S C I 
the island and the adjacent seas. This fortress was erected 
by Sir Francis Godolphin, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, 
and is now usually occupied by the commanding officer on 
the island, and a detachment from the barracks. It was here 
that Dr. John Bastwich was imprisoned by order of the 
court of star-chamber, in 1637, after having lost his ears on 
the pillory, for writing against the church and state. The 
other town on the island is Church Town. About one mile 
south-west of St. Mary’s is St. Agnes, though more frequently 
called Light-house Island, from a very high and strong light¬ 
house, erected here as a warning from the rocks,which are here 
very numerous. Treseau, or Tresco, lies near St. Agnes, and 
is about half its size. The principal village here is called 
Dolphin, and consists of about 20 houses, and the church. 
The chief havens in the island are Old and New Grimsby 
harbours. Near the latter stand the ruins of Cromwell’s 
castle, so named from its having been built by the parlia¬ 
mentarians. It was repaired in 1740, but is now decayed 
and completely neglected. On an eminence to the north¬ 
east are the remains of another fort, named Old Castle. On 
Tresco are the remains of the conventual church of St. Nicho¬ 
las, which was founded in the 10th century, and was sub¬ 
sequently enriched by several of the earls of Cornwall. 
Tresco contains 465 inhabitants. St. Martin’s lies about a 
mile eastward of Tresco, and is rather smaller. It is nearly 
six miles in circumference, and contains about 720 acres. 
It has of late years greatly increased in population, and 
has at present 235 inhabitants; about 150 years ago, it 
had none at all, and even in 1756, only 18 families. Here 
are several cairns, and also some circles of stones; and 
from the remains of inclosures that intersect the island in 
different directions, it seems to have been anciently well 
cultivated. Brehar or Bryer lies to the west of Tresco. 
Sampson island is composed of two circular hills connected 
by a low rocky ledge, and at a distance has a pleasing effect. 
The inhabitants consist of a few families. The Scilly islands 
appear to have been known to the ancients, at a very remote 
period, under the name of the Cassiterides. Diodorus, 
Strabo, Solinus, and other writers, mention that the Phoe¬ 
nicians, and after them the Carthaginians and Greeks, traded 
hither for tin, of which metal these islands are described as 
possessing many extensive and valuable mines. “ These 
islands (says Strabo) are ten in number, and lie contiguous 
to each other. One of them is desert and uninhabited; 
the others are peopled by a race of men who wear black 
garments, and a longrobercachiug down to their heels, and 
bound about their waists, and who walk about with long 
staves, resembling the furies of tragedians. They have 
mines of tin and lead, which, togeiher with hides, they ex¬ 
change for earthenware, salt, and brass work.” Of this 
ancient state of things, nothing now remains, and various 
speculations have been formed, to account for the change 
that has taken place; some ascribing it to the ravages of 
the ocean, separating the larger islands into, numerous 
smaller ones, and of which separation many proofs are said 
to exist, in the appearance of hedges and ruins seen fre¬ 
quently between the friths, by the shifting of the sands; 
others to the actual submersion of a great proportion of the 
land. It is remarkable that the name of the group should 
be taken from that one, the Scilly, which is now one of the 
smallest. At what time the Scilly islands were first occu¬ 
pied by the Romans, is not recorded; but after the con¬ 
quest of Britain, they seem to have been used as a place of 
confinement and exile for state criminals. Athelstane, king 
of the West Saxons, subdued them in the 30th century. 
During the civil wars of Charles I. they became of con¬ 
siderable importance. In 1645, they afforded a i asylum to 
prince Charles, and his friends Ilopton and lord Copel. At 
that period Sir John Grenville was governor of the island, 
whicli he fortified and held for the king, till he was forced 
to surrender to the troops of -parliament. The property of 
these islands was bestowed by Athelstane, on cedain monks 
of the Carmelite order, and passed through various succes¬ 
sive hands, until in 1552 they were leased to the family of 
SCI 7 99 
Godolphin, and are now held under that title by the duke 
of Leeds. 
SCILLY ISLANDS, a group of islands or shoals in the 
Southern Pacific Ocean, extremely dangerous, and so named 
by Captain Wallis, who fell in with them in the year 1767. 
Lat. 16. 28. S. long. 155. 30. W. 
SCI'MITAR, s. A short sword with a convex edge. 
I’ll heat his blood with Greekish wine to-night. 
Which with my scimitar I’ll cool to-morrow. Shakspeare. 
SCTMPODIUM [S/a/zwoSiov, GrJ, among the Ancients, 
a small couch or bed, on which one person only could rest 
at a time. It was on the scimpodium that the Romans used 
to lay themselves when weary or indisposed. . 
The scimpodium was sometimes used instead of the lectica, 
to carry both men and women, not only through the city, 
but likewise in journeys into the country. 
SCINCOIDES, in Zoology. See Lacerta. 
SCINCUS, the Scink, the name of a species of lizard, 
called also by some the land crocodile, crocodilus terrestris, 
and formerly well-known in the druggists’ shops as an ingre¬ 
dient in several compositions. See Lacerta. 
SCINDE. See Sinije. 
SCINK, s. A cast calf. Ainsworth .-—In Scotland and 
in London they call it s/inc. 
SCINTPLLANT, ad), [scintillans, Lat.] Sparkling; 
emitting sparks. 
Who cau view the pointed rays, 
That from black eyes scintil/ant blaze ? Green's Spleen. 
To SCI'NTILLATE, v. n. [scintillo, Lat.] To sparkle; 
to emit sparks. Cockeram. 
SCINTILLA'TION, s. [ scintillatio , Lat.] The act of 
sparkling; sparks emitted—The scintillations are not the 
accension of the air upon the collision of two hard bodies, 
but rather the inflammable effluences discharged from the 
bodies collided. Brown. 
SCT.O, an island of the Grecian archipelago, the ancient 
Chios, 30 miles in length, from 10 to 18 in breadth, and 
90 in circumference. It is composed of very high, and in 
many places rugged and rocky mountains; but these, by 
the industry of the inhabitants, are rendered very produc¬ 
tive. The plain, extending for some leagues round the 
town of Scio, is celebrated for its extraordinary beauty and 
fertility. It consists almost wholly of country houses and 
gardens, filled with orange and lemon trees, so that it re¬ 
sembles the suburbs of a town, and appears from the sea like 
one continued city. The greatest part of the mountains 
consist of a red coloured marble, streaked with white. 
Around the city are also some quaries of a reddish freestone. 
The air of Scio is very good, though, from its great com¬ 
munication with other places, it is exposed to the ravages of 
the plague. It is watered only by a few streams, which 
can scarcely be considered as more than mountain torrents • 
but there are a great uumber of fine springs; and water is 
found almost everywhere by digging. The corn raised is 
not sufficient for the consumption of the island. The herb¬ 
age is so scarce, that they give their cotton shrubs to the 
cattle, after thp cotton is gathered, and preserve the dried 
leaves of the vines for them in winter. This want renders 
all animal food very dear, except goat’s flesh; sheep being 
so scarce, that they are kept merely as domestic favourites. 
The evergreen oak, the pine, the wild mastic tree, and the 
caroul, are the only trees observed growing wild; but by 
industry they have introduced the mulberry and cotton, 
which are both cultivated to a great extent. One produc¬ 
tion almost peculiar to Scio is the mastic, with which it 
almost exclusively supplies Constantinople. This is a large 
shrub, sometimes fifteen feet high, bearing a small red berry, 
and growing on the sides of the hills. On the 9th of July' 
the natives puncture the rind with an instrument resembling 
an awl, making the ground below hard and smooth; in three 
days the gum begins to run, and in eight days it becomes 
hard enough to be taken up. The Turks are fond of chew¬ 
ing 
