STAFFA 



STAFFORDSHIRE 



671 



belong to the Indian Staff Corps. Officers of the 

 Army Service Corps also are now appointed to 

 the general staff at home. The Personal Staff 

 consists of the aides-de-camp and military secre- 

 taries to general officers. These officers are 

 appointed, within certain limits, by the generals 

 whom they serve. The Regimental Staff of a 

 battalion of infantry or regiment of cavalry con- 

 sists of the lieutenant-colonel commanding, the 

 adjutant, quartermaster, surgeon, veterinary sur- 

 geon, and transport officer. 



Staff Corps During the ware of Wellington the 

 generals and star!' officers were aided by a staff 

 corps composed of intelligent officers and men who 

 performed engineering and siege duties, made 

 reconnaissances, and executed other necessary 

 labours for which regimental officers or soldiers 

 were unsuited. This corps died out after the 

 peace. British officers serving on the permanent 

 Indian establishment join what is called the Indian 

 Staff Corps, and are appointed from it to do duty 

 with native regiments, or to fill other positions 

 either military or civil. Their promotion goes on 

 according to length of service. 



In the British Navy the staff of a fleet consists 

 of the Flag-officer (q.v. ), the Flag-lieutenant (q.v.), 

 and a Secretary of the Navy (q.v.); also of the 

 inspector-general of hospitals (see ARMY, p. 438; 

 NAVY, p. 422), and an inspector of machinery. 



SlaflTa (Scand., 'pillar-island'), a celebrated 

 islet on the west of Scotland, lies 4 miles SW. of 

 Ulva, 6 N. by E. of lona, and 54 W. of Oban. It 

 forms an oval uneven tableland, rising at its highest 

 to 144 feet above the water, li mile in circum- 

 ference, and 71 acres in area. In the north-east, 

 in the lee of the prevailing winds, is a tract of 

 low shore, stretching out in Tieaches, anil forming a 

 landing-place ; but elsewhere the coast is girt with 



Fingal's Cave, Staffa. 



cliffs from 84 to 112 feet high. Regarded in section, 

 the rocks show themselves to be of three kinds 

 conglomerated tufa, forming the basement; colum- 

 nar basalt, arranged in colonnades, which form 

 the facades and the walls of the chief caves ; and 

 amorphous basalt, overlying the columnar basalt, 

 nut pierced here and there by the ends of columns 

 and by angular blocks. The most remarkable 

 feature of the island is Fingal's or the Great Cave, 

 the entrance to which is formed by columnar 

 ranges on each side, supporting a lofty arch. The 

 entrance is 42 feet wide, and 66 feet high, and the 

 length of the cave is 227 feet. The floor of this 

 marvellous chamber is the sea, which throws up 



flashing and many-coloured lights against the pen- 

 dent columns, whitened with calcareous stalag- 

 mite, that form the roof, and against the pillared 

 walls of the cave. First described (in Pennant's 

 Tour) by Sir Joseph Banks, after a visit in 1772, 

 Staffa has since been frequently visited among 

 others by Wordsworth, Keats, Scott, Mendelssohn, 

 Tennyson, and (1847) Queen Victoria. 



Staff College. See MILITARY SCHOOLS. 



Stafford* the county town of Staffordshire, on 

 the left bank of the Sow, 3 miles above its junc- 

 tion with the Trent, and 25 miles SSE. of Crewe, 

 29 NNW. of Birmingham, and 133 NW. of London. 

 St Mary's Church, formerly collegiate, is a good 

 cruciform structure, with an octangular tower. 

 Transition Norman to Decorated in style, it was 

 restored by Scott in 1844-47 at a cost of 30,000, 

 and in 1878 received a bust of Stafford's chief 

 worthy, Izaak Walton, who was baptised in its 

 font. St Chad's, Norman, was very thoroughly 

 restored during 1855-85 ; and there are also King 

 Edward's grammar-school (1550; rebuilt 1862), th 

 town-hall (1798), a free library ( 1882), the William 

 Salt Library (1874), the Clement Wragge Museum, 

 the infirmary (1766), the county lunatic asylum 

 (1818), &c. Stafford Castle, finely situated on an 

 eminence outside the town, which commands a 

 magnificent view, is an unfinished castellated pile. 

 It was built by Sir G. Jerningham in 1810-15, 

 successor to a Saxon fortress of the Princess Ethel- 

 fleda, and to a later Norman stronghold, which 

 was finally taken by the parliamentarians in 1643, 

 and demolished. Boot and shoe making is the 

 staple industry, and Stafford is an important rail- 

 way centre. Chartered by King John, it returned 

 two members from Edward I.'s reign till 1885, 

 when the representation was reduced to one and 

 the parliamentary boundary 

 extended. Pop. (1851) 11,829; 

 (1871) 14,437; (1891) 20,270. 

 See works by J. Masfen 

 (1852) and J. L. Cheny 

 (1890). 



Stafford, WILLIAM 

 HOWARD, VISCOUNT (1614- 

 80), a Roman Catholic noble- 

 man, beheaded on Tower Hill 

 as a victim of the perjuries of 

 Titus Gates (q.v.). 



Staffordshire, a west 

 midland county of England, 

 bounded by Cheshire, Derby- 

 shire, Leicestershire, War- 

 wickshire, Worcestershire, 

 and Salop. Measuring 54 by 

 35 miles, it has an area of 

 1169 sq. m. or 748,433 acres. 

 The only hilly district is in 

 the north, where the wild 

 'Moorlands,' the southern 

 extremity of the Pennine 

 range, extend from north- 

 west to south-east in long ridges, separated liy 

 deeply-cut valleys, and subside as they near the 

 valley of the Trent. Several points exceed 1500 

 feet above sea-level, but Axe Edge Hill (1756) 

 falls just within Derbyshire. The rest of the 

 county is gently undulating, with the low upland 

 of Cannock Chase in the centre. The Trent, 

 flowing first south-eastward through the interior, 

 and then north-eastward along the Derbyshire 

 border, is the chief river, and receives the Sow, 

 Tame, Blythe, and Dove. New Red Sandstone 

 occupies nearly three-fourths of the total area ; 

 and in the north and south are the Pottery 

 and Dudley coalfields, which, besides containing 



