Aaron Burr
(1756–1836)US Democratic Republican statesman. After losing the presidential election to Jefferson in 1800, Burr was elected Vice-President. He was defeated in the contest for the governorship of New ...
abacus
An ancient device for performing arithmetic calculations by sliding beads along rods or in grooves. Despite the spread of electronic calculators and computers, the abacus is still widely used in the ...
Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens
Abbotsbury, Dorset, England, owe their special atmosphere to a remarkable microclimate. The garden is very close to the sea, which in this part of the coast is very deep and ...
abduction
An inference process widely used in artificial intelligence, particularly in expert systems and rule-based systems. In diagnosis, for example, there may be a rule like “if measles then red spots” so ...
Aberglasney
Llangathen, Carmarthenshire, Wales, has an ancient and mysterious history. In the 15th century it was probably the home of Rhydderch ap Rhys whose fame was sung by the 15th-century bard ...
Abkhazi Garden
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, is a rare Canadian private garden open to the public. Prince Nicholas (1899–1987) and Princess Peggy Abkhazi (1902–94) lost each other in prison camps during the ...
Abondance
Abondance (also called tomme d'Abondance) is a firm cheese produced in Savoie, in southeastern France. It is made from milk of the Abondance breed of cattle—whence its name.
abortion
There is no actual prohibition in the Bible against aborting a foetus. Nevertheless, in the unanimously accepted Jewish consensus, abortion is a very serious offence, though foeticide is not treated ...
Abraham Lincoln
(1809–65)US Republican statesman, 16th President of the USA (1861–65). His election as President on an anti‐slavery platform antipathetic to the interests of the southern states helped precipitate ...
absinthe
A green aniseed-flavoured liqueur, originally flavoured with wormwood, although this is now banned owing to its toxicity; in the 19th and early 20th centuries drinking absinthe was regarded as a sign ...
academies
Are societies or institutions for the cultivation and promotion of literature, the arts or science, or of some particular branch of science such as medicine, for example, the Académie de ...
Acanthus
(family Acanthaceae)A genus of shrubs and perennial herbs, most of which are xeromorphic and have spiny leaves. Some species are cultivated as ornamentals. The upper lip of the corolla is lacking. ...
Acelain Ranch
Buenos Aires province, Argentina, has an area of 12,000 hectares/29,654 acres of which the designed landscape amounts to 700 hectares/1,730 acres. Today it is a tourist ranch with game hunting ...
Achabal
Anantnag (Islamabad), Kashmir, lies to the south-east of Srinagar, where the Vale of Kashmir dies out against the mountains. The site is that of an ancient spring, Akshavala, which pours ...
acid drops
Boiled sweets with sharp flavour from tartaric acid (originally called acidulated drops); known as sourballs in the USA.
Acosta, Carmen de la Fundación Rodríguez
Granada, Andalusia, Spain, a rare art deco house and garden created by the artist José Rodríguez Acosta (d. 1941) between 1914 and 1920. The site, on the precipitous slopes of ...
acrostic
A poem, word puzzle, or other composition in which certain letters in each line form a word or words. The word is recorded from the late 16th century, and comes via French from Greek akrostikhis, ...
Adelsnäs
Östergötland, Sweden, on an isthmus in Lake Bysjön, mentioned from the 16th century, became the country's only baroni (barony) established in 1783 by King Gustav III. From 1764 it was ...
Adolf Vetter
(1815–91), Austrian garden inspector in Vienna, a descendant of a German gardening family, director of the gardens of the Count Harrach in Bruck an der Leitha (Austria) from 1855.Due ...
adoption
In the heroic monomyth, the divine child is often adopted by menials or animals after being abandoned or threatened in some way. Oedipus, Sigurd (Siegfried), Krishna, Cybele, and Romulus and Remus ...
