V E R 



Versoix, La, or Verfoy, a river which rifes in France, 

 and runs into the lake of Geneva at Verfoy. 



VERSOU, Le, a town of France, in the department of 

 the Ifere ; 6 miles N. of Grenoble. 



VERSOY, a town of France, in the department of 

 Mont Blanc ; 4 miles N. of St. Maurice. 



VERST, or Wekst, a Ruffian meafure, containing 

 500 faflies or 1500 arlheens = 3500 Englifh feet. Hence 

 264 verfts =175 Engliih miles; fo that a verft is nearly 

 two-thirds of an Enghfh mile, and a degree of the meridian 

 is reckoned to be about 104 verfts. The Ruflian foot is = 

 Iji Enghfh inches, and the Mofcow foot = 13^ Englifh 

 inches ; but the Enghfh foot is generally ufed at Peterfburg, 

 and alfo the Rhineland foot =; I2j, Englifh inches. See 

 Measure. 



VERSTEGAN, Richard, in Biography, a defcendant 

 of an ancient family in Guelderland, and the fon of a cooper 

 m London, enjoyed the advantage of a liberal education at 

 Oxford, and diftinguiflied himfelf by his literary acquire- 

 ments ; but becoming a Catholic, he left the univeriity 

 without a degree, and removed to Antwerp. About the 

 year 1585, he there publifhed a work, entitled " The.itrum 

 Crudelitatum Haereticor\<m nollri Temporis," adorned with 

 engravings, and intended as a counterpart to the Proteftant 

 Martyrologies. In this work he treated queen Elizabeth 

 with great feverity ; and when Verftegan removed to Paris, 

 complaint was preferred againft him by the Englifh ambaf- 

 fador to Henry HI., who, from motives of pohcy more 

 than from a difapprobation of his book, caufed him for fome 

 time to be imprifoned. After his relcafe, he returned to 

 Antwerp, where he employed himfelf as a printer, and pub- 

 lifhed, in 1592, a fecond edition of his Theatrum. He alfo 

 entered with much acrimony into a difpute between the re- 

 'j;ular and fecular Roman Cathohc clergy in England, taking 

 part with the former. But he was more honourably and 

 ufefuUy employed in preparing his " Reftitution of de- 

 cayed Intelligence in Antiquities concerning the noble and 

 renowned Enghfh Nation," which was firft printed at Ant- 

 werp in 1605, 4to. Bifhop Nicolfon's charafter of this 

 ■work is as follows : " The writer had feveral advantages 

 for making of fome fpecial difcoveries on the fubjeft 

 whereon he treats, which is handled fo plaufibly, and fo 

 well illuftrated witli handfome cuts, that the book has taken, 

 and fold very well. But a great many miftakes have efcaped 

 him." Some of thefe are ftated by the bifhop ; and he 

 adds, they have been carefully correfted by Mr. Somner. 

 The lafl of three editions of this work that ifTued from the 

 prefs in England was that of 1674. Among fome other 

 works of Verftegan, we find mentioned his " Antiquitates 

 Belgicx," Antwerp, 161 3. He is fuppofed to have died 

 about the year 1625. Biog. Brit. 



VERT, DoM Claude DE, was born at Paris in 1645, 

 and at the age of 16 entered into the order of St. Benedift, 

 ■in the Congregation of Cluni. In the Jcfuits' college at 

 Avignon he ftudicd philofophy and theology ; and after his 

 return from z journey to Rome, he devoted himfelf to the 

 iludy of t)ie rule of St. Benedift, and contributed by hi«; 

 influence to the eftahhflmient of general chapters. In 1676 

 he and another monk were appointed to the office of re- 

 forming the breviary of the order. The refult of their la- 

 bour appeared in 1686; and in 1689 he pubhftied a tranfla- 

 .tion of the rule of St. Benedift, with a preface and learned 

 notes. In 1690 he wrote a letter to Juneu, who had ex- 

 prefTed iiinifclf contemptuoufly of the ceremonies of the 

 church ; and in 1690 he was rewarded for his fervices, by 

 the dignity of vicar-general to the cardinal de Bouillon, and 

 the priory of St. Peter in Abbeville. His work moft 



V E R 



known is entitled " Explication fimple litterale et hif- 

 tonq*ie des Ceremonies de I'Eglife," 4 vols. 8vo. The 

 writer died at Abbeville in 1708, aged 63, leaving the 

 charafter of a pious, as well as a mild and polilhed man. 

 Moreri. 



Vert, in Heraldry, the term for a green colour. 

 It is alfo called vert in the blazon of the coats of all under 

 the degrees of nobles ; but in coats of nobles it is called 

 emerald; and in thofe of kings, Venus. 



In engraving, it is exprcffed by diagonals, or lines drawn 

 athwart, from right to left, from the defter chief corner to 

 the finifter bafe. 



In lieu of vert, the French heralds i'.(e Jinople, or fynoplc. 

 Vert, or Green Hue, in Forejt La-u;, any thing that 

 grows and bears a green leaf, within the forett, that may 

 cover a deer. 



This is divided into (roir-'aeTt and nclher-'vert. The 

 former is the great woods, which, in law-books, are ufually 

 called hault-bois ; and tlie latter is the under-woods, other- 

 wife called fub-boh. 



We fometimes alfo meet with fp:cial vert, which denotes 

 all trees growing in the king's woods within the foreft, and 

 thofe which grow in other men's woods, if they be fuck 

 trees as bear fruit to feed the deer. 



Vert, in Geography, a river of France, which runs ia'.o 

 the Gave of Oleron. — Alfo, a river of Fijancc, which rur.s 

 into the Lot, near Cahors. 



Vert St. Denis, a town of France, in the department of 

 the Seine and Marne ; 3 miles N.W. of Melun. 



VERTACOMECORI, in Aneient Geography, a people 

 to whom Pliny afcribes the foundation of Navarre, in Gallia 

 Cifalpina, and who formed a part of the Vocon'ii 



VERTiE, a people of Afia, allies of the Perfians, and 

 found at the fiege of Amida. 



VERTAISON, in Geography, a town of France, in the 

 department of the Puy de Dome ; 4 miles N.W. of Billon. 

 VERTE Bay, or Green Beiy, a bay of the Atlantic 

 ocean, between Nova Scotia and New Brunfvvick, on the 

 north coaft. N. lat. ^6\ W. long. 63° 54'. 



Verte Bay, a bay on the north-eaft coaft of Newfound- 

 land. N. lat. 50^ to'. W. long. 56°. 



VERTEBRA, in Anatomy, the bones compofing the 

 fpine. They are diftinguilhed by their fituation into 

 vcrtebrx colli, dorfi, and lumborum ; or cervical, dorfal, 

 and lumbar. See Spine. 



The cartilages between the vertebras of the back yield 

 confiderably to the preflure of the body, in an ereft potture, 

 and expand themfelves in the night, when perfons lie down. 

 Hence arifes a very fingular phenomenon, but a very true 

 one ; which is, that a man is confiderably taller at his rifing 

 in the morning, after the expanfion of thefe cartilages, 

 during the abfence of the preffure for feveral hours, than at 

 night, when they have been prefTed down all the day. 



The reverend Mr. WafTe feems to have examii^jd this 

 difference more ftriclly than any other perfon. He found 

 that feveral perfons, enlifted as foldiers in a morning, had 

 been difcharged for want of height, on their being meafured 

 again before the officers in the evening ; and on this occafion 

 meafured feveral other people, and found the difference, in 

 many cafes, to be not lefs than an inch. This gentleman 

 obferved in himfelf, that fixing a bar of iron where he jufl 

 reached it with his head on getting firft out of bed in the 

 morning, he could lofe near half an inch in an hour, or lefs, 

 if he employed that time in rolling his garden, or any other 

 exercife of that laborious kind. He obferved alfo, that 

 riding often took off the height very fjddenly ; and what 

 was more particular .. thai m fitting clofe to iludy five or 



fix 



