which one of its less influential members, an alferes (ensign) of cavalry named Joaquim José da Silva Xavier, nicknamed “Tira-dentes” (teeth-puller), was executed in Rio de Janeiro in 1792. The conspiracy originated in a belief that the Portuguese crown was about to enforce payment of certain arrears in the mining tax known as the “royal fifths,” and its object was to set up a republic in Brazil. Although a minor figure in the conspiracy, Tira-dentes was made the scapegoat of the thirty-two men arrested and sent to Rio de Janeiro for trial, and posterity has made him the proto-martyr of republicanism in Brazil.
OUSE, the name of several English rivers.
(1) The Great Ouse rises in Northamptonshire, in the slight hills between Banbury and Brackley, and falls only about 500 ft. in a course of 160 m. (excluding lesser windings) to its mouth in the Wash (North Sea). With an easterly direction it flows past Brackley and Buckingham and then turns N.E. to Stony Stratford, where the Roman Watling Street forded it. It receives the Tove from the N.W., and the Ouzel from the S. at Newport Pagnell. It then follows an extremely sinuous course past Olney to Sharnbrook, where it turns abruptly S. to Bedford. A north-easterly direction is then resumed past St Neot’s to Godmanchester and Huntingdon, when the river trends easterly to St Ives. Hitherto the Ouse has watered an open fertile valley, and there are many beautiful wooded reaches between Bedford and St Ives, while the river abounds in coarse fish. Below St Ives the river debouches suddenly upon the Fens; its fall from this point to the mouth, a distance of 55 m. by the old course, is little more than 20 ft. (the extensive system of artificial drainage cuts connected with the river is considered under Fens). From Earith to Denver the waters of the Ouse flow almost wholly in two straight artificial channels called the Bedford Rivers, only a small head passing, under ordinary conditions, along the old course, called the Old West River. This is joined by the Cam from the S. 4 m. above Ely. In its northward course from this point the river receives from the E. the Lark, the Little Ouse, or Brandon river, and the Wissey. Below Denver sluice, 16 m. from the mouth, the Ouse is tidal. It flows past King’s Lynn, and enters the Wash near the S.E. corner. The river is locked up to Bedford, a distance of 7412 m. by the direct course. In the lower part it bears a considerable traffic, but above St Ives it is little used, and above St Neot’s navigation has ceased. The drainage area of the Great Ouse is 2607 sq m.
(2) A river of Yorkshire. The river Ure, rising near the N.W. boundary of the county in the heart of the Pennines, and traversing the lovely valley famous under the name Wensleydale, unites with the river Swale to form the Ouse near the small town of Boroughbridge, which lies in the rich central plain of Yorkshire. The course of the Swale, which rises in the north of the county on the eastern flank of the Pennines, is mostly through this plain, and that of the Ouse is wholly so. It flows S.E. to York, thence for a short distance S. by W., then mainly S.E. again past Selby and Goole to the junction with the Trent; the great estuary so formed being known as the Humber. The course of the Ouse proper, thus defined, is 61 m. The Swale and Ure are each about 60 m. long. Goole is a large and growing port, and the river bears a considerable traffic up to York. There is also some traffic up to Boroughbridge, from which the Ure Navigation (partly a canal) continues up to Ripon. The Swale is not navigable. The chief tributaries are the Nidd, the Wharfe, the Don and the Aire from the W., and the Derwent from the N.E., but the detailed consideration of these involves that of the hydrography of the greater part of Yorkshire (q.v.). All, especially the western tributaries, traverse beautiful valleys, and the Aire and Don, with canals, are of importance as affording communications between the manufacturing district of south Yorkshire and the Humber ports. The Derwent is also navigable. The drainage area of the Ouse is 4133 sq. m. It is tidal up to Naburn locks, a distance of 37 m. from the junction with the Trent, and the total fall from Boroughbridge is about 40 ft.
(3) A river of Sussex, rising in the Forest Ridges between Horsham and Cuckfield, and draining an area of about 200 sq. m., mostly in the Weald. Like other streams of this locality, it breaches the South Downs, and reaches the English Channel at Newhaven after a course of 30 m. The eastward drift of beach-building material formerly diverted the mouth of this river from its present place to a point to the east near Seaford. The Ouse is navigable for small vessels to Lewes, and Newhaven is an important harbour.
OUSEL, or Ouzel, Anglo-Saxon ósle, equivalent of the German Amsel (a form of the word found in several old English books), apparently the ancient name for what is now more commonly known as the blackbird (q.v.), Turdus merula, but at the present day not often applied to that species, though used in a compound form for birds belonging to another genus and family.
Cinclus mexicanus.
The water-ousel, or water-crow, is now commonly named
the “dipper”—a term apparently invented and bestowed in the
first edition of T. Bewick’s British Birds (ii. 16, 17)—not, as is
commonly supposed, from the bird’s habit of entering the water
in pursuit of its
prey, but because
“it may be seen
perched on the top
of a stone in the
midst of the
torrent, in a
continual dipping
motion, or short
courtesy often
repeated.” The
English dipper,
Cinclus aquaticus,
is the type of a
small family, the
Cinclidae, probably
more nearly
akin to the wrens (q.v.) than to the thrushes, and with
examples throughout the more temperate portions of Europe
and Asia, as well as North and South America. The dipper
haunts rocky streams, into which it boldly enters, generally
by deliberately wading, and then by the strenuous combined
action of its wings and feet makes its way along the
bottom in quest of its living prey—fresh-water molluscs and
aquatic insects in their larval or mature condition. Complaints
of its attacks on the spawn of fish have not been
justified by examination of the stomachs of captured specimens.
Short and squat of stature, active and restless in its movements,
dusky above, with a pure white throat and upper part of the
breast, to which succeeds a broad band of dark bay, it is a familiar
figure to most fishermen on the streams it frequents. The
water-ousel’s nest is a very curious structure—outwardly
resembling a wren’s, but built on a wholly different principle—an
ordinary cup-shaped nest of grass lined with dead leaves, placed
in some convenient niche, but encased with moss so as to form
a large mass that covers it completely except a small hole for
the bird’s passage. The eggs laid within are from four to seven in
number, and are of a pure white. The young are able to swim
before they are fully fledged. (A. N.)
OUSELEY, SIR FREDERICK ARTHUR GORE (1825–1889), English composer, was the son of Sir Gore Ouseley, ambassador to Persia, and nephew to Sir William Ouseley, the Oriental scholar. He was born on the 12th of August 1825 in London, and manifested an extraordinary precocity in music, composing an opera at the age of eight years. In 1844, having succeeded to the baronetcy, he entered at Christ Church, and graduated B.A. in 1846 and M.A. in 1849. He was ordained in the latter year, and, as curate of St Paul’s, Knightsbridge, served the parish of St Barnabas, Pimlico, until 1851. In 1850 he took the degree of Mus. B. at Oxford, and four years afterwards that of Mus.D., his exercise being the oratorio St Polycarp. In 1855 he succeeded Sir Henry Bishop as professor of music in the University of Oxford, was ordained priest and appointed precentor of Hereford. In 1856 he became vicar of St Michael’s, Tenbury, and warden
