[A`von], the name of several English rivers, such as Shakespeare's in Warwickshire, of Salisbury in Wiltshire, and of Bristol, rising in Wiltshire.
[Avranches`] (7), a town in dep. of Manche, Normandy; the place, the spot marked by a stone, where Henry II. received absolution for the murder of Thomas à Becket; lace-making the staple industry, and trade in agricultural products.
[Awe, Loch], in the centre of Argyllshire, overshadowed by mountains, 25 m. in length, the second in size of Scottish lakes, studded with islands, one with the ruin of a castle; the scenery gloomily picturesque; its surface is 100 ft. above the sea-level.
[Axel], archbishop of Lund; born in Zealand; a Danish patriot with Norse blood; subdued tribes of Wends, and compelled them to adopt Christianity.
[Axholme, Isle of], a tract of land in NW. Lincolnshire, 17 m. long and 5 m. broad; once a forest, then a marsh; drained in 1632, and now fertile, producing hemp, flax, rape, &c.
[Axim], a trading settlement on the Gold Coast, Africa, belonging to Britain; belonged to Holland till 1871.
[Ax`olotl], a batrachian, numerous in Mexico and the Western States, believed to be in its preliminary or tadpole state of existence.
[Ax`um], capital of an Ethiopian kingdom in Abyssinia, now in ruins, where Christianity was introduced in the 4th century, and which as the outpost of Christendom fell early before the Mohammedan power.
[Ayacu`cho], a thriving town in Peru, founded by Pizarro in 1539, where the Peruvians and Colombians achieved their independence of Spain in 1824, and ended the rule of Spain in the S. American continent.
[Aya`la, Pedro Lopez d'], a Spanish soldier, statesman, and diplomatist, born in Murcia; wrote a "History of the Kings of Castile," which was more than a chronicle of wars, being also a review of them; and a book of poems entitled the "Rhymes of the Court" (1332-1407).