SHtAHS 



SHIELDS 



397 



Earl of Morton to the ancestor of the Earls of Zet- 

 land, but the present earl's property here is small. 



See LEBWICK, FOULA, BROCKS, CROFTER, and for the 

 old Udal tenures, ALLODIUM ; Scott's Pirate; Tudor's 

 Orkwit and Shetland (1883); Edmondston's Shetland 

 Gloadrv (1866); and other works by Brand (1701), 

 Sheriff Rampini (1884), and the Rev. J. Russell (1887). 



Shiulis. SHtiTES. 



Shibboleth (properly Shibbo'leth, Heb., 'ear 

 of corn,' or 'stream ), the test- word used by the 

 Gileadites under Jephthah after their victory over 

 the Ephraimites, recorded in Judges, xii. 6. The 

 latter could not pronounce the sh, and, by saying 

 .vi I >1 mli't 1 1 , betrayed themselves, and were slaughtered 

 at the ford. All those Hebrew names in the Old 

 Testament which commence with the A have now, 

 through the inability of the Sejrtnagint to render 

 this sound in Greek, become familiar to us, through 

 the versions that flowed from it, as beginning with 

 the simple * e.g. Simon, Samaria, Solomon, Saul, 

 &c. The word Shibboleth is still used to mean a 

 test of opinions and manners. 



ShU'l. LOCH, a fresh-water lake in the west of 

 Scotland, on the boundary between Moidart in 

 Inverness-shire and Ardgour in Argyllshire, 18 miles 

 W. of. Fort- William. It extends 17J miles south- 

 westward, is 1 mile broad, is overhung by moun- 

 tains nearly 3000 feet high, abounds in fish, and 

 communicates with the sea by the river Shiel and 

 salt-water Loch Moidart. Prince Charles Edward 

 was here, a fugitive, in 1746 ; and Queen Victoria 

 in 1873. At the head is Glenfinnan (q.v. ). 



Shield, a portion of defensive armour held in 

 the left hand or worn on the left arm to ward off 

 sword-strokes or missiles. The earliest known 

 shields date from the close of the bronze age. They 

 are circular and flat, or but slightly convex, with 

 a central boss, under and across which the handle 

 is fixed. The material is thin beaten bronze, 

 strengthened by a turned-over rim round the cir- 

 cumference, and by the surface being embossed 

 with concentric circles alternating with circular 

 rows of small bosses. The Greek shield of the 

 Homeric period was also of bronze, circular, 

 convex, and often ornamented with devices. 

 The Etruscan shield of bronze, of which there 

 is a fine specimen in the British Museum, is also 

 circular and ornamented in concentric bands of 

 embossed work round the central lx>ss. The Roman 

 infantry used a light round shield about three feet 

 in diameter, and the cavalry carried a smaller 

 buckler also of a round form covered with hide, 

 while the spearmen had a large oblong convex 

 shield of wood and leather strengthened with iron, 

 which covered the whole body. The early Ger- 

 manic shields were also large, oblong, and convex, 

 and Tacitus, in the 1st century of our era, mentions 

 that they were painted with gay colours and devices. 

 These are supposed to have been the precursors of the 

 heraldic devices on the shields of the middle ages. 

 From the downfall of the Roman empire to the 

 10th and llth centuries there seems to have been 

 considerable variety in the forms of the shields in 

 use among European nations, though the circular 

 shield was perhaps the most common. The shields 

 of the Anglo-Saxon invaders of England and of the 

 Scandinavian vikings were mostly circular. But the 

 Norman shield of the llth century was kite-shaped 

 (see BAVEUX TAPESTRY), anil the triangular form 

 continued to prevail till the 15th century, becoming 

 gradually shorter and more obtusely pointed, or 

 heater-shaped. After the 14th century the small 

 round buckler came into fashion, and retained its 

 place till the 16th century. By this time the use of 

 firearms had made the shield practically useless in 

 warfare. The large shields used at tournaments 

 anil pageant shields and bucklers were often highly 



ornamented, some of the latter being among the 

 most beautiful works of art of the middle ages. 

 Round shields or targets, covered with hide or 

 leather, ornamented with brass studs and bosses, 

 were used in the Highlands of Scotland down to 

 1745. Many savage tribes still use shields of wood 

 or hide of various forms. For the heraldic shields, 

 see HERALDRY, Vol. V. p. 660. 



Shield, WILLIAM, composer, was born 5th March 

 1748, at Swalwell in Durham, and was apprenticed 

 to a boat-builder ; but he studied music with zeal 

 by help of Avison, and composed anthems that 

 were sung in the cathedral of Durham ; and ere 

 long he was a conductor of concerts at Scarborough. 

 He published a comic opera, The Flitch of Bacon, 

 in 1778, and, now composer to Covent Garden 

 (1778-97), produced several other dramatic works, 

 including Rosina (1783), The Poor Soldier (1784), 

 The Woodman (1792), Two Faces under a Hood 

 (1807). But he is best known by his songs, 

 amongst which are 'The Heaving of the Lead,' 

 ' The Arethusa, ' ' The Thorn, " The Ploughboy , ' and 

 'The Wolf.' The tune of 'Auld Lang Syne,' as 

 now sung ( based apparently on an old Scotch tune ), 

 was introduced into his nosina; the authorship 

 both of it and of ' Comin' through the Rye ' have 

 even been claimed for Shield. In 1807 he published 

 An Introduction to Harmony (2 vole.), in 1&\T Rudi- 

 ini ntx of Thorough Bass, and several collections of 

 glees, ballads, trios, &c. In 1792 he travelled and 

 studied in France and Italy. At his death, 25th 

 January 1 829, he was Master of the King's Musicians. 

 See a ' Memorial ' published in 1891 in connection 

 with the erection of a tombstone in his native parish. 



Shields, NORTH, a seaport and market-town 

 of Northumberland, situated on the north bank of 

 the Tyne, near the mouth of that river, 8 miles 

 ENE. of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. In the 13th 

 century the germ of the present town was a 

 collection of huts or sheds temporarily used by the 

 fishermen of the Tyne. These were called ' sheles," 

 a name which has since been corrupted into 

 'Shields.' The prior of Tynemouth previous to 

 1279 built twenty-six houses and a quay here, but 

 the burgesses of Newcastle, who claimed an 

 exclusive right to the trade of the Tyne, frustrated 

 his design to establish a town where, so they con- 

 tended, 'no town ought to be.' For five hundred 

 years North Shields, oppressed by Newcastle, 

 remained a mere village, but during the 19th 

 century its development lias been rapid. The town 

 is without any architectural character, the streets 

 being monotonously plain, and, near the river, 

 narrow and dingy. The principal public buildings 

 and institutions are the town-hall (1844), the 

 theatre-royal, the covered market, the free library 

 and museum, the Tyne Sailors' Home ( 1856 ), and the 

 Master Mariners' Asylum ( 1837-38). North Shields 

 is within the parish of Tynemouth. There are live 

 churches in the town (four Established Church 

 and one Roman Catholic Church) and seventeen 

 chapels. The Northumberland Park (in which 

 are the remains of St Leonard's Hospital) formed 

 part of Spital Dene, and abuts on the Tyne- 

 mouth Road, covering an area of about 17 acres. 

 The mouth of the Tyne forms an important har- 

 bour ; the depth of water on the oar at low- 

 water (spring- tides) is 20 feet; at high-water, 37. 

 Within the borough are two extensive docks the 

 Northumberland (opened 1857) and the Albert 

 Edward (opened 1884), the one having an area of 

 55 acres, the other of 24. Upwards of 2J million 

 tons of coal and coke were shipped from these 

 docks in 1890. The principal imports are corn, 

 timber, and esparto grass. About 101,000 tons of 

 shipping are registered at the port of North Shields. 

 There is much building and repairing of steam and 



