MERTHYR-TYDVIL 



MESEMBRYACE.E 



145 



by tlie Irwell 6 miles below Manchester, from 

 where it was made navigable to Liverpool for 

 large vessels in the year 1720, and has had great 

 influence on the subsequent progress of the two 

 towns. Besides the Irwell the chief affluents are 

 tin: Bollin and the Weaver from Cheshire. At its 

 junction with the Weaver the Mersey expands 

 into a wide estuary which forms the Liverpool 

 channel. The estuary is about 16 miles long 

 and from 1 to 3 miles broad ; opposite Liverpool 

 it is a mile and a quarter in width, with a 

 considerable depth at low-water. In this estuary 

 on the Cheshire side is the entrance to the Man- 

 chester Ship-canal. The estuary is much obstructed 

 by sandbanks, but the excellent system of pilotage 

 iii practice, combined with the skilful and admirable 

 i-MM*triiction of the sea-walls, renders the naviga- 

 tion comparatively secure. Entire length, with 

 the estuary, 70 miles. A tunnel connecting Liver- 

 pool and Birkenhead by railway carried beneath 

 the estuary has l>een in successful operation since 

 January 20, 1888. The alluvial meadows on the 

 banks of the Mersey are famous for their fertility, 

 and in recent years, by embanking the river at 

 points where it overllowed after heavy rains, many 

 thousands of acres of the most valuable land in 

 the two counties have been reclaimed. The 

 b.-iMii of tin- Mersey extends over an area of 1706 

 s'|. m., which includes the larger portion of Lan- 

 cashire and Cheshire. 



Merthyr-Tydvil or Tydfil (so called from 

 the martyrdom here of a WeWl princess of that 

 name), a parliamentary borough and market-town 

 of South Wales, on the confines of the counties of 

 Glamorgan ami Brecknock, 24 miles N. by VV. of 

 Cardiff, its port, and 178 W. of London. Pop. 

 (1801) 7705: (1891) 58,080. Surrounded by lofty 

 and bleak hills, the town stands on the banks of 

 tin 1 river Tall', and is partly built on slag founda- 

 tions, the refuse of mines in the vicinity. Its 

 streets are for the most part narrow ami irregu- 

 larly built, and the public buildings of little archi- 

 ti-.-tural interest, but of late years since the 

 formation of a Local Board of Health in 1850 

 gn-at improvements have been effected in the 

 widening of thoroughfares, the supply of pure 

 water, and the construction of effective sewage- 

 works : previously all sanitary arrangements were 

 entirely neglected, and as a result epidemics of 

 groat severity were of frequent occurrence. The 

 civil government of the town ( which extends over 

 the outlying districts of Dowlais and Penydarran) 

 is vested in a high constable, who is elected annu- 

 ally. The sole industries, upon which the whole 

 population is more or less directly dependent, 

 arise from the numerous collieries and iron and 

 1 works in the vicinity; Merthyr being the 

 centre of the Glamorganshire coalfield, and as such 

 having excellent railway communication with all 

 parts. Witli Aberdare it is noted for the excellence 

 of its steam coal, and the quantity of iron and 

 steel annually turned out from the great works of 

 Powlais, Cy'farthfa, and Plymouth is enormous. 

 In 1816, and again in 1831, tfie town was the scene 

 of severe riots, on the latter occasion the disturb- 

 ance not l>cing quelled by the military without 

 a loss of twenty-three lives. For the parlia- 

 mentary borough (1867), which embraces Aberdare 

 and two other outlying districts, and in 1891 had a 

 population of 104,008, two members are returned. 



Mcrton. LOWER, a village of Surrey, 10 miles 

 SW. of I. on. Inn by rail, stands on the Wandle, and 

 has several factories. Only a fragment remains of 

 thu Aiigiistiman priory ( 1115) in which the parlia- 

 nn-nt met which passed, in 1233, the Statute of 

 M'rton (see LEGITIMATION). Here were educated 

 Thomas Beckct and Walter de Merton, Bishop of 

 322 



Rochester and Chancellor, who in 1264 founded 

 Merton College, at Oxford. The church is mainly 

 of the same date as the priory. Pop. of parish, 

 2480. 



ll'ril. in Hindu Mythology, a fabulous moun- 

 tain in the centre of the world, 80,000 leagues high. 

 It is the most sacred of all mythical mountains, and 

 the abode of Vishnu. 



Merv, an oasis of Turkestan, lying between 

 Bokhara and the north-eastern corner of Persia, 

 512 miles by rail (opened in July 1886) from the 

 Caspian and 118 from the Oxus. The oasis con- 

 sists of a district 60 miles long by 40 broad, 

 watered by the river Murghab, grows wheat, sugar 

 grass, cotton, and silk, has a hot, dry climate, and 

 is inhabited by half a million (O'Donovan ; the 

 Russians say less than a quarter million) Tekke 

 Turkomans. The people live scattered over the 

 country. But there is an old citadel, Kaushid 

 Khan *Kala, and adjoining it a new Russian fort 

 garrisoned by nearly 3000 men ; on the opposite 

 bank of the Murghab a new Russian town is grow- 

 ing up, several Armenian merchants having settled 

 on the spot and mono|K>lised the trade, worth about 

 150,000 a year. The men are clever workers in 

 silver, and breed horses, camels, and sheep ; the 

 women weave silk and make carpets. Merv or 

 Mourn is mentioned in the Zend Avesta. There 

 Alexander the Great built a town. The oa.-is 

 was held successively by the Parthians and the 

 Arabs, who made the city of Merv capital of 

 Khorassan. It was the seat of a Nestorian 

 archbishop in the 5th century, and of a Greek 

 archbishop in the 14th ; and in the 8th it was 

 the headquarters of Mokanna (q.v.), the 'Veiled 

 I'rophet of Khorassan.' Under the Seljuk Turks 

 Merv enjoyed its period of greatest splendour, 

 especially under Sultan Alp Arslan. It began to 

 fall into ruin after being talcen and sacked by the 

 Mongols in 1221. From the Uzbegs it passed in 

 1510 to the Persians, who lost it in 1787 to the 

 emir of Bokhara. In 1856 the Turkomans made 

 themselves masters of the oasis ; but they in turn 

 submitted to the Russians in 1883, who built the 

 railway from the Caspian to the Oxus, passing 

 through the oasis. Merv occupies an important 

 strategic position at the intersection of the routes 

 Bokhara- Meshhed and Khiva-Herat. 



Sec Marvin. Merv (1880); O'Donovan, Merv Oasis 

 (2 vols. 18*2); Lanstlell, Russian Central Asia (1S85), 

 and JtuMtans at Merv and Herat ( 1883 ). 



Mi ; r> mi, CHARLES, etcher, was bora at Paris, 

 the son of an English physician, in 1821, and died 

 insane at Charenton Asylum, 13th February 1868. 

 His sombre and imaginative etchings of streets 

 and buildings in Paris are highly esteemed by con- 

 noisseurs, especially the ' Abside de Notre Dame, 1 

 'Rue des Mauvais Garcons,' and 'Stryge.' See 

 Wedmore in Nineteenth Century (1878) and Art 

 Journal ( 1881 ), and Burty's monograph ( 1879). 



Mcsagna, a town in Southern Italy, 12 miles 

 SW. of Brindisi, grows good olive-oil. Pop. 9601. 



Mescmbryaceae, or FICOIDE.E, a natural 

 order of calycifloral dicotyledonous plants, com- 

 prising succulent shrubs, herbaceous perennials, 

 and annuals with opposite leaves. In many species 

 the latter are of curious and fantastic shape, 

 especially in those of the typical genus Mesembry- 

 anthemum. The order contains sixteen genera 

 and over 400 species, the larger number of the 

 latter l>elonging to Mesembryanthemum. They 

 are inhabitants of warm regions chiefly, most of 

 them being found at the Cape of Good Hope and 

 in the South Sea Islands. The typical penus is 

 also the most important in regard to utility and 

 beauty. It furnishes the Ice Plant (q.v.) of our 

 gardens, and many other beautiful and curiotrs 



