OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Neilson, Adelaide

See also Adelaide Neilson on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​NEILSON, ADELAIDE (1846–1880), English actress, whose real name was Elizabeth Ann Brown, was born in Leeds, the daughter of an actress, and her childhood and early youth were passed in poverty and menial work. In 1865 she appeared in Margate as Julia in The Hunchback, a character with which her name was long to be associated. For the next few years she played at several London and provincial theatres in various parts, including Rosalind, Amy Robsart and Rebecca (in Ivanhoe), Beatrice, Viola and Isabella (in Measure for Measure). In 1872 she visited America, where her beauty and talent made her a great favourite, and she returned year after year. She died on the 15th of August 1880. Miss Neilson was married to Philip Henry Lee, but was divorced in 1877.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Nehemiah

See also Nehemiah on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​NEHEMIAH (Heb. for “Yah[weh] comforts”), governor of Judaea under Artaxerxes (apparently A. Longimanus, 465–424 B.C.). The book of Nehemiah is really part of the same work with the book of Ezra, though it embodies certain memoirs of Nehemiah in which he writes in the first person. Apart from what is related in this book we possess little information about Nehemiah. The hymn of praise by Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus xlix. 13) extols his fame for rebuilding the desolate city of Jerusalem and for raising up fresh homes for the downtrodden people. According to other traditions he restored the temple-service and founded a collection of historical documents (2 Macc. i. 18-36, ii. 13). See further Ezra and Nehemiah (Books), Jews: History §§ 21 seq.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Nehavend

See also Nahavand on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​NEHAVEND, a small but very fertile and productive province of Persia, situated south-west of Hamadan, west of Malāyir, and north-west of Burujird. Pop. about 15,000. The capital is the ancient city of Nehavend, where Yazdegird, the last monarch of the Sassanian dynasty, was finally defeated by the Arabs. (A.D. 641). It has a population of about 5000, including 700 to 800 Jews; there are fine gardens, and an old citadel on a hill. It is situated at an elevation of 5540 ft., 27 m. from Doletābād (Malāyir), and 25 m. from Burujird.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Neighbour

See also Neighbour on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​NEIGHBOUR (O. Eng. néahgebúr, from néah, “nigh,” “near”) and gebúr, “boor,” literally “dweller,” “husbandman”; cf. Dan. and Swed. nabo, Ger. Nachbar), properly one who lives in a house close to one, hence any one of a number of persons living in the same locality. From Biblical associations (Luke x. 27) the word is used widely of one’s fellow-men.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Neisse (rivers)

See also Neisse (disambiguation) on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​NEISSE, three rivers of Germany. (1) The Glatzer Neisse rises on the Schneegebirge, at an altitude of 1400 ft., flows north past Glatz, turns east and pierces the Eulengebirge in the Wartha pass, then continues east as far as the town of Neisse, and after that flows north-east until at an altitude of 453 ft. it joins the Oder between Oppeln and Brieg. Owing to its torrential character the greater part of its course is only used for floating down timber. It abounds in fish, and its total length is 121 m. (2) The Lausitzer or Görlitzer Neisse rises near Reichenberg in Bohemia, on the south side of the Riesengebirge, at an altitude of 1130 ft., flows north past Reichenberg, Görlitz, Forst and Guben, and enters the Oder above Fürstenberg at an altitude of 105 ft. Its length is 140 m., of which less than 40 m. are navigable. (3) The Wütende Neisse is a tributary of the Katzbach.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/St Jean-d'Angély

See also Saint-Jean-d'Angély on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​ST JEAN-D'ANGÉLY, a town of western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Charente-Inférieure, 33 m. E. of Rochefort by rail. Pop. (1906) 6242. St Jean lies on the right bank of the Boutonne, which is navigable for small vessels. The parish church of St lean stands on the site of an abbey church of the 13th century, of which some remains are left. In 1568 the monastery was destroyed by the Huguenots, but much of it was rebuilt in the 17th and 18th centuries, to which period belong two towers and the facade of an unfinished church.
St Jean owes the suffix of its name to the neighbouring forest of Angéry (Angeriacum). Pippin I. of Aquitaine in the 9th century established there a Benedictine monastery which was afterwards reputed to possess the head of John the Baptist. This relic attracted hosts of pilgrims; a town grew up, took the name of St Jean d'angers, afterwards d'Angély, was fortified in 1131, and in 1204 received a charter from Philip Augustus. The possession of the place was disputed between French and English in the Hundred Years' War, and between Catholics and Protestants at a later date. In 1569 it capitulated to the duke of Anjou (afterwards Henry III.). Louis XIII. again took it from the Protestants in 1621 and deprived it of its privileges and its very name, which he changed to Bourg-Louis.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/St John (town)

See also Saint John, New Brunswick on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​ST JOHN, the capital of St John county, New Brunswick. Canada, in 45° 14′ N., and 66° 3′ W., 481 m. from Montreal by the Canadian Pacific railway. Pop. (1901) 40,711. It is situated at the mouth of the St John river on a rocky peninsula. With it are incorporated the neighbouring towns of Carleton and (since 1889) Portland. The river, which is spanned by two bridges, enters the harbour through a rocky gorge, which is passable by ships for forty-five minutes during each ebb and flow of the tide. The harbour level at high tide (see Fundy, Bay of) is 6 to 12 ft. higher than that of the river, but at low tide about as much below it, hence the phenomenon of a fall outwards and inwards at every tide. St John is an important station of the Intercolonial, Canadian Pacific, and New Brunswick Southern railways, and shares with Halifax the honour of being the chief winter port of the Dominion, the harbour being deep, sheltered and free from ice. It is the distributing centre for a large district, rich in agricultural produce and' lumber, and has larger exports than Halifax, though less imports. It is also the centre of fisheries which employ nearly 1000 men, and has important industries, such as saw, grist, cotton and woollen mills, carriage, box and furniture factories, boiler and engine shops. The beauty of the scenery makes it a pleasant residential city.
St John was visited in 1604 by the Sieur de Monts (1560–c. 1630) and his lieutenant Champlain, but it was not until 1635 that Charles de la. Tour (d. 1666) established a trading post, called Fort St Jean (see Parkman, The Old Régime in Canada), which existed under French rule until 1758, when it passed into the hands of Britain. In 1783 a body of United Empire Loyalists landed at St John and established a city, called Parr Town until 1785, when it was incorporated with Conway (Carleton), under royal charter, as the city of St John. It soon became and has remained the largest town in the province, but for military reasons was not chosen as the capital (see Fredericton). Its growth has been checked by several destructive fires, especially that of June 1877, when half of it was swept away, but it has since been rebuilt in great part of more solid materials. (W. L. G.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/St Jean-de-Luz

See also Saint-Jean-de-Luz on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​ST JEAN-DE-LUZ, a coast town of south-western France, in the department of Basses-Pyrénées, at the mouth of the Nivelle, 14 m. S.W. of Bayonne on a branch of the Southern railway. Pop. (1906) 3424. St Jean-de-Luz is situated in the Basque country on thebay of St Jean-de-Luz, the entrance to which is protected by breakwaters and moles. It has a 13th-century church, the chief features of which are the galleries in the nave, which, according to the Basque custom, are reserved for men. The Maison Lohobiague, the Maison de l'Infante (both 17th cent.), and the hôtel de ville (1657) are picturesque old buildings. St Jean is well known for its bathing and as a winter resort. Fishing is a considerable industry.
From the 14th to the 17th century St Jean-de-Luz enjoyed a prosperity due to its mariners and fishermen. Its vessels were the first to set out for Newfoundland in 1520. In 1558, owing to the depredations of its privateers, the Spaniards attacked and burned the town. In 1627, however, it was able to equip 80 vessels, which succeeded in saving the island of Ré from the duke of Buckingham. In 1660 the treaty of the Pyrenees was signed at St Jean-de-Luz, and was followed by the marriage there of the lnfanta Maria Theresa and Louis XIV. At that time the population numbered 15,000. The cession of Newfoundland to England in 1713, the loss of Canada, and the silting-up of the harbour were the three causes which contributed to the decline of the town.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/St John's Wort

See also Hypericum perforatum on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​ST JOHN'S WORT, in botany, the general name for species of Hypericum, especially H. perforalum, small shrubby plants with slender stems, sessile opposite leaves which are often dotted with pellucid glands, and showy yellow flowers. H. Androsaenium is Tutsan (Fr. tout saine), so called from its healing properties. H. calycinum (Rose of Sharon), a creeping plant with large almost solitary flowers 3 to 4 in. across, is a south-east European plant which has become naturalized in Britain in various places in hedges and thickets.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/St Ives (Huntingdonshire)

See also St Ives, Huntingdonshire on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​ST IVES, a market town and municipal borough in the northern parliamentary division of Huntingdonshire, England, mainly on the left (north) bank of the Ouse, 5 m. E. of Huntingdon by the Great Eastern railway. Pop. (1901) 2910. The river is crossed by an old bridge said to have been built by the abbots of Ramsey early in the 15th century. A building over the centre pier of the bridge was once 'used as a chapel. The causeway (1827) on the south side of the river is built on arches so as to assist the flow of the river in time of flood. The church of All Saints is Perpendicular, with earlier portions. A curious custom is practised annually in this church in connexion with a bequest made by a certain Dr Robert Wilde in 1678: it is the distribution of Bibles to six boys and six girls of the town. The original provision was that the Bibles should be cast for by dice on the Communion table. Oliver Cromwell was a resident in St Ives in 1634–1635, but the house which he inhabited—Slepe Hall—was demolished in the middle of the 19th century. St Ives has a considerable agricultural trade. It is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area 2326 acres.
The manor of “ Slepe ” is said to have been given by Athelstan “ Mannessune ” to the abbot of Ramsey and confirmed to him by King Edgar. It owed its change of name to the supposed discovery of the grave of St Ive, a Persian bishop, in 1001, and a priory was founded in the same year by Abbot Ednoth as a cell to Ramsey. St Ives was chiefly noted for its fair, which was first granted to the abbot of Ramsey by Henry I. to be held on Monday in Easter week and eight days following. In the reign of Henry III. merchants from Flanders came to the fair, which had become so important that the king granted it to be continued beyond the eight days if the abbot agreed to pay a farm of £50 yearly for the extra days. The fair, with a market on Monday granted to the abbot in 1286, survives, and was purchased in 1874 by the corporation from the duke of Manchester. The town was incorporated in 1874.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/St John (island)

See also Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
ST JOHN, an island in the Danish West Indies. It lies 4 m. E. of St Thomas, is 10 m. long and 2½ m. wide; area 21 sq. m. It is a mass of rugged mountains, the highest of which is Camel Mountain (1270 ft.). Although one of the best watered and most fertile of the Virgin Group, it has little commerce. It is a free port, and possesses in Coral Bay the best harbour of refuge in the Antilles. The village of Cruxbay lies on the northern coast. Pop. (1901) 925.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/St John, Charles William George

See also Charles William George St John on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​ST JOHN, CHARLES WILLIAM GEORGE (1809–1856), English naturalist and sportsman, son of General the Hon. Frederick St John, second son of Frederick, second Viscount Bolingbroke, was born on the 3rd of December 1809. He was educated at Midhurst, Sussex, and about 1828 obtained a clerkship in the treasury, but resigned in 1834, in which year he married a lady with some fortune. He ultimately settled in the “ Laigh ” of Moray, “ within easy distance of mountain sport.” In 1853 a paralytic seizure deprived him of the use of his limbs, and for the benefit of his health he removed to the south of England. He died at Woolston, near Southampton, on the 22nd of July 1856. His works are Wild Sports and Natural History of the Highlands (1846, 2nd ed. 1848, 3rd ed. 1861); Tour in Sutherland (1849, 2nd ed., with recollections by Captain H. St John, 1884); Notes of Natural History and Sport in Morayshire, with Memoir by C. Innes (1863, 2nd ed. 1884). They are written in a graphic style, and illustrated with engravings, many of them from clever pen-and-ink sketches of his own.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/St John (river)

See also Saint John River (Bay of Fundy) on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​ST JOHN, a river of New Brunswick, Canada, rising in two branches, in the state of Maine, U.S.A., and in the province of Quebec. The American branch, known as the Walloostook, flows N.E. to the New Brunswick frontier, where it turns S.E. and for 80 m. forms the international boundary. A little above Grand Falls the St John enters Canada and Hows through New Brunswick into the Bay of Fundy at St John. Its total length is about 450 m. It is navigable for large steamers as far as Fredericton (86 m.), and in spring and early summer for smaller vessels to Grand Falls (220 m.), where a series of falls and rapids form a descent of 70 or 80 ft. Above the falls it is navigable for 65 m. It drains an area of 26,000 sq. m., of which half is in New Brunswick, and receives numerous tributaries, of which the chief are the Aroostook, Allagash, Madawaska (draining Lake Temiscouata in Quebec), Tobique and Nashwaak.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Smyth, Sir Warington Wilkinson

See also Warington Wilkinson Smyth on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​SMYTH, SIR WARINGTON WILKINSON (1817–1890), British geologist, was born at Naples on the 26th of August 1817, his father, Admiral W. H. Smyth (1788–1865), being at the time engaged in the Admiralty Survey of the Mediterranean. He was educated at Westminster and Bedford schools, and after- wards at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1839. Having gained a travelling scholarship he spent more than four years in Europe, Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt, paying great attention to mineralogy and mining, examining coalfields, metalliferous mines and salt-works, and making acquaintance with many distinguished geologists and mineralogists. On his return to England in 1844 he was appointed mining geologist on the Geological Survey, and in 1851 lecturer at the School of Mines, a post which he held until 1881 when he relinquished the chair of mineralogy but continued as professor of mining. In later years he became chief mineral inspector to the Office of Woods and Forests, and also to the Duchy of Cornwall. He was elected F.R.S. in 1858. He became president of the Geological Society of London in 1866–1868, and in 1879 he was chairman of a Royal Commission appointed to inquire into accidents in mines, the work in connexion with which continued until 1886. He contributed sundry papers to the Memoirs of the Geological Survey, the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society and the Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall. He was author also of A Year with the Turks (1854), and of A Treatise on Coal and Coal-mining (1867). He was knighted in 1887. He died in London on the 19th of June 1890, and was buried at St Erth, not far from his country home at Marazion in Cornwall.
A portrait and some reminiscences of W. W. Smyth will be found in the Memoir of Sir A. C. Ramsay (1895), by Sir A. Geikie.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Smyth, Charles Piazzi

See also Charles Piazzi Smyth on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​SMYTH, CHARLES PIAZZI (1819–1900), British astronomer, was born at Naples on the 3rd of January 1819. He was called Piazzi after his godfather, the Italian astronomer of that name, whose acquaintance his father, Admiral Smyth, had made at Palermo when on the Mediterranean station. His father subsequently settled at Bedford and equipped there an observatory, at which Piazzi Smyth received his first lessons in astronomy. At the age of sixteen he went out as assistant to Sir Thomas Maclear at the Cape of Good Hope, where he observed Halley’s comet and the great comet of 1843, and took an active part in the verification and extension of La Caille’s arc of the meridian. In 1845 he was appointed astronomer royal for Scotland and professor of astronomy in the university of Edinburgh. Here he completed the reduction, and continued the series, of the observations made by his predecessor, Thomas Henderson (see Edinburgh Observations, vols, xi.-xv.). In 1856 he made experimental observations on the Peak of Teneriffe with a view to testing the astronomical advantages of a mountain station. The Admiralty made him a grant of £500 for the purpose, and a yacht—the “Titania”—of 140 tons and a fine 71/2 in. equatorial telescope were placed at his disposal by friends. The upshot of the expedition was to verify Newton’s surmise, that a “most serene and quiet air . . . may perhaps be found on the tops of the highest mountains above the grosser clouds.” The scientific results were detailed in a Report addressed to the lords commissioners of the admiralty, 1858, in a communication to the Royal Society (Phil. Trans. cxlviii. 465) and in the Edinburgh Observations, vol. xii. A popular account of the voyage is contained in Teneriffe, an Astronomer’s Experiment, 1858. In 1871–1872 Piazzi Smyth investigated the spectra of the aurora, and zodiacal light. He recommended the use of the “trainband” for weather prediction (Jour. Scottish Meteor. Society, v. 84), and discovered, in conjunction with Professor A. S. Herschel, the harmonic relation between the rays emitted by carbon monoxide. In 1877–1878 he constructed at Lisbon a map of the solar-spectrum (Edin. Phil. Trans. xxix. 285), for which he received the Macdougall-Brisbane prize in 1880. Further spectroscopic researches were carried out by him at Madeira in 1880 (Madeira Spectroscopic, 1882), and at Winchester in 1884 (Edin. Phil. Trans. vol. xxxii. pt. ii.). He published besides Three Cities in Russia (1862), Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid (1864), Life and Work at the Great Pyramid (1867), and a volume On the Antiquity of Intellectual Man (1868). In 1888 he resigned his official position and retired to the neighbourhood of Ripon, where he died on the 21st of February 1900.
See Month. Notices Roy. Astr. Society, lxi. 189; Observatory, xxiii. 145, 184; R. Copeland in Astr. Nach. No. 3636, and Pop. Astronomy (1900), p. 384; Nature, lxii. 161 (A. S. Herschel); André and Rayet, L’Astronomie pratique, ii. 12. (A. M. C.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Smybert, John

See also John Smybert and Nathaniel Smybert on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​SMYBERT (or Smibert), JOHN (1684–1751); Scottish American artist, was born at Edinburgh in 1684, and died in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1751. He studied under Sir James Thornhill, and in 1728 accompanied Bishop Berkeley to America, with the intention of becoming professor of fine arts in the college which Berkeley was planning to found in Bermuda. The college, however, was never established, and Smybert settled in Boston, where he married in 1730. In 1731 he painted " Bishop Berkeley and His Family," now in the dining-hall, Yale University, a group of eight figures. He painted portraits of Jonathan Edwards and Judge Edmund Quincy (in the Boston Art Museum) , Mrs Smybert, Peter Faneuil and Governor John Endecott (in the Massachusetts Historical Society), John Lovell (Memorial Hall, Harvard University), and probably one of Sir William Pepperrell; and examples of his works are owned by Harvard and Yale Universities, by Bowdoin College, by the Massachusetts Historical Society, and by the New England Historical and Genealogical Society. A son, Nathaniel Smybert (1734–1756), was born in Boston on the 20th of January 1734, and died there on the 8th of November 1756. He was a pupil of his father, and dying at the age of twenty-two, left several important canvases, notably a portrait of Dorothy Wendell (in the Collection of Dr John L. Hale, Boston).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Smyth, William

See also William Smyth on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​SMYTH (or Smith), WILLIAM (c. 1460–1514), bishop of Lincoln, was a Lancashire man by birth, and probably passed some of his early days at Knowsley under the roof of Margaret, countess of Richmond and Derby, the mother of Henry VII. He appears to have been a member of Lincoln College, Oxford, and in 1485, just after the battle of Bosworth, he was made keeper of the hanaper of the chancery. Two of Edward IV's daughters were entrusted to his keeping; he was a member of the royal council and he obtained the livings of Combe Martin, Devon, of Great Grimsby and of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. In 1491 he was made dean of St Stephen's, Westminster, and two years later bishop of Coventry and Lichfield. The bishop was a member of Prince Arthur's council in the marches of Wales, and in 1501, five years after he had been translated to the bishopric of Lincoln, he became lord president of Wales. About 1507 he and Sir Richard Sutton (d. 1524) set to work to found a new college in Oxford. They rebuilt Brasenose Hall, added other existing halls to it, and having obtained a charter in 1512, called it The King's haule and college of Brasennose. Smyth, who was one of the executors of Henry VII.'s will, retired from public life just after this King's death, owing probably to some differences between Bishop Richard Fox and himself; he was, however, president of Wales until his death at Buckden in Huntingdonshire on the 2nd of January 1514. Although an able and scholarly man, Smyth had little sympathy with the new learning. He bestowed rich livings upon his relatives, one of whom, Matthew Smyth, was the first principal of Brasenose College. In addition to his liberal gifts to Brasenose College he gave money or land to Lincoln and to Oriel Colleges; he founded a school at Farn worth, Lancashire, and he refounded the hospital of St John at Lichfield. From 1500 to 1503 he was chancellor of Oxford University.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Philtre

See also Philtre on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​PHILTRE (Lat. philtrum, from Gr. φίλτρον, φιλεῖν, to love), a drug or other medicinal drink supposed to have the magical property of exciting love.