CUNDINAMARCA CUPICA. 



5t>5 



Elizabeth, was cruelly murdered, as it is presumed 

 with the connivance of her husband, on which fatal 

 event Sir Walter Scott has founded his tale of Kenil- 

 worth. This mansion was formerly the seat of the 

 abbots of Abingdon, by whom it is supposed to have 

 been built. The parishioners, who pay tithes, have 

 a custom of repairing to the vicarage immediately 

 after the conclusion of prayers on the afternoon of 

 Christmas-day, where they are entertained with bread 

 and cheese and ale. They claim on this occasion 

 two bushels of wheat made into bread, half a hundred 

 weight of cheese, and four bushels of malt brewed 

 into ale and small beer. The fragments are distri- 

 buted among the poor on the following day. 



CUNDINAMARCA ; the northern part of New 

 Grenada. It forms a department of the republic of 

 Colombia, and comprehends the provinces of Bo- 

 gota, Antioquia, Mariquita, and Neiva, with 371,000 

 inhabitants. The chief place is Santa Fe de Bo- 

 gota. 



CUNERSDORF ; a village near Frankfort on the 

 Oder, known on account of the bloody battle in which 

 Frederic the Great was defeated, Aug. 12, 1759. It 

 is only about fifty miles distant from Berlin, his capi- 

 tal. Opposed to him were the Russians under Solti- 

 koff, and the Austrians under Laudon. Victory 

 seemed, at first, likely to declare in favour of Fre- 

 deric, but eventually, he lost all his artillery and 

 20,000 men. (See Seven Years' War.) The king 

 at first gave up all hope, but soon recovered his 

 spirits, when Soltikoff, with inconceivable tardiness, 

 neglected to follow up his victory. 



CUNNINGHAM, the northern district of Ayr- 

 shire, and the most fertile, in which are situated 

 several populous towns and villages, such as Irvine, 

 Kilwinning, Saltcoats, Ardrossan, Dairy, Beith, 

 Largs, &c. (q. v.) 



CUNNINGHAM, ALEXANDER, an historian of Bri- 

 tain, was born in the year 1654, in the county of Sel- 

 kirk, and parish of Ettrick, of which his fauier was 

 minister. Having acquired the elementary branches 

 of learning at home, he, according to the prevailing 

 custom among Scottish gentlemen of tliat period, 

 proceeded to Holland to finish his education, and it is 

 believed that it was there that he made those friends, 

 among the English refugees at the Hague, who after- 

 wards contributed so powerfully to the advancement 

 of his fortunes. He came over to England with the 

 prince of Orange in 1688, and was honoured with the 

 intimacy of the leading men by whom the revolution 

 was accomplished, more especially with that of the 

 earls of Sunderland and Argyle. After his return 

 to Britain he was employed as tutor and travelling 

 companion to the Earl of Hyndford, and also to that 

 nobleman's brother, the honourable Mr William Car- 

 michael, who was solicitor-general of Scotland in the 

 reign of queen Anne. Mr Cunningham was after- 

 wards travelling companion to Lord Lome, better 

 known under the title of John the great Duke of Ar- 

 gyle. Through the interest and friendship of Argyle 

 and Sunderland, and of Sir Robert Walpole, Mr Cun- 

 ningham, on the accession of George I., was sent as 

 British envoy to the republic of Venice, where he re- 

 mained from the year 1715 to 1720. His despatches 

 from Venice have been collected and arranged by Mr 

 Astle. For many years after Mr Cunningham's re- 

 turn from Italy, he passed his hie in studious retirement 

 in London. He died in 1737. His history of Britain, 

 which was originally written in Latin, but afterwards 

 translated into English by Dr William Thomson, was 

 first published in 1787, many years after liis death, 

 in two vols. 4to. This work embraces the history of 

 Britain from the revolution of 1688 to the accession 

 of George I. ; and being written by a man who was 

 not only well versed but deeply concerned in many 



of the political events of the period, and who was 

 intimately acquainted with most of the leading men 

 of the age, it is a production of great historical 

 importance. His work abounds in just observa- 

 tions on the political events of the times, and his 

 fects are related with much perspicuity, and occa- 

 sionally with great animation. A coincidence of name 

 has led to the confounding of this historian with 

 Alexander Cunningham, the celebrated editor and 

 emendator of Horace, and the antagonist of Bentley ; 

 the latter was a native of Ayrshire, and died at the 

 Hague, in 1730. 



CUP All, the name of a parish and town in Fife- 

 shire, the former extending about five miles each 

 way. The town of Cupar is capital of the county, 

 and finely situated on the river Eden, at the distance 

 of ten miles west from St Andrews. Though of high 

 antiquity, its appearance is that of a modern thriving 

 town, being well built, paved, and lighted, and con- 

 taining several elegant public edifices. Its chief 

 trade consists in the manufacture of linen, leather, 

 and ropes, and the making of bricks. It has a public 

 library, a weekly newspaper, and a printing establish- 

 ment, from which have issued some excellent editions 

 of the classics. The knights templars had great 

 possessions here ; and at the foot of Castle Hill, there 

 was a convent of Dominican friars, with an elegant 

 chapel, founded by the Macduffs ; near which is a 

 place, termed the Play-field, where theatrical pieces, 

 called mysteries , were formerly exhibited. Carslogie 

 House is very ancient, and was originally a place of 

 great strength; and Garlie Bank is celebrated for 

 the treaty concluded there in 1559, between the 

 partizans of the Queen Regent and those of the con 

 gregation. Population of town and parish in 1831, 

 6473. 



CUPAR-ANGUS, a parish and town, both situated 

 partly in Perthshire and partly in Angus-shire, and 

 the former extending about five miles in length and 

 from one to two in breadth. The town stands on 

 the banks of the river Isla, at a distance of about 

 twelve and a half miles east by north of Perth. It is 

 neatly built, and contains an excellent coffee-room 

 and public library. Its trade consists chiefly in the 

 manufacture of linen and tanning of leather. Popu- 

 lation in 1831, 2615. 



CUPEL ; a shallow earthen vessel, somewhat re- 

 sembling a cup, from which it derives its name. It 

 is formed of bone-ashes, and is extremely porous. 

 It is used in assays, to separate the precious metals 

 from their alloys. The process of cupellation con- 

 sists in fusing an alloy of a precious metal, along 

 with a quantity of lead, in a cupel. The lead is 

 extremely susceptible of oxidation, and, at the same 

 time, it promotes the oxidation of other metals, and 

 vitrifies with their oxides. The foreign vessels are 

 thus removed ; the vitrified matter is absorbed by 

 the cupel, or is driven off by the blast of the bellows, 

 as it collects on the surface ; and the precious metal 

 at length remains nearly pure. 



CUPELLATION. See Cupel. 



CUPICA ; a seaport and bay of Colombia, on the 

 S. E. side of Panama, following the coast of the Pa- 

 cific ocean, from cape St Miguel to cape Corrientes. 

 This is thought by Humboidt the most favourable 

 point for connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans 

 by a canal. From the bay of Cupica, there 'is a pas- 

 sage of only fifteen or eighteen miles, over a country 

 quite level, and suited to a canal, to the head of the 

 navigation of the river Naipi, a branch- of the river 

 Atrato, which flows into the Atlantic. Gogueneche, 

 a Biscayan pilot, is said to have first pointed out this 

 spot as almost the only place where the chain of the 

 Andes is completely interrupted, and a canal thus 

 made practicable. 



