Page:EB1911 - Volume 15.djvu/827

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KILRUSH—KIMBERLEY, EARL OF

whose father is said to have acted there as a Roman magistrate. Roman remains occur in the district, and the Wall of Antoninus ran through the parish. To the north, occupying an area of about 6 m. from east to west and 5 m. from north to south run the Kilpatrick Hills, of which the highest points are Duncomb and Fynloch Hill (each 1313 ft.).


KILRUSH, a seaport and watering-place of county Clare, Ireland, in the west parliamentary division, on the north shore of the Shannon estuary 45 m. below Limerick. Pop. of urban district (1901), 4179. It is the terminus of a branch of the West Clare railway. The only seaport of importance in the county, it has a considerable export trade in peat fuel, extensive fisheries, and flagstone quarries; while general fairs, horse fairs and annual agricultural shows are held. The inner harbour admits only small vessels, but there is a good pier a mile south of the town. Off the harbour lies Scattery Island (Inis Cathaigh), where St Senan (d. 544) founded a monastery. There are the remains of his oratory and house and of seven rude churches or chapels, together with a round tower and a holy well still in repute. The island also received the epithet of Holy, and was a favourite burial-ground until modern times.


KILSYTH, a police burgh of Stirlingshire, Scotland, on the Kelvin, 13 m. N.N.E. of Glasgow by the North British railway, and close to the Forth and Clyde canal. Pop. (1901), 7292. The principal buildings are the town and public halls, and the academy. The chief industries are coal-mining and iron-works; there are also manufactures of paper and cotton, besides quarrying of whinstone and sandstone. There are considerable remains of the Wall of Antoninus south of the town, and to the north the ruins of the old castle. Kilsyth dates from the middle of the 17th century and became a burgh of barony in 1826. It was the scene of Montrose’s defeat of the Covenanters on the 15th of August 1645. The town was the centre of remarkable religious revivals in 1742–3 and 1839, the latter conducted by William Chalmers Burns (1815–1868), the missionary to China.


KILT, properly the short loose skirt or petticoat, reaching to the knees and usually made of tartan, forming part of the dress of a Scottish Highlander (see Costume). The word means that which is “girded or tucked up,” and is apparently of Scandinavian origin, cf. Danish kilte, to tuck up. The early kilt was not a separate garment but was merely the lower part of the plaid, in which the Highlander wrapped himself, hanging down in folds below the belt.


KILWA (Quiloa), a seaport of German East Africa, about 200 m. S. of Zanzibar. There are two Kilwas, one on the mainland—Kilwa Kivinje; the other, the ancient city, on an island—Kilwa Kisiwani. Kilwa Kivinje, on the northern side of Kilwa Bay, is regularly laid out, the houses in the European quarter being large and substantial. The government house and barracks are fortified and are surrounded by fine public gardens. The adjacent country is fertile and thickly populated, and the trade of the port is considerable. Much of it is in the hands of Banyans. Kilwa is a starting-point for caravans to Lake Nyasa. Pop. about 5000. Most of the inhabitants are Swahili.

Kilwa Kisiwani, 18 m. to the south of the modern town, possesses a deep harbour sheltered from all winds by projecting coral reefs. The island on which it is built is separated from the mainland by a shallow and narrow channel. The ruins of the city include massive walls and bastions, remains of a palace and of two large mosques, of which the domed roofs are in fair preservation, besides several Arab forts. The new quarter contains a customs house and a few Arab buildings. Pop. about 600. On the island of Songa Manara, at the southern end of Kilwa Bay, hidden in dense vegetation, are the ruins of another city, unknown to history. Fragments of palaces and mosques in carved limestone exist, and on the beach are the remains of a lighthouse. Chinese coins and pieces of porcelain have been found on the sea-shore, washed up from the reefs.

The sultanate of Kilwa is reputed to have been founded about A.D. 975 by Ali ibn Ḥasan, a Persian prince from Shiraz, upon the site of the ancient Greek colony of Rhapta. The new state, at first confined to the town of Kilwa, extended its influence along the coast from Zanzibar to Sofala, and the city came to be regarded as the capital of the Zenj “empire” (see Zanzibar: “Sultanate”). An Arab chronicle gives a list of over forty sovereigns who reigned at Kilwa in a period of five hundred years (cf. A. M. H. J. Stokvis, Manuel d’histoire, Leiden, 1888, i. 558). Pedro Alvares Cabral, the Portuguese navigator, was the first European to visit it. His fleet, on its way to India, anchored in Kilwa Bay in 1500. Kilwa was then a large and wealthy city, possessing, it is stated, three hundred mosques. In 1502 Kilwa submitted to Vasco da Gama, but the sultan neglecting to pay the tribute imposed upon him, the city in 1505 was occupied by the Portuguese. They built a fort there; the first erected by them on the east coast of Africa. Fighting ensued between the Arabs and the Portuguese, the city was destroyed; and in 1512 the Portuguese, whose ranks had been decimated by fever, temporarily abandoned the place. Subsequently Kilwa became one of the chief centres of the slave trade. Towards the end of the 17th century it fell under the dominion of the imams of Muscat, and on the separation in 1856 of their Arabian and African possessions became subject to the sultan of Zanzibar. With the rest of the southern part of the sultan’s continental dominions Kilwa was acquired by Germany in 1890 (see Africa, § 5; and German East Africa).


KILWARDBY, ROBERT (d. 1279), archbishop of Canterbury and cardinal, studied at the university of Paris, where he soon became famous as a teacher of grammar and logic. Afterwards joining the order of St Dominic and turning his attention to theology, he was chosen provincial prior of his order in England in 1261, and in October 1272 Pope Gregory X. terminated a dispute over the vacant archbishopric of Canterbury by appointing Kilwardby. Although the new archbishop crowned Edward I. and his queen Eleanor in August 1274, he took little part in business of state, but was energetic in discharging the spiritual duties of his office. He was charitable to the poor, and showed liberality to the Dominicans. In 1278 Pope Nicholas III. made him cardinal-bishop of Porto and Santa Rufina; he resigned his archbishopric and left England, carrying with him the registers and other valuable property belonging to the see of Canterbury. He died in Italy on the 11th of September 1279. Kilwardby was the first member of a mendicant order to attain a high position in the English Church. Among his numerous writings, which became very popular among students, are De ortu scientiarum, De tempore, De Universali, and some commentaries on Aristotle.

See N. Trevet, Annales sex regum Angliae, edited by T. Hog (London, 1845); W. F. Hook, Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, vol. iii. (London, 1860–1876); J. Quétif and J. Échard, Scriptores ordinis Predicatorum (Paris, 1719–1721).


KILWINNING, a municipal and police burgh of Ayrshire, Scotland, on the right bank of the Garnock, 24 m. S.W. of Glasgow by the Caledonian railway, and 263/4 m. by the Glasgow & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901), 4440. The chief buildings include the public library, the Masonic hall and the district hospital. The centre of interest, however, is the ruined abbey, originally one of the richest in Scotland. Founded about 1140 by Hugh de Morville, lord of Cunninghame, for Tyronensian monks of the Benedictine order, it was dedicated to St Winnin, who lived on the spot in the 8th century and has given his name to the town. This beautiful specimen of Early English architecture was partly destroyed in 1561, and its lands were granted to the earl of Eglinton and others. Kilwinning is the traditional birthplace of Scottish freemasonry, the lodge, believed to have been founded by the foreign architects and masons who came to build the abbey, being regarded as the mother lodge in Scotland. The royal company of archers of Kilwinning—dating, it is said, as far back as 1488—meet every July to shoot at the popinjay. The industry in weaving shawls and lighter fabrics has died out; and the large iron, coal and fire-clay works at Eglinton, and worsted spinning, employ most of the inhabitants. About a mile from Kilwinning is Eglinton Castle, the seat of the earls of Eglinton, built in 1798 in the English castellated style.


KIMBERLEY, JOHN WODEHOUSE, 1st Earl of (1826–1902), English statesman, was born on the 7th of January 1826, being the eldest son of the Hon. Henry Wodehouse and grandson of the 2nd Baron Wodehouse (the barony dating from 1797), whom he succeeded in 1846. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he took a first-class degree in