ASHFORD ASIA. 



295 



original texture, and contains, besides lime, a peculiar 

 acid, called phosphoric acid. The use of vegetable 

 ashes is very extensive, as is well known ; soap mak- 

 ers, bleachers, and other tradesmen use them in an 

 immense quantity. They are, also, an excellent ma- 

 nure. 



ASHFORD ; a market town and parish in Kent, plea- 

 santly situated on a gentle eminence, near the con- 

 fluence of the upper Dranches of the river Stour, over 

 one of which there is a bridge, and contains many 

 handsome houses. The inhabitants of this town and 

 .'ts vicinity are much engaged in the rearing and fat- 

 tening of cattle, for the safe of which its markets and 

 fairs are much celebrated. Population of parish, 2,809. 



ASHMOLE, Elias, a celebrated English antiquary 

 and virtuoso, born at Lichfield, in 1617, was sent to 

 London at the age of sixteen, where he studied law 

 and other branches of knowledge, and practised as a 

 chancery solicitor. On the breaking out of the civil 

 wars, he retired to Oxford, and entered himself of 

 Brazen-Nose college, where he engaged in the study 

 of natural philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy. 

 On the ruin of the king's affairs, he returned to Lon- 

 don, and formed a close intimacy with the celebrated 

 astrologers Moore, Lilly, and Booker, but shared 

 only in their absurdity, not in their roguery. He 

 subsequently married lady Main waring, a rich wi- 

 dow. On this accession of fortune, he gave up his 

 profession, and his house in London became a resort 

 of all the proficients and professors in the occult 

 sciences. A., about this time, published, under an- 

 other name, a treatise on alchymy, by the celebrated 

 doctor Dee ; and undertook to prepare for the press 

 a complete collection of the manuscript writings of 

 English chemists, under the title of Theatrum Chymi- 

 cum Britannicum. Having for some time attached 

 himself to the study of antiquity and the perusal of 

 records, he began to collect materials for his cele- 

 brated History of the Order of the Garter. His love 

 for botany having induced him to lodge with the 

 celebrated gardener of Lambeth, John Tradescant, he 

 obtained the curious collection of rarities got together 

 by that person and his father. On the restoration, 

 A. was gratified with the post of Windsor herald, and 

 received other appointments, both honourable and 

 lucrative ; was admitted a fellow of the royal so- 

 ciety, and favoured with the diploma of a doctor of 

 physic from the university of Oxford. In 1672, he 

 presented to the king his work on the Order of the 

 Garter, and in 1675, resigned his office of Windsor 

 herald. An accidental fire in the Temple destroyed 

 a library which he had been upwards of thirty years 

 collecting, with a cabinet of nine thousand coins, and 

 other valuable antiquities. In 1683, he presented to 

 the university of Oxford his Tradescantian collection of 

 rarities, to which he afterwards added his books and 

 MSS., thereby commencing the museum Ashmolea- 

 niim at Oxford. He died in May, 1692, aged seven- 

 ty-six. He left a number of MSS., several of which 

 have been printed, and a diary of his life. 



ASHOVER; a parish and township in Derbyshire. 

 In the church of Ashover there are several monu- 

 ments of the Babington family, one of whom, An- 

 thony Babington, was executed for a conspiracy 

 to destroy queen Elizabeth. On the declivity of a hill 

 on Ashover Common is a>rocking-stone, which mea- 

 sures about twenty-six feet in circumference, and ap- 

 pears to have been placed in its extraordinary posi- 

 tion with great ingenuity. Close at hand is also a 

 singular shaped rock, called the Turning-stone, sup- 

 posed to have been a rock idol. Population 3,179. 



ASHTON-TODER-LYXE ; a parish in the hundred of 

 Salford, and county palatine of Lancaster, containing 

 the town of the same name, and the additional town- 

 ships or districts of Audenshaw, Hartshead, and 



Knott-Laiu'S, with the populous hamlets of Boston, 

 Charlestowii, Dukinfield, Fairfield, Hay, Hurst, 

 Luzley with Toweracre, Mosley, Stayley-Bridge, and 

 Smallshaw. The town, which is built on the north 

 bank of the river Tame, consists of several narrow 

 streets. It has been much enlarged of late years by 

 the extension of the cotton and woollen factories, 

 which branches of manufacture, but more especially 

 the latter, are carried on in this town and parish to a 

 great extent. There are also several collieries in the 

 vicinity, which employ a great many persons ; and 

 together with the peat from Ashton Moor, on the 

 west of the town, render fuel very plentiful. Popu- 

 lation of parish, 33,597. 



ASIA ; the cradle of the human race, of nations, 

 religions, and states, of languages, arts, arid sciences ; 

 rich in natural gifts and historical remembrances ; the 

 theatre of human activity in ancient times, and still 

 exhibiting, in many places, the characteristic traits 

 which distinguished it many centuries since. It forms 

 the eastern and northern part of the old world, and 

 is separated from Australia by the Indian and the 

 Pacific oceans, including the gulfs of Bengal, Siam, 

 and Tonquin ; from America, on the N.E., ly Cook's 

 or Behring's straits, and on the E. by the great 

 Eastern or Pacific ocean, including the gulf of Corea, 

 the seas of Japan, Tongou (Yellow sea), and Okotsk ; 

 from Africa by the Arabian sea (with which is con- 

 nected the Persian gulf), and by the Arabian gulf, or 

 Red sea, with the straits of Babelmandel; from 

 Europe by the sea of Azoph, with the straits of Cafia, 

 by the Black sea with the Bosphorus, by the sea of 

 Marmora and the Dardanelles, and by the Grecian 

 archipelago. On the other hand, it is united with 

 Africa by the desert isthmus of Suez, and with 

 Europe by the waters of the VYolga (which rises near 

 the Baltic, arid falls, with the Ural, into the Caspian 

 sea) ; also by the rocky girdle, as the Tartars 

 call it, of the. Ural and the Werchoturian moun- 

 tains, which rise 77 N. lat. in Nova Zembla, 

 separate the plain of the VVolga from the higher 

 table-lands of Siberia, and are connected with 

 Upper Asia by a branch of the Little Altai, abound- 

 ing in ores. A line drawn from East Cape at 

 Behring's straits to the entrance of the Arabian gulf, 

 would denote the greatest extent of this continent, 

 and would measure above 7,500 British miles ; while 

 a line drawn from Cape Severo-vostochnoi in Siberia , 

 under the parallel of 76 10' to Cape Romania, the 

 southern extremity of Malacca, in 1 18' N. lat., 

 would measure 5,166 British miles. Hassel has cal- 

 culated its area at 20,432,205 British square miles, 

 and Graberg, without the islands of the Indian ocean, 

 at 16,263,100 square miles; but these admea- 

 surements are mere approximations. Asia is four 

 times larger than Europe. It is divided into, 1, 

 Southern Asia, comprehending Natolia, Armenia 

 Curdistan, Syria, Arabia, Persia, Hindostan, Farther 

 India, Siam, Malacca, Annam, Tonquin, Cochin 

 China, Laos, Cambodia, China, Japan ; 2, Middle or 

 Upper Asia, containing Caucasus, Tartary, Bucha- 

 ria, Mongolia, Tungousia ; 3, Northern or Russian 

 Asia, from 44 N. lat., containing Kasan, Astrachan, 

 Orenburg, Kuban, Kabarda, Georgia, Imireta, Siberia* 

 with the Alpine regions of Dauria and Kamschatka. 

 The centre of this continent, probably the oldest 

 ridge of land on the earth, is called Upper Asia. 

 Here the Bogdo (the majestic summit of the Altai) 

 forms the central point of all the mountains of Asia. 

 Upper Asia comprises, perhaps, the most elevated 

 plain on the surface of the earth the desert of Kobi, 

 or Shamo, on the northern frontiers of China, 40O 

 leagues long, and 100 leagues broad ; barren, dry, 

 ami waste ; visited alternately by scorching winds 

 and chilling storms, even in summer, and aU'ording. 



