VAN 
VAN 
Milton.—Ivan, Fr.; vannus, Latin.] Any thing spread wide 
by which a wind is raised; a fan.—The other token of their 
ignorance of the sea was an oar, they call it a corn-»««. 
Broome. —A wing with which the air is beaten. 
His sail-broad vans 
He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke 
Up-lifted, spurns the ground. Milton. 
To VAN, v. a. [from vannus, Latin.] To fan; to win¬ 
now. Not in use —The corn, which in vanning lieth lowest, 
is the best. Bacon. 
VAN, a large and fortified city of Turkish Armenia, 
situated on a lake of the same name; 160 miles south-east 
of Erzerum. 
VANBRUGH (Sir John), a dramatic writer and an archi¬ 
tect, was a descendant of an ancient family in Cheshire. The 
first play which he finished was “ The Relapse;” and it was 
acted with great success in 1697. This was followed in the 
succeeding year by “The Provoked Wife;” and in the same 
year appeared his “ iEsop.” In 1702 appeared his “ False 
Friend;” and he was now knighted, and advanced to the 
post of Clarencieux king-at-arms. When a theatre was 
erected in the Haymarket, it was placed under the manage¬ 
ment of Vanbrugh and Congreve by Betterton and the other 
patentees; and it was opened in October, 1705, with a co¬ 
medy by Vanbrugh, entitled “ The Confederacy,” which, 
though the best written, is the most licentious of this author’s 
dramatic productions, besides three more pieces, imitated 
from the French; but finding the concern irksome, he dis¬ 
posed of his share. The popular comedy of “ The Journey 
to London” was begun by him, but finished by Cibber.— 
His taste and talents as an architect were first exhibited in 
the theatre in the Haymarket, for which he obtained sub¬ 
scriptions ; and to him was committed the erection of the 
palace of Blenheim, voted by the nation to the Duke of 
Marlborough. In 1716, King George II. appointed him 
surveyor of the buildings at Greenwich Hospital, comptrol¬ 
ler-general of the royal works, and surveyor of the gardens 
and waters. But in this capacity he has unfortunately been 
transmitted to posterity rather as an object of ridicule than 
of admiration. Mr. Walpole has passed upon him a severe 
censure, when he says that “ he wanted all ideas of propor¬ 
tion, convenience and propriety. He undertook vast designs, 
and composed heaps of littleness. The style of no age, no 
country, appears in his works: he broke through all rule, 
and compensated for it by no imagination. He seems to 
have hollowed quarries, rather than to have built houses; and 
should his edifices, as they seem formed to do, outlast all 
record, what architecture will posterity think was that of their 
ancestors?” 
Notwithstanding this obloquy, some modem amateurs 
have vindicated the character of Vanbrugh’s architecture, 
particularly that of Blenheim, admiring its grandeur, 
and the magnificence of the whole, as well as the 
picturesque variety displayed in this and in other of his 
buildings. 
VANCEBURG, a post village of the United States, in 
Lewis county, Kentucky. 
VA'NCOURIER, s. [avantcourier, French.] A har¬ 
binger ; a precursor.—Fearful sights, and great signs, as the 
van-carriers and out-guard to that more terrible desolation 
which was to follow them. Spencer. 
VANCOUVER’S FORT, a fort of the United States, 
in Kentucky, at the union of the two branches of Sandy 
river. 
VANCOUVER, Point, a cape on the west coast of 
North America, in the river Columbia. Lat. 45. 7. N. long. 
237.50. E. 
VANDAL, a small river in England, in Surrey, which runs 
into the Thames at Windsor. 
VANDALE (Antony), was born in Holland in 1638, and 
though he manifested an inclination for study in his youth, 
his parents placed him in the department of commerce. At 
Vol. XXIV. No. 1639. 
229 
the age of 30, however, he resumed his literary pursuits, an^ 
graduated as a physician; and he was also for some time a 
preacher among the Mennonites. His attachment to study 
prevailed at length over every other occupation, and his lite¬ 
rary character was established by many valuable works. Of 
these the most noted was “ Dissertationes dues de Oraculis 
Ethnicorum,” first printed in 1683, 12mo„ and afterwards in 
1700, 4to. His death happened at Haerlem, in 1708.— 
Le Clerc. 
VANDALS, a people of antiquity who overran many parts 
of the Roman empire. They were originally Goths, See 
Rome and Goth. 
VANDAL TOWNS, six small towns of Upper and 
Lower Lusatia, so called because their inhabitants are 
chiefly descended from the ancient Vandals, and speak the 
language of that people, which is also used in the churches. 
The names of these petty places are Muska, Beskow,Strikow, 
Wetschow, Whittichenaw, and Dreyocke. 
VA'NDALIC, ad). [from the Vandals.'] Barbarous ; re¬ 
sembling the character of the Vandals.—From what hath 
past, rash divines might be apt to charge this holy man, 
so meek of spirit, with enthusiasm, with a brutal spite to 
reason, and with more than Vandalic rage against human 
learning. Warburton. 
VANDALISM, s. The rude and barbarous state or 
character of the Vandals.—I regard all the conquests of Franee 
as so many epochas, and stages, in the career of a new van¬ 
dalism and darkness, which are preparing to involve all 
human society. Ld. Auckland. 
VANDELLIA [so named by Browne in honour of Do- 
minico Vandelli, professor of natural history at Lisbon], in 
Botany, a genus of the class didynamia, order angiospermia, 
natural order of personate, scrophulariee (Juss.J —Generic 
Character. Calyx: perianth one-leafed, tubulous, four- 
parted; parts subovate, equal, the uppermost subbifid; per¬ 
manent. Corolla one-petalled, ringent; tube length of the 
calyx; border small; upper-lip ovate, entire, lower dilated, 
two-lobed. Stamina: filaments four; two outer from the 
disk of the lower lip, bowed upwards; two from the throat 
higher. Anthers ovate, connected by pairs. Pistil: germ 
oblong. Style filiform, length of the stamens. Stigmas 
two, ovate, membranaceous, reflexed. Pericarp: capsule 
oblong, one-celled. Seeds numerous.— Essential Charac¬ 
ter. Calyx four-parted. Corolla ringent. Filaments: the 
two outer from the disk of the lip of the corolla. Anthers 
connected by pairs. Capsule one-celled, many-seeded. 
1. Vandellia diffusa.—Leaves roundish, subsessile. Stem 
herbaceous, four-cornered, brachiate. Leaves ovate, sessile, 
crenate, bluntish. Flowers axillary, opposite, solitary.— 
Native of the islands of Montserrat and Santa Cruz. 
2. Vandellia pratensis.— Leaves petioled, oblong, acute, 
crenate. Root annual. Stem herbaceous, erect, four- 
cornered with the corners acute, brachiate.—Found in Ame¬ 
rica from the island of Trinidad to Brazil; very frequent by 
way sides. 
VANDEPUT, Cape, a cape on the west coast of 
North America, and east point of Prince Frederick’s sound. 
Lat. 57. 5. N. long. 227. 12. E. 
VANDERLIN ISLAND, an island on the coast of 
New Holland, in the gulph of Carpentaria. Vanderlin 
cape, the north point of the island, is in lat. 15. 34. S. 
long. 137. 8. E. It forms one of the cluster of islands 
called by Flinders Sir Edward Pellew’s group. 
VAN DIEMAN’S LAND, an island in the Southern 
ocean, separated from New Holland by a navigable canal 
called Bass’s Straits. The country was first discovered by 
Tasman in 1633. 
It is situated between 40. 42. and 43. 43. S. lat. and 
between 145. 31. and 148. 22. E. long. It has not so 
discouraging and repulsive an appearance from the coast 
as New Holland. Many fine tracks of land are found on 
the very borders of the sea, and the interior is almost invari¬ 
ably possessed of a soil admirably adapted to all agricultural 
and horticultural purposes. On the summits of many of 
3 N ably 
