Etruscan Vases are a class of beautiful ancient painted vases made in Etruria, but not strictly speaking a product of Etruscan art, since they were really the productions of a ripe age of Greek art, the workmanship, subjects, style, and inscriptions being all Greek. They are elegant in form and enriched with bands of beautiful foliage and other ornaments, figures and similar subjects of a highly artistic character. One class has black figures and ornaments on a red ground - the natural colour of the clay; another has the figures left of the natural colour and the ground painted black. The former class belong to a date about 600 BC, the latter date about a century later, and extend over a period of about 300 or 350 years, when the manufacture seems to have ceased. During this period there was much variety in the form and ornamentation, gold and other colours besides the primitive ones of black and red being frequently made use of. The subjects represented upon these vases frequently relate to heroic personages of the Greek mythology, but many scenes of an ordinary and even of a domestic character are depicted. The figures are usually in profile. Temples are occassionaly introduced. Many features of Hellenic rituals, games, festivals and domestic life can be gleaned from these vases. Research Etruscan Vases
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.
Longitudinal valleys are the hollows between the up-folded mountain ranges, parallel to the mountains, and they usually contain a largee river. Similar valleys occur between upfoldod mountains and the crustal plateau which has resisted upheaval. The Indo-Gangetic valley between the upfolded Himalayas and the Deccanplateau is the largest example of this type.
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. In southern England the valleys of the Severn and the Thames show the results of denudation, which has carved away the softer rocks, and left the more resistant ridges of the Cotswolds, Downs, and Chilterns, which confine the drainage system.
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 or 'drowned valleys' which are existing estuaries where the sea has encroached upon the lower courses of rivers, such as the Gulf of St Lawrence. Research Valley
The Calabrese is an Italian breed of horse which developed over the past two thousand years, originally in Calabria in southern Spain, whence the name. The
Calabrese stands between 15.3 and 16.2 hands high and is grey, bay, chestnut, brown or black in colour with a refined head and a straight or sometimes convex profile. The Calabrese is used as a general purpose riding horse, having a mix of a calm and manageable nature with an active and energetic manner. Research Calabrese
The Clydesdale Horse is a breed of Scottish heavy horse developed during the 18th century as a replacement to the Shirehorse. The Clydesdale Horse stands 16 to 18 hands high, is mostly bay in colour, has an attractive head with a straight profile, large intelligent eyes, a broad forehead, and feathering. Formerly they were used in Lanarkshire for hauling coal, and during the 19th century as for general draught work. Research Clydesdale Horse
The Comtois is an ancient breed of French heavy horse originating from the Comte region during the 4th century. The Comtois stands 14 to 15 hands high and is usually a dark chestnut colour with a flaxen mane and tail. They have a large head, a straight profile, small, alert ears and short, strong legs. Today they are used in France for working in steep and rough areas and are bred for meat. Research Comtois
The grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) is the larger of the two native British seals. It is a large mammal, up to three metres in length, and although streamlined in the water, is cumbersome on the land. The head in both sexes is rather dog-like in appearance, with the male having a thick neck and convex profile. The adult colouration varies greatly, but is usually some shade of blue-grey with irregular and individual patterns of blotches and spots. The pups, which are born in late summer or autumn, are white in colour with a brownish-grey snout. Research Grey Seal
The Jezerskosolflorinavska is a breed of sheep that resulted from the crossbreeding of native white sheep with the Bergamascasheep and with the Padova sheep. It resembles the Austrian Bergschaf that has a similar origin. The breed got its name after the breeding centres of Jezersko and Solflorinava. Its head has a convex profile and hanging ears. Its legs are long and strong. This breed is very convenient for lamb production in the Alpine and Pre-Alpine region. It used to be reared in farms in combination with cattle. From June to September the sheep grazed in the mountains and mountainous pastures while in spring and autumn they grazed in farms together with cattle. Since 1980 Jezersko-Solflorinavska sheep has been crossed by Romanovska sheep, hence number of pure breed animals has been decreased quickly. Therefore, a special program on preservation the pure breed has been started in 1991. It is financed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Bovska sheep and Istrian Pramenka are also included in the preservation program. Research Jezerskosolcavska
The Sorraia is a breed of Iberian pony which developed around the Spanish-Portuguese border. They stand 13 hands high and have a good natured temperament. They occur in dun, grullo and dark palomino colours, have a heavy head with a convex profile and quite large ears. Research Sorraia
Dame Judi Dench is an English actress. She was born in 1934 at York. A five- time winner of the British Academy Award, she was granted an Order of the British Empire in 1970 and made a Dame of the British Empire in 1988. Dench made her stage debut as a snail in a junior school production. After attending art school, she studied acting at London's Central School of Speech and Drama and in 1957, made her professional stage debut as Ophelia in the Old Vic's Liverpool production of Hamlet. A prolific stage career followed, with seasons spent performing with the likes of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Dench broke into film in 1964 with a supporting role in The Third Secret. The following year, she won her first BAFTA, a Most Promising Newcomer honor for her work in Four in the Morning. Although she continued to work in film, Dench earned most of her recognition and acclaim for her stage work. Occasionally she brought her stage roles to the screen in such film adaptations as A Midsummer Night's
Dream in 1968 and Macbeth in 1978, in which she was Lady Macbeth to Ian McKellen's tormented king. It was not until the mid-1980s that Dench began to make her name known to an international film audience. In 1986, she had a memorable turn as a meddlesome romance author in A Room with a View, earning a Best Supporting Actress BAFTA for her tart portrayal. Two years later, she won the same award for her work in another period drama, A Handful of Dust. After her supporting role as Mistress Quickly in Kenneth Branagh's acclaimed 1989 adaptation of Henry V, Dench exchanged the past for the present with her thoroughly modern role as M in GoldenEye in 1995, the first of the Pierce Brosnan series of James Bond films. She portrayed the character for the subsequent Brosnan 007 films, lending flinty elegance to what had traditionally been a male role. The part of M had the advantage of introducing Dench to an audience unfamiliar with her work, and in 1997 she earned further international recognition, as well as an Oscar nomination and
Golden Globe award, for her portrayal of Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown. The following year, Dench did win the Oscar, garnering Best Supporting Actress honors for her eight- minute appearance as Queen Elizabeth in the acclaimed Shakespeare in Love. Her win resulted in the kind of media adulation usually afforded to actresses one-third her age. The following year, Dench continued to reap both acclaim and new fans with her work in Tea with Mussolini and the latest Bond extravaganza, The World is Not Enough. While her screen career has taken on an increasingly high- profile nature, Dench has continued to act on both television and the stage. In the former medium, she endeared herself to viewers with her work in such series as As Time Goes By and 'A Fine Romance' . On the stage, Dench made history in 1996, becoming the first performer to win two Olivier Awards for two different roles in the same year. Research Judi Dench More information about Judi dench
In weapon terminology, a ball was originally a spherical projectile, now generally a fully jacketed bullet of cylindrical profile with round or pointed nose. Most commonly used in military terminology.
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
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Abbreviations
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