Part 134 (1/2)
COLCHESTER (35), the largest town in Ess.e.x, 51 m. from London, on the right bank of the Colne, of great antiquity, and with Roman remains; has been long famous for its oyster fishery; has silk manufactures; is the port of outlet of a large corn-growing district.
COLCHESTER, CHARLES ABBOT, LORD, English statesman; sometime Chief Secretary of Ireland, and Speaker of the House of Commons; raised to the peerage in response to an address of the House of Commons (1757-1829).
COLCHIS, a district on the E. of the Black Sea, and S. of Caucasus, where the Argonauts, according to Greek tradition, found and conquered the Golden Fleece; the natives had a reputation for witchcraft and sorcery.
COLDSTREAM GUARDS, one of the three regiments of Foot Guards; was raised by General Monk in Scotland in 1660, and marched under him from Coldstream to place Charles II. on the throne; originally called Monk's regiment.
COLE, HENRY an English ecclesiastical zealot, who held handsome preferments under Henry VIII. and Mary, but was stripped of them under Edward VI. and Elizabeth.
COLE, KING, a legendary jovial British king, celebrated in song.
COLEBROOKE, HENRY THOMAS, a celebrated Indianist, born in London; served under the East India Company, and devoted his spare time to Indian literature; studied the Sanskrit language, wrote on the Vedas, translated the ”Digest of Hindu Law” compiled by Sir William Jones, compiled a Sanskrit Dictionary, and wrote various treatises on the law and philosophy of the Hindus; he was one of the first scholars in Europe to reveal the treasures that lay hid in the literature of the East (1765-1837).
COLENSO, DR., an English clergyman and mathematician; was appointed bishop of Natal in 1845; applied himself to the study of the Zulu language, and translated parts of the Bible and Prayer-book into it; calling in question the accuracy and Mosaic authors.h.i.+p of the Pentateuch, was deposed by his metropolitan, which deposition was declared null and void by the Privy Council; besides his theological work, produced text-books on arithmetic and algebra; died at Durban, Natal; he favoured the cause of the Zulus against the Boers, and did his utmost to avert the Zulu war (1814-1883).
COLERIDGE, HARTLEY, an English man of letters, eldest son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, born at Clevedon, Somerset; lived with his father in the Lake District, and grew up in the society of Wordsworth, De Quincey, and others; gained a Fellows.h.i.+p at Oxford, but forfeited it through intemperance; tried school-mastering at Ambleside, but failed, and took to literature, in which he did some excellent work, both in prose and poetry, though he led all along a very irregular life; had his father's weaknesses, and not a little of his ability; his best memorials as a poet are his sonnets, of which two have been especially admired, ”The Soul of Man is Larger than the Sky,” and ”When I Survey the Course I have Run”
(1796-1849).
COLERIDGE, HENRY NELSON, nephew of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and a great admirer; editor of many of his works, his ”Table Talk” in especial (1800-1843).
COLERIDGE, JOHN DUKE, LORD, an English lawyer, cousin of Hartley Coleridge; after serving in inferior appointments, appointed Lord Chief-Justice of England in 1880; when at the bar he was prominent in connection with Tichborne case.
COLERIDGE, SIR JOHN TAYLOR, an English judge, nephew of Samuel Taylor Coleridge; was editor of the _Quarterly_, edited ”Blackstone,”
&c.; wrote a ”Memoir of the Rev. John Keble” (1790-1876).
COLERIDGE, SAMUEL TAYLOR, poet, philosopher, and critic, born in Devons.h.i.+re; pa.s.sionately devoted to cla.s.sical and metaphysical studies; educated at Christ's Hospital; had Charles Lamb for schoolmate; at Cambridge devoted himself to cla.s.sics; falling into debt enlisted as a soldier, and was, after four months, bought off by his friends; gave himself up to a literary life; married, and took up house near Wordsworth, in Somersets.h.i.+re, where he produced the ”Ancient Mariner,”
”Christabel,” and ”Remorse”; preached occasionally in Unitarian pulpits; visited Germany and other parts of the Continent; lectured in London in 1808; when there took to opium, broke off the habit in 1816, and went to stay with the Gillmans at Highgate as their guest, under whose roof, after four years' confinement to a sick-room, he died; among his works were ”The Friend,” his ”Biographia Literaria,” ”Aids to Reflection,” &c., published in his lifetime, and ”Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit,”
”Literary Remains,” and ”Table Talk” after his death; he was a man of subtle and large intellect, and exercised a great influence on the thinkers of his time, though in no case was the influence a decisive one, as it had the most opposite effects on different minds; his philosophy was hazy, and his life was without aim, ”once more the tragic story of a high endowment with an insufficient will” (1772-1834). See Carlyle's estimate of him in the ”Life of Sterling.”
COLERIDGE, SARAH, poetess, only daughter of preceding; her sole poem, ”Phantasmion”; left ”Letters” of interest (1803-1852).
COLES, COWPER PHIPPS, an English naval captain and architect; entered the navy at 11; distinguished himself at Sebastopol; designer of the turret-s.h.i.+p the _Captain_, which capsized off Finisterre, himself on board, and drowned with a crew of 500 men (1819-1870).