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Vagrancy is the state of homelessness, vagabondage. Formerly, in English law the term was applied to various classes of idle and disorderly persons. The principal Act in this connexion was the Vagrancy Act, 1824, extended in certain directions by Vagrancy Acts of 1838, 1873, and 1878, and further amended by the Casual Poor Act, 1882, and the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1912.
Three classes of vagrants were recognized by the law: (1) Idle and disorderly persons ; (2) rogues and vagabonds ; (3) incorrigible rogues. The sentence on conviction varied from one month for the first class, to one year's imprisonment for the third.
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Vale is a name applied to a type of valley common in the lowlands of England. Usually it is a wide level-floored valley between hill ridges, with a scarp on one side and a gentle slope on the other. The Vale of Oxford lies between the scarp of the Chilterns and the gentle slope of the Cotswolds.
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Valentine's Day is celebrated in many countries on February 14 as a festival of romance and affection. People send greeting cards called valentines to their sweethearts, friends, and members of their families. Many valentine cards have romantic verses, and others contain humorous pictures and sayings. Many say, 'Be my valentine.' Valentine's Day parties and dances are often held. Many people send flowers, chocolates, or some other gift to their wives, husbands, or sweethearts. The earliest records of Valentine's Day in English tell that birds chose their mates on that day. People used a different calendar before 1582, and February 14 came on what is now February 24.
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A valet is a domestic servant performing a general role as a man's personal attendant and also superintending the other servants, a lady employing a waiting-maid in a similar role. Within the hierarchy of domestic servants, the valet was almost at the top, receiving orders only directly from his master, dressing him, accompanying him on his journeys, being a confidant and generally 'right-hand man'. In her book 'Household Management', published in 1861, Mrs Beeton describes the duties of a valet as follows:
His day commences by seeing that his master's dressing-room is in order; that the housemaid has swept and dusted it properly; that the fire is lighted and burns cheerfully; and some time before his master is expected, he will do well to throw up the sash [open the window] to admit fresh air, closing it, however, in time to recover the temperature which he knows his master prefers. It is now his duty to place the body-linen on the horse before the fire, to be aired properly; to lay the trousers intended to be worn, carefully brushed and cleaned, on the back of his master's chair; while the coat and waistcoat, carefully brushed and folded, and the collar cleaned, are laid in their place ready to be put on when required. All the articles of the toilet should be in their places, the razors properly set and stropped, and hot water ready for use.
Gentlemen generally prefer performing the operation of shaving themselves, but a valet should be prepared to do it if required; and he should be a good hairdresser. Shaving over, he has to brush the hair, beard and moustache, where that appendage is encouraged, arranging the whole simply and gracefully, according to the age and style of the countenance. Every fortnight, or three weeks at the utmost, the hair should be cut, and the points of the whiskers trimmed as often as required. A good valet will now present the various articles of the toilet as they are wanted; afterwards, the body-linen. Neck-tie, which he will put on, if required, and, afterwards, waist-coat, coat, and boots, in suitable order, and carefully brushed and polished.
Having thus seen his master dressed, if he is about to go out, the valet will hand him his gloves, and hat, the latter well brushed on the outside with a soft brush, and wiped inside with a clean handkerchief, respectfully attend him to the door, and open it for him, and receive his last orders for the day.
He now proceeds to put everything in order in the dressing-room, cleans the combs and brushes, and brushes and folds up any clothes that may be left about the room, and puts them away in drawers.
Mrs Beeton goes on to describe how some gentlemen are indifferent to their clothes and appearance, and how it is the duty of the valet to select suitable clothes for his master and to check and ensure all clothes are clean, paying particular attention to collars which often become greasy and dirty. In addition, the valet liases with the tailor, perfumer and linen-draper.
The valet also dresses his master for dinner and any other occasion, and is awaiting his master's return to the house, ensuring that the master's drawing-room is properly ready with fire lit and candles prepared.
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Validity is that feature of arguments or chains of reasoning studied by the science of logic. The notion of validity may be defined in two ways. The first uses the notion of truth: an argument is valid if the truth of its conclusion is guaranteed by the truth of its premises. The second appeals to basic accepted patterns of reasoning or principles of inference, for example that given 'A' and 'If A then B' one may infer 'B': a conclusion validly follows from certain premises if it can be derived from them in accordance with basic principles. A central question in modern work in logic is whether a complete set of principles of reasoning can be specified, so that any argument valid in the first sense is also valid in the second.
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In America, in 1863 Clement Vallandigham, of Ohio, was tried, convicted and imprisoned for uttering opinions disloyal to the Union by a military commission appointed by General Burnside. Clement Vallandigham applied to the Supreme Court to review by certiorari the proceedings of the military commission, claiming to have been unlawfully convicted. The Supreme Court maintained the decision of the commission on the ground that it had no power to review proceedings ordered by a general officer of the United States army.
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Vallauris Ware is a porous red clay pottery produced at Vallauris, near Cannes. It is covered with an opaque olive-green glaze and decorated with flower over-glaze.
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A valley is a long narrow depression in the earth's crust, flanked by well defined ridges and usually due to the erosive action of rivers or glaciers but sometimes due to trough-faulting. The valley cut by vertical erosion is usually V-shaped in cross-section and irregular in its course, its gradient being punctuated by sudden drops and long shelves. These irregularities represent local base levels which are gradually removed by denudation, so that as the falls are worn back and lakes infilled the breaks in the profile are reduced. With lateral erosion and mass movement, the valley broadens. Deposition occurs as the gradient slackens, and floodplains fill the valley floor. Rejuvenation leaves remnants of old floodplains above the new ones in the form of terraces, the highest of which are the oldest. A lowering of the water-table may leave dry valleys, and sudden uplift may leave hanging valleys, while the flooding of valleys by the sea gives rias.
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A valley train is an elongated deposit of material originally transported by a glacier which has been re-worked by rivers of melt-water, filling the floors of the glaciated valleys. Valley trains resemble outwash plains, but are confined to valleys.
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A value judgement is a judgement which accords value of a certain kind, especially moral value, to an object. The contrast is with a factual judgement. An example of a value judgement would be 'Torture is evil'; of a factual judgement, 'Torture is widespread'. Value judgements have immediate implications for what ought to be done. That there is a gap between judgements of fact and value was argued by Hume, who made the point that no value judgement can be deduced from any number or kind of factual judgements. Those who accept Hume's claim often go on to say that the meaning of value judgement is not descriptive but prescriptive or emotive.
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Vanity Fair was the first society journal. It was founded in 1868 by Thomas Gibson Bowles and illustrated by Grebville Murray. Vanity Fair was popular for its caricatures of the political and social notabilities of the day.
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A vapour trail is a trail of condensed water vapour that appears in the wake of an aircraft or rocket at high altitude. Vapour trails appear as a white streak, like long, thin, regular clouds, against the sky and quickly broaden and disintegrate.
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Vaticide is the legal term for the murder of a prophet.
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The Vauxhall Vectra is a series of four-door saloon and five-door hatchback family cars produced in various engine sizes of between 1.6 and 2.6 litres providing top speeds of between 120 and 148 mph, most models achieving a top speed in the region of 121 mph.
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Vellum is a type of superior parchment made from the skin of a calf, kid or lamb.
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Velocipede was an early term for any kind of carriage driven by the feet, and the term encompassed bicycles and tricycles and the dandy-horse. The term velocipede was first used in France around the end of the 18th century.
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Veneer is a very thin piece of wood, like paper, used to cover other less valuable wood. The art of veneering was known to the ancient Egyptians and veneered furniture has been found from the 15th century BC.
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In horology, a verge is the spindle of a watch balance, especially one with pallets, as in the old vertical escapement. In horticulture a verge is the edge or outside of a bed or border. The term is also applied to a slip of grass adjoining gravel walks, and dividing them from the borders in a parterre.
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The Vermont Gazette or Green Mountain Post Boy was the first newspaper of the State of Vermont. It was begun at Westminster by Spooner and Green, on February the 12th, 1781, and was suspended two years later.
The Vermont Gazette or Freemen's Depository was a newspaper published in vermont, USA founded on June the 5th 1783 at bennington by Haswell and Russell. With several changes of title, it survived until 1880.
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Verner's Law is a linguistic law formulated in 1875 by Karl Verner of Copenhagen by which certain apparent failures of Grimm's Law are explained.
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Verse is the principal unit by which metrical compositions are measured. generally speaking, it is equivalent to what we term commonly the line. The elementary unit of metrical compositions is the 'foot' - i.e. a little group of one or more syllables measured either by accent or by quantity. The verse in turn consists of a certain number of these feet grouped in definite order, on the conclusion of which the writer turns back and repeats the same or a closely related group. As the following verse or verses may vary slightly from the original pattern, so as to form what is strictly termed a stanza, the word verse is sometimes stretched to cover this more elaborate grouping, which is then taken as the principal metrical unit.
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The Verst is a Russian measure of length equal to 0.663 of an English mile.
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Vesta is the fourth and brightest asteroid. It was discovered by Olbers on March the 29th 1807.
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A vestry is a room attached to a parish church where the vestments and ornaments are kept, and which is also used for parochial meetings.
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The victoria was a horse-drawn park-carriage with a low seat for two persons, a calash top and an elevated driver's seat in front.
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In printing, a vignette is a decorative design, originally representing vine branches or tendrils, at the head of a chapter, of a manuscript or printed book, or in a similar position. The term later came to be applied to any small picture in a book and also to pictures, such as an engraving, a photograph, or the like, which vanishes gradually at the edge.
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Vincilagnia is the sexual arousal by bondage.
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The vinegar bible was a bible printed at the Clarendon Press, Oxford in 1717. An error resulted in the word vinegar being printed instead of the word vineyard in the running-headline of Luke xxii.
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Viral marketing is a form of marketing, or advertising, that became popular in the late 1990's with the spread of the Internet. Viral marketing involves producing a piece of advertising that is so designed that it will be copied and passed from person to person. For example, a mobile telephone ring tone, a computer screensaver or a cartoon or movie.
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Virgilian lots is a form of divination involving the selection of a passage of Virgil at random.
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The Virginia company was an English company formed during the reign of James I to send out colonists to Virginia, in America.
On April the 10th, 1606, James I set apart by charter the territory between Cape Fear and Passamaquoddy Bay to be settled by two rival companies, the Virginia Company of London, and the North Virginia or Plymouth Company. To the London, or Virginia Company proper, was granted the land between parallels 34 degrees and 41 degrees north, or between Cape Fear and Long Island. This company was composed of London merchants and adventurers.
In 1606 an expedition consisting of three vessels and 143 men, commanded by Christopher Newport, was fitted out, landed in Chesapake Bay, and succeeded in founding, on May the 13th, 1607, the first permanent English settlement in America at Jamestown, , Virginia - named in honour of the king.
In 1609 a new charter was granted and the company reincorporated under the name of the London Company of Virginia; still another in 1612. Other colonizing parties arrived in 1609, 1611 and 1619, and by 1630 the colony of Virginia was firmly established. The majority in the company was of the political party in England opposed to the court. It fell into difficulties with the king, who in 1624 caused its charter to be annulled. The company then dissolved.
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There were eight Virginia Coupon Cases cases. All related to the legislation of the State of Virginia in 1871, authorizing the receipt of coupons of the State's funded debt, in payment of taxes and debts due the State. These cases came before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1884. The act of the Virginia General Assembly of 1882 required payment of tax dues in gold, silver, United States treasury notes, national bank currency, and nothing else. Hence the tax collectors refused to receive coupons in payment of taxes as authorized by the Act of 1871. The Supreme Court of the United States decided the Act of 1882 void as impairing the obligation of the contract of the Act of 1871, and judgment was found for the plaintiffs, the tax-payers.
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There were four newspapers entitled Virginia Gazette published in Virginia during the 18th century, and all at Williamsburg. William Parks established the first, in August, 1736, it being the first newspaper published in the province. Publication was suspended in 1750.
William Hunter founded the second Virginia Gazette, in February, 1751. Publication was suspended after the American War of Independence.
The third Virginia Gazette was begun by William Rind, in May, 1766. Publication was suspended in 1774.
Davis and Clarkson published the fourth Virginia Gazette beginning in April, 1775, and continuing several years. There was also a Virginia Gazette published in Richmond for a very short period about 1804 by A Davis, a semi-weekly.
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The Virginia Resolutions were resolutions passed by the Virginia legislature in 1798, in antagonism to the loose construction view of the Federalists. The passage of the Alien and Sedition laws was the direct cause of their adoption. They were framed by James Madison and sent to the legislatures of the other States, by which they were not approved. They declared the Union to be a compact, each party to which had a right to 'interpose' in order to protect and defend itself against infringements of the compact. They regretted the introduction of a broad construction of the constitution, as tending toward a monarchy. They protested against the Alien and Sedition laws as unconstitutional. With the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 and 1799, these were the foundations of the later doctrines of nullification and secession.
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The Virginius was an American merchant vessel, which was captured on the high seas near Jamaica by the Spanish man-of-war Tornado, on October the 31st, 1873, on the ground that it intended landing men to assist in the Cuban insurrection then in progress. Four Cubans found among the passengers, and Captain Fry, with a number of others, were executed. This caused considerable excitement in the United States. Spain, however, made immediate and ample reparation. The incident served to foment the filibustering spirit against Cuba rife among a certain statesmen of the USA.
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Virgo is a sign of the zodiac represented by a virgin.
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A volcano is a vent in the earth's crust from which molten rock, ashes and steam are ejected. The lava tends in time to heap up a conical eminence round the vent, thus forming the crater or cup, or even a volcanic mountain.
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The Volkswagen Polo is a range of German small cars of the 'Supermini' genre, produced with various engine sizes ranging from 1.2 litres to 1.9 litres, in both petrol and diesel models. The middle of the series 1.2 litre Match model was a five-door hatchback and had a top speed of about 100 mph.
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The Volvo 760 was a large, Swedish saloon and estate car produced between 1982 and 1990. The Volvo 760 saloon model was produced with 2.3, 2.4 and 2.8 litre engines in petrol and diesel models.
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Voyeurism is the act of obtaining sexual stimulation from secretly observing people naked, or while they are having sex. Voyeurs are frequently called a 'peeping Tom'.
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