VESP. Vespasianus.

CL. Clerk, Clergyman.

CR. Creditor.

C. R. Carolus Rex, King Charles.

C. S. Custos Sigilli, Keeper of the Seal.

VIATION.

X

X. AN. Annalibus decennalibus.

X. K. OCT. Decimo kalendas Octobris.
X. M. Decem. millia. X. P. Decem pondo.
X. V. Decemvir. XV. VIR. Quindecimvir.

The Jewish authors and copyists do not content themselves with abbreviating words like the Greeks and Latins, by retrenching some of the letters or syllables; but frequently take away all but the initial letters. They then take the initials of several succeeding words, join them together, and, adding vowels to them, make a sort of barbarous compound, representative of all those which they have thus abridged. Thus, Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, in their abbreviature is Rambam, &c.

The following are the most common Abbreviations among the English.

A. Answer.

A. B. or B. A. Bachelor of Arts.

ABP. Archbishop.

A. D. Anno Domini, in the Year of our Lord.

GEN. Genesis.

What is all righteousness that men devise?
What, but a sordid bargain for the skies?
But Christ as soon would abdicate his own,
As stoop from heav'n to sell the proud a throne.

In

Cowper's Truth. ABDICATION, a voluntry resignation by a superior magistrate of his office and dignity. A monarch is properly said to abdicate his throne when he entirely and simply renounces all pretensions to the kingly authority, either for himself or his successors. this sense Diocletian, who furnished the first royal example of this kind, and Maximian, on the same day, publicly divested themselves of the imperial purple. But what is sometimes called the abdication of Charles V. was properly only a resignation, as that emperor gave up his hereditary dominions in favour of his son Philip II. The word came frequently into use in this country at the Revolution, and occasioned a memorable debate in Parliament, from which we have given an extract above.

Among the Greeks and Romans, when a father expelled his son from his family, he was said to have abdicated him; and all children so abdicated during the father's life-time, were disinherited at his death; but those who were only disinherited, were not, therefore abdicated. The Greeks were more strict in their inquiries into the grounds of this unnatural act of abdication than the Romans. The Athenian laws required the appearance of the parent in the presence of competent judges, before he could even disinherit his son.

ABDOMEN, in Anatomy, from abdere, to hide ; that part of the trunk of the body which lies between the thorax and a circular ridge of bone which separates it from the pelvis. ABDOMINAL RING, an aperture through which the spermatic vessels pass in men, and the ligamenta rotunda uteri in women.

ABDOMINALES, or ABDOMINAL FISHES, the fourth order of the fourth class of animals, in the Linnæan system; having the ventral fins placed behind the pectoral in the abdomen, and the branchia ossiculated.

ABDUCE', v. Ab: duco, to lead from, to draw,
}
ABDUCTION. bring, or take away from, to with-

draw.

The noun is much used by writers on English law, and is applied to the forcible taking away of a wife or child; and to common kidnapping.

If beholding a candle, we protrude either upward or downward the pupil of one eye, and behold it with one, it will then appear but single; and if we abduce the eye unto either corner, the object will not duplicate.

Brown's Vulgar Errours. ABDUCTION, or ABRUPTION, in Surgery, a kind of transverse fracture, in which the broken extremities of the bone recede from each other.

ABDUCTION, in Law, the act of carrying off a woman and marrying her against her will.

ABDUCTORES, or ABDUCTORS, in Anatomy, a name given to several of the muscles, from their serving to withdraw, open, or separate, the parts into which they are inserted.

The noun Abearyng has been succeeded in modern ÁBEAR. writers on English law by Abearance. ABENOW.

Vpon assurance takyn of the said Hunyldus, that there after he shulde be of good aberynge to warde the kyng, he clerely forgaue vnto hym all his former offence.

Fabyan, repr. 1811, p. 141.

So did the Faery Knight himself abeare,
And stouped oft, his head from shame to shield:
No shame to stoupe, ones head more high to reare,
And much to gaine, a little for to yield:

So stoutest knights doen oftentimes in field.

Spenser's Faerie Queene, booke fift. canto xii. ABE CHED. Abeched (says Skinner), seems from the context to be satisfied: from the French Albecher, to feed (from Bee, the Beak) as birds feed their young by inserting their beak.

"Abbecher. To feed as birds do their young; to put into the mouth of." Cotgrave.

But might I getten as ye tolde,
So mochel, that my lady wolde
Me fede with hir gladde semblaunt,
Though me lacke all the remenaunt:
Yet shoulde I somdcle ben abeched,
And for the tyme wel refresshed.

ABED', a. On bed. (See BED.)

Gower, Con. A. b. v.

Some radde, that hii ssoide wende in at on hepe,
To habbe inome hom vnarmed, and some abedde aslepe.
R. Gloucester, p. 547.

Hir kyrtell, and hir mantell eke,
Abrode vpon his bedde he spredde;
And thus thei slepen both a bedde.

scanty a blanket when you are a-bed.

Gower, Con. A. b. v.

The sullen night had der black curtain spread, Low'aing that day had tarried up so long, And that the morrow mighi lie long abed, She all the heav'n with dusky clouds had hung." Drayton's Barons' Wars. Delight is layd abedd; and pleasure, past; No sunne now shines; clouds han all overcast. Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar. The abilities of man must fall short on one side or other, like too Sir Wm. Temple's Works. ABELIANS, ABEOLITES, or ABELONIANS, heretics diocese of Hippo in Africa, and disappeared in the reign which appeared about the reign of Arcadius, in the of Theodosius. This sect pretended that Abel was married, but died without having known his wife. Their peculiarity was derived from this doctrine, which they carried into practice, by enjoining men and women, upon entering into the matrimonial state, to continence. They, moreover adopted a boy and a girl, who were to inherit their possessions, and to marry upon the same See AUGUST. Op. tom. 6. obligation of continence.

BOCHART. Geog. Sac. lib. ii. c. 16.

ABELLA, a town of Campania, mentioned by Virgil, lib. vii. v. 740. and by Silius, lib. viii. v. 544; whose inhabitants, called Appellani, were, according to Justin, a colony of Chalcidians. It was famous for its nuts, called Avellanæ, and also for its apples. The ancient walls enclose a circuit of near three

miles, and the environs are remarkable for their excellent fruit and honey.

ABENOW, a mountain of Suabia, twenty-three miles from Friburg. It is the source of the Danube, and gives name to a chain of mountains extending from the Rhine to the Neckar, and from the Forest Towns to Thorsheim.

ABEN

BROTHOCK.

ABENRADE, or APENRADE, a mountainous disThe RADE. trict, and jurisdiction of Sleswick, in Denmark. capital of the same name is situated on a spacious bay ABER with a good harbour. It is encompassed on three sides by high mountains. E. lon. 9°, 14'. N. lat. 55°, 6'. ABERAVON, a borough town of Glamorganshire, at the mouth of the Avon, governed by a portreeve. The iron works near it have given it some importance. The delightful seat of Lord Vernon is in the immediate neighbourhood.

ABERBROTHOCK, diminutively called ABROATH, a royal burgh, and small sea-port on the eastern coast of Scotland, in the sheriffdom or county of Forfar. Its name is derived from the rivulet Brothic, near the mouth of which it is situated. Here are two parish churches, the church of Aberbrothock, and that of St. Vigean's also an episcopal chapel, and some places of worship belonging to the protestant dissenters. Neither the streets nor the public buildings are much calculated to arrest the attention of the topographer; although there are some remains of an abbey, which was founded about the year 1178, for certain monks of the Tyronensian order, in honour of the haughty and inflexible Thomas à Becket. This monastery was founded by William (the successor of Malcolm IV.), who was surnamed the Lion on account of his valour. About three years ago, i. e. A. D. 1814, the barons of the exchequer, much to the credit of their taste, directed the adoption of proper measures to prevent the farther decay of these venerable ruins. On this occasion certain human bones were discovered, supposed to be those of the royal founder; but there was no monumental, or other memorial, to point out the precise situation of his burial-place. William de Lion died in the year 1214.

During the year 1320, a parliament was held within the walls of this magnificent building. At this parliament the Scottish barons did themselves great credit by their patriotic resistance of the foreign jurisdiction which the papal see attempted to impose on their country; and declared, that as long as an hundred men should remain, they would not cease to defend their liberties and their independence. The style of this manifesto has been noticed as superior to any thing of the kind in that dark period. Soon after the commencement of the reformation in 1560, this structure was nearly destroyed; and till the year 1814, as already stated, had been gradually yielding to the ravages of time. The monastic records, however, were happily preserved; a circumstance worthy of particular notice, when we consider the almost universal spirit of iconoclasm, and abhorrence of every thing connected with the forms of the old religion, which prompted the zeal of the early Caledonian reformers. The last abbot was the celebrated Cardinal Beaton. This town was created a royal burgh in 1186, which charter was renewed, by king John, in the year 1589,

The harbour is not large, but very safe; an artificial breakwater having been formed out of red sand-stones which lie in ledges. An attack was made upon this place, in the year 1781, by a French privateer, at which time a battery, consisting of six twelve-pounders, was erected, on a spot commanding the contiguous shores; there is also a signal tower, having a communication with the light-house, at Bell-Rock. Fifty-six chartered vessels belong to the port, amounting in the whole to nearly 40,000 tons burthen. This town has

also a considerable manufacture of sail-cloth, and ABERsome others of flax, and tanned goods. The exports BROTHOCK. are paving-stones and grain; and the imports, tallow, hemp, flax, and linseed. According to the returns of ABER1811, the two parishes contained 8150 persons. In DEEN. conjunction with Aberdeen, Brechin, Inverbervie, and Montrose, Abroath returns one member to parliament. Distant from Edin. 58 miles, 56°, 32′ 30′′, N. lat. and 2°, 34', 15". W. lon.

ABERCONWAY, or CONWAY, in Caernarvonshire, North Wales; situated at the mouth of the river Conway. Edward I. very much enlarged the fortifications, and in 1284, rebuilt a strong castle at present in ruins, having been originally erected by the earl of Chester in the reign of William I. and destroyed in that of Stephen. By this castle, England was protected from the invasions of the Welch under Llewelyn, and a point of concentration secured in case of any projected incursion into the principality. On one occasion, the Welch attacked the castle at the moment when Edward had crossed the river with a few attendants, and was separated from the town by the flowing of the tide, but the little band defended themselves till it ebbed. Richard II. was delivered into the hands of his enemies in this place, whither he had fled in 1399. After the civil wars, a grant was made of it to Edward, earl of Conway, who dilapidated the buildings in 1665. It is held, at present, by a private proprietor under the crown.

Towards the mouth of the river, a little hill is planted, which has obtained the classical name of Arcadia. The general scite of the town is commanding and beautiful, and the ruins still magnificent. To the walls are attached eight large towers, surmounted by turrets; in one of which is a richly ornamented oriel window, where the toilette of queen Eleanor is said to have been placed. Another of the towers having split asunder, a vast fragment has been precipitated to the beach, where it presents a fine specimen of ancient masonry. An abbey church, remarkable chiefly for its antiquity, is in the centre of the town. It was an abbey of Cistertian monks, founded by prince Llewelyn ap Jorweth, in 1185. Edward I. removed the monks to a new abbey near Llanrwst.

The little trade now carried on consists of copper, lead, calamine, and potatoes, for exportation. Hills of limestone abound in the immediate vicinity, and some lead and copper mines. In a black silicious mountain, masses of porous chert are found, well adapted for mill-stones. Mr. R. Bowes made this discovery, and sent specimens to the Society of Arts, of which an account is given in their Transactions, vol. 18. p. 197. It is eighteen miles W. N. W. of Denbigh, and 235 W. N. W. of London. The popula tion, according to the census of 1811, was 1053. W. lon. 3°, 47'. N. lat. 53°, 20'.

ABERCORN, a town of W. Lothian, Scotland, near the Frith of Forth, at which the Roman wall com

mences.

ABERDEEN, an ancient city of Scotland, in the Aberdeen. county of the same name. Though this place is said to have been of some note even as early as the ninth century, it was mentioned only as a village before the year 1153. In that year, in consequence of the translation of the bishopric of Morlich, in Banffshire, founded by Malcolm II. this town was elevated to the rank of a city. A new charter was given to it by Mal

ABER- colm IV.; and in 1217, Alexander II. conferred addiDEEN. tional privileges upon the town, granting it similar municipal jurisdictions to those which he had bestowed upon the town of Perth. It is said that the bishop of Aberdeen, A. D. 1290, erected the bridge which at present crosses the river Don, at the mouth of which this city stands. The cathedral church of St. Machar, founded originally by David I. is now nearly demolished; but a small portion of it is still occupied as a place of worship.

Hospitals.

King's College.

New Town.

Places of worship.

There are three hospitals here: one for twelve poor unmarried men; a trades' hospital for decayed freemen and their widows; and Mitchel's hospital, founded in 1801, for the support of ten indigent females. But the principal building is the King's College, a large and commodious cloistered edifice, of a quadrangular shape. This college is an university, and was founded in 1506, by Bishop Elphinstone, whose remains were interred in the chapel, before the high altar. There are professorships in the Greek, Latin, and oriental languages; also in medicine, civil law, and theology; and this college possesses, moreover, the power of conferring academical degrees upon any person whom the principal and professors may deem worthy such an honour. It has several endowments for the support of the students, who have of late amounted, during the winter session, to about 180. The library contains some very curious and valuable MSS. besides about 13,000 printed volumes. By a recent act of parliament, this university can claim one copy of every new publication, printed in the united kingdom. The population of this city, according to the last census, amounted to 1911.

About one mile from the city, is the town of Aberdeen, sometimes called New Town, and not unfrequently confounded with the city just described. These two places are entirely distinct, both with regard to their civil and their ecclesiastical jurisdictions. The town of Aberdeen is a sea-port, seated on an elevated piece of ground, between the Don and the Dee.

Of late years, it has greatly improved; and is now deemed the most important city-for so it is commonly designated-in Scotland northward of the Forth. Here are upwards of twenty places of worship; seven of which belong to the established religion of the church of Scotland, (viz.) Presbyterian; four meeting-houses belonging to the Seceders; three episcopalian chapels, St. John's, St. Andrew's, and St. Paul's; and one Roman Catholic chapel The others belong to the Wesleyan methodists, and protestant dissenters of various denominations. Here also are several hospitals, and other charitable institutions; besides a college, founded in the year 1593, Marischal called the Marischal College, after the name of its College. founder. This is also an university; but in some respects may be considered as connected with King's College in Old Aberdeen; at least so far as regards the library: this, however, is rather a matter of courtesy than otherwise; the two foundations being entirely distinct. The number of students is generally greater here than at King's College; many of the divinity stuBuildings. dents attending alternately each university. The town house, which is also a prison, and a masonic lodge, and in which are kept the city armoury, and a machine resembling the guillotine, called the Maiden-the new bridewell, opened in 1809-the military barracks, erected in 1796-the breweries -the amazingly extensive mills for the spinning of flax-the cotton, woollen, and car

ABER

peting manufactories-and other establishments for ABERtrading and commercial purposes, all combine to give DEEN. the town of Aberdeen a degree of importance, in a statistical point of view, little inferior to any in DEENthe British empire. The inhabitants, and merchants, SHIRE. export from this place grain, fish, thread, Scotch granite, hosiery, cotton, and linen goods; and import goods of almost every description for commerce and consumption. Vessels, to the number of about 150, are engaged in the coasting and foreign trades, and in the whale fishery. There is an inland canal communication between this town and Inverary, about 18 or 20 miles distant; a capacious stone bridge of a single arch, stretches itself over a space of 132 feet acros the Forth near Union-street. The population exceeds 21,600 souls. Lat. 57, 9'. N. lon. 2°, 8', W. Distant from Edinburgh 108 miles; and from London 425 miles.

ABERDEENSHIRE, a maritime county in Scotland, about 85 or 90 miles long and 46 broad, bounded on the north and east by the German ocean; on the south by the counties of Kincardine, Perth, and Forfar, and on the west by the counties of Banff, Elgin, and Inverness. The circuit of this county may be estimated at 280 miles, and its superficial area at 1986 square miles, or 1,270,744 English acres. It may be considered as pon the whole a cold county, the thermometer being generally four or five degrees below that of Edinburgh, and ten degrees below that of Greenwich. The real land-rent has been estimated at 133,6327. sterling. According to the census of 1811, there were 33,718 families, of whom 13,637 were employed in agriculture; 14,286 in trade, manufactures, and handicraft; and 5,795 not comprised in either of the two preceding classes, making a total population of 135,075 persons.

The general aspect of the county is wild and barren. Some parts are very mountainous, particularly the Bullers of Buchan, which are notorious for their craggy steeps. The arable land is in the proportion of little more than half of that which is waste, and otherwise irreclaimable.

The chief rivers are the Dee, the Don, the Ythan, the Ugie, and the Deveron; all of which contain an abundance of fine salmon. The Dee rises at the elevation of 4060 feet above the level of the sea, and pursues a course of 80 miles to Aberdeen. Pearls have been found in the Ythan.

Several lakes are found in this county: Loch Builg, Loch Callader, Loch Kanders, and Loch Muick. The waters of Peterhead, Fraersburgh, and Glendee, are celebrated for their medicinal qualities. There is also a navigable canal, which proceeds from the harbour of Aberdeen to the town of Inverary, having 17 locks.

Iron ore of a valuable kind is found in the vicinity of Aberdeen. The minerals are granite, blue slate, manganese, amber, amianthus, plumbago, amethysts, emeralds, topazes, agates, &c.

Aberdeenshire contains some remains of antiquity, well worthy of notice, as subterraneous excavations, which are supposed to have been places of refuge when the county was invaded. There are also the ruins of a vitrified fort in Garioch also extensive remains of Kildrummy castle, once a very superb edifice, and sometimes occupied by royal personages. In addition to these, a great variety of remains may be found in every part of the county. Its chief manufacture is