OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Viborg (Finland)

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​VIBORG (Finnish Viipuri), capital of a province of the same name in Finland, is situated at the head of the Bay of Viborg in the Gulf of Finland, at the mouth of the Saima Canal and on the railway which connects St Petersburg with Helsingfors. Population of the town (1904) 34,672, of the province 458,269. The Saima Canal (37 m. long), a fine engineering work, connects with the sea Lake Saima—the principal lake of Finland, 249 ft. above sea-level—and a series of others, including Puruvesi, Orivesi, Höytiänen and Kallavesi, all of which are navigated by steamers, as far north as Iisalmi in 63° 30′ N. lat. Viborg is thus the seaport of Karelia and eastern Savolaks, with the towns of Vilmanstrand (2393 inhabitants in 1904), St Michel (3933), Myslott (2687), Kuopio (13,519) and Iisalmi, with their numerous saw-mills and iron-works. Viborg stands most picturesquely on the glaciated and dome-shaped granite hills surrounding the bay, which is protected at its entrance by the naval station of Björkö and at its head by several forts. The castle of Viborg, built in 1293 by Marshal Torkel Knutson, was the first centre for the spread of Christianity in Karelia, and for establishing the power of Sweden; it is now used as a prison. Its lofty and elegant tower has fallen into decay. The court-house (1839), the town-house, the gymnasium (1641; with an excellent library), and the museum arc among the principal buildings of the city. There are also a lyceum and two higher schools for girls, a school of navigation and several primary schools, both public and private, a literary and an agricultural society, and several benevolent institutions. There are foundries, machine works and saw-mills, and a considerable export of timber and wood products. The coasting trade is also considerable.
The environs are most picturesque and are visited by many tourists in the summer. The park of Monrepos (Old Viborg), in a bay dotted with dome-shaped islands, is specially attractive. The scenery of the Saima Canal and of the Finnish lakes with the grand ås of Pungaharju; the Imatra rapids, by which the Vuoksen discharges the water of Lake Saima into Lake Ladoga, with the castle of Kexholm at its mouth; Serdobol and Valamo monastery on Lake Ladoga—all visited from Viborg—attract many tourists from St Petersburg as well as from other parts of Finland.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Vicaire, Louis Gabriel Charles

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​VICAIRE, LOUIS GABRIEL CHARLES (1848–1900), French poet, was born at Belfort on the 25th of January 1848. He served in the campaign of 1870, and then settled in Paris to practise at the bar, which, however, he soon abandoned for literature. His work was twice “crowned” by the Academy, and in 1892 he received the cross of the Legion of Honour. Born in the Vosges, and a Parisian by adoption, Vicaire remained all his life an enthusiastic lover of the country to which his family belonged—La Bresse—spending much of his time at Ambérieu. His freshest and best work is his Émaux bressans (1884), a volume of poems full of the gaiety and spirit of the old French chansons. Other volumes followed: Le Livre de la patrie, L'Heure enchantée (1890), À la bonne franquette (1892), Au bois joli (1894) and Le Clos des fées (1897). Vicaire wrote in collaboration with Jules Truffier two short pieces for the stage, Fleurs d'avril (1890) and La Farce du mars refondu (1895); also the Miracle de Saint Nicolas (1888). With his friend Henri Beauclair he produced a parody of the Decadents entitled Les Déliquescences and signed Adoré Floupette. His fame rests on his Émaux bressans and on his Rabelaisian drinking songs; the religious and fairy poems ​charming as they often are, carry simplicity to the verge of affectation. The poet died in Paris, after a long and painful illness, on the 23rd of September 1900.
See Henri Corbel, Un Poète, Gabriel Vicaire (1902).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Stratford, John de

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​STRATFORD, JOHN DE (d. 1348), archbishop of Canterbury, was born at Stratford-on-Avon and educated at Merton College, Oxford, afterwards entering the service of Edward II. He served as archdeacon of Lincoln, canon of York and dean of the court of arches before 1323, when he became bishop of Winchester, an appointment which was made during his visit to Pope John XXII. at Avignon and which was very much disliked by Edward II. In 1327 the bishop joined Queen Isabella’s partisans; he drew up the six articles against Edward II., and was one of those who visited the captive king at Kenilworth to urge him to abdicate in favour of his son. Under Edward III. he became a member of the royal council, but his high political importance dates from the autumn of 1330, the time when Roger Mortimer lost his power. In November of this year Stratford became chancellor, and for the next ten years he was actively engaged in public business, being the king’s most prominent adviser and being politically, says Stubbs, the “head of the Lancastrian or constitutional party.” In 1333 he was appointed archbishop of Canterbury and he resigned the chancellorship in the following year; however, he held this office again from 1335 to 1337 and for about two months in 1340. In November 1340 Edward III., humiliated, impecunious and angry, returned suddenly to England from Flanders and vented his wrath upon the archbishop’s brother, the chancellor, Robert de Stratford. Fearing arrest John de Stratford fled to Canterbury, and entered upon a violent war of words with the king, and by his firm conduct led to the establishment of the principle that peers were only to be tried in full parliament before their own order (en pleyn parlement et devant les piers). But good relations were soon restored between the two, and the archbishop acted as president of the council during Edward’s absence from England in 1345 and 1346, although he never regained his former position of influence. His concluding years were mainly spent in the discharge of his spiritual duties, and he died at Mayfield in Sussex on the 23rd of August 1348.
John’s brother, Robert de Stratford, was also one of Edward III.’s principal ministers. He served for a time as deputy to his brother, and in 1337 became chancellor and bishop of Chichester; he lost the former office in 1340 and died on the 9th of April 1362.
Ralph de Stratford, bishop of London from 1340 until his death at Stepney on the 7th of April 1354, was a member of the same family. All three prelates were benefactors to Stratford-on-Avon.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Stratford

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​STRATFORD, a city and port of entry of Ontario, Canada, and capital of Perth county, situated 83 m. W.S.W. of Toronto by the Grand Trunk railway, on the Avon river. Pop. (1901), 9959. The repair and engineering shops of the railway, flour-, saw- and woollen-mills, engine and agricultural implement works are the principal industries. A large export trade in cheese and other dairy and farm produce is carried on.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Strata-Florida

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​STRATA-FLORIDA (Ystradflur), the ruins of a celebrated Cistercian abbey of Cardiganshire, Wales, situated amidst wild and beautiful scenery near the source of the river Teifi. The abbey is 2 m. distant from the village of Pontrhydfendigaid (bridge of the blessed ford) on the Teifi, and about 4 m. from the station of Strata-Florida on the so-called Manchester and Milford branch line of the Great Western railway. The existing remains are not extensive, but the dimensions of the church, 213 ft. long by 61 ft. broad, are easily traceable, and excavations made at different times during recent years have brought to light encaustic tiles and other objects of interest. The most prominent feature of the ruined abbey is the elaborate western portal of the church, which is regarded as a unique specimen of the transitional Norman-English architecture of the 12th century. A fine silver seal of the abbey is preserved in the British Museum.
Founded and generously endowed in 1164 by Rhys ap Griffith, prince of South Wales, the Cistercian abbey of St Mary at Strata-Florida (which was probably a revival of an older monastic house on or near the same site) continued for over a century to be reckoned one of the wealthiest and most influential of the Welsh religious houses. It was much favoured by Welsh bards, nobles and princes, several of whom were buried in the adjoining cemetery; and in its library were deposited many official documents and records of the native princes. In 1138 Llewelyn ap Iorwerth, “the Great,” summoned all his vassals to this spot to do homage to his heir, afterwards Prince David II. The abbey suffered severely during the Edwardian wars, and in or about 1294 a large portion of its buildings was destroyed by fire, though whether as the result of accident or design remains unknown; in any case Edward I. gave a donation of £75 towards the restoration of the fabric. During Owen Glendower's rebellion in Henry IV. 's reign, the abbey was held for some months by Harry of Monmouth (Henry V.) with a body of troopers. With the extinction of Welsh independence the abbey lost much of its wealth and influence, and at the dissolution of the monasteries its gross revenue was returned at only £122, 6s. 8d. a year, one Richard Talley being its last abbot. The fabric of the abbey and its surrounding lands came into the possession of the Stedman family, whose 17th-century mansion, built out of materials from the monastic buildings, has long been used as a farmhouse. By marriage the abbey and the estate of the Stedmans passed into the possession of the family of Powell of Nanteos.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Strathaven

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​STRATHAVEN (locally pronounced Strĕvn), a manufacturing and market town of Lanarkshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901), 4076. It lies on the Avon, 16 m. S.S.E. of Glasgow by road, and is the terminus of the Caledonian Railway Company's branch line from Hamilton. It has manufactures of silk, cotton and hosiery and is a market for cheese and grain. The picturesque ruins of Avondale Castle are situated on Powmilion Burn, a stream that runs through Strathaven to join the Avon, a mile below the town. Remains of a Roman road are traceable for several miles immedi- ately to the south of the Avon. Stonehouse (pop. 2961), a mining and weaving town about 4 m. north-west, is claimed as the birthplace of the Scottish martyr, Patrick Hamilton (1504–1528). Six miles south-west of Strathaven, on the moor of Drumelog, the Covenanters defeated John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee, on the 1st of June 1679. A granite obelisk commemorates the battle, but the religious meetings that used to take place on the anniversary are no longer held.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Spenser, John

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​SPENSER, JOHN (1559–1614), president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, was educated at Merchant Taylors' school, London, and Oxford. After graduating he became Greek reader in Corpus Christi College, and held that office for ten years, resigning in 1588. He then left Oxford and held successively the livings of Alveley, Essex (1580–1592), Ardleigh, Essex (1592–1594), Faversham, Kent (1594–1599), and St Sepulchre's London (1599–1614). He was also presented to the living of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, in 1592. In 1607 he was appointed president of Corpus Christi College. After the death of his friend Richard Hooker he edited the first five books of Hooker's Ecclesiastical Politie (London, 1604). The introduction to that work and A Sermon at Paule's Crosse on Esay V., 2, 3 (London, 1615) are his only published writings. He was, however, one of the translators of the authorized version of the Bible, serving on the New Testament committee.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Spencer, John Poyntz Spencer, 5th Earl

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​SPENCER, JOHN POYNTZ SPENCER, 5th Earl (1835-1010), English statesman, was the son of the 4th Earl and his first wife, a daughter of William Stephen Poyntz, of Cowdray Park, Sussex. Born on the 27th of October 1835, and educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, he was a member of parliament for a few months before he succeeded to the earldom in December 1857. His long career as a Liberal politician dates from his acceptance of the office of lord-lieutenant of Ireland under Gladstone in 1868, a post which he retained until 1874. When the Liberals returned to power in 1880 he was appointed lord president of the council, but in 1882 he eittered upon a second term of office as lord-lieutenant of Ireland. The three years during which Earl Spencer now filled this position was a period of exceptional disorder in Ireland, marked by a long series of outrages and conspiracies associated with the "Invincibles," but the courage and firmness which he. then displayed won the admiration of all, and made his adoption of the policy of Home Rule in 1885 an event of considerable interest. In the short Liberal administration of 1886 he was lord-president of the council, and from 1892 to 1895 he was a very capable first lord of the admiralty; it is on record that Gladstone, on retiring in 1904, would have recommended the Queen, if she had consulted him, to summon Lord Spencer to the premiership. From 1002 to 1905 he was the Liberal leader in the House of Lords, and early in 1905, when a change of government was seen to be probable, it was thought in some quarters that he would be the most suitable Liberal prime minister. But his health broke down just at this time, and he took no further part in political life, although he survived until the 13th of August 1910, when he died at Althorp. For forty-five years the earl was a Knight of the Garter; he was lord-lieutenant of Northamptonshire for upwards of thirty years, and he had a reputation as a keen and daring rider to hounds. The fine library, collected at Althorp by the 2nd earl, was sold by him for £250,000 to Mrs Rylands, the widow of a Manchester merchant, and was by her presented to the city of Manchester.
Earl Spencer had no children, and his successor was his half-brother, Charles Robert Spencer (b. 1857), who became the 6th earl. As the Hon. Charles R. Spencer he was one of the parliamentary representatives for Northamptonshire from 1880 to 1895 and again from 1900 to 1905, and was vice-chamberlain of the royal household from 1892 to 1895. In 1905 he was appointed lord chamberlain, and in the same year he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Althorp.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Spencer, William Robert

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​SPENCER, WILLIAM ROBERT (1769-1834), English poet and wit, was the son of Lord Charles Spencer, second son of Charles Spencer, 3rd duke of Marlborough and 5th earl of Sunderland. He was educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford, but left the university without taking a degree. Spencer's wit made him a popular member of society, but he took no part in public life although he numbered among his friends leading statesmen like Pitt, Fox and Sheridan. He was an accomplished writer of "occasional" verse, which was warmly praised by Scott, by Christopher North and by Byron, who placed him in the same rank as Moore, Rogers and Campbell. In 1796 he published an English version of Bürger's Leonore, and in 1802 he burlesqued German romance in his Urania, which was produced on the stage at Drury Lane. Among his best-known pieces, which were published in a collection of his poems in 1811, were "Beth Gelert" and "Too Late I Stayed." He died in poverty in Paris in 1834. In 1791 he married Susan, daughter of Count Jenison-Walworth, chamberlain to the elector palatine, by whom he had five sons and two daughters. One son, Aubrey George Spencer (1795-1872), became first bishop of Newfoundland in 1839, being afterwards translated to the See of Jamaica. Another son, George Trevor Spencer (1799-1866), was in 1837 consecrated second bishop of Madras. He published several books relating to missionary work in India; on his return to England in 1849 he was appointed assistant to the bishop of Bath and Wells, and in 1860 became chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral. He married, in 1823, Harriet, daughter of Sir Benjamin Hobhouse and sister of Lord Broughton.
See W. R. Spencer, Poems (London, 1835), containing a biographical memoir; The Annual Register (1834); Alumni Oxonienses 1715-1886., annotated by J. Foster (4 vols., Oxford, 1891).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Spens, Thomas de

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​SPENS, THOMAS DE (c. 1415–1480), Scottish statesman and prelate, received his education at Edinburgh, and by his exceptional abilities attracted the notice of the advisers of the Scottish king, James II., who sent him on errands to England and to France. About 1450 he became bishop of Galloway; soon after- wards he was made keeper of the privy seal, and in 1459 he was chosen bishop of Aberdeen. Much of his time, however, was passed in journeys to France and to England, and in 1464 he and Alexander Stewart, duke of Albany, a son of James II. were captured at sea by some English sailors. Edward IV., to whom the bishop had previously revealed an assassination plot, set him at liberty, and he was partly responsible for the treaty of peace made about this time between the English king and James III. He also helped to bring about the meeting between Edward IV. and Louis XI. of France at Picquicny, and another treaty of peace between England and Scotland in 1474. Spens was a frequent attender at the Scottish parliaments, and contributed very generously to the decoration of his cathedral at Aberdeen. He died in Edinburgh on the 14th of April 1480.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Spennymoor

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​SPENNYMOOR, a market town in the Bishop Auckland parliamentary division of Durham, England, 6 m. S. of the city of Durham, on a branch of the North Eastern railway. Pop of urban district, which includes several neighbouring parishes (1901), 16,665. It is in the midst of a populous coal-mining district, and its growth is modern.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Spenserian Stanza

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​SPENSERIAN STANZA, a form of verse which derives its name from the fact that it was invented by the poet Edmund Spenser, and first used in his Faery Queene in 1590. The origin of this stanza has been matter for disagreement among critics of prosody. Schipper has argued that it was adapted from the old French ballade-stanza (see Ballade). But it is much more probable that it was of Italian origin, and that Spenser, who was familiar with ottava rima as it had long been employed in Italy, and was at that very time being used by the school of Tasso, added a line between the Italian fourth and fifth, modified slightly the arrangements of rhyme, and added a foot to the last line, which became an Alexandrine. The form of the pure Spenserian stanza can best be observed by the study of a specimen from the Faery Queene:—
Into the inmost temple thus I came,
Which fuming all with frankincense I found,
And odours rising from the altar's flame.
Upon a hundred marble pillars round
The roof up high was rearëd from the ground,
All decked with crowns and chains and garlands gay,
And thousand precious gifts worth many a pound,
The which sad lovers for their vows did pay,
And all the ground was strow'd with flowers as fresh as May."
It is necessary to preserve in all respects the characteristics of this example, and the number, regular sequences and identity of rhymes must be followed. It is a curious fact that, in spite of the very great beauty of this stanza and the popularity of Spenser, it was hardly used during the course of the 17th century, although Giles and Phineas Fletcher made for themselves adaptations of it, the former by omitting the eighth line, the latter by omitting the sixth and eighth. In the middle of the 18th century the study of Spenser led poets to revive the stanza which bears his name. The initiators of this reform were Akenside, in The Virtuoso (1737); Shenstone, in The Schoolmistress (1742); and Thomson, in The Castle of Indolence (1748). Mrs Tighe (1772-1810) used it for her once-famous epic of Psyche. It was a favourite form at the time of the romantic revival, when it was employed by Campbell, for his Gertrude of Wyoming (1809); by Keats, in The Eve of St Agnes (1820); by Shelley, in The Revolt of Islam (Laon and Cythna) (1818); by Mrs Hemans; by Reginald Heber; but pre-eminently by Byron, in Childe Harold (1812-1817). Thomas Cooper, the Chartist, wrote his Purgatory of Suicides (1845) in Spenserian stanza, and Tennyson part of his Lotus Eaters. By later poets it has been neglected, but Worsley and Conington's translation of the Iliad (1865-1868) should be mentioned. The Spenserian stanza is an exclusively English form.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Williams, Rowland

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​WILLIAMS, ROWLAND (1817–1870), English divine and scholar, was born at Halkyn, Flint, the son of Rowland Williams (d. 1854), canon of St Asaph, and educated at Eton and Cambridge. He was elected fellow of King's College, Cambridge, in 1839, and took orders in 1842. During the next few years he actively opposed the amalgamation of the sees of St Asaph and Bangor. In 1850 he became vice-principal and Hebrew lecturer at St David's College, Lampeter, where he introduced much-needed educational and financial reforms. He was appointed select preacher of Cambridge University in 1854, and preached a sermon on inspiration, afterwards published in his Rational Godliness after the Mind of Christ and the Written Voices of the Church (London, 1855). He was charged with heterodoxy, and Alfred Ollivant (1798–1882), bishop of Llandaff, required him to resign his chaplaincy, but he remained at the college in spite of these difficulties. His views were further defined in Christianity and Hinduism (Cambridge, 1856), an expansion of the Muir prize essay which he had won in 1848. He became vicar in 1858 of Broadchalke with Bowerchalke and Alvedistone, Wiltshire. As a result of his favourable review of Bunsen's “Biblical Researches” contributed to Essays and Reviews (1860) he was prosecuted for heterodoxy. An unfavourable judgment was given by the Canterbury Court of Arches in 1862, but reversed by the Privy Council in 1864. Williams died on the 18th of January 1870.
Besides the above works his most important production was a translation of the Hebrew Prophets with commentary (pt. i. 1866; pt. ii. edited by Mrs Williams 1871; pt. iii. though planned was never written). See Life and Letters, edited by Mrs Williams (2 vols., 1874); and T. K . Cheyne, Founders of Old Testament Criticism (1893).