Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/621

Rh A L L A L L 583 ALLEN, JOHN (1770-1843), was born near Edinburgh, and educated at the university of that city, where he took the degree of M.D. in 1791. With youthful enthusiasm, Allen joined the Scottish movement of that period for parliamentary reform. He was an acute metaphysician, and the prelections on physiology which he delivered in Edinburgh are distinguished by clearness and precise philosophical views. Leaving Edinburgh, he took up his abode at Holland House as the friend and private secre tary of the late Lord Holland. In 1811 he was elected warden of Dulwich College; and in 1820 obtained the comfortable sinecure of master of that institution, where he died in 1843. Allen s detached publications, though well written, are not very important, if we except his valuable Inquiry into the Growth of the Royal Prerogative (1830), &quot; a learned and luminous work;&quot; but he was an able contributor to the Edinburgh Review, to which he is said to have furnished no less than forty articles, chiefly on physiological, metaphysical, and political subjects; and some of his contributions on French and Spanish history are very interesting. For this last department he was peculiarly fitted by his residence with Lord Holland in France and Spain ; he had even collected materials for a history of Spain, but was hindered from fulfilling his pur pose by his deep interest in politics. The latter portion of his life was divided between politics and the study of the history of the British constitution. Brougham, in his eloge of Allen ( Works, vol. iv., 1872), has highly commended him for extensive learning and philosophical talent. ALLEN&quot;, or ALLEYN, THOMAS (1542-1632), a famous English mathematician, was born at Uttoxeter in Stafford shire, 21st December 1542. He was admitted scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, in 1561 ; and in 1567 took his degree of master of arts. In 1580 he quitted his college and fellowship, and retired to Gloucester Hall, where he studied very closely, and became famous for his knowledge of antiquity, philosophy, and mathematics. Having received an invitation from Henry, Earl of Nor thumberland, a great friend and patron of men of science, he spent some time at the earl s house, where he became acquainted with Thomas Harriot, John Dee, and other famous mathematicians. He was also intimate with Cotton, Camden, and their antiquarian associates. Robert, Earl of Leicester, had a particular esteem for Allen, and would have conferred a bishopric upon him, but his love of solitude made him decline the offer. His great skill in mathematics earned him, as was usual in those times, the credit of being a magician ; and the author of Leicester s Commomvealth accuses him of employing the art of &quot; figuring &quot; to further the Earl of Leicester s unlawful designs, and of endeavouring by the black art to bring about a match between his patron and Queen Elizabeth. Allen was indefatigable in collecting scattered manuscripts relating to history, antiquity, astronomy, philosophy, and mathematics. A considerable pai t of his collection was presented to the Bodleian library by Sir Kenelm Digby. He published in Latin the second and third books of Claudius Ptolemy of Pelusium, Concerning the Judgment of the Stars, or, as it is commonly called, of the Quadri partite Construction, with an exposition. He wrote also notes on some of Lilly s books, and on Bale s De Scrip- tor/bus M Britannia;. ALLENTOWN, formerly called NORTHAMPTON, a thriv ing town of the United States, capital of Lehigh county. Pennsylvania, is pleasantly situated on a height on the western bank of the Lehigh Elver, 85 miles E.N.E. of Harrisburg. It is a well-built place, and contains a good court-house, a military institute, an academy, and a theo logical seminary. Most of the inhabitants are of German descent ; the German language is commonly spoken, and is used along with English both in the newspapers and in the courts of law. The valley of the Lehigh is very rich in iron ore and anthracite, and in the town and neigh- bourhood extensive iron-works and anthracite furnaces are in operation. This trade is being rapidly developed, and is favoured by good railway communication, New York and Philadelphia being both within 100 miles of Allentown by rail. A tenth of the whole iron manufactured in the United States is said to be produced here. Population (1870), 13,884. ALLESTBY, or ALLESTREE, RICHARD, D.D., was born at Uppingtown in Shropshire in 1619, and educated in the grammar school of Coventry, and afterwards at Christ Church, Oxford. After passing as bachelor of arts he was made successively moderator in philosophy, canon of Christ Church, doctor of divinity, chaplain in ordinary to the king, and regius professor of divinity. His early studies, however, were interrupted by the hos tilities of the times. In the year 1641 he and many other students of Oxford entered the royal service, and gave signal proofs of their courage and loyalty. A short interval of hostilities permitted Allestry to return to his literary pursuits ; but soon after, he again took up arms, and was present at the battle of Keintonfield. On his way to Oxford to prepare for the reception of the king he was taken prisoner, but was released by the king s forces. A violent disease which then prevailed in the garrison of Oxford brought Allestry to the brink of the grave ; but recovering, he again joined a regiment of volunteers, chiefly consisting of Oxford students. Here he served as a common soldier, and was often seen with the musket in one hand and a book in the other. At the close of the revolutionary struggle he returned to his favourite studies, but still continued true to his party. This occasioned his expulsion from the college ; but he was provided with a comfortable retreat in the families of the Honourable Francis Newport and Sir Anthony Cope. Such was the confidence reposed in him that when the friends of Charles II. were secretly preparing the way for his restoration, they entrusted him with personal messages to the king. In returning from one of these interviews he was seized at Dover, and upon examination committed a prisoner to Lambeth House. The Earl of Shaftesbury obtained his release in a few weeks. His valuable library was be queathed to the university. He died in January 1681. He erected at his own private expense the west side of the outward court of Eton College, and the grammar school in Christ Church College ; besides settling several liberal pensions upon individual persons and families. His only extant work is a volume of sermons, printed at Oxford in 1684. ALLEYN, EDWARD, eminent as a stage-player in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., but better remembered in after-times as the founder of Dulwich college, was born in London, in the parish of St Botolph, Bishopsgate, on the 1st of September 1566. When he was only four years old, his father, an innkeeper, died, and his mother soon afterwards married an actor named Browne. This change in his domestic surroundings brought young Alleyn into early and close association with the stage, for which he possessed great natural aptitude. Thus it chanced that &quot;he was bred a stage-player,&quot; as stated by Fuller ( Worthies). A tenacious memory, a polished elocution, a stateliness of figure and countenance, and a genial temperament, were among the natural and acquired accomplishments that he brought to bear on his chosen pursuit. He gained distinc tion in his calling while yet quite a young man, and by common consent was eventually rated as the foremost actor of his time. Several prominent dramatists and other writers of the period have left forcible testimony to his