OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Girishk

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​GIRISHK, a village and fort of Afghanistan. It stands on the right bank of the Helmund 78 m. W. of Kandahar on the road to Herat; 3641 ft. above the sea. The fort, which is garrisoned from Kandahar and is the residence of the governor of the district (Pusht-i-Rud), has little military value. It commands the fords of the Helmund and the road to Seistan, from which it is about 190 m. distant; and it is the centre of a rich agricultural district. Girishk was occupied by the British during the first Afghan War; and a small garrison of sepoys, under a native officer, successfully withstood a siege of nine months by an overwhelming Afghan force. The Dasht-i-Bakwa stretches beyond Girishk towards Farah, a level plain of considerable width, which tradition assigns as the field of the final contest for supremacy between Russia and England.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Girvan

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​GIRVAN, a police burgh, market and fishing town of Ayrshire, Scotland, at the mouth of the Girvan, 21 m. S.W. of Ayr, and 63 m. S.W. of Glasgow by the Glasgow & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 4024. The principal industry was weaving, but the substitution of the power-loom for the hand-loom nearly put an end to it. The herring fishery has developed to considerable proportions, the harbour having been enlarged and protected by piers and a breakwater. Moreover, the town has grown in repute as a health and holiday resort, its situation being one of the finest in the west of Scotland. There is excellent sea-bathing, and a good golf-course. The vale of Girvan, one of the most fertile tracts in the shire, is made so by the Water of Girvan, which rises in the loch of Girvan Eye, pursues a very tortuous course of 36 m. and empties into the sea. Girvan is the point of communication with Ailsa Craig. About 13 m. S.W. at the mouth of the Stinchar is the fishing village of Ballantrae (pop. 511).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Béthencourt, Jean de

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​BÉTHENCOURT, JEAN DE (c. 1360–1422), French explorer, belonged to a noble family of Normandy, and held important offices at the court of Charles VI., king of France. His spirit was fired by hearing of the deeds of explorers and adventurers, and having formed a plan to conquer the Canary Islands he raised some money by pledging his Norman estates, and sailed from La Rochelle on the 1st of May 1402 with two ships, commanded by himself and Gadifer de la Salle. He was delayed by a mutiny off the coast of Spain, but reached the island of Lanzarote in July. Unable to carry out his project of conquest, he left his men at the Canaries and went to seek help at the court of Castile. He obtained men and provisions from Henry III. king of Castile, through the good offices of his uncle, Robert de Braquemont, who had considerable influence with Henry; he also received the title of king, and did homage to Henry for his future conquests. Returning to the Canaries in 1404 he found that Gadifer de la Salle had conquered Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, and explored other islands. La Salle, unwilling to accept a position of inferiority, left the Canaries and appealed unsuccessfully for redress at the court of Castile. Béthencourt was unable to complete his work of conquest and exploration. In 1405 he visited Normandy, and returned with fresh colonists who occupied Hierro. In December 1406 he left the islands to the government of his nephew, Maciot de Béthencourt, reserving for himself the royal title and a share in any profits obtained. He returned to Normandy, where he appears to have spent the remainder of his days. He died in 1422, and was buried in the church of Grainville-la-Teinturière. Béthencourt wrote a very untrustworthy account of his “conquest of the Canary Islands,” Le Canarien, livre de la conquête et conversion ses Canaries. This has been published with introduction and notes by G. Gravier (Rouen, 1874), and an English translation was edited by R. H. Major for the Hakluyt Society (London, 1872).
See also Canary Islands, for the controversy as to the relations between Béthencourt and La Salle.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Béthune (France)

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​BÉTHUNE, a town of northern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Pas-de-Calais, 24 m. N.N.W. of Arras, on the Northern railway between that town and St Omer. Pop. (1906) 12,601. Béthune is situated on a low hill at the confluence of the Lawe with the canal from Aire to Bauvin. Once strongly fortified, it is now surrounded by wide boulevards, and new quarters have grown up on its outskirts. The old town is composed of winding streets and culs-de-sac bordered by old houses in the Flemish style. In the central square stands one of the finest belfries of northern France, a square structure surmounted by a wooden campanile, dating from the 14th century. St Vaast, the principal church of Béthune, belongs to the 16th century. The town is the seat of a sub-prefect, and has a tribunal of first instance, a chamber of commerce and a communal college among its public institutions. Béthune lies in the midst of the richest coal mines in France. Its industries include the distillation of oil, tanning, salt-refining, brewing, and the manufacture of earthenware and casks. Trade is carried on in flax, cloth, cereals, oil-seeds, &c.
The town, which dates from the 11th century, was governed by its own lords till 1248, after which date it passed through the ownership of the counts of Flanders, the dukes of Burgundy, and the sovereigns of Austria and Spain. Ceded to France by the peace of Nijmwegen (1678), it was taken by the allied forces in 1710, and restored to France by the treaty of Utrecht.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bêche-de-Mer

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​BÊCHE-DE-MER (sometimes explained as “sea-spade,” from the shape of the prepared article, but more probably from the Port, bicho, a worm or grub), or Trepang (Malay, tripang), an important food luxury among the Chinese and other Eastern peoples, connected with the production of which considerable trade exists in the Eastern Archipelago and the coasts of New Guinea, and also in California. It consists of several species of echinoderms, generally referred to the genus Holothuria, especially H. edulis. The creatures, which exist on coral reefs, have bodies from 6 to 15 in. long, shaped like a cucumber, hence their name of “sea-cucumbers.” The skin is sometimes covered with spicules or prickles, and sometimes quite smooth, and with or without “teats” or ambulacral feet disposed in rows. Five varieties are recognized in the commerce of the Pacific Islands, the finest of which is the “brown with teats.” The large black come next in value, followed by the small black, the red-bellied and the white. They are used in the gelatinous soups which form an important article of food in China. They are prepared for use by being boiled for about twenty minutes, and then dried first in the sun and afterwards over a fire, so that they are slightly smoked.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Béthune (family)

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​BÉTHUNE (Family). The seigneurs of Béthune, avoués (advocati) of the great abbey of Saint-Vaast at Arras from the 11th century, were the ancestors of a great French house whence sprang the dukes of Sully, Charost, Orval, and Ancenis; the marquises of Rosny, Courville and Chabris; the counts of Selles and the princes of Boisbelle and Henrichemont. Conon de Béthune (q.v.), the crusader and poet, was an early forebear. The most illustrious member of the Béthune family was Maximilien, baron of Rosny, and afterwards duke of Sully (q.v.), minister of Henry IV. His brother Philip, count of Selles and of Charost, was ambassador to Scotland, Rome, Savoy and Germany, and died in 1649. Hippolyte de Béthune, count of Selles and marquis of Chabris, who died in 1665, bequeathed to the king a magnificent collection of historical documents and works of art. The Charost branch of the family gave France a number of generals during the 17th and 18th centuries.
The last duke of Charost, Armand Joseph de Béthune (1738–1800), French economist and philanthropist, served in the army during the Seven Years’ War, after which he retired to his estates in Berry, where, and also in Brittany and Picardy, he sought to ameliorate the lot of his peasants by abolishing feudal dues, and introducing reforms in agriculture. During the Terror he was arrested, but was liberated after the 9th Thermidor. He was mayor of the 10th arrondissement of Paris under the Consulate, and died at Paris on the 20th of October 1800, of small-pox, contracted during a visit to a workshop for the blind which he had founded. He published essays on the way to destroy mendicancy and to improve the condition of the labourers, and also on the establishment of a fund for rural relief and the organization of rural education. His life throws light on some phases of the ancien régime which are often overlooked by historians. Louis XV. said of Charost, “Look at this man, his appearance is insignificant, but he has put new life into three of my provinces.” His only son, Armand Louis de Béthune, marquis de Charost, was beheaded on the 28th of April 1794.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Béthune, Conon de

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​BÉTHUNE, CONON or Quesnes, DE (c. 1150–1224), French trouvère of Arras, was born about the middle of the 12th century. He came about 1180 to the court of France, where he met Marie de France, countess of Champagne. To this princess his love poems are dedicated, and much of his time was passed at her court where the trouvères were held in high honour. At the French court he met with some criticisms from Queen Alix, the widow of Louis VII., on the roughness of his verse and on his Picard dialect. To these criticisms, interesting as proof of the already preponderant influence of the dialect of the Île de France, the poet replied by some verses in the satirical vein that best suited his temperament. Some of his best songs were inspired by anger at the delays before the crusade of 1188–1192. His plain-speaking made him many enemies, and when he returned ​with the rest after the fruitless capture of Acre, these were not slow to take advantage of the opportunity for retaliation. Conon took part with Baldwin of Flanders in the crusade which resulted in 1204 in the capture of Constantinople, and he is said to have been the first to plant the crusaders’ standard on the walls of the city. He held high office in the new empire and died about 1224. His verses, of which the crusading song Ah! amors com dure departie is well known, are marked by a vigour and martial spirit which distinguish them from the work of other trouvères.
The completest edition of his works is in the Trouvères belges of Aug. Scheler (1876).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Béziers

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​BÉZIERS, a town of southern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Hérault, 47 m. S.W. of Montpellier by rail. Pop. (1906) 46,262. Béziers is situated in a wine-growing district on a hill on the left bank of the river Orb, which is joined at this point by the Canal du Midi. The Allées Paul Riquet, named after the creator of the canal, occupy the centre of Béziers and divide the old town with its maze of narrow and irregular streets from the new quarter to the east. They form a long and shady promenade, terminating at one end in the Place de la République and the theatre, the front of which is decorated with bas-reliefs by David d’Angers, ​and at the other in a beautiful park, the Plateau des Poétes. The most interesting portion of the town is the extreme west where the old ramparts overlook the Orb. Above them towers St Nazaire, the finest of the churches of Béziers; it dates from the 12th to the 14th centuries and is a good specimen of the ecclesiastical fortification common in southern France. Its chief artistic features are the rose window in the western façade, and the stained glass and curious iron grilles of the choir-windows, which belong to the 14th century. Adjoining the south transept there are Gothic cloisters of the 14th century. The Orb is crossed by four bridges, the railway bridge, an ancient bridge of the 13th or 14th century, a modern bridge and the fine aqueduct by which the Canal du Midi is carried over the river. About half a mile to the south-west of the town are the locks of Fonserannes, in which in 330 yds. the water of the canal descends 80 ft. to reach the level of the Orb. There are remains of a Roman arena which have been built into the houses of the rue St Jacques. Béziers is seat of a sub-prefect and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, communal colleges and several learned societies. It is an agricultural market and carries on an active trade in wine, brandy, fruit, leather and sulphur. Its industries are chiefly connected with the wine trade (cask and cork making, &c.) and there are important distilleries. It also has iron-works and tanneries.
The Romans established a colony at Béziers, and it was the headquarters of the seventh legion, under the title of Baeterrae Septimanorum. The present name occurs in the form Besara as early as Festus Avienus (later 4th century). The town was completely destroyed in 1209 by the forces of Simon de Montfort in the crusade against the Albigenses, on which occasion 20,000 persons were massacred. The walls were rebuilt in 1289; but the town again suffered severely in the civil and religious wars of the 16th century, and all its fortifications were destroyed in 1632.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bêrlad

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​BÊRLAD, the capital of the department of Tutova, Rumania, on the river Bêrlad, which waters the high plains of Eastern Moldavia. Pop. (1900) 24,484, about one-fourth of whom are Jews. At Bêrlad the railway from Jassy diverges, one branch skirting the river Sereth, the other skirting the Pruth; both reunite at Galatz. Among a maze of narrow and winding streets Bêrlad possesses a few good modern buildings, including a fine hospital, administered by the St Spiridion Foundation of Jassy. Bêrlad has manufactures of soap and candles, and some trade in timber and farm-produce, while the annual horse-fairs are visited by dealers from all parts of the country. In the vicinity are traces of a Roman camp.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bérulle, Pierre de

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​BÉRULLE, PIERRE DE (1575–1629), French cardinal and statesman, was born at Sérilly, near Troyes, on the 4th of February 1575. He was educated by the Jesuits and at the university of Paris. Soon after his ordination in 1599, he assisted Cardinal Duperron in his controversy with the Protestant Philippe de Mornay, and made numerous converts. He founded the Congregation of the French Oratory in 1611 and introduced the Carmelite nuns into France, notwithstanding the opposition of the friars of that order, who were jealous of his ascendancy. Bérulle also played an important part as a statesman. He obtained the necessary dispensations from Rome for Henrietta Maria’s marriage to Charles I., and acted as her chaplain during the first year of her stay in England. In 1626, as French ambassador to Spain, he concluded the treaty of Monzon. After the reconciliation of Louis XIII. with his mother, Marie de’ Medici, through his agency, he was appointed a councillor of state, but had to resign this office, owing to his Austrian policy, which was opposed by Richelieu. Bérulle encouraged Descartes’ philosophical studies, and it was through him that the Samaritan Pentateuch, recently brought over from Constantinople, was inserted in Lejay’s Polyglot Bible. His treatise, Des Grandeurs de Jésus, was a favourite book with the Jansenists. He died on the 2nd of October 1629. His works, edited by P. Bourgoing (2 vols., 1644) were reprinted, by Migne in 1857.
See M. de Bérulle et les Carmélites; Le Père de Bérulle et l’oratoire de Jésus; Le Cardinal de Bérulle et Richelieu (3 vols., 1872–1876), by the Abbé M. Houssaye; and H. Sidney Lear’s Priestly Life in France in the Seventeenth Century (London, 1873).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Jerome, Jerome Klapka

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​JEROME, JEROME KLAPKA (1859– ), English author, was born on the 2nd of May 1859. He was educated at the philological school, Marylebone, London; and was by turns clerk, schoolmaster and actor, before he settled down to journalism. He made his reputation as a humorist in 1889 with Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow and Three Men in a Boat, and from 1892 to 1897 he was co-editor of the Idler with Robert Barr. At the same time he was also the editor of To-Day. A one-act play of his, Barbara, was produced at the Globe theatre in 1886, and was followed by many others, among them Sunset (1888), Wood Barrow Farm (1891), The Passing of the Third Floor Back (1907). Among his later books are Letters to Clorinda (1898), The Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1898), Three Men on the Bummel (1900), Tommy and Co. (1904), They and I (1909).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Jerry

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​JERRY, a short form of the name Jeremiah, applied to various common objects, and more particularly to a machine for finishing cloth. The expression “jerry-built” is applied to houses built badly and of inferior materials, and run up by a speculative builder. There seems to be no foundation for the assertion that this expression was occasioned by the work of a firm of Liverpool builders named Jerry.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Jersey, Earls of

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​JERSEY, EARLS OF. Sir Edward Villiers (c. 1656–1711), son of Sir Edward Villiers (1620–1689), of Richmond, Surrey, was created Baron Villiers and Viscount Villiers in 1691 and earl of Jersey in 1697. His grandfather, Sir Edward Villiers (c. 1585–1626), master of the mint and president of Munster, was half-brother of George Villiers, 1st duke of Buckingham, and of Christopher Villiers, 1st earl of Anglesey; his sister was Elizabeth Villiers, the mistress of William III., and afterwards countess of Orkney. Villiers was knight-marshal of the royal household in succession to his father; master of the horse to Queen Mary; and lord chamberlain to William III. and Queen Anne. In 1696 he represented his country at the congress of Ryswick; he was ambassador at the Hague, and after becoming an earl was ambassador in Paris. In 1699 he was made secretary of state for the southern department, and on three occasions he was one of the lords justices of England. In 1704 he was dismissed from office by Anne, and after this event he was concerned in some of the Jacobite schemes. He died on the 25th of August 1711. The 2nd earl was his son William (c. 1682–1721), an adherent of the exiled house of Stuart, and the 3rd earl was the latter’s son William (d. 1769), who succeeded his kinsman John Fitzgerald (c. 1692–1766) as 6th Viscount Grandison. The 3rd earl’s son, George Bussy, the 4th earl (1735–1805), held several positions at the court of George III., and on account of his courtly manners was called the “prince of Maccaronies.” The 4th earl’s son, George, 5th earl of Jersey (1773–1859), one of the most celebrated fox-hunters of his time and a successful owner of racehorses, married Sarah Sophia (1785–1867), daughter of John Fane, 10th earl of Westmorland, and granddaughter of Robert Child, the banker. She inherited her grandfather’s great wealth, including his interest in Child’s bank, and with her husband took the name of Child-Villiers. Since this time the connexions of the earls of Jersey with Child’s bank has been maintained. Victor Albert George Child-Villiers (b. 1845) succeeded his father George Augustus (1808–1859), 6th earl, who had only held the title for three weeks, as 7th earl of Jersey in 1859. This nobleman was governor of New South Wales from 1890 to 1893.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ficksburg

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​FICKSBURG, a town of Orange Free State 110 m. by rail E. by N. of Bloemfontein. Pop. (1904) 1954, of whom 1021 were whites. The town is situated near the north bank of the Caledon river and is the capital of one of the finest agricultural and stock-raising regions of the province. It has direct railway communication with Natal and an extensive trade. In the neighbourhood are petroleum wells and a diamond mine. In the fossilized ooze of the Wonderkop, a table mountain of the adjacent Wittebergen, are quantities of petrified fish.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Fiddes, Richard

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​FIDDES, RICHARD (1671–1725), English divine and historian, was born at Hunmanby and educated at Oxford. He took orders, and obtained the living of Halsham in Holderness in 1696. Owing to ill-health he applied for leave to reside at Wickham, and in 1712 he removed to London on the plea of poverty, intending to pursue a literary career. In London he met Swift, who procured him a chaplaincy at Hull. He also became chaplain to the earl of Oxford. After losing the Hull chaplaincy through a change of ministry in 1714, he devoted himself to writing. His best book is a Life of Cardinal Wolsey (London, 1724), containing documents which are still valuable for reference; of his other writings the Prefatory Epistle containing some remarks to be published on Homer’s Iliad (London, 1714), was occasioned by Pope’s proposed translation of the Iliad, and his Theologia speculativa (London, 1718), earned him the degree of D.D. at Oxford. In his own day he had a considerable reputation as an author and man of learning.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Fichtelgebirge

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​FICHTELGEBIRGE, a mountain group of Bavaria, forming the centre from which various mountain ranges proceed,—the Elstergebirge, linking it to the Erzgebirge, in a N.E., the Frankenwald in a N.W., and the Böhmerwald in a S.E. direction. The streams to which it gives rise flow towards the four cardinal points,—e.g. the Eger eastward and the Saale northward, both to the Elbe; the Weisser Main westward to the Rhine, and the Naab southward to the Danube. The chief points of the mass are the Schneeberg and the Ochsenkopf, the former having a height of 3448, and the latter of 3356 ft. The whole district is pretty thickly populated, and there is great abundance of wood, as well as of iron, vitriol, sulphur, copper, lead and many kinds of marble. The inhabitants are employed chiefly in the iron mines, at forges and blast furnaces, and in charcoal burning and the manufacture of blacking from firewood. Although surrounded by railways and crossed by the lines Nuremberg-Eger and Regensburg-Oberkotzau, the Fichtelgebirge, owing principally to its raw climate and bleakness, is not much visited by strangers, the only important points of interest being Alexandersbad (a delightfully situated watering-place) and the granite labyrinth of Luisenburg.
See A. Schmidt, Führer durch das Fichtelgebirge (1899); Daniel, Deutschland; and Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon (1904).