grateful monarch he was appointed one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber, and private secretary to the queen, receiving also the honour of knighthood. At a later period of his life he was secretary to Henrietta Maria, queen of Charles I. His poems are few in number, but are distinguished by elegance of diction. Several of his Latin poems are preserved in the work called Delitiæ Poetarum Scotorum, published at Amsterdam in 1637 at the expense of Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet.
Aytoun, William Edmonstoune, poet and prose writer, born at Edinburgh in 1813, died at Blackhills, Elgin, 1865. He studied at the University of Edinburgh, became a writer to the signet in 1835, and passed as advocate in 1840. He issued a volume of poems in 1832, by 1836 was a contributor to Blackwood's Magazine, and in 1840 he published the Life and Times of Richard 1. In 1848 he published a collection of ballads entitled Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers, which has proved the most popular of all his works. It was followed in 1854 by Firmilian, a Spasmodic Tragedy (intended to ridicule certain popular writers); the Bon Gaultier Ballads (parodies and other humorous pieces, in conjunction with Theodore Martin), 1855; in 1856 the poem Bothwell; and in subsequent years by Norman Sinclair, The Glenmutchkin Railway, and other stories. In 1858 he edited a critical and annotated collection of the Ballads of Scotland. A translation of the poems and ballads of Goethe was executed by him in conjunction with Theodore Martin. In 1845 he became professor of rhetoric and English literature in the University of Edinburgh—a position which he held till his death. In 1852 he was appointed Sheriff of Orkney and Shetland.
Ayuntamiento (a˙-yu¨n-ta˙-mē-en´tō), the name given to the town and village councils in Spain and Spanish America.
Ayu´thia, the ancient capital of Siam, on the Menam, now a scene of splendid ruin.
Aza´lea, a genus of plants, nat. ord. Ericaceæ, or heaths, remarkable for the beauty and fragrance of their flowers, and distinguished from the rhododendrons chiefly by the flowers having five stamens instead of ten. Many beautiful rhododendrons with deciduous leaves are known under the name of azalea in gardens. The azaleas are common in North America, and two species of these—A. viscōsa and A. nudiflōra—are well known in Britain. An Asiatic species, A. pontica, famous for the stupefying effect which its honey is said to have produced on Xenophon's army (cf. Anabasis, book iv, chap. 8), is also common in British gardens and shrubberies; and another, A. indica, is a brilliant greenhouse plant.
Azamgarh, or Azimgarh, a town of India, United Provinces, capital of district of same name. Pop. 18,835.—The district has an area of 2418 sq. miles; a pop. of 1,530,000.
Azeglio (a˙d-zel´yō), Massimo Taparelli, Marquis d', an Italian 'admirable Crichton', artist, novelist, publicist, statesman, and soldier, born at Turin in 1798, died 1866. After gaining some reputation in Rome as a painter, he married the daughter of Manzoni, and achieved success in literature by his novels Ettore Fieramosca (1833) and Niccolo dei Lapi (1841). These embodied much of the patriotic spirit, and in a short time he devoted himself exclusively to fostering the national sentiment by personal action and by his writings. Many of the reforms of Pius IX were due to him. He commanded a legion in the Italian struggle of 1848, and was severely wounded at Vincenza. Chosen a member of the Sardinian Chamber of Deputies, he was, after the battle of Novara, made president of the cabinet, and in 1859 appointed to the military post of general and commissioner-extraordinary for the Roman States.
Azerbaijan (a˙-zer-bī-jän´), a province of North-Western Persia; area, 40,000 sq. miles; pop. estimated at 2,000,000. It consists generally of lofty mountain ranges, some of which rise to a height of between 12,000 and 13,000 feet. Principal rivers: the Aras or Araxes, and the Kizil-Uzen, which enter the Caspian; smaller streams discharge themselves within the province into the great salt lake of Urumiyah. Agricultural products: wheat, barley, maize, fruit, cotton, tobacco, and grapes. Horses, cattle, sheep, and camels are reared in considerable numbers. Chief minerals: iron, lead, copper, salt, saltpetre, and marble. Tabriz is the capital; pop. 200,000.
Azerbaijan, a new republic proclaimed in 1918, after the Russian revolution. It consists of the former Russian province of Baku on the coast of the Caspian Sea. In 1920 the Bolshevist party overthrew the Government and broke off relations with the Entente. See Russia.
Az´imuth of a heavenly body, the arc of the horizon comprehended between the meridian of the observer and a vertical circle passing through the centre of the body. The azimuth and altitude give the exact position of the body with reference to the horizon.