ten diameters in height. Except in rare cases, the columns of the Romanesque and Gothic styles were of equal diameter at top and bottom, and had no definite dimensions as regards diameter and height. They were also grouped together round piers which are known as clustered piers. When of exceptional size, as in Gloucester and Durham cathedrals, Waltham Abbey and Tewkesbury, they are generally called “pillars,” which was apparently the medieval term for column. The word columna, employed by Vitruvius, was introduced into England by the Italian writers of the Revival.
In the Renaissance period columns were frequently banded, the bands being concentric with the column as in France, and occasionally richly carved as in Philibert De L’Orme’s work at the Tuileries. In England Inigo Jones introduced similar features, but with square blocks sometimes rusticated, a custom lately revived in England, but of which there are few examples either in Italy or Spain.
The word “column” is used, by analogy with architecture, for any upright body or mass, in chemistry, anatomy, typography, &c. (R. P. S.)
COLURE (from Gr. κόλος, shortened, and οὐρά, tail), in
astronomy, either of the two principal meridians of the celestial
sphere, one of which passes through the poles and the two
solstices, the other through the poles and the two equinoxes;
hence designated as solstitial colure and equinoxial colure, respectively.
COLUTHUS, or Colluthus, of Lycopolis in the Egyptian
Thebaid, Greek epic poet, flourished during the reign of Anastasius I. (491–518). According to Suidas, he was the author of
Calydoniaca (probably an account of the Calydonian boar hunt),
Persica (an account of the Persian wars), and Encomia (laudatory
poems). These are all lost, but his poem in some 400 hexameters
on The Rape of Helen (Άρπαγὴ Έλένης) is still extant,
having been discovered by Cardinal Bessarion in Calabria. The
poem is dull and tasteless, devoid of imagination, a poor imitation
of Homer, and has little to recommend it except its harmonious
versification, based upon the technical rules of Nonnus. It
related the history of Paris and Helen from the wedding of
Peleus and Thetis down to the elopement and arrival at Troy.
The best editions are by Van Lennep (1747), G. F. Schäfer (1825), E. Abel (1880).
COLVILLE, JOHN (c. 1540–1605), Scottish divine and author,
was the son of Robert Colville of Cleish, in the county of Kinross.
Educated at St Andrews University, he became a Presbyterian
minister, but occupied himself chiefly with political intrigue,
sending secret information to the English government concerning
Scottish affairs. He joined the party of the earl of Gowrie, and
took part in the Raid of Ruthven in 1582. In 1587 he for a
short time occupied a seat on the judicial bench, and was commissioner
for Stirling in the Scottish parliament. In December
1591 he was implicated in the earl of Bothwell’s attack on
Holyrood Palace, and was outlawed with the earl. He retired
abroad, and is said to have joined the Roman Church. He
died in Paris in 1605. Colville was the author of several works,
including an Oratio Funebris on Queen Elizabeth, and some
political and religious controversial essays. He is said to be the
author also of The Historie and Life of King James the Sext
(edited by T. Thompson for the Bannatyne Club, Edinburgh,
1825).
Colville’s Original Letters, 1582–1603, published by the Bannatyne Club in 1858, contains a biographical memoir by the editor, David Laing.
COLVIN, JOHN RUSSELL (1807–1857), lieutenant-governor
of the North-West Provinces of India during the mutiny of 1857,
belonged to an Anglo-Indian family of Scottish descent, and was
born in Calcutta on the 29th of May 1807. Passing through
Haileybury he entered the service of the East India Company
in 1826. In 1836 he became private secretary to Lord Auckland,
and his influence over the viceroy has been held partly responsible
for the first Afghan war of 1837; but it has since been
shown that Lord Auckland’s policy was dictated by the secret
committee of the company at home. In 1853 Mr Colvin was
appointed lieutenant-governor of the North-West Provinces
by Lord Dalhousie. On the outbreak of the mutiny in 1857 he
had with him at Agra only a weak British regiment and a native
battery, too small a force to make head against the mutineers;
and a proclamation which he issued to the natives was censured
at the time for its clemency, but it followed the same lines as
those adopted by Sir Henry Lawrence and subsequently followed
by Lord Canning. Exhausted by anxiety and misrepresentation
he died on the 9th of September, his death shortly preceding
the fall of Delhi.
His son, Sir Auckland Colvin (1838–1908), followed him in a distinguished career in the same service, from 1858 to 1879. He was comptroller-general in Egypt (1880 to 1882), and financial adviser to the khedive (1883 to 1887), and from 1883 till 1892 was back again in India, first as financial member of council, and then, from 1887, as lieutenant-governor of the North-West Provinces and Oudh. He was created K.C.M.G. in 1881, and K.C.S.I. in 1892, when he retired. He published The Making of Modern Egypt in 1906, and a biography of his father, in the “Rulers of India” series, in 1895. He died at Surbiton on the 24th of March 1908.
COLVIN, SIDNEY (1845–), English literary and art
critic, was born at Norwood, London, on the 18th of June 1845.
A scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, he became a fellow of
his college in 1868. In 1873 he was Slade professor of fine art,
and was appointed in the next year to the directorship of the
Fitzwilliam Museum. In 1884 he removed to London on his
appointment as keeper of prints and drawings in the British
Museum. His chief publications are lives of Landor (1881)
and Keats (1887), in the English Men of Letters series; the
Edinburgh edition of R. L. Stevenson’s works (1894–1897);
editions of the letters of Keats (1887), and of the Vailima Letters
(1899), which R. L. Stevenson chiefly addressed to him; A Florentine Picture-Chronicle (1898), and Early History of Engraving in England (1905). But in the field both of art and of
literature, Mr Colvin’s fine taste, wide knowledge and high
ideals made his authority and influence extend far beyond his
published work.
COLWYN BAY, a watering-place of Denbighshire, N. Wales,
on the Irish Sea, 4012 m. from Chester by the London & North-Western
railway. Pop. of urban district of Colwyn Bay and
Colwyn (1901) 8689. Colwyn Bay has become a favourite
bathing-place, being near to, and cheaper than, the fashionable
Llandudno, and being a centre for picturesque excursions.
Near it is Llaneilian village, famous for its “cursing well”
(St Eilian’s, perhaps Aelianus’). The stream Colwyn joins the
Gwynnant. The name Colwyn is that of lords of Ardudwy; a
Lord Colwyn of Ardudwy, in the 10th century, is believed to
have repaired Harlech castle, and is considered the founder of
one of the fifteen tribes of North Wales. Nant Colwyn is on the
road from Carnarvon to Beddgelert, beyond Llyn y gader
(gadair), “chair pool,” and what tourists have fancifully called
Pitt’s head, a roadside rock resembling, or thought to resemble,
the great statesman’s profile. Near this is Llyn y dywarchen
(sod pool), with a floating island.
COLZA OIL, a non-drying oil obtained from the seeds of
Brassica campestris, var. oleifera, a variety of the plant which
produces Swedish turnips. Colza is extensively cultivated in
France, Belgium, Holland and Germany; and, especially in
the first-named country, the expression of the oil is an important
industry. In commerce colza is classed with rape oil, to which
both in source and properties it is very closely allied. It is a
comparatively inodorous oil of a yellow colour, having a specific
gravity varying from 0·912 to 0·920. The cake left after expression
of the oil is a valuable feeding substance for cattle.
Colza oil is extensively used as a lubricant for machinery, and
for burning in lamps.
COMA (Gr. κῶμα, from κοιμᾶν, to put to sleep), a deep sleep; the term is, however, used in medicine to imply something more than its Greek origin denotes, namely, a complete and prolonged loss of consciousness from which a patient cannot be roused. There are various degrees of coma: in the slighter
