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United States Military Academy. A national institution for the education of young men in academic and military studies, at West on the Hudson, N. Y. It opened in 1812. The buildings are fine structures of stone. A

Point

library, observatory, and museum are connected with the academy. Each congressional district is entitled to send annually one young man to this school. [Familiarly known as West Point.]

United States Naval Academy. A national school for the training of midshipmen, founded in 1845, situated in Annapolis, Md. During the war of the Rebellion, the school was transferred to Newport, R.I.

University Club. A London club, Suffolk Street, Pall Mall East, founded in 1824, chiefly composed of members of Parliament who have been educated at some university, several judges, and a number of clergymen.

University College. A proprietary institution in London, for the "general advancement of literature and science," built in 1827-28. It contains the Flaxman Museum, in which are models of the chief works of John Flaxman.

University of London. See LoNDON UNIVERSITY.

University of the City of New York. A fine building of marble in New York, the seat of the university, founded in 1831. It has numerous professors and students.

University of Vermont. An in

stitution of learning in Burlington, Vt., founded in 1791. Unspunnen Castle. A ruined feudal mansion in Switzerland, near Interlaken, where Byron's Manfred is reputed to have lived. Unter den Linden. [Under the Lindens.] A noted street in Berlin, Prussia, extending from the royal palace to the Brandenburg gate. It is adorned with four rows of lime-trees, an equestrian statue of Frederick the Great, and many fine buildings. Urbino Palace. A grand and stately palace in Urbino, Italy, once the residence of the Dukes of Urbino, now unused and fallen into neglect, but still containing many interesting remains of art. Urdos.

An extraordinary fortification in southern France, not far from Pau. It is excavated in a rock, rising in successive stages to a height of 500 feet. It was 10 years in constructing, and is capable of holding 3,000 men. Uriel in the Sun. A picture by Washington Allston (1779-1843), the American painter. Now in possession of the Duke of Sutherland.

"I have never seen Uriel represented by name, or alone, in any sacred edifice. In the picture of Uriel painted by Allston, he is the Regent of the Sun,' described by Milton; not a sacred or scriptural personage.'

Mrs. Jameson.

Urquhart Castle. A ruined castle in Scotland, near Inverness. It is the property of the clan Grant. Urr, Moot of. See Moor of URR. Ursula, St. See ST. URSULA and EMBARKATION OF ST. URSULA.

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VAL

Val d'Arno. [Vale of the Arno.]
In Tuscany, Italy. It is renowned
for its beauty and its poetic asso-
ciations.

A dream alone to me is Arno's vale,
Whittier.
And the Alhambra's halls are but a trav
eller's tale.

Val de Grace. 1. An extensive
military hospital in Paris. Here
was formerly a convent of Bene-
dictine nuns.

2. A church in Paris, built in the Italian style. It was begun in 1645 for Anne of Austria. The dome forms a conspicuous object in views over Paris.

V.

times to the present. It is a
magnificent structure of marble,
and was completed in 1842 at a
cost of over $3,000,000.

Chivalry this, if not as they do chiv-
alry in Drury Lane or West-End draw-
ing-rooms, yet as they do it in Valhalla
Carlyle.
and the General Assembly of the Gods.

Crowned doubly by man's blessing and
God's grace,

Thy future is secure :

Whittier.
Who frees a people makes his statue's place
In Time's Valhalla sure.

Valiant, The.

An armor-plated
ship of the British navy, launched
Oct. 14, 1863.

Val d'Emo. See CERTOSA OF THE Vallée du Sang.
VAL D'EMO.

Val Tremola.

[Ger. Trümmeln
Thal, Trembling Valley.] A gully
on the St. Gothard Pass in Switz-
erland, so called from the fears
formerly excited by the terrors
of the passage.

Vale of the Red Horse. A locali-
ty in Warwick county, England,
near Edgehill, the scene of the
battle between Charles I. and the
It is so
Parliamentary forces.
called from the colossal figure of
a horse cut on the side of the
hill.

Valentino, Il. A fine old palace
in Turin, Italy.

Valérien, Mont. See MONT VALÉ

RIEN.

Valhalla.

A celebrated Grecian temple or Hall of Fame, overlooking the Danube, near Regensburg, Bavaria, and deriving its name from the mythological palace of immortality, inhabited by the souls of heroes slain in battle. It was built by the king of Bavaria as a monument to the great men of Germany, and contains many statues of her heroes, statesmen, and poets, from the earliest

Blood.]

[Valley of

A valley reputed to
have, in ancient times, separated
France from Bretagne.

When the Vale of Blood she neared,
All that ghastly band with speed

Following in pursuit appeared

Close behind her coal-black steed.
Anon, Tr. L. S. Costello.

John Constable (1776-1837). In
Valley-farm, The. A picture by
the National Gallery, London.
Valley of Jehoshaphat. This val-
ley of Jerusalem which is beneath
the hill Mount Moriah, on which
the ancient Jewish temple stood
(now occupied by the Mosque of
Omar), is about half a mile long,
extending from the village of Si-
loam to the Garden of Gethsem-
Its sides are full of tombs,
the brook Kedron

runs

ane.
and
The Jews believe
through it.
that the Last Judgment will take
place in this valley, according to
the prediction found in Joel iii.
Let the heathen be wakened,
12,
and come up to the valley of Je-
hoshaphat: for there will I sit,
to judge all the heathen round
about.

A famous convent and sanctuary Vallombrosa. [The Shady Valley.] near Florence, Italy. Its original

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The fresh well-water. Satisfied by this,
He sang of Adam's paradise, and smiled,
Remembering Vallombrosa. Therefore is
The place divine to English man and child,
And pilgrims leave their soul here in a
kiss.
E. B. Browning.

Not a grand nature. Not my chestnut-
Woods

Of Vallombrosa, cleaving by the spurs To the precipices. Mrs. Browning. Valle Crucis Abbey. A beautiful and picturesque ruined monastery, founded in 1200, near Llangollen, in Wales.

Vanity and Modesty. See MODESTY AND VANITY.

Varuna, The. An iron-clad vessel of the United States navy, sunk April 24, 1862, after destroying five of the enemy's fleet in the battle on the Mississippi, below New Orleans.

Who has not heard of the dauntless Varuna?

Who has not heard of the deeds she has done?

Who shall not hear, while the brown Mississippi

Rushes along from the snow to the sun? Crippled and leaking she entered the battle,

Sinking and burning she fought through the fray:

Crushed were her sides, and the waves ran across her,

away.

Ere, like a death-wounded lion at bay, Sternly she closed in the last fatal grapple, Then in her triumph moved grandly G. H. Boker. Vase, Hall of the. See HALL OF THE VASE.

Vassar College. A noted women's college situated in Poughkeepsie, N. Y. It was founded and endowed by Matthew Vassar, from whom it takes its name. It was organized in 1865.

Vatican, The. The ancient palace of the popes, and the most magnificent in the world, built upon one of the hills of Rome, on the right bank of the Tiber. It is rather a collection of separate buildings, constructed at various times, than one regular structure. Its extent is enormous. It has 8 grand staircases, 200 smaller staircases, 20 courts, and, it is said, 11,000 apartments of different sizes. Its riches in marbles, bronzes, and frescos, in ancient statues and gems, and in paintings, are unequalled in the world. It also possesses a library with a large and choice collection of manuscripts.

"The palace of the Vatican bears the same relation to other palaces that St. Peter's does to other churches. It is, indeed, not a palace, but a congress of palaces. One of the stories with which every traveller at Rome is amused is, that the Vatican with its gardens and St. Peter's occupy as much space as the city of Turin; and, as it has never been contradicted, it is probably true. The Vatican comprises a papal palace, a library, and a museum. As a museum of art, it is the first in the world. In sculpture it not only surpasses any other collection, but all other collections put together. The whole of Europe could furnish nothing to rival the Vatican. It also comprises the highest triumphs of painting, in the frescos of Raphael and Michael Angelo. He who has seen the Vatican has seen the utmost point reached by the human mind and hand in these two arts. The world is no more likely to witness any thing beyond what is here visible than to have a nobler epic than the Iliad, or a greater dramatist than Shakespeare."

Hillard.

The Vatican is great: yet poor to Chimborazo or the Peake of Teneriffe: its dome is but a foolish Big-endian or Little-endian chip of an egg-shell, compared with that star-fretted Dome where Arcturus and Orion glance for ever. Carlyle.

That Leicester shoe-shop, had men known it, was a holier place than any Vatican or Loretto-shrine. Carlyle.

On that sad mountain slope whose ghostly dead,

Unmindful of the gray exorcist's ban, Walk, unappeased, the chambered Vati

can,

And draw the curtains of Napoleon's bed! Whittier.

Vatican Library. This library, in the Vatican Palace, Rome, has been called the largest in the world, not because it has the most books, but because it occupies the largest space. It is really a small collection, though exceedingly rich in ancient and rare manuscripts, the number of which is said to be over 30,000. Among the precious treasures here preserved are a famous copy of Virgil of the age of Constantine, and early manuscripts of the Scriptures. The books in this library are invisible, being shut up in wooden presses. Vatican, Obelisk of the. See OBELISK OF ST. PETER'S.

Vaucluse, Fountain of. See FOUNTAIN OF VAUCLUSE.

Vauxhall. The region on the bank of the Thames above Lambeth, London. See VAUXHALL GAR

DENS.

How, in a word,... shall it, at length, be made manifest, and kept continually manifest to the hearts of men, that the Good is not properly the highest, but the Beautiful; that the true Beautiful (differing from the false, as Heaven does from Vauxhall) comprehends in it the Good?

Carlyle. Vauxhall Bridge. An iron bridge across the Thames at London. Vauxhall Gardens. A place of public amusement in London for nearly two centuries. It was so named from its site in the manor of "La Sale Faukes." The gardens were first laid out about 1661. They were finally closed July 25, 1859, and the property sold. Buildings have since been erected, and roads laid out upon their site. We are told in Rogers's "Table Talk" that the proprietors of Vauxhall and Ranelagh used to send fashionably dressed persons to walk among the ladies and gentlemen in the Mall, and to exclaim every

now and then, "What charming weather for Ranelagh!" or "for Vauxhall!" See RANELAGH GAR

DENS.

The lights everywhere glimmering through scarcely moving trees; the full-bodied concert bursting on the stillness of night; the natural concert of the birds in the more retired part of the grove, vying with that which was formed by art; the company gayly dressed, looking satisfied; and the tables spread with various delicacies,all conspired to fill my imagination with the visionary happiness of the Arabian lawgiver, and lifted me into an ecstasy of admiration."

Goldsmith, Citizen of the World. Vauxhall and Ranelagh! I then had heard Of your green groves, and wilderness of lamps

Dimming the stars, and fireworks magical, And gorgeous ladies, under splendid domes, Floating in dance, or warbling high in air The songs of spirits! " Wordsworth.

The narrow lanes [in Genoa] have great villas opening into them, whose walls (outside walls, I mean) are profusely painted with all sorts of subjects, grim and holy. But time and the sea-air have nearly obliterated them; and they look like the entrance to Vauxhall Gardens on a sunny day. Dickens.

It was a curious phenomenon, in the withered, unbelieving, second-hand Eighteenth Century, that of a Hero starting up, among the artificial pasteboard figures and productions, in the guise of a Robert Burns. Like a little well in the rocky desert places, like a sudden splendor of Heaven in the artificial Vauxhall! Carlyle.

Vecchio, Palazzo. See PALAZZO VECCHIO.

Vecchio, Ponte. See PONTE VEC

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He spoke and raised the veil! And ask ye | Venice paying Homage to Cath

what
Unto the gaze was there within revealed?
I know not. Pale and senseless, at the
foot

Of the dread statue of Egyptian Isis,
The priests beheld him at the dawn of day;
But what he saw, or what did there befall,
His lips disclosed not. Ever from his heart
Was fled the sweet serenity of life,
And the deep anguish dug the early grave:
Woe, woe to him," such were his

warning words,
Answering some curious and impetuous
brain,-

"Woe for she never shall delight him
more!

Woe, woe to him who treads through
guilt to Truth."
Schiller, Trans.
An awful statue, by a veil half bid,
At Sais stands.
R. C. Trench.

Velabrum. In ancient Rome, a marsh, or fen, occupying the interval between the Capitoline and Palatine hills, caused by the overflow of the Tiber. Varro derives the name from vehere, to carry, from the ferry which was used to carry travellers across. See SAN GIORGIO-IN-VELABRO.

Vendôme. See COLONNE VENDÔME and PLACE VENDÔME.

Venetia. A well-known portrait of Venetia, wife of Sir Kenelm Digby, by Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641). In the Louvre, Paris. Vengeance, La. A noted French frigate, attacked and put to flight by the United States man-ofwar the Constellation, Commodore Truxtun, Feb. 1, 1800.

"The combatants fought desperately at pistol-shot distance, until one o'clock in the morning. Suddenly the French frigate disappeared in the gloom. Truxtun, after small repairs, bore away to Jamaica, and it was some time before he knew that he had fought the vessel he was searching for, La ⚫ Vengeance, 54 guns, with 400 men. The frigate, dreadfully crippled, had run away in the darkness, and escaped to Curaçoa. This victory made the navy immensely popular. Congress gave Truxtun the thanks of the nation, and voted him a gold medal." Lossing. Venice. A picture by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), the celebrated English painter. Venice, Approach to. See APPROACH TO VENICE.

erine Cornaro. See CATHERINE CORNARO.

Venice, Queen of the Sea. A picture by Jacopo Robusti, called Tintoretto (1512-1594). In the Doge's Palace, Venice, Italy.

Venus. A renowned statue by the Greek sculptor Alcamenes (fl. 444-400 B.C.), in which Phidias is supposed to have assisted.

Venus. A statue by Giovanni da Bologna, called Il Fiammingo (1524-1608). At the Villa of Petrarca, Florence, Italy.

Venus. A well-known statue by Antonio Canova (1757-1822). In the Pitti Palace, Florence, Italy.

"Although undoubtedly a fig. ure of great beauty, it by no means struck me as possessing that exquisite and classic perfection which has been ascribed to it." Bayard Taylor. Venus. A well-known statue by Antonio Canova (1757-1822). In the gallery of Stafford House, London.

A

Venus à la Coquille. [Venus of the Shell.] A mythological picture by Titian (1477-1576). single figure rising from the sea, and drying her hair, a shell floating near her." In the Orleans Gallery.

Venus Anadyomene. [Gr. 'Aópodí ἀναδυομένη, Venus rising from the sea.] A celebrated statue of Venus in the Vatican Palace, Rome. The name Anadyomene is ap plied to several other statues of Venus, one or two of which are in the Museum at Naples, Italy.

There was in ancient times a celebrated picture bearing this name, by the Greek painter Apelles. It is said to have been executed for the temple of Asclepius at Cos, and to have been taken to Rome by the Emperor Augus tus, and placed in the temple of Cæsar. Venus and Adonis. A statue by Antonio Canova (1757-1822), and regarded as one of the most beautiful of his works. Now in Naples, Italy.

Venus and Cupid. A mythologi

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