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 falsity of this judgment. After the peace he went to Canada, but in 1867 returned to resume the practice of law. For a time he managed in conjunction with General Beauregard the Louisiana lottery. He died at Lynchburg, Va., on the 2nd of March 1894. General Early was for a time president of the Southern Historical Society, and wrote, besides various essays and historical papers, A Memoir of the Last Year of the War, &c. (1867).

 EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD, in architecture, the term given by Rickman to the first pointed or Gothic style in England, nominally 1189–1307, which succeeded the Romanesque or Norman period towards the end of the 12th century, and developed into the Decorated period in the commencement of the 14th century. It is chiefly characterized by the almost universal employment of the pointed arch, not only in arches of wide span such as those of the nave arcade, but for doorways and windows. The actual introduction of the pointed arch took place at a much earlier date, as in the nave arcade of the Cistercian Abbey of Buildwas (1140), though the clerestory window above has semicircular arches. It is customary, therefore, to make allowance for a transitional epoch from the middle of the 12th century. Although the pointed arches used are sometimes equilateral and sometimes drop-arches, the lancet-arch is the most characteristic. The period is best recognized in England by the great depth given to the hollows of the mouldings, alternating with fillets and rolls, by the decoration of the hollows with the dog-tooth ornament, by the circular abacus of the capitals, and the employment of slender detached shafts of Purbeck marble which are attached to piers by circular moulded shaft-rings (Fr. anneau).

The arches are sometimes cusped; circles with trefoils, quatrefoils, &c., are introduced into the tracery, and large rose windows in the transept or nave, as at Lincoln (1220). The conventional foliage decorating the capitals is of great beauty and variety, and extends to spandrils, bosses, &c. In the spandrils of the arches of the nave, transept or choir arcades, diaper work is occasionally found, as in the transept of Westminster Abbey. The latter is one of the chief examples of the period, to which must be added the cathedral of Salisbury (except the tower); the Galilee at Ely; nave and transept of Wells (1225–1240); nave of Lincoln; west front of Peterborough; and the minster at Beverley.

 EARN, the name of a loch and river in Perthshire, Scotland. The loch, lying almost due east and west, is 6 m. long and m. in maximum breadth, 287 ft. deep, with a mean depth of 138 ft., covers an area of nearly 4 sq. m., has a drainage basin of over 54 sq. m., and stands 317 ft. above the sea. Its waters are said never to freeze. It discharges by the river Earn. The points of interest on its shores are Lochearnhead (at the southern extremity of Glen Ogle), which has a station on the Callander-Oban railway, and the ruins of St Blane’s chapel; Edinample Castle, an old turreted mansion belonging to the marquess of Breadalbane, situated in well-wooded grounds near the pretty falls of the Ample; Ardvorlich House, the original of Darlinvarach in Scott’s Legend of Montrose, and the village of St Fillans at the foot of the loch, once the terminus of the branch of the Caledonian railway from Perth. The river flows out of Loch Earn, pursues an eastward course with a gentle inclination towards the south, and reaches the Firth of Tay, 6 m. below Perth, after a total run of 49 m. Its chief tributaries on the right are the Ruchil, Machany, Ruthven, May and Farg, and on the left, the Lednock and Turret. It is navigable by vessels of 50 tons as far up as Bridge of Earn, and is a notable fishing stream, abounding with salmon and trout, perch and pike being also plentiful. On the Lednock are the falls of the Devil’s Cauldron and on the Turret and its feeders several graceful cascades. The principal places of interest on the banks of the Earn are Dunira, the favourite seat of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, who took the title of his barony from the estate and to whose memory an obelisk was raised on the adjoining hill of Dunmore; the village of Comrie; the town of Crieff; the ruined castle of Innerpeffray, founded in 1610 by the 1st Lord Maderty, close to which is the library founded in 1691 by the 3rd Lord Maderty, containing some rare black-letter books and the Bible that belonged to the marquess of Montrose; Gascon Hall, now in ruins, but with traditions reaching back to the days of Wallace; Dupplin Castle, a fine Tudor mansion, seat of the earl of Kinnoull, who derives from it the title of his viscounty; Aberdalgie, Forgandenny and Bridge of Earn, a health resort situated amidst picturesque surroundings. Strathearn, as the valley of the Earn is called, extending from the loch to the Firth of Tay, is a beautiful and, on the whole, fertile tract, though liable at times to heavy floods. The earl of Perth is hereditary steward of Strathearn.

 EARNEST (probably a corruption of the obsolete arles or erles, adapted from Lat. equivalent arrha, due to a confusion with the adjective “earnest,” serious, O. Eng. eornust, cognate with Ger. ernst), the payment of a sum of money by the buyer of goods to the seller on the conclusion of a bargain as a pledge for its due performance. It is almost similar to the arrha of the Roman law, which may be traced back in the history of legal institutions to a period when the validity of a contract depended not so much upon the real intention of the parties, as upon the due observance of a prescribed ceremony. But earnest was never part payment, which arrha might have been. Apart from its survival as a custom, its chief importance in English law is its recognition by the Statute of Frauds as giving validity to contracts for the sale of goods of a value exceeding £10 (see ). It is in that statute clearly distinguished from part payment, consequently any sum, however small, would be sufficient as earnest, being given as a token that the contract is binding and should be expressly stated so by the giver. The giving of earnest, or hand-money, as it is sometimes called, has now fallen into very general disuse.

  EAR-RING, an ornament worn pendent from the ear, and generally suspended (especially among the more civilized races) by means of a ring or hook passing through the pendulous lobe of the ear. Among savage races the impulse to decorate, or at any rate to modify the appearance of the ear, is almost universal. With such peoples the ear appendage is chiefly remarkable for its extravagant dimensions. Many examples may be seen in the ethnographic galleries of the British Museum. The Berawan people of Borneo use plugs through the lobe of the ear 3 in. in diameter. More extraordinary still is an example of a stone ear-plug worn by a Masai, 4 in. in diameter and weighing 2 ℔ 14 oz. (Man, 1905, p. 22). It is stated that according to the Masai standard of fashion, the lobes of the ears should be enlarged so as to be capable of meeting above the head. Among the superior races, though ear ornaments of extravagant size and elaboration are not unknown, moderation in size is commonly observed, and greater attention is paid to workmanship and fineness of material.

The general usage appears to have been to have ear-rings worn in pairs, the two ornaments in all respects resembling each other; in ancient times, or more recently among Oriental races, a single ear-ring has sometimes been worn. The use of this kind of ornament, which constantly was of great value, dates from the remotest historical antiquity, the earliest mention of ear-rings occurring in the book of Genesis. It appears probable that the ear-rings of Jacob’s family, which he buried with his strange idols at Bethel, were regarded as amulets or talismans, such unquestionably being the estimation in which some ornaments of this class have been held from a very early period, as they still are held in the East. Thus in New Zealand ear-rings are decorated with the teeth of enemies, and with talismanic sharks’ teeth. Among all the Oriental races of whom we have any accurate knowledge, the Hebrews and Egyptians excepted, ear-rings always have been in general use by both sexes; while in the West, as well as by the Hebrews and Egyptians, as a general rule they have been considered exclusively female ornaments. By the Greeks and Romans also ear-rings were worn only by women, and the wearing of them by a man is often spoken of as distinctively oriental.

In archaic art, ear-rings are frequently represented or their traces are left in the perforated ear lobes of early statues. After the 4th century such perforations occur seldom. In one instance,