His memoirs, published in 1806, is a very amusing book, full of interesting anecdotes of the men of his time, which will give the reader a thorough insight into the vain and irritable character of the author. His reputation was unblemished in the discharge both of his public and private duties; and his society was much courted for his brilliant conversation. He is recorded to have had one weakness quite at variance with the pride of character to which he bitter sarcasm as soon as the objects of it had turned their backs. For such a practice it is a poor excuse to say that we suppose it to have originated not in malevolence, but in the straits to which a talker by profession may be continually put to maintain his reputation. the original edition have been perpetuated in the several belong to Cumberland. There are also a number of va German and London reprints. Dr. Cumberland left an in-luable critical essays, chiefly on the drama. The entire terleaved copy with a few corrections and additions; in this work proceeded from Cumberland's pen, and affords hosame copy the whole text was revised by Dr. Bentley; and nourable evidence of the author's fertility of imagination, thus enriched, the copy was presented to the library of knowledge, humour, and varied power of composition. His Trinity College, Cambridge, by Richard Cumberland, the translation of the 'Clouds of Aristophanes' is elegant, but great-grandson of the bishop, and grandson of Dr. Bentley. he has altogether missed the spirit of the original. An abridged translation was published by Mr. James Tyr- One of Cumberland's pamphlets that appeared without rel in 1701, during Dr. Cumberland's lifetime. Mr. Max- his name, entitled 'Curtius rescued from the Gulph, or the well, an Irish clergyman, published a translation in 1727, Reply Courteous to the Rev. Dr. Parr, in answer to his prefixing and appending some original dissertations. M. learned pamphlet, entitled "A Sequel," &c., is no unfaBarbeyrac published a translation into French in 1744, vourable specimen of the author's powers of humour and having been allowed the use of the interleaved copy con- sarcasm, and his readiness at paying off a mass of learned taining the author's and Dr. Bentley's corrections. A quotations in coin of the same but a more current kind. third English translation by the Rev. John Towers, D.D., appeared in 1750. (Payne's Preface to Cumberland's Sanchoniathon's History; Kippis's Biographia Britannica.) CUMBERLAND, RICHARD, a favourite dramatic writer and miscellaneous author of the last century, greatgrandson of Richard Cumberland, bishop of Peterborough, and grandson by the mother's side of Dr. Richard Bentley, was born February 19, 1732,* in the lodge of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was placed successively at the pub-lays claim, a habit of flattery which was succeeded by lie schools of Bury St. Edmund's and Westminster; and at the carly age of fourteen commenced his residence at Trinity College, Cambridge. Though during his two first years he had entirely neglected his mathematical studies, he distinguished himself highly by readiness and skill as a disputer in the schools, and obtained the degree of tenth wrangler. Two years after, he was elected fellow of Trinity. It was his intention to enter the church, and devote himself to literature and the duties of his profession. From these views he was withdrawn by being appointed, in the same year, private secretary to the earl of Halifax, then first lord of trade, whom he accompanied, on his appointment to be lord lieutenant, to Ireland in 1760. Through this connection his father became bishop, first of Clonfert, afterwards of Kilmore. To Cumberland himself the connection brought little benefit. But after passing through one or two subordinate offices, he was appointed secretary to the Board of Trade, soon after Lord George Germaine became first lord in 1775, and held that office until the suppression of the board in 1782. In 1780 he was sent on a confidential and secret mission to the court of Madrid. This seemingly fortunate appointment proved the source of no small loss and vexation, in consequence of his necessary expenditure to the extent of 45007. beyond the money which he received at starting, of which no portion ever was repaid. On this subject we have only his own ex parte, but uncontradicted, statement: there is every appearance that he was exceedingly ill used. After the reduction of the Board of Trade he received a compensation allowance, and retired to husband his diminished means at Tunbridge Wells. He now devoted himself altogether to literature, which had hitherto been only his amusement; and tried his powers in the multifarious departments of opera, farce, comedy, tragedy, occasional, lyric, and sacred poetry, pamphlets, novels, essays, and even divinity but he will hardly be remembered except as an essayist, and as the author of several successful comedies, of which only the West Indian, the Wheel of Fortune, and the Jew need be mentioned. The West Indian obtained great popularity on its first appearance, and is still a stock piece: it was in Major O'Flaherty, one of the chief characters, that the eminent comedian Moody made his first favourable impression on the public. The Jew was an honourable attempt to combat popular prejudice against the Jewish nation. The Wheel of Fortune is identified with John Kemble, who made Penruddock one of his very effective characters. Many other of his dramatic pieces, of which there are at least thirty-two, were popular at the time of their production; and even those which had little sterling merit added for a time to his reputation, by keeping his name continually before the public: but to the best of our recollection there were no others which now require notice. As an essayist, he rode to fame on the shoulders of Bentley, from whose manuscripts he derived the learning of those series of papers in the Observer,' on Greek poetry, which contain a rich collection of translated fragments of the comic poets. The merits of the translations, however, In the last edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica' this date is erroneously given February 29, 1722, Mr. Cumberland died, after a few days' illness, May 7, 1811. CUMBRIAN MOUNTAINS. These form a group in the north-western part of England, occupying rather more than a third of Cumberland, perhaps one-fifth of Westmoreland, and a small part of North Lancashire. The road leading from Kendal to Carlisle through Shap, may be considered as its eastern boundary; but the Shap Fells are united by high land to the Pennine Mountains, which extend farther east between Westmoreland and Yorkshire, and likewise north and south from their junction with the Cumbrian range. The highest part of that road is 1187 feet above the sea. From this line the mountains extend westwards, and terminate with Dent Hill, a few miles from Whitehaven. The most northern point of the mass is Fell Top, near Hesket-new-market in Cumberland, and the most southern the slate quarries near Ulverston in Lancashire. From north to south the group measures about 37 miles, from east to west about 35 miles. The whole system probably covers a surface little short of 700 square miles. This group consists properly of one immense mass of rock, furrowed by narrow and deep valleys, the direction of which is towards all the points of the compass. By these valleys a large number of ridges is formed. That part which is connected with the Pennine range by the Shap Fells may be considered as the line of its axis, which in its western direction passes through Helvellyn (3055 feet), embraces Red Pike and Pillar (2893 feet), and terminates with Dent Hill (1110 feet). The high cape of St. Bees Head (222 feet), which lies in the prolongation of this line, is separated from Dent Hill by low ground. Several high peaks occur to the north of this line. One extensive mass of rocks, lying to the east of Bassenthwaite Water, is overtopped by the three high summits of Saddleback (2787 feet), Skiddaw (3022 feet), and High Pike near Hesket-new-market (2101 feet). To the south-west of Bassenthwaite Water is Grasmere Fell (2756 feet). On the south of the axis, the highest summits are due south of Pillar. In this part are Seaw Fell (3092 feet), and Bow Fell, near Eskdale (2914 feet). East of them, Coniston Fell (2577 feet) is more isolated. Black Comb (1919 feet) is much farther south, near Duddon mouth, on the west side of that æstuary. More than the According to the recent observations of Professor Sedg wick, the greatest part of this cluster of mountains is formed by stratified deposits of slaty texture. northern half consists of green quartzose roofing slate, and the southern portion of grauwacke slate. The line sepa rating both formations runs from the northern extremity of Winandermere Lake to Shap Fells on the east, and nearly in a straight line. On the west it continues at some distance from the northern extremity of Coniston Water, and then runs southward to Broughton on Duddon mouth. A narrow band of limestone and calcareous slate separates the two formations. Black Comb consists of old black slate. Granite is found between Black Comb and Wast Water, on the north side of Ennerdale Water, in Skiddaw, and between the northern part of Ullswater and Penrith. A broad band of coal encircles on the north the mountain limestone, and runs from Whitehaven by Workington, Maryport, a little south of Wigton and a little north of Hesket-newmarket, to nearly as far as Penrith. This group of mountains is well known for its picturesque scenery. The mountains rise with steep acclivities, especially those west of Helvellyn, inclosing narrow but in some parts well-cultivated valleys, which derive a great part of their beauty from the numerous lakes which occupy the widest part of them. To the north of the central range, proceeding from east to west, are Hawes Water (714 feet), Ullswater (460 feet), Thirlmere (473 feet), Derwent Water (222 feet), Bassenthwaite Water (210 feet), and Crummock (260 feet above the sea). To the south of the axis, proceeding from west to east, are Ennerdale Lake, Wast Water (160 feet), Coniston Water (105 feet), Grassmere (196 feet), and Winandermere (116 feet above the sea). The whole mountain mass declines more rapidly to the north than to the south, as the different elevation of the lakes evidently shows. For particulars on the lakes and valleys, see BORROWDALE, CUMBERLAND, WESTMORELAND, and LANCASHIRE. (Geography of Great Britain and Ireland, by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; Sedgwick in Geol. Trans., Sec. Series, vol. iv., first part, 1835.) CUMI'NGIA. [CONCHACEA, vol. vii. p. 430.] CUMI'NUM CY'MINUM, or CUMIN, is an umbelliferous plant of annual duration, found wild in Egypt and Syria, and cultivated from time immemorial for the sake of its agreeable aromatic fruit, which, like that of Caraway, Dill, Anise, &c., possesses well-marked stimulating and carminative properties. Cumin grows about a foot high, and is very little branched; it is smooth near the ground, but slightly downy near the end of its branches. Its leaves are deeply cut into long capillary segments. The partial and general involucres consist of similar leaves, but smaller. The flowers are white or reddish: the fruit is contracted at the side, surmounted by a calyx with long bristle-pointed divisions, and has each of its halves marked by nine unequal elevated ridges, all of which are slightly muricated, especially the secondary ones, under each of which there is a vitta. Two vittæ are present on the commissure, and the albumen is not involute. Cumin is said to be employed in flavouring Dutch cheese. composed in a Polish convent, the civil troubles having driven the authoress from her country. It is an attempt to simplify the methods derived from Kepler's laws, and in particular to avoid the use of logarithms; more remarkable from the circumstance of the writer being a female than from any particular merit. The principal instructor of Maria Cunitz in astronomy was a countryman of her own, named Loewen, whom she married on the death of her father. The preface and dedication of the tables were written by him. She died at Pitschen, in Silesia, probably after 1669. (Delambre, Astron. Moderne; Lalande, Bibliog. Astron. The latter cites Desvignoles, Bibl. Germ., vol. iii., and Scheibel, Bibl. Astron., p. 361-378.) CUNNINGHA'MIA SINENSIS, an evergreen Chinese tree, formerly called Pinus lanceolata. It has narrow oval lanceolate stiff pungent leaves, which, when the plant is old enough, collect into cones, after the manner of an Araucaria. The plant will live near London, in the open air, with a little protection in winter. CUNONIA'CEE, a small natural order of polypetalous apocarpous Exogens, allied to Saxifragacea, with which they were formerly united. They are trees or shrubs, inhabiting Southern Africa, South America, and very sparingly the East Indies. In most respects their flowers are constructed like those of Saxifragacea, but the styles are more consolidated, and they have a dense spiked or racemose inflorescence instead of a few loosely-arranged blossoms. The leaves are opposite, and furnished with interpetiolar stipules, and being pinnated in most cases, give the plants a peculiar aspect. Little is known of their properties, except that their bark is sometimes very astringent and used for tanning purposes. GD [Cuminum Cyminum.] 1,a young fruit, with the calyx still adhering: 2, a ripe fruit; 3, a transverse section of the latter, showing the ridges, the vittæ, and the commissure. CUNE'O. [CONI.] CUNITZ, MARIA, born at Schweidnitz, in Silesia, about the beginning of the seventeenth century. She was remarkable, according to report, for the great variety of her knowledge, but the only published specimen is her Urania Propitia, sive Tabula Astronomice,' &c., printed at Oels in 1650, and at Frankfort in 1651. This work was Cunoniaceae Weinmannia Jubescens.] 1, a perfect flower; 2, an ovary; 3, a transverse section of the saine; 4, a ripe fruit. CUPAR FIFE (so named in contradistinction from Perthshire), is the county town of Fife, and has separate the small towns of Cupar Angus and Cupar Grange in juri-diction as a royal burgh, in which capacity it formerly enjoyed many municipal privileges, being called by Camden Burgus Insignis.' important place in the county, not only as the seat of the At present it is the most county courts for the administration of justice, by which it is made the residence of numerous legal practitioners, but on account of its manufactures, corn-market, and numerous fairs for agricultural produce. It is situated nearly in the middle of the peninsula of Fife, at the confluence of the small streams Eden and Lady Burn, or St. Mary, and about 10 miles west of St. Andrews; having, on the south, a range of high hills, and on the north a fertile country, diversified with hills and numerous woods. The site of the town is only 25 feet above the level of the sea, from which it is distant 6 miles; the temperature of the air is mild, and is said to be very favourable to longevity. It is a place of great antiquity. In the parliamentary rolls of David II. are the names of commissioners from the royal burgh of Cupar,' and on a mound, called the Castle Hill, there formerly stood a castellated fortress which was the head-quarters of the chiefs of the family of Macduff, the feudal earls or thanes of Fife. At the foot of the Castle Hill was a convent of Dominican monks, or Black Friars. Of these establishments no vestiges now exist; but in opening the surface of their sites several skeletons and other relics have been discovered. A green esplanade before the castle, still called the Play Field, was antiently used for the performance of the religious shows called mysteries and moralities: and here, in 1555, was acted the famous David Lindsay's witty drama of the Three Estates,' a popular satire on the priesthood, which greatly promoted the subsequent religious revolution. as an emblem of the inspiration of love, through the eye, CUPPING is of two kinds; one by which some blood Cupar consists principally of one long street, extending from west to east, but several others contain new and handsome houses. The public buildings are neat and convenient, with the exception of the gaol, which, with an exterior resembling a gentleman's mansion, affords very bad accommodation for the prisoners. Besides the parish church, which is plain and commodious, there are various dissent-The instrument is so constructed, that the depth to which ing meeting-houses and an episcopalian chapel. The number of ale-houses, not including shops for the sale of spirits, is 53. The town has a cleanly and very respectable appearance, the vicinity being ornamented with some neat villas and gardens. Spring and well water is abundant. The streets are lighted with gas, and are partially paved, a luxury seldom found in the country towns of Scotland. The number of resident procurators who practise in the county courts is about 30; making, with their clerks, a total of about 90 inhabitants who subsist by the legal profession. There are two reading-rooms, and a subscription library consisting of 4000 volumes. The schools of Cupar are in high repute. In addition to a large grammar-school on the Castle Hill, several others are established on Dr. Bell's system, so that no child in the town at the age of five is unable to read. There are two printing-presses, one of which is famed for the beautiful and accurate impression of Dr. Hunter's editions of several of the Latin Classics. The chief manufacture is linen. Three spinning-mills for flax employ about 240 hands. The water of the Eden is made available for the movement of machinery of 80 horse-power, and about 900 weavers of linen are constantly engaged in their own dwelling-houses. A snuff-mill, worked both by water and steam, manufactures annually 60,000 lbs. of Cupping by which blood is abstracted is used either Scotch snuff. There are two tan-yards, and breweries; where general bleeding is unnecessary, or as supplementary and from an immense bed of clay in the vicinity a great to it, for the removal of congestions or local affections. It quantity of bricks and coarse earthenware is made. Build- is analogous to the use of leeches, over which, however, ing materials are supplied from four quarries of white when the situation of the part admits of the application of sandstone. Many of the inhabitants of the parish are em- the glasses, it has in general many advantages. The blood ployed in agriculture, which is carried on very successfully, is more rapidly abstracted, a point of great importance in all the adjacent land being arable, and producing the finest inflammatory diseases; the quantity removed can be more crops of wheat and turnips. Excellent races are held under exactly ascertained; there is less risk of subsequent bleedthe patronage of the Fife Hunt, and a subscription packing from the wounds; and the part of the body subjected of fox-hounds is kept. The town of Cupar, jointly with St. Andrews and Craill, the two Anstruthers, Kilkenny, and Pittenween, sends one member to parliament. The population, in 1831, of the burgh and parish was 6473. (New statistical account of Scotland; Carlisle's Topog. Dict. of Scotland; Chambers's Gazetteer of Scotland.) CUPEL, CUPELLATION. [ASSAYING.] CUPID (Cupido, desire), in Latin mythology, the god of love. Cicero (Nat. Deor., iii. 23) enumerates three deities, or rather three forms of the same deity, bearing this name, each the son of a different Venus, by a different father. Of these the principal, and the one who is usually meant when the name of Cupid occurs without qualification, is the son of Mercury and Venus daughter of Dione. He is represented by the poets as a child armed with bow and arrows, 'Where dry cupping only is intended, the glasses may be permitted to remain on the skin for a few moments, and replaced five or six times with a little variation of their position, in order to prevent the skin from being hurt by their pressure.' to the operation is exposed to the air for a much shorter time. Cupping is also preferable in cases where the application of leeches is followed by severe erysipelas of the skin. 'In all inflammations and congestions about the head, cupping on the back of the neck and between the shoulders is a most useful mode of abstracting blood; and this operation is also particularly applicable for the removal of blood from the parietes of the chest and abdomen in diseases of the different viscera. Its use however is only admissible when it can be employed without exciting pain, and irritating the diseased organ.' Many cases of impending apoplexy may be warded off by the timely application of cupping-glasses to the neck, aided by a quickly-acting cathartic. Where the abstraction of blood is inexpedient or unnecessary, dry-cupping is often resorted to with benefit. In adynamic states of fever, especially where the lungs are complicated in the diseased action, if 'farther depletion cannot be ventured upon, dry-cupping on the back or chest will sometimes be serviceable.' (Copland's Dictionary of Medicine, p. 930.) Dry-cupping often affords great and immediate relief in many pains of the side, not inflammatory, but hysterical, which occur in females. The pains of the back which likewise occur in females at particular times may be much mitigated by dry-cupping. Another and most important application of cupping is the prevention by its means of the absorption of poisonous fluids from wounds. For this purpose anything by which a partial vacuum over the wounded part can be produced will answer, such as a wine-glass, tumbler, or tea-cup with a smooth margin, from which the air has been partially expelled by holding it for a moment over a lighted candle. This mode was in use among the antients, has been re vived among the moderns, and is practised by the South Americans in cases of the bites of venomous serpents, by means of a funnel-shaped calabash. The Greeks called a cupping instrument oixva (sikua), from its bearing some resemblance to the form of a melon or gourd. (Empson's Narratives of South America, p. 66; Wardrop on Blood Letting; Cooper's Surgical Dictionary.) CUPRESSUS, a coniferous genus, distinguished from the firs and pines by its leaves being mere scales, its cones formed of a small number of peltate woody bracts, and the seeds very small, angular, and several to each bract. Botanists mention several species, but of these three only are suited to the climate of Great Britain. C. sempervirens, the common upright cypress, is a native of the warmer parts of Europe, but has long since been transferred to gardens for the sake of its deep evergreen branches and leaves, and the gloomy air it imparts to the situations which it occupies. Its timber is of great durability: it is probable that gopher-wood, which some have referred to the cypress. was rather the timber of Thuja articulata. It is not much cultivated in England, the climate being too damp and cold for it in summer; otherwise it is sufficiently capable of resisting the cold of winter. Its formal mode of growth moreover is not to the taste of the people of this country. C. horizontalis, the spreading cypress, is a far handsomer species, partaking in all the excellent qualities of the last, being more hardy, and becoming a beautiful object with its graceful spreading branches, loaded, as they usually are, with large round cones. Miller has rightly pointed out the difference between this and the last, but it is nevertheless exceedingly uncommon in the collections of this country. The spreading cypress of the nurseries is nothing but a very slight variety of C. sempervirens. C. lusitanica, the cedar of Goa, differs from the two preceding in its much freer mode of growth, and in its leaves having a singularly glaucous colour. It is said to be of Indian origin, but has long since been naturalized in Portugal, where, about Cintra, it acquires a large size. In England it will only succeed well in the warm parts of the southern coast. CUPRESSUS DI'STICHA. [TAXODIUM.] CUPRESSUS THUIOIDES. [THUJA.] CUPULE, a kind of cup or involucre surrounding certain kinds of fruit, and composed of bracts more or less grown together. In the oak the cup of the acorn is the cupule; in the hazel-nut it is the husk; in the beech and chestnut the prickly shell; and in the hornbeam the lobed bract. CUPULI'FERE. [CORYLACEE.] CURACOA or CURAZAO, an island in the Caribbean sea, near the coast of Venezuela, in 12° 6' N. lat., and 69° 3′ W. long. Its length from north-west to south-east is 35 miles, and its greatest breadth 6 miles. The island is generally low on the eastern side, but there is a high hill on the north-east, and another still higher on the southeast. There are also some high hills on the west side, which are seen from a considerable distance at sea. The island is wholly dependent upon rain for water, and the soil so wanting in fertility that the inhabitants are partly supplied with provisions imported from other places. It yields a small quantity of tobacco, and affords a large supply of salt. The shores are so bold that vessels of considerable size may sail round the island within a cable's length. There are several harbours; the principal one, Santa Anna, is on the south-west side of the island. The entrance is very narrow; on the eastern side is Fort Amsterdam, and No. 496. on the opposite side of the harbour is the town of Caracoa, said to be one of the handsomest in the West Indies. Curaçoa was settled by the Spaniards early in the sixteenth century; it was taken in 1632 by the Dutch, and was captured by the English in 1798, but restored at the peace of Amiens. It was again taken by the English in 1806, and finally given up to Holland at the general peace in 1814. CURACY and CURATE. [CLERGY.] CURATOR (from curare, i. e. to care or take care), one who is appointed to take care of anything in this general sense there were many kinds of curators. In the civil law the word denotes one who is appointed to administer the estate of any person who is not legally competent to manage his property. 1. There was the curatorship, i. e. guardianship, of minors (cura minorum). Every person who was sui juris, i. e. not subject to paternal or domestic dominion, but who was still under age, was put under the superintendence of a guardian. But the Roman law distinguishes two kinds of guardianship; viz. tutelage (tutela) and curatorship (curatela). (Ayliffe's New Pandect, book ii., tit. xxxix.) The former kind of guardianship was in use if the minor was impubes, i. e. if a male minor was not fourteen and a female not twelve years old. The guardian in this case was called tutor, and the minor, pupillus. After the tutelage was ended, the minor received a curator till he was twenty-five years of age. This distinction had some important consequences in the civil law, which have only recently fallen into disuse even in countries where the Roman law is still in force. According to the strictness of law, the curatorship terminated with the twenty-fifth year of the minor; but it could also be determined by a solemn declaration of the emperor that the minor should be of age. (C. 2, tit. 45, de iis qui veniam ætatis.) This was called receiving veniam ætatis, and it could take place in the case of males in their twentieth, and females in their eighteenth year. 2. As spendthrifts and deaf and dumb persons could not legally administer their estates, they also were put under the superintendence of a curator. 3. A third kind of curators was the curator bonorum, i.e. a trustee for the administration of the estate of absent or deceased persons and insolvent debtors. Between this curatorship and that of a minor there was this important difference; the latter was regarded as a public office, which could not be refused, except for such reasons as the law allowed. (Heineccius, Jus. Civ. secundum ordinem Pandectarum, pars iv., § 288, 398, 400-403; vi. 275.) Curators in antient Rome were also public officers of various kinds, particularly after the time of Augustus, who established several officers with this title. (Suet., Vit. Aug., cap. 37.) 1. Curatores viarum, i. e. curators who superintended the laying out and repairing of the public roads. This office existed under the Republic, but it was only held as an extraordinary office, and was conferred only for special purposes. 2. Curatores operum publicorum, aquarum, cloacarum, who had the superintendence of the public buildings, theatres, bridges, aqueducts, and cloaca. 3. Curatores alvei Tiberis, who were the conservators of the Tiber. 4. Curatores frumenti populo dividundi, whose duty was to distribute corn among the people. Under the emperors we find other officers with the name of curatores, as, for instance, the curatores ludorum, who had the superintendence of the public amusements: and curatores reipublicæ, also calied logiste, whose duty it was to administer the landed property of municipia. CU'RCUMA LONGA, the Turmerick plant, is an herbaceous fleshy-rooted plant, found wild in various places in the East Indies, where also it is extensively cultivated. It belongs to the natural order Zingiberaceae, in the general aromatic qualities of which it slightly participates. The root is divided into several fleshy fingers, of an oblong form, and as thick as the thumb. The leaves spring at once from the crown of the root, have a lanceolate figure, sheathe each other at the base, are about a foot long, and produce from their centre a short thick leafy spike, in the axil of whose bracts are seated the inconspicuous pale cream-coloured flowers. Dr. Roxburgh gives the following account of the manner in which the plant is cultivated: the ground must be rich, friable, and so high as not to be drowned in the rainy seasons, such as the Bengalees about Calcutta call Danga. It is often planted on land where sugar-cane grew the preceding year, and is deemed a meliorating crop. The soil must be well ploughed and cleared of weeds, &c. It is then raised in April and May, according as the rains CURDISTAN. [KURDISTAN.] CURFEW. The custom of covering up their fires about sun-set in summer, and about eight or nine at night in winter, at the ringing of a bell called the couvre feu, or curfew bell, is supposed to have been introduced by William I., and to have been imposed upon the English as a badge of servitude. Henry, in his History of Britain, 4to. edit., vol. iii., p. 567, however, says this opinion does not seem well founded, for there is sufficient evidence that the same custom prevailed in France, Spain, Italy, Scotland, and probably in all the other countries of Europe, in this peried; and was intended as a precaution against fires, which were then very frequent and very destructive, when so many houses were built of wood. Henry I. restored the use of lamps and candles at court in the night after the ringing of the curfew bell, which had been prohibited by his predecessors. (Will. Malmesb., fol. 88.) Thomson, in his Seasons, countenances the opinion of 'The shivering wretches, at the curfew sound, And through the mournful gloom of antient times But we find the curfew mentioned to a very late period Whoever gives a paire of velvet shoes Or in the lasting tombe of plated brass.' The curfew bell, strictly as such, had probably fallen into disuse previous to the time of Shakspeare, who in Romeo and Juliet applies the term to the morning bell. The second cock hath crow'd, The curfew bell has rung, 'tis three o'clock.' In the Antiquarian Repertory, old edit., vol. i. p. 89, is an engraving of an iron implement which is called a curfew, or cover-fire, formerly belonging to Gostling, the historian of Canterbury, and presumed to be of very antient if not of Norman origin, but which in reality is no more than an ex tempore oven, lately if not still used in many parts of England for baking small viands: the hearth is first heated, the viand placed upon it, and then covered with this implement, the embers being raked round and above it. Either Gostling's, or a cover-fire like it, is still shown among the curiosities of the late Lord Orford's villa at Strawberry Hill. Milner, in his History of Winchester, vol. i. p. 189, says the curfew was first enforced in Winchester, and thence extended to other places: but there is no authority whatever for this surmise, beyond the circumstance that William the Conqueror made Winchester one of the chief places of his residence. CURIA. [COMITIA.] CURISCHES HAFF, a kind of bay on the north-eastern shores of East Prussia, supposed to have originated from the throwing up of the sand and the retiring of the waters of the Baltic. From Labiau, in the south, to its opening into the Baltic at Memel, it is about 60 miles in length; at its greatest breadth, between Cranzkukren and Juwendt, nearly 28 miles: it contains altogether 588 square miles. Its confluence with the Baltic is formed by what is called the 'Memel Deeps,' which are from 800 to 1200 feet in width. It cannot properly be called a part of the sea, inasmuch as its waters are fresh, like those of the other Haffs in this quarter. It is separated from the Baltic by a very narrow neck of land, called the 'Curische Nehrung,' formed by a series of low sand banks, almost destitute of vegetation, about one to two miles in breadth-except where they taper to a point as they approach Memel-and about 70 miles in length. On this neck of land there are a few villages. The bed of the Haff is unequal and variable, and the navigation is therefore very precarious; hence the only description of vessels used here is a peculiar kind of large flat boats, and even these are unable to land along many parts of the coast. In stormy weather the navigation is very dangerous. The Dange, the Minge, and the Memel, discharge their waters into this Haff. CURL. [POTATOES.] CURLEW. [SCOLOPACIDE.] CURNOUL, a principality formerly governed by an independent chief, and now forming one of the subdivisions of the Balaghaut ceded districts. Previous to its passing into possession of the English, the country had been subdivided into a great number of petty jaghires, and the government of the principality was so badly administered, that a great part of the lands were allowed to revert to a state of nature, and were overgrown with rank weeds and jungle. From this cause the revenue, which had amounted half that sum. The family of the present nabob of Curnoul to twenty lacs of rupees (200,0007.), was reduced to onehas held possession of the country by a tenure amounting almost to independence since 1651, when Curnoul was conferred as a jaghire on Khizzer Khan, by Aurengzebe, the governor of the Deccan. On the death of the nabob, Azif Khan, in 1815, the chief authority was usurped by Muzuffer Khan, his youngest son; but the lawful heir, Munawer Khan, speedily obtained his right through the intervention of the governor of Madras, who sent a detachment of troops to the capital for that purpose. [BALAGHAUT.] side of the Toombuddra, in 15° 44' north lat. and 78° 2 CURNOUL, the capital, is a populous town, on the south east long. It is surrounded on all sides by the rivers Toombuddra and Henday, which are there from 700 to 800 yards wide. Some strong works have been erected on the western side of the town; but in 1815 the place held out against the assaults of the English, only one day after which it was surrendered at discretion. The buildings in the town are partly of stone and partly of mud. Travelling distance from Madras, 279 miles, and from Hydrabad 127 miles. (Rennell's Memoir of a Map of Hindustan; Report of Committee of the House of Commons, 1832.) CURRANT, a well-known hardy fruit produced by two species of the genus Ribes. The one R. rubrum, is remarkable for the mixture of sweet and acid in its fruit, and for the beauty of its semitransparent red or yellow berries. Of this the finest varieties are Wilmot's red and the white Dutch, and the sweetest Knight's sweet red and the common white. In the fruit of R. nigrum, the black currant, a powerful and agreeable aromatic principle takes the place of acidity; of this species the best variety is the Black Naples. The currants of the grocers' shops are the dried berries of a small kind of grape, chiefly cultivated in the Morea and the Ionian Islands, Corfu, Zante, &c. CURRENCY. It is the object of this article briefly to state some general facts relating to our currency, reserving for a more advanced stage of this work an examination of the conflicting theories that prevail on the subject of our monetary system. I. Metallic Currency.-The metallic circulation of the United Kingdom consists of gold, silver, and copper. The actual amount of gold and silver coin in circulation at any given time within the country cannot be estimated by the amount of the metal coined; for gold and silver moneys are exported whenever a profit can be made by their exportation. The amount of moneys coined at the Mint in the year 1835 (the last return is of that year) was as follows:gold, 1,109,7187.; silver, 146,6657.; copper, 26887. It has |