MINOTAUR 



544O 



MINSTRELS' GALLERY 



Minotaur. In Greek mythol- 

 ogy, a monster with the head of a 

 bull and the body of a man. It was 

 the offspring of Pasiphae, wife of 

 Minos, king of Crete, and a bull 

 sent to Minos from Poseidon the 

 sea-god. The monster was kept in 



Minotaur. Sculpture representing 



Theseus slaying the Minotaur, by 



C. Ramey 



Loun, Paris 



a labyrinth constructed by Dae- 

 dalus (q.v.), and a yearly tribute 

 of seven youths and seven maidens 

 from Athens was given it to 

 devour. Theseus, however, came 

 with one contingent of youths and 

 maidens, and with the help of 

 Ariadne slew the monster and 

 found his way through the laby- 

 rinth. See Ariadne ; Labyrinth ; 

 Theseus. 



Minotaur. Name-ship of a class 

 of three British cruisers, viz. Mino- 

 taur, Shannon, and Defence, built 

 1906-9. They were 520 ft. long, 

 74 J ft. in beam, had engines of 

 27,000 h.p., giving a speed of 23 

 knots ; their displacement was 



H.M.S. Minotaur. British cruiser, built 1906-9, which 

 took part in the battle of Jutland 



Crlbb, Southsea 



14,600 tons ; armament, four 9'2- 

 in., ten 7'5-in. guns, and three tor- 

 pedo tubes ; and armour 4 to 6 ins. 

 on the side, 1 ins. on the pro- 

 tective deck, and 7 his. on the gun 

 positions. Another Minotaur was 

 an ironclad cruiser, built in 1863. 

 See Figurehead. 



; Minsk. Government and town of 

 Russia. The former was part of the 

 ancient Lithuania, and is bounded 

 N. by the government of Vitebsk, 

 E. by Mohilev and Chernigov, S. by 

 Kiev and Volhynia, W. by Grodno. 

 Its area is 35,000 sq. m. In the N. W. 

 it is high and dry, hi the S.E. low 

 and swampy. 



Minsk, the capital of the govern- 

 ment, stands on the Svisloch, a 

 tributary of the Beresina, and the 

 Brest-Litovsk and Libau-Romny 

 rlys., 275 m. N.E. of Warsaw. 

 Considerable trade is done in flax, 

 hemp, corn, timber, and leather. 

 Fighting took place here in the 

 Great War, and between the Poles 

 and Bolshevist troops in 1920. The 

 former, after capturing the town, 

 abandoned it in Oct. A peace 

 conference was held here in Aug. of 

 that year, but on its breakdown 

 negotiations were resumed at Riga. 

 Pop. 117,000. 



Minster (Lat. monaslerium, 

 monastery). Term originally ap- 

 plied to a church to which a mon- 

 astic fraternity was attached, as 

 hi the case of Sherborne, Wim- 

 borne, and Beverley minsters. 

 Latterly it is more loosely used for 

 the principal church or the cathe- 

 dral of a city, as York Minster. 

 The corresponding German term 

 Miinster is employed for cathedrals 

 hi the Protestant cities of Switzer- 

 land and the Rhineland. See 

 Cathedral. 



Minster OR MINSTER-IN-SHEP- 

 PEY. Village of Kent. It is on the 

 island of Sheppey, 3J m. from 

 Sheerness, with which it is con- 

 nected by a light rly. S. Mary's 

 Church, part of which is Saxon, is a 

 fine building. 

 There was a 

 convent here hi 

 the Middle Ages, 

 of which there 

 are some few 

 remains. Oysters 

 are cultivated, 

 and Minster is 

 visited by plea- 

 sure-seekers. 

 Pop. 3,200. 



Minster OR 

 MINSTER -IN- THA- 

 NET. Village of 

 Kent. It is 4 m. 

 from Ramsgate, 

 with a station on 

 the S.E. & C. Rly. 

 S. Mary's Church 

 has beautiful Norman and Early 

 English work, the nave, tower, and 

 miserere stalls being especially 

 notable. About 700 a monastery 

 was founded here, and later an- 

 other, dedicated to SS. Peter and 

 Paul, was established. Both were 

 destroyed by the Danes, and the pre- 



sent church is the successor of the 

 one belonging to the older monas- 

 tery. Pop. 2,400. * 



Minster Lovell. Parish of Ox- 

 fordshire, England, on the river 

 Windrush, between Witney and 

 Akeman Street. The ruined 

 moated manor house is said to 

 have been built by William, llth 

 Baron Lovel, and there is a legend 

 that his descendant, Francis, 13th 

 baron and 1st Viscount Lovel, a 

 Yorkist, died of starvation hi a 

 secret chamber while hiding after 

 the battle of Stoke in 1487. A skele- 

 ton, believed to be his, was found 

 in a walled-up room in 1708. The 

 15th century Perpendicular church 

 was once a cell to the French abbey 

 of Ivry. It contains some inter- 

 esting monuments and brasses, 

 and was restored about 1865. 



Minstrel (old Fr. menestrel, one 

 who ministers). Singer or per- 

 former on a musical instrument, or 

 both, in the Middle Ages. Corre- 

 sponding with the Anglo-Saxon 

 scop or gleeman, of whom Widsith 

 (q.v.) was a type, the minstrel 

 proper, or jongleur, came to Eng- 

 land at the Norman conquest. 

 Minstrels were at first executants 

 rather than poets, though they 

 might be both. Frequently a com- 

 pany of minstrels attended on a 

 troubadour to render his work. 

 Their popularity may be gauged 

 from the frequency with which 

 they were depicted in manuscripts, 

 and by the minstrels' gallery (q.v.). 



Minstrels were largely the re- 

 tainers of noble families, and those 

 unattached were welcome guests 

 at the houses of the rich wherever 

 they wandered. The decline of 

 chivalry, the spread of the art of 

 printing, and probably also the 

 rise of the drama, combined to 

 bring about the decline of the min- 

 strel, and he drifted into one of the 

 wandering classes treated as vaga- 

 bonds and beggars hi the time of 

 Elizabeth. In the remote parts of 

 the country the minstrel lingered 

 on for some time, and Sir Walter 

 Scott in The Lay of the Last 

 Minstrel shows his minstrel singing 

 of Border chivalry as late as the 

 reign of William III. See English 

 Wayfaring Life hi the Middle Ages, 

 J. J. Jusserand, Eng. trans. L. T. 

 Smith, 1891 ; and a chapter on 

 The Decay of Minstrelsy in The 

 History of English Poetry, 6 vols., 

 W. J. Courthope, 1895-1910. ( * 



Minstrels' Gallery. In the 

 medieval mansion, a gallery or 

 balcony (q.v.) projecting into the 

 hall (q.i.), for the use of the pro- 

 fessional minstrels attached to the 

 household. Underneath was usually 

 a passage, screened off, and com- 

 municating with the kitchen and 

 buttery. The gallery was a common 



