that thou art dust and unto dust
thou shall return). The celebrant himself either sprinkles the ash on
his own head in silence, or receives it from the priest of highest
dignity present.
This ceremony is derived from the custom of public penance in the early
Church, when the sinner to be reconciled had to appear in the
congregation clad in sackcloth and covered with ashes (cf. Tertullian,
_De Pudicitia_, 13). At what date this use was extended to the whole
congregation is not known. The phrase _dies cinerum_ appears in the
earliest extant copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary, and it is probable
that the custom was already established by the 8th century. The
Anglo-Saxon homilist Aelfric, in his _Lives of the Saints_ (996 or 997),
refers to it as in common use; but the earliest evidence of its
authoritative prescription is a decree of the synod of Beneventum in
1091.
Of the reformed Churches the Anglican Church alone marks the day by any
special service. This is known as the Commination service, its
distinctive element being the solemn reading of "the general sentences
of God's cursing against sinners, gathered out of the seven and
twentieth chapter of Deuteronomy, and other places of Scripture." The
lections for the day are the same as in the Roman Church (Joel ii. 12,
&c., and Matt. vi. 16, &c.). In the American Prayer Book the office of
Commination is omitted, with the exception of the three concluding
prayers, which are derived from the prayers and anthems said or sung
during the blessing and distribution of the ashes according to the Sarum
Missal. The ceremonial of the ashes was not proscribed in England at the
Reformation; it was indeed enjoined by a proclamation of Henry VIII.
(February 26, 1538) and again in 1550 under Edward VI.; but it had
fallen into complete disuse by the beginning of the 17th century.
See Wetzer and Welte, _Kirchenlexikon_, and Herzog-Hauck,
_Realencyklopadie_ (3rd ed.), s. "_Aschermittuoch_"; L. Duchesne,
_Christian Worship_, trans. by M.L. McClure (London, 1904).
ASHWELL, LENA (1872- ), English actress, was the daughter of Commander
Pocock, R.N. In 1896 she married the actor Arthur Playfair, whom she
divorced in 1908; later in the latter year she married Dr Simson. In
1895 she played Elaine in Sir Henry Irving's production of _King Arthur_
at the Lyceum, and again acted with him in 1903 in _Dante_. She made her
first striking success, however, on the London stage in _Mrs Dane's
Defence_ with Sir Charles Wyndham in 1900, and a few years later her
acting in _Leah Kleschna_ confirmed her position as one of the leading
actresses in London. In 1907 she started under her own management at the
Kingsway theatre.
ASIA, the name of one of the great continents into which the earth's
surface is divided, embracing the north-eastern portion of the great
mass of land which constitutes what is generally known as the Old World,
of which Europe forms the north-western and Africa the south-western
region.
Much doubt attaches to the origin of the name. Some of the earliest
Greek geographers divided their known world into two portions only,
Europe and Asia, in which last Libya (the Greek name for Africa) was
included. Herodotus, who ranks Libya as one of the chief divisions of
the world, separating it from Asia, repudiates as fables the ordinary
explanations assigned to the names Europe and Asia, but confesses his
inability to say whence they came. It would appear probable, however,
that the former of these words was derived from an Assyrian or Hebrew
root, which signifies the west or setting sun, and the latter from a
corresponding root meaning the east or rising sun, and that they were
used at one time to imply the west and the east. There is ground also
for supposing that they may at first have been used with a specific or
restricted local application, a more extended signification having
eventually been given to them. After the word Asia had acquired its
larger sense, it was still specially used by the Greeks to designate the
country around Ephesus. The idea of Asia as originally formed was
necessarily indefinite, and long continued to be so; and the area to
which the name was finally applied, as geographical knowledge increased,
was to a great extent determined by arbitrary and not very precise
conceptions, rather than on the basis of natural relations and
differences subsisting between it and the surrounding regions.