756 



STOUUBRIDGE 



STRABO 



Stonrbridge, a market-town of Worcester- 



-Inii-. on tin 1 St., nr. at the border of Staffordshire 

 and the Black Country, 4J miles S. l.y \V. of 

 Dudley and 12 W. by S. of Birmingham. The 

 famous Fireclay (q. v. ) U said to have been dis- 

 covered about 1655 by wandering gla&smakers from 

 Lorraine ; and Stonrimdge now has glass, earthen- 

 ware, and firebrick works, besides manufactures 

 of iron, nails, chains, leather, &c. The grammar- 

 school (1552), at which Samuel Johnson passed a 

 twelvemonth, was rebnilt in 1862 ; and tuere are 

 also a corn exchange (1854), county court (1864), 

 and mechanics' institute. Pop. ( 1851 ) 7847 ; (1881) 

 9737; (1891)9386. 



Stourbridge Fair, Cambridge. See FAIRS. 



Stourport. H town of Worcestershire, at the 

 Stum's influx to the Severn, and the terminus of 

 the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, 14 

 miles by rail N. by W. of Worcester and 4 SSW. 

 of Kidderminster. Dating from 1770, it is a clean, 

 neat place, with manufactures of carpets, iron, 

 glass, &c. Pop. ( 1851 ) 2923 ; ( 1891 ) 3504. 



Stout liriHl', in the law of Scotland, means 

 robbery committed in a dwelling-house. 



Stove. See WARMING. 



Stove-plants is another name for hothouse 

 plants plants which require artificial heat to make 

 them grow and keep healthy in the colder tem- 

 perate climes. They may be practically classified 

 according to the kind and degree of heat required 

 from those suitable to the dry hothouse to those 

 fitted to thrive in a cool greenhouse ; from tropical 

 orchids to hardy heaths. See PLANT-HOUSES, and 

 the articles on the several species of plants. 



StOW, JOHN, one of the earliest and most dili- 

 gent collectors of English antiquities, was born in 

 London in the year 1525. He was brought up to 

 his father's traJe of a tailor in Cornhill, but about 

 his fortieth year abandoned it for antiquarian pur- 

 suits with a noble devotion which ought to have 

 ensured him an old age of ease and honour, but 

 which brought him instead only want and beggary. 

 In hi- eightieth year he was rewarded with letters- 

 patent from James I. authorising him to become 

 a mendicant, or, as it is expressed, ' to collect 

 amongst our loving subjects tneir voluntary con- 

 tributions and kind gratuities." He died f>th 

 April 1605, and was buried in the parisli 

 church of St Andrew Undershaft, where his 

 monument of terra-cotta, erected at the expense 

 of his widow, may still l>e seen. Stow's reverence 

 for the institutions of the past caused him to be 

 suspected of a secret leaning toward po|>cry. The 

 principal works of Stow are his Summitry of 

 ItiKjIish Chronicles, first published in 1561, and 

 subsequently reprinted every two or three years, 

 with a con ti nimtion to the date of each new pub- 

 lication ; Annul*, or a General Chronicle of Eng- 

 land ( 1'iHO) ; and, most important of all, the invalu- 

 able .s'wnvi/ <>f Linn/mi inn! IT* stiniiixtcr ( 159H), an 

 account of the history and antiquities of the two 

 cities for six centuries, together with their muni- 

 cipal institutions and forms of government. Be- 

 sides these original works Stow assisted in the 

 continuation of Holinshed's Chronicle, Speght's 

 edition of Chaucer, \c. His invaluable alrinnr- 

 anda to Three r'iftfent/i I'fiituri/ I'lironirlfn was 

 printed with the text of these by James Gairdner 

 for the Camden Society in I SHI. There is a me- 

 moir prefixed to tli m|M-iidious edition of the 



Surrey (1842) by W. J. Thorns. 



Stowe, HARRIET BEECH KR. See BEECIIKR. 



stuwrll. \VII.MAM SCOTT, LORD, the eldest 



brother of Lord Eldon (q.v. ), was liorn at Hi-worth. 

 Durham, 17th October 1745. He was educated at 

 Newcastle, went to Oxford in 1761, and became 



a college tutor. In 1779 he took the degree oi 

 D.C.L., removed to London, and was calleu to the 

 bar in 1780. Dr Johnson introduced him to the 

 Literary Club. As a barrister at Doctors' Com- 

 mons he obtained a large practice, and his pro- 

 motion was rapid. In 1788 he was appointed 

 judge in the Consistory Court, knighted, and 

 nominated a privy councillor. In 1798 he became 

 judge of the Court of Admiralty. Both as an 

 ecclesiastical and admiralty judge he won high 

 distinction. He wrote no systematic tn-atise or 

 text-book, but his judgments were admirably re- 

 ported, and supply the oest evidence of his exten- 

 sive legal learning, his sagacity, and his great 

 literary ability. He was long the highest Knjjli-h 

 authority on the law of nations. He represented 

 Oxford in the House of Commons for twenty years, 

 but he took no part in the business of parliament, 

 although, like his brother, he was a zealous sup- 

 porter of the Conservative party and the estab- 

 lished church. At the coronation of George IV. 

 he was raised to the peerage under the title of 

 Baron Stowell of Stowell Park. In 1828 he retired 

 from the bench, and on the 28th January 1836 he 

 died. See the lives of the two brothers by Surtees 

 cited at Ki.nnx. 



Stowmarkf't. a market-town of Suffolk, on 

 the dipping, 12 miles NW. of Ipswich. Pop. 

 (1801) 1761; (1891) 5304. Its fine flint work 

 church (chiefly Decorated) is surmounted by a 

 tower and spire 120 feet high, and the interior 

 contains some interesting monuments, amongst 

 them one to Dr Young Milton's tutor, and a 

 former vicar. An iron-foundry, chemical and gun- 

 cotton works the last the scene in August 1871 

 of a disastrous explosion by which twenty-three 

 persons lost their lives are in operation, whilst 

 malting and stay-making are also carried on. 

 Km kin (the commentator) and the poet Crablm 

 were educated in the town, which, too, was the 

 scene of Godwin's ministry (1778-87). See Hol- 

 lingsworth, History of Stotamarkct (1844). 



Strahaiie, a market-town of County Tyrone, 

 Ireland, on the Mourne, 14 miles bv rail S. by W. 

 of Londonderry. Its flax and grafn markets are 

 celebrated ; and it has fine Catholic, Episcopalian, 

 and Presbyterian churches, and a convent on the 

 hill above the town. Pop. 4196. 



Strabismus. See SQUINTING. 



Strabo, an ancient geographer, born at Amasia 

 in Pontus, probably about 64 B.C., although sonio 

 authorities make it ten years later. By the 

 mother's side he was of Greek descent, and also 

 closely connected with the Mithi i<lati<l,-r ; of liis 

 father's family nothing is known. How the name 

 Stralw ('squint-eyed ) must have originated is 

 obvious, but whether any of the family were so 

 called before him is uncertain. St nil* > studied under 

 the grammarian Tyrannio at Koine, under Ari-to- 

 demus at Nysa in Caria, and under (lie philosopher 

 Xenarclius cither at Koine or at Alexandria. He 

 does not appear to have followi-d any railing, hut 

 to have spent his life in travel ami study, from 

 which it may safely lie inferred that he was well 

 oil'. He was at Corinth in 29 nc., ascended 

 the Nile with .Klius ( Jallus in 24, and seems to 



have lieen settled at Koine after II A.I)., but all 



we know of the date of his death is that it was after 

 21 A.D. Of Stralto's great historical work in forty 

 seven Imoks from the lifth a continuation to his 

 own time of 1'olybius we have only a few frag- 

 ments ; but his (ifngraphita in seventeen liooks 

 has come down to us almost complete. It is a 

 work of great value in those part* especially which 

 record the results of his own extensive observation. 

 ' Westwards,* he says in a passage in the second 

 book, ' I have travelled from Armenia to the pa.rU 



