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no fewer than seven hundred, and those which are placed on thejaws are alternately moveable and fixed. It is one of the mostvoracious of fishes, and is often found to swallow water-rats andyoung ducks; it has even attacked the swan, and swallowed thehead and great part of the neck of that bird; but being unable toseparate these from the body, it became, in this instance, the victimof its voracity.
E. Belone, the Gar, or Sea Needi.e, sometimes grows tothree feet or more. The jaws are verv long, slender, and sharp-pointed; the under jaw extends much farther than the upper; andthe edges of both are armed with numbers of short and slenderteeth: the tongue is small: the eyes are large ; the irides silvery ;and the nostrils wide and round. The body is slender, the belivquite fiat, bounded on both sides by a rough line.
E. Stomias, or the Piper-mouthed Pike, is a native of theMediterranean sea, about eighteen inches in length, and of agreenish brown colour. Its lower jaw is considerably longer thanthe upper; it has two fore-teetli in the upper, and these with two ofthe under, project from the mouth when shut; a specimen of it isto be seen in the British Museum .
ESPALIERS, in gardening, are rows of trees planted about awhole garden or plantation, or in edges, so as to inclose quartersor separate parts of a garden ; and are trained up regularly to alattice of wood work in a close hedge, for the defence of lenderplants against the injuries of wind and weather. They are of ad-mirable use and beauty in a kitchen-garden, serving not onlyto shelter the tender plants, but screen them from the sight of per-sons in the walks.
ESPALION, a town of France, in the department of Aveiron ,12 4- miles N. N. E. of Rhodez .
ESPA.MISUACK, a lake of Lower Canada , 222 miles N.E. ofQuebec . Lon. (38. 0. W. Lat. 50. 0. N.
ESPLANADE, in fortification, the stopping of the parapet ofthe covered vay towards the campaign. It is the same with glacis,but begins to be antiquated, and is more properly the empty spacebetwixt a citadel and the houses of a town, commonly called aplace of arms. See Fortification .
ESPLEES, in law, the general products which lands yield,or the profit or commodity that is to be taken or made ol atiling.
ESPOSENDA, a sea-port town of Portugal , in Entre-Duero-e-Minho, 22 miles N. of Oporto.
Esposesda, a town of Spain, in Gallicia , 12 miles S. W. ofOrense .
ESPOUSALS, in law, signify a contract or promise made be-tween a man and a woman, to marry each other ; and in cases wliei emarriage may be consummated, espousals go before. Marriage istermed an espousal de pnesenti.
Espousals among the Jews , were either by writing, or by apiece of silver given and received, or by cohabitation. Amongthe Greeks, after the parents and friends of the young couple hadfinished their negotiation, the couple themselves pledged theirfaith to each other, the man swearing that he would he constantand true, the woman that she would marry him, and make himmaster of all she had. Then thev ratified their agreement by akiss and joining right hands. Among the Romans the espousalsconsisted in an engagement of friends on both sides, whether ab-sent or present, in public or without witnesses. But the commonway was by writings drawn up by common consent, and sealed hv_ both parties; the man also sent a ring to the woman, consisting ofiron and without a stone.
ESQU1LLE, ESQUILINE , or ESQUILINUS MONS,in ancient geography, one of the seven hills of Koine , whichVarro will have to consist of two, viz. Cispius and Opius.
ESQUIMAUX, a people of North America inhabiting all thatvast tract of land called Labrador, or New Britain . They differvery considerably, both in aspect and behaviour, from the otherAmerican nations; agreeing in most respects with the inhabitants ofWe. t Greenland .
ESQUIRE is derived from the French escu, and the Latin scutum, in Greek vxut©-, which signifies a hide, of which shieldswere anciently made, and afterwards covered: for, in the time ofthe Anglo-Saxons , the shields had a covering of leather. Anesquire, or Squire was originally a person who, attending a knightin time of war, carried his shield; whence lie was called escuicr in
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French, and escutifcr, or avmiger, i. e. armour-bearer, in Latin .This title has not, tor a long time, had any relation to the office ofthe person, as to carry arms, &c. Those to whom the title ofesquire is now of right due, are all noblemen’s younger sons, andthe eldest sons of sucli younger sons; the eldest sons of knights,and their eldest sons ; the officers of the king’s courts, and of hishousehold : counsellors at law, justices of the peace, &c. thoughthose latter are only esquires in reputation: besides, a justice of thepeace holds this title no longer than he is in commission, in case heis not otherwise qualified to bear it: but a sheriff of a county,who is a superior officer, retains the title of esquire during life, inconsequence of the trust once reposed in himi the heads of someancient families are said to he esquires bv prescription.
Esquires of the King are such as have that title by creation,wherein the form used is, to put about their necks a collar of S.S,and bestow on them a pair of silver spurs, &c.
Esquires of the Knights of the Bath are constituted bythese knights, each knight ot the Bath constituting three esquires,at his installation.
F.SQUISSE, [Fr. a sketch,] in painting, the first slight sketch ordraught of a picture.
ESSAY, in literature, a peculiar kind of composition, thecharacter whereof is to be free, easy, and natural; not tied tostrict order or method, not worked up and finished like a formalsystem.
Essay-rai.ance. See Balance.
Essay-hatch is the miner’s term for a little trench or hole,whichthey dig to search for shoad or ore.
ESSAYING, or ASSAYING, in chemistry and metallurgy.See Assaying.
ESSEDAIU1, a sort of gladiators, mentioned by Seneca, Sue-tonius , andTully, who on some occasions engaged one another outof chariots called esseda.
ESSEDUM, a sort of heavy chariot from which the Gauls andBritons engaged the Romans.
ESSEN, three towns of Germany in Westphalia .
ESSENCE, in chemistry, denotes the purest, most subtile, andbahamic. part of a body ; extracted either by simple expression,or by means of fire, from fruits, flowers, and the like. Of thesethere are a great variety, used on account ol their agreeable smelland taste, by apothecaries, perfumers, and others. '1 hose extract-ed by means of fire, with more propriety are to be counted amongthe essential oils.
Essence of Bergamot, is a fragrant essence, extracted froma fruit which is produced by ingrafting a branch of lemon-tree,upon the stock of a bergamot-pear. It is imported from Italy andSicily , particularly from Reggia and Messina. This spirit is ex-tracted, by paring off the rind of the fruit with a broad knife,pressing the peel between wooden pincers against a spunge, and assoon as the spunge is saturated, the volatile liquor is squeezed intoa phial.
Essence of Orange, and Essence of Lemon , are pre-pared in a similar manner, and come from the same countries.
•The Essences of Lavender, or Thyme, of Rosemary,of Anise, of Cloves, of Cinnamon , &c. are obtained bymeans of fire.
Essence, in metaphysics, that which constitutes the particularnature of each genus or kind, and distinguishes it from all others;being nothing but that abstract idea to which this name is affixed,so that every thing contained in it is essential to that particularkind. This Mr. Locke calls the nominal essence; in contradic-tion to the real essence, or constitution of substances, on whichthis nominal essence depends. Thus the nominal essence of goldis that complex idea the word gold stands for; as implying a body,yellow, weighty, malleable, fusible, and fixed ; but its’real essenceis the constitution of its insensible parts, on which these qualitiesand all its other properties depend, which is wholly unknownto us.
ESSENDI quietum de Theoi.onio, a writ that lies for citi-zens and burgesses of any city or town, that have a charter on pre-scription to exempt them from toll through the whole realm, if ithappened to he any where exacted of them.
ESSENES, or ESSENIANS, in Jewish antiqnity, one of thethree ancient sects among that people. They allowed a futurestate, but denied a resurrection from the dead. Their way of
life