ABBOT ABBREVIATIONS. 



mid to chock all personal ilics in dt-liate. This supcr- 

 intcndi-nce, A. is siid to liave exercised with mucli 

 iiui>:ini.ility. When tile opposition nuulc ;i mm ion 

 in tlif house of commons to impeach lord Melville, 

 (Diuidas.) the votes were equal, mid tlic mot inn \\a- 

 Irt-idcd in the affirmative by A.'- ca-iini; vote. In 

 1817, he re-igned his office of speaker, on account 

 nt' \\cakm--s in liis eyes, and entered the house of 

 lord-, having been created viscoimt Colchester. He 

 was author of a treatise on commerce and mari- 

 time law, according to the principles of the British 

 mini-try, (Ixnid. 1802, a third edit. 1808.) Died 

 May 8, 1829. 



ABBOT, George, archbishop of Canterbury, \va- 

 IKHII Oct. 29, 1562, and studied at Oxford. \\ lien 

 the translation of the Bible was begun, in 1601, by 

 order of king James, Abbot was one ot' the eight 

 divines to whom it was committed. In I ii():i, he 

 went to Scotland to assist in effect ing aunion hel \vecn 

 the kirk of that country ami the church of England, 

 and conducted the business with much moderation 

 and address. In Dec. 16O9, he was made bishop of 

 Litchficld and Coventry; in Jan. 1610, bishop of 

 1 .1 iinlnii ; and in Nov. following, archbishop of < 'an- 

 lerbury. i lis enemies ascribed his rapid promotion to 

 flattery of the king. In 1613, however, he opposed 

 James's project of a divorce between lady Frances 

 Howard and the earl of Essex, and, in 1618, the 

 royal declaration, permitting Sunday sports, which 

 he prohibited the reading ot in church. His health 

 declining, he went to Hampshire for recreation, and, 

 being invited to a hunt by lord Zouch, had the mis- 

 fortune to shoot the game-keeper with an arrow 

 aimed at a deer from a cross-bow. The accident 

 affected him so much, that, besides settling an an- 

 nuity of 20/. on the widow, he kept, during the re- 

 mainder of his life, a monthly fast on Tuesday, the 

 day of the unhappy event. Though troubled with 

 the gout, he performed the ceremony of crowning 

 Charles I. He was never much in this monarch^ 

 favour, and was suspended From the exercise of his 

 functions as primate, on refusing to license a sermon 

 preached by Dr Sibthorpe, in justification of a loan 

 demanded by the king. At a meeting of parlia- 

 ment, he was restored, and died at Croydon, Aug. 

 5, 1633, aged 71. During his life, he published 

 several works, chiefly theological and many of his 

 letters and speeches are to be found in various col- 

 lections. He had a brother named ROBERT, who 

 pursued the same course of education with himself, 

 and died bishop of Salisbury, in 1617. Compar- 

 ing the two, Fuller says, that George was the more 

 plausible preacher, Robert was the greater scholar ; 

 George the abler statesman, Robert the deeper divine. 

 ABBOTSFORD, the well-known country seat of Sir 

 Walter Scott, destined to be in all ages a shrine for 

 the wandering worshippers of genius. It is situated 

 on the banks of the Tweed, in Roxburghshire, in 

 the neighbourhood of the public road between Mel- 

 rose and Selkirk. The great and good man who 

 guve a name and a glory to this spot has now gone 

 down to the dust, honoured and lamented by the 

 whole civilized world ; and although, on his demise 

 fears were entertained that the place upon which he 

 had so strongly set his affections should fall into thi 

 hands of strangers, it is now little doubted but that his 

 family shall be left to enjoy it, and the country savec 

 from the disgrace which any other result would bring 

 upon it. Abbotsford was erected by Sir Walte 

 himself, and the surrounding grounds owe much o 

 iheir beauty, as they do the interest connected wit! 

 them, to their gifted proprietor. The building is o 

 very extraordinary proportions, presenting to the eye 

 various fantastic gables, parapets, eaves, chimneys 

 balconiVs, &a, which although irregular in their dr. 



ails, are eminently sinking in their general effect 

 Many of its ouilinr- and ornaments are taken from 

 :clchralcd place- in Scotland; for example, a galc- 

 vay from Linljth ( )\v I'alace, a roof from Uoslin 

 'liapel, ;\ chimney piece from Melrose Al>!>cy, a 

 postern from the Kdinhurgh Tol booth (the Heart ot 

 Mid Lothian), and the vails of the \e-tiluile are 

 Mineled with pieces of old carved oak, which for- 

 nerly figured in Holyrood palace. The house itself 

 ilMHinds in apartments, of all shape- and dimension-. 

 vhich are decorated in a .singular lint tasteful and 

 ippropriatc manner. Throughout the-e are arrang- 

 ed innumerable relics ot the olden time, as also a 

 ariety of striking articles of modern day-. Not tin- 

 east interesting of the aparlmeni- is the Library, 

 vhich is an oblong of about fifty feet by thirty: tin- 

 roof and the bookcases are of carved oak, and the 

 collection of books i- e\ten-i\e, containing many of 

 i rare and valuable character, Beyond the library 

 8 situated what was the sanctum or study of the 

 author, who gathered unto himself so rich a harve-t 

 of fame. This is a small room furnished with a 

 writing table and two chairs only, but decorated 

 around the walls with several antique cabinets, bn-t-, 

 targets, claymores, &c., together with two portrait-, 

 one of Claverhouse, and a small full-length of Rob 

 Roy. In one corner of the study there is a clo-et . 

 which opens into the gardens, and which also It-ads, 

 iy a private staircase, to the author's bed rooms. 

 The view from all the principal apartments is beau- 

 tiful. You look out from among bowers over a 

 lawn of sweet turf, upon the Tweed, fringed with the 

 wildest of birch woods, and backed with the green 

 liills of Ettrick Forest. Altogether, as an American 

 writer says, the place destined to receive so many 

 pilgrimages, contains within itself beauties not un- 

 worthy ot the associations. Few poets ever inhabit- 

 ed such a place ; none, ere now, ever created one. 

 It is the realization of dreams a romance in stone 

 and lime. 



ABBREVIATIONS ; (called by the Romans notes ; 

 hence notarius, a short-hand writer.) The desire of 

 saving time and space, or of secrecy, led to the inven- 

 tion of abbreviations in writing. The, abbreviations 

 of the Romans were of three sorts : 1. Words and 

 syllables were abbreviated, siglee ; 2. One letter was 

 substituted for another, for the purpose of secrecy ; 

 3. Arbitrary signs were used, like those of mathe- 

 matics. The siglae are again of three kinds, accord- 

 ing as the abbreviations relate to syllables, words, or 

 phrases. The two last kinds of siglae are sometimes 

 called nota Tironana, from Cicero's freed man, Tul- 

 lius Tiro. Ennius, however, had already invented 

 1 100 of those signs, to which Tiro added the pro 

 positions. Others increased their number still more, 

 and Lucius Annaeus Seneca collected and arranged 

 3000 of them. But even Ennius was not their in- 

 ventor. Every written language has such abbrevia- 

 tions. Many of them are indeterminate and uncer- 

 tain, and the contents of many old writings and 

 inscriptions remain, on that account ambiguous. 

 The oldest and most common abbreviations are 

 those of names, titles, and formulas ; e. g. M. Mnr- 

 cus, &d. aedilis, Cos. consul, Coss. consules, &c. 

 The monks, in the middle ages, made use of many 

 abbreviations in copying the classic authors, on 

 which account the manuscripts of that time cannot 

 be read with ease, except by practised eyes. These 

 abbreviations often give rise to different readings. 

 They have been much less used since the invention 

 of printing. The Germans employed them for or- 

 dinary words, in greater proportion than other civi- 

 lized nations. The abbreviations in the English 

 law are numerous ; there are also a great many in 

 English titles. Many words in the modern language 



