AS'CAPART, a giant conquered by Bevis of Southampton, though so huge as to carry Bevis, his wife, and horse under his arm.
ASCENSION, a bare volcanic island in the Atlantic, rising to nearly 3000 ft., belonging to Britain, 500 m. NW. of St. Helena, and 900 m. from the coast of Africa; a coaling and victualling station for the navy.
ASCHAF'FENBURG (14), an ancient town of Bavaria, on the Main, 20 m.
from Frankfort, with an old castle and cathedral.
ASCHAM, ROGER, a Yorkshireman, Fellow of Cambridge, a good classical, and particularly Greek, scholar; wrote a book on archery, deemed a classic, entitled "Toxophilus," for which Henry VIII. settled a pension on him; was tutor and Latin secretary to Queen Elizabeth, and much esteemed by her; his chief work, the "Schoolmaster," an admirable treatise on education, held in high regard by Dr. Johnson, the sum of which is _docendo discas_, "learn by teaching" (1515-1560).
ASCHERSLE'BEN (22), a manufacturing town in the Magdeburg district of Prussia.
ASCLEPI'ADES, a Bithynian who practised medicine with repute at Rome in Cicero's time, and was great in hygiene.
AS'COT, a racecourse in Berks, 6 m. SW. of Windsor, the races at which, instituted by Queen Anne, take place a fortnight after the Derby.
AS'GARD, the garden or heaven of the Asen or gods in the Norse mythology, in which each had a separate dwelling, and who held intercourse with the other spheres of existence by the bridge Bifrost, i. e. the rainbow.
ASGILL, JOHN, an eccentric Englishman, wrote a book to prove that death was due to want of faith, and to express his belief that he would be translated, and translated he was, to spend 30 years, apparently quite happily, writing pamphlets, and end his days in the debtors' prison.
ASH, JOHN, a dissenting divine, author of an English dictionary, valuable for the number of obsolete and provincial words contained in it (1724-1779).
ASH'ANTI, or ASHANTEE, a negro inland kingdom in the Upper Soudan, N. of Gold Coast territory, wooded, well watered, and well cultivated; natives intelligent, warlike, and skilful; twice over provoked a war with Great Britain, and finally the despatch of a military expedition, which led to the submission of the king and the appointment of a British Resident.
ASHBURNHAM, JOHN, a member of the Long Parliament, a faithful adherent and attendant of Charles I., and assistant to him in his troubles (1603-1671).
ASHBURNHAM, 5TH EARL OF, collected a number of valuable MSS. and rare books known as the Ashburnham Collection; _d_. 1878.
ASHBURTON, ALEXANDER BARING, LORD, second son of Sir Francis Baring, a Liberal politician, turned Conservative, member of Peel's administration in 1834-35, sent special ambassador to the United States in 1842; concluded the boundary treaty of Washington, known as the Ashburton Treaty; in his retirement "a really good, solid, most cheery, sagacious, simple-hearted old man" (1774-1848).
ASHBURTON, WILLIAM BINGHAM BARING, son of the preceding, "a very worthy man," an admirer, and his wife, Lady Harriet, still more, of Thomas Carlyle (1797-1844).
ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH, a small market-town 17 m. W. of Leicester, figures in "Ivanhoe," with the ruins of a castle in which Queen Mary was immured.
ASHDOD, a maritime Philistine city 20 m. S. of Jaffa, seat of the Dagon worship.
ASHE'RA, an image of ASTARTE (q. v.), and associated with the worship of that goddess.
ASH'MOLE, ELIAS, a celebrated antiquary and authority on heraldry; presented to the University of Oxford a collection of rarities bequeathed to him, which laid the foundation of the Ashmolean Collection there (1617-1692).
ASHMUN, JEHUDI, an American philanthropist, founder of the Negro Republic of Liberia, on the W. coast of Africa (1794-1828).
ASH'TAROTH. See ASTARTE.
ASH'TON-UNDER-LYNE (47), a cotton-manufacturing town near Manchester.
ASIA, the largest of the four quarters of the globe, and as good as in touch with the other three; contains one-third of all the land, which, from a centre of high elevations, extensive plains, and deep depressions, stretches southward into three large peninsulas separated by three immense arms of the sea, and eastward into three bulging masses and three pronounced peninsulas forming seas, protected by groups of islands; with rivers the largest in the whole world, of which four flow N., two SE., and eight S.; with a large continental basin, also the largest in the world, and with lakes which though they do not match those of America and Africa, strikingly stand at a higher level as we go E.; with every variety of climate, with a richly varied flora and fauna, with a population of 840,000,000, being the half of that of the globe, of chiefly three races, Caucasian, Mongolian, and Malay, at different stages of civilisation, and as regards religion, by far the majority professing the faith of Brahma, Buddha, Mahomet, or Christ.
ASIA MINOR, called also ANATOLE', a peninsular extension westward of the Armenian and Kurdistan highlands in Asia, bounded on the N. by the Black Sea, on the W. by the Archipelago, and on the S. by the Levant; indented all round, mainland as well as adjoining islands, with bays and harbours, all more or less busy centres of trade; is as large as France, and consists of a plateau with slopes all round to the coasts; has a population of over 28,000,000.
ASKEW, ANNE, a lady of good birth, a victim of persecution in the time of Henry VIII. for denying transubstantiation, tortured on the rack and burnt at the stake, 1546.
ASKEW, ANTONY, a physician and classical scholar, a collector of rare and curious books (1722-1774).
ASMODE'US, a mischievous demon or goblin of the Jewish demonology, who gloats on the vices and follies of mankind, and figures in Le Sage's "Le Diable Boiteux," or the "Devil on Two Sticks," as lifting off the roofs of the houses of Madrid and exposing their inmost interiors and the secret doings of the inhabitants.
ASMONae'ANS, a name given to the Maccabees, from Asmon, the place of their origin.
ASO'KA, a king of Behar, in India; after his accession in 264 B.C.
became an ardent disciple of Buddha; organised Buddhism, as Constantine did Christianity, into a State religion; convened the third great council of the Church of that creed at Patna; made a proclamation of this faith as far as his influence extended, evidence of which is still extant in pillars and rocks inscribed with his edicts in wide districts of Northern India; _d_. 223 B.C.
ASP, a poisonous Egyptian viper of uncertain species.
ASPA'SIA, a woman remarkable for her wit, beauty, and culture, a native of Miletus; being attracted to Athens, came and settled in it; became the wife of Pericles, and her home the rendezvous of all the intellectual and wise people of the city, Socrates included; her character was often both justly and unjustly assailed.
AS'PERN, a village in Austria, on the Danube, 4 m. NE. of Vienna, where a charge of the Austrians under the Archduke Charles was defeated by Napoleon, May 21, 1809, and Marshal Lannes killed.