The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 439

TURKEY or THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, a great Mohammedan State embracing wide areas in Eastern Europe and Western Asia, besides the province of Tripoli in North Africa, and the tributary States Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (under Austria), Cyprus (under Britain), Samos and Egypt (practically controlled by Britain). EUROPEAN TURKEY (4,786), which during the last 200 years has been gradually losing territory, now comprises a narrow strip of land between the Adriatic (W.) and the Black Sea (E.), about twice the size of England; is traversed by the Dinaric Alps and Pindus Mountains, which strike southwards into Greece, while offshoots from the BALKANS (q. v.) diversify the E.; climate is very variable, and is marked by high winds and extremes of cold and heat; the soil is remarkably fertile and well adapted for the cultivation of cereals, but agricultural enterprise is hampered by excessive taxation; there is abundance of the useful metals; is the only non-Christian State in Europe. ASIATIC TURKEY (16,000) is bounded N. by the Black Sea, S. by the Arabian Desert and the Mediterranean, E. by Persia and Transcaucasia, and W. by the Archipelago; has an area more than ten times that of Turkey in Europe, is still more mountainous, being traversed by the Taurus, Anti-Taurus, and the Lebanon ranges; is ill watered, and even the valleys of the Euphrates, Tigris, and Jordan are subject to great drought in the summer; embraces ASIA MINOR (q. v.), SYRIA (q. v.), PALESTINE (q. v.), and the coast strips of Arabia along the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf; chief exports are fruits, silk, cotton, wool, opium, &c. The population of the Ottoman Empire is of a most heterogeneous character, embracing Turks, Greeks, Slavs, Albanians, Armenians, Syrians, Arabs, Tartars, &c.

The government is a pure despotism, and the Sultan is regarded as the Caliph or head of Islam; military service is compulsory, and the army on a war footing numbers not less than 750,000, but the navy is small; since 1847 there has been considerable improvement in education; the finances have long been mismanaged, and an annual deficit of two millions sterling is now a usual feature of the national budget; the foreign debt is upwards of 160 millions. From the 17th century onwards the once wide empire of the Turks has been gradually dwindling away. The Turks are essentially a warlike race, and commerce and art have not flourished with them. Their literature is generally lacking in virility, and is mostly imitative and devoid of national character.

TURNER, CHARLES TENNYSON, an elder brother of Alfred Tennyson; a man of fine nature and delicate susceptibility as a poet, whose friends.h.i.+p and "heart union" with his greater brother is revealed in "Poems by Two Brothers" (1808-1879).

TURNER, JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM, great English landscape painter, born probably in London, the son of a hairdresser; had little education, and grew up illiterate, as he remained all his days; took to art from his earliest boyhood; soon became acquainted with the artist cla.s.s, and came under the notice of Sir Joshua Reynolds; began to exhibit at 15; was elected a.s.sociate of the Royal Academy at 24, and made an Academician at 28; he took interest in nothing but art, and led the life of a recluse; was never married, and was wedded solely to his work; travelled much in England and on the Continent, sketching all day long; produced in water-colour and oil scene after scene, and object after object, as they impressed him, and represented them as _he_ saw them; being a man of moderate desires he lived economically, and he died rich, leaving his means to found an asylum for distressed artists; of his works there is no s.p.a.ce to take note here; yet these are all we know of the man, and they stamp him as a son of genius, who saw visions and dreamed dreams; he early fascinated the young Ruskin; Ruskin's literary career began with the publication of volume after volume in his praise, and in his enthusiasm he characterised him as the "greatest painter of all time"

(1775-1851). See PERUGINO.

TURNER, SHARON, historian, born in London, where he led a busy life as an attorney; devoted his leisure to historical studies, the first of which were "History of Anglo-Saxons" and "History of England from the Norman Conquest to the Death of Elizabeth," essays, &c. (1768-1847).

TURPIN, d.i.c.k, a felon executed at York for horse-stealing; celebrated for his ride to York in Ainsworth's "Rookwood."

TUSCANY (2,274), a department of Italy, formerly a grand-duchy, lies S. and W. of the Apennines, fronting the Tyrrhenian Sea on the W.; mountainous in the N. and E., but otherwise consisting of fertile dale and plain, in which the vine, olive, and fruits abound; silk is an important manufacture, and the marble quarries of Siena are noted; formed a portion of ancient ETRURIA (q. v.); was annexed to Sardinia in 1859, and in 1861 was incorporated in the kingdom of Italy. Capital, Florence.

TUSCULUM, a ruined Roman city, 15 m. SE. of Rome; at one time a favourite country resort of wealthy Romans; Brutus, Caesar, Cicero, and others had villas here; was stormed to ruins in 1191; has many interesting remains.

TUSSAUD, MADAME, foundress of the famous waxwork show in London, born at Berne, and trained in her art in Paris; patronised by the sister of Louis XVI.; was imprisoned during the Revolution, and in 1802 came to London (1760-1850).

TWEED, a famous river of Scotland, rises in the S. of Peebless.h.i.+re, and flows for 97 m. in a generally north-eastward direction; enters the German Ocean at Berwick; is a noted salmon river, and inseparably a.s.sociated with the glories of Scottish literature and history.

TWICKENHAM (16), a town of Middles.e.x, on the Thames, 11 m. SW. of London; a fas.h.i.+onable resort in the 18th century; the dwelling-place of Pope, Horace Walpole, Turner, and others.

TWISS, SIR TRAVERS, jurist and economist, born in Westminster; professor of Political Economy at Oxford, and subsequently of Civil Law; drew up in 1884 a const.i.tution for the Congo Free State; his writings include "View of the Progress of Political Economy since the Sixteenth Century," "International Law," "The Law of Nations," all of which rank as standard and authoritative works (1809-1897).

TWIST, OLIVER, hero of d.i.c.kens's novel of the name.

TYCHE, the Greek name of the Latin G.o.ddess Fortuna, represented with various attributes to symbolise her fickleness, her influence, her generosity, &c.

TYLER, EDWARD BURNET, a distinguished anthropologist, born at Camberwell; in 1856 he travelled through Mexico in company with Henry Christy, the ethnologist; five years later published "Anahuac; or, Mexico and the Mexicans"; in 1883 became keeper of the Oxford University Museum and reader in Anthropology; in 1888 was appointed Gifford Lecturer at Aberdeen, and in 1891 president of the Anthropological Society; his great works are "Researches into the Early History of Mankind" and "Primitive Culture"; _b_. 1832.

TYLER, JOHN, president of the United States, born in Charles City County, Virginia; became a barrister; elected vice-president of the United States in 1840, and on the death of Harrison succeeded to the presidential office; showed much independence and strength of mind, exercising his veto on several occasions; the ASHBURTON (q. v.) Treaty and the annexation of Texas were the princ.i.p.al events of his presidency; made strenuous endeavours to secure peace in 1861, but failing sided with the South, and was a member of the Confederate Congress (1790-1862).

TYLER, WAT, a tiler in Dartford, Kent, who roused into rebellion the long-discontented and over-taxed peasantry of England by striking dead in 1381 a tax-gatherer who had offered insult to his young daughter; under Tyler and Jack Straw a peasant army was mustered in Kent and Ess.e.x, and a descent made on London; the revolters were disconcerted by the tact of the young king RICHARD II. (q. v.), and in a scuffle Tyler was killed by Walworth, Mayor of London.

TYNDAL, JOHN, physicist, born in co. Carlow, Ireland; succeeded Faraday at the Royal Inst.i.tution; wrote on electricity, sound, light, and heat, as well as on the "Structure and Motion of the Glaciers," in opposition to Forbes, whose theory was defended in strong terms by Ruskin; wrote also "Lectures on Science for Unscientific People," much praised by Huxley (1820-1893).

TYNE, river of North England, formed by the confluence near Hexham of the N. Tyne from the Cheviots, and the S. Tyne, which rises on Cross Fell, in E. c.u.mberland; forms the boundary between Durham and Northumberland, and after a course of 32 m. enters the sea between Tynemouth and South s.h.i.+elds.

TYNEMOUTH (28 towns.h.i.+p, 46 borough), a popular watering-place of Northumberland, at the mouth of the Tyne, 9 m. E. of Newcastle; has a fine sweep of promenaded sh.o.r.e, an aquarium, pier, lighthouse, baths, &c.; North s.h.i.+elds and several villages lie within the borough boundaries.

TYPHON, in the Greek mythology a fire-breathing giant, struck by a thunderbolt of Jupiter, and buried under Etna.

TYRANTS, in ancient Greece men who usurped or acquired supreme authority in a State at some political crisis, who were despotic in their policy, but not necessarily cruel, often the reverse.

TYRCONNEL, RICHARD TALBOT, EARL OF, a Catholic politician and soldier, whose career during the reigns of Charles II. and James II. is a record of infamous plotting and treachery in support of the Catholic Stuarts; was created an earl and lord-deputy of Ireland by James II.; fled to France after the battle of the Boyne (1625-1691).

TYRE, a famous city of ancient PHOENICIA (q. v.), about 30 m. N. of Acre; comprised two towns, one on the mainland, the other on an island opposite; besieged and captured in 332 B.C. by Alexander the Great, who connected the towns by a causeway, which, by silting sands, has grown into the present isthmus; its history goes back to the 10th century B.C., when it was held by Hiram, the friend of Solomon, and sustained sieges by Nebuchadnezzar and others; was reduced by Caesar Augustus, but again rose to be one of the most flouris.h.i.+ng cities of the East in the 4th century A.D.; fell into ruins under the Turks, and is now reduced to some 5000 of a population.

TYROL (929), a crownland of Austria; lies between Bavaria (N.) and Italy (S. and W.); traversed by three ranges of the Alps and by the rivers Inn and Adige; it is famed for the beauty of its scenery; inhabited by Catholic Germans and Italians; sheep-farming, mining, and forest, fruit, and wine cultivation are the chief industries; capital INNSBRUCK (q. v.).

TYRONE (171), a central county of Ulster, Ireland; is hilly, picturesque, and fertile in the lower districts; a considerable portion is taken up by barren mountain slopes and bogland, and agriculture is backward; coal and marble are wrought; Omagh is the capital, and Strabane and Dungannon are prosperous towns.

TYRONE, HUGH O'NEIL, EARL OF, a notable Irish rebel; a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of "The O'Neil," and offered open rebellion to Queen Elizabeth's authority, but, despite a.s.sistance from Spain, was subdued by Ess.e.x and Mountjoy; was permitted to retain his earldom, but in James I.'s reign was again discovered intriguing with Spain; fled the country, and had his lands confiscated; _d_. 1616.

TYRRHENIAN SEA, an arm of the Mediterranean, stretching between Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily on the W., and Italy on the E.

TYRTaeUS, a lyric poet of ancient Greece, of the 7th century B.C., and whose war-songs greatly heartened the Spartans in their struggle with the Messenians.

TYRWHITT, THOMAS, English scholar, the son of an English Church canon, born in London; was a Fellow of Merton in 1755, and in 1762 became clerk to the House of Commons, a post, however, which proved too arduous for him, and in 1768 he resigned; the remainder of his life was given to literary pursuits; produced the first adequate edition of Chaucer (1775), besides an edition of Aristotle's "Poetics," and books on Chatterton's "Rowley Poems," &c. (1730-1786).

TYTLER, PATRICK FRASER, historian, son of Alexander Fraser Tytler, a lord of Session under the t.i.tle of Lord Woodhouselee, author of the "Elements of History" (1747-1813), born in Edinburgh; abandoned the bar for literature, and established his fame by his scholarly "History of Scotland"; wrote biographies of Wycliffe, Raleigh, Henry VIII., &c.; received a Government pension from Sir Robert Peel (1791-1849).

U

UCAYALI, a tributary of the Amazon, which rises in the S. Peruvian Andes, and which it joins after a northward course of over 1000 m.