The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 273

KILMAINHAM (5), a suburb of Dublin, with a royal hospital for disabled soldiers and a jail; the treaty of Kilmainham was an agreement said to have been made in 1882 between Gladstone and Parnell, who was then confined in Kilmainham jail, affecting Irish government and policy.

KILMARNOCK (28), on the Irvine, 20 m. SW. of Glasgow, largest town in Ayrs.h.i.+re; is an important railway centre, has extensive engineer works, carpet factories, and breweries; is in the middle of a rich coal and iron district, and has a great annual cheese and dairy produce show.

KIMBERLEY (29), 500 m. NE. of Cape Town; is capital of Griqualand West, and chief inland town in South Africa, in a dry but healthy situation; exists in virtue of diamond mines in the vicinity, the richest in the world. Also the name of a district in the N. of West Australia, a district of rising prosperity.

KIMBERLEY, EARL OF, English Liberal statesman, son of Baron Wodehouse; succeeded to the t.i.tle 1846; was twice over Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland 1864-66; in 1866 created Earl of Kimberley, he was in succession Lord Privy Seal, Colonial Secretary, Secretary for India, and Foreign Secretary; _b_. 1826.

KIMCHI, DAVID, a Jewish rabbi, born at Narbonne; wrote a Hebrew grammar and lexicon, which forms the basis of all subsequent ones, also commentaries on most books of the Old Testament (1160-1235).

KINCARDINEs.h.i.+RE (35), east coast Scottish county, lying between Aberdeen and Forfar, faces the North Sea, with precipitous cliffs; has much fertile soil under corn, green crops, and small fruit, also pasture and grazing land where cattle are reared; the fis.h.i.+ng is important, and there are some coa.r.s.e linen factories; chief towns, Stonehaven (5) and Bervie (1).

KINDERGARTEN, schools conducted according to Froebel's system for the development of the power of observation and the memory of young children.

KINEMATICS, the science of pure motion under the categories of s.p.a.ce and time, irrespective of consideration of the forces determining it and the ma.s.s of the body moved.

KINEMATOGRAPH, a photographic apparatus by which an impression is taken of closely consecutive stages in the development of a scene.

KINETICS, the science of the action of forces causing motion; both this law and the two preceding are derived from a Greek word signifying "to move."

KING, WILLIAM RUFUS, American statesman and diplomatist, born in North Carolina; was a member of Congress and the Senate, and Vice-President of the Republic, represented the United States both at St.

James's and in France (1755-1827).

KING NIBELUNG, king of the NIBELUNGEN (q. v.), who left his two sons an inexhaustible h.o.a.rd of wealth, so large that 12 waggons in 12 days at the rate of 3 journeys a day could not carry it off.

KING OF THE ROMANS, a t.i.tle a.s.sumed by the Emperor Henry II., and afterwards conferred on the eldest son of the emperor of Germany.

KINGLAKE, ALEXANDER WILLIAM, historian, born near Taunton; bred for the bar, gave up the legal profession, in which he had a lucrative practice, for literature; is the author of two works, "Eothen" and the "History of the War in the Crimea," in 8 vols., the former a brilliantly written book of travels in the East, published in 1844, the latter a minute record of the war, of which the last vol. was published in 1890, p.r.o.nounced by Prof. Saintsbury, in a literary point of view, to be "an imposing failure" (1809-1891).

KINGMAKER, THE, a t.i.tle popularly given to Richard Nevil, Earl of Warwick, who was instrumental in raising Edward IV. to the throne of England by dethroning Henry VI., and afterwards in restoring Henry by the defeat of Edward.

KINGS, THE BOOK OF, two books of the Old Testament, originally one, but divided in the Septuagint into two, containing the history of the Jewish kingdom under the kings from its establishment under David to its fall, and covering a period from 1015 B.C. to 560 B.C., during which time the kingdom fell into two, that of Israel and that of Judah, the captivity of the former, occurring 130 years before that of the latter; the author, who is unknown, wrote the history at the time of the captivity, and his object is didactic of the effect on the history of a nation of its apostasy from faith in its G.o.d, not, however, without a promise of restoration in the case of repentance.

KING'S COLLEGE, London, a Church of England inst.i.tution, with faculties of Theology, Arts, Science, and Medicine, Evening Cla.s.s, Civil Service and Art departments, a preparatory School and a Ladies'

department; it grants the t.i.tle of a.s.sociate.

KING'S COUNSEL or QUEEN'S COUNSEL are those barristers in England and Ireland who, having been successful in their profession have received the letters-patent conferring that t.i.tle and right of precedence in all courts; the appointment is honorary and for life, but in acting against the Crown a Q.C. must obtain leave by special license, which is always granted.

KING'S COUNTY (66), an inland Irish county on the left bank of the Shannon, between Tipperary and West Meath; is mostly flat, a quarter of it bogland and a quarter under crops; the chief towns are Tullamore (5), the county town, on the Grand Ca.n.a.l, and Birr or Parsonstown (4), where Lord Rosse's great telescope is.

KINGSLEY, CHARLES, canon of Westminster and chaplain to the Queen, born at Holne Vicarage, near Dartmoor; studied at Cambridge; became rector of Eversley, in Hamps.h.i.+re, in 1844; was the author in 1848 of a drama, ent.i.tled "The Saint's Tragedy," with St. Elizabeth of Hungary for heroine, which was followed successively by "Alton Locke" (1849), and "Yeast" (1851), chiefly in a Socialistic interest; "Hypatia," a brilliant book in the interest of early Christianity in Alexandria and "Westward Ho!" a narrative of the rivalry of England with Spain in the days of Elizabeth, and besides other works, including "Two Years Ago," "Water Babies," and "Hereward the Wake," he was the author of the popular ballads of "The Three Fishers," "The Starlings," and "The Sands of Dee"; his writings had a great influence on his contemporaries, particularly on young men; Professor Saintsbury writes an appreciative estimate of Kingsley (1819-1875).

KINGSLEY, HENRY, younger brother of the preceding; after a brief experience of life in Australia he returned home to start on the career of letters in rivalry with his brother, and distinguished himself by exhibitions of similar literary ability, as a novelist especially, as well as kindred sympathies; his princ.i.p.al novels were "Geoffrey Hamlyn,"

one of the best novels on Australian life; "Ravenshoe," his masterpiece, and "The Hillyars and the Burtons" (1830-1876).

KINGSTON, 1, capital (13) of Frontenac County, Ontario, on the NE.

sh.o.r.e of the Lake, 150 m. E. of Toronto, an important commercial town with s.h.i.+pbuilding and engineering works; is the seat of Queen's University, military and medical colleges, and an observatory. 2, Capital (47) of Jamaica, on a great bay on the S. coast, on the edge of a sugar-growing district; exports sugar, tobacco, and dye-woods, and imports cotton, flour, and rice. 3, a town (21) on the Hudson, N.Y., has great blue stone-flag quarries, and cement-works, breweries, and tanneries.

KINGSTON-UPON-THAMES (27), in Surrey, 10 m. SW. of London, has a fine church and other buildings, and malting industry.

KINGSTON, W. H. G., popular boys' story-writer, born in London, spent his youth in Oporto, was interested in philosophic schemes, and helped to arrange the Anglo-Portuguese commercial treaty; he wrote 120 tales, of which the "Three Mids.h.i.+pmen" series is the best, and died at Willesden (1814-1880).

KINGSTOWN, seaport of Dublin, 7 m. SE.; was till 1817 but a fis.h.i.+ng village; has a harbour designed by Rennie, which cost 525,000; was originally Dunleary, and changed into Kingstown on George IV.'s visit in 1821.

KINKEL, JOHANN GOTTFRIED, German poet and writer on aesthetics, born near Bonn; studied for the Church, but became lecturer on Art in Bonn, 1846; two years later he was imprisoned for revolutionary proceedings; escaped in 1850 to England, and became professor at Zurich in 1866; wrote "Otto der Schutz," an epic, and "Nimrod," a drama (1815-1882).

KINROSS (7), small Scottish county lying between Perth and Fife, round Loch Leven, is agricultural and grazing, with some hills of no great height, and coal mines; the co. town, KINROSS (2), is on the W. sh.o.r.e of Loch Leven; manufactures tartan.

KINSALE (5), a once important seaport in co. Cork, at the mouth of the Bandon, 13 m. S. of Cork; has lost its trade, and is now a summer resort and fis.h.i.+ng station; King James II. landed here in 1689, and re-embarked in 1690.

KINTYRE, a long narrow isthmus on the W. coast of Scotland, between the Atlantic and the Firth of Clyde, is chiefly hill and gra.s.s country; but at Campbeltown are great distilleries; at Machrihanish Bay, on the W.

coast, are fine golfing links.

KIPCHAKS, a nomadic Turkish race who settled on the south-eastern steppes of Russia about the 11th century, and whose descendants still occupy the district.

KIPLING, RUDYARD, story-teller and poet, born in Bombay, and educated in England; went out to India as a journalist; his stories respect Anglo-Indian, and especially military, life in India, and his "Soldiers Three," with the rest that followed, such as "Wee Willie Winkie," gained for him an immediate and wide reputation; as a poet, his most successful effort is his "Barrack-Room Ballads," instinct with a martial spirit, in 1864; he is a writer of conspicuous realistic power; he deems it the mission of civilisation to drill the savage races in humanity; _b_. 1865.