thorns protect the plant which bears them from the attacks of animals seeking food.
Prickles are structures of less importance from the morphological point of view, being mere superficial outgrowths which may occur anywhere on stem or leaf, or even fruit.
THORNABY-ON-TEES, a municipal borough in the North Riding of Yorkshire, England, 3 m. S.W. of Middlesbrough, on the North-Eastern railway. Pop. (1901), 16,054. It lies opposite Stockton-on-Tees, with which it is connected by a bridge, on the river Tees. There are blast furnaces, iron foundries, engineering works, iron ship-building yards, extensive saw-mills, flour-mills and a manufactory of “blue and white” pottery. The town was formerly known as South Stockton, and is still included in the parliamentary borough of Stockton (it is within the Cleveland division of the county), but was incorporated as a separate municipal borough in 1892. It is under a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Area, 1927 acres.
THORNE, a market town in the Doncaster parliamentary
division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, 10 m. N.E. of Doncaster
by the North-Eastern railway, served also by a branch of the
Great Central railway. Pop. (1901), 3818. It lies near the
river Don, in a low, flat district, which was formerly a marshy
waste, resembling the fens of the eastern counties. Hatfield
Chase, a portion of this tract south of Thorne, was partly drained
by the Dutch engineer Vermuyden in the 17th century, and there
were in the district numerous Dutch settlers. The Chase is
generally considered to have been the scene of the battle of
Heathfield in 633, when King Edwin of Northumbria fell before
the heathen King Penda of Mercia. The Levels, as this district
is generally named, are of remarkable fertility, and Thorne,
having water communication with Goole and the Humber, is
consequently an agricultural centre of importance; while some
barge-building and a trade in peat fibre are also carried on.
The church of St Nicholas is a fine building of various periods
from the 12th century.
THORNHILL, SIR JAMES (1676–1734), English historical painter, was born at Melcombe Regis, Dorset, in 1676, of an ancient but impoverished county family. His father died while he was young, but he was befriended by his maternal uncle, the celebrated Dr Sydenham, and apprenticed to Thomas Highmore, serjeant-painter to King William III., a connexion of the Thornhill family. Little is known regarding his early career. About 1715 he visited Holland, Flanders and France;
and, having obtained the patronage of Queen Anne, he was in 1719–1720 appointed her serjeant-painter in succession to Highmore, and was ordered to decorate the interior of the dome of St Paul's with a series of eight designs, in chiaroscuro heightened with gold, illustrative of the life of that apostle—a commission for which Louis Laguerre had previously been selected by the commissioners for the repair of the cathedral. He also designed and decorated the saloon and hall of Moor Park, Herts, and painted the great hall at Blenheim, the princesses' apartments at Hampton Court, the hall and staircase of the South Sea Company, the chapel at Wimpole, the staircase at Easton-Neston, Northamptonshire, and the hall at Greenwich Hospital, usually considered his most important and successful work, upon which he was engaged from 1708 to 1727. Among his easel pictures are the altar-pieces of All Souls and Queen's College chapels, Oxford, and that in Melcombe Regis church; and he executed such portrait subjects as that of Sir Isaac Newton, in Trinity College, Cambridge, and the picture of the House of Commons
in 1730, in the possession of the earl of Hardwicke, in which he was assisted by Hogarth, who married Jane, his only daughter. He also produced a few etchings in a slight and sketchy but effective manner, and executed careful full-size copies of Raphael's cartoons, which now belong to the Royal Academy. About 1724 he drew up a proposal for the establishment of a royal academy of the arts, and his scheme had the support of the lord treasurer Halifax, but government declined to furnish the needful funds. Thornhill then opened a drawing-school in
his own house in James Street, Covent Garden, where instruction continued to be given till the time of his death. He acquired
a considerable fortune by his art, and was enabled to repurchase his family estate of Thornhill, Dorsetshire. In 1715 he was knighted by George I., and in 1719 he represented Melcombe Regis in parliament, a borough for which Sir Christopher Wren had previously been member. Having been removed from his office by some court intrigue, and suffering from broken health and repeated attacks of gout, he retired to his country seat, where he died on the 4th of May 1734. His son James, also an artist, succeeded his father as serjeant-painter to George II. and was appointed “painter to the navy.”
The high contemporary estimate of Sir James Thornhill's works has not since been confirmed; in spite of Dr Young, “late times” do not
“Understand
How Raphael's pencil lives in Thornhill's hands.”
He is weak in drawing — indeed, when dealing with complicated figures he was assisted by Thomas Gibson; and, ignorant of the great monumental art of Italy, he formed himself upon the lower model of Le Brun.
THORNHILL, an urban district in the Morley parliamentary division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, 2 m. S. of Dewsbury, on the Great Northern, Lancashire & Yorkshire, and London & North-Western railways. Pop. (1901), 10,290. The church of St Michael has a modern nave, but the chancel with aisles are of good Decorated work, and the tower is Perpendicular. There are interesting monuments of the ancient family of Savile, the site of whose mansion, Thornhill Hall, may be traced near the church. The east window of the church contains fine fragments of stained glass of the 15th century. The large industrial population is employed in the woollen mills and manufactures of shoddy, carpets, &c., which are numerous in this locality.
THORNHILL, a village of the parish of Morton, Nithsdale,
Dumfriesshire, Scotland, 14 m. N.N.W. of Dumfries by the
Glasgow & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901), 1132. It
is beautifully situated in the midst of tree-clad hills and
watered by the bountiful Nith and such streams as the
Carron, Cample and Crichope. Morton parish church lies in
the village, and among other buildings are the library and
the natural history museum, in the grounds of which there
is a statue of Richard Cameron, the covenanter (1680). The
weekly sales of livestock are important, and an agricultural
show is held every September. Three miles N.N.W. stands
Drumlanrig Castle, a seat of the duke of Buccleuch. It is built
of red sandstone in the form of a hollow square, and has 145 ft.
of outer walls, which are surmounted with turrets, and
capped and spired at the angles. The castle was begun in 1679
and finished in 1689, and cost the first duke of Queensberry an
immense sum. He is believed to have spent but a single night
under its roof. The fourth duke of Queensberry, Old “ Q., ”
incurred the wrath of Robert Burns and Wordsworth by his
wanton destruction of the magnificent woods. On the death of
“ Old Q.” without issue in 1810, Henry, third duke of Buccleuch,
succeeded to the dukedom of Queensberry, and the property
has since been adequately cared for. Trees, planted on the
most extensive scale, have repaired the ravages of the former
owner; the gardens have been laid out with exquisite taste; and
the vast policy, intersected by the Nith, is one of the finest parks
in Scotland. The ruins of Tibber's Castle, dismantled in 1311
by Robert Bruce, stand in the grounds, about 1 m. from
the ducal mansion. Two miles and a half N.N.E. of
Thornhill is found another ruined fortress, that of Morton
Castle, interesting as the residence of Thomas Randolph, earl
of Moray, regent during the early years of the minority of
David II., and as belonging afterwards to a branch of the
Douglases, who derived from it the title of earl. About 3 m.
south-east of Thornhill stands the ruined castle of Closeburn,
once a stronghold of the Kirkpatricks. It was Sir Roger of that
ilk who helped “ mak sikker” the death of John, “Red”
Comyn, of Badenoch (1306). In Closeburn parish (pop. 1275)
occur cairns, tumuli and a stone circle, besides Roman and
prehistoric remains. Two mineral wells give the place the
