type as the towers of Llamblethian and Ewenny. There are three Nonconformist chapels. There are a town hall and market place. The town is now wholly dependent on agriculture, and has good markets and cattle fairs, that on the 4th of May being a charter fair.
COWDENBEATH, a police burgh, Fifeshire, Scotland, 534 m.
N.E. of Dunfermline by the North British railway. Pop. (1891)
4249; (1901) 7908. The principal industry is coal-mining,
and the public buildings include churches, schools and a hall.
Meetings in connexion with the adoption and promulgation of
the Covenant were held in the old parish church of Beath.
COWELL, JOHN (1554–1611), English jurist, was born at
Ernsborough, Devonshire. He was educated at Eton, and
King’s College, Cambridge, ultimately becoming professor of
civil law in that university, and master of Trinity Hall. In
1607 he compiled a law dictionary, The Interpreter, in which he
exalted the king’s prerogative so much that he was prosecuted
before the House of Commons by Sir Edward Coke, and saved
from imprisonment only by the interposition of James I. His
book was burnt by order of the House of Commons. Dr Cowell
also wrote a work entitled Institutiones Juris Anglicani. He
died at Oxford on the 11th of October 1611.
COWEN, FREDERIC HYMEN (1852– ), English musical
composer, was born at Kingston, Jamaica, on the 29th of January
1852. At four years old he was brought to England, where his
father became treasurer to the opera at Her Majesty’s theatre,
and private secretary to the earl of Dudley. His first teacher
was Henry Russell, and his first published composition appeared
when he was but six years old. He studied the piano with
Benedict, and composition with Goss; in 1865 he was at Leipzig
under Hauptmann, Moscheles, Reinecke and Plaidy. Returning
home on the outbreak of the Austro-Prussian War, he appeared
as a composer for the orchestra in an overture played at the
Promenade Concerts at Covent Garden in September 1866. In
the following autumn he went to Berlin, where he was under
Kiel, at Stern’s conservatorium. A symphony and a piano
concerto were given in St James’s Hall in 1869, and from that
time Cowen has been recognized as primarily a composer, his
talents as a pianist being subordinate, although his public
appearances were numerous for some time afterwards. His
cantata, The Rose Maiden, was given in London in 1870, his
second symphony by the Liverpool Philharmonic Society in 1872,
and his first festival work, The Corsair, in 1876 at Birmingham.
In that year his opera, Pauline, was given by the Carl Rosa
Company with moderate success. In 1884 he conducted five
concerts of the Philharmonic Society, and in 1888, on the
resignation of Arthur Sullivan, became the regular conductor
of the society, resigning the post in 1892. In the year of his
appointment, 1888, he went to Melbourne as the conductor of
the daily concerts given in connexion with the Exhibition there.
In 1896 Cowen was appointed conductor of the Liverpool
Philharmonic Society and of the Manchester orchestra, in succession
to Sir Charles Hallé. In 1899 he was reappointed conductor
of the Philharmonic Society. His works include:—Operettas:
Garibaldi (1860) and One Too Many (1874); operas: Pauline
(1876), Thorgrim (1890), Signa (Milan, 1893), and Harold (1895);
oratorios: The Deluge (1878), St Ursula (1881), Ruth (1887),
Song of Thanksgiving (1888), The Transfiguration (1895);
cantatas: The Rose Maiden (1870), The Corsair (1876), The Sleeping Beauty (1885), St John’s Eve (1889), The Water Lily
(1893), Ode to the Passions (1898), besides short cantatas for
female voices; a large number of songs, ranging from the popular
“ballad” to more artistic lyrics, anthems, part-songs, duets,
&c.; six symphonies, among which No 3, the “Scandinavian,”
has had the greatest success; four overtures; suites, The Language of Flowers (1880), In the Olden Times (1883), In Fairyland
(1896); four English dances (1896); a concerto for piano
and orchestra, and a fantasia for the same played by M.
Paderewski (1900); a quartet in C minor, and a trio in A minor,
both early works; pianoforte pieces, &c. Cowen is never so
happy as when treating of fantastic or fairy subjects; and
whether in his cantatas for female voices, his charming Sleeping
Beauty, his Water Lily or his pretty overture, The Butterfly’s Ball (1901), he succeeds wonderfully in finding graceful expression
for the poetical idea. His dance music, such as is to be found
in various orchestral suites, is refined, original and admirably
instrumented; and if he is seldom as successful in portraying
the graver aspects of emotion, the vogue of his semi-sacred songs
has been widespread.
COWEN, JOSEPH (1831–1900), English politician and
journalist, son of Sir Joseph Cowen, a prominent citizen and
mine-owner of Newcastle-on-Tyne, was born in 1831, and was
educated at Edinburgh University. In 1874 he was elected
member of parliament for the borough on the death of his father,
who had held the seat as a Liberal since 1865. Joseph Cowen was
at that time a strong Radical on domestic questions, an advocate
of co-operation, an admirer of Garibaldi, Mazzini and Kossuth, a
sympathizer with Irish Nationalism, and one who in speech,
dress and manner identified himself with the North-country
mining class. Short in stature and uncouth in appearance, his
individuality first shocked and then by its earnestness impressed
the House of Commons; and his sturdy independence of party
ties, combined with a gift of rough but genuine eloquence (of
which his speech on the Royal Title Bill of 1876 was an example),
rapidly made him one of the best-known public men in the
country. He was, moreover, an Imperialist and a Colonial
Federationist at a time when Liberalism was tied and bound to the
Manchester traditions; and, to the consternation of the official
wire-pullers, he vigorously supported Disraeli’s foreign policy,
and in 1881 opposed the Gladstonian settlement with the Boers.
His independence (which his detractors attributed in some
degree to his alleged susceptibility to Tory compliments) brought
him into collision both with the Liberal caucus and with the
party organization in Newcastle itself, but Cowen’s personal
popularity and his remarkable powers as an orator triumphed
in his own birthplace, and he was again elected in 1885 in spite of
Liberal opposition. Shortly afterwards, however, he retired
both from parliament and from public life, professing his disgust
at the party intrigues of politics, and devoted himself to conducting
his newspaper, the Newcastle Daily Chronicle, and to his
private business as a mine-owner. In this capacity he exercised
a wide influence on local opinion, and the revolt of the Newcastle
electorate in later years against doctrinaire Radicalism was
largely due to his constant preaching of a broader outlook on
national affairs. He continued behind the scenes to play a
powerful part in forming North-country opinion until his death
on the 18th of February 1900.
His letters were published by his daughter in 1909.
COWES, a seaport and watering-place in the Isle of Wight, England, 12 m. S.S.E. of Southampton. West Cowes is separated from East Cowes by the picturesque estuary of the river Medina, the two towns (each of which is an urban district) lying on opposite sides of its mouth at the apex of the northern coast of the island. Pop. (1901) West Cowes, 8652; East Cowes, 3196. The port between them is the chief on the island, and is the headquarters of the Royal Yacht Squadron (founded in 1812); it is in regular steamship communication with Southampton and Portsmouth. West Cowes is served by the Isle of Wight Central railway. A steam ferry and a floating bridge across the Medina, here 600 yds. broad, unite the towns. Behind the harbour the houses rise picturesquely on gentle wooded slopes, and numerous villas adorn the vicinity. The towns owe their origin to two forts or castles, built on each side of the mouth of the Medina by Henry VIII. in 1540, for the defence of the coast; the eastern one has disappeared, but the west castle remains and is used as the club-house of the Yacht Squadron. The marine parade of West Cowes, and the public promenade called the Green, are close to the castle. The industrial population is chiefly employed in the shipbuilding yards, in the manufacture of ships’ fittings, and in engineering works. The harbour is under an elective body of commissioners. On the opposite side of the Medina a broad carriageway leads to East Cowes Castle, a handsome edifice built by John Nash, the favourite architect of George IV., in 1798, and immediately beyond it are the grounds surrounding
