881 



SHELL 



SHELLEY 



Cninrlglit IBM, 1H)I. and 

 1WO In Ule U. S. bj J. B. 

 Lippiacoti Oompfltoj. 



base to give rotation, instead of the metal studs 

 or lead-coating formerly used for that purpose. 

 The bursting charge is at the base of tlie {use- 

 hole, and the hen. I is tilled with wood. Fig. 2 i 

 is the section of a common shell. Shells of all sizes 

 are constructed on the same principles. 



]'nlliser's shells have sharp-pointed heads, no 

 fuse-holes, and very thick walls. They are cast 

 head downwards in thick metal moulds. Their 

 beads are thus chilled, and become hard enough 

 to pierce ship's armour. In passing through llir 

 armour the bursting charge is exploded, so that no 

 fuse is needed. 



The Lyddite shell, used in warfare at Omdurman 

 ( 1898 ) for the lirst time, and with great effect, is a 

 steel-cased shell filled with lyddite, which U a 

 special preparation of picrate of potash. It is 

 claimed for this shell tliat it explodes with such 

 force as to ensure destruction to any living tiling 

 within 200 or 300 yards. Used with the new 

 breech-loading howitzer it is certainly a most 

 effective weapon of war. See also CANNON, CASE- 

 SHOT, GRENADE, PALLISER, &c. 



Shelley, PERCY BYSSHE, one of the greatest of 

 English poets, was born on 4th August 1792, at 

 Field Place, near Hoi-sham, Sus- 

 sex, the eldest child of Timothy 

 Shelley ami his wife Elizabeth, 

 daughter of Charles Pilfold of Effingham, Surrey. 

 The family was old and honourable. Bysshe 

 Shelley, the poet's grandfather, married two 

 heiresses, acquired a jjreat property, and in 1806 

 received a baronetcy ; in 1815 he died. Percy was 

 a boy of much sensibility, quick imagination, and 

 generous heart j physically of a refined type of 

 beauty, blue-eyed, golden-haired. At ten years 

 old he became a pupil of Dr Greenlaw's at Sion 

 House School, Isleworth, where he made some pro- 

 gress in classics, listened with delight to lectures 

 on natural science, and endured much rough hand- 

 ling from his schoolfellows. In 1804 he passed to 

 Eton, where Dr Cioodall was then head-master. He 

 continued his study of the classics, read eagerly 

 Lucretius and Pliny, became a disciple of the 18th- 

 century sceptical and revolutionary writers, pored 

 over Godwin's Political Justice, filled his imagina- 

 tion with the wonders of modern science, resisted 

 the system of school-fagging, and held aloof from 

 the throng of the schoolboys, who in turn made 

 him the object of systematic persecution. While 

 still at Eton he wrote Znxtrozzi, a crude romance 

 in the. manner of M. (. Lewis, which, published in 

 April 1810, brought him 4i> ; and before the end 

 of that year a second romance, St Irvyne, or the 

 Rosicrucian, appeared ; it is as absurd as its pre- 

 decessor in its sentimental extravagance, its pseudo- 

 passion, and mock sublimity. He assisted his 

 emi-in Thomas Medwin in a' long poem on the 

 subject of The Wandering Jew (1810), and issued 

 with some fellow-rhymer a volume of verse (now 

 known only through reviews), Original Poetry by 

 Victor and Cazire. Possibly his collaborator was 

 In- cousin Harriet (trove, whom Shelley loved with 

 a boy's passion. Her parents, alarmed by Shellex 'i 

 religious scepticism, put a stop to the correspond- 

 ence between the cousins. In April 1810 Shelley 

 matriculated at University College, Oxford, and 

 in Michaelmas term entered on residence. His 

 chief friend was a student from Durham, Thomas 

 Jeffer-'in ll"_';_'. wlm ha-s left a most vivid account 

 of Shelley's Oxford life. Hogg w as shrewd, sar- 

 castic, uniinpa.-sioned, and withal a genuine lover 

 nf literature. He aided Shelley in putting forth 

 a slender volume of poems, originally written by 

 Shelley with a serious intention, now retouched 

 witli a view to burlesque Posthumnu.i Friiyments 

 n/ Muri/iint \,,'/n,/.v,H -the pretended authon-- 

 being a mad washerwoman who had attempted the 



life of the king. In February 1811 a small pam- 

 phlet by Shelley, entitled The Necessity of A 1heism f 

 \\.i- printed. When it was offered for sale in 

 Oxford, the college authorities conceived it their 

 duty to interfere ; Shelley mid llojj^ were interro- 

 gated respecting its authorship, and hating refused, 

 to reply, were expelled from University College 

 (March 25, 1811) for contumacy and for declining 

 to disavow the pamphlet. For a time the friends 

 lived together in London lodgings; then Ho;:g 

 departeo to the country and Shelley remained 

 alone. In his solitude he found some pleasure in 

 the society of a schoolfellow of his sisters at (Map- 

 ham, Harriet VVestbrook, a fresh and pretty girl of 

 sixteen, daughter of a retired coffee-house keeper. 

 She moved under the tutelage of an unmarried 

 sister nearly twice her own age. When summer 

 came Shelley was with cousins in Wales ; letters 

 reached him from Harriet in London complaining 

 of domestic persecution, and speaking of suicide as 

 a possible means of escape ; a letter followed in 

 which she threw herself on Shelley's protection, 

 and proposed to fly with him from her home. 

 Shelley hastened to see her, but at the same time 

 assured a cousin that he did not love Harriet, 

 though he was prepared to devote himself to her 

 through a sentiment of chivalry. On meeting him 

 she avowed her passion, and he left her with a 

 promise that if she summoned him he would come 

 at her call and make her his. The summons came 

 speedily ; Shelley and Harriet, aged nineteen and 

 sixteen, took coach for Edinburgh, and were there 

 formally united as man and wife on 28th August 

 1811. He assured his bride that, in accordance, 

 with principles which he firmly held, the union of 

 man and wife might be dissolved as soon as ever 

 it ceased to contribute to their mutual happiness. 



Coming from Edinburgh to York, where Hogg 

 resided, the young married pair were joined by 

 Eliza Westbrook, the elder sister. Ill conduct of 

 Hogg towards Harriet caused a temporary aliena- 

 tion between the friends. The Shelleys with Eliza 

 moved to Keswick, where Southey's presence was 

 an attraction. Southey was kind and helpful, but 

 his lack of revolutionary ardour and his indiffer- 

 ence to metaphysical speculation displeased Shelley. 

 The young enthusiast found a monitor more to his 

 liking in Godwin, with whom he now corresponded 

 as a disciple with a master. To apply at once his 

 ideas of reforming the world he resolved to visit 

 Ireland, and there advocate Catholic emancipation 

 and Repeal of the Union. On reaching Dublin he 

 printed and scattered abroad an Address to the 

 Irish People, written at Keswick. This was soon 

 followed by a second pamphlet, Projtosals for an 

 Association of Philanthropists. He spoke at a 

 large public meeting from the same platform with 

 O'Connell, and made the acquaintance of Curran. 

 Discouraged by the small results of his efforts, and 

 yielding to Godwin's advice, he left Ireland (April 

 4, 1812), and after some wanderings in Wales 

 found rest in a cottage at Lynmouth, then a lonely' 

 fishing-village. Here he received as a visitor Miss 

 Kitchener, a Sussex schoolmistress, whom both 

 before and for a time after his marriage he had 

 idealised into all that is most heroic and exalted in 

 womanhood, anil with whom he was ere long more 

 than disenchanted. He wrote a vigorous pamphlet 

 on behalf of liberty of printing the Letter to Lord 

 Kllmborough amused himselt with circulating, by 

 means of bottles and boxes set afloat in the Channel 

 and by fire-balloon, copies of his satirical norm The 

 Devils Walk and his revolutionary broadsheet 

 Declaration of Rights, and was nt work on his 

 Queen Mali. His servant, having been found post- 

 ing up at Harnstaple the offensive broadsheet, was 

 imprisoned, and Shelley crossed to Wales. He took 

 up his abode at Tremadoc, where he was much 



