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Cumbria

(Encyclopedia)Cumbria, county, 2,635 sq mi (6,826 sq km), extreme NW England. The county stretches from the Morecambe Bay to Soloway Firth along the Irish Sea coast. ...

Douglas, Gawin

(Encyclopedia)Douglas, Gawin or Gavin gäˈwĭn, găvˈĭn [key], 1474?–1522, Scottish poet and churchman; son of Archibald Douglas, 5th earl of Angus. He is considered one of the great medieval Scottish poets. D...

Somerset, Edmund Beaufort, 2d duke of

(Encyclopedia)Somerset, Edmund Beaufort, 2d duke of, d. 1455, English statesman and general. He fought in France in the Hundred Years War, receiving his first command in 1431, recapturing Harfleur in 1440, and reli...

Callao

(Encyclopedia)Callao käyouˈ [key], city, capital of the constitutional prov. of Callao, W Peru, on Callao...

Warner, Sylvia Townsend

(Encyclopedia)Warner, Sylvia Townsend, 1893–1978, English novelist and poet. Her first published work was poetry, The Espalier (1925), but she became more generally known with two novels of gentle fantasy, Lolly ...

Nodier, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Nodier, Charles shärl nôdyāˈ [key], 1780–1844, French novelist and poet. From 1824 he was librarian of the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal in Paris. His salon was the nucleus of the beginning romanti...

Krasiński, Zygmunt, Count

(Encyclopedia)Krasiński, Zygmunt, Count zĭgˈmo͝ont kräsēnˈyəskē [key], 1812–59, Polish romantic poet. An ardent patriot and Slavophile, he lived much of his life abroad. His majestic works, often set in ...

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

(Encyclopedia)Royal Canadian Mounted Police, constabulary organized (1873) as the Northwest Mounted Police to bring law and order to the Canadian west. In 1920 the name was changed to the present title. The corps, ...

Rydberg, Abraham Viktor

(Encyclopedia)Rydberg, Abraham Viktor äˈbrähäm vĭkˈtôr rüdˈbĕryə [key], 1828–95, Swedish philosopher and writer. Singoalla (1857), a romantic and mystical story of medieval times, was his first major w...

Saint Valentine's Day

(Encyclopedia)Saint Valentine's Day, Western European Christian holiday, originally the Roman feast of Lupercalia. It was christianized in memory of the martyrdom of St. Valentine in a.d. 270, who, in medieval time...