but none of them reached more than the age of twenty or twenty-five; this was the age of the “rois fainéants.” Henceforth the real sovereign was the mayor of the palace. The mayors of the palace belonging to the Carolingian family were able to keep the throne vacant for long periods of time, and finally, in 751 the mayor Pippin, with the consent of the pope Zacharias, sent King Childeric III. to the monastery of St Omer, and shut up his young son Thierry in that of St Wandrille. The Merovingian race thus came to an end in the cloister.
Bibliography.—See Pétigny, Études sur l’époque mérovingienne (Paris, 1851); G. Richter, Annalen des fränkischen Reichs im Zeitalter der Merowinger (Halle, 1873); F. Dahn, Die Könige der Germanen, vii. (Leipzig, 1894); by the same author, Urgeschichte der germanischen und romanischen Völker, iii. (Berlin, 1883); W. Schultze, Deutsche Geschichte von der Urzeit bis zu den Karolingern, ii. (Stuttgart, 1896).
Merovingian Legend.—It has long been conceded that the great French national epics of the 11th and 12th centuries must have been founded on a great fund of popular poetry, and that many of the episodes of the chansons de geste refer to historical events anterior to the Carolingian period. Floovant is obviously connected with the Gesta Dagoberti, and there are traces of the influence of popular songs on the Frankish heroes in Gregory of Tours and other chroniclers. See G. Kurth, Hist. poét. des Mérovingiens (Paris, Brussels and Leipzig, 1893); A. Darmesteter, De Floovante vetustiore gallico poemate (Paris, 1877); Floovant (Paris, 1859); ed. MM. F. Guessard and H. Michelant; P. Rajna, Delle Origine dell’ epopea francese (Florence, 1884), with which cf. G. Paris in Romania, xiii. 602 seq.; F. Settegast, Quellenstudien zur gallo-romanischen Epik (Leipzig, 1904); C. Voretzsch, Epische Studien (Halle, 1900); H. Groeber, Grundriss d. roman. Phil. Bd. II., abt. i. pp. 447 seq.). (C. Pf.)
MERRILL, a city and the county-seat of Lincoln county, Wisconsin, U.S.A., 185 m. N.W. of Milwaukee, on both sides of the Wisconsin river. Pop. (1910 census), 8689. It is served by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul-railroad. The city is situated about 1270 ft. above the sea and has an invigorating climate. Brook trout and various kinds of game, including deer, abound in the vicinity. Grandfather Falls and the Delles of the Prairie river are picturesque places near the city,
and furnish good water-power. The principal public building is the Lincoln county court house, and the city contains the T. B. Scott free library, a fine high-school, and the Ravn hospital, a private institution. Riverside Park is maintained by a corporation, and a park along the Prairie river is owned and maintained by the city. Merrill is an important hardwood lumber market, and its principal industry is the manufacture
of lumber and lumber products. The manufacture of paper
and paper pulp and of lathes is also important. In 1905 the factory products were valued at $3,260,638 There are granite quarries and brickyards in the vicinity. Merrill was settled in 1875, incorporated as a village in 1880, and chartered as a city in 1883.
MERRIMAC,[1] a river in the north-eastern part of the United States, having its sources in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and flowing south into Massachusetts, and thence east and north-east into the Atlantic Ocean. With its largest branch it has an extreme length of about 183 m. The, Merrimac proper is formed at Franklin, New Hampshire, by the junction of the Pemigewasset and Winnepesaukee rivers. The former is the larger branch and rises in the White Mountains in Grafton county; the latter is the outlet of Lake Winnepesaukee. The valley of the Merrimac was formed before the glacial period and was filled with drift as the ice retreated; subsequently the high flood plain thus formed has been trenched, terraces have been formed, and at different places, where the new
channel did not conform to the pre-glacial channel, the river
has come upon buried ledges, relatively much more resistant
than the drift below, and waterfalls have thus resulted. The
river falls 269 ft. in a distance of 110 m. from Franklin to its
mouth. The greater part of the total fall is at six points, and
at each of four of these is a city which owes its importance in
great measure to the water-power thus provided, Lowell and
Lawrence in Massachusetts, and Manchester and Concord in
New Hampshire; at Lowell there is a fall of 30 ft. (Pawtucket
Falls), and at Manchester there is a fall of 55 ft. (Amoskeag
Falls). The region drained by the river is 4553 sq. m. in extent, and contains a number of lakes, which together with some artificial reservoirs serve as a storage system. On the navigable portion of the river, which extends 1712 m. above its mouth, are the cities of Newburyport, near its mouth, and Haverhill, at the head of navigation. In 1899–1908 the Federal government dredged a channel from Newburyport to Haverhill (14·5 m.) 7 ft. deep and 150 ft. wide at mean low water; vessels having a draft of 12·5 ft. could then pass over the outer bar of Newburyport.
MERRIMAN, HENRY SETON (d. 1903), the pen-name of
Hugh Stowell Scott, English novelist. He Was a member of
the firm of Henry Scott & Sons, and was for some years an underwriter at Lloyd’s. His literary career began in 1889 with The Phantom Future, and he made his first decided hit with his Russian story, The Sowers (1896), which was followed by
many other well-constructed novels remarkable for excellence
of plot and literary handling. The author was an enthusiastic
traveller, many of his journeys being undertaken with his
friend Stanley Weyman. He was about forty when he died
at Melton, near Ipswich, on the 19th of November 1903. Among
his most successful books were Roden’s Corner (1898); The Isle
of Unrest (1899); In Kedar’s Tents (1897); The Velvet Glove
(1901); The Vultures (1902); Barlasch of the Guard (1903);
and The Last Hope (1904).
MERRITT, WESLEY (1836–), American soldier, was born in New York City on the 16th of June 1836. He graduated at West Point in 1860, and Was assigned to the cavalry service. He served in Utah (1861) and in the defences of Washington (1861–62); learnt the field duties of his arm as aide (1862) to General Philip St George Cooke, who then commanded the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac; became brigadier-general,
United States Volunteers, in June 1863; and in September
1863 was placed in command of a brigade of regular cavalry
in the Army of the Potomac. He won great distinction in
the Virginian campaigns of 1864–65 and in Sheridan’s Valley
campaign, being brevetted major-general of volunteers for his
conduct at Winchester and Fisher’s Hill, and brigadier-general
of the regular army for his services at Five Forks. In the
final campaign about Richmond he did such good service in
command of a cavalry division that he was brevetted major-general
in the regular army and was promoted major-general
of volunteers. With two other Federal commissioners he
arranged with the Confederate commanders for the surrender
of the Army of Northern Virginia. He was mustered out of
the Volunteer Service in February 1866, and in July became
lieutenant-colonel of the 9th cavalry in the regular army, being
promoted gradually to major-general (1895). He served in the
Big Horn and Yellowstone Indian campaigns (1876) and in the expedition to relieve the command of Major Thornburgh, who was killed in 1879 by the Utes;, was superintendent at West Point (1882–87); and commanded the military department of Missouri in 1887–95, and that of the Atlantic in 1897–98. He was assigned in May 1898 to the command of the United States forces that were sent to the Philippines, after Admiral Dewey’s victory; stormed Manila on the 13th of August; and was military governor of the islands until the 30th of August,
when he left Manila for Paris to join the peace commission. From 1899. until his retirement from active service in June 1900 he commanded the Department of the East.
MERSEBURG, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province
of Saxony, on the river Saale, 10 m. by rail S. of Halle and 15 m.
W. of Leipzig. Pop. (1905), 20,024. It consists of a quaint
and irregularly built old town, a new quarter, and two extensive
suburbs, Altenburg and Neumarkt. The cathedral, which was
restored in 1884–1886, has a choir, a crypt and two towers of the
11th, a transept of the 13th and a late Gothic nave of the 16th
century. Among its numerous monuments is one to Rudolph
of Swabia, the rival of the emperor Henry IV. It contains
- ↑ The name is an Indian word said to mean “swift water.” In popular usage the spelling “Merrimack” is used at places along the river above Haverhill.
