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Cobbett, William

(Encyclopedia)Cobbett, William kŏbˈĭt [key], 1763?–1835, British journalist and reformer. The son of a farm laborer, he ran away from home at 14 and later joined the British army. He resigned in order to expos...

Fort George G. Meade

(Encyclopedia)Fort George G. Meade, U.S. army post, 13,500 acres (5,460 hectares), central Md., between Baltimore and Washington, D.C.; est. 1917 as a World War I induction center. ...

Newcastle-under-Lyme

(Encyclopedia)Newcastle-under-Lyme, city (1991 pop. 73,208) and district, Staffordshire, W central England, on the Lyme River. Construction materials, apparel, computers, electric motors, and machinery are manufact...

Exeter Book

(Encyclopedia)Exeter Book, manuscript volume of Old English religious and secular poetry, of various dates of composition, compiled c.975 and given to Exeter Cathedral by Bishop Leofric (d. 1072). See edition by G...

Wandering Jew, in legend

(Encyclopedia)Wandering Jew, in literary and popular legend, a Jew who mocked or mistreated Jesus while he was on his way to the cross and who was condemned therefore to a life of wandering on earth until Judgment ...

Borges, Jorge Luis

(Encyclopedia)Borges, Jorge Luis hôrˈhā lo͞oēsˈ bôrˈhās [key], 1899–1986, Argentine poet, critic, and short-story writer, b. Buenos Aires. Borges has been widely hailed as the foremost contemporary Spani...

Blackmore, Richard Doddridge

(Encyclopedia)Blackmore, Richard Doddridge, 1825–1900, English novelist. Although trained as a lawyer and called to the bar, he abandoned his legal career because of ill health. His reputation rests chiefly on hi...

Harvey, William

(Encyclopedia)Harvey, William, 1578–1657, English physician considered by many to have laid the foundation of modern medicine, b. Folkestone, studied at Cambridge, M.D. Univ. of Padua, 1602. Returning to London, ...

Mitford, Mary Russell

(Encyclopedia)Mitford, Mary Russell, 1787–1855, English author. Her first volume of poetry (1810) sold well despite adverse criticism. Later she turned to playwriting, writing one notable success, Rienzi (1828). ...

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