Part 440 (1/2)
UDALL, NICHOLAS, author of ”Ralph Roister-Doister,” the earliest of English comedies, and ”the earliest picture of London manners,” born in Hants; was a graduate of Oxford, and head-master first of Eton and subsequently of Westminister School (1505-1556).
UEBERWEG, FRIEDRICH, German philosopher, professor at Konigsberg; author of a ”History of Philosophy,” an excellent text-book (1826-1871).
UGANDA, a territory in East Africa along the N. and NW. sh.o.r.e of Victoria Nyanza, with a population of from 300,000 to 500,000, and the seat of an active mission propaganda on the part of both the Catholic and Protestant Churches; has since 1890 been under British protection. The capital is Mengo.
UGOLINO, COUNT, tyrant of Pisa; was of the Guelph party; celebrated for his tragic fate; having fallen into the hands of his enemies, he was in 1288 thrown into a dungeon along with his two sons and two grandsons, and starved to death, a fate which suggested to Dante one of the most terrible episodes in his ”Inferno”; the dungeon referred to has since borne the name of the ”Tower of Hunger.”
UHLAND, JOHANN LUDWIG, German poet, born at Tubingen; studied law, and wrote essays as well as poems, but it is on the latter his fame rests, and that is as wide as the German world; he was a warm-hearted patriot, and in keen sympathy with the cause of German liberation (1787-1862).
UHLANS, a body of light cavalry in the German army, introduced first into the Polish service, and of Tartar origin it is said.
UIST, two islands of the Outer Hebrides, called respectively North and South, forming part of Inverness-s.h.i.+re; separated by the island of Benbecula, with a population of over 3000 each; engaged chiefly in fis.h.i.+ng.
UKASE, an edict issued by the Czar, having the force of a law.
UKRAINE (frontier), a fertile Russian province of undefined limits in the basin of Dnieper, originally a frontier territory of Poland against the Tartars.
ULEABORG (11), a seaport town in Russian Finland, near the head of the Gulf of Bothnia; trades in wood and tar.
ULEMA, a body in Turkey, or any Mohammedan country, of the learned in the Mohammedan religion and law, such as the Imams, or religious teachers, the Muftis, or expounders of the law and the Cadis, or judges; its decrees are called ”fetvas.”
ULLMANN, KARL, German theologian; was professor at Heidelberg: wrote ”Reformers before the Reformation,” but is best known as author of ”The Sinlessness of Jesus” (1796-1865).
ULLSWATER, second largest of the English lakes, lies between c.u.mberland and Westmorland, 8 m. long, and its average breadth 1 m.; is looked down upon by Helvellyn, on the SW.
ULM (36), city of Wurtemberg, on the Danube, 46 m. SE. of Stuttgart; was an imperial free city, and is a place of great importance; is famed for its cathedral, which for size ranks next to Cologne, as well as for its town hall; has textile manufactories and breweries, and is famed for its confectionery; here General Mack, with 28,000 Austrians, surrendered to Marshal Key in 1805.
ULOTRICHI, name given to the races that have crisp or woolly hair.
ULPHILAS, Gothic bishop; famous for his translation of the Scriptures into Gothic, the part which remains being of great philological value; was an Arian in theology (311-381).
ULRICI, HERMANN, German philosopher and literary critic, born in Lower Lusatia; professor at Halle; wrote against the Hegelian philosophy as pantheistic, and also studies in Shakespeare (1806-1884).
ULSTER (1,617), the northern province of Ireland, is divided into the nine counties of Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, Monaghan, and Tyrone, and has an area of 8560 sq. m.; became an English settlement in 1611, and was largely colonised from Scotland; it is the most Protestant part of the island, though the Catholics predominate, and is the most enterprising and prosperous part; the land is extensively cultivated, and flax growing and spinning the chief industries.