ESC

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ESO

fee. 2 Biack, 244. Escheat happens cither for want of heirs of(he person last seized, or by his attainder for a crime by him com-mitted ; in which latter ease, the blood is tainted, stained, or cor-rupted, and the inheritable quality of it is thereby extinguished.For want of heirs, is where the tenant dies without any relationson the part of any of his ancestors, or where he dies without anyrelations of those ancestors, paternal or maternal, from whom hisestate descended, or where he dies without any relations of thewhole blood. Bastards are also incapable of inheritance; andtherefore if there is no other claimant than such illegitimate chil-dren, the land shall escheat to the lord ; and, as bastards cannotbe heirs themselves, so neither can they have any heirs but thoseof their own bodies; and therefore if a bastard purchases land,and jjies seized thereof without issue and intestate, the land shallescheat to the lord of the fee. Aliens also, that is, persons bornout of the king’s allegiance, are incapable of taking by descent;and unless naturalized, are also incapable of taking by purchase;and therefore, if there are no natural-born subjects to claim, suchlands shall in like manner escheat, l’y attainder for treason orother felony, the blood of the person attainted is corrupted andstained, and the original donation of the feud is thereby determin-ed, it being always granted to the vassal on the implied conditionof his well demeaning himself. In consequence of which corrup-tion and extinction of hereditary blood, the land of all felonswould immediately revert to the lord, but that the superior law offorfeiture intervenes, and intercepts it in his passage; in case oftrcasoii, forever; in case of other felony, for only a year and aday; after which time it goes to the lord, in a regular course ofescheat. 2 Black, c. 15.

KSCIIEATOR, was an ancient officer, so called because hisoffice was properly to look to escheats, wardships, and other casu-alties belonging to the crown. This oflice had its chief depend-ence on the courts of wards, but is now out of date. Co. Lit. 13.b. 4. Inst. 225.

ESCHELLES, a town in France , in the department of MontBlanc, late Savoy, 10 miles S. \V. of Chambery.

ESCHEVIN, or ECliEYTN, [Scabinux, Lat.] in the lateI t ench and Dutch polity, a magistrate elected by the inhabitantsot a city, to take care of their common concerns.

ESCHRAKITES, or ESRAKITES, a sect of philosophers,among the Mohammedans, who adhere to the doctrines of Plato .1 he word is derived from the Arabic pit?, scltraca, which in then!'! i con j u gation p-nt'N, aschraca, signifies to shine, or glitter,

' SUI1 ’ so Eschrakite seems to import illumined.

,, J/^y-HYVEGEN, a town of Germany , in Ilesse, 27 milesE.S. !•,. of Cassel. Lon. 10. 0. E. Lat. 51. 9. N.

ESCHYVEILER, a town of E ranee, in the department ofHoer, and late duchy of Juliers, 6 miles S. of Juliers .

ESC LATTE', in heraldry, signilies a thing forcibly broken, orrather a shield that has been broken and shattered with the strokeof a battle-ax.

ESCOR1, in the art of war, the same with convoy. See Con-voy.

ESGOUADe,, or SQUAD, is usually the third or fourth partof a company of foot; so divided fur mounting guards, and for thentore convenient relieving of one another. It is equivalent to abrigade or a troop of horse. See Brigade .

ESCROW, among the lawyers, a deed delivered to a thirdPerson, to be the deed of the party making it upon a future con-cmiou, that when a certain thing is performed, it shall be deliveredo the party to whom it was made, to take effect as the deed of

JAGE, in our old customs, a kind of knight service,f II 11 *? r y lc *; °f the shield, by w hich the teliant was bound too low his lord to the wars at his own charge. It is also used fora sum of money paid to the lord in lieu of such service; or evenor a -easonable aid, levied by the lord upon his tenants w ho heldby the knight’s service.

:l l °y al residence of Spain , 15 miles N.YY'. of»ladriil. It is the largest and most superb structure in the king-dom, and one of the finest in Europe. '1 he word is Arabic ,nieanmg: * a place lull of rocks.” It is built in a dry barren spot,surrounded with rugged mountains, insomuch that every thingWhich grows there is owing to art. This place was chosen, it issanl, for the sake of the stone wherewith the fabric is built, which18 got lrom a mountain just by, and is very durable ; and the de-

sign for erecting it was to commemorate a victory which PhilipII. obtained over the French (but by the assistance of the Eng-lish forces) at St. Quintin, on St. Laurence’s day, in the year1557. The Spanish description of this structure forms a sizeablequarto volume. Its founder expended upon it six millions of du-cats. The apartments are decorated witli an astonishing varietyof paintings, sculpture, tapestry, ornaments of gold and silver,marble, jasper, gems, and oilier curious stones, surpassing all ima-gination. This building, besides its palace, contains a church,large and richly ornamented ; a mausoleum ; cloisters; a convent;a college ; and a library, containing about thirty thousand vo-lumes ; besides large apartments for all kinds of artists and me-chanics, noble walks, with extensive parks and gardens, beautifiedwith fountains and costly ornaments.

ESCUTCHEON, m heraldry, is derived from the French escussion, and that from the Latili scutum, and signilies the shieldwhereon coats of arms are represented. Most nations, of there- ■motest antiquity, were wont to have their shields distinguished bycertain marks painted on them ; and to have such on their shieldswas a token of honour, none being permitted to have them tillthey had performed some honourable action. The escutcheon, asused at present, is square, only rounded od' at the bottom. As tothe hearings on shields, they might at first be arbitrary, accordingto the fancy of the bearer-/but, in process of time, they came tobe the gift of kings and generals, as the reward of honourableactions.

Escutcheon of Pretence, that on-which a man carries hiswife’s coat of arms, being an heiress, and having issue by her. Itis placed over the coat of the husband, who thereby shews forthhis pretensions to her lands.

ESDRAS, or EZRA, a Jewish priest, and doctor of the law.Artaxerxes Longimamis, sent him with rich presents for the useand ornament of the temple at Jerusalem , rebuilt under Zerubba-bel; he also ordered the neighbouring governors to provide himwith what conduced to the pomp ot the Jewish religion, and toexempt the priests from paying taxes. Ezra is supposed to havebeen the collector of the Canon of Scripture ; and that, by divineinspiration, he added some things which happened after the deathsof the authors. It is supposed he wrote the Chronicles, besidesthose books which hear his name ; the two last of which are ex-ploded as apocryphal, even by the church of Rome.

EijENS, a town of Germany , in east Friesland, 24 milesN.N.E. of Emden . Lon. 7. 14. E. Lat. 53. 47. N.

ESFARIAN, a town of Persia, 90 miles E. of Astrahad. Lon.41. 23. E. Lat. 36. 48. N.

ESIONGABER, ASLONGABER, or EZIONGEBER, anancient town of Arabia Pet rata, on the bay of Elath, a part of theArabian Gulf; the dock or station for the ships of Solomon andJehoshaphat. It was afterwards called Bernice.

ESK, a river of England, in Cumberland, which runs into theIrish Sea , near Ravinglass.

Esk, lit ack and YV kite, two rivers of Scotland , in Eskdale,Dumfriesshire. Also two rivers in Angusshirc.

ESKl SIIEHR, a town of Asiatic Turkey, in Natolia , on theSakaria, 110 miles S. E. of Constantinople .

ESLFNGEN, a large imperial town of Germany 7 , in the lateduchy of YY'irtemherg, 8 miles S. E. ot Stutgard.

ESOX, in ichthyology, the Pike, a genus of fishes of the or-der abcominales. Head flattisli above, month and throat large;teetli sharp, in the jaws, palate, and tongue ; nostrils double, nearthe,eyes; gill-membrane with from seven to twelve rays; bodyelongated ; dorsal fin near tiie tail. Gmelin enumerates fifteenspecies, and Shaw twenty-two: the following are the most im-portant.

E. Lucius, or the Common Pike. In Lapland this fish, is fre-quently found eight feet long. It is to be met with in most lakesand small rivers throughout Europe . Its common colour is a paleolive, but in Holland it has been seen of an orange colour withblack spots. YVhen in its perfect state its colours are uniformlyfound to be most vivid. The largest pike ever caught in GreatBritain is supposed to have been one which weighed thirtv-fivepounds. It is a fish of particularly rapid growth, and also ofgreat longevity, having been ascertained, according to one of thenatural historians of Poland , to live to the age of ninety years.The stomach of the pike is particularly strong, muscular, and ex-tended. Its teeth, without including those nearest the throat, are