Jack Cade was the ringleader of the insurrection that broke out in Kent, 1450. He was an Irishman, and called himself Mortimer, claiming to be a natural son of the Duke of York. He marched to London at the head of twenty thousand armed men, who encamped at Black-heath, June 1, 1450. Being slain by Alexander Iden, July 11, his head was stuck on London Bridge.

The name "Ironsides," was popularly applied to the regiment of a thousand horse, which Cromwell raised mainly in the eastern counties for service against King Charles I. early in the great Civil War. The name, already given for his bravery to an English king, Edmund, was first attached to Cromwell himself, but passed easily to the men at whose head he first appeared at Edgehill.

Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, Baron von Munchhausen, was a member of an ancient, noble family of Hanover, whose name has become proverbial as the narrator of false and ridiculously exaggerated exploits and adventures. He was born May 11, 1720, at Bodenwerder, in Hanover, served as a cavalry officer in Russian campaigns against the Turks, and died at his birthplace, February 22, 1797.

Dismal Swamp, measuring thirty miles from north to south by ten in breadth, lies chiefly in Virginia, but partly in North Carolina. In the center is Lake Drummond, about six miles broad; elsewhere its dense growth of cypress and cedar has been greatly thinned, and part of the region has been reclaimed. The tract is intersected by a canal connecting Chesapeake Bay and Albemarle Sound.

Alloway, Burns' birthplace, and the scene of his "Tarn o' Shanter," lies on the right bank of the "bonny Doon," two miles south of the town of Ayr. The "auld clay biggin," in which the poet was born on 23d January, 1759, was in 1880 converted into a Burns Museum. The " haunted kirk " still stands, a roofless ruin, near the "Auld Brig; " and hard by is the Burns Monument erected in 1820.

The subject of the famous song "Annie Laurie" was the eldest of the three daughters of Sir Robert Laurie, of Maxwelton. In 1709 she married James Fergusson, of Craigdarroch, and was the mother of Alexander Fergusson, the hero of Burn's song, "The Whistle." The song of "Annie Laurie "was written by William Douglas, of Finland, in the stewardry of Kirkcudbright, hero of the song "Willie was a Wanton Wag."

In Java the "Valley of the Upas Tree" is sometimes called the "Valley of Death," and its deadly influence was formerly ascribed to the malignant properties of a peculiar vegetable production of the island, called the "upas tree," which especially flourishes in this locality. Recent travelers, however, declare that accounts of the fatality attending a passage of this famous valley have been greatly exaggerated.

Crispinos and Crispianus were two brothers, born at Rome, from which place they traveled to Soissons, in France (about a.d. 303), to propagate the gospel, and worked as shoemakers, that they might not be chargeable to any one. The governor of the town ordered them to be beheaded the very year of their arrival, and they were made the tutelary saints of the "gentle craft." St. Crispin's Day is October 25.

The nine worthies is the title given to the following eminent men: Jews: Joshua (1426 B.C.), David (1015 B.C.), Judas Maccabaeus (161 B.C.); Heathens: Hector of Troy (1184 B.C.), Alexander the Great (323 B.C.), Julius Caesar (44 B.C.); Christians: King Arthur of Britain (542 a.d.), Charlemagne of France (814 a.d.),.Godfrey of Bouillon (1100 a.d.). In some lists Gideon and Samson are introduced, and in others Hercules and Pompey.

San Marino, in Italy, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, is the oldest Republic in the world. It is, next to Monaco, the smallest State in Europe. The exact date of the establishment of this Republic is not known, but according to tradition it was in the fourth century, by Marinus, a Dalmatian hermit, and has ever since remained independent. It is mountainous and contains four or five villages. The word "liberty" is inscribed on its capitol.

The Tuileries is the name of a garden and palace in Paris, built on the site of an ancient fabrique de tuiles. It was composed of three great pavilions, called Le pavilion de Marsan (north), the pavilion de Flore (south), and the pavilion de l'Horloge (center). It was joined to the Louvre by Napoleon III. (1851-6). The land was bought by Francois I. in 1564, and the original palace was made for Catherine de Medicis after the design of Philibert Delorme.

Since 1811 Ajaccio has been the capital of Corsica. It has a fine cathedral, completed in 1585, and a spacious harbor, protected by a citadel; but its special interest is as the birthplace of Napoleon. There is a statue of him as First Consul (1850), and a monument of the emperor on horseback, surrounded by his four brothers (1865). The house of the Bona-partes, the "Casa Bonaparte" is now national property. The chief employments are the anchovy and pearl fisheries, and the trade in wine and olive-oil, which the neighborhood produces in abundance, and of good quality. Of late years Ajaccio has become a winter resort for consumptive patients.

The familiar name Bedlam is a corruption of Bethlehem, formerly a hospital founded by Simon Fitz-Mary in Bishopsgate Street Without, London, in 1246, as " a privy of canons, with brethren and sisters." When the religious houses were suppressed by Henry VIII. the corporation converted it into a lunatic asylum for six lunatics, but in 1641, the funds being insufficient, partly convalescent patients were turned out to beg, and wore a badge. These were the " Bedlam Beggars," generally called "Tom-o'-Bedlams." In 1675 the old building was taken down and a new one was erected in Moorfields. In 1814 this building was also pulled down, and a new hospital built in St. George's Fields.

Bramah (Joseph), a peasant's son, occupied his spare time when a mere boy in making musical instruments, aided by the village blacksmith. At the age of sixteen he hurt his ankle while plowing, and employed his time while confined to the house in carving and making wood-wares. In another forced leisure from a severe fall he employed his time in contriving and making useful inventions, which ultimately led him to fame and fortune (1749-1814).