PERCY 



6054 



PERE DAVID'S DEER 



by Howard in 1799, and about 15 

 years later the first successful per- 

 cussion caps were made. In the old 

 muzzle-loading guns the percus- 

 sion cap was a separate copper case 

 containing fulminate of mercury, 

 which was placed on a hollow 

 nipple, the bore of which commu- 

 nicated with the powder chamber. 

 When the hammer fell, it exploded 

 the fulminate, and the flash ignited 

 the powder. 



The next efforts to improve fire- 

 arms were made with the object 

 of combining powder, shot, and 

 means of ignition in one cartridge, 

 which could be inserted in the 

 breech, and in 1836 the pin-fire 

 breech-loader was introduced by 

 Lefancheux. In this construction 

 a projecting pin at right angles to 

 the main axis of the cartridge was 

 driven in by the fall of the hammer, 

 a pellet of fulminate being ex- 

 ploded by the shock and igniting 

 the powder. Central-fire ammuni- 

 tion, in which a percussion cap 

 was fixed in the centre of the base 

 of the cartridge and used in cen- 

 tral-fire hammer guns, was intro- 

 duced by both English and French 

 gunsmiths about 1853, but the 

 first really successful gun on this 

 principle was made by Daw, in 

 1861. In modern ammunition this 

 principle is retained, and the cap 

 containing the composition is 

 driven by the hammer on to an 

 anvil held in a cage in the car- 

 tridge case.. The composition is 

 usually a mixture of mercury ful- 

 minate (20) ; potassium chlorate 

 (34) ; antimony sulphide (43), and 

 sometimes a small addition of 

 sulphur and black powder. See 

 Ammunition ; Cap Composition ; 

 Cartridge; Explosives; Needle Gun. 



Percy. Name of a noble English 

 family. It was founded by William 

 de Percy, who was granted large 

 holdings in the northern counties 

 by William the Conqueror. He 

 died near Jerusalem in 1096. 

 Henry, 12th Baron Percy, was 

 created earl of Northumberland, 

 July 16, 1377. The estates and 

 honours were twice forfeited and 

 restored ; on the second occasion, 

 to the 4th earl in 1469. In 1537, 

 as the heads of the family had 

 taken part in the rising of that 

 year, the title was lost, and it re- 

 mained in abeyance until, in 1557, 

 Thomas Percy was created, by 

 patent, Baron Percy, and the next 

 day earl of Northumberland, 

 which title again lapsed, through 

 failure of heirs male, in 1670. 



The line of the Percys was tnen 

 continued through the duchess of 

 Somerset, daughter of the last earl, 

 to Algernon Seymour, her son, sub- 

 sequently duke of Somerset. He 

 died in 1750, as earl of Northum- 



berland, and his son-in-law, Sir 

 Hugh Smithson, Bart., was created 

 duke in 1766. " The succession 

 passed to his son Hugh, who took 

 the name of Percy. The present 

 holder of the title is his descendant. 

 The family hold also the title of 

 earl of Beverley, created in 1790. 

 See Northumberland, Earl and 

 Duke of; consult also History of 

 the House of Percy, G. Brenan, 

 ed. W. A. Lindsay, 1902. 



Percy, THOMAS (1729-1811). 

 British prelate and man of letters. 

 Born at Bridgnorth, the son of a 

 grocer, April 13, 

 1729, he was 

 educated at 

 Christ Church, 

 Oxford. Devot- 

 ing himself to 

 the study of old 

 literatures, he 

 published, i n 

 1765, the fa- 

 mous Reliques 

 of Ancient Eng- 

 lish Poetry. His 



Thomas Percy, 

 British prelate 



After Reynolds 



translation of P. H- Mallet's North- 

 ern Antiquities, published in 1770, 

 aroused a similar interest in old 

 Norse records. Of Percy's original 

 work the only piece that deserves 

 to be remembered is the ballad, 

 O Nancy, wilt thou go with me ? 

 Dean of Carlisle in 1778, and bishop 

 of Dromore in 1782, he was an 

 original member of Johnson's liter- 

 ary club, and died 

 Sept. 30, 1811. 



Percy Reliques. 

 Old songs, ballads, [ 

 and other pieces 

 prepared by 

 Thomas Percy, 

 bishop of Dromore. 

 and published in 

 1765 as Reliques 

 of Ancient English 

 Poetry. The foun- 

 dation of his work 

 was a folio MS. of 

 about 200 poems, 

 which had been 

 compiled about the 

 middle of the 17th 

 century, and was 

 found at Shifnal, Shropshire, but 

 to the pieces selected from that 

 folio, Percy added many gathered 

 from other sources, and also some 

 later poems. Though he freely 

 adapted and expanded the poems 

 which he published, his work 

 marks an important stage in 

 literary history, the starting point 

 of the modern study of ancient 

 poetry, and a powerful factor 

 in the romantic revival. The folio 

 MS. on which he primarily drew 

 is now in the British Museum ; 

 the full text of it was published, 

 1867-68, by F. J. Furnivall and 

 J. W. Hales. 



Perdiccas (d. 321 B.C.). Dis- 

 tinguished general of Alexander 

 the Great, whom he accompanied 

 in his Persian campaigns. On the 

 death of Alexander in 323 B.C. he 

 became chief minister to his suc- 

 cessor, Arrhidaeus. He embarked 

 on a campaign against Ptolemy, the 

 ruler of Egypt, but the campaign 

 miscarried, and Perdiccas was put 

 to death by his own soldiers. 



Of three early kings of Mace- 

 donia of this name, the second 

 played a part in the Peloponnesian 

 war, first as an ally of Sparta, 

 afterwards of Athens. 



Perdita. Character in Shake- 

 speare's tragi-comedy A Winter's 

 Tale. The daughter of Leontes 

 and Hermione, king and queen 

 of Sicily, she is exposed at birth 

 by the orders of her father, who 

 doubts her paternity, on a desolate 

 shore in Bohemia, where' she is 

 found by an old shepherd and 

 brought up as his daughter. 

 Wooed by Florizel, son of Polixenes, 

 king of Bohemia, she flees with 

 him to Sicily, where she and her 

 mother are reunited to Leontes. 

 See Florizel. 



Perdu, MONT. Peak in the 

 Pyrenees. It is in the Spanish 

 territory of Huesca, and lies S.E. 

 from the Pic du Midi, its alt. 

 being 10,994 ft. A glacier descends 

 from the summit in three 

 See Pyrenees 



Mont Perdu, Spain. 



The mountain peak of the Pyrenees, 

 from the north 



Pereda, Josfc MARIA DE (1833- 

 1906). Spanish author. He was 

 born near Santander, Feb. 6, 1833, 

 and began life as an engineer, turn- 

 ing to journalism and literature in 

 1858. Escenas Montanosas (Moun- 

 tain Scenes), 1864, is typical of 

 his method, and contains splendid 

 word pictures of his province of 

 Santander. Pedro Sanchez, 1883, 

 is perhaps his best work of fiction. 

 He died March 1, 1906. 



Pere David's Deer (Cenms 

 davidianus). Chinese species of 

 deer. It is so named because it was 

 first noticed by the Pere David in 

 the emperor of China's park near 



