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

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​SEMOIS (also spelt Semoy and Semoys), a river of less than 120 m. in length rising near Arlon in Belgium, and flowing into the Meuse near Monthermé in France. It is Belgian for about 100 m. and French for the remainder, entering France a short distance west of the village of Bohan. It passes through the most picturesque scenery in Belgium and is remarkable for its sinuous course, its length of 120 m. representing only 47 in a straight line. Bouillon is the only town on its banks, and since it is not navigable it has escaped the contamination of manufacturing life; its valley remains an ideal specimen of sylvan scenery and medieval tranquillity.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Semmering Pass

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​SEMMERING PASS, the lowest of all the great passes across the Alps. The hospice, near the summit, was founded about 1160, but the pass was certainly used used at a much earlier date. Between 1848 and 1854 a railway line (the first in any sense to cross the Alps) was constructed, but passes 282 ft. below the summit of the pass (3225 ft.) by a tunnel about 1 m. long. The line runs from Wiener Neustadt (301/2 m. from Vienna) past Bruck to Graz (139 m. from Vienna), the capital of Styria, whence it is 227 m. by rail to Trieste.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sempach

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​SEMPACH, a small town in the Swiss canton of Lucerne, built above the eastern shore of the lake of the same name, and about 1½ m. by road north of the Sempach railway station (9 m. N.W. of Lucerne) on the main line between Lucerne and Olten. In 1900 it had 2592 inhabitants, German-speaking and Romanists. It has retained some traces of its medieval appearance, especially the main gateway, beneath a watch tower, and reached by a bridge over the old moat. About half an hour distant to the north-east, on the hillside, is the site of the famous battle of Sempach (9th July 1386), in which the Swiss defeated the Austrians, whose leader, Duke Leopold, lost his life. The legendary deed of Arnold of Winkelried (q.v.) is associated with this victory. The spot is now marked by an ancient and picturesque Battle Chapel (restored in 1886) and by a modern monument to Winkelried. Some miles north of Sempach is the quaint village of Münster or Beromünster (973 inhabitants in 1900), with a collegiate church founded in the 10th century and dating, in parts, from the 11th and 12th centuries (fine 17th-century choir stalls and altar frontals), the chapter of secular canons now consisting of invalided priests of the canton of Lucerne: it was in Beromünster that the first dated book was printed (1470) in Switzerland, by care of the canons, while thence came Gering who introduced printing into France.
See Th. von Liebenau, Die Schlacht bei Sempach (Lucerne, 1886).  (W. A. B. C.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Semo Sancus

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​SEMO SANCUS, an Italian divinity worshipped by the Sabines, Umbrians and Romans, also called Dius Fidius and (perhaps wrongly) identified with the Italian Hercules. His dual nature, as a god of light and good faith, is indicated by the names Dius Fidius. Sancus is obviously from sancire, meaning one who hallows the acts in which he takes part. Semo has been variously explained as: (1) one who presides over seed-time and harvest (serere, cf. the female Semonia); (2) a being apart from and superior to man (se-homo); (3) a demigod (semis). The priests called bidentales, whose existence is attested by inscriptions, were specially connected with his worship, since lightning which fell from heaven during the day was looked upon as sent by Dius Fidius, and a special class of birds (sanquales) was under his protection. As the god of oaths, he protected the sanctity of the marriage tie, the rights of hospitality, international treaties and alliances. In his sanctuary on the Quirinal, the foundation ​of which was celebrated on the 5th of June, there were shown the distaff and spindle of Tanaquil, the wife of Tarquinius Priscus, and in the eyes of Roman matrons the embodiment of all wifely virtues. Dionysius of Halicarnassus (iv. 58) states that the treaty concluded between Tarquinius Superbus and the town of Gabii was deposited in the same temple of Sancus, whose name he translates by Ζεύς πίστοις. He could only be invoked under the open sky, as partaking of the nature of a god of light and day; hence a round opening was made in the roof of his temple through which prayers might ascend to heaven. If he was invoked in a private house, those who called upon his name stood beneath the opening in the roof called compluvium. The bronze orbs mentioned by Livy (viii. 20. 8) as having been set up in his temple are also supposed to have some connexion with this, although they may be merely symbols of the eternal power of Rome. There was a second chapel of Semo Sancus on the island in the Tiber with an altar, the inscription on which led Christian writers (Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Eusebius) to confuse him with Simon Magus, and to infer that the latter was worshipped at Rome as a god. The cult of Semo Sancus never possessed very great importance at Rome; authorities differ as to whether it was of Sabine origin or not. The plural Semones was used of a class of supernatural beings, a kind of tutelary deities of the state.
See Preller, Römische Mythologie; article “ Dius Fidius," by Wissowa, in Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie, and his Religion und Kultus der Römer (1902), who rejects the identity of Semo Sancus Dius Fidius with Hercules; W. W. Fowler, The Roman Festivals (1899); E. Jannettaz, Étude sur Semo Sanctus Didius (Paris, 1885), according to whom he was a Sabine fire god.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Semur-en-Auxois

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​SEMUR-EN-AUXOIS, a town of eastern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Côte-d'Or, 45 m. W.N.W. of Dijon on the Paris-Lyon railway. Pop. (1906) 3278. Semur occupies one of the finest sites in France, on the extremity of a plateau dominating the river Armançon, which surrounds the town on three sides. The river forms this extremity into a peninsula which is occupied by the old town, once surrounded by ramparts, the remains of which are still to be seen. An isthmus, on which stands the castle, unites the older to the newer quarter, in which are situated an old gateway of the 15th century and the church of Notre-Dame. This building, which belongs mainly to the 13th century, is one of the purest examples of Gothic architecture in Burgundy, though the narrowness of the nave, to some degree, spoils its proportions. The portal with its three arched openings projects from the façade, which is flanked by two square towers surmounted by balustrades. Of the artistic features of the interior one of the most noteworthy is the sculptured keystone of the vaulting of the apse, representing the crowning of the Virgin. The castle (13th and 14th centuries) consists of a rectangular keep flanked by four towers. Portions of it are still in use. Among the numerous old houses in the town is one belonging to the time of Louis XIV. of which the last proprietor was Florent Claude du Châtelet, husband of the friend of Voltaire. It is now used as a hospital. Semur possesses a sub-prefecture, a tribunal of first instance and a communal college. It is an important market centre for the Auxois and Morvan, and has trade in horses, grain, sheep, fruit and vegetables. Cement, leather, oil, and chemical manures are among its industrial products.
Semur (Sinemurum) was a Gallic fortress in the dark ages and in feudal times a castle of the dukes of Burgundy. In the 11th century it became capital of Auxois. Its communal charter dates from 1276. The incorporation of Burgundy with France was resisted by the town, which was taken and pillaged by the royal troops in 1478. During the wars of religion in the 16th century it served as refuge for the Leaguers, and though it submitted to Henry IV. at his accession its fortifications were destroyed in 1602.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sempill

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​SEMPILL, the name of a Scottish family long seated in Renfrewshire. An early member, Sir Thomas Sempill (d. 1488), was killed whilst fighting for James III. at the battle of Sauchieburn, and his son John (d. 1513), who was made a lord of parliament about 1489, fell at Flodden. John's grandson, Robert, 3rd Lord Sempill (c. 1505-1 572), assisted the Scottish regent, Mary of Lorraine, in her struggle with the lords of the congregation, and was afterwards one of the partisans of Mary, queen of Scots; about 1566, however, he deserted the queen, against whom he fought at Carberry Hill and at Langside. His grandson, Robert (d. 1611), became the 4th Lord Sempill, and another grandson was Sir James Sempill of Beltrees (q.v.). The title of Lord Sempill descended to Francis, the 8th lord (d. 1684), who was succeeded by his sister Anne (d. 1695), the wife of Francis Abercromby (d. 1703), who was created a peer for life as Lord, Glassford. Their sons, Francis, John and Hugh, who took the surname of Sempill, succeeded in turn to the title. Hugh, 12th Lord Sempill (d. 1746), fought in Spain and in Flanders, and held a command in the English army at Culloden; in 1747 he was made colonel of the Black Watch. His title descended to Selkirk Sempill, the 15th lord (1788-183 5), who was succeeded by his sister, Maria ]anet (1 '}'QO'-1884). She was succeeded by a cousin, William Forbes (18 36-190 5), a descendant of the 13th lord, who took the name of F orbes-Sempill; in 1905 his son, John Forbes-Sempill (b. 1863), became the 18th lord. A certain Robert Sempill, who served James Edward, the Old Pretender, in France, and is described as a captain in Dillon's famous Irish regiment, was created Lord Sempill by this prince after 1723. This circumstance has given rise to a certain amount of confusion between the different holders of the title.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Tennent, Sir James Emerson

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​TENNENT, SIR JAMES EMERSON, Bart. (1804–1869), English politician and traveller, the third son of William Emerson, a merchant of Belfast, was born there on the 7th of April 1804. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, of which he afterwards became LL.D. He took up the cause of Greek independence, and travelled in Greece, publishing a Picture of Greece (1826), Letters from the Aegean (1829), and a History of Modern Greece (1830); and he was called to the English bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 1831. In this year he married the daughter and co-heiress (with her cousin, Robert James Tennent, M.P. for Belfast, 1848–52) of William Tennent, a wealthy merchant at Belfast, who died of cholera in 1832, and he adopted by royal licence the name of his wife in addition to his own. He entered parliament in 1832 as member for Belfast. In 1841 he became secretary to the India Board, and in 1845 he was knighted and appointed colonial secretary of Ceylon, where he remained till 1850. The result of his residence there appeared in Christianity in Ceylon (1850) and Ceylon, Physical, Historical and Topographical (2 vols., 1859). On his return, he became member for Lisburn, and under Lord Derby was secretary to the Poor Law Board in 1852. From 1852 till 1867 he was permanent secretary to the Board of Trade, and on his ​retirement he received a baronetcy from Lord Palmerston. In his early years his political views had a Radical tinge, and, although he subsequently joined the Tories, his Conservatism was of a mild type. He withdrew from the Whigs along with Lord Stanley and Sir James Graham, and afterwards adhered to Peel. He died in London on the 6th of March 1869. His family consisted of two daughters and a son, Sir William Emerson Tennent, 2nd baronet (1835–1876), who was an official in the Board of Trade, and at whose death the baronetcy became extinct.
Besides the books above mentioned, Emerson Tennent Wrote Belgium in 1840 (1841), and Wine; its Duties and Taxation (1855), and was a contributor to magazines and a frequent correspondent of Notes and Queries.  (H. Ch.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Tennant, William

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​TENNANT, WILLIAM (1784–1848), Scottish scholar and poet, was born on the 15th of May 1784 at Anstruther Easter, Fifeshire. He was lame from childhood. His father sent him to the university of St Andrews, where he remained for two years, and on his return he became clerk to one of his brothers, a corn factor. In his leisure time he mastered Hebrew as well as German and Italian. His study of Italian verse bore fruit in the mock-heroic poem of Anster Fair (1812), which gave an amusing account of the marriage of “Maggie Lauder,” the heroine of the popular Scottish ballad. It was written in the ottava rima adopted a few years later by “the ingenious brothers Whistlecraft” (John Hookham Frere), and turned to such brilliant account by Byron in Don Juan. The poem, unhackneyed in form, full of fantastic classical allusions applied to the simple story, and brimming over with humour, had an immediate success. Tennant’s brother, meanwhile, had failed in business, and the poet became in 1812 schoolmaster of the parish of Dunino, near St Andrews. From this he was promoted (1816) to the school of Lasswade, near Edinburgh; from that (1819) to a mastership in Dollar academy; from that (1834), hy Lord Jeffrey, to the professorship of oriental languages in St Andrews. The Thane of Fife (1822), shows the same humorous imagination as Anster Fair, but the subject was more remote from general interest, and the poem fell flat. He also wrote a poem in the Scottish dialect, Papistry Stormed (1827); two historical dramas, Cardinal Beaton (1823) and John Baliol (1825); and a series of Hebrew Dramas (1845), founded on incidents in Bible history. He died at Devon Grove, on the 14th of February 1848.
A Memoir of Tennant by M. F. Connolly was published in 1861.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Tennemann, Wilhelm Gottlieb

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​TENNEMANN, WILHELM GOTTLIEB (1761–1819), German historian of philosophy, was born at Erfurt. Educated at his native town, he became lecturer on the history of philosophy at Jena in 1788. Ten years later he became professor at the same university, where he remained till 1804. His great work is an eleven-volume history of philosophy, which he began at Jena and finished at Marburg, where he was professor of philosophy from 1804 till his death. He was one of the numerous German philosophers who accepted the Kantian theory as a revelation.
In 1812 he published a shorter history of philosophy, which was translated into English in 1852 under the title Manual of the History of Philosophy.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Tenor

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​TENOR (through Fr. and It. from Lat. tenor, holding on, course, sense of a law, tone), a general course or direction, the drift or general meaning of a statement or discourse, hence, in law, the true purport and effect of a deed or instrument. The most general use of the word is, in music, for the highest kind of the natural adult male voice. This use descends from the Medieval Latin tenor, which was applied first to the chief melody, the cantus firmus, and then to the male voice to which the singing of this was assigned.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Tenpin, Pierre Guérin de

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​TENPIN, PIERRE GUERIN DE (1679-1758), French ecclesiastic, archbishop of Embrun and Lyons, and cardinal, was born at Grenoble on the 22nd of August 1679. H e owed his quick advance to power to his sister Claudine (see above). He was a strong opponent of the Jansenists, and in 1742 was appointed a minister of state to Louis XV., though he held no portfolio. He died on the 2nd of March 1758.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rozas, Juan Martinez de

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​ROZAS, JUAN MARTINEZ DE (1759–1813), the earliest leader in the Chilean struggle for independence, was born at Mendoza in 1759. In early life he was a professor of law, and of theology and philosophy at Santiago. He held the post of acting governor of Concepcion at one time, and was also colonel in a militia regiment. In 1808 he became secretary to the last Spanish governor, Francisco Antonio Carrasco, and used his position to prepare the nationalist movement that began in ISOQ. After resigning his position as secretary, Rozas was mainly responsible for the resignation of the Spanish governor, and the formation of a national ]unta on the 18th of September ISIC, of which he was the real leader. Under his influence many reforms were initiated, freedom of trade was established, an army was organized and a national congress was called together in July 1811. But at the end of that year divisions began to arise between Rozas' followers from Concepcién and the men of Santiago; and a feud broke out between Rozas and José Miguel Carrera (q.v.) who had secured control of Santiago. In 1812 Carrera succeeded in securing the banishment of his rival, who retired to Mendoza, where he died on the 3rd of March 1813.
See P. B. Figueroa, Diccionario biográfico de Chile, 1550–1887 (Santiago, 1888), and J. B. Suarez, Rasgos biográficos de hombres notables de Chile (Valparaiso, 1886); both giving biographical sketches of prominent characters in Chilean history.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ruabon

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​RUABON (Rhiwabon), a town of Denbighshire, N. Wales, in the E. parliamentary division, near the Shropshire border, 5 m. S.W. of Wrexham, on the Great Western railway. Pop. (1901) 3248. It is situated on a small tributary of the Dee. The old Gothic church is thought by some to have been founded by Mabon, a brother of Llewelyn (13th c.), and has monuments to the Wynn family, by Nollekens and Rhysbrac, and to Dr D. Powel (d. 1598), translator into English of Caradoc’s (of Llancarfan) History of Wales. In the neighbourhood are collieries, engineering works, an iron foundry and chemical works, besides an extensive industry in glazed and other bricks. Near Ruabon is Caerdden (Caerddin), an ancient camp (village) surrounded by circular entrenchments, and Wynnstay, with an avenue of fine trees. Anciently the residence of Madoc ab Gruffyd Maelor (founder of Valle Crucis Abbey), it was called Wattstay, from Watt’s Dyke, an old rampart on the estate. It was named Wynnstay on its coming into possession of the Wynns (17th c.). Offa’s Dyke, near here, is 10 ft. high, and broad enough for two carriages abreast. Not far is Chirk Castle (supposed to have been built in 1013), besieged by Cromwell’s artillery: near it, in the Ceiriog valley, the defeat of Henry II. by Owen Gwynedd took place in 1165.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rubellite

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​RUBELLITE, a red variety of tourmaline (q.v.) used as a gem-stone. It generally occurs crystallized on the walls of cavities in coarse granitic rocks, where it is often associated with a pink lithia-mica (lepidolite). The most valued kinds are deep red; the colour being probably due to the presence of manganese. Some of the finest rubellite is found in Siberia, whence it is sometimes called siberite, or passes under the misleading name of “Siberian ruby.” The mills at Ekaterinburg, where it is cut and polished, draw most of their supplies from the Ural Mountains—chiefly from Mursinka, Sarapulskaya and Shaitanka, near Ekaterinburg—but specimens are occasionally found at Nerchinsk in Transbaikalia. Burma is famous for rubellite, but little was known as to the conditions of its occurrence there until after the British annexation, when the old workings were visited and described by C. Barrington Brown and by F. Noetling. The pits which yield rubellite are dug in alluvial deposits in the Möng-long valley, some miles to the S.E. of Mogok, the centre of the ruby country. It was here that the Chinese obtained the rubellite so much valued in China for buttons of the caps of mandarins of certain rank. In the British Museum there is a remarkable specimen of crystallized rubellite of large size and fine form, but of poor colour, which was presented by the king of Ava to Colonel Michael Symes on the occasion of his mission in 1795. Very fine rubellite is found in the United States, notably at Mount Mica, near Paris, Oxford Co., Maine, where the crystals are often red at one end and green at the other. Mount Rubellite, near Hebron, and Mount Apatite at Auburn, are other localities in the same state from which fine specimens are obtained. Chesterfield and Goshen, Mass., also yield red tourmaline, frequently associated with green in the same crystal. Pink tourmaline also occurs, with lepidolite and kunzite, in San Diego Co., California. In Europe rubellite occurs sparingly at a few localities, as at San Piero in Elba and at Penig in Saxony; but the mineral is rarely if ever fit for the lapidary. (F. W. R.*)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rubicon

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​RUBICON, a small stream of ancient Italy, which flowed into the Adriatic between Ariminum and Caesena, and formed the boundary between Italy and the province of Cisalpine Gaul. Hence. Caesar's crossing of it in 49 B.C. was tantamount to a declaration of war against Rome as represented by Pompey and the Senate. The historic importance of this event gave rise to the phrase "crossing the Rubicon" for a step which definitely commits a person to a given course of action. There has been much) controversy as to the identification of the stream; it appears that, its upper course is represented by that of the Pisciatello (called Rubigone in the 11th or 12th century and now Rugone or Urgone), and its lower portion by the Fiumicino, which the Urgone once joined. The point was marked by a station on the Via Aemilia below their confluence, 12 m. N.W. of Ariminum, bearing the name ad Confluentes; and here is still preserved a three-arched bridge, larger than is necessary for the water carried by the present Fiumicino.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rubble

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​RUBBLE, broken stone, of irregular size and shape. This word is closely connected in derivation with “rubbish,” which was formerly also applied to what we now call “rubble.” The earlier Middle English form was robeux or robows. It would appear that the original is an O. Fr. robel. Roba (older form robba) is found in Italian in the sense of refuse, trash. Robba is explained by Florio as a gown, or mantle, robe, wealth, goods, trash. The original sense was “spoil.” Thus, “robe,” “rob,” “rubbish” and “rubble” are all cognate.
“Rubble-work” is a name applied to several species of masonry (q.v.). One kind, where the stones are loosely thrown together in a wall between boards and grouted with mortar almost like concrete, is called in Italian muraglia di getto and in French bocage. Work executed with large stones put together without any attempt at courses is also called rubble.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Royton

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​ROYTON, an urban district of Lancashire, England, within the parliamentary borough of Oldham, 2 m. N. of Oldham on the Lancashire & Yorkshire railway. Though of early origin, it is, as a town, of wholly modern growth. The cotton manufacture is its chief industry. Pop. (1901) 14,881.