Vienna Imperial Library). Strode is also associated with John Gower in Chaucer’s dedication of Troylus and Cryseyde, and Strode himself, according to the 15th-century Vetus catalogus of fellows of Merton, was a “poeta nobilis.” Leland and Bale confirm this testimony, and Professor I. Gollancz has suggested the identification of the Phantasma Radulphi attributed to Strode in the Vetus catalogue with the beautiful 14th-century elegiac poem The Pearl. If this hold good, Strode wrote also Cleanness, Patience, and Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight. From 1375 to 1385 this Strode or another of the same name was common sergeant of the city of London; he died in 1387.
See Prantl, Geschichte der Logik; for an attempt to distinguish between Strode the schoolman and Strode the poet, see J. T. T. Brown, in The Scottish Antiquary (1897), vol. xii.
STRODE, WILLIAM (1598–1645), English parliamentarian,
second son of Sir William Strode, of Newnham, Devonshire
(a member of an ancient family long established in that county,
which became extinct in 1897), and of Mary, daughter of Thomas
Southcote of Bovey Tracey in Devonshire, was born in 1598.
He was admitted as a student of the Inner Temple in 1614,
matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford, in 1617, and took the
degree of B.A. in 1619. He was returned to parliament in 1624
for Beeralston, and represented the borough in all succeeding
parliaments till his death. He from the first threw himself into
opposition to Charles I. and took a leading part in the disorderly
scene of the 2nd of March 1629, when the speaker, Sir John
Finch, refusing to put the resolution of Sir J. Eliot against
arbitrary taxation and innovations in religion, was held down
in the chair (see Holles, Denzil). Prosecuted before the star
chamber, he refused " to answer anything done in the House of
Parliament but in that House." On the 7th of May a fresh
warrant was issued, and a month later, to prevent his release
on bail, he was sent by Charles with two of his fellow members
to the Tower. Refusing to give a bond for his good behaviour,
he was sentenced to imprisonment during the king’s pleasure,
and was kept in confinement in various prisons for eleven years.
In January 1640, in accordance with the king’s new policy of
moderation, he was liberated; and on the 13th of April took his
seat in the Short Parliament, with a mind embittered by the
sense of his wrongs. In the Long Parliament, which met on the
3rd of November 1640, he was the first to propose the control
by parliament over ministerial appointments, the militia, and
its own duration; supported the Grand Remonstrance of the 7th
of November 1641; and displayed a violent zeal in pursuing
the prosecution of Strafford, actually proposing that all who
appeared as the prisoner’s counsel should be " charged as
conspirators in the same treason." As a result he was included
among the five members impeached by Charles of high treason
on the 3rd of January 1642. (See Pym, John; Eliot, Sir John;
Hampden, John; Hesilrige, Sir Arthur; and Charles I.).
He opposed all suggestions of compromise with Charles, urged
on the preparations for war, and on the 23rd of October was
present at the battle of Edgehill. In the prosecution ai Laud he
showed the same relentless zeal as he had in that of Strafford,
and it was he who, on the 28th of November 1644, carried up
the message from the Commons to the Lords, desiring them to
hasten on the ordinance for the archbishop’s execution. Strode
did not long survive his victim. He is mentioned as having
been elected a member of the assembly of divines on the 31st
of January 1645. He died on the 9th of September of the same
year, and by order of parliament was accorded a public funeral
in Westminster Abbey. The body was exhumed after the
Restoration. Strode was a man of strong character, but of
narrow, though clear and decided judgment, both his good and
his bad qualities being exaggerated by the wrongs he had
suffered: Clarendon speaks of him as a man " of low account
and esteem," who only gained his reputation by his accidental
association with those greater than himself; but to his own party
his " insuperable constancie " gave him a title to rank with those
who had, at a time when the liberties of England hung in the
balance, deserved best of their country.
The identity of the W. Strode imprisoned in 1628 and of the W. Strode impeached in 1642 has been questioned, but is now established (J. Vorster, Arrest of the Five Members, p 198, note; Life of Sir J. Eliot, ed. 1872, ii. 237, note; J. L. Sanford, Studies, p. 397 ; Gardiner, Hist. of England, ix. 223). On the other hand he is to be distinguished from Colonel Wm. Strode of Barrington, also parliamentarian and M.P., who died in 1666; and from William Strode (1602 or 1600–1645), the orator, poet and dramatist, whose poetical works were edited, with a memoir, by Bertram Dobell in 1907.
STROMNESS, a police burgh and seaport, in the island of
Pomona, county of Orkney, Scotland. Pop. (1901), 2450. It
is situated on the side of a well-sheltered bay, 14 m. by steamer
west of Kirkwall. Many of the houses are within tidal limits
and furnished with quays and jetties. The harbour admits
vessels of all sizes and is provided with a pier and slips. The
deep-sea fishery attracts hundreds of boats from the north of
Scotland, and most of the catch is cured for the English, German
and Dutch markets. Stromness is in daily communication with
Scrabster pier (Thurso), and at frequent intervals with Kirkwall
by coach and also by steamer. It is a port of call for ships
trading with the north of Europe as well as for vessels outward
bound to the Arctic regions, Hudson Bay and Canada. The
magnificent scenery of the west coast of Pomona is commonly
visited from Stromness. The tour includes Black Craig (400 ft.),
on which the schooner " Star of Dundee " was wrecked in 1834;
the grand stacks of North Gaulton Castle and Yesnaby Castle ; the
Hole of Row, a natural arch carved out by the ocean; Birsay,
where are the ruins of the palace built by Robert Stewart, earl of
Orkney (d. 1592), natural son of James V., the traces of a church
which is believed to have been built by Jarl Thorfinn on his
return from Rome, in which the remains of St Magnus reposed
until their burial in Kirkwall Cathedral, and, on the Broch of
Birsay (95 ft. high), the ruins of St Peter’s church.
STRONGYLION, a Greek sculptor, the author of a bronze
figure of a horse set up on the Acropolis of Athens late in the
5th century B.C., which represented the wooden horse of Troy
with the Greek heroes inside it and looking forth. The inscribed
basis of this figure has been found. Other works of the sculptor
were a figure of Artemis at Megara, a group of the Muses, and an
Amazon which was greatly admired by the emperor Nero.
STRONTIANITE, a mineral consisting of strontium carbonate,
SrCO3. It takes its name from Strontian in Argyllshire, where
it appears to have been known as far back as 1764, but it
was not recognized as a distinct mineral until later, when the
examination of it led to the discovery of the element strontium.
It crystallizes in the orthorhombic system and is isomorphous
with aragonite and witherite. Distinctly developed crystals
are, however, of rare occurrence; they are usually acicular with
acute pyramid-planes and are repeatedly twinned on the prism.
Radiating, fibrous or granular aggregates are more common.
The colour is white, pale green or yellowish brown. The hardness
is 312 and the specific gravity 3·7. Strontium is sometimes
partly replaced by an equivalent amount of calcium. The
mineral occurs in metalliferous veins in the lead mines of Strontium
in Argyllshire, Pateley Bridge in Yorkshire, Braunsdorf
near Freiberg in Saxony; abundantly in veins in calcareous
marl near Münster and Hamm in Westphalia; and in limestone
at Schoharie in New York. It is used for producing red fire
in pyrotechny and for refining sugar. (L. J. S.)
STRONTIUM [Symbol Sr, atomic weight 87·62 (O=16)], a
metallic chemical element belonging to the alkaline earth group.
It is found in small quantities very widely distributed in various
rocks and soils, and in mineral waters; its chief sources are
the minerals strontianite, celestine and barytocelestine. The
metal was detected in the mineral strontianite, found at Strontian
in Argyllshire, by Cruikshank in 1787, and by Crawford in
1790; and the discovery was confirmed by Hope in 1792 and by
Klaproth in 1793. The metal was isolated in 1807 by Sir H.
Davy by electrolysing the moist hydroxide or chloride, and has
been obtained by A. Guntz and Roederer (Comptes rendus, 1906,
142, p. 400) by heating the hydride in a vacuum to 1000°. By
electrolysing an aqueous solution of the chloride with a mercury
cathode, a liquid and a solid amalgam, SrHg11, are obtained;
