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KILBARCHAN—KILDARE

railway station. The educational and scientific institutions of Kiev rank next to those of the two capitals. Its university, removed from Vilna to Kiev in 1834, has about 2500 students, and is well provided with observatories, laboratories, libraries and museums; five scientific societies and two societies for aid to poor students are attached to it. There are, besides, a theological academy, founded in 1615; a society of church archaeology, which possesses a museum built in 1900, very rich in old ikons, crosses, &c., both Russian and Oriental; an imperial academy of music; university courses for ladies; a polytechnic, with 1300 students—the building was completed in 1900 and stands on the other side of Old Kiev, away from the river. Of the learned societies the more important are the medical (1840), the naturalists’ (1869), the juridical (1876), the historical of Nestor the Chronicler (1872), the horticultural (1875), and the dramatic (1879), the archaeological commission (1843), and the society of church archaeology.

Kiev is the principal centre for the sugar industry of Russia, as well as for the general trade of the region. Its Stryetenskaya fair is important. More than twenty caves were discovered on the slope of a hill (Kirilov Street), and one of them, excavated in 1876, proved to have belonged to neolithic troglodytes. Numerous graves, both from the pagan and the Christian periods, the latter containing more than 2000 skeletons, with a great number of small articles, were discovered in the same year in the same neighbourhood. Many colonial Roman coins of the 3rd and 4th centuries, and silver dirhems, stamped at Samarkand, Balkh, Merv, &c., were also found in 1869.

In 1862 the population of Kiev was returned as 70,341; in 1874 the total was given as 127,251; and in 1902 as 319,000. This includes 20,000 Poles and 12,000 Jews. Kiev is the headquarters of the IX. Army Corps, and of a metropolitan of the Orthodox Greek Church.

The history of Kiev cannot be satisfactorily separated from that of Russia. According to Nestor’s legend it was founded in 864 by three brothers, Kiy, Shchek and Khoriv, and after their deaths the principality was seized by two Varangians (Scandinavians), Askold and Dir, followers of Rurik, also in 864. Rurik’s successor Oleg conquered Kiev in 882 and made it the chief town of his principality. It was in the waters of the Dnieper opposite the town that Prince Vladimir, the first saint of the Russian church, caused his people to be baptized (988), and Kiev became the seat of the first Christian church, of the first Christian school, and of the first library in Russia. For three hundred and seventy-six years it was an independent Russian city; for eighty years (1240–1320) it was subject to the Mongols; for two hundred and forty-nine years (1320–1569) it belonged to the Lithuanian principality; and for eighty-five years to Poland (1569–1654). It was finally united to the Russian empire in 1686. The city was devastated by the khan of the Crimea in 1483. The Magdeburg rights, which the city enjoyed from 1516, were abolished in 1835, and the ordinary form of town government introduced; and in 1840 it was made subject to the common civil law of the empire.

The Russian literature concerning Kiev is voluminous. Its bibliography will be found in the Russian Geographical Dictionary of P. Semenov, and in the Russian Encyclopaedic Dictionary, published by Brockhaus and Efron (vol. xv., 1895). Among recent publications are: Rambaud’s La Russie épique (Paris, 1876); Avenarius, Kniga o Kievskikh Bogatuiryakh (St Petersburg, 1876), dealing with the early Kiev heroes; Zakrevski, Opisanie Kieva (1868); the materials issued by the commission for the investigation of the ancient records of the city; Taranovskiy, Gorod Kiev (Kiev, 1881); De Baye, Kiev, la mère des villes russes (Paris, 1896); Goetz, Das Kiewer Höhlenkloster als Kulturzentrum des Vormongolischen Russlands (Passau, 1904). See also Count Bobrinsky, Kurgans of Smiela (1897); and N. Byelyashevsky, The Mints of Kiev.  (P. A. K.; J. T. Be.) 


KILBARCHAN, a burgh of barony of Renfrewshire, Scotland, 1 m. from Milliken Park station on the Glasgow & South-Western railway, 13 m. W. by S. of Glasgow. Pop. (1901), 2886. The public buildings include a hall, library and masonic lodge (dating from 1784). There is also a park. In a niche in the town steeple (erected in 1755) is the statue of the famous piper, who died about the beginning of the 17th century and is commemorated in the elegy on “The Life and Death of Habbie Simson, Piper of Kilbarchan” by Robert Sempill of Beltrees (1595–1665). The chief industries are manufactures of linen (introduced in 1739 and dating the rise of the prosperity of the town), cotton, silks and “Paisley” shawls, and calico-printing, besides quarries, coal and iron mines in the neighbourhood. Two miles south-west is a great rock of greenstone called Clochoderick, 12 ft. in height, 22 ft. in length, and 17 ft. in breadth. About 2 m. north-west on Gryfe Water, lies Bridge of Weir (pop. 2242), the industries of which comprise tanning, currying, calico-printing, thread-making and wood-turning. It has a station on the Glasgow & South-Western railway. Immediately to the south-west of Bridge of Weir are the ruins of Ranfurly Castle, the ancient seat of the Knoxes. Sir John de Knocks (fl. 1422) is supposed to have been the great-grandfather of John Knox; and Andrew Knox (1559–1633), one of the most distinguished members of the family, was successively bishop of the Isles, abbot of Icolmkill (Iona), and bishop of Raphoe. About 4 m. N.W. of Bridge of Weir lies the holiday resort of Kilmalcolm (pronounced Kilmacome; pop. 2220), with a station on the Glasgow & South-Western railway. It has a golf-course, public park and hydropathic establishment. Several charitable institutions have been built in and near the town, amongst them the well-known Quarrier’s Orphan Homes of Scotland.


KILBIRNIE, a town in north Ayrshire, Scotland, on the Garnock, 201/2 m. S.W. of Glasgow, with stations on the Glasgow & South-Western and the Caledonian railways. Pop. (1901), 4571. The industries include flax-spinning, rope works, engineering works, and manufactures of linen thread, wincey, flannels and fishing-nets, and there are iron and steel works and coal mines in the vicinity. The parish church is of historical interest, most of the building dating from the Reformation. In the churchyard are the recumbent effigies of Captain Thomas Crawford of Jordanhill (d. 1603), who in 1575 effected the surprise of Dumbarton Castle, and his lady. Near Kilbirnie Place, a modern mansion, are the ruins of Kilbirnie Castle, an ancient seat of the earls of Crawford, destroyed by fire in 1757. About 1 m. E. is Kilbirnie Loch, 11/3 m. long.


KILBRIDE, WEST, a town on the coast of Ayrshire, Scotland, near the mouth of Kilbride Burn, 4 m. N.N.W. of Ardrossan and 353/4 m. S.W. of Glasgow by the Glasgow & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901), 2315. It has been growing in repute as a health resort; the only considerable industry is weaving. In the neighbourhood are the ruins of Law Castle, Crosbie Castle and Portincross Castle, the last, dating from the 13th century, said to be a seat of the Stuart kings. Farland Head, with cliffs 300 ft. high, lies 2 m. W. by N.; and the inland country is hilly, one point, Kaim Hill, being 1270 ft. above sea-level.


KILDARE, a county of Ireland in the province of Leinster, bounded W. by Queen’s County and King’s County, N. by Meath, E. by Dublin and Wicklow, and S. by Carlow. The area is 418,496 acres or about 654 sq. m. The greater part of Kildare belongs to the great central plain of Ireland. In the east of the county this plain is bounded by the foot-hills of the mountains of Dublin and Wicklow; in the centre it is interrupted by an elevated plateau terminated on the south by the hills of Dunmurry, and on the north by the Hill of Allen (300 ft.) which rises abruptly from the Bog of Allen. The principal rivers are the Boyne, which with its tributary the Blackwater rises in the north part of the county, but soon passes into Meath; the Barrow, which forms the boundary of Kildare with Queen’s County, and receives the Greese and the Lane shortly after entering Kildare; the Lesser Barrow, which flows southward from the Bog of Allen to near Rathangan; and the Liffey, which enters the county near Ballymore Eustace, and flowing north-west and then north-east quits it at Leixlip, having received the Morrel between Celbridge and Clane, and the Ryewater at Leixlip. Trout are taken in the upper waters, and there are salmon reaches near Leixlip.

Geology.—The greater part of the county is formed of typical grey Carboniferous limestone, well seen in the flat land about Clane. The natural steps at the Salmon Falls at Leixlip are formed from similar strata. Along the south-east the broken ground of Silurian shales forms the higher country, rising towards the Leinster chain. The granite core of the latter, with its margin of mica-schist produced by the metamorphism of the Silurian beds, appears in the south round Castledermot. A parallel ridge of Silurian rocks,