chiefly an agricultural town, and has an industry in lace-making and straw-plaiting. Its ducks, raised for the London market, have quite a repu- tation. Population, in 1901, 9250. Aylesbury is a very ancient town, having been taken from the Britons by the Saxons in 571.
AYLESBURY. A breed of large domestic ducks. See Duck.
AYLESFORD, alz'ferd.
A village in Kent, England, picturesquely situated on the Medway, 39 miles southeast of London. Remarkable ancient remains occur here, comprising an extensive cromlech, or burying-place, known as Kits-Coity, and, in the neighboring chalk-hills, large circular sepulchral pits.
AYLLON, Myr.n',
Lucas Vasquez de (c. 1475-1526). A Spanish adventurer. He came to America, became a member of the Superior Court of Santo Domingo, and in 1521 sent Gordillo to explore the coast of the present Florida. He himself visited James River and Chesapeake Bay in 1524, and, liking the country, applied for and received a grant to the surrounding territory from Charles V. In 1526 he brought about 600 colonists to the site of Jamestown, Va. (q.v.), and with the help of a large number of negro slaves, probably the first ever employed within the present limits of the United States, endeavored to build a town, which he called San Miguel. Before the end of the year, however, he died of fever, and his colony soon afterwards was broken up by sickness, civil strife, and a negro insurrection. Many of the survivors were shipwrecked on their way back to Hispaniola, and only 150 reached their destination in safety. Consult W. Lowery, Spanish Settlements Within the Present Limits of the United States, 1513-65 (New York, 1901).
AYLMER, al'mer.
The name of two Canadian lakes. (1) Lake Aylmer, 80 miles north of Great Slave Lake, is about 5O miles long by 30 miles broad. (2) Lake Aylmer, in Wolfe County, Que., lies 69 miles south of Quebec. It is drained by the Saint Francis River.
AYLMER. A village in Wright County, Province of Quebec, Canada, on Lake Deschaines, at the foot of steam navigation for the Upper Ottawa. Population, in 1901, 2291. It is a favorite summer resort, connected with Ottawa by an electric railway.
AYLMER, or Elmer, John (1521-94). An English theologian. He was born at Aylmer Hall, Norfolk: graduated B.A. at Cambridge, 1541, and immediately thereafter became tutor to Lady Jane Grey. In June, 1553, he was made Archdeacon of Stow, but on Mary's accession, October, 1553, he fled the country lest his pronounced Protestantism should bring him into trouble, and lived on the Continent till Elizabeth's accession (1558). In 1562 he became Archdeacon of Lincoln, and in 1577 Bishop of London, in which position he showed a very arbitrary temper and was most unpopular. He died in London, June 3, 1594. His only literary production of note is his reply to John Knox's Monstrous Regiment of Women, entitled, An harborowe for faithfull and trewe subjects, against the late blowne blast concerning the government of women (Strassburg, 1559). For his biography, consult J. Strype, new edition (Oxford, 1820).
AYLMER, Matthew, Lord (c. 1643-1720). A British naval officer, born in the county of Meath, Ireland. He entered the navy in 1678, and served until 1688 on the Algerian coast and in the Mediterranean. At the battle of Beachy Head (1690), and at Barfleur (1692), he commanded the Royal Katherine. He was made rear-admiral in 1693, vice-admiral in 1694, and admiral in 1698. In the latter year he was sent to the Mediterranean to arrange the treaties with Tunis, Tripoli, and Algiers. He was commander-in-chief of the fleet from 1709 to 1711, and was reinstated upon the accession of George I. (1714).
AYLOFFE, fi'lOf.
Sir Joseph (1708-81). An eminent English antiquary. He attended St. John's College, Oxford, for a time and at an early age evinced considerable interest in antiquities. In 1731 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and in the following year a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. In 1763 he was made one of the commissioners for the preservation of the State papers, and in 1772 published a valuable work entitled, Calendars of the Ancient Charters and of the Welch and Scottish Rolls Now Remaining in the Tower (1780). He also wrote several useful papers for the publications of the Society of Antiquaries, and at the time of his death was engaged on the work known as Gough's Sepulchral Monuments (1799), which he had projected.
AYMARA, I'ma-rli'.
The name commonly applied to a confederacy or group of semi-civilized tribes centring in the high plateau about Lake Titicaca, in Peru and Bolivia, and numbering now, including mixed bloods, more than half a million. At the time of the discovery they were subject to the Incas, but there is considerable ground for the opinion held by some writers that they are themselves the originators of the Inca (Quichua) civilization. Physically they are distinguished for their great chest development, due to the rarefied air which they breathe. The mysterious cyclopean ruins of Tiahuanaco are within their territory, and are probably of Aymara origin. The language appears to constitute a distinct linguistic stock, although it shows strong Quichuan correspondences.
AYMON, a'mon.
The surname of four brothers, called respectively Alard, Richard, Guiscard, and Renaud, sons of Aymon, or Haimon, Count of Dordogne, who figure among the most illustrious heroes of the chivalric poetry of the Middle Ages. The story belongs to the cycle of romances in which Charlemagne is the central figure. Huon de Villeneuve, a French poet of the time of Philip Augustus (1180-1223), tells the story in his poem, entitled, Les quatre fils Aymon, while Ariosto later conferred poetical immortality on the family by the publication of his Orlando furioso, in which Renaud, or Roland, the bravest of the four brothers, plays the most distinguished part. Caxton printed, about 1489, an English translation of the story, and in 1884-85 the Early English Text Society reprinted Caxton's work, under the title, The Four Sons of Aymon. Tieck, the popular German writer, edited and published the story, but seems to have taken it from a different source. See Roland, The Song of.
AYR, ar.
A seaport and the county-town of Ayrshire, Scotland, situated on the Firth of
