QUILLOTA 



Veree. Knighted 1910, in 1912 he 

 was made King Edward professor 

 of English Literature at Cam- 

 bridge, his lectures, e.g. On the Art 

 of Writing, 1916, and On the Art of 

 Reading, 1920, circulating widely 

 in volume form. Pron. Cooch. 



Quillota. Town of Chile, in the 

 prov. of Valparaiso. It stands in a 

 fine position on the river Acon- 

 cagua, 26 m. by rly. N.E. of 

 Valparaiso, and is the centre of 

 a copper mining and fruit and 

 wine producing district. Top. 

 11,400. Pron. Keel-yo-ta. 



Quillwort OR MERLIN'S GRASS 

 (Isoetea locustris). Aquatic peren- 

 nial herb of the natural order Selag- 

 inellaceae. It is 

 a native of 

 Europe, W. 

 Siberia, and N. 

 America. It 

 grows at the 

 bottom of 

 lakes, and has 

 a broad, flat, 

 corm-like base, 

 from which 

 spring a dozen 

 or twenty stiff 

 awl-shaped 

 leaves, which 

 are composed 

 internally of 

 four tubes with 

 transverse partitions. The spore- 

 capsule is borne on the dilated bases 

 of the outer leaves. 



Quilon. Town of Travancore, 

 India. It is situated on the coast 

 of the Arabian Sea, on one of the 

 numerous backwaters which char- 

 acterise this coast. Here the rly. 

 from Trivandrum, 35 m. to the 

 S.E., to Tinnevelly and Madras 

 leaves the coast. Coasting steamers 

 make use of the backwaters and 

 reach the town to take away for 

 export copra, coffee, and spices. 

 In the early days of Indian trade 

 the town was one of the chief 

 ports of the W. coast of the Deccan. 

 In 1503 it was Portuguese, and in 

 1653 it was taken by the Dutch. 

 Pop. 15,700. 



Quilp, DANIEL. Character in 

 Dickens's novel The Old Curiosity 

 Shop. A hideous and cruel dwarf 

 with a mind as distorted as his 

 body, he practises usury, one of his 

 victims being Little Nell's grand- 

 father. In the end he is drowned 

 in the Thames while trying to 

 evade the police. 



Quilt (Lit. culcita, mattress). 

 Bed-cover of down or other soft 

 material enclosed in a fabric case. 

 Quilting was formerly done with the 

 needle, a layer of wadding inter- 



Eosed between upper and lower 

 lyers of cloth being stitched to 

 form patterns standing in some 

 relief. Loom quilting followed, a 



6446 



Quimper, Brittany. Gothic cathedral 

 ol S. Corentin, from the north 



series of thick wadding threads 

 replacing the loose fibre used as 

 stuffing. A great diversity of 

 complex weaves are used in quilt 

 weaving, upper and lower fabrics 

 being woven simultaneously in 

 the loom, while threads from the 

 bottom fabric combine the two 

 together ; the Marseilles quilt is 

 of this type. The satin quilt has 

 a smooth surface with raised 

 figures, and is made by the inter- 

 play of two separate sets of warp 

 and two of weft. The Alhambra 

 quilt is of rather simpler con- 

 struction. The honeycomb quilt 

 is a single fabric with a honey- 

 comb pattern in low relief, and 

 often with additional geome- 

 trical or floral figures. The tapes- 

 try quilt is a coloured one in which 

 weft of different colours is brought 

 into play. Quilt weaving is done 

 mainly in cotton, chiefly around 

 Boltoii and Bury, Lancashire. 



Quimper. Town of Brittany, 

 France, and capital of the dept. 

 of Finistere. It stands on the 



QUIMPERI_ 



river Odet, 36 m. S.E. of Brest. 

 The cathedral of S. Corentin, the 

 first stone of which was laid by 

 Bertrand de Rosmadeuc in 1424, is 

 one of the finest Gothic churches 

 in Brittany, with beautiful lady 

 chapel, fine choir, stained glass, 

 mural paintings, and statuary. The 

 ornate High Altar is modern, as 

 are the spires in the towers. There 

 are potteries, shipbuilding yards, 

 weaving and paper factories, and 

 iron and copper foundries. The 

 museum has a good collection of 

 paintings and other exhibits of in- 

 terest. There are a coasting trade 

 and sardine fisheries. The town 

 was besieged several times by the 

 British. In 1345 it was destroyed 

 by Charles de Blois. During the 

 Revolution it was known as 

 Montagne-sur-Odet. It is the 

 birthplace of Laennec (1781- 

 1826), inventor of the stethoscope. 

 In early times Quimper was the 

 capital of Cornouailles. Pop. 21,000. 

 Quimperle. Town of Brittany, 

 France, in the dept. of Finistere. 

 It stands at the confluence of the 

 Elle and the Isole, 92 m. S.E. of 

 Brest. The church of S. Michel 

 dates from the 14th-15th centuries, 

 and that of Ste. Croix, restored 

 3862, is modelled on the church of 



Daniel Quilp and Dick Swivel] er. From 

 a drawing by Charles Green 



Quimperle, Brittany. Church of S, 



Michel, on the right side of the 



stream, formed by the junction of 



the Elle and the Isole 



the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. 

 Trade is carried on in wood, grain, 

 cattle, butter, wax, honey, and 

 hides. The place was known in the 

 sixth century, when Gonthiern, a 

 king of Cambria, after abdicating 

 his throne, built a hermitage at 

 the confluence of the two rivers. 

 This was transformed ii* the 9th 

 century into an abbey, around 

 which grew the modern town. 

 Quimperl6 dates its importance 

 from 1271. Pop. 8,700. 



