Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/466

Rh 430 A I R A I S part of a mixed race, combining the finer personal traits of the Berbers with the characteristics of the negro. The king or sultan of Air occupies a very precarious position, being to a great extent dependent on the chiefs of the Tawarek tribes inhabiting a vast tract of the Sahara to the north-west, who are continually at war among them selves. A large part of the revenue of the king is derived from tribute exacted from the salt caravan. His authority does not seem to be great in the outlying parts of his dominions. The chief town of Air is AGADES (q.v.) (See Dr Earth s Travels in Central Africa, vol. i.) AIR AY, HENKY, D.D. This celebrated Puritan presi dent of Queen s College, Oxford, was born at Kentmere, nerr Windermere, but no record remains of the date of either birth or baptism. Anthony a Wood names West moreland as his birthplace. In the well-known Life of Bernard Gilpin it is told that when he was making pre parations for martyrdom, he &quot; received the account with great composure ; and immediately after called up William Air ay, a favourite domestic, who had long served him as his almoner and steward.&quot; From the great kindness shown to our Airay by Gilpin, and from the vicinity of Kentmere to the Rectory, it does not appear to be hazarding too much to assume that this William Airay was his father, and that the family tradition is right in assigning Kentmere, not Barton or Wilford, as his birth place. The truly apostolic man s bounty showed itself in sending Henry and a (probable) brother Ewan or Evan to his own endowed school, where they were fully educated &quot; in grammatical learning,&quot; and were in attendance at Oxford when Gilpin lay a-dying. From the Athence we glean the details of Airay s college attendance. He was &quot; sent,&quot; says Wood, &quot; to St Edmund s Hall in 1579, aged nineteen or thereabouts.&quot; &quot; Soon after,&quot; he continues, &quot;our author, Airay, was translated to Queen s College, where he became pauper puer serviens ; that is, a poor serving child that waits on the fellows in the common hall at meals, and in their chambers, and do other servile work about the college.&quot; His transference to Queen s College&quot; is explained by its having been Gilpin s own college, and by his Westmoreland origin giving him a claim on Eaglesfield s foundation. He proceeded B.A. on June 19, 1583. On June 15, 1586, he passed M.A. ; B.D. in 1594; and D.D. on June 17, 1600 all in Queen s College. &quot; About the time he was master&quot; (1556), &quot;he entered holy orders, and became a frequent and zealous preacher in the university.&quot; His Commentary on the Epistle to the Philippians (1618), reprinted 1864, is a specimen of his preaching before his college, and of his fiery denunciation of Popery, and his fearless enunciation of. that Calvinism which Oxford, in common with all England, prized then. In 1598 he was chosen provost of his college, and in 1606 was vice-chancellor of the uni versity. In the discharge of his vice-chancellor s duties, he came into conflict with Laud, who even thus early was betraying his Romish tendencies. He was also rector of Otmore (or Otmoor), near Oxford, a living which involved him in a trying litigation, whereof present incumbents reap the benefit. He died on 6th October 1616. His character as a man, preacher, divine, and as an important ruler in the university, will be found portrayed in the Epistle by Potter, prefixed to the Commentary. He must have been a fine specimen of the more cultured Puritans possessed of a robust common-sense in admirable contrast with some of his contemporaries. (Lectures on the whole Epistle of Paul to the Philippians, 1618, 1864; Wood s Athence, by Bliss, ii. 177, 178, &c. ; Laud s Works; Wills (Surtees Society.) (A. B. o.) AIRDRIE, a parliamentary and municipal burgh and market-town of Scotland, in the parish of New Monkland, Lanarkshire, 11 miles E. of Glasgow and 32 W. of Edin burgh. The high road between these cities passes through Airdrie, forming its principal street, from which others diverge at right angles. It is well built, paved, and lighted with gas, but it contains little that is beautiful or attrac tive. It possesses a fine town-hall and a handsome edifice erected as the county buildings, as well as two places of worship belonging to the Church of Scotland, three to the Free Church, two to the United Presbyterians, and one each to the Reformed Presbyterians, the Congregationalists, the Baptists, the Wesleyan Methodists, and the Roman Catholics; five branch banks, with excellent places of business constructed or in course of construction; a me chanics institute, and several schools. The extensive coal and iron mines in the vicinity give employment to a large part of the population of Airdrie, and have been the means of raising it, since the commencement of the century, from the insignificance of a village to its present prosperity. In the town itself there are manufactories of cotton goods and iron wares, besides foundries, engineering shops, saw-mills, and other branches of industry. A branch of the North British Railway from Glasgow, passing through Airdrie to Edinburgh, connects it by a direct line with both cities. It is also connected with Glasgow by the Monkland Canal, which comes within a mile of the town. By the Reform Act of 1832 Airdrie was created a parliamentary burgh, uniting with Falkirk, Hamilton, Lanark, and Linlithgow in send ing one member to parliament. Its municipal corporation, which dates from 1821, consists of twelve councillors, in cluding a provost and three bailies. There are weekly courts held by the magistrates, and courts are held twice a week by the sheriff-substitute and the justices of the peace respectively. The market-day is Tuesday, but the market is of little importance. By the census of 1871 the population of Airdrie was 13,488, the number of inhabited houses 1167, and the parliamentary constituency 1702, increased in 1873 to 1932. The annual value of real pro perty in the burgh, not including railways, is 26,145; and the corporation revenue for 1873, 3401. AIRE, an English river which rises in the West Riding of Yorkshire and pursues a south-easterly course through the populous &quot; clothing district &quot; of which Leeds is the capital. At Castleford, below Leeds, it receives a small tributary, the Calder, and it joins the Ouse shortly before that river s expansion into the estuary of the Humber above Hull. It is navigable to Leeds for small craft. AIRE, a fortified town of France, on the river Lys, in the department of Pas-de-Calais, 10 miles S.E. of St Omer. Although its situation is low and marshy, the town is neat and well built. It possesses extensive barracks ; and the Church of St Paul is a handsome Gothic structure. Its manufactures consist of hats, cotton and woollen goods, hardware, yarn, soap, and oil. Population, 8803. AIRE, a town in the south of France, in the department of Landes, on the left bank of the Adour, 14 miles S.S.E. of St Sever. At one time it was the capital of the Visi goths, and since the fifth century it has been the seat of a bishopric. It has a college and cathedral ; and there are manufactories of leather and hats. Population, 5144. AISLE, sometimes written ISLE, YLE, and ALLEY (Lat. and Ital. Ala, awing; Fr. Aile, Bas cute; Ger. Seitenschi/, Seitenchor}, in its primary sense, the wing of a house, but generally used to describe the alleys or passages at the sides of the naves and choirs of churches. In reckon ing their number, the nave is usually counted. Thus a nave with an aisle on each side is generally called a three- aisled .church; if with two aisles on each side, a five- aisled church. In England there are many churches with one side-aisle only ; but there is only one cathedral with five aisles, that at Chichester. There are, however, very