OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Annand, William

​ANNAND, WILLIAM (1633–1689), dean of Edinburgh, was born at Ayr in 1633. Four years afterwards his father, minister of Ayr, was seriously assaulted by the presbyterian women of Glasgow for having preached in favour of Laud's liturgy before the diocesan synod held in that city; and being deposed by the general assembly in 1638, the elder Annand migrated to England, where he ultimately obtained church preferment, first as vicar of Throwley, and afterwards as rector of Leaveland, in Kent. In 1651 his son was admitted a scholar of University College, Oxford, then under presbyterian rule, but while there he consorted with royalists and adherents of episcopacy. He proceeded B.A. in July 1655, and having, in 1656, received orders at the hands of an Irish bishop, he performed the Anglican service for ​some years at Weston-in-the-Green, Oxon. Some time after taking his M.A. degree, in July 1656, he became vicar of Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire, and published, in 1661, his ‘Fides Catholica, or the Doctrine of the Catholic Church,’ containing the substance of sermons preached before the Restoration. During the next year Annand returned at last to his native country, as chaplain to the Earl of Middleton, the royal commissioner in the parliament which restored episcopacy in Scotland. In 1663 Annand was appointed minister of what was then called the Tolbooth church in Edinburgh, from which he was transferred, a few years afterwards, to the charge of the Tron church in the same city. Mention is made of a sermon which he preached in Edinburgh in 1664, ‘on the composing all differences’ (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1664–5, p. 93), and in 1676 he was made dean of Edinburgh, the degree of D.D. being conferred on him by the university of St. Andrews in 1685. As dean of Edinburgh, Annand was on the scaffold at the right hand of the Earl of Argyle on his execution in 1686, and received from him ‘his paper.’ Having lived to see episcopacy restored in Scotland, he died just when it was being abolished, on 13 June 1689, the very day that Edinburgh Castle was surrendered to the convention of Scottish estates by the Duke of Gordon, who had held it for James II. On his deathbed Annand said that ‘he never thought to have outlived the church of Scotland, yet hoped others should live to see it restored.’ Besides 1. the ‘Fides Catholica,’ Dean Annand published: 2. ‘Panem Quotidianum’ (1661); 3. a sermon in defence of the liturgy, on Hosea xiv. 2 (1661); 4. ‘Pater Noster, or the Lord's Prayer explained’ (1670); 5. ‘Mysterium Pietatis, or the Mystery of Godliness’ (1672); 6. ‘Doxologia’ (1672); 7. ‘Dualitas, or a two-fold subject explained’ (1674), a politico-ecclesiastical treatise. ‘A Funerall Elegie upon the death of George Sonds, Esq., who was killed by his brother, Mr. Freeman Sonds. Ann. Domini 1655. By William Annand, junior,’ is also ascribed to the dean in the new catalogue of the British Museum library. His writings are flavoured with a lively quaintness, which sometimes reminds one of Thomas Fuller.
F. E.
# Creole Sketches/Quack! Quack!

QUACK! QUACK!
Quack! Quack! I am on the rack, You promised to end my pain; For a little wealth you'd restore my health You said; yet here I've lain For weary weeks and for mournful months, With pangs that are only known To the tortured victim of the Quack, When his faith to the winds has flown. ​Death's shadow falls on my barren walls, It sleeps on my chamber floor, Its marrowless bones mock at my groans, And point to the shining shore, While a jeering, mocking, ugly grin Spreads over its fleshless face At a double triumph—the Quack's success, And the Quack's supreme disgrace.
# Creole Sketches/The Alligators

THE ALLIGATORS
None discover aught of beauty in them; yet they were once worshiped as gods.
They were not of this world, in truth, but of another — the Antediluvian world of monsters and dragons and vast swamps broader than continents — where there were frogs larger than oxen, and alligators longer than the serpent slain by the army of Regulus.
The Ichthyosaurus, the Pterodactyl, ​the Megatherium, the Plesiosaurus — have passed away with the Antediluvian world.
This strange being, with its dull cuirass marked like the trunks of the primeval tree-ferns, still endures — although new strata have been formed since the birth of his species — although the monstrous vegetation of the swamps in which his ancestors crawled has been transformed to beds of coal!
Alligator, crocodile, or cayman — it matters little — they alike belong to the age before which history began.
And looking upon them, must not one dream of the sacred Ganges and the most ancient Nile — of South American rivers that flow by dead palaces buried in the vegetation of virgin forests — of dead civilizations — of Karnac and Thebes and Crocodilopolis — of catacombs and broken-limbed colossi — of empires and of races ​that have been swallowed up by Time? The world has changed, but the Giant Lizard changes not.
# Creole Sketches/Sons of the Sea

SONS OF THE SEA
They come to us from the uttermost parts of the earth, with the winds that swell the white sails of their vessels. There is a sparkle in their eyes like the sparkle of a distant sea; and a faraway look acquired by the habit of gazing over the infinite expanse of rolling water. They walk with a ​swaying motion learned from the gait of their own ships, and there is a tone in their voices like the tone of sea-winds roaring through the rigging.
They have passed over all seas, and heard a hundred tongues spoken.
And coming into a city; leaving the rocking deck for the motionless earth, they still wear a quiet dreamy look, as of men accustomed to the sight of Nature in her most infinite aspect, and not liable therefore to be impressed greatly by the sight of the handiwork of Man.
But at times human frailty asserts itself; — the stern discipline of the sea has made the sailors long for some wild frolic on land; — strong drink and women hold out siren-temptations.
What wonder is it? Was not even Ulysses, that wisest of sailors, once obliged to bind himself to the mast lest the song of an enchantress might lure him to destruction? ​The old sea-dogs are usually wise, like Ulysses; but the young ones will have their day.
Then again we have swarthy sailors from sunny West Indian ports, who wander about seeking for those who speak their own tongue, in order to sell odorous packages of cigars concealed in their pockets — cigars in which all the soporific fragrance of the tropics seems concentrated.
And having performed their little work of contrabandistas, they depart to enjoy a little fun with the profits thereof.
So do they sail from port to port; — more wearied by their stay on shore than by mighty wrestling with the Giant of Storms; for the whisky is not good, and there are other things which are worse.
But the sea who loves her children braces their strength up once more with the elixir of her bright winds; and drives ​away the fumes of a night of orgy, as evil dreams are scattered by daylight.
And as the sailors call east and west and north and south; buffeted by wild winds; struggling with raging waves; making brief visits to strange ports; collecting dreamy memories of foreign lands; — until the time comes for them to sail into that weird sea which is waveless and shoreless and shadowless and forever silent, and from which no mariner ever returns.
# Creole Sketches/Mexican Coins

MEXICAN COINS
"Sit down, O sunburnt wanderer, sit down! — Well, well! And hence comest thou?"
"I come," he observed with grim solemnity, "from Mexico."
And he laid upon the table a striped blanket, a worn valise, and a heavy leathern bag whose contents clattered like castanets as it struck the mahogany — Mexican gold.
"Why, we thought you were dead — all these years, and not a word!"
"Dead!" he echoed; "yes, I was dead, dead to the century for which I was born, and to modern civilization — dead from 1870 to 1879. I feel like one of the Seven Sleepers awaking to find himself moving in a new age; I have been living in the ​seventeenth century, and suddenly I find myself in the nineteenth."
"In Mexico City?" we suggested.
"No: in Mexico City one hears at least some echoes from the outer world — no, in Matamoras and Sonora. Mexico City belongs in some respects to the present century; the life of the provinces does not. Time seems to have stood still there for two or three hundred years. The printing is certainly of the sixteenth century; many manufactures are even mediæval; and agriculture is antediluvian. I knew an American who was idiotic enough to attempt the introduction of steel ploughs — he would not have dared to speak of modern machinery."
"And he —"
"Became instantly an object of suspicion and detestation. Had they not their good wooden ploughs, such as were used in the time of Montezuma, and ​before him? — And why should a cursed Gringo come to them with ploughs of steel?"
"And the money?"
He took a yellow coin from the wallet and held it up. On one side the Mexican eagle strangled its serpent victim; upon the other a naked arm upheld the Cap of Liberty before the open pages of a book, whereon appeared the syllable "Ley."
"They say the coins of a country indicate to some extent its social condition," he said, "See how rude and coarse the milling is compared with that of the American coin. There is a suggestion of the barbaric in it. But I like the eagle better. There is a ferocious grace in its poise which makes the idealized American bird seem stiff and clumsy by comparison — I admire that savage eagle, tearing the serpent to shreds; — but it is a symbolic lie; there is nothing of the eagle in the Mexican and ​much of the serpent. The whole design is a lie. There is the Cap of Liberty; and yet there is no true liberty of thought and speech in Mexico; — there is the word 'law'; and they have no law; they are sans foi ni loi ni roi. The coin is a braggart like the Mexican. Truly free nations do not boast too much of law and liberty."
"And the Exposition?"
"Ah, bah! — the Exposition! What have they to exhibit? Knives and revolvers and wooden ploughs?"
"Nothing else?"
"Ah, yes! — one Thing! — the one Thing in which Mexico defies competition. I believe I have brought a few specimens in my serape — magnificent specimens — which defy rivalry."
But when he ceased to speak, no answer fell upon his ear, and, turning himself thrice about, he found himself alone.
# Creole Sketches/Morning Calls — Very Early

MORNING CALLS — VERY EARLY
Pitis sans papa, pitis sans maman! Qui ça ou z'aut' fé pou' gagnin l'arzan! N'a couri l'aut'bord, pou' cerce pat sat, N'a tournein bayou pou'pece patassa, Et v'la comme ça n'a té pou' l'arzan.
Pitis sans papa, pitis sans maman, Qui ça ou z'aut' fé pou' gagnin l'arzan! N'a couri dans bois fouille latanie, ​N'a ven so racin pou' fourbe planche, Et v'la comme ça n'a te fé pou' l'arzan.
Pitis sans papa, pitis sans maman, Qui ça vous z'aut' fé pou' gagnin l'arzan! Pou' fé di té n'a fouille sassafras, Pou' fé li l'encr' n'a porte grain salgras (chou-gras), Et v'la comme ça ne te fé pou' l'arzan.
Pitis sans papa, pitis sans maman, Qui ça ou z'aut' fé pou' gagnin l'arzan! N'a couri dans bois ramasse caucos, Avé non la caze n'a trapé zozos, Et v'la comme ça n'a te fé pou' l'arzan.
Pitis sans papa, pitis sans maman, Qui ça ou z'aut' fé pou' gagnin l'arzan! N'a couri a soir chez Mamzell Maroto, Dans la rie Ste Anne, ça n'a té sous leto, Et v'la comme ça n'a te fé pou' l'arzan.
​The above ancient Creole ditty contains some curious information about the occupations which some of our old-fashioned colored Creoles alone follow, and of which they alone know the secrets. We are indebted therefor to a gentleman of this city who has made a rich collection of these songs.
# Creole Sketches/Louisiana People Not Gay

LOUISIANA PEOPLE NOT GAY
"It seems to me," said the Parisian, "that in spite of an exquisite climate, the people of Louisiana are one of the most solemn-faced I ever saw. There is no real gayety under this glorious sky. People seldom laugh here; when they do, the laugh is apt to be cynical. Workmen do not sing while they work; boys seldom whistle when they go along the street. The farther south I go, the more I find this to be the case. It is true, the negroes sing; but their melodies are the saddest and weirdest I ever heard. Why, in Paris the workshops are merry as birds' nests — it is one ceaseless caroling from morning till night; and in European countries the singing of laborers and farmers is proverbial; song appears to be a part of their existence. I ​fancy that there must be something sad in the very intensity of life near the tropics."
"In some respects I agree with you," said the Englishman; "but I think the difference is due to the nature of the country. People do not sing in low flat countries, nor do they give vent to much reckless merriment. They sing in the mountains, and laugh among the hills. The hilly countries are the musical countries. Man seems happier the nearer he lives to the stars. It is not in low plains watered by great rivers like the Nile, the Ganges, or the Mississippi, that we need look for merriment; but among the mountain districts of Europe and America."
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Alleine, William

​ALLEINE, WILLIAM (1614–1677), younger brother of Richard Alleine [see Alleine, Richard], was born at Dichet (or Ditcheat), Somerset, in 1613–14. As with all this remarkable family, his first education was under his own father. He proceeded to the university of Oxford, being, like Richard, entered at St. Alban's Hall. He took his degrees of B.A. and M.A. On leaving the university he became private chaplain in ‘a noble house’ (Lord Digby?) in London. At the beginning of the great civil war he is found residing at Ilchester, and ‘consulted by great officers.’ For his letters to them he was ‘proclaimed by the cavaliers a traitor in three market towns.’ He held them, in turn, for traitors against the kingdom. He was repeatedly plundered and maltreated. Hairbreadth escapes for his life were long remembered. Having removed to Bristol, he was there brutally ill used. In the ‘Commission’ of 1650 he is entered ‘William Allen [sic], a learned, orthodox, able divine, the present incumbent.’ In 1653 he is similarly designated. When the Act of Uniformity was passed, the vicar of Blandford never hesitated. His parishioners held him in the utmost veneration, and he ‘dearly loved’ them. But he ‘freely quitted his living,’ and ‘ministered to a few people in private.’ A few years after the ejection he took up his residence again in ​Bristol, where he carried on his ministry with ever-increasing acceptance. From thence he went to Yeovil, in his native county of Somerset. He there died in October 1677, aged 63. His ‘character’ by Calamy and Palmer is thus modestly summarised: ‘He was a man of good learning and piety, particularly eminent for modesty and meekness, A true, patient labourer in the Gospel, and a most happy comforter of many dejected souls and wounded spirits by a wise application of Gospel cordials. When he set himself to an immediate preparation for death, he had some regret (as it is said Archbishop Usher had) that he had not better improved his time and talents.’ His writings reflect and confirm this estimate. He published two books on the ‘Millennium,’ and after his death there were printed ‘Six Discourses on the Unsearchable Riches of Christ,’ &c., now extremely rare.
[Calamy and Palmer's Nonconformists' Memorial, ii. 119; Hutchins, s. ‘Blandford;’ Researches at Blandford and Yeovil and Ditcheat.]
A. B. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Allen, Alexander

​ALLEN, ALEXANDER (1814–1842), son of John Allen, author of ‘Modern Judaism,’ was born at Hackney, 23 Sept. 1814, and died 6 Nov. 1842. He was educated at his father’s school and the university of London, where he distinguished himself by his classical proficiency. On his father's death he carried on the school, which was called the Madras House Grammar School, at Hackney. He obtained, in 1840, the degree of doctor of philosophy from the university of Leipzig. His kind disposition and natural sagacity made him an excellent instructor. In the dedication of his ‘Analysis of Latin Verbs’ to Thomas Hewitt Key, he confesses that many of his philological principles were derived from that gentleman. He also acknowledges, in his ‘Essay on Teaching Greek,’ his obligations to his friend Mr. W. Wittich, teacher of German in University College, London. In the last years of his life he paid considerable attention to Anglo-Saxon, Swedish, Danish, Icelandic, and German, with a view to a comprehensive work on the history and structure of the English language. He left many notes upon this subject, but not in a state fit for publication.
His chief works, of which, considering the early age at which he died, the number is extraordinary, are an ‘Etymological Analysis of Latin Verbs,’ Lond. 1836, 8vo; ‘Constructive Greek Exercises, for teaching Greek from the beginning by Writing,’ 1839; ‘Eclogæ Ciceronianæ,’ 1839; ‘A New Greek Delectus, translated from the German of Dr. Kühner,’ 1839; ‘A New Latin Delectus,’ 1840; ‘A New English Grammar,’ 1841; an Essay on teaching Greek, published in vol. i. of the ‘Papers of the Central Society of Education;’ an Essay on writing Latin and Greek Exercises, in No. 18 of ‘Journal of Education,’ and one on Parsing, in No. 20. These essays show Dr. Allen's skill as a teacher. He also contributed articles to the ‘Penny Cyclopædia’ and Smith's ‘Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities’ and ‘Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.’
[Brit. Mus. Catal.; Athenæum for 1842, p. 972; Papers of the Central Society of Education, i. 257.]
J. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Allan, Robert

​ALLAN, ROBERT (1774–1841), Scotch poet, was born on 4 Nov. 1774, at Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire, where his father was a flax-dresser, and where he himself became a muslin-weaver. Early in life he began to write songs, chiefly in the Scottish dialect, often composing them at the loom, and he ​received with other encouragement the praise of Tannahill, like himself a Renfrewshire weaver and song-writer. R. A. Smith set to music many of his Scotch songs, published in the ‘Scottish Minstrel’ (1820), and a number of them appeared in the ‘Harp of Renfrewshire.’ A Volume of Allan's poems was printed by subscription in 1836, without success. He had reared a large family, and was poor, old, and discontented, when, in opposition to the advice of his friends, he sailed for the United States, where his youngest son was a portrait-painter of promise. He died at New York on 1 June 1841, six days after landing. Allan's Scotch lyrics are melodious and occasionally pathetic, but seldom of more than average merit. The best of them is the ‘Covenanter's Lament.’
F. E.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Allan, Thomas

​ALLAN, THOMAS (1777–1833), mineralogist, was born at Edinburgh on 17 July 1777, where his father was a banker, and was educated at the High School. He entered his father's bank, but took to scientific pursuits from his childhood. At the peace of Amiens he visited Paris, made scientific acquaintances, and began a mineralogical collection in Dauphiné. In 1808 he published an ‘Alphabetical List of Minerals in English, French, and German,’ and he is the reputed author of a ‘Sketch of Mr. [afterwards Sir Humphry] Davy's Lectures in Geology, from Notes taken by a Private Gentleman,’ which appeared about 1811. He afterwards travelled in Ireland and England; in 1812 he visited the Faroe Islands, and communicated to the Royal Society of Edinburgh an account of their mineralogy. In 1811 Giesecke shipped for Denmark a collection of minerals, formed during six years' labour in Greenland. The ship was captured by a French privateer, retaken by an English frigate, and the boxes sold at Leith for 40l. to Allan. Amongst them was 5,000l. worth of cryolite, and a new mineral called, after the purchaser, Allanite. In 1813 Giesecke returned with a fresh collection, made in Greenland, and was hospitably received by the proprietor of his first collection, who afterwards obtained for him a professorship of mineralogy at Dublin. Allan continued to increase his collection, with the assistance of W. Haidinger, a German geologist, until it became the finest in Scotland. Allan was an admirer of Hutton, and published papers upon his theories in the Edinburgh Transactions. Besides the volumes noticed above, Allan wrote the article ‘Diamond’ for the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica.’ He was a fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was a public-spirited citizen, filled many municipal offices, and was a liberal contributor to Edinburgh charities. He married in 1806 Miss Smith, sister of Elizabeth Smith of Tent Lodge, Coniston. He died of apoplexy on 12 Sept, 1833.
[S.D.U.K. Dictionary; Scotsman, 18 Sept. 1833; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Proceedings of Edinburgh Royal Society, xii. 567.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Allde, Edward

​ALLDE, ALDEE, or ALDEY, EDWARD (fl. 1583–1634), printer, son of the John Allde mentioned below, was made free of the Company of Stationers by patrimony 18 Feb, 1583–4, and resided for some time with his father near St. Mildred's Church, Poultry. In 1560 he was fined 5s. for printing a ballad without authority. He left the Poultry in 1590 for the sign of the Gilded Cup, without Cripplegate, and appears to have been more of a printer than his father, whose business was chiefly selling books. He was chosen to go to ‘my Lord Maiours dynner’ in 1611 (Arber, Transcript, iii. 695). Entries in the registers occur under his name down to 1623. On 29 June 1624 ‘Master Aldee’ acquired the stock of ‘Mistris White,’ consisting of twenty-one works, among which may be mentioned ‘Arden of Feversham’ (1592), Baxter's ‘Sir Philip Sydney's Ourania’ (1606), Greene's ‘Orpharion,’ &c. (ib. iv. 120). There is one more entry in respect to Master Aldee on 5 May 1627. After his death, which is supposed to have taken place about 1634, his widow (who could not be admitted to the company) carried on the business in the name of a son by a former husband (ib. iii. 701–2),.
H. R. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Allde, John

​ALLDE, ALDAYE, ALDE, or ALDYE, JOHN (fl. 1555–1592), stationer and printer, was the first person on the registers to take up the freedom of the Stationers' Company, when in January 1555 he paid the modest sum of 6s. 8d. for the customary breakfast to the brotherhood. His name appears in the original charter of the company in 1557. From 1560 to 1567 he received many licenses for ballads and almanacs, but for little else. He then began to print more books, chiefly of a popular nature, but continued his incessant production of ballads, many of which are to be seen in Huth's ‘Ancient Ballads and Broadsides’ (1867). Herbert seems to have possessed or examined but few books of this press; the list of examples is much enlarged by Dibdin. Allde lived ‘at the long shop adjoining to St. Mildred's Church in the Pultrie,’ and, judging from the considerable number of apprentices bound over to him from time to time, must have carried on a flourishing bookselling trade. After his death his widow Margaret continued the business, and took an apprentice on 23 April 1593, when she was described as ‘widowe, late wife.’ On 25 June 1594 and 3 March 1600 she took two more apprentices, and then her name disappears from the registers.
H. R. T.