SHERMAN, WILLIAM TEc.u.mSEH, a distinguished American general, born, the son of a judge, in Lancaster, Ohio; first saw service as a lieutenant of artillery in the Indian frontier wars in Florida and California; resigned from the army in 1853, and set up as a banker in San Francisco, but at the outbreak of the Civil War accepted a colonelcy in the Federalist ranks; distinguished himself at the battles of Bull Run (1861) and Shiloh (1862); received promotion, and as second in command to Grant rendered valuable service in reducing Vicksburg and Memphis; was present at the victory of Chattanooga, and during 1864 entered into command of the SW.; captured the stronghold of Atlanta, and after a famous march seaward with 65,000 men took Savannah, which he followed up with a series of victories in the Carolinas, receiving, on 26th April 1865, the surrender of General Johnston, which brought the war to a close; was created general and commander-in-chief of the army in 1869, a position he held till 1869; published memoirs of his military life (1820-1891).

SHERWOOD FOREST, once an extensive forest, the scene of Robin Hood's exploits, in Nottinghamshire, stretching some 25 m. between Worksop and Nottingham, but now a hilly, disafforested tract occupied by country houses and private parks, several villages, and the town of Mansfield.

SHETLAND or ZETLAND (29), a group of over 100 islands, islets, and skerries, of which 29 are inhabited, forming the northernmost county of Scotland, lying out in the Atlantic, NNE. of the Orkneys; Mainland (378 sq. m.), Fell, and Unst are the largest; the coast-line is boldly precipitous and indented, while the scenery all over the island is very grand; the soil is peaty, ill adapted to cultivation, but there is considerable rearing of stock, and the little s.h.a.ggy pony is well known; fishing is the chief industry, herring, cod, ling, &c. LERWICK (q. v.) is the capital.

SHIBBOLETH, a word by which the Gileadites distinguished an Ephraimite from his inability to sound the _sh_ in the word, and so discovered whether he was friend or foe; hence it has come to denote a party cry or watchword.

SHIELDS, NORTH, a flourishing seaport of Northumberland, on the Tyne, near the mouth, 8 m. NE. of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and lying within the munic.i.p.al borough of Tynemouth (47); is of quite modern growth, and of a plain, uninteresting appearance; has a theatre, free library, Mariners' Home, fine park, &c.; the docks cover 79 acres, and a large export trade in coal is carried on.

SHIELDS, SOUTH (78), a busy seaport and popular watering-place in Durham, with a frontage of 2 m. on the south bank of the Tyne, 9 m. NE.

of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a place of residence from ancient times, with Roman remains, &c.; has a theatre, public library, marine school, two fine parks with central parade, 50 acres of docks, &c.; exports immense quant.i.ties of coal and c.o.ke.

SHIITES, a sect of the Mohammedans, who reject the "SUNNA"

(q. v.) and championed the claims of Ali Mahommed's cousin and son-in-law to succeed to the Caliphate, and maintain the divine right of his descendants to represent the prophet in the Mohammedan Church. The Persians belong to this sect.

SHIKARPUR (42), capital of a district (853) in N. Sind, India, situated on rich alluvial ground, 18 m. W. of the Indus, and 330 m. N. of Karachi; since the opening of the Indus Valley Railway it has lost much of its importance as a commercial entrepot between India and Khora.s.san; vicinity produces excellent grain crops, and carpets, cottons, &c., are manufactured in the town.

SHILOH, a village 20 m. N. of Jerusalem, sacred as the site of the resting-place of the Tabernacle on the settlement of the Jews in the land of promise. Is a name also of the Messiah.

SHINAR, the vast alluvial plain extending along the Tagus and Euphrates, forming the country of Chaldea and Babylonia.

SHINTOISM, the native religion of j.a.pan; a system of ancestor worship chiefly, combined with which is a religious homage paid to the Mikado.

SHIP-MONEY, a tax levied by Charles I. at the suggestion of Noy, the Attorney-General, who based its imposition on an old war-tax leviable on port-towns to furnish a navy in times of danger, and which Charles imposed in a time of peace without consent of Parliament, and upon inland as well as port-towns, provoking thereby wide-spread dissatisfaction, and Hampden's refusal to pay, which with the trial and decision in favour of Charles contributed to bring about the Civil War, which cost Charles his life; was declared illegal by the Long Parliament in 1640.

SHIPTON, MOTHER, a prophetess of English legend, whose preternatural knowledge revealed in her prophecies, published after her death, was ascribed to an alliance with the devil, by whom it was said she became the mother of an ugly impish child.

SHIRAZ (30), a celebrated city of Persia, occupying a charming site on an elevated plain, 165 m. NE. of Bushire; founded in the 8th century; was for long a centre of Persian culture, and a favourite resort of the royal princes; its beauties are celebrated in the poems of Hafiz and Sadi, natives of the place; has been thrice wrecked by earthquakes, and presents now a somewhat dilapidated appearance.

SHIRe, a river of East Africa, flows out of Lake Nya.s.sa, and pa.s.ses in a southerly course through the Shire Highlands, a distance of 370 m., till it joins the Zambesi; discovered by Livingstone.

SHIRLEY, JAMES, dramatist, born in London, educated at Oxford and Cambridge; entered the Church, but turning Catholic resigned, and after trying teaching established himself in London as a play-writer; wrote with great facility, producing upwards of thirty plays before the suppression of theatres in 1642; fell back on teaching as a means of livelihood, and with a temporary revival of his plays after the Restoration eked out a scanty income till fear and exposure during the Great Fire brought himself and his wife on the same day to a common grave; of his plays mention may be made of "The Witty Fair One," "The Wedding," "The Lady of Pleasure," "The Traitor," etc. (1596-1666).

SHISHAK, the name of several monarchs of Egypt of the twenty-second dynasty, the first of whom united nearly all Egypt under one government, invaded Judea and plundered the Temple of Jerusalem about 962 B.C.

s.h.i.tTIM WOOD, a hard, close-grained acacia wood of an orange-brown colour found in the Arabian Desert, and employed in constructing the Jewish Tabernacle.

SHOA (1,500), the southmost division of ABYSSINIA (q. v.); was an independent country till its conquest by Theodore of Abyssinia in 1855; is traversed by the Blue Nile, and has a mixed population of Gallas and Abyssinians.

SHODDY, a stuff woven of old woollen fabrics teased into fibre and of new wool intermixed.

s...o...b..RYNESS, a town in Ess.e.x, near Southend, a stretch of moorland utilised by the Government for gunnery practice.

SHOLAPUR (61), chief town in the Presidency of Bombay, in a district (750) of the name, 283 m. E. of Bombay; has cotton and silk manufactures.

Sh.o.r.e, JANE, the celebrated mistress of Edward IV.; was the young wife of a respected London goldsmith till she was taken up by the king, through whom, till the close of the reign, she exercised great power, "never abusing it to any man's hurt, but to many a man's comfort and relief"; was ill-treated and persecuted by Richard III. for political purposes; subsequently lived under the patronage of Lord Hastings, and afterwards of the Marquis of Dorset, surviving till 1527; the story of her life has been made the subject of many ballads, plays, etc.

Sh.o.r.eDITCH (120), parliamentary borough of East London; returns two members to Parliament; manufactures furniture, boot and shoes, beer, etc.

Sh.o.r.eHAM, NEW, a seaport 6 m. W. of Brighton; has oyster and other fisheries, and shipbuilding yards.

SHORTHOUSE, JOSEPH HENRY, author of "John Inglesant," born in Birmingham; wrote also "Sir Percival" and "Little Schoolmaster Mark,"

etc.; is remarkable for his refined style of writing, latterly too much so; his first work, "John Inglesant," published in 1881, is his best; _b_. 1834.

SHOVEL, SIR CLOUDESLEY, a celebrated English admiral, born at Clay, in Norfolk; was apprenticed to a cobbler, but ran away to sea, and rose from grade to grade till in 1674 we find him a lieutenant in the Mediterranean fleet; was knighted in 1689 for his gallantry as commander of a ship in the battle of Bantry Bay, and in the following year as rear-admiral was prominent at the engagement off Beachy Head; in 1692 gave heroic a.s.sistance to Admiral Russell at La Hogue, and in 1702 to Rooke at Malaga; elevated to the commandership of the English fleets he in 1705 captured Barcelona, but on his way home from an unsuccessful attack upon Toulon was wrecked on the Scilly Isles and drowned (1650-1707).

SHREWSBURY (27), county town of Shropshire, situated on a small peninsula formed by a horse-shoe bend of the Severn, 42 m. W. by N. of Birmingham; three fine bridges span the river here, connecting it with several extensive suburbs; a picturesque old place with winding streets and quaint timber dwelling-houses, a Norman castle, abbey church, ruined walls, etc. The public school, founded by Edward VI., ranks amongst the best in England; figures often in history as a place where Parliament met in 1397-98, and in 1403 gave its name to the battle which resulted in the defeat of Hotspur and the Earl of Douglas by Henry IV.; it was taken by the Parliamentarians in 1644; chief industries are gla.s.s-painting, malting, and iron-founding.

SHROPSHIRE or SALOP (236), an agricultural and mining county of England, on the Welsh border, facing Montgomery chiefly, between Cheshire (N.) and Hereford (S.); is divided into two fairly equal portions by the Severn, E. and N. of which is low, level, and fertile, excepting the Wrekin (1320 ft.), while on the SW. it is hilly (Clee Hills, 1805 ft.); Ellesmere is the largest of several lakes; Coalbrookdale is the centre of a rich coal district, and iron and lead are also found. Shrewsbury is the capital; it consists of four Parliamentary divisions.

SHROVETIDE, confession-time, especially the days immediately before Lent, when, in Catholic times, the people confessed their sins to the parish priest and afterwards gave themselves up to sports, and dined on pancakes, Shrove Tuesday being Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, or the first day of Lent.

SHUMLA or SHUMNA (24), a fortified city of Bulgaria, 80 m. SE.

of Rustchuk; has an a.r.s.enal, barracks, etc., is an important strategical centre between the Lower Danube and the East Balkans.

SHYLOCK, the Jew in Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice."