PEOPLE'S PALACE 



PEPIN 



39 



Peony 



offifinnlis), a native of the mountain- woods of the 

 mm tli of Europe, with carmine or blood-red flowers. 

 A variety with double flowers is common. The 

 White Peony (P. albiflora) is another favourite 

 s|M3cies, of which there are now many beautiful 

 varieties which have originated in trench and 

 Belgian gardens. It is a native of the central 

 parts of Asia. Its flowers are fragrant. The Tree 

 Peony, Chinese Peony, or Moutan Peony (P. 

 Moutan), is a half-shrubby plant, a native of China 



and Japan. 

 In favourable 

 circumstances 

 it attains a 

 very large size, 

 and a height of 

 12 feet or more. 

 It has long 

 been cultivated 

 in China and 

 Japan ; and is 

 now also a 

 favourite orna- 

 mental plant in 

 the south of 

 Europe, but is 

 too tender to 

 endure the 

 climate of 

 Britain, except 

 in the most 

 favoured parts ; 

 it is, however, 

 often to be met 

 with in con- 

 servatories, 

 Ix-ing of a very distinct and ornamental character 

 when in flower. It flowers in spring. The 

 varieties in cultivation are numerous. It is pro- 

 pagated by cuttings and also by grafting. The 

 roots of most of the peonies have a nauseous smell 

 when fresh, and those of the Common Peony were 

 in high repute among the ancients as an anti- 

 MMnodie hence the name Peony, from Paion, a 

 Creek name of Apollo, the god of medicine; but 

 their medicinal properties are now utterly dis- 

 regarded. The globose, shining black seeds of 

 j MM mies were formerly, in some countries, strung 

 into necklaces, and hung round the necks of chil- 

 dren, us mniili/ii'' necklaces, to help them in cutting 

 their teeth. 



People's Palace, an institution at Mile End 

 Road, intended as a centre for amusement and 

 recreation, and of association as well, for the 

 inhabitants of the East End of London. It com- 

 prise!! a large hall, technical schools, art-galleries, 

 concert- rooms, a library, reading and recreation 

 rooms, swininiing-bath, gymnasium, &c. It is the 

 revival anil development of an idea of the Beau- 

 mont Philosophical Institute ; but the idea was first 

 amplified and made really popular in Mr Besant's 

 novel. All Sorts and Conditions of Men (1882). 

 The buildings were inaugurated by the Queen, 

 May 14, 1SS7, and work was begun on 3d October. 

 The (jueeii'H Hall, which is 130 feet long by 75 feet 

 wide, can seat 25(X) people. Around the hall are 

 the statues of twenty-two queens, and a large 

 organ at the north end. The technical and handi- 

 craft schools in 1890 were attended by . r >000 pupils ; 

 they owe their foundation to the Draper*' Company 

 of London, which has contributed in all aiiout 

 t'M.OOO to the People's Palace. Cheap concerts, at 

 from Id. to 3d. admission, have been well patron- 

 ised, as also the picture exhibitions, swimming- 

 bath, gymnasium, ami dance*. The evening classes 

 attracted in 18!W an attendance of 950, for such 

 -uhject* as elocution, physiology, drawing, machine 

 construction, bookbinding, and tailors' cutting. 



See Besant's All Sort* and Conditions of Men; Sir 

 E. Hay Currie's Working of the People's Palace; Nine- 

 teenth Century, February, 1890; Century, June 1890. 



Peoria, capital of Peoria county, Illinois, on 

 the west bank of the Illinois River, at the outlet of 

 Peoria Lake, 161 miles by rail SW. of Chicago. 

 It is an important railway centre the Union 

 Dep6t accommodates ten of the railways that meet 

 here and is connected by steamboat navigation 

 with the Mississippi and by canal with Lake 

 Michigan. It contains a Roman Catholic cathedral, 

 a high school, a medical college, and three hospitals. 

 The streets are wide, and there are ten parks, the 

 largest Jefferson ( 35 acres ). Mines of bituminous 

 coal supply the city's numerous manufactories. 

 These include especially the great distilleries, for 

 which the place is noted, and breweries, foundries, 

 and manufactories of flour, oatmeal, and starch, 

 glucose, pottery, &c. In the lower city are large 

 stockyards. Pop. ( 1880 ) 29,259 ; ( 1900 ) ">t>, KM). 



Peperino, a variety of tuff, met with in the 

 Alban Hills near Rome. It is dirty grayish brown 

 to white, earthy, and granular, and contains 

 crystals of mica, leucite, augite, &c., with frag- 

 ments of limestone, basalt, and leucite-porphyry. 



Pepin, or PIPPIN, surnamed ' the Short,' king 

 of the Franks, was the son of Charles Martel and 

 the father of Charlemagne, and founder of the 

 Frankish dynasty of the Carlovingians (q.v.). 

 Charles Martel shortly before he died divided his 

 kingdom between his two sons, Carloman and Pepin, 

 CarToman taking the German part, and Pepin the 

 Neustrian or territories in northern France ; still 

 they were only rulers (dukes) in the name of the 

 Merovingian king. Carloman, after six years of 

 office or rule, was persuaded by the English monk 

 Boniface to enter (747) the monastery of Monte 

 Cassino ; his duchy passed over to Pepin. St 

 Boniface in 751 crowned Pepin king of the Franks 

 at Soissons, Childeric, the last of the faineant 

 Merovingians, having been deposed and his very 

 able substitute chosen king in his stead. Pepin 

 rested his power in great part upon the bishops 

 and monks; accordingly, when Pope Stephen III. 

 was hard pressed by the Longobards (Lombards) 

 under Aistulf, he came (754) to France to solicit 

 help from the new king of the Franks. Pepin led 

 an army into Italy, compelled Aistulf to become 

 his vassal, gave to the pope the title of exarch (of 

 Ravenna), a title of the Roman empire, and so, 

 by this 'Donation of Pepin,' laid the foundation 

 of the temporal sovereignty of the po^es ; himself 

 he made ' patrician of the city of Rome' all this in 

 756. The church in his own dominions he placed 

 under the supremacy of the pope. The rest of his 

 life was spent in semi-crusading wars. Before 

 going to Italy he had already attempted to convert 

 the heathen Saxons at the sword's point ; he went 

 on with the ' holy ' work in 757. Then he drove 

 the Saracens back over the Pyrenees (758) and 

 made (760-768) repeated incursions into Aquitania, 

 though he never permanently conquered it. He 

 died in 768, and nis sons Carloman and Charle- 

 magne divided his territories between them. 

 There were other rulers of this name amongst 

 the Carlovingians. PEPIN OF LANDEN (died 639), 

 with the help of Bishop Arnulph of Metz, was 

 appointed major domtts or viceroy of Austrasia 

 under Lothair II. PEPIN OF HfiKlsTAL(died 714), 

 his grandson, succeeded as mayor of the palace in 

 Austrasia, to this added after 687 the similar vice- 

 royalties of Neustria and Burgundy, and called 

 himself 'Duke and Prince of the Franks.' He 

 was their real ruler during the reigns of the 

 puppet kings Theodoric, Ludwig III., Childebert 

 IIL, and Dagobert III., and fought successfully 

 against the Frisians, the Alemanni, and the 



