along this street on the 19th of April, 1861, that the 6th Massachusetts regiment was attacked, having three of their number killed, and eighteen wounded. Praxiteles, Faun of. See FAUN. Praying Boy. See Boy PRAYING. Pré aux Clercs. A district near St. Germain des Prés, Paris, now occupied by houses, but once, owing to the disputed ownership of the land, a place for lawlessness and debauchery, rioting and duels. Pré Catelan. A prettily-laid-out garden in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris. The Pré Catelan is patronized by the upper classes, and concerts are given here several times a week. Prebischthor. A remarkable natural arch, 90 feet high, in the region known as the Saxon Switzerland. Preble, Fort. See FORT PREBLE. Presentation of the Virgin. [Ital. La Presentazione.] A favorite subject of representation by the great painters of the Middle Ages, based upon a legendary incident, in which the Virgin, as a child, is consecrated to the service of the Temple. Among the more noted compositions which treat of this subject the following may be mentioned: Presentation of the Virgin. A picture by Ghirlandaio (14491498), a composition full of life and character, with luxury of accessories and accompaniments." In the church of S. Maria Novella, Florence, Italy. Presentation in the Temple. A picture by Rembrandt van Ryn (1606-1669), the Dutch painter. In the Gallery of the Hague, Holland. Presentation of the Virgin. A picture by Guido Reni" (1574 ?1642). In the Louvre, Paris. Presentation of the Virgin. A picture by Titian (1477-1576). In the Accademia delle Belle Arti, Venice, Italy. Presentation in the Temple. A picture by Jacopo Robusti, called Tintoretto (1512-1594). In the church of S. Maria del Orto, Venice, Italy. Presentation in the Temple. A picture by Fra Bartolommeo (1469-1517), the Italian painter. Now at Venice, Italy. Presentation in the Temple. A picture by Stephan Lochner, called Meister Stephan (d. 1451), a German painter of rare merit. It is now in the Museum at Darmstadt, Germany. Presentation of the Virgin. A large altar-picture by Titian (14771576). It is now in the Accademia delle Belle Arti, in Venice, Italy. "This famous picture is so well known through the numerous engravings that I have not thought it necessary to reproduce it here. In the general arrangement Titian seems to have been indebted to Carpaccio, but all that is simple and poetical in the latter becomes in Titian's version sumptuous and dramatic. The number of portrait-heads adds to the value and interest of the picture." Mrs. Jameson. Presentation of the Virgin. A picture by Taddeo Gaddi (13001352 ?). In the church of Santa Croce, Florence, Italy. Presepio, Il. [The Manger.] A chapel in the church of Ara-Cœli at Rome, which contains the famous image of the Bambino. See BAMBINO. President, The. 1. A war-vessel of the old United States navy. She was built in 1794 at New York, and carried 44 guns. So off he goes and tells his crew; The sails were quickly bent, sir; A better ship you never knew, She's called the Presi-dent, sir. Old Song. 2. An American steamer which left New York for Liverpool in April, 1841. She was never heard from afterwards. There is another passenger very much wrapped up, who has been frowned down by the rest, and morally trampled upon and crushed, for presuming to inquire with a timid interest how long it is since the poor President went down. Dickens. Primrose Hill. An elevation near I shall not omit to speak of one genius, in drab breeches and gaiters, and an Arcadian hat, who had a violent propensity to the pastoral, but whose rural wanderings had been confined to the classic haunts of Primrose Hill and the solitudes of the Regent's Park. Irving. Prince Adolphus. See SAMSON THREATENING HIS FATHER. Prince Albert. 1. An Arctic exploring ship which sailed from England under Commander Kennedy, in 1851, Lady Franklin having equipped the expedition. 2. An armor-plated ship of the British navy, launched May 23, 1864. Prince Consort. An armor-plated ship of the British navy, launched June 26, 1862. Prince Eugène, Boulevart de. See VOLTAIRE, BOULEVArt de. Prince of Orange landing at Torbay. A picture by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851). In the National Gallery, London. Prince of Wales's Theatre. A well-known place of entertainment in London, formerly known as the Queen's Theatre. Princes Street. A noted street in the New Town of Edinburgh, Scotland, regarded as almost unrivalled for the magnificent view it commands of the Old Town (the street being only built upon on the north side), and constituting one of the finest promenades to be found in any city. Princess's Theatre. A theatre in Oxford Street, London, celebrated for the reproduction, under the management of Mr. Charles Kean, of Shakespeare's historic plays. It was opened to the public Sept. 30, 1841. Princeton, The. A United States frigate. By the bursting of a gun during an experimental firing, while a distinguished party of visitors were on board, the Secretary of State, A. P. Upshur, and others, were killed, in February, 1844. Printing House Square. 1. A retired court in London. It derives its name from the office of the King's Printer, which stood here till nearly the close of the last century, and was marked by the royal arms over the doorway. I went one day with a good friend to the "Times" office, which was entered through a pretty garden-yard, in PrintingHouse Square. Emerson. 2. A noted square in the city of New York, the centre of the great news-purveying industry of the United States, where are assembled the offices of the chief metropolitan journals, the Tribune, the Herald, the Times, the World, the Sun, and others, some of which occupy costly and imposing buildings. Prison of Socrates. This name is applied to one of three chambers hewn in the rock at the base of the hill Museum, at Athens, Greece. The dome of the inner chamber is funnel-shaped, with an aperture to let in the light from the top. These excavations are sometimes called ancient baths. Prisoner of Chillon. A picture by In Prodigal Son. A noted picture by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1618– ) 1682). Now in the Gallery of Stafford House, London. Prodigal Son. A picture by David Teniers the Younger (1610-1694 ?), the Belgian genre-painter. It is now in the Louvre, in Paris. Profile, The. A huge and very interesting rock-conformation upon the side of Profile Mountain in the Franconia range (White Mountains), New Hampshire. From a certain point of view at a distance, it bears a wonderful resemblance to the outline of a human face. This remarkably complete and distinct profile is nearly 1,500 feet above the little lake below it, and is from 60 to 80 feet in length. It is also popularly known as the OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN. Hawthorne refers to it in "The Great Stone Face." Propaganda. [Ital. Collegio di Propaganda Fede.] A religious establishment at Rome, founded by Gregory XV. in 1622, to educate young foreigners from heretical countries, in order that they might afterward return as missionaries and spread the Catholic faith among the people of their different nations. The annual examination of the pupils takes place in January. At the time of the French Revolution, the name Propaganda was given to the secret societies which aimed to disseminate democratic ideas, and it is often used at the present day to denote any institution or organization which seeks to promote special schemes either in politics or religion. "The origin of the Propaganda is properly to be sought in an edict of Gregory XIII., by which the direction of Eastern missions was confided to a certain number of cardinals, who were commanded to promote the printing of catechisms in the less-known tongues. ... It was at the suggestion of the great preacher Girolamo da Narni that the idea was first conceived of extendAt ing the above-named institution. his suggestion a congregation was established in all due form, and by this body regular meetings were to be held for the guidance and conduct of missions in every part of the world." Ranke. "We may with equal justice call Propaganda an universal academy, or a Noah's Ark, just as we feel dis posed. Young men from all parts of the world are educated here for missionaries. Here are children from California to China, from Ireland to the Cape of Good Hope: every one of them repeats a poem by rote in his native tongue. But a man must be a Mezzofanti to profit by this Babel-like anthology.. The less the audience [at the Feast of Languages in the Propaganda] understand of these poems, the more they applaud: it was so at least on this occasion, when I heard them cheer loudest an Ethiopian and two Chinese, their languages sounding most like gibberish and awaking the loudest laughter." Hans Christian Andersen. Propylæa. This structure, at Athens, Greece, the Vestibule of the citadel, built of Pentelic marble, was begun in the year 437 B.C., and was completed by the architect Mnesicles five years later, or about the time of the beginning of the Peloponnesian war. It covered the whole of the western end of the Acropolis. The Greeks admired the Propylæa more than any other of their buildings. Some walls and a few columns are still standing, and the entrance has been recently cleared. "The grand flight of the Propy læum is on the right. A high rampart serves as the basement for the little temple of the Wingless Victory, demolished in 1687 by the Turks, and afterward built up again, stone by stone, by two German architects. Athens dedicated it to her divine protect. ress Athena. The friezes represented the combats in which this goddess as. sured victory to her people, and upon the balustrade, the Victories, her winged messengers, seemed to await her orders." Lefevre, Trans. "The Propylœa still form a portal which divides two worlds. You leave modern and mediæval associa tions behind you, and are alone with the Past." Bayard Taylor. Proserpine. A well-known ideal bust by Hiram Powers (b. 1805), the American sculptor. "The popularity of this work has caused its incessant reproduction; few modern works of the chisel are more exquisitely and gracefully ornamental to boudoir, salon, or library." Tuckerman. Proserpine, Rape of. See RAPE OF PROSERPINE. Prospect Park. A fine pleasureground in Brooklyn, N.Y., covering nearly 600 acres, including hills, meadows, and groves, and a beautiful lake. The park was begun in 1866, and is said to have cost, together with two boulevards connected with it, nearly $12,000,000. Protestant Cemetery. [At Rome.] The Protestant Burial-ground in Rome, near the Pyramid of Caius Cestius, containing the graves of many English and American travellers and other foreign ́residents at Rome. The Old Protestant Cemetery, now closed, contains the grave of Keats, and in the New Burial-ground is a monument to Shelley. "It would almost make one in love with death to be buried in so sweet a place." Percy Bysshe Shelley. Protomoteca. The name given to a suite of seven rooms in the Capitol of Rome, presented to the Arcadian Academy by Leo XII. They contain many busts of illustrious men, including some which were formerly in the Pantheon. Province House. A noted mansion of colonial times, which formerly stood on Washington Street, Boston, Mass. It had a fine lawn in front. The building was of brick, three stories in height, with stone steps. It was erected in 1679. In 1715 it was purchased by the Province as a residence for the governors, who from a portiod e in the habit zens. I present century it became private property, and a block of stores was erected in front of it, the old building degenerating into a hall for negro concerts. It was destroyed by fire in 1864, but the walls remain, and have been used as the exterior of a new building. Nathaniel Hawthorne has given a description of the Province House in his "TwiceTold Tales." O my God!-for that free spirit, which of old in Boston town Smote the Province House with terror, struck the crest of Andros down! Whittier. Prytaneum. [Gr. πρυτανείον, the President's Hall, or Town Hall.] A public building in ancient Greek cities. In Athens, the hall in which the magistrates had their meals, and where they entertained at the public cost foreign ambassadors. Citizens also of high public merit, and the children of those who fell in battle, were often rewarded by a seat at this public table. Socrates, on his trial, when asked to name his punishment, adjudged himself entitled to be supported in the Prytaneum. What, then, is suitable to a poor man, a benefactor, and who has need of leisure in order to give you good advice? There is nothing so suitable, O Athenians, as that such a man should be maintained in the Prytaneum.. . If, therefore, I must award sentence according to my just deserts, I award this, maintenance in the Prytaneum. Plato, Apology of Socrates. Psyche. A beautiful relic of ancient sculpture, now in the museum at Naples, Italy, well known by the numerous reproductions of it in marble and plaster. It apparently represents her listening to a Cupid who may be supposed to stand on her right. This figure was found in the amphitheatre at Capua. "The charming Naples Psyche. This refined youthful torso, with its delicate distingue head, is likewise not of the great epoch of sculpture.” Taine, Trans. i-Psyche and the Butterfly. See CUPID CATCHING A BUTTERFLY. Ptarmigan Hill. A picture by Sir Edwin Landseer (1803-1873), the most celebrated modern painter of animals. Pucelle, Place de la. See PLACE DE LA PUCElle. Puck. 1. An admired picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792). 2. A work of sculpture by Harriet G. Hosmer (b. 1830). Pudding Lane. A narrow street or lane in London. It was here that the Great Fire of 1666 began. Puente de Alcantara. [The Bridge of Alcantara.] An interesting and impressive Roman ruin in the town of Alcantara, Spain. The bridge, built of immense stones, which here spans the Tagus, was built for the Emperor Trajan, A.D. 105. It consists of six arches, the central span being 110 feet. The bridge is about 670 feet in length, and 210 in height, and is constructed of granite without cement. "One of the most remarkable of these [bridges] is that which Trajan erected at Alcantara in Spain. The road way is perfectly level, as is generally the case in Roman bridges, though the mode by which this is attained, of springing the arches from different levels, is perhaps not the most pleas ing. To us, at least, it is unfamiliar, and has never, I think, been adopted in modern times." Fergusson. Puente del Diablo. [The Devil's Bridge.] A famous old Roman aqueduct called by the Spaniards el Puente, the bridge-at Segovia in Spain. "The first thing we went to see was the cathedral; ... the next, the Roman Aqueduct, called by the people Puente del Diabolo,' for they have no idea such a stupendous work could be achieved by a personage of less authority and power. . . . It begins outside of the city, and traverses the valley on 159 arches in the upper row, but not quite so many below. It is built of square-hewn stones, without cement or clamps, and is nevertheless so perfect. ly preserved, that it still serves the purpose for which it was built as well as when it was new. . . . It is certainly one of the most solid and mag. Puerta del Sol. "It should not be forgotten that no city in Europe can boast within its walls so fine a walk as the Prado, that Rome alone, so far as I know, has an entrance equal to that by the Gate of Alcala." George Ticknor. [Gate of the Sun.] A celebrated public square in Madrid, Spain. It is now in the middle of the capital, although it was once the east gate on which the rising sun shone. It is the centre of the busy life of the city, and at all times a crowded rendezvous of idlers. Pullins, The. A natural curiosity in the county of Donegal, Ireland. It is an extraordinary ravine, presenting in succession a series of cascades, caves, wild cliffs, with a foaming river and a natural bridge. "A description can but faintly convey the extraordinary character of these lovely scenes." Mr. and Mrs. Hall. Pulpit [of Nicholas of Pisa]. In the cathedral of Siena, Italy. A celebrated and very elaborate work of sculpture. Another by the same artist, very similar, in the Duomo at Pisa. "I have no words to express the originality and richness of invention displayed in this pulpit. It is as peculiar as it is beautiful. . . . On the panels a labyrinth of crowded figures -a long octagonal procession, the Nativity, the Passion, the Last Judgment -envelops the marble with a marble covering.' Taine, Trans. Purgatory, St. Patrick's. See ST. PATRICK'S CAVE AND PURGATORY. Puritans going to Church. A picture by George H. Boughton, a painter of landscapes and genre. Puttina, La. [The Girl.] An ad |