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Elton, Sir Geoffrey Rudolph

(Encyclopedia)Elton, Sir Geoffrey Rudolph, 1921–94, English historian, b. Germany as Geoffrey Rudolph Ehrenberg. He was educated at the Univ. of London and began teaching at Cambridge in 1949, holding the post of...

Smith, William

(Encyclopedia)Smith, William, 1769–1839, English geologist. Through direct observation as a canal-site surveyor, Smith made a systematic study of the geological strata of England and identified the fossils peculi...

Wheatley, Henry Benjamin

(Encyclopedia)Wheatley, Henry Benjamin, 1838–1917, English bibliographer and antiquarian, a founder of the Early English Text Society and of the Index Society. Wheatley's work on the indexing of books, How to Mak...

Frith, William Powell

(Encyclopedia)Frith, William Powell, 1819–1909, English anecdotal and genre painter. His early paintings were illustrations, such as his Scene from a Sentimental Journey (Victoria and Albert Mus.). Later he paint...

Elyot, Sir Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Elyot, Sir Thomas ĕlˈyət, ĕlˈēət [key], c.1490–1546, English author. He wrote the earliest Latin-English dictionary (1538) and is remembered especially for his sensible and well-written treat...

Reeve, Clara

(Encyclopedia)Reeve, Clara rēv [key], 1729–1807, English novelist. Her most famous work, The Champion of Virtue: A Gothic Story (1777), was written in imitation of Walpole's Castle of Otranto. After the first ed...

Wayland Smith

(Encyclopedia)Wayland Smith, in English folklore, a skillful blacksmith and great armor maker, whose forge was near the White Horse (Oxfordshire). He appears in the Old English Beowulf and Deor and in Sir Walter Sc...

Morland, George

(Encyclopedia)Morland, George, 1763–1804, English genre, animal, and landscape painter. A pupil of his father, Henry Morland (1716–97), a London portrait painter, he left his father's studio when he was 21 and ...

Glanvill, Ranulf de

(Encyclopedia)Glanvill, Ranulf de glănˈvĭl [key], d. 1190, English jurist. He served Henry II in many offices, finally as chief justiciar after 1180. He commissioned one of the great works of English law, the T...

Fanshawe, Sir Richard

(Encyclopedia)Fanshawe, Sir Richard fănˈshô [key], 1608–66, English diplomat and man of letters. He was secretary to the ambassador to Spain (1635–38) and chargé d'affaires there (1638). During the English ...