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 442 COWL COWPENS qualities as a vermifuge, probably by penetra- ting and thus destroying the worms. They were consequently adopted in medical practice, and introduced into the pharmacopeias, but are now little used. The medicine is prepared by dipping the pods in molasses and scraping the hairs into this, until a mixture is obtained as thick as honey. Cowhage has also been applied as an external irritant by making it into an ointment with lard. COWL (Sax. cuhle ; Lat. cucullus), a sort of hood, originally worn by all classes, and still retained by certain orders of monks. It con- sists of a conical covering for the head, at- tached to the robe or cloak, and sometimes made to draw over the shoulders also. Ac- cording to Mabillon, it was at first the same as the scapular. The Benedictines and Bernar- dines have two sorts, one black for ordinary occasions, and another white and very large for days of ceremony. The proper shape of the cowl has been in the Franciscan order the subject of long and bitter dissensions. COWLEY, a S. E. county of Kansas, bordering on the Indian territory, intersected by the Ar- kansas river, and watered by Eock, Grouse, and Suicide creeks ; area, 804 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 1,175. The chief productions in 1870 were 8,580 bushels of wheat, 2,380 of rye, 38,- 720 of Indian corn, 10,200 of oats, 3,400 of po- tatoes, 1,786 tons of hay, and 5,686 Ibs. of wool. There were 791 horses, 819 milch cows, 1,099 other cattle, 1,130 sheep, and 234 swine. Capital, Winfield. OWLEY, Abraham, an English poet, born in London in 1618, died at Chertsey, Surrey, July 28, 1667. His father died before his birth, and by the solicitation of his mother he was admit- ted into Westminster school. Spenser's " Faerie Queen" first turned his attention to poetry. A volume of his poems was published when he was .15 years old, including some of his compo- sitions written at the age of 10. While he was yet at school he produced a comedy en- titled " Love's Kiddle," written in the pastoral strain. In 1636 he entered Cambridge univer- sity, and two years afterward published his "Love's Riddle," with Navfragium Jocular e, a comedy in Latin prose, now totally forgotten, He was ejected from Cambridge in 1643 after he had taken his degree of A. M., on account of his political opinions and independence, and went to Oxford. He was a devoted partisan of Charles I., and when Oxford was taken pos- session of by the parliament followed the queen to Paris (1646), and there became secre- tary to Lord Jermyn, afterward the earl of St. Albans, and frequently wrote and deciphered the secret letters that passed between the king and queen. He was absent from England in all more than ten years, and during that time he undertook some very perilous journeys to Jersey, Scotland, Flanders, Holland, and other countries. In 1656 he repaired secretly to England, but was arrested and only set at lib- erty on his giving bail in 1,000 for his future behavior. In that year he published his poems, and in his preface inserted a passage suppressed in subsequent editions, which was thought to intimate a change in his loyalist feelings; and he also speaks of his desire to "retire to the American plantations and forsake this world for ever." He was made a doctor of medicine at Oxford in 1657, but there is no reason to suppose that he ever practised. He considered a knowledge of botany indispensable to the medical profession, and retiring to Kent busied himself with gathering plants. He also wrote a Latin poem on plants in six books. On the death of Cromwell he returned to France, where he remained in his former station until the restoration of the Stuarts. He then looked for some substantial reward for his services in the royal cause, but received nothing. He had been promised by Charles I., as well as by his son, the mastership of the Savoy, " but lost it by certain persons enemies to the muses." It is said that in revenge he altered a comedy, "The Guardian," and brought it out anew un- der the title of "Cutter of Coleman Street." It was harshly treated on the stage, and re- garded as a satire on the royal party. He took the failure of his play considerably to heart, but denied that it was intended as a re- flection on the royalists. He now left London, and secluded himself first at Barn Elms, a sub- urban village, and afterward at Chertsey in Surrey (1665). In his retreat he was at first but slenderly provided for, but by the influence of the earl of St. Albans he obtained such a lease of the queen's lands as secured him a tol- erable income until his death two years after. Although very highly esteemed as an author by Johnson, and by Milton even ranked with Shakespeare and Spenser, there is probably no English poet of equal pretensions less read at the present day. His "Essays" have great merit as agreeable specimens of prose composi- tion. He was buried near Chaucer and Spen- ser in Westminster abbey, where in 1675 the duke of Buckingham erected a monument to his memory. An edition of his " Works," with his "Life" by Bishop Sprat, was published in 1688 (folio), and his "Select Works," edited by Bishop Kurd, in 1772-7 (3 vols. 8vo). COWLITZ, a S. W. county of Washington territory, separated on the S. W. from Oregon by the Columbia river, and intersected by the Catama and Minter rivers, and the Cowlitz and its tributaries ; area, 460 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 730. The W. part is mountainous; the soil is fertile. The chief productions in 1870 w r ere 12,933 bushels of oats, 4,411 of peas and beans, 6,095 of potatoes, 1,425 tons of hay, and 14,075 Ibs. of butter. Value of live stock, $45,499. Capital, Freeport. COWPENS, a post village in Spartanburg co., S. C., near the border of .North Carolina, near which the British under Col. Tarleton were defeated, Jan. 17, 1781, by the Americans un- der Gen. Morgan. In the latter part of De- cember, 1780, Morgan occupied the country