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Weymouth and Melcombe Regis

(Encyclopedia)Weymouth and Melcombe Regis wāˈməth, mĕlˈkəm rēˈjĭs [key], town (1991 pop. 38,384), Dorset, SW England, on Weymouth Bay. It is a port and a resort town with wide beaches. The port was active ...

commonwealth

(Encyclopedia)commonwealth, form of administration signifying government by the common consent of the people. To Locke and Hobbes and other 17th-century writers the term meant an organized political community simil...

Cruikshank, George

(Encyclopedia)Cruikshank, George kro͝okˈshăngk [key], 1792–1878, English caricaturist, illustrator, and etcher; younger son of Isaac Cruikshank (1756–1810), caricaturist. Self-taught, George early gained a r...

Smith, Bessie

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Bessie, 1894–1937, American singer, b. Chattanooga, Tenn. About 1910 Smith became the protégée of Gertrude (Ma) Rainey, one of the earliest b...

Preston

(Encyclopedia)Preston, city and district (1991 pop. 166,675), county seat of Lancashire, N England, on the Ribble River. Preston has an active port and is a center of cotton and rayon manufacturing. Some mills have...

Peterborough, city, England

(Encyclopedia)Peterborough, city and unitary authority (1991 pop. 155,050), E central England, on the Nene River. Designated as a new town in 1968, Peterborough is an engineering and rail hub and a farm trade cente...

Tyrconnel, Richard Talbot, duke and earl of

(Encyclopedia)Tyrconnel, Richard Talbot, duke and earl of tôlˈbət, tərkŏnˈəl [key], 1630–91, Irish Jacobite. He escaped from Ireland after Oliver Cromwell's punitive campaign there (1649) and was party to ...

Orrery, Roger Boyle, 1st earl of

(Encyclopedia)Orrery, Roger Boyle, 1st earl of, 1621–79, Irish statesman and writer; son of Richard Boyle, 1st earl of Cork. Created (1627) Baron Broghill, he studied at Trinity College, Dublin, traveled abroad, ...

stereoscope

(Encyclopedia)stereoscope stĕrˈēəskōpˌ [key], optical instrument that presents to a viewer two slightly differing pictures, one to each eye, to give the effect of depth. In normal vision the two eyes, being a...

Anyang

(Encyclopedia)Anyang än-yäng [key], city (1994 est. pop. 458,400), N Henan prov., China, on the Beijing-Guangzhou RR, in a cotton-growing area. It is an agricultural and trade center with textile mills, coal mine...