[Shittim 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.
[Shoeburyness], a town in Essex, 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.
[Shore, 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.
[Shoreditch] (120), parliamentary borough of East London; returns two members to Parliament; manufactures furniture, boot and shoes, beer, etc.
[Shoreham, 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 assistance 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).