FAMILIAR ALLUSIONS. A. Aaron's Tomb. The time-honored tomb of the Hebrew highpriest is situated upon Mount Hor, in Arabia Petræa. The present tomb is of comparatively modern date, but is composed of the ruins of an older structure. The place has been held sacred for many centuries, and unbroken tradition tends to substantiate the belief that this is really the place where Aaron died and was buried. Abbaye. [Fr. Prison de l'Abbaye.] A military prison, near St. Germain des Prés, in Paris, built in 1522, and demolished in 1854. Here the French Guards who had refused to fire on the people were imprisoned in 1789, but soon released by the mob. One of the well-known revolutionary cries was "À l'Abbaye!" Here 164 prisoners were murdered in September, 1792, by infuriated republicans under Maillard. 66 Scott's ambition to attempt to revive old times in this mansion on the Tweed, and to play the part of one of those feudal lords whom he has so well portrayed in his works. "Viewed as a mere speculation, or, for aught I know, as an architectural effort, this building may perhaps be counted as a mistake and a failure. I observe that it is quite customary to speak of it, among some, as a pity that he ever undertook it. But viewed as a development of his inner life, as a working out in wood and stone of favorite fancies and cherished ideas, the building has to me a deep interest. The gentle-hearted poet delighted himself in it; this house was his stone and wood poem, as irregular perhaps, and as contrary to any established rule, as his Lay of the Last Minstrel,' but still wild and poetic. The building has this interest, that it was throughout his own conception, thought, and choice; that he expressed himself in every stone that was laid, and made it a kind of shrine, into which he wove all his treasures of antiquity, and where he imitated, from the beautiful old mouldering ruins of Scotland, the parts that had touched him most deeply. The walls of one room were of carved oak from the Dunfermline Abbey; the ceiling of another imitated from Roslin Castle; here a fireplace was wrought in the image of a favorite niche in Melrose; and there the ancient pulpit of Erskine was wrought into a wall. To him, doubtless, every object in the house was suggestive of poetic fancies." Mrs. H. B. Stowe. Abbey. For names beginning with the word ABBEY, see the next prominent word of the title. Abbotsford. The residence of Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), near Melrose in Scotland. It is on the banks of the Tweed, but does not command a fine view. It is interesting chiefly from its connection with the great novelist, and because it contains some valuable relics. The expense of the purchase and building of Abbotsford, and the extended hospitality which Scott practised there, was the chief source of his subsequent Abooseer. See ROCK OF ABOOpecuniary difficulties. It was Abelard and Eloise. See TOMB OF ABELARD AND ELOise. Aberbrothock. See ARBROATH ABBEY. SEER. Aboo-Simbel. See TEMPLE OF ABOO-SIMBEL. Aboshek, Lady of. See LADY OF ABOSHEK. Abraham, Heights (or Plains) of. An eminence in the vicinity of Quebec, Canada, where on the 13th of September, 1759, was fought a battle between the English (who were victorious), under Gen. Wolfe, and the French, under the Marquis de Montcalm. Both commanders were killed, and a monument 40 feet in height, to the memory of Wolfe, marks the spot where he fell. name To many the rock over which Wolfe climbed to the Plains of Abraham, and on the summit of which he fell in the hour of victory, gives to Quebec its chiefest charm. Anthony Trollope. Abraham's House. The given by the Jews to a ruined structure at Ramet-el-Khulil, Syria, which they identify as the spot where the patriarch pitched his tent beneath the oak of Mamre. Abraham's Oak. An ancient oak or terebinth which long stood on the plain of Mamre, near Hebron in Syria, and was believed to be that under which the patriarch pitched his tent. It was for centuries an object of worship, to put an end to which the Emperor Constantine is said to have ordered a basilica to be erected. A writer of the seventh century speaks of the church, and of the oak which stood by it. Absalom's Tomb. A sepulchral monument near Jerusalem, popularly called by this name. It has a structural spire in place of the usual pyramidal roof. "The capitals and frieze are so distinctly late Roman, that we can feel no hesitation as to the date being either of the age of Herod, or subsequent to that time." Fergusson. Abydos, Tablet of. See TABLET OF ABYDOS. Academia. [Academy.] A suburban and rural gymnasium in ancient Athens, said to have been named from one Hecademus. It was here that Plato established his famous school, B.C. 388. The place retained something of its old repute as late as to the second or third century of the Christian era, and has bequeathed its name to the modern institutes of learning and art. See there the olive grove of Academe, Plato's retirement, where the Attick bird Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long. Milton. No round-robin signed by the whole main-deck of the Academy or the Porch. De Quincey. Nearer and dearer to the poet's heart, Academy, Académie, or Accademia. For names beginning with either of these words, see the next prominent word of the title. See also infra. Academy of Design. See NATIONAL ACADEMY OF DESIGN. Académie Française. [French Academy.] One of the five academies embraced in the Institut, the most important learned society of France. It is devoted to matters relative to the French language, and particularly to the composition of its Dictionary. This celebrated society owes its origin to the Cardinal Richelieu. The first edition of the Dictionary appeared in 1694, the last in 1835. The Academy is composed of forty members, called the forty Immortels. In consequence of often having recruited its numbers from the ranks of those literary men whose careers were ended, the Academy has been sometimes called the Hôtel des Invalides of literature. Acadia. The original name of Nova Scotia, and that by which it is often poetically designated. The forced removal of the French inhabitants of Acadia, in 1755, has been made by Longfellow the subject of his poem of Evangeline." Aceldama. 66 [Field of Blood.] The reputed site of the "field of blood," bought with the "thirty pieces of silver," the price of the betrayal of the Saviour (Matt. xxvii.), is on the side of the hill opposite the Pool of Siloam, near Jerusalem. There is here a long vaulted structure, of heavy masonry, in front of a precipice of rock. The interior is dug out to a depth of perhaps 20 feet, forming a huge charnel-house into which the bodies of the dead were thrown. It is traditionally of the time of Jerome. The soil was thought to bodies within twenty-four hours. The place is no longer used for burial. ples, consume the ed picture painted in distemper, found at Pompeii, Italy, of which there is a well-known engraving. Now in the Museum at Naples. Acrocorinthus. A hill nearly 1,900 feet in height, near Corinth, Greece, which for 3,000 years has served as the citadel of that place. Hieron writes of the Corinth of ancient times, "There was hardly a stronger fortress in all Greece, and perhaps no spot afforded a more splendid view than the Acrocorinthus. Beneath it might be seen the busy city and its territory, with its temples, its theatres, and its aqueducts; its two harbors, Lechæum on the western bay, Cenchreæ on the eastern, filled with ships, and the two bays themselves, with the isthmus between them, all in sight." Stranger, wilt thou follow now, And sit with me on Acro-Corinth's brow? I stood upon that great Acropolis, The turret-gate of Nature's citadel, Byron. "Imagine a rocky height, rising precipitously from the plain, so as to be inaccessible on all sides but the west, where it is approached by a gentle slope; give it an elevation of 350 feet above the vale of Athens, and 569 above the sea, a length of about 950 feet from east to west, and a breadth of 430 from north to south. This is the Acropolis." T. Chase. "From the gates of its Acropolis, as from a mother-city, issued intellectual colonies into every region of the world. These buildings now be fore us, ruined as they are at present, have served for 2,000 years as models for the most admired fabrics in every civilized country of the world." C. Wordsworth. Or could the bones of all the slain, Than yon tower-capped Acropolis, Byron. He said to the young lady, however, that the State House was the Parthenon of our Acropolis, which seemed to please her, for she smiled, and he reddened a little, so I thought. Holmes. 2. [Of Argos.] A conical hill in Greece, nearly 1,000 feet in height. It was called Larissa in ancient times. A ruined castle on the summit preserves some fragments of the noted Acropolis of Argos. 3. [Of Corinth.] See ACRO CORINTHUS. Acteon. See DIANA AND ACTÆON. Adam and Eve. An engraving by Albert Dürer (1471-1528). In the gallery of Vienna, Austria. There is also a painting on the same subject by the same artist in the Madrid gallery. Still another example, of great beauty, is in the Pitti Palace in Florence. An early copy or replica, which has sometimes passed for an original, is in the gallery of May ence. Adam and Eve. Celebrated frescoes by Michael Angelo Buonarotti (1475-1564), representing the creation of Adam and Eve. In the Sistine Chapel, Rome. Adam and Eve. A picture by Jacopo Palma, called Palma Vecchio (1480-1528), which has been attributed to Giorgione. It is in the Brunswick gallery. Adam and Eve. A fresco in the Loggie of the Vatican, Rome, executed by Giulio Romano (1492-1546), after a design by Raphael. Adam and Eve. A picture by Jacopo Robusti, called Tintoret to (1512-1594). In the Academy at Venice, Italy. Adam and Eve. See FALL OF ADAM AND EVE. Adams, Fort. See FORT ADAMS. Adelphi, The. The name given to a series of streets on the south side of the Strand, London. See ADELPHI TERRACE. He [Martin Chuzzlewit] found himself, about an hour before dawn, in the hum: bler regions of the Adelphi; and, addressing himself to a man in a fur cap, who was taking down the shutters of an obscure public-house, inquired if he could have a bed there. Dickens. Adelphi Terrace. This terrace in London occupies part of what was formerly the site of Durham House and its gardens, and is so called from the Greek ἀδελφοί (brothers) in commemoration of its founders, John, Robert, James, and William Adam (1768). It is approached by four streets, known as John, Robert, James, and William streets, after the Christian names of the brothers. David Garrick and Topham Beauclerk died in the terrace. "There is always, to this day, a sudden pause in that place to the roar of the great thoroughfare. The many sounds become so deadened that the change is like putting cotton in the ears, or having the head thickly muffled." Dickens. Adelphi Theatre. A well-known place of dramatic entertainment in the Strand, London, first opened in 1806, rebuilt and enlarged in 1858. Bless me when I was a lad, the stage was covered with angels who sang, acted, and danced. When I remember the Adelphi, and the actresses there! Thackeray. Adelsberg Grotto. See GROTTO OF ADELSBERG. Adersbach Rocks. A remarkable natural curiosity, perhaps unequalled in its kind in Europe, near the village of the same name in Bohemia. It consists of masses of sandstone extending over a tract five or six miles in length by three in breadth, and divided by all manner of openings and clefts. "You walk, as it were, in a narrow street, with immense smooth walls on each side of you, opening here and there into squares, whence is obtained a view of the countless number of giant rocks which surround you on all sides." Such is the intricacy of the passages, that the region is a perfect labyrinth, from which extrication is very difficult, unless one is attended by a guide. Admiralty, The. The building in which is conducted the business of the Admiralty, in Whitehall, London. It occupies the site of Wallingford House. The street front was built about 1726 by Thomas Ripley, and the stone screen towards the street was designed in 1776 by the brothers Adain. See under Ripley rise a new Whitehall, While Jones' and Boyle's united labors fall. Pope. Admiralty Pier. A magnificent breakwater of granite at Dover, England, one of the greatest works of the kind in the world. It extends nearly half a mile into the sea. The work was begun in 1844, and is not yet finished. Admiralty Square. A famous square in St. Petersburg, Russia, around which are grouped the |