Schwedenstein. [Stone of the Swede.] A monument erected on the battle-field of Lützen, Germany, to mark the spot where Gustavus Adolphus fell Nov. 6, 1632. Sciarra Palace. [Ital. Palazzo Sciarra.] A palace on the Corso, Rome, built in 1603 by Labacco, and containing a small gallery of pictures in which are some fine works of art. Sciences, Académie des. One of the five academies embraced in the Institut, the most important learned society of France. It is devoted to purely scientific, moral, and political objects. It was founded in 1795, suppressed by Napoleon in 1803, and re-estab lished by the government_of Louis Philippe in 1832. See IN STITUT. Scimia, Torre della. See TORRE DELLA SCIMIA. Scipios, Tombs of the. See TOMBS OF THE SCIPIOS. Scollop Shell Cave. A natural curiosity in the island of Staffa, in Scotland. It derives its name from the peculiar shape of the basaltic columns, which are bent in such a way as to give them the appearance of a ship's timbers, or of a scollop shell. Scone Palace. The parish of Scone with its castle was formerly one of the most important places in Scotland. The Scottish kings were crowned in the abbey which stood here, and of which only a part of an aisle and a cross remain. On the ancient site near Perth stands a modern mansion, called Scone Palace, the seat of Lord Mansfield. See STONE OF SCONE. This castle hath a pleasant seat: the air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself Unto our gentle senses. Shakespeare. Scone, Stone of. See STONE OF SCONE. Scorpion, The. An armor-plated ship of the British navy, launched July 4, 1863. Scotland Yard. A place in London said to derive its name from the fact of its being the site of a palace in which the kings of Scotland were received when they came to England, and now widely known as the headquar ters of the metropolitan police. Scotland Yard is near the Banqueting House, Whitehall. It remained in the possession of the kings of Scotland from 959 (the time of King Edgar) till the rebellion of William of Scotland (reign of Henry II.). Milton, Inigo Jones, Sir John Denham, Sir Christopher Wren, lived in Scotland Yard. No one could be arrested for debt within the limits of Scotland Yard. Much of this had occurred before the intelligence of Scotland Yard had been set to work by Judge Bramber. Anthony Trollope Scott Monument. A memorial structure 200 feet in height, in Edinburgh, Scotland, erected in 1844 in honor of Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), and designed to imitate Melrose Abbey. It consists of a pile of arches diminishing in size towards the top, with 56 niches for statues of some of the chief characters in the stories of the great novelist. Beneath the main arches is. a statue of Scott himself and his dog, by Steele. "Most conspicuous and beauti ful of all objects, rises 200 feet an elab. orate brown-stone Gothic spire in the shape of a mediæval cross, and noblest Scottish Raid. A picture by Rosa Scriblerus Club. This famous as- acter. perhaps ever produced three men to whom nature had more bountifully bestowed it, or art had brought it to higher perfection." Warburton. is "The name originated as follows: Oxford used playfully to call Swift Martin, and from this sprung Martinus Scriblerus. Swift, as well known, is the name of one species of swallow (the largest and most pow erful flyer of the tribe), and Martin is the name of another species, the wallswallow, which constructs its nest in buildings." Timbs. Scuola di San Rocco. See SAN Scylla. Now called Sciglio. A celebrated promontory of Italy on the Strait of Messina. It is opposite to Charybdis, where are numerous rocks and shoals with strong currents, making the passage between the headlands and the whirlpool somewhat difficult, and giving rise to the proverbial expression, to "avoid Scylla and fall on Charybdis." According to ancient fable, a terrible monster named Scylla inhabited a cave in the promontory called after him, and devoured the rash voyagers who approached too near. Rocco. Arbuthnot, Pope, Gay, Oxford, and St. John were members. The chief object of the club was to satirize the abuse of human learning; but violent disagreements between Oxford and Bolingbroke, which Swift tried in vain to settle, led to the final dissolution of the society. Scott says that the violence of political faction" dispersed this little band of literary brethren, and prevented the accomplishment of a task for which talents so various, so extended, and so brilliant, can never again be united." The "Memoirs of P. P., Clerk of the Parish," and the famous "Gulliver's Travels," preserve the memory of the Scriblerus Club. Dyce says, "In the Miscellanies of Pope and Swift, was printed, for the first time, Martinus Scriblerus IIEPI BAOOYZ, or the Art of Sinking in Poetry, of which the greater part, if not the whole, was composed by Pope. It was intended to form a portion of that larger work, which the members of the Scriblerus Club, particularly Pope, Swift, Arbuthnot, and Lord Oxford, had projected many years before." "Polite letters never lost more than by the defeat of this scheme, in which each of this illustrious trium virate [Pope, Swift, and Arbuthnot] would have found exercise for his own peculiar talent, besides constant employment for that they all held in common. For Arbuthnot was skilled in every thing which related to science; Pope was a master in the fine arts; and Swift excelled in a knowledge of the world. Wit they had all in equal measure; and this so large, that no age "Scylla and Charybdis are farfamed names. Where is Scylla? Yes, she still lives.' They pointed to a little jutting rock, with a dark ruinous tower, on the wild coast of Calabria. There was a heavy surf here, though the sea was tolerably calm. Blackish gray rocks jutted forth, against which the waves dashed with angry roar. It was Scylla's howling dog we saw. I think they may be able to hear it in a storm from the sandy isthmus of Messina." Hans Christian Andersen. Thus when I shun Scylla, your father, I fall into Charybdis, your mother. Shakespeare. Seal, The Great. See GREAT SEAL. Sealed Knot. An old Royalist club of London. Just before the Restoration it had arranged for a general uprising in favor of the king; but the leaders, having been informed against, were arrested and imprisoned. Seasons. See FOUR SEASONS. Sebald. See ST. SEBALD'S TOMB. Sebaldus. See SHRINE OF ST. SEBALDUS. Sebastian, St. See ST. SEBASTIAN and CATACOMBS OF ST. SEBASTIAN. Sebastiano, San. See SAN SEBASTIANO and PORTA DI SAN SEBASTIANO. Sébastopol, Boulevart de. A wide, magnificent street in Paris, one of the new boulevards, lined with trees, and reaching from the Strasbourg Railway terminus to the Seine, the part between the railway-station and the B. St. Denis being known as the Boulevart de Strasbourg. See BOULE VARDS. "Any one who has traced on an old map of Paris the labyrinth of dark and narrow streets through which the Rue de Rivoli has boldly cut, or who can remember the former aspect of those quarters now intersected by the Boulevart Sébastopol and other thoroughfares, will bear witness to the almost magical effect of a transformation which the social economist or the sanitary commissioner indeed may view with satisfaction, but which the artist and antiquarian cannot but deplore." C. L. Eastlake. Secchia Rapita. [The Stolen Bucket.] A famous relic, and the subject of Tassoni's celebrated poem of the same name, now preserved in the Ghirlandina, or belltower, of Modena, Italy. If thou shouldst ever come by choice or chance To Modena, where still religiously Among her ancient trophies is preserved Bologna's bucket (in its chain it hangs Within that reverend tower, the Guirlandine). Rogers. Sefton Park. A fine pleasureground in Liverpool, England, covering 200 acres and elaborately laid out. Segnatura, Stanza della. See STANZE OF RAPHAEL. Segovia, Bridge of. See PUENTE DEL DIABLO. Seine, Rue de. A well-known street in Paris, France. 1644, March 1. I went to see the Count de Liancourt's palace in the Rue de Seine, which is well built. John Evelyn, Diary, They have no Rue de la Harpe or Rue St. Denis here [Ostia]: I was reminded of nothing at Paris but the Rue de Seine, or the Quai des Augustins. Montaigne, Trans. Passing from thence up the picturesque Rue de Seine, let us walk to the Luxembourg, where bonnes, students, grisettes, and old gentlemen with pigtails, love to wander in the melancholy, quaint old gardens. Thackeray. Ab, Clemence! when I saw thee last Trip down the Rue de Seine, And turning, when thy form had passed, I said, "We meet again." Holmes. Selsker Abbey. A beautiful monastic ruin of the twelfth century in Wexford county, Ireland. The name is a corruption of St. Sepulchre. Selva de' Filosofi. [Wood of the Philosophers.] A picture by Salvator Rosa (1615-1673). In the Pitti Palace, Florence, Italy. Seminary Ridge. An eminence in the western part of the town of Gettysburg, Penn., famous in connection with the great battle of July 3, 1863. The hill was occupied by the troops of Gen. Lee, and from this point three columns advanced into the valley and charged the Federal lines. Senator, Palace of the. See Pi AZZA DEL CAMPIDOGLIO. Sennacherib's Palace. The great metropolitan palace of Nineveh, built by Sennacherib, the Assyrian king. It stands upon a mound about a mile and a half in circumference. "Judging even from what has as yet been uncovered, it is, of all the buildings of antiquity, alone surpassed in magnitude by the great palace-tem ple at Karnak; and when we consider the vastness of the mound on which it was raised, and the richness of the ornaments with which it was adorned, a doubt arises whether it was not as great or at least as expensive a work as the great palace-temples of Thebes. The latter, however, were built with far higher motives, and designed to last through ages, while the palace at Nineveh was built only to gratify the bar Septimius Severus, Arch of. See ARCH OF SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. Sepulchre's, St. See ST. SEPULCHRE'S. Seraglio, The. The former palace of the Sultan of Turkey in Constantinople. It is beautifully situated on à point of land extending into the sea, and contains, within the area of nine miles which are embraced by its walls, several mosques, gardens, and buildings, capable of accommodating 15,000 or 20,000 persons. "The palace of the Seraglio, the cloister with marble pillars, the hall of the ambassadors, the impenetrable gate guarded by eunuchs and ichoglaus, have a romantic look in print; but not so in reality. Most of the marble is wood, almost all the gilding is faded, the guards are shabby, the foolish perspectives painted on the walls are half cracked off. The place looks like Vauxhall in the daytime." Thackeray. "The old Seraglio is a dark-red, noble-looking pile, but somewhat heavy in comparison with the rest of the environs. The new Seraglio looks handsome and invites the eye. Round about stand splendid kiosks, where rich marble columns support the glittering spiral roofs." Hans Christian Andersen. Serapéum (or Serapion), The. This ancient edifice of Alexandria, Egypt, was founded by Ptolemy Soter, in honor of Serapis, a foreign deity, to whom he erected a statue. It was the last stronghold of the Pagans in Alexandria, and was besieged by the Christians and zealously defended by the Pagans, A.D. 389, when Theodosius put an end to the conflict by an imperial order that the idols of Alexandria should be destroyed. According to some ancient writers Pompey's Pillar is a relique of this magnificent building. Three hundred thousand volumes, of the 700,000 of which the Alexandrian Library consisted, were in the Serapeum. "Gibbon says that the temple of Serapis, which rivalled the pride and magnificence of the Capitol, was erected on the spacious summit of an artificial mount, raised 100 steps above the level of the adjacent parts of the city; and the interior cavity was strongly supported by arches, and distributed into vaults and subterraneous apartments. The consecrated buildings were surrounded by a quadrangular portico: the stately halls, the exquisite statues, displayed the triumph of the arts; and the treasures of ancient learning were preserved in the famous Alexandrian Library, which had arisen with new splendor from its ashes." He adds with reference to the conflict of the Christians and Pagans and the final destruction of the Serapeum: "The votaries of Serapis, whose strength and numbers were much inferior to those of their antagonists, rose in arms, at the instigation of the philosopher Olympius, who exhorted them to die in defence of the altars of the gods. These Pagan fanatics fortified themselves in the temple, or rather fortress of Serapis, repelled the besiegers by daring sallies and a resolute defence. . . . The efforts of the prudent magistrate were usefully exerted for the establishment of a truce, till the answer of Theodosius should determine the fate of Serapis. The two parties assembled without arms in the principal square; and the imperial rescript was publicly read. But when a sentence of destruction against the idols of Alexandria was pronounced, the Christians set up a shout of joy and exultation, whilst the unfortunate Pagans, whose fury had given way to consternation, retired with hasty and silent steps, and eluded by their flight or obscurity the resentment of their enemies. Theophilus proceeded to demolish the temple of Serapis, without any other difficulties than those which he found in the weight and solidity of the materials; but these obstacles proved so insuperable, that he was obliged to leave the foundations, and to content himself with reducing the edifice itself to a heap of rubbish. The colossal statue of Serapis was involved in the ruin of this temple and religion. . . . The huge idol was overthrown and broken to pieces; and the parts of Serapis were ignominiously dragged through the streets of Alexandria." 肪 "The Serapeum was the Palladium of the Egyptian religion and of the Greek philosophy. At the time of its destruction it represented the alli ance which these two had completed against their enemy, the Christian religion." M. Ampère, Trans. Rome herself had received with rapture the strange rites of Nilotic and of Syrian superstition. In his villa at Tivoli, he [Hadrian) built a Serapeum. J. A. Symonds. Serapeum. See APIS MAUSOLEUM. Serapion. See SERAPEUM. Serapis, The. A British frigate captured off Scarborough, England, in 1779, by John Paul Jones, commander of the Bon Homme Richard. Serbonian Bog. A swamp of great extent in ancient times near Damietta in Egypt. A gulf profound, as that Serbonian bog Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old, Where armies whole have sunk. Milton. Much of this barrenness is, I am persuaded, to be charged to the philosophy of Kant, which for nearly 20 years ruled unquestioned, and absorbed and perverted all the talents of the land. It was a vast "Serbonian bog, where armies whole have sunk," and from which even the proud and original genius of Schiller hardly escaped. George Tickuɔr. Sermon on the Mount. A fresco painting by Cosimo Rosselli (14391506). In the Sistine Chapel, Rome. Serpentine, The. A pool of water covering 50 acres in Hyde Park, London, formed by order of Caroline, queen of George II., and so called in distinction from the previous straight canals. Here 200,000 persons are said to bathe annually. In the winter it is used as a skating-field. Serra Palace. [Ital. Palazzo Serra.] A noted palace in Genoa, Italy. Serrant. A château in France, near Angers, the country-seat of Count Walsh. Servant Maid. See IDLE SERVANT MAID. Servius Tullius. See AGGER OF SERVIUS TULLIUS. Sethi I., Tomb of. See BELZONI'S Томв. Seven Churches [of Asia]. A collective name given to the Chris tian churches established at Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, all in Asia Minor. They are spoken of in the Book of Revelation i. 4. Seven Dials. A celebrated locality in St. Giles's, London, formerly notorious for its degraded condition, but now much improved. It was so named from a pillar, removed in 1773, bearing a seven-faced dial, and standing at the point of divergence of seven streets. See ST. GILES'S. Where famed St. Giles's ancient limits spread, An in-rail'd column rears its lofty head; Here to seven streets seven dials count their day, And from each other catch the circling Gay. ray. I went to see the building near St. Giles's, where seven streets made a star, from a Doric pillar placed in the centre of a circular area, said to be built... In imitation of those at Venice. Evelyn. There are many by-streets [in New York] almost as neutral in clean colors, and positive in dirty ones, as by-streets in London; and there is one quarter, com monly called the Five Points, which, in respect of filth and wretchedness, may be safely backed against Seren Dials, or any other part of famed St. Giles's. Dickens. Seven Hills [of Rome]. The heights or eminences upon which the ancient city of Rome was built, though not all of them obvious at a glance, can be recog nized without much difficulty, and are usually enumerated as follows: the Capitoline, the Palatine, the Aventine, the Coelian, the Esquiline, the Quirinal, and the Viminal. See these hills under their respective names. But I will sing above all monuments, Seven Roman hills-the world's seven wonderments. Jove fearing, least if she should greater |