Merri, St. See ST. MERRI. Merrimack, The. A noted vessel of the Confederate navy during the Civil War. When the rebels seized the United States navyyard at Norfolk, they had sunk this vessel, which was formerly a fine ship of war, in the harbor; but on reflection they concluded to raise her. After so doing, they covered the deck with a shelving iron roof, plated the sides with iron to below the water-level, and fitted up on her bow a pointed "beak of oak and iron, thus converting the vessel into a most formidable ram. Thus armed, on the 8th of March, 1862, she bore down upon the Cumberland and the Congress, lying in Hampton Roads, and destroyed them both. The following day she encountered the iron-clad Monitor, just built in New York by John Ericsson, and was compelled to retire, leaving the victory to the latter.

"Before sunrise the dreaded Merrimac was seen coming down from Norfolk with attendants to renew her savage work on the Minnesota. As she approached, the latter opened her stern guns on the assailant, when the Monitor, to the astonishment of friend and foe, ran out and placed herself alongside the giant warrior, a little David defying a lofty Goliath. The faith of her commander in her strength and invulnerability was amply justified. The turret of the Monitor began to move, and from her guns were hurled ponderous shots in quick succession. The Merrimac responded with two-hundredpound shots, moving at the rate of two thousand feet in a second. These, with solid round shots and conical bolts, glanced from the deck and citadel of the Monitor like pebbles, scarcely leav ing a mark behind. Neither of these mailed gladiators was much bruised in this terrible encounter. . . . The Merrimac now [later] was more injured than her antagonist, and after a short and sharp combat they both withdrew. The commander of the former was so impressed with profound respect for the Monitor that he did not again invite his little antagonist to combat."

Lossing.

A frown came over Morris's face; The strange, dark craft he knew: "That is the iron Merrimac, Manned by a rebel crew."

G. H. Boker.

Merry Maidens. A Druidical circle, so called, near Penzance, Cornwall, England.

An

Merry Mount. A district which in the early colonial days of New England bore this name was situated in the neighborhood of what is now the town of Quincy, Mass. It was occupied by a party of Church-of-England men, who paid little respect to the rigid and austere habits of the Puritans, whom they greatly offended by the laxity of their manners. attack was made upon this settlement by the forces of the Plymouth colony in 1630. John Lothrop Motley, the American historian, produced in 1849 a romance entitled "Merry Mount." Merton College. A noted college in Oxford, England; founded about 1264, one of the 19 colleges included in the university. Its chapel is much admired, and its library is the oldest in Great Britain.

My new friends showed me their cloisters, the Bodleian Library, the Randolph Gallery, Merton Hall, and the rest.

Emerson.

Mesjid Shah. The great mosque at Ispahan, Persia. It is a rectangular building surmounted by a dome, the external height of which is 165 feet.

"On three sides the mosque is surrounded by court-yards, richly or namented and containing fountains and basins of water for the ablutions of the faithful. The principal court, surrounded as it is on all sides by façades in the richest style of Persian polychromatic decoration, in the brilliancy of its architectural effect, is almost unrivalled by any other example of its class." Fergusson.

Meta Sudans. A famous fountain, now a ruin, near the Coliseum, in Rome. It was built in a conical form, of brick, was placed in the centre of a basin, also of brick, 75 feet in diameter, and is supposed to have been used by the gladiators after their contests in the amphitheatre. In one of Seneca's epistles he speaks of the noise made by a showman blowing his trumpet in the vicinity of this fountain.

Metella, Tomb of Cecilia. See TOMB OF CECILIA METELLA.

Meteora, Monasteries of. A group of monastic establishments in Greece, formerly 24 in number, but of which only ten now remain. They derive their name from their situation "high up in the air” (Τα Μετέωρα, SC. Mοναστήρια, i.e., the Meteor-Monasteries), being placed upon the summit of a cluster of detached rocks divided by deep chasms. The mode of communication between this abode

"Of the monastic brotherhood upon rock Aërial"

and the earth 300 feet below is by a suspended rope. The person wishing to visit the monastery takes his seat, in a net fastened to the end of a rope lowered from the rock, and, after an ascent lasting about four minutes and a half, reaches the landing-place of the monastery. The ascent can also be made by suspended ladders.

ST. MICHAEL'S CHAIR, ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT, etc.

Michele, San. See SAN MICHELE and OR SAN MICHELE. Michigan Avenue. A well-known street in Chicago, Ill. Middle Temple. One of the Inns of Court in London. The poet Chaucer was a student here; and here lived Blackstone, the lawyer, and also Oliver Goldsmith, who died here in 1774. See INNS OF COURT, INNER TEMPLE, LINCOLN'S INN, GRAY'S INN.

1636, 13 Feb. I was admitted into the Middle Temple, London, though absent and yet at schoole. John Evelyn, Diary. Middle Temple Hall. An Elizabethan structure of the Temple, London. "Twelfth Night" was performed here in 1601.

"Truly it is a most magnificent apartment; very lofty, so lofty, indeed, that the antique oak roof is quite hidden, as regards all its details, in the sombre gloom that broods under its rafters." Hawthorne.

a

brother Coenobite from Mount Athos, sometimes a Neophyte, yearning for ascetic solitude: once they received in this manner an Emperor, who came here, as is said, to exchange the purple of Constantine for the cowl of St. BaC. Wordsworth.

sil."

Metropolitan Museum. A building near Union Square, in the city of New York, containing a picture-gallery, and gallery of statuary, and valuable collections of manuscripts, Egyptian and Greek antiquities, etc.

Michael Angelo. A portrait of himself by the painter (1474-1564). In the collection of autograph portraits in the Uffizi, Florence, Italy.

Michael Angelo's House. In the Via Ghibellina, Florence, Italy. It remains in the possession of the sculptor's family, and is exhibited to visitors.

Michael, St. See ST. MICHAEL,

BOOTH.

Mifflin, Fort. See FORT Mifflin. Mignon. A picture by Ary Scheffer (1795-1858), which is well known through reproductions.

Milan Cathedral. A magnificent and celebrated marble church. Its erection was begun in the latter part of the fourteenth century.

"The stranger in Milan naturally hurries to the cathedral, a struc ture the merits and demerits of which require an architectural eye to compre hend and interpret. I can only say that its exterior was somewhat disap. pointing.. The interior, always excepting the disingenuous trick of the painted ceiling, called forth unqualified admiration. The most striking part of the Milan Cathedral is the outside of the roof. The great extent of the building is more justly estimated there than from any part of the in terior, and the eye and mind are overpowered by the multitude of architectural details, the rich ornaments, the delicately carved flying buttresses, the wilderness of pinnacles." Hillard.

།

"The design of the Duomo is said to be taken from Monte Rosa, one of the loftiest peaks of the Alps. Its hundred of sculptured pinnacles rising from every part of the body of the church certainly bear a striking resemblance to the splintered ice-crags of Savoy. Thus we see how Art, mighty and endless in her forms though she be, is in every thing but the child of Nature." Bayard Taylor.

"Gothic art attains at once its triumph and its extravagance. Never had it been so pointed, so highly embroidered, so complex, so overcharged, so strongly resembling a piece of jewelry; and as, instead of course and lifeless stone, it here takes for its material the beautiful lustrous Italian marble, it becomes a pure chased gem, as precious through its substance as through the labor bestowed on it."

Taine, Trans.

O peerless church of old Milan, How brightly thou com'st back to me, With all thy minarets and towers, And sculptured marbles fair to see! Henry G. Bell. Mile End. A locality in London, England, at the head of Whitechapel Road.

I remember at Mile-end green (when I lay at Clement's Inn). I was then Sir Dagonet in Arthur's show. Shakespeare.

He found Wat holding his ragged court at Mile End. The king, despairing of immediate assistance, had conceded every request that was presented to him. J. A. Froude. Military Academy. See UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY. Milk Grotto. A cave, or grotto, in the neighborhood of Bethlehem, in which, according to monastic legend, Mary and the Child secreted themselves from the rage of Herod before they took their flight to Egypt. The spot is a great resort of pious pilgrims, drawn hither by the superstitious belief that the stone of which the cave is composed has the miraculous power of increasing woman's milk. It is stated to be a fact, that portions of this stone are continually broken off by the pilgrims, and sent all over Eu

rope and the East, wherever a belief in its efficacy prevails. Milking-time at Dort. An admired picture by Albert Cuyp (1605-1691). In the National Gallery, London.

Mill, The. A celebrated picture by Claude Lorraine (1600-1682). In the Palazzo Doria, Rome.

"A fair example of what is called an 'ideal' landscape, i.e., a group of the artist's studies from nature individually spoiled, selected with such opposition of character as may insure their neutralizing each other's effect and producing a general sensation of the impossible." Ruskin.

It

Millbank Prison. A prison in the parish of Westminster, London, and said to be "the largest penal establishment in England." was begun in 1812, and has sometimes been called the English Bastille.

Milliarium Aureum. [The Golden Mile-stone.] A mile-stone of ancient Rome, in the Forum, and said to have been set up by Augustus, upon which distances, beyond the walls of the city, upon the great Roman roads, were inscribed. The Milliarium Aureum formed one extremity of a semicircular wall, which terminated at the other end in a conical pyramid, called Umbilicus Romæ, upon which were inscribed all distances within the walls.

Milton at Home. An admired picture by Emanuel Leutze (18161868). In the Corcoran Gallery, Washington.

Milvian Bridge. See PONTE

MOLLE.

Mincing Lane. A street in London, so called from buildings which formerly belonged to the Minchuns or nuns of St. Helen's. Mincing Lane figures in Dickens's novel of "Our Mutual Friend."

Stones of old Mincing Lane, which I have worn with my daily pilgrimage for six-and-thirty years, to the footsteps of what toil-worn clerk are your everlasting flints now vocal? Charles Lamb

Minerva. A famous statue of an- | tiquity, executed by Phidias (500 B.C.?), the Greek sculptor, for the Parthenon at Athens.

Minerva Medica. A celebrated Greek statue which derives its name from the Temple of Minerva Medica, where it was discovered. Now in the Vatican, Rome.

"In the Giustiniani palace [since removed] is a statue of Minerva which fills me with admiration. Winckelmann scarcely thinks any thing of it, or at any rate does not give it its proper position, but I cannot praise it suffi ciently." Goethe, Trans. That's you, Miss Leigh: I've watched you

half an hour,

Precisely as I watched the statue called A Pallas in the Vatican. Mrs. Browning. Minerva Medica, Temple of. See TEMPLE OF MINERVA MEDICA. Minerva Press. The name applied to a printing-house in Leadenhall Street, London. In the latter part of the eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth century, numbers of popu lar but trashy novels were issued from this establishinent. Lamb speaks of these works, which had a wide circulation, as having heroes which are neither of this nor of any conceivable world.

Hesperus and Titan themselves, though in for nothing more than "novels of real life," as the Minerva Press would say, have solid metal enough in them to furnish whole circulating libraries, were it beaten into the usual filigree. Carlyle.

In this respect, Burns, though not perhaps absolutely a great poet, better manifests his capability, better proves the truth of his genius, than if he had, by his own strength, kept the whole Minerva Press going, to the end of his literary course. Carlyle. Miniato, San. See SAN MINIATO AL MONTE.

Minories, The. A parish in London, named from the Sorores Minores, or nuns of the order of St. Clare, founded 1293, whose convent stood in this street. The street has long been noted for its gunsmiths.

The Mulcibers who in the Minories sweat. Congreve.

And naked in the howling night
The red-eyed light-house lifts its form.
The waves with slippery fingers clutch
The massive tower, and climb and fall,
And, muttering, growl with baffled rage
Their curses on the sturdy wall.
Fitz-James O'Brien.

Mir. See HOLY OIL.
Miracle of Bolsena. See MASS OF
BOLSENA.

Miracle of Roses of St. Francis. A large fresco-painting by Friedrich Overbeck (1789-1869), and considered his masterpiece in that department of art. At Assisi, Italy.

Miracle of St. Mark. A cele

brated picture attributed to Giorgio Barbarelli, called Giorgione (1477-1511), based upon a famous legend connected with the history of Venice. In the Accademia delle Belle Arti, in Venice, Italy.

"No painting, in my judgment, surpasses or perhaps equals his [Tintoret's] St. Mark. No one, save Rubens, has so caught the instantaneousness of motion, the fury of flight; alongside of this vehemence and this truthfulness, classic figures seem stiff, as if copied after Academy models whose arms are upheld by strings: we are borne along with him, and follow him to the ground, as yet unreached." Taine, Trans. Miracle of the Cross. A picture by Gentile Bellini (1421-1507). In the Accademia delle Belle Arti, at Venice, Italy. Miraculous Draught of Fishes. The subject of one of the famous cartoons of Raphael Sanzio (1483– 1520), from which the tapestries in the Vatican at Rome were executed.

"The composition of Raphael [the cartoon of the Miraculous Draught

of Fishes] is just what we should seek for in Raphael, a masterpiece of dra. matic expression-the significant, the poetical, the miraculous predominating."

its fame chiefly from the fact that it was a favorite resort of Dr. Johnson. It is no longer Here Johnson and Boswell determined to make a tour to the Hebrides.

Miraculous Wafers. A Catholic holy relic preserved in the chapel of St. Sacrament des Miracles in the Cathedral of Brussels, Belgium. The wafers when scoffingly pierced with knives by Jews, who in the fourteenth century had stolen them from the altar, are said to have emitted jets of blood. The miracle is the occasion of an annual religious ceremony.

Miramar. A well-known Gothic castle on a point of land extending into the sea, near Trieste, Austria. It was the residence of Maximilian, the Emperor of Mexico, and Carlotta, his wife.

Miriam singing the Song of Triumph. A picture by Washington Allston (1779-1843). Formerly in possession of Hon. David Sears, Boston, Mass.

Misericordia di Lucca. A celebrated picture by Baccio del Porta, called Fra Bartolommeo (14691517), and his most important work. At Lucca, Italy.

"Famous in the history of art. The expression in the heads, the dig. nified beneficence of the Virgin, the dramatic feeling in the groups, particularly the women and children, justify the fame of this picture as one of the greatest of the productions of mind." Mrs. Jameson,

Misers, The. See Two MISERS. Misfortunes of Job. See JOB. Miss Kelley's Theatre. See SOHO THEATRE.

Mission Dolores. An interesting old Spanish mission station and church about three miles from San Francisco, Cal. It was founded by Jesuit missionaries upwards of a hundred years ago. The church has been partly enclosed with wood in order to preserve it.

Mitre, The. 1. A noted tavern in

Fleet Street, London, deriving

"The Mitre Tavern still stands in Fleet Street; but where now is its scot-and-lot paying, beef-and-ale lov ing, cocked-latted, pot-bellied Landlord; its rosy-faced, assiduous Landlady, with all her shining brass pans, waxed tables, well-filled larder-shelves; her cooks, and bootjacks, and errandboys, and watery-mouthed hangers-on? Gone! Gone! The becking waiter, that with wreathed smiles, wont to spread for Samuel and Bozzy their supper of the gods,' has long since pocketed his last sixpence; and vanished, sixpences and all, like a ghost at cock-crowing. The Bottles they drank out of are all broken, the Chairs they sat on all rotted and burnt; the very Knives and Forks they ate with have rusted to the heart." Carlyle.

"The orthodox high-church sound of The Mitre-the figure and manner of the celebrated Samuel Johnson the extraordinary power and precision of his conversation, and the pride arising from finding myself admitted as his companion, produced a variety of sensations and a pleasing elevation of mind, beyond what I had ever experienced." Boswell.

"On the other side of Fleet Street we can see the Mitre Tavern,' closing up the end of a court-but not the old original 'Mitre' where Johnson sat with Boswell. It was pulled down within living memory, and with it the corner in which the sage used to sit, and which was religiously marked by his bust. Yet even as it stands in its restoration, there is something quaint in the feeling, as you enter through a low covered passage from Fleet Street, and see its cheerful open door at the end. The passage to the Mitre' is as it was in Johnson's day, and his eyes must have been often raised to the old beams that support its roof. Even in . its modern shape, it retains much that is old-fashioned and rococo."

Fitzgerald.

2. A London tavern, in Wood Street, destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, and spoken of by Pepys a few years before that time as being "a house of the greatest note in London."

3. An old London tavern in Fenchurch Street, destroyed in