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Simsbury

(Encyclopedia)Simsbury, town (1990 pop. 22,023), Hartford co., N Conn.; inc. 1670. Although the town is mainly residential, it produces ordnance, machinery, and chemicals. The Westminster School, the Ethel Walker S...

chapter house

(Encyclopedia)chapter house, a building in which the chapter of the clergy meets. Its plan varies, the simplest being a rectangle. At Worcester, England, the Norman builders created a circular chapter house (c.1100...

felony

(Encyclopedia)felony fĕlˈənē [key], any grave crime, in contrast to a misdemeanor, that is so declared in statute or was so considered in common law. In early English law a felony was a heinous act that cancele...

hall

(Encyclopedia)hall, a communicating passageway or, in medieval buildings, the large main room. In the feudal castle of N Europe it was a single apartment, and in it lord and retainers lounged, ate, and slept. From ...

Tilley, Sir Samuel Leonard

(Encyclopedia)Tilley, Sir Samuel Leonard, 1818–96, Canadian political leader, b. New Brunswick. He was active in provincial politics and led the government from 1861 to 1865. An advocate of a united Canada, he wa...

public school

(Encyclopedia)public school, in the United States, a tax-supported elementary or high school open to anyone. In England the term was originally applied to grammar schools endowed for the use of the lay public; howe...

Test Act

(Encyclopedia)Test Act, 1673, English statute that excluded from public office (both military and civil) all those who refused to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, who refused to receive the communion acc...

Chautemps, Camille

(Encyclopedia)Chautemps, Camille kämēˈyə shōtäNˈ [key], 1885–1963, French politician. A Radical Socialist leader, he was premier in 1930 and in 1933–34, when the Stavisky Affair (in which he was not dire...

Maskelyne, Nevil

(Encyclopedia)Maskelyne, Nevil măsˈkəlīn [key], 1732–1811, English astronomer. Maskelyne received his education at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. Appointed astronomer royal at the Royal Ob...

Lambeth

(Encyclopedia)Lambeth lămˈbəth [key], inner borough (1991 pop. 220,100) of Greater London, SE England, on the Thames River. It is largely residential but is important as an area of governmental and commercial of...