ARNOT ARK ACAN. 



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ARN-OT, Hugo, a Scottish historical and antiquarian 

 writer, was born at Leith, in 1749. His name origi- 

 nally was Pollock, which he changed in early life 

 for Arnot, on felling heir, through his mother, to the 

 estate of Balcormo in Fife. As " Hugo Arnot of 

 Balcormo, Esq.," he is entered as a member of the 

 Faculty of Advocates, December, 5, 1772, when just 

 about to complete his twenty- third year. A settled 

 asthma, the result of a severe cold which he caught 

 in his fifteenth year, and which was always aggravated 

 by exertion of any kind, became a serious obstruction 

 to his progress at the bar, and perhaps caused him to 

 turn his attention to literature. In 1779, appeared 

 his " History of Edinburgh," 1 vol., 4to. a work of 

 much research, and greatly superior in a literary 

 -^point of view to the generality of local works. The 

 style of the historical part is elegant and epigramma- 

 tic, with a vein of causticity highly characteristic of 

 the author. He afterwards published several pamphlets 

 and essays of a temporary or local nature. In ] 785, 

 appeared his "Collection of Celebrated Criminal 

 Trials in Scotland, with Historical and Critical 

 Remarks," 1 vol. 4to. ; a work of perhaps even great- 

 er research than his history of Edinburgh, and written 

 in the same acutely metaphysical and epigrammatic 

 style. Mr A. only survived the publication of this 

 work about a twelvemonth, dying in 1786, aged 37. 

 The asthma made rapid advances on him, and long 

 before his death, reduced his person almost to a 

 shadow. Harry Erskine, meeting him one day eat- 

 ing a dried haddock or spelding, is said to have ac- 

 costed him thus : " Mr Arnot, 1 am glad to see you 

 looking like your meat." Arnot himself was a wit 

 and humourist. On one occasion, while labouring 

 under asthma, he was annoyed by the bawling of 

 a man selling sand on the street : " The rascal !" 

 said the unfortunate invalid, " he spends as much 

 breath in a minute, as would serve me for a month !" 

 In lu's professional character, Mr A. was animated 

 by a chivalrous sentiment of honour worthy of all 

 admiration. He was so little of a casuist, that he 

 would never undertake a case, unless he were per- 

 fectly satisfied as to its justice and legality. He had 

 often occasion to refuse employment which fell be- 

 neath his own standard of honesty, though it might 

 have been profitable, and attended by not the slight- 

 est shade of disgrace. On a case being once brought 

 before him, of the merits of which he had a very bad 

 opinion, he said to the intended litigant, in a serious 

 manner, " Pray, what do you suppose me to be ?" 

 " Why," answered the client, " I understand you to 

 be a lawyer." " I thought, Sir," said Arnot sternly, 

 " you took me for a scoundrel." The litigant, though 

 he perhaps thought that the major included the 

 minor proposition, withdrew abashed. 



ARNOULT, Sophie ; a Parisian actress, famed in the 

 annals of gallantry and wit, was born at Paris, in 

 1740. Her father kept a hotel garni, and gave her 

 a good education. Nature endowed this favourite of 

 the Parisian public with sprightly wit, a tender heart, 

 a charming voice, and the most beautiful eyes. 

 Chance brought her upon the stage, where she de- 

 lighted the public from 1757 to 1778. The princess 

 of Modena happened to be in retirement at the Fal 

 de Grace. It was the custom, at that time, for ladies 

 of rank to confess, in Passion week, the sins com- 

 mitted during Lent. The princess was struck with 

 a very fine voice, that sang at the evening mass. 

 The songstress was Sophie Arnoult. The superin- 

 tendent of the royal choir was informed by the prin- 

 cess of the discovery which she had made, and, 

 against her mother's will, Sophie was obliged to join 

 the choir, where madame de Pompadour heard her 

 sing, and exclaimed sentimentally, " Such talents are 

 enough to make a princess." This paved the way 



for Sophie to the Parisian opera, where she soon be- 

 came queen, and shone particularly as Thealire in 

 Castor and Pollux, as Ephise in Dardanus, as Iphi 

 genia in Iphigenia in Aulis. By her beauty, her 

 exquisite performance, and her vivacity, she en- 

 chanted every one. All persons of rank and all the 

 literati sought her society : among the latter wer^ 

 d'Alembert, Diderot, Helvetius, Mably, Duclos, and 

 Rousseau. She was compared to Ninon de 1'Enclos 

 and Aspasia; she was sung by Dorat, Bernard, 

 Rhulieres, Marmontel, and Favart. Her wit was so 

 successful at the time, that her Ions mots were col- 

 lected. It was sometimes severe, when she wished 

 to make her superiority felt, and yet she had no 

 enemies. She died in 1802, in the very chamber in 

 which the admiral Coligny was murdered ; and in 

 the same year with her, the actresses Clairon and 

 Dumesnil. In the beginning of the revolution, she 

 bought the parsonage-house at Luzarche, and trans- 

 formed it into a country house, with this inscription 

 over the door Ite missa est. Her third son, Con- 

 stant Dioville de Brancas, colonel of cuirassiers, was 

 killed at the battle of Wagram. 



AROBA, or AROBE (by some spelled and pronounced 

 arrobe ; in Spanish, arroba; in the dialect of Peru, 

 arrou). 1. A weight used in Spain, Portugal, Goa, 

 Brazil, and in all Spanish America. The weight of 

 these arobas differs much. The aroba of Madrid, 

 and almost all over Spain, weighs twenty-five pounds 

 avoirdupois. 2. A measure tor wine, brandy, and 

 honey : 1 = 8 azumbras, = 32 quartillos, = 805 '5 

 arrobas menores, used for measuring oil, = 626-8 

 cubic inches of Paris measure. At Malaga, the aroba 

 is equal to 794 cubic inches, Paris measure. 



ARPINO, Josephino d' ; an eminent painter, born 

 1560, at Rome. The precocity of his talent for 

 painting caused him to be employed, at a very early 

 age, in ornamenting the Vatican, as assistant to the 

 artists engaged in that design ; when, luckily attract- 

 ing the attention of pope Gregory XIII., that pontiff 

 took him under his protection, and gave him every 

 opportunity to improve himself. In France, to which 

 he went with cardinal Aldobrandini, he was knighted. 

 His death took place at Rome, 1640. 



ARRACAN ; a maritime province in the British Bir- 

 mese territories, which, with its dependencies, Ru- 

 maree, Cliediiba, and Sandowy, lies between 18 and 

 21 N. lat. On the N. it is separated from the Chit- 

 tagong district by the river Nauf ; on the E. it has 

 the Arracan mountains ; on the S. Bassein of Pegu ; 

 and on the W. the bay of Bengal. Its extreme 

 length may be estimated at 230 miles, and its average 

 breadth at 50. Between the mountains and the sea 

 this province is covered with thick woody jungles ; 

 rain is frequent. When conquered by the British, in 

 1825, not more than 400 square miles of the whole 

 surface were supposed to be under cultivation ; and 

 the total population was estimated at 100,000 souls, 

 of whom six-tenths were Mughs, three-tenths Ma- 

 hommedans, and one-tenth Birmese. The prospec- 

 tion annual revenue for five years was estimated at 

 220,000 rupees. A native history of Arracan begins 

 in A.D. 701, and continues through a series of 120 

 native princes, down to modern times. According 

 to this document, its sovereigns formerly occupied a 

 much more important station in the politics of India 

 than they have recently done : for, according to 

 these annals, the dominions of Arracan at one period 

 extended over Ava, part of China, and a portion of 

 Bengal. Certainly, at present, nothing remains to 

 indicate such a prior state of power and civilization, 

 for its condition, when acquired by the British, was 

 to the last degree, savage and barbarous. It does not 

 appear, however, until the Birmese invasion, it had 

 ever been so completely subdued as to acknowledge 



