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

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​POLYANTHUS, one of the oldest of the florists’ flowers, is probably derived from P. variabilis, itself a cross between the common primrose and the cowslip; it differs from the primrose in having the umbels of flowers carried up on a stalk. The florists’ polyanthus has a golden margin, and is known as the gold-laced polyanthus, the properties being very distinctly laid down and rigidly adhered to. The chief of these are a clear, unshaded, blackish or reddish ground colour, an even margin or lacing of yellow extending round each segment and cutting through its centre down to the ground colour, and a yellow band surrounding the tube of exactly the same hue as the yellow of the lacing. The plants are quite hardy, and grow best in strong, loamy soil tolerably well enriched with well-decayed dung and leaf-mould; ​they should be planted about the end of September or not later than October. Plants for exhibition present a much better and cleaner appearance if kept during winter in a cold well-aired frame.
For the flower borders what are called fancy polyanthuses are adopted. These are best raised annually from seed, the young crop each year blooming in succession. The seed should be sown as soon as ripe, the young plants being allowed to stand through the winter in the seed bed. In April or May they are planted out in a bed of rich garden soil, and they will bloom abundantly the following spring. A few of the better “thrum-eyed” sorts (those having the anthers in the eye, and the pistil sunk in the tube) should be allowed to ripen seed; the rest may be thrown away. In some remarkable forms which have been cultivated for centuries the ordinarily green calyx has become petaloid; when this is complete it forms the hose-in-hose primrose of gardeners. There are also a few well-known double-flowered varieties.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Polonnaruwa

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​POLONNARUWA, a ruined city and ancient capital of Ceylon. It first became a royal residence in A.D. 368, when the lake of Topawewa was formed, and succeeded Anuradhapura as the capital in the middle of the 8th century. The principal ruins date chiefly from the time of Prakrama Bahu (A.D. 1153–1186). The most imposing pile remaining is the Jetawanarama temple, a building 170 ft. in length, with walls about 80 ft. high and 12 ft. thick. The city is now entirely deserted, and, as in the case of Anuradhapura, its ruins have only recently been rescued from the jungle.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Poltava (town)

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​POLTAVA, a town of Russia, capital of the government of the same name, on the right bank of the Vorskla, 88 m. by rail W.S.W. of Kharkov. Pop. 53,060. The town is built on a plateau which descends by steep slopes on nearly every side. Several suburbs, inhabited by Cossacks, whose houses are buried amid gardens, and a German colony, surround the town. The oldest buildings are a monastery, erected in 1650, and a wooden ​church visited by Peter the Great after the battle of Poltava. There are a military school for cadets, a theological seminary and two girls' colleges; also flour-mills, tobacco works and a tannery.
Poltava is mentioned in Russian annals in 1174, under the name of Ltava, but does not again appear in history until 1430, when, together with Glinsk, it was given by Gedimin, prince of Lithuania, to the Tatar prince Leksada. Under the Cossack chief, Bogdan Chmielnicki, it was the chief town of the Poltava “regiment.” Peter the Great of Russia defeated Charles XII. of Sweden in the immediate neighbourhood on the 27th of June 1709, and the victory is commemorated by a column over 50 ft. in height.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Tannhäuser

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​TANNHÄUSER, or Tanhuser, German Minnesinger of the 13th century, who lived for a time at the court of Frederick II., duke of Austria. After Duke Frederick's death he was received at the court of Otto II., duke of Bavaria; but, being of a restless disposition, and having wasted his fortune, he spent much time in wandering about Germany. He also went as a Crusader to the Holy Land. His poems belong to the decadence of the Minnesang, and combine a didactic display of learning with descriptions of peasant-life in a somewhat coarse tone. His adventurous life led him to be identified, in the popular imagination, with the knight Tannhauser who, after many wanderings, comes to the Venusberg, or Horselberg, near Eisenach. He enters the cave where the Lady Venus — the Frau Hulda of German folk-lore — holds her court, and abandons himself to a life of sensual pleasure. By and by he is overcome by remorse, and, invoking the aid of the Virgin Mary, he obtains permission to return for a while to the outer world. He then goes as a pilgrim to Rome, and entreats Pope Urban to secure for him the forgiveness of his sins. The pope declares it is as impossible for him to be pardoned as for the staff he has in his hand to blossom. Tannhauser departs in despair, and returns to the Venusberg. In three days the staff begins to put forth green leaves, and the pope sends messengers in all directions in search of the penitent, but he is never seen again. This legend was at one time widely known in Germany, and as late as 1830 it survived in a popular song at Entlebucb in Switzerland, a version of which was given by Uhland in his Alle hoch- und niederdeutsche Volkslieder. Among the attendants of Hulda was the faithful Eckhart, and in the preface to the Heldenbuch he is said to sit before the Venusberg, and to warn passers-by of the dangers to which they may be exposed if they linger in the neighbourhood. The legend has been reproduced by several modern German poets, and by R. Wagner in an opera.
For Tannhauser's lyric poetry, see F. H. von der Hagen's Minnesinger, ii. (1838); K. Bartsch, Deutsche Liederdichler des 12: bis 14. Jahrhunderts (3rd ed. 1893),' No. 47. See also F. Zander, Die Tannhauser sage und der Minnesinger Tannhauser (1858); J. G. T. Grasse, Die Sage von Tannhauser (1846; 2nd ed. 1861); A. Ohlke Zu Tannhdusers Leben und Dichlen (1890); J. Siebert, Tannhauser Inhalt und Form seiner Gedichte (1894).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Tanta

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​TANTA, a town of Lower Egypt, in a central position nearly midway between the two main branches of the Nile, and converging-point of several railways traversing the Delta in all directions. It has a population (1907) of 54,437, is the capital of the rich province of Gharbia, and is noted for its fairs and Moslem festivals, which are held three times a year in honour of Seyyid el-Bedawi, and are sometimes attended by 200,000 pilgrims and traders. There are a large railway station, a very fine mosque (restored), and a palace of the khedive. Seyyid el-Bedawi, who lived in the 13th century A.D., was a native of Fez who, after a pilgrimage to Mecca, settled in Tanta. He is one of the most popular saints in Egypt.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Tantia Topi

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​TANTIA TOPI (c. 1810–1859), rebel leader during the Indian Mutiny, was a Mahratta Brahman in the service of Nana Sahib. He instigated the massacre of Cawnpore, and commanded at the battle of Bithur, where he was defeated by General Havelock. With the aid of the Gwalior contingent he pressed General Windham hard at Cawnpore on the 27th and 28th of November 1857, but was defeated by Sir Colin Campbell on the 6th of December. Together with the Rani of Jhansi he was besieged by Sir Hugh Rose in the Jhansi fort, but escaped and collected a force of 20,000 men which Sir Hugh defeated without relaxing ​the siege. This was the decisive action of the campaign in Central India, and Tantia Topi was obliged to seek refuge in the jungles of Rajputana and Bundelkhand, where he was taken by Major Meade, condemned, and executed on the 18th of April 1859. He was the only rebel leader in the Mutiny who showed any conspicuous military talent.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Tansa

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​TANSA, a small river in Salsett island, in the Thana district of Bombay, which provides the city of Bombay with its water-supply. It is embanked by one of the largest masonry dams in the world, built in 1892. The embankment is nearly 2 m. long, 118 ft. high, and 110 ft. thick at the base.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Tanner, Thomas

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​TANNER, THOMAS (1674–1735), English antiquary and prelate, was born at Market Lavington in Wiltshire on the 25th of January 1674, and was educated at Queen's College, Oxford, taking holy orders in 1694. Next year he became chaplain and then fellow of All Souls College, and a few years later private chaplain to John Moore (1646-1714), bishop of Norwich and afterwards of Ely, who appointed him chancellor of the diocese of Norwich. In 1706 he became rector of Thorpe, near Norwich, in 1713 a canon of Ely, in 1724 a canon of Christ Church, Oxford, and in 1732 bishop of St Asaph. He died in Oxford, where he had passed most of his life, on the 14th of December 1735.
Tanner's chief work is his Notitia Monastica, a short account of all the religious houses in England and Wales. This was published at Oxford in 1695; it was reprinted with additions by the author's brother, John Tanner, in 1744; and was reprinted again with further additions by James Nasmith (1740-1808) in 1787. He also wrote Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica, a dictionary of all the authors who flourished in England, Scotland and Ireland before the opening of the 17th century, at which he laboured for forty years. This was not published until 1748, thirteen years after the author's death. The bishop collected materials for a history of Wiltshire and worked for some time on a new edition of the works of John Leland. His valuable collection of books and manuscripts is in the Bodleian library at Oxford.
Another writer of this name was Thomas Tanner (1630-1682), the author of The Entrance of Mazzarini (Oxford, 1657-58). Educated at St Paul's School, London, and at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, he became a barrister and later a -clergyman, being vicar of Colyton, Devon, and afterwards of Winchfield, Hants.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Taoism

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​TAOISM, a form of religion in China, the name of which is taken from the ancient treatise called Tâo Teh King, supposed to be the work of the sage Lao-tsze (q.v.). The later characteristics of Taoism as a form of worship represent a corruption of the earlier doctrines of Lao-tsze, and the infusion of Buddhist and other ideas.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Wyatt, James

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​WYATT, JAMES (1746–1813), English architect, was born at Burton Constable in Staffordshire on the 3rd of August 1746. He was the sixth son of Benjamin Wyatt, a farmer, timber merchant and builder. At the age of fourteen his taste for drawing attracted the attention of Lord Bagot, newly appointed ambassador to the pope, who took him with him to Rome, where he spent five or six years in studying architecture. He returned to England in 1766, and gained his first great success by the adaptation for dramatic purposes of the Pantheon in Oxford Street, London (1772), a work which was destroyed by fire twenty years later. In 1776 he was made surveyor of Westminster Abbey, and in 1778 and the following years executed many important commissions at Oxford.
During this earlier period Wyatt shared the prevailing contempt for Gothic architecture; thus the New Buildings at Magdalen College, Oxford, designed by him, formed part of a scheme, the plans for which are extant, which involved the demolition of the famous medieval quadrangle and cloisters. He built many country houses in the classic style, of which he proved himself a master. Gradually, however, he turned his attention to Gothic, the spirit of which, in spite of his diligent study of medieval models, he never understood. The result is still visible in such “Gothic” freaks as that at Ashridge Park, Hertfordshire, built for Lord Bridgewater to replace the ancient priory, and in the lamentable “restorations,” e.g. in Salisbury and Lichfield cathedrals, which earned for him even among contemporary archaeologists the title of “the Destroyer.” Of these Gothic experiments the most celebrated was Fonthill Abbey, built for Beckford (the eccentric author of Vathek), the great tower of which speedily collapsed, while much of the rest has been pulled down. None the less, Wyatt must be regarded as the pioneer of the “Gothic revival,” while his general influence may be gauged by the fact that nearly every county and large town in England possesses or possessed buildings by him.
On the death of Sir William Chambers in 1796, he was appointed surveyor-general to the Board of Works. In 1785 he became a member of the Royal Academy, and during a misunderstanding between Benjamin West and the Academy, in 1805, he filled the presidential office at the wish of King George III. He was killed by a fall from his carriage on the 4th of September 1813, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. His son, Benjamin Dean Wyatt (1775–1850?), who succeeded him as surveyor of Westminster Abbey, was also an architect of some distinction.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Wycombe

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​WYCOMBE (officially Chepping Wycombe, also Chipping or High Wycombe), a market town and municipal borough in the Wycombe parliamentary division of Buckinghamshire, England, 34 m. W. by N. of London by the Great Western railway. Pop. (1901) 15,542. The church of All Saints, originally of Norman foundation, was rebuilt in 1273 by the abbess and nuns of Godstow near Oxford, and was largely reconstructed early in the 15th century. For the grammar school, founded c. 1550 by the mayor and burgesses, a new building was erected in 1883. There are remains of a Norman hospital of St John the Baptist, consisting of arches of the chapel. The market-house and guildhall was erected in 1757. The family of Petty, with whom the town has long been connected, occupied the mansion called Wycombe Abbey. Lord Beaconsfield's mansion of Hughenden is 1½ m. N. of the town. Among a number of almshouses are some bearing the name of Queen Elizabeth, endowed in 1562 out of the revenues of a dissolved fraternity of St Mary. The principal industry is chair-making, and there are also flour and paper mills. The borough is under a mayor, 8 aldermen and 24 councillors. Area, 1734 acres. The burgesses of Wycombe have ancient rights of common pasturage on the neighbouring Rye Mead.
There are various British remains in the neighbourhood of Chipping Wycombe (Wicumbe, Wycumbee, Cheping Wycombe, Cheping Wichham), but the traces of a Roman settlement are more important. In Domesday Book the manor only is mentioned, but in 1199 the men of Wycombe paid tallage to the king. In 1225–1226 Alan Basset granted to the burgesses the whole town as a free borough. This grant was confirmed by Henry III., Edward I., Henry IV. and Mary. In 1558, however, a new charter of incorporation was granted in reward for the loyalty shown to Queen Mary. It was confirmed by Elizabeth in 1598 and by James I. in 1609 with certain additions. Cromwell granted another charter, but it was burnt after the Restoration, and the last charter was granted by Charles II. in 1663. The corporation was remodelled under the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835, and now consists of a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Wycombe returned two burgesses to parliament in 1300 and continued to send members until 1885. The franchise was enlarged after 1832, and in 1867 the borough was deprived of one of its members. A market was granted by Basset to the burgesses in 1226, and at the present day it is held every Friday, the day fixed by the charter of Queen Mary. Two statutory fairs were held under the charter of 1558, but in 1792 only one fair was held on the Monday before Michaelmas for hiring, but there is now a pleasure fair on the same day.
See John Parker, History and Antiquities of Wycombe (1878).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Wykes, Thomas

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​WYKES, THOMAS, English chronicler, was a canon regular of Oseney Abbey, near Oxford. He was the author of a chronicle extending from 1066 to 1289, which is printed among the monastic annals edited by H. R. Luard for the “Rolls” Series. He gives an account of the barons' war from a royalist standpoint, and is a severe critic of Montfort's policy. He is of some value for the reign of Edward I. His work is closely connected with the Oseney Annals, which are printed parallel with his work by Luard, but from 1258 to 1278 Wykes is an independent authority.
See H. R. Luard's Annales monastici, vol. iv. (1869); and earlier edition in Gale's Scriptores quinque, pp. 21–128.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Wye

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​WYE, a river of England, famous for its beautiful scenery. It rises in Montgomeryshire on the E. slope of Plinlimmon, close to the source of the Severn, the estuary of which it joins after a widely divergent course. Its length is 130 m.; its drainage area (which is included in the basin of the Severn), 1609 sq. m. Running at first S.E. it crosses the W. of Radnorshire, passing Rhayader, and receiving the Elan, in the basin of which are the Birmingham reservoirs. It then divides Radnorshire from Brecknockshire, receives the Ithon on the left, passes Builth, and presently turns N.E. to Hay, separating Radnorshire from Herefordshire, and thus forming a short stretch of the Welsh boundary. The river, which rose at an elevation exceeding 2000 ft., has now reached a level of 250 ft., 55 m. from its source. As it enters Herefordshire it bends E. by S. to reach the city of Hereford. It soon receives the Lugg, which, augmented by the Arrow and the Frome, joins from the N. The course of the Wye now becomes extremely sinuous; and the valley narrows nearly to Chepstow. For a short distance the Wye divides Herefordshire from Gloucestershire, and for the rest of its course Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire. It passes Monmouth, where it receives the Monnow on the right, and finally Chepstow, 2 m. above its junction with the Severn estuary. The river is navigable for small vessels for 15 m. up from the mouth on high tides, but there is not much traffic above Chepstow. The average spring rise of the tide is 38 ft. at Chepstow, while 50 ft. is sometimes exceeded; the average neap rise is 28½ ft. The scenery is finest between Rhayader and Hay in the upper part, and from Goodrich, below Ross, to Chepstow in the lower, the second being the portion which gives the Wye its fame.
The name of Wye belongs also to two smaller English rivers—(1) a right-bank tributary of the Derbyshire Derwent, rising in the uplands near Buxton, and having part of its early course through one of the caverns characteristic of the district; (2) a left-bank tributary of the Thames, watering the valley of the Chilterns in which lies Wycombe and joining the main river near Bourne End.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Wylie, Alexander

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​WYLIE, ALEXANDER (1815–1887), British missionary, was born in London on the 6th of April 1815, and went to school at Drumhthie, Kincardineshire, and at Chelsea. While apprenticed to a cabinet-maker he picked up a Chinese grammar written in Latin, and after mastering the latter tongue made such good progress with the former, that in 1846 James Legge engaged him to superintend the London Missionary Society's press at Shanghai. In this position he acquired a wide knowledge of Chinese religion and civilization, and especially of their mathematics, so that he was able to show that Sir George Horner's method (1819) of solving equations of all orders had been known to the Chinese mathematicians of the 14th century. He made several journeys into the interior, notably in 1858 with Lord Elgin up the Yang-tsze and in 1868 with Griffith John to the capital of Sze-ch'uen and the source of the Han. From 1863 he was an agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society. He settled in London in 1877, and died on the 10th of February 1887.
In Chinese he published books on arithmetic, geometry, algebra (De Morgan's), mechanics, astronomy (Herschel's), and The Marine Steam Engine (T. J. Main and T. Brown), as well as translations of the first two gospels. In English his chief works were Notes on Chinese Literature (Shanghai, 1867), and scattered articles collected under the title Chinese Researches by Alexander Wylie (Shanghai, 1897).
See H. Cordier. Life and Labours of A. Wylie (1887).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Wylie, Robert

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​WYLIE, ROBERT (1839–1877), American artist, was born in the Isle of Man in 1839. He was taken to the United States when a child, and studied in the schools of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, the directors of which sent him to France in 1863 to study. He won a medal of the second class at the Paris Salon of 1872. He went to Pont Avon, Brittany, in the early sixties, where he remained until his death on the 4th of February 1877. He painted Breton peasants and scenes in the history of Brittany; among his important works was a large canvas, "The Death of a Vendean Chief," now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ursinus, Zacharias

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​URSINUS, ZACHARIAS (1534-1583), German theologian, and one of the authors of the Heidelberg Catechism (q.v.), was born at Breslau on the 18th of July 1534, and became a disciple of Melanchthon at Wittenberg. He afterwards studied divinity at Geneva under Calvin, and Hebrew at Paris under Jean Mercier. In 1561 he was appointed professor in the Collegium Sapientiae at Heidelberg, where in 1563 at the instance of the elector-palatine, Frederick III., he drew up the Catechism in co-operation with Kaspar Olevian. The death of the elector in 1576 led to the removal of Ursinus, who from 1578 till his death in 1583 occupied a professorial chair at Neustadt-ar- der-Haardt.
His Works were published in 1587-89, and a more complete edition by his son and two of his pupils, Pareus and Reuterus, in 1612.