able. A weekly market is held here, and several annual fairs. Population 2112.

ASHBURNHAM, a post town of the United States, in Worcester county, Massachusetts, on the west side of the river Sowhegan, forty-five miles north-west of Boston.

ASHBURTON, a town in Devonshire, seated on the river Dart, ten miles from Totness, nineteen south-west of Exeter, and 192 west by south of London. It carries on a considerable trade, in wool, yarn, and serges; has markets on Tuesday and Saturday, and fairs on the first Thursday of March and June, and on the 10th August and 11th November. It sends two members to parliament, and is one of the four stannary towns. It is seated among the hills, which abound in tin and copper; and has a very handsome church, with a chapel, which is used as a school. Population about 3000.

ASHBY DE LA ZOUCH, a market town of Leicestershire, so called from the Zouches, its ancient lords, 13 miles south of Derby, 15 from Leicester, and 115 from London. It has seven annual fairs. It long had a castle, which was in the possession of the family de la Zouch. It afterwards fell into the hands of Edward IV. who granted it to Sir Edward Hastings, with the title of a baron, and license to make a castle of the manor-house, to which he adjoined a very high tower. James I. and his whole court were once entertained here by the Earl of Huntingdon. It was demolished in 1648. Malting, and the manufacture of hats and cotton, flourish here. Population upwards of 3000. In the neigh bourhood is a mineral water called Griffydam.

ASHDOWN, a town of Essex, anciently called Assandun, or the hill of asses, famous for the defeat of Edmund Ironside, by Canute the Dane.

excellent manure for cold and wet grounds. Se HUSBANDRY.

ASHES were anciently used in several religious ceremonies. St. Jerome relates that the Jews in his time rolled themselves in ashes, as a sign of mourning. To repent in sackloth and ashes is a frequent expression in Scripture for mourning and being afflicted for our sins. There was a sort of lye and lustral water made with the ashes of an heifer sacrificed upon the great day of expiation; the ashes whereof were distributed to the people, and this water was used in purifications as often as any touched a dead body, or was present at funerals, Num. xix. 17.

ASH-FIRE, among chemists, a fire wherein the vessel to be heated is covered with ashes or sand. ASHI, a prince of Norway, said to have been slain by Fingal, the father of Ossian, at a place of Invernesshire, ever since named Drumashi, or Ashi's Hill.

ASHIMA, an idol of the Samaritans, 2 Kings xvii. 30, said to have been formed like a lion or a goat, and to have represented the sun.

ASHING-KEY, a low island on the Spanish main, on the Mosquito shore.

ASHIPOO, a river of North America, in South Carolina, which runs into the Atlantic. Long. 80° 30′ W., lat. 32° 25′ N. Also a town of the same name situated on the banks of this river.

ASHLAR, in masonry, free-stones as they come out of the quarry, of different lengths, generally applied to slabs of stone, from six to nine inches in thickness, used for facing brick buildings, worked in imitation of regular courses of solid masonry.

ASHLER, or ASHLERING, quartering of timber about three feet high, placed perpendicularly from the floor of the attic story, to the roof to obviate the useless angle formed by the junction of the roof and the floor.

ASHLEY, a river of South Carolina, rising in Cypress swamp, and emptying itself into the Cooper just below Charleston. Its breadth opposite Charleston is about 2100 yards, and its stream narrows but little for several miles. On the western bank of this river the first efficient settlement of the state was made at a place now called Old Town, or Old Charleston, in 1671. Also a river of West Florida, which runs into the Gulf of Mexico.

ASHMOLE (Elias), a celebrated antiquary and herald, founder of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, was born at Litchfield, in Staffordshire, 1617. He first practised in the law: in the civil war he had a captain's commission, and was also comptroller of the ordnance under Charles I. In 1649 he settled at London; where his house was frequented by most of the learned men of the age, and a depository of many literary treasures. In 1650 he published a treatise written by Dr. Arthur Dee, relating to the philosopher's stone; with another tract on the same subject by an unknown author. About the same time he was busied in preparing for the press a complete collection of the works of such English chemists, or alchemists rather, as had till then remained in manuscript. This undertaking cost him great labor and expense; but at length the work appeared towards the close of

the year 1652, under the title of Theatricum Chymicum Britannicum. He proposed at first to have carried it on to several volumes; but afterwards dropped this design, and applied himself to the study of antiquity and records. He was at great pains to trace the Roman road, which in Antoninus's Itinerary is called Bennevanna, from Weedon to Litchfield. In 1658 he began to collect materials for his celebrated history of the Order of the Garter. In September following he made a journey to Oxford, where he commenced his full and particular description of the coins presented to the public library by archbishop Laud. Upon the restoration, Mr. Ashmole was introduced to king Charles II. who bestowed on him the place of Windsor Herald. Soon after he appointed him to give a description of his medals, which were accordingly delivered into his possession, and king Henry VIIIth's closet was assigned for his use. Mr. Ashmole was afterwards admitted a fellow of

the Royal Society; and the king appointed him secretary of Surinam, in the West Indies. On the 19th July 1669, the University of Oxford, in consideration of the many favors they had received from Mr. Ashmole, created him M. D. by diploma. In May 1672 he presented his Institution, Laws, and Ceremonies of the Order of the Garter, to the king, who, as a mark of his approbation granted him £400 out of the custom on paper. On the 26th January, 1679, a fire broke out in the Middle Temple, in the next chamber to Mr. Ashmole's, by which he lost a noble library, with a collection of 9000 coins, ancient and modern, and a vast repository of seals, charters, and other antiquities and curiosities; but his manuscripts, and his most valuable gold medals, were luckily at his house at Lambeth. In 1683, the University of Oxford having finished a magnificent repository near the theatre, Mr. Ashmole sent thither his collection of rarities; which benefaction was augmented by the addition of his manuscripts and library at his death, which happened at Lambeth, May 18, 1692, in the 76th year of his age. Besides the works above mentioned, Mr. Ashmole left several which were published since his death, and some which still remain in manuscript.

ASHMOT, the principal part of the Isle Madame, dependent on the island of Cape Breton.

ASHO'RE. On shore. Ang.-Sax. sciran, to shear, cut, divide, separate. See SHORE.

Sweare then how thou escap'dst.
Swum ashore man like a ducke! Shakspeare.
For now the flowing tide,

Had brought the body nearer to the side;
The more she looks, the more her fears increase,
At nearer sight; and she's herself the less:
Now driv'n ashore, and at her feet it lies,
She knows too much in knowing whom she sees.
Her husband's corpse.
Dryden's Fables
[He] Then with his dire associates through the deep,
For spoil and slaughter guides the savage prow,
Him dogs will rend ashore.

Glover's Leonidas, book xii. p. 77. Thus while their cordage stretch'd ushore may guide, Our brave companions thro' the swelling tide; This floating lumber shall sustain them o'er The rocky shelves, in safety to the shore.

Falconer's Shipwreck.

Storms rise t' o'erwhelm him: or if stormy winds
Rise not, the waters of the deep shall rise
And needing no assistance of the storm,
Shall roll themselves ashore and reach him there.
Cowper's Poems.

ASHTAROTH, ASHTORETH; 8, Heb. i. e. flocks, or riches; or ASTARTE, the chief goddess of the Sidonians and Phoenicians, called also the Queen of Heaven, and reckoned the same with the Juno of the Greeks and Romans. Cicero, however, calls her the Venus of Syria, wherein he is certainly justified by her mode of worship; which, like that of the Grecian Venus, abounded in all manner of debauchery. The Israelites in all their relapses to idolatry showed a great fondness for her worship. Solomon himself in his dotage sacrificed to her. She was represented in various habits, encircled with rays, &c. We find a place named after her in the days of Abraham; Gen. xiv. 5.

ASHTON (Charles), an antiquarian and one of the most learned critics of his age, was elected master of Jesus College, Cambridge, July 5th 1701, and installed prebend of Ely, on the 14th. His skill in ecclesiastical antiquities was equalled by few.

ASHTON (Dr. Thomas), a native of Eton, studied at Cambridge, in 1733, was successively rector of Aldingham,_ Starminster, and St. Botolph, Bishopsgate. In 1759 he took his degree of D. D.; and in May 1762 was elected preacher at Lincoln's Inn, which he resigned in 1764. He died in 1775, aged fifty-nine. He published, 1. A volume of Sermons. 2. A Dissertation on II. Peter, i. 19. 3. A letter to the Rev. Mr. Jones. 4 & 5. Two Letters to Dr. Morell, on Electing Aliens into places in Eton College; and 6. An Extract from the case of the Obligation of Electors, &c.

ASHTON-UNDER-LINE, a town and parish of England, on the river Tame, in the county of Lancaster, in which considerable manufactures are carried on. Several villages are contained in this parish, the whole population of which amounts to 19,052. It is distant about 195 miles from London.

ASHUR,, Heb. i. e. blessed, the son of Shem, and progenitor of the Assyrians.

ASH-WEDNESDAY, the first day of Lent, so called from the ancient custom of sprinkling ashes on the head,

ASHWELL (George), rector of Hanwell, son of Robert Ashwell of Harrow, was born at London in 1612, and admitted in Wadham College, Oxford, in 1627, where he took his degrees of A. M. and B. D. and was elected a fellow and tutor. During the rebellion he preached several times before the king and parliament. He died at Hanwell, in 1693, with the character of a religious, learned, and peaceable divine. He wrote, 1. A discourse, asserting the received authors, and authority of the Apostle's Creed. Oxon. 1653. 2. A double Appendix, touching the Athanasian and Nicene Creeds. 3. On the Gesture at receiving the Sacrament, 1663. 4. A Treatise concerning Socinus, and the Socinian Heresy. 5. A Dissertation on the Church of Rome. Ox. 1618. And an answer to Plato Redivivus; besides translations.

ASIA, in geography, one of the great divisions of the earth, lies to the east and south-east of Europe. North and south it stretches from about 2° to 77° of north latitude. East and west it extends from about 26° east, to 170° west longitude. Its northern capes penetrate the ice of the polar regions, while its southern promontories approach nearly to the centre of the torrid zone. Its greatest length in this direction is taken at something more than 5200 English miles from east to west. The extent of this continent from the western shores of Natolia, to East Cape in Siberia, has been calculated in a late popular work at 7580 miles

BOUNDARIES. It is bounded on the north and south by the Arctic and Indian Oceans; on the east by the Pacific Ocean and the Chinese Sea; and on the west by the Arabian gulf, the Isthmus of Suez, the Mediterranean, the Archipelago, the straits of Gallipoli, the sea of Marmora, the Bosphorus, and the Black Sea, whence to the Arctic Ocean the boundary which sepa⚫rates Asia from the east of Europe is not distinctly ascertained. It is, however, supposed to be constituted by the rivers Don and the Karposca, one of its tributary streams rising near Sarepta, the course of which is to be continued by an imaginary line between the 40°th and 50°th of east longitude.

ISLANDS. The islands belonging to Asia are the Prince's Islands near Constantinople, Mitylene, Scio, Samos, Cos, Rhodes, Cyprus, &c. in the Archipelago. Bahrein on the Arabian side of the Persian gulf noted for its pearl fishery. The Laccadive, Maldive islands, and Ceylon in the Indian Ocean, contiguous to the peninsula of Hindostan East of the Bay of Bengal lies the Indian Archipelago, consisting of numerous different groups of islands including the Andaman and Nicobar islands, the Sunda isles, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo; the Moluccas or Spice islands, Papua or New Guinea, Solomon's isles, Queen Charlotte's isles, and the New Hebrides; which bending in a circular direction to the south-east lead us to the two islands of New Zealand. New Holland, to the south of New Guinea, is the largest island in the world, and contains an area larger than all Europe. East of the New Hebrides lie the South Sea islands. North of New Guinea are the New Carolinas and the Marianne or Ladrone islands. West of them are the Manillas or Philippine islands, and the Mindanas or Magindanas north of the Moluccas. Immediately above Luzon is the Isle of Formosa. East of Formosa in the Chinese sea lie the Lieù-Kieù, or Lùtchù islands. Still farther northward we have Nison and other islands which together form the kingdom of Japan; from which proceed the Kuriles, consisting of numerous groups of little islands, extending in a chain from the isles of Japan to Cape Lopatka, the southern extremity of Kamtschatka. West of these on the coast of Tartary lie Saghalien and other islands. A little distant from Kamtschatka are the Aleutian or Fox islands,

proceeding in a curved line to the opposite extremity of America. Nova Zembla is also by some geographers considered as an Asiatic island, and lies to the north-west of Siberia. The islands of Ramisseram and Manar are curiously connected by a singular ridge of rocks called Adam's Bridge. It is nevertheless proper to observe that the best of later geographers, concurring in the opinion of the learned president des Brosses, have separated a vast number of the islands, formerly considered as Asiatic islands, from that continent, and arranged them with a number of other countries and islands to the south of Asia, and in the Pacific Ocean, under the two divisions of Australasia and Polynesia. The grounds of the new arrangement are explained with sufficient clearness by Mr. Pinkerton in his introductory observations on the Asiatic islands.

This gulf

SEAS and WATERS.-Besides the great oceans which wash three sides of this celebrated quarter of the globe, there are numerous gulfs, bays, and inland seas which have greatly contributed to its fertility and civilisation. The Red sea or Arabian gulf, called the Weedy sea by the Hebrews, forms the grand natural division between Asia and Africa. Its length calculated from the straits of Babelmandel to the isthmus of Suez, is about 1470 English miles, and its medial breadth 140 miles. It terminates at the upper extremity, in two great branches, of which the western, by several miles the longer, is celebrated for the passage of the Israelites in the month Nisan, B. C. 1497, supposed to have taken place in about 29° 40′ north latitude. The eastern branch extends a little above the parallel of Mount Sinai. The Arabian sea is an appellation applied to the vast bay, included between Arabia and Hindostan, terminating in the Persian gulf, to which it is united by a strait twenty-four miles wide. stretches to the north-west between Arabia and Persia, containing several islands, and terminates under the same meridian as the Caspian. The deep and extensive Bay of Bengal, spreading from the eastern coast of Hindostan to the opposite shores of the Burman Empire, is separated from the last mentioned sea by the great pro montory of the Deccan. This bay forms a magnificent inlet to the central part of southern Asia. At its entrance, which is in the eighth degree of latitude, it exceeds 1300 miles in width, and is 1000 miles from that parallel to its northern extremity, beyond the mouth of the Ganges. The gulf of Siam, on the opposite side of the peninsula of Malacca, separates the territorial projection from the broad rectangular peninsula included in the southern part of the Burman empire. The gulf of Tonquin lies on the south of China; the Yellow sea between China Proper and the gulf of Corea. The straits of Corea eastward lead to the sea of Japan; which stretches through about fifteen degrees of latitude, and divides the Japanese islands from the shores of the continent. This sea decreasing to the north terminates in a channel

leading to the sea of Okotsk which forms a spacious inlet to the south-eastern shores of Siberia, dividing Chinese Tartary from the peninsula of Kamtschatka. From the top of this sea projects a large forked gulf through nearly three degrees of latitude between two chains of magnificent mountains; one on the peninsula and the other on the continent. This gulf, and a bay on the opposite shore, render the conformation of the north-eastern part of Asia, peninsular. The sea of Anadir a few degrees south of Behring's strait forms another inlet to the north-eastern extremity of this continent. A few deep inlets are found on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. Passing from the White sea through the strait of Waygat, between Nova Zembla and the continent, we enter the gulf of Cara, which is divided from the deep gulf of Oby, by a long peninsula. This forms a large opening reaching nearly to the sixty-fifth parallel. The river Yenisei eastward forms itself into a wide estuary before it falls into the sea. The Bay of Tainourskaia, which from its situation is sometimes called the North Gulf, is placed about the seventy-fifth degree of latitude near the northern extremity of the Old World. Numerous other inlets are found along the coast from this point to Behring's strait. The Levant and the Archipelago lie on the western side of Asia, north of the Isthmus of Suez. The Euxine, or Black sea, forms the northern boundary of Anatolia, and is considered for the most part as a detached sea, being united to the Mediterranean only by a small strait, the Bosphorus of the ancients, so narrow as to be called the Canal of Constantinople.

The sea of Marmora, or Propontis, is considered by some an inland sea, and is connected with the Ægean Sea, or Mediterranean Archipelago, by a similar strait called the Dardanelles, or ancient Hellespont. This sea, as well as the Black Sea and Mediterranean, is supposed to have been anciently detached. The Caspian, celebrated for its fisheries, forms the separating boundary, which divides Russia from Persia and independent Tartary. It is of elliptical figure; the major axis extending nearly 700 miles from north to south, and occupying breadth of nearly 200 geographical miles. It appears to have extended much farther north than it does at present; especially as the deserts in that direction are saline, and sandy, presenting the same kind of shells and marine productions as are found in the waters of the Caspian. Pliny and Strabo supposed this sea to be a gulf of the northern ocean; but it must always have been restricted by the western branch of the Uralian mountains, which passes to the north of Orenburg, reaching to the Volga. Its former union with the Lake Aral is highly probable from the marine deposits found in the intervening steppes, and from the Salt Lake still remaining between them; the midway eminence having been occasioned perhaps by the alluvion from the great rivers which flow into the latter. The Caspian is remarkable for its having no visible outlet for the discharge of its waters, notwithstanding the large rivers that flow into it, and also from the evidences of a former superior elevation being visible in the flanks of the moun

tains forming its western coasts. M. Pallas imagined he recognised its ancient shores on the steppe, considerably higher than its present level; and has given some particulars on the subject. M M. Engelhardt and Parrot, naturalists from Prussia, who visited this sea in 1815, place the former shores of the Caspian about 350 feet higher than its present surface; where they found gulfs and bays clearly defined. Its islands are mostly uninhabited; its bed is uneven, abounding with shoals, between some of which a line of 450 fathoms has been unsuccessfully employed to reach the bottom. Its waters are less salt than those of the ocean; but have a peculiar bitter taste. It has no tides; but is subject to violent storms. The striking peculiarity of this sea is the difference between its level and that of the Baltic and the Black Sea. From barometical observations made at Astracan, and at St. Petersburgh, during a period of nine years, the Caspian appeared to be 306 feet below that of the Baltic and from other barometical observations, made between the mouth of the Kuban and that of the Terek, the surface of the Black Sea was found to be 105 metres, or 344.5 feet above the Caspian.

Lake Aral is about 200 miles in length, and seventy in breadth, and about an hundred miles distant from the eastern shores of the Caspian ; which, in some respects, it may be said to resemble: it extends in the same direction, and receives the waters of several rivers, but discharges none. The principal rivers that run into it are the Gihon, or Jihon; the Oxus, of antiquity, which enters the southern extremity; the ancient Jaxartes, which reaches it from the east; as also the Aujany, or Kizil Daria. The southern extremity of this lake is sprinkled with numerous islands; and its supplies of water flowing from the south and the east, while those of the Caspian flow from the north and west, evince that they occupy part of the same natural basin. Baikal, another of the great lakes, or inland seas, of Asia, is situated near the southern borders of Siberia, on the northern side of the great chain of mountains which divides that country from Mongolia. This lake, like the former, stretches in the same direction as the Caspian: is 350 miles in length, and nearly forty in breadth. Its waters are fresh and pellucid, presenting however the general appearance of a slight green tinge, and are usually frozen from the beginning of December to the end of April. The depth of this lake varies from twenty to ninety fathoms; but so clear are the waters, that the bottom becomes distinctly visible to the depth of fifty feet. It is subject to violent storms, and is often agitated without any visible cause; whence it has received from the Russians the superstitious name of Svetoie Marè, Holy Sea. This lake, although it receives the waters of several copious rivers, has no visible outlet except the lower Angara, the discharge from which is considerably inferior to the accessions which it receives. It is almost surrounded by mountains, in which the existence of subterraneous fire is evident, from frequent shocks of earthquakes; and the surrounding shores are distinguished by some remarkable phenomena.