MAXWELL 



MAYAGUEZ 



101 



notes, The Electrical Researches of the Hon. Henry 

 Cavendish. He took a prominent part in the con- 

 struction of the British Association Unit of Electri- 

 cal Resistance, and in the writing of its admirable 

 reports on the subject ; and he discovered that vis- 

 cous fluids, while yielding to stress, possess double 

 refraction. He was excessively ingenious in illus- 

 tration, especially by means of diagrams, and pos- 

 sessed a singular power of epigrammatic versifica- 

 tion. Some of his last and very best scientific work 

 adorns and enriches the ninth edition of the Enn/- 

 clopmliu Hrifiinaira. He was, in the full sense 

 of the word, a Christian. His Scientific Papers 

 were edited by W. D. Niven (8 vols. Camb. 1890) ; 

 p.nd his Life has l>een written by Lewis Campbell 

 and William Ganiett ( 1882). 



Maxwell, SIR WILLIAM STIRLING-, the son of 

 Archibald Stirling of Keir, in Perthshire, was bom 

 at Kenmiire House, near Glasgow, in 1818. Hav- 

 ing graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 

 ls:W, he spent some time travelling in Italy and 

 Spain, one outcome of which was Annals of the 

 Artitt* of Spain (Svols. 1848). He always retained 

 his interest in Spanish subjects : in 1852 was pub- 

 lished from his pen Cloister Life of the Emiteror 

 Charles V., in 1855 Velazquez anil his Works, in 

 1856 Notices of the Emperor Charles V. in l.~i.~,.~, m,il 

 1556, and in 1883 the sumptuous Don John of 

 Austria (previously printed for private circulation ). 

 He al.-o i^iicU privately several other books, got 

 up in a very sumptuous style, some dealing with 

 Cnarles V. and two with the anatomist Vesalins. 

 In 1866 he succeeded to the baronetcy and estates 

 of his uncle, Sir John Maxwell of Pollok, adding 

 the nami; (if Maxwell to his own patronymic. Sir 

 William's second wife (1877) was the Hon. Mrs 

 Norton ( q. v. ). Besides representing Perthshire as a 

 Conservative from 1852 to 1867, and again in 1872, 

 he was a trustee of the British Museum and the 

 National Portrait Gallery, and was chosen Lord 

 Rector of St Andrews in 1863, of Edinburgh in 1871, 

 anil in 1875 Chancellor of Glasgow I'niversity. He 

 died at Venice on 15th January 1 878. A new edition 

 of his Works was published in 6 vols. in 1891. 



May. From a primitive period the revival of 

 vegetation, which marks nature at this period, has 

 been celebrated with various ceremonies. Hence 

 the first of May has from time immemorial been a 

 gala day in Britain, although like most of the 

 festivals of the calendar it has suffered from the 

 hand of time. It is no doubt a survival of the 

 Floralia of the Romans, who in their turn, it 

 has l>een suggested, derived their festival from 

 India. The anniversary is still kept up by the 

 Italians under the title of 'Calendi di Maggio ; ' 

 voting people sallying forth at daybreak to collect 

 boughs with which to decorate the doors of their 

 relatives and friends. A remnant of the May 

 festival, as observed by the Druids, survives in the 

 tire* formerly lighted "on this occasion the day 

 having Iwen called by the Irish ami the Scotcli 

 Highlanders Bealtine or liellttne (q.v.). In 

 Knglaml, as we learn from Chaucer and Shake- 

 *!'are and other writers, it was customary during 

 the middle ages for all, l>oth high and low even 

 the court itself logo out on the first May morning 

 at an early hour ' to fetch the flowers fresh. ' 

 Hawthorn (a.v.) branches were also gathered ; 

 these were brought home about sunrise, with 

 accompaniments of horn and taW and all possible 

 signs of joy and merriment. The people then pro- 

 ceeded to decorate the doors and windows of their 

 houses with the spoils. By a natural transition of 

 ideas they gave the hawthorn bloom the name of 

 the ' May ; they called the ceremony 'the bringing 

 borne the May ;' they spoke of the expedition to 

 the woods as 'going a-Mnying.' The fairest maid 



of the village was crowned with flowers as the 

 ' Queen of the May,' and placed in a little bower 

 or arbour, where she sat in state, receiving the 

 homage and admiration of the youthful revellers, 

 who danced and sang around her. How thoroughly 

 recognised, too, the May -day games, with the accom- 

 panying morris-dance, became in England may be 

 illustrated by the fact that in the rek'n of Henry 

 VIII. the heads of the corporation of London went 



ing these respected dignitaries on Shooter's Hill. 

 Another conspicuous feature of these festive pro- 

 ceedings was the erection in every town and village 

 of a fixed pole called the Maypole as high as the 

 mast of a vessel of 100 tons, on which each May 

 morning they suspended wreaths of flowers, and 

 round which the people danced in rings pretty 

 nearly the whole day ; the earliest representation of 

 an English Maypole being that reproduced in the 

 Variorum Shakespeare, as depicted on a window 

 at Betley, in Staffordshire. A severe blow was 

 given to these merry customs by the Puritans, who 

 caused Maypoles to be uprooted, and a stop put to 

 all their jollities. They were, however, revived after 

 the Restoration, and field their ground for a long 

 time ; but they have now almost disappeared. In 

 France and Germany too, Maypoles were common, 

 and in some places are still to' be seen, and festive 

 sports are even yet observed. See Chambers's 

 Book of Days, vol. i. pp. 569-582. With Catholics, 

 since 1815, the month of May has been specially 

 celebrated as the Virgin's month ; and in Scotland, 

 from some time at least before Mary's marriage to 

 Bothwell ( 1567 ), as long before with the Romans, 

 it has been deemed an unlucky month to marry in. 



May, ISLE OF. See FORTH. 



May, THOMAS, dramatist and historiographer, 

 was the son of Sir Thomas May of Mayiield in 

 Sussex, and was born in 1594. Educated'at Cam- 

 bridge, he became a member of Gray's Inn and a 

 courtier. He produced several dramas (Antigone, 

 Cleopatra, Aarippina, &c.) and comedies, poems, 

 and translations of the Georgics and Lucan's 

 Pharsalia. During the Civil War he was made 

 secretary and historiographer to the Parliament, and 

 in that capacity produced a History of the Parlia- 

 ment of England, 1640-1643 (1650; several times 

 republished), and a Breviary of the same history 

 ( 1650). He died 13th November 1650. 



May, SIR THOMAS EKSKINE, Baron Farn- 

 borough, born in 1815, was educated at Bedford 

 School, became assistant-librarian of the House of 

 Commons in 1831, clerk -assistant in 1856, and clerk 

 of the House in 1871. He was called to the bar in 

 1838, was made in 1860 Companion, in 1866 Knight 

 Commander of the Bath, and shortly after his 

 retirement from office in 1886 was raised to the 

 peerage as Baron Farnborough, but died on 18th 

 May of that year. His most important works are 

 A 1'reatise on the Law, Privileges, Proceedings, 

 and Usage of Parliament (1844), which, acknow- 

 ledged as the parliamentary text-book, had gone 

 through six editions before his death and been 

 translated into German and Hungarian ; Con- 

 stitiiliniiii/ History of England since the Accession 

 of George III., 1760-1860 (1861-63; 3d ed., with 

 supplementary chapter, 3 vols. 1871 ), a continuation 

 of Hallam's work to our own times, and of which 

 French and German translations have appeared ; 

 and Democracy in Eurojte: it History ( 2 vols. 1877), 

 a work of great learning and impartiality. 



Mayaguez, a city and sea]>ort of Porto Rico, on 

 the west coast, 70 miles SW. of San Juan. It ex- 

 ports sugar, molasses, cofi'ee, hides, fruit, and turtle- 

 shell. Pop. (1899) 15,187. 



