110 S H E F F 
off a sheet- rope at sea, slackens the sail. Suckling. —As 
much paper as is made in one body. 
As much love in rhime. 
As could be cramm’d up in a sheet of paper. 
Writ on both sides the leaf, margin and all. Shakspeare. 
A single complication or fold of paper in a book.—Any 
thing expanded. 
Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder 
I never remember to have heard. Shakspeare. 
Rowling thunder roars, 
And sheets of lightning blast the standing field. Dryden. 
An azure sheet it rushes broad, 
And from the loud resounding rock below. 
Dash’d in a cloud of foam. Thomson. 
Sheets in the plural is taken for a book.—To this the 
following sheets are intended for a full and distinct answer. 
Waterland, 
SHEET, in Sea Language, a rope fastened to one or both 
the lower comers of a sail, to extend and retain it in a par¬ 
ticular station. When a ship sails with a lateral wind, the 
lower corner of the main and fore-sail are fastened by a tack 
and a sheet; the former being to windward, and the latter 
to leeward; the tack, however, is entirely disused with a 
stern wind, whereas the sail is never spread without the as¬ 
sistance of one or both of the sheets. The stay-sails and 
studding-sails have only one tack, and one sheet each; the 
stay-sail tacks are always fastened forward, and the sheet 
drawn aft; but the studding-sail tack draws the under clue 
of the sail to the extremity of the boom, whereas the sheet is 
employed to extend the inmost. Falconer. 
SHEET, a hamlet of England, in Southamptonshire, 
adjacent to Petersfield. 
To SHEET, v. a. To furnish with sheets. To enfold 
in a sheet. 
The sheeted dead 
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets; Shakspeare. 
To cover as with a sheet. 
Like the stag when snow the pasture sheets. 
The barks of trees thou browsed’st. Shakspeare. 
SHEET-ANCHOR, s. [Formerly shoot-anchor, as Mr. 
H. Tooke has observed ; which continued to be in use much 
later than he has stated.] In a ship is the largest anchor; 
which, in stress or weather, is the mariners’ last refuge, 
when an extraordinary stiff gale of wind happens. Bailey. 
See Sheet. —This saying they make their shootanker. 
Abp. Cranmer .—His majesty did ever seeke to setttle his 
establishment upon the faith of protestants in generalitie, as 
the most assured shoote-ancre. Proceed, against Garnet. 
SHEETING, s. Cloth for making sheets.-—Diapers 
were made in one town or district, damasks in another, 
sheeting in a third. Bp. Berkeley. 
SHEETING, a term signifying the flooring of jointed 
planks, under the lock-gates of a canal, and at the tail of 
every lock and sluice, &c. 
SHEFFIELD (John), Duke of Buckinghamshire, son of 
the earl of Mulgrave, was born in the year 1649. At the 
death of his father he succeeded to his title: this was in the 
year 1658. At an early age he dismissed his governor, but 
supplying the want by his own industry, he acquired a con¬ 
siderable proficiency in literature. His martial ardour broke 
out at the age of seventeen, when he engaged in the first 
Dutch war as a volunteer. The indications which he gave 
of the love of pleasure, united with literary talents, which 
had a peculiar value in the reign of Charles II., rendered 
him a favourite at court, and he materially assisted in the 
obtaining for Dryden the appointment to the post of laureat. 
At the commencement of the second Dutch war, he was a 
volunteer in the fleet commanded by the Duke of York, 
and was present at the battle of Solebay, in which he be¬ 
haved with so much gallantry, that on his return he was 
made captain of a second-rate ship of war. In the follow- 
I E L D. 
ing year he was appointed colonel of a regiment of foot 
under general Schomberg. In 1674, he was decorated with 
the order of the Garter. He was, in 1679, appointed lord- 
lieutenant of Yorkshire, and governor of Hull, in which 
year he wrote a piece, entitled “ The Character of a Tory, 
in answer to that of a Trimmer.” In this we have an avowal 
of his political principles, which were those of the party in 
whose name he wrote, and to which he adhered during life. 
In 1680, he went out with a force to the relief of Tangier, 
then invested by the Moors. In this expedition he com* 
pletely succeeded, and with it ended the military services of 
lord Mulgrave. On the accession of James II. he was chosen 
of the privy-council, and made lord-chamberlain of the 
household. He returned these favours by a zealous attach¬ 
ment to his master, which led him to take a seat in the ec¬ 
clesiastical commission; but in this he opposed those mea¬ 
sures of the priests which brought on the speedy ruin of that 
infatuated prince. Though inimical to the revolution, yet 
he voted for the conjunct sovereignty of king William with 
Mary. In 1694, he was made marquis of Normanby; 
notwithstanding this, and his admission into the cabinet, 
with a pension, yet he still had a great dislike to the king-. 
On the accession, however, of queen Anne, his former at* 
tachment to the court was revived, and he experienced her 
favour by an appointment to the privy-seal, and by other 
honours, which were terminated in 1703, by a nomination 
to the dukedom of Buckinghamshire. Jealous of the influ¬ 
ence of the duke of Marlborough, he resigned the office of 
privy-seal, and remained out of office several years, during 
which he built the house in St. James's Park, on the site 
of which his present Majesty’s new palace is now erecting. 
At the great change of the ministry in 1710, he was again 
introduced, first as steward of the household, and then as 
president of the council. After the death of queen Anne, he 
was an opponent of the court, and employed his time chiefly 
in literary pursuits, till his death, in 1721. 
The duke had been thrice married, and each time to a 
widow: his last wife was a natural daughter of James II., 
by whom he had a son that survived him. Following the 
example of the court of Charles II., he freely indulged in 
licentious amours; nevertheless, it has been said that he 
had occasionally serious thoughts of religion, though pro¬ 
bably not restricted to any particular party. The following 
is the epitaph which he composed for himself : “ Dubius 
sed non improbus vixi: incertus inorior, sed inturbatus: 
humanum est nescire et errare. Christum adveneror: Deo 
confido omnipotenti, benevolentissimo: Ens entium miserere 
mei.” This was inscribed on his magnificent monument in 
Westminster Abbey, with the exception of the clause respect¬ 
ing Christ, which bishop Atterbury rejected, thinking simple 
veneration a derogatory expression applied to the second 
person in the Trinity. 
In the capacity of poet, the duke of Buckinghamshire 
does not rank very high; his compositions are on a variety 
of topics, of which, however, the .chief is “ An Essay on 
Poetry,” which, according to Dr. Johnson, contains judi¬ 
cious precepts, which are sometimes new, and often hap¬ 
pily expressed, but with many weak lines, and some strange 
instances of negligence. In his “ Essay on Satire,” he is 
supposed to have been assisted by Dryden, who, for some 
peculiarities in it, had the misfortune to be taken as the real 
author. 
The duke of Buckinghamshire composed two tragedies, 
entitled “ Julius Caesar,” and the “ Death of Brutus;” for 
the latter of which, at his request. Pope wrote two chorusses: 
of these Warburton says, that they have the usual effect of 
ill-placed ornaments,—they make the meanness of the piece 
more conspicuous. 
SHEFFIELD, a large and populous manufacturing town 
of England, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It is beauti¬ 
fully situated on an eminence, at the confluence of the rivers 
Sheaf and Don, the former, from which the town takes its 
name, bounding it on the east, and the latter on the north. 
It is surrounded by hills of considerable height, which com¬ 
mand fine prospects of the town and vicinity, and add 
* greatly 
