CLEITOR, or Clitor, a town of ancient Greece, in that part of Arcadia which corresponds to the modern eparchy of Kalavryta in the nomos of Elis and Achaea. It stood in a fertile plain to the south of Mt Chelmos, the highest peak of the Aroanian Mountains, and not far from a stream of its own name, which joined the Aroanius, or Katzana. In the neighbourhood was a fountain, the waters of which were said to deprive those who drank them of the taste for wine. The town was a place of considerable importance in Arcadia, and its inhabitants were noted for their love of liberty. It extended its territory over several neighbouring towns, and in the Theban war fought against Orchomenus. It joined the other Arcadian cities in the foundation of Megalopolis. As a member of the Achaean league it was besieged by the Aetolians in 220 B.C., and was on several occasions the seat of the federal assemblies. It coined money up to the time of Septimius Severus. The ruins, which bear the common name of Paleopoli, or Old City, are still to be seen about 3 m. from a village that preserves the ancient designation. The greater part of the walls which enclose an area of about a mile and several of the semi-circular towers with which they were strengthened can be clearly made out; and there are also remains of three Doric temples and a small theatre.
CLELAND, WILLIAM (1661?-1689), Scottish poet and soldier, son of Thomas Cleland, gamekeeper to the marquis of Douglas, was born about 1661. He was probably brought up on the marquess of Douglas’s estate in Lanarkshire, and was educated at St Andrews University. Immediately on leaving college he joined the army of the Covenanters, and was present at Drumclog, where, says Robert Wodrow, some attributed to Cleland the manœuvre which led to the victory. He also fought at Bothwell Bridge. He and his brother James were described in a royal proclamation of the 16th of June 1679 among the leaders of the insurgents. He escaped to Holland, but in 1685 was again in Scotland in connexion with the abortive invasion of the earl of Argyll. He escaped once more, to return in 1688 as agent for William of Orange. He was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Cameronian regiment raised from the minority of the western Covenanters who consented to serve under William III. The Cameronians were entrusted with the defence of Dunkeld, which they held against the fierce assault of the Highlanders on the 26th of August. The repulse of the Highlanders before Dunkeld ended the Jacobite rising, but Cleland fell in the struggle. He wrote A Collection of several Poems and Verses composed upon various occasions (published posthumously, 1697). Of “Hullo, my fancie, whither wilt thou go?” only the last nine stanzas are by Cleland. His poems have small literary merit, and are written, not in pure Lowland Scots, but in English with a large admixture of Scottish words. The longest and most important of them are the “mock poems” “On the Expedition of the Highland Host who came to destroy the western shires in winter 1678” and “On the clergie when they met to consult about taking the Test in the year 1681.”
An Exact Narrative of the Conflict of Dunkeld ... collected from several officers of the regiment ... appeared in 1689.
CLEMATIS, in botany, a genus of the natural order Ranunculaceae, containing nearly two hundred species, and widely distributed. It is represented in England by Clematis Vitalba, “old man’s beard” or “traveller’s joy,” a common plant on chalky or light soil. The plants are shrubby climbers with generally compound opposite leaves, the stalk of which is sensitive to contact like a tendril, becoming twisted round suitable objects and thereby giving support to the plant. The flowers are arranged in axillary or terminal clusters; they have no petals, but white or coloured, often very large sepals, and an indefinite number of stamens and carpels. They contain no honey, and are visited by insects for the sake of the pollen, which is plentiful. The fruit is a head of achenes, each bearing the long-bearded persistent style, suggesting the popular name. This feathery style is an important agent in the distribution of the seed by means of the wind. Several of the species, especially the large-flowered ones, are favourite garden plants, well adapted for covering trellises or walls, or trailing over the ground. Many garden forms have been produced by hybridization; among the best known is C. Jackmanni, due to Mr George Jackman of Woking.
Further information may be obtained from The Clematis as a Garden Flower, by Thos. Moore and George Jackman. See also G. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, i. (1885) and Supplements.
CLEMENCEAU, GEORGES (1841- ), French statesman, was born at Mouilleron-en-Pareds, Vendée, on the 28th of September 1841. Having adopted medicine as his profession, he settled in 1869 in Montmartre; and after the revolution of 1870 he had become sufficiently well known to be nominated mayor of the 18th arrondissement of Paris (Montmartre)—an unruly district over which it was a difficult task to preside. On the 8th of February 1871 he was elected as a Radical to the National Assembly for the department of the Seine, and voted against the peace preliminaries. The execution, or rather murder, of Generals Lecomte and Clément Thomas by the communists on 18th March, which he vainly tried to prevent, brought him into collision with the central committee sitting at the hôtel de ville, and they ordered his arrest, but he escaped; he was accused, however, by various witnesses, at the subsequent trial of the murderers (November 29th), of not having intervened when he might have done, and though he was cleared of this charge it led to a duel, for his share in which he was prosecuted and sentenced to a fine and a fortnight’s imprisonment.