PENSACOLA 



Pensacola. City and port of 

 entry of Florida, U.S.A., the co. 

 seat of Escambia co. The third 

 largest city in the state, it stands 

 on Pensacola Bay, about 6 m 

 from the Gulf of Mexico and 57 m. 

 E. by S. of Mobile, Alabama, and 

 is served by the Louisville and 

 Nashville and other rlys. and by 

 several lines of steamers. It has a 

 large land-locked harbour, de- 

 fended by two forts, and a navy 

 yard, and trades in coal, fish, cotton, 

 and timber. Settled by Spaniards 

 in 1696, it was alternately in the 

 hands of the French, Spaniards, 

 and British before finally being 

 acquired by the U.S.A. in 1821. In 

 1861 the Confederates held the 

 navy yard for a time. Pensacola 

 became a city in 1895. Pop. 31,000. 



Pensacola Bay. Inlet on the 

 coast of Florida, U.S.A. Escambia 

 Bay and East Bay are extensions 

 on the E. side of the bay, which is 

 12 m. long and 2 m. in average 

 breadth, and has an entrance 

 breadth of less than 1 m. Its mean 

 depth is about 30 ft. One of the 

 securest and largest harbours in 

 the Gulf of Mexico, it is a winter 

 rendezvous of the U.S. navy. 



Penshurst. Village of Kent, 

 England. It is 5 m. S.W. of Ton- 

 bridge and 33 m. from London, 

 with a station, 2 m. from the village, 

 on the S.E. & C.R. The church, 

 dating from about 1200, but much 

 restored, has some old brasses and 

 other monuments of note. The 

 village hall and club are modern. 

 Penshurst's chief glory is Pens- 

 hurst Place, which, with its park of 

 350 acres, has inspired poets from 

 the days of Ben Jonson and Waller 

 to those of E. B. Browning and 

 Swinburne. Heterogeneous in 

 architecture, with grey walls and 

 battlemented towers encrusted 

 with lichen and moss, its great 

 feudal hall is 64 ft. long, with cen- 

 tral hearth and steep, timber- 

 supported roof. 



The manor, owned once by the 

 family of Penchester or Pencestre 

 there is an effigy of Sir Stephen 

 de Penchester in the church be- 

 came the property of Sir John de 

 Pulteney (d. 1349), who built the 

 hall, Humphrey, duke of Glouces- 

 ter, and others. It passed in 1552 

 to Sir William Sidney, grandfather 

 of Sir Philip Sidney, the hero 



6O46 



Penshurst. Interior oi the banqueting hall in Penshurst 

 Place, looking towards the musicians' gallery 



of Zutphen, in the possession of 

 whose descendants it has remained 

 ever since. Pop. 1,570. See Visits 

 to Remarkable Places, W. Howitt, 

 1840. 



Pension (Lat. pendere, to pay). 

 French word used for both a 

 boarding house and a boarding 

 school. It is now more general in 

 the former sense. 



PENSIONS 



Pensionary. 



Name of an official 

 in the Netherlands. 

 He was so called 

 because his remu- 

 neration was de- 

 scribed as a pen- 

 sion. The chief 

 Dutch and Flemish 

 cities had their 

 pensionaries, the 

 first appearing in 

 the 15th century. 

 They were respon- 

 sible for the 

 business of the 

 city, their duties 

 being not unlike 

 those of a town 

 clerk. In the province of Holland 

 there was in the 17th century a high 

 official known as the grand pen- 

 sionary or pensionary of the council, 

 and he became one of the chief 

 persons in- the United Provinces. 

 Although only appointed for a term 

 of years, he was in importance 

 second only to the stadtholder. 

 The office was abolished in 1795. 



PENSIONS: NAVAL, MILITARY, & CIVIL 



Sir Leo Chiozza Money, late Parliamentary 

 Secretary to the Ministry of Pensions 



This article deals mainly with the pensions payable to those who 



were disabled in the Great War and their dependents. For other 



branches of the subject see Civil Service; Old Age Pensions See 



also Artificial Limbs ; Insurance; Wages 



A pension (Lat. perwio, pay- 

 ment) is a stated allowance made 

 to workers, soldiers, and others 

 who have retired owing to age or 

 infirmity or other causes. Apart 

 from old age pensions, pensions are 

 paid to civil servants, the em- 

 ployees of local authorities, banks, 

 insurance companies, and other 

 business houses on certain stated 

 conditions as to length of service, 

 etc. Judges also receive pensions on 

 retirement. By an Act of 1869 

 there are in the United Kingdom 

 twelve pensions available for minis- 

 ters who have left office after serv- 

 ing for a certain number of years 

 and are without adequate means 

 of support. 1,200 is distributed 

 yearly among literary and artistic 

 persons or their survivors, these 

 being the civil list pensions. 



There are an endless number and 

 variety of schemes, but the main 

 division is into contributory and 



Penshurst, Kent. Penshurst Place, the mansion of Lord de L'Isle and Dudley, 

 where Sir Philip Sidney was born in 1554 



non-contributory. In the former 

 the payments of the employees are 

 usually based on actuarial figures. 

 Pensions paid to officers of the 

 army and navy take the form of 

 half-pay or retired pay All civil- 

 ized countries give pensions to 

 civil servants and other officials. 

 The U.S.A. spent an enormous sum 

 of money in paying pensions to 

 those who fought in the Civil War. 



In the past the grant of pensions 

 to courtiers and others, without 

 any regard to past services, be- 

 came a public scandal, and this 

 was especially so with regard to the 

 pensions charged in the 18th cen- 

 tury on the revenues of Ireland. 

 Many of these pensions were per- 

 petual, i.e. they passed like an 

 estate from father to son. In 1887 

 they were reported against, and in 

 a short time most of them were 

 commuted. 



Fighting men's pensions were 

 the subject of legislation in the 

 16th century. In the reign of Eliza- 

 beth an Act was passed, the pre- 

 amble of which ran that " it is 

 agreeable with Christian charity, 

 policy, and the honour of the 

 nation, that such as have . . . 

 adventured their lives and lost their 

 limbs or disabled their bodies . . . 

 in the defence and the service of 

 her Majesty, should at their return 



