Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Armour Plates" to "Arundel, Earls of"
introduction of European spirits and methods of manufacture is gradually
5748 words | Chapter 120
causing the native spirit industries on the old lines to decay)
manufactured in India, Ceylon, Siam, Java, Batavia, China, Corea, &c.,
and its manufacture still constitutes a considerable industry. The term
arrack as designating a distilled liquor does not, however, appear to
have been confined to the Far East, as, in Timkowski's _Travels_, it is
stated that a spirit distilled from koumiss (q.v.) by the Tatars,
Mongols and presumably the Caucasian races generally, is called _arrack,
araka or ariki_. In Ceylon arrack is distilled chiefly from palm toddy,
which is the fermented juice drawn from the unexpanded flower-spathes of
various palms, such as the Palmyra palm (_Borassus flabelliformis_) and
the cocoa palm (_Cocos nucifera_). At the beginning of the 19th century
the arrack industry of Ceylon was of considerable dimensions, whole
woods being set apart for no other purpose than that of procuring toddy,
and the distillation of the spirit took place at every village round the
coast. The land rents in 1831 included a sum of L35,573 on the cocoa-nut
trees, and the duties on the manufacture and retail of the spirit
amounted to over L30,000. On the Indian continent arrack is made from
palm toddy, rice and the refuse of the sugar refineries, but mainly from
the flowers of the muohwa or mahua tree (_Bassia latifolia_). The mahua
flowers are very rich in sugar, and may, according to H.H. Mann, contain
as much as 58% of fermentable sugar, calculated on the total solids.
Even at the present day the process of manufacture is very primitive,
the fermentation as a rule being carried on in so concentrated a liquid
that complete fermentation rarely takes place. According to Mann, the
total sugar in the liquor ready for fermentation may reach 20%. The
ferment employed (it is so impure that it can scarcely be called yeast)
is obtained from a previous fermentation, and, as the latter is never
vigorous, it is not surprising that the resulting spirit contains,
compared with the more scientifically prepared European spirits, a very
high proportion of by-products (acid, fusel oil, &c.). The injurious
nature of these native spirits has long been known and has been
frequently set down to the admixture of drugs, such as hemp (_ganga_),
but a recent investigation of this question appears to show that this is
not generally the case. The chemical constitution of these liquors alone
affords sufficient proof of their inferior and probably injurious
character.
See H.H. Mann, _The Analyst_ (1904).
ARRAH, a town of British India, headquarters of Shahabad district, in
the Patna division of Bengal, situated on a navigable canal connecting
the river Sone with the Ganges. It is a station on the East Indian
railway, 368 m. from Calcutta. In 1901 the population was 40,170. Arrah
is famous for an incident in the Mutiny, when a dozen Englishmen, with
50 Sikhs, defended an ordinary house against 2000 Sepoys and a multitude
of armed insurgents, perhaps four times that number. A British regiment,
despatched to their assistance from Dinapur, was disastrously repulsed;
but they were ultimately relieved, after eight days' continuous
fighting, by a small force under Major (afterwards Sir Vincent) Eyre.
ARRAIGNMENT (from Lat. _ad_, to, and _rationare_, to reason, call to
account), a law term, properly denoting the calling of a person to
answer in form of law upon an indictment. After a true bill has been
found against a prisoner by the grand jury, he is called by name to the
bar, the indictment is read over to him, and he is asked whether he be
guilty or not of the offence charged. This is the arraignment. Formerly,
it was usual to require the prisoner to hold up his hand, in order to
identify him the more completely, but this practice is now obsolete, as
well as that of asking him how he will be tried. His plea in answer to
the charge is then entered, or a plea of not guilty is entered for him
if he stands mute of malice and refuses to plead, If a person is mute by
the visitation of God (i.e. deaf and dumb), it will be no bar to an
arraignment if intelligence can be conveyed to him by signs or symbols.
If he pleads guilty, sentence may be passed forthwith; if he pleads not
guilty, he is then given in charge to a jury of twelve men to inquire
into the truth of the indictment. He may also plead in abatement, or to
the jurisdiction, or demur on a point of law. Several defendants, except
those entitled to the privilege of peerage, charged on the same
indictment, are arraigned together.
In Scots law the term for arraignment is _calling the diet_.
The _Clerk of Arraigns_ is a subordinate officer attached to assize
courts and to the Old Bailey. He is appointed by the clerk of assize
(see ASSIZE) and acts as his deputy. He assists at the arraignment of
prisoners, and puts the formal questions to the jury when delivering
their verdict.
ARRAN, EARLS OF. The extinct Scottish title of the earls of Arran (not
to be confused with the modern Irish earls of Arran--from the Arran or
Aran Islands, Galway--a title created in 1762) was borne by some famous
characters in Scottish history. Except the first earl, Thomas Boyd (see
ARRAN), and James Stewart, all the holders of this title were members of
the Hamilton family.
JAMES HAMILTON, 1st earl of Arran of the new creation (c. 1475-1529),
son of James, 1st Lord Hamilton, and of Mary Stewart, daughter of James
II. of Scotland, was born about 1475, and succeeded in 1479 to his
father's titles and estates. In 1489 he was made sheriff of Lanark, was
appointed a privy councillor to James IV., and in 1503 negotiated in
England the marriage between the king and Margaret Tudor. Hamilton
excelled in the knightly exercises of the day, and the same year on the
11th of August, after distinguishing himself in a famous tournament, he
was created earl and justiciary of Arran. In 1504 as lieutenant-general
of the realm he was employed in reducing the Hebrides, and about the
same time in an expedition with 10,000 men in aid of John, king of
Denmark. In 1507 he was sent ambassador to France, and on his return
through England was seized and imprisoned by Henry VII. After the
accession of Henry VIII., Arran, in 1509, signed the treaty of peace
between the two countries, and later, when hostilities began, was given
command of a great fleet equipped for the aid of France in 1513. The
expedition proved a failure, Arran wasting time by a useless attack on
Carrickfergus, lingering for months on the Scottish coast, and returning
with a mere remnant of his fleet, the larger ships having probably been
purchased by the French government. During his absence the battle of
Flodden had been lost, and Arran found his rival Angus, who enjoyed
Henry's support, married to the queen dowager and in control of the
government. Arran naturally turned to the French party and supported the
regency of the duke of Albany. Later, however, becoming impatient of the
latter's monopoly of power, he entered into various plots against him,
and on Albany's departure in 1517 he was chosen president of the council
of regency and provost of Edinburgh. The same year he led an expedition
to the border to punish the murderers of the French knight La Bastie. In
September, however, after a temporary absence with the young king, the
gates of Edinburgh were shut against him by the Douglases, and on the
30th of April 1520 the fierce fight of "Cleanse the Causeway" took place
in the streets between the two factions, in which the Hamiltons were
worsted. The quarrel, however, between Angus and his wife, the
queen-mother, with whom Arran now allied himself, gave the latter
another opportunity of regaining power, which he held from 1522, after
Albany's return to France, till 1524, when he was forced to include
Angus in the government. In 1526, on the refusal of the latter to give
up his control of the king on the expiry of his term of office, Arran
took up arms, but retreated before Angus's forces, and having made terms
with him, supported him in his close custody of the king, in September
defeating the earl of Lennox, who was marching to Edinburgh to liberate
James. On the proscription of Angus and the Douglases, Arran joined the
king at Stirling. He died in 1529. His eldest son James succeeded him.
JAMES HAMILTON, 2nd earl of Arran and duke of Chatelherault (c.
1515-1575), accompanied James V. in 1536 to France, and on the latter's
death in 1542 was, in consequence of his position as next successor to
the throne after the infant Mary, proclaimed protector of the realm and
heir-presumptive of the crown, in 1543. He was a zealous supporter of
the reformation, authorized the translation and reading of the
Scriptures in the vulgar tongue, and at first supported the English
policy in opposition to Cardinal Beaton, whom he arrested on the 27th of
January 1543, arranging the treaty with England and the marriage of Mary
with Prince Edward in July, and being offered by Henry the hand of the
princess Elizabeth for his son. But on the 3rd of September he suddenly
joined the French party, met Beaton at Stirling, and abjured his
religion for Roman Catholicism. On the 13th of January 1544, with Angus,
Lennox and others, he signed a bond repudiating the English alliance. In
1544 an attempt was made to transfer the regency from him to Mary of
Lorraine, but Arran fortified Edinburgh and her forces retired; in March
1545 a truce was arranged by which each had a share in the government.
Meanwhile, immediately on the repudiation of the treaty, war had broken
out with England, and Arran was unable either to maintain order within
the realm or defend it from outside aggression, the Scots being defeated
at Pinkie on the 10th of September 1547. He reluctantly agreed in July
1548 to the marriage of the dauphin with Mary, whom he had designed for
his son, to the appeal for French aid, and to the removal of Mary for
security to France, and on the 5th of February 1549 was created duke of
Chatelherault in Poitou, his eldest son James being henceforth commonly
styled earl of Arran. In June 1548 he had also been made a knight of the
order of St Michael in France. On the 12th of April 1554 he abdicated in
favour of the queen-mother, whose government he supported till after the
capture of Edinburgh in October 1559 by the lords of the congregation,
when he declared himself on their side and took the Covenant. The same
month he was one of the council of the Protestant lords, joined them in
suspending Mary of Lorraine from the regency, and was made provisionally
one of the governors of the kingdom. In order to discredit him with the
English government a letter was forged by his enemies, in which Arran
declared his allegiance to Francis II., but the plot was exposed. On the
27th of February 1560 he agreed to the treaty of Berwick with Elizabeth,
which placed Scotland under her protection. The death the same year of
Francis II. renewed his hopes of a union between his son and Mary, but
disappointment drove him into an attitude of hostility to the court. In
1562 he was accused by his son, probably already insane, of plots
against Mary's person, and he was obliged to give up Dumbarton Castle.
Lennox claimed precedence over Arran in the succession to the throne, on
the plea of the latter's supposed illegitimacy, and his restoration to
favour in 1564, together with the project of Mary's marriage with
Darnley, still further embittered Arran; he refused to appear at court,
was declared a traitor, and fled to England, where on his consent to go
into exile for five years he received a pardon from Mary. In 1566 he
went to France, where he made vain attempts to regain his confiscated
duchy. After the murder of Darnley in 1567 he was nominated by Mary on
her abdication one of the regents, and he returned to Scotland in 1569
as a strong supporter of her cause. In March in an assembly of nobles
called by Murray, he acknowledged James as king, but on the 5th of April
he was arrested for not fulfilling the compact, and continued in
confinement till April 1570. After Murray's assassination in January
1570, the regency in July was given to Lennox, and in June 1571 Arran
assembled a parliament, when it was declared that Mary's abdication was
obtained by fear, and the king's coronation was annulled. On the 28th of
August he was declared a traitor and "forfeited," but he continued to
support Mary's hopeless cause and to appeal for help to France and
Spain, in spite of the pillage of his houses and estates, till February
1573, when he acknowledged James's authority and laid down his arms. He
died on the 22nd of January 1575. He was by general consent a weak,
fickle man, whose birth alone called him to high office. He married
Margaret, daughter of James Douglas, 3rd earl of Morton, and had,
besides several daughters, four sons: James, who succeeded him as 3rd
earl of Arran, John, 1st marquess of Hamilton, David, and Claud, Lord
Paisley, ancestor of the dukes of Abercorn.
JAMES HAMILTON, 3rd earl (c. 1537-1609), was styled earl of Arran after
the creation of his father as duke of Chatelherault in 1549; the latter
title did not descend to him, having been resumed by the French crown.
His father's ambition destined him for the hand of Mary queen of Scots,
and his union with the princess Elizabeth was proposed by Henry VIII. as
the price of his father's adherence to the English interest. He was
early involved in the political troubles in which Scotland was then
immersed. In 1546 he was seized as a hostage at St Andrews by the
murderers of Cardinal Beaton and released in 1547. In 1550 he went to
France, was given the command of the Scots guards, and in 1557
distinguished himself in the defence of St Quentin. He became a strong
adherent of the reformed doctrine. His arrest was ordered by Henry II.
in 1559, Mary (probably in consequence of his projected union with
Elizabeth which would have raised the Hamiltons higher than the Stuarts)
declaring her wish that he should be "used as an arrant traitor." He,
however, escaped to Geneva and then to England, and had an interview
with Elizabeth in August. He returned to Scotland in September, where he
supported his father's adherence to the lords of the Congregation
against Mary of Lorraine, upheld the alliance with Elizabeth, and became
one of the leaders of the Protestant party in the subsequent fighting,
in particular organizing, together with Lord James Stuart (afterwards
earl of Murray), in 1560, a stubborn resistance to the French at Dysart,
and saving Fife. In November 1559 he had declined Bothwell's challenge
to single combat. Subsequently he signed the treaty of Berwick, became
one of the lords of the Congregation, and was appointed a visitor for
the destruction of the religious houses. The same year proposals were
again made for his marriage with Elizabeth, which were rejected by the
latter in 1561; and subsequently after the death of Francis II. (in
December 1560), he became, with the strong support of the Protestants
and Hamiltons, a suitor for Mary, also without success. He was chosen a
member of her council on her arrival in Scotland in 1561, but took up a
hostile attitude to the court in consequence of the practice of the
Roman Catholic religion. He now showed marked signs of insanity, and was
confined in Edinburgh Castle, where he remained till May 1566. He had
then lost the power of speech, and from 1568 he lived in retirement with
his mother at Craignethan Castle, while his estates were administered by
his brother John, afterwards 1st marquess of Hamilton. In 1579, at the
time of the fresh prosecution of the Hamiltons, when the helpless Arran
was also included in the attainder of his brothers and his titles
forfeited, the castle was besieged on the pretence of delivering him
from unlawful confinement, and Arran and his mother were brought to
Linlithgow, while the charge of his estates was taken over by the
government. In 1580 James Stewart (see below) was appointed his
guardian, and in 1581 acquired the earldom; but his title and estates
were restored after Stewart's disgrace in 1586, when the forfeiture was
repealed. Arran died unmarried in March 1609, the title devolving on his
nephew James, 2nd marquess of Hamilton.
JAMES STEWART (d. 1595), the rival earl of Arran above referred to, was
the son of Andrew Stewart, 2nd Lord Ochiltree. He served in his youth
with the Dutch forces in Holland against the Spanish, and returned to
Scotland in 1579. He immediately became a favourite of the young king,
and in 1580 was made gentleman of the bedchamber and tutor of his
cousin, the 3rd earl of Arran. The same year he was the principal
accuser of the earl of Morton, and in 1581 was rewarded for having
accomplished the latter's destruction by being appointed a member of the
privy council, and by the grant the same year, to the prejudice of his
ward, of the earldom of Arran and the Hamilton estates, on the pretence
that the children of his grandmother's father, the 1st earl of Arran, by
his third wife, from whom sprang the succeeding earls of Arran, were
illegitimate. He claimed the position of second person in the kingdom as
nearest to the king by descent. The same year he married Elizabeth,
daughter of John Stewart, earl of Atholl, and wife of the earl of March,
after both had been compelled to undergo the discipline of the kirk on
account of previous illicit intercourse. He became the rival of Lennox
for the chief power in the kingdom, but both were deprived of office by
the raid of Ruthven on the 22nd of August 1582, and Arran was imprisoned
till September under the charge of the earl of Gowrie. In 1583, however,
he assembled a force of 12,000 men against the new government; the
Protestant lords escaped over the border, and Arran, returning to power,
was made governor of Stirling Castle and in 1584 lord chancellor. The
same year Gowrie was captured through Arran's treachery and executed
after the failure of the plot of the Protestant lords against the
latter's government. He now obtained the governorship of Edinburgh
Castle and was made provost of the city and lieutenant-general of the
king's forces. Arran induced the English government to refrain from
aiding the banished lords, and further secured his power by the
forfeitures of his opponents. His tyranny and insolence, however,
stirred up a multitude of enemies and caused his rapid fall from power.
His agent in England, Patrick, Master of Gray, was secretly conspiring
against him at Elizabeth's court. On account of the murder of Lord
Russell on the border in July 1585, of which he was accused by
Elizabeth, he was imprisoned at the castle of St Andrews, and
subsequently the banished lords with Elizabeth's support entered
Scotland, seized the government and proclaimed Arran a traitor. He fled
in November, and from this time his movements are furtive and uncertain.
In 1586 he was ordered to leave the country, but it is doubtful whether
he ever quitted Scotland. He contrived secretly to maintain friendly
communications with James, and in 1592 returned to Edinburgh, and
endeavoured unsuccessfully to get reinstated in the court and kirk.
Subsequently he is reported as making a voyage to Spain, probably in
connexion with James's intrigues with that country. His unscrupulous and
adventurous career was finally terminated towards the close of 1595 by
his assassination near Symontown in Lanarkshire at the hands of Sir
James Douglas (nephew of his victim the earl of Morton), who carried his
head in triumph on the point of a spear through the country, while his
body was left a prey to the dogs and swine. He had three sons, the
eldest of whom became Lord Ochiltree.
ARRAN, the largest island of the county of Bute, Scotland, at the mouth
of the Firth of Clyde. Its greatest length, from the Cock of Arran to
Bennan Head, is about 20 m., and the greatest breadth--from Drumadoon
Point to King's Cross Point--is 11 m. Its area is 105,814 acres or 165
sq. m. In 1891 its population was 4824, in 1901, 4819 (or 29 persons to
the sq. m.). In 1901 there were 1900 persons who spoke English and
Gaelic and nine Gaelic only. There is daily winter communication with
Brodick and Lamlash by steamer from Ardrossan, and in summer by many
steamers which call not only at these piers, but at Corrie, Whiting Bay
and Loch Ranza.
The chief mountains are in the north. The highest is Goatfell (2866 ft.,
the name said to be a corruption of the Gaelic _Goadh Bhein_, "mountain
of the winds"). Others are Caistel Abhail (2735 ft., "peaks of the
castles"), Beinn Tarsuinn (2706 ft.), Cir Mhor (2618 ft.) and Beinn Nuis
(2597 ft.). In the south Tighvein (1497 ft.) and Cnoc Dubh (1385 ft.)
are the most important. Owing to the mountainous character of the
island, glens are numerous. Glen Rosa and Glen Sannox are remarkable for
their wild beauty, and among others are Iorsa, Catacol, Chalmadale,
Cloy, Shant, Shurig, Tuie, Clachan, Monamore, Ashdale (with two
cascades) and Scorrodale. Excepting Loch Tanna, the inland lakes are
small. Loch Ranza, an arm of the sea, is one of the most beautiful in
Scotland. The streams, or "waters" as they are called, are nearly all
hill burns, affording good fishing.
The oldest rocks, consisting of slate, mica-schists and grits, which
have been correlated with the metamorphic series of the eastern
Highlands, form an incomplete ring round the granite in the north of the
island and occupy the whole of the west coast from Loch Ranza south to
Dougrie. On the east side in North Glen Sannox Burn, they are associated
with cherts, grits and dark schists with pillowy lavas, tuffs and
agglomerates which, on lithological grounds, have been regarded as
probably of the same age as the Arenig cherts and volcanic rocks in the
south of Scotland. The Lower Old Red Sandstone strata are separated from
the foregoing series by a fault and forma curving belt extending from
Corloch on the east coast south by Brodick Castle to Dougrie on the west
shore. Consisting of red sandstones, mudstones and conglomerates, they
are inclined at high angles usually away from the granite massif and the
encircling metamorphic rocks. They are associated with a thin band of
lava visible on the west side of the island near Auchencar and traceable
inland to Garbh Thorr. The Upper Old Red Sandstone, composed of red
sandstone and conglomerates, is only sparingly developed. The strata
occur on the east shore between the Fallen Rocks and Corrie, and they
appear along a narrow strip to the east and south of the lower division
of the system, between Sannox Bay and Dougrie. On the north side of
North Glen Sannox they rest unconformably on the Lower Old Red rocks.
Contemporaneous lavas, highly decomposed, are intercalated with this
division on the north side of North Glen Sannox where the band is highly
faulted. The Carboniferous rocks of Arran include representatives of the
Calciferous Sandstone, the three subdivisions of the Carboniferous
Limestone series, and to a small extent the Coal Measures, and are
confined to the north part of the island. They appear on the east coast
between the Fallen Rocks and the Cock of Arran, where they form a strip
about a quarter of a mile broad, bounded on the west by a fault. Here
there is an ascending sequence from the Calciferous Sandstone, through
the Carboniferous Limestone with thin coals formerly worked, to the Coal
Measures, the strata being inclined at high angles to the north. On the
south side of a well-marked anticline in the Upper Old Red Sandstone at
North Sannox, the Carboniferous strata reappear on the coast with a
south dip showing a similar ascending sequence for about half a mile.
The lower limestones are well seen at Corrie, but the thin coals are not
there represented. From Corrie they can be traced southwards and inland
to near the head of Ben Lister Glen. The small development of Upper
Carboniferous strata, visible on the shore south of Corrie and in Ben
Lister Glen, consists of sandstones, red and mottled clays and purple
shales, which yield plant-remains of Upper Carboniferous facies. These
may represent partly the Millstone Grit and partly the Coal Measures.
Contemporaneous volcanic rocks, belonging to three stages of the
Carboniferous formation, occur in Arran. The lowest group is on the
horizon of the Calciferous Sandstone series, being visible at Corrie
where it underlies the Corrie limestone, and is traceable southwards
beyond Brodick. The second is represented by a thin lava, associated
with the Upper Limestone group of the Carboniferous Limestone series,
and the highest is found in Ben Lister Glen intercalated with the Upper
Carboniferous strata, and may be the equivalent of the volcanic series
which, in Ayrshire, occupies the position of the Millstone Grit. The
Triassic rocks are arranged in two groups, a lower, composed of
conglomerates and sandstones, and an upper one consisting of red and
mottled shales and marls with thin sandstones and nodular limestones. In
the extreme north at the Cock of Arran, there is a small development of
these beds; they also occupy the whole of the east coast south of
Corrie, and they spread over the south part of the island south of a
line between Brodick Bay and Machrie Bay on the west. At Corrie and the
Cock of Arran they rest on Upper Carboniferous strata; in Ben Lister
Glen, on the lower limestone group of the Carboniferous Limestone
series; and on the west coast they repose on the Old Red Sandstone.
There is, therefore, a clear discordance between the Trias and all older
strata in Arran. The former extension of Rhaetic, Liassic and Cretaceous
formations in the island is indicated by the presence of fragments of
these strata in a large volcanic vent on the plateau, on the south side
of the road leading from Brodick to Shiskine. The fossils from the
Rhaetic beds belong to the _Avicula contorta_ zone, those from the Lias
to the _Ammonites angulatus_ zone, while the blocks of limestone with
chert contain _Inoceramus_, Cretaceous foraminifera and other organisms.
The materials yielding these fossils are embedded in a course volcanic
agglomerate which gives rise to crags and is pierced by acid and basic
igneous rocks. One of the striking features in the geology of Arran is
the remarkable series of intrusive igneous rocks of Tertiary age which
occupy nearly one-half of the area and form the wildest and grandest
scenery in the island. Of these the most important is the great oval
mass of granite in the North, composed of two varieties; one,
coarse-grained and older, forms the outside rim, while the fine-grained
and newer type occurs in the interior. Another granite area appears on
the south side of the road between Brodick and Shiskine, where it is
associated with granophyre and quartz-diorite and traverses the volcanic
vent of post-Cretaceous or Tertiary age already described. In the south
of the island there are sills and dykes of felsite, quartz-porphyry,
rhyolite, trachyte and pitchstone. The felsite sheets are well
represented in Holy Island. It is worthy of note that the dykes and
sheets of felsite are seldom pierced by the basalt dykes and are
probably about the most recent of the intrusive rocks. The best example
of the basic sills forms the Clauchland Hills and runs out to sea at
Clauchland Point. Finally the basic dykes of dolerite, basalt and
augite-andesite are abundant and traverse the various sedimentary
formations and the granite.
The chief crops are oats and potatoes. Cattle and sheep are raised in
considerable numbers. The game, which is abundant, consisting of
blackcock and grouse, is strictly preserved. A few red deer still occur
in the wilder hilly district. The fisheries are of some value. Loch
Ranza being an important station.
Standing stones, cairns and other memorials of a remote antiquity occur
near Tormore, on Machrie Bay, Lamlash, and other places. The Norse
raiders found a home in Arran for a long period until the defeat of
Haakon V. at Largs (1263) compelled them to retire. The chief name in
the island's history is that of Robert Bruce, who found shelter in the
King's Caves on the western coast. One was reputed to be his kitchen,
another his cellar, a third his stable, while the hill above was styled
the King's Hill. From a point still known as King's Cross he crossed
over to Carrick, in answer to the signal which warned him that the
moment for the supreme effort for his country was come. In Glen Cloy the
ruins of a fort bear the name of Bruce's Castle, in which his men lay
concealed, and on the southern arm of Loch Ranza stands a picturesque
ruined castle which is said to have been his hunting-seat. Kildonan
Castle, near the south-easternmost point, is a fine ruin of the 14th
century, once a royal stronghold. The island gave the title of earl to
Thomas Boyd, who married the elder sister of James III., a step so
unpopular with his peers that he had to fly the country, and the title
soon afterwards passed to the Hamiltons. Brodick Castle, the ancestral
seat of the dukes of Hamilton, is a splendid mansion on the northern
shore of Brodick Bay.
Brodick is the chief village in Arran, but most of the dwelling-houses
have been built at Invercloy, close to the pier. Three m. south (by
road) is Lamlash, on a fine bay so completely sheltered by Holy Island
as to form an excellent harbour for ships of all sizes. Four m. to the
north lies the village of Corrie which takes its name from a rugged
hollow in the hill of Am Binnein (2172 ft.) which overshadows it. Daniel
Macmillan (1813-1857), the founder of the publishing firm of Macmillan &
Co., was a native of Corrie.
About a mile and a half east of Lamlash village lies Holy Island, which
forms a natural breakwater to the bay. It is 1-3/4 m. long, nearly 3/4
m. wide, and its finely-marked basaltic cone rises to a height of 1030
ft. The island takes its name from the fact that St Molios, a disciple
of St Columba, founded a church near the north-western point. In the
saint's cave on the shore may be seen the rocky shelf on which he made
his bed, but his remains were interred in the hamlet of Clachan, some 2
m. from Blackwaterfoot. Off the south-eastern coast, 3/4 m. from Port
Dearg, lies the pear-shaped isle of Pladda, which serves as the
telegraph station from which the arrival of vessels in the Clyde is
notified to Glasgow and Greenock.
ARRANT (a variant of "errant," from Lat. _errare_, to wander), a word at
first used in its original meaning of wandering, as in "knight-errant,"
thus an arrant or itinerant preacher, an arrant thief, one outlawed and
wandering at large; the meaning easily passed to that of self-declared,
notorious, and by the middle of the 16th century was confined, as an
intensive adjective, to words of opprobrium and abuse, an arrant coward
meaning thus a self-declared, downright coward.
ARRAS, a city of northern France, chief town of the department of
Pas-de-Calais, 38 m. N.N.E. of Amiens on the Northern railway between
that city and Lille. Pop (1906) 20,738. Arras is situated in a fertile
plain on the right and southern bank of the Scarpe, at its junction with
the Crinchon which skirts the town on the south and east. Of the
fortifications erected by Vauban in the 17th century, only a gateway and
the partially dismantled citadel, nicknamed _la Belle Inutile_, are
left. The most interesting quarter lies in the east of the town, where
the lofty houses which border the spacious squares known as the Grande
and the Petite Place are in the Flemish style. They are built with their
upper storeys projecting over the footway and supported on columns so as
to form arcades; beneath these are deep cellars extending under the
squares themselves. The celebrated hotel de ville of the 16th century
overlooks the Petite Place; its belfry, which contains a fine peal of
bells, rises to a height of 240 ft. The decoration is in the richest
Gothic style, and is especially admirable in the case of the windows. Of
the numerous ecclesiastical buildings the cathedral, a church of the
18th century possessing some good pictures, is the most important. It
occupies the site of the church of the abbey of St Vaast, the buildings
of which adjoin it and contain the bishop's palace, the ecclesiastical
seminary, a museum of antiquities, paintings and sculptures, and a rich
library.
Arras is the seat of a prefect and of a bishop. It has tribunals of
first instance and of commerce, a chamber of commerce, a branch of the
Bank of France, a communal college, training colleges, and a school of
military engineering. Its industrial establishments include oil-works,
dye-works and breweries, and manufactories of hosiery, railings and
other iron-work, and of oil-cake. For the tapestry manufacture formerly
flourishing at Arras see TAPESTRY. It has a very important market for
cereals and oleaginous grains. The trade of the town is facilitated by
the canalization of the Scarpe, the basin of which forms the port.
Before the opening of the Christian era Arras was known as _Nemetacum_,
or _Nemetocenna_, and was the chief town of the Atrebates, from which
the word Arras is derived. Passing under the rule of the Romans, it
became a place of some importance, and traces of the Roman occupation
have been found. In 407 it was destroyed by the Vandals, and having been
partially rebuilt, came into the hands of the Franks. Christianity was
introduced by St Vedast (Vaast), who founded a bishopric at Arras about
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