Abergeldie Castle

Abergeldie Castle, the Aberdeenshire seat of the Prince of Wales, on the Dee's right bank, 6 miles W. of Ballater, and 2 ENE. of Balmoral.

Abergele

Abergele, a Denbighshire market-town, 34 miles W. of Chester. The burning here in 1868 of the Irish limited mail cost 33 lives. Pop. 1981.

Aberlady

Aberlady, a Haddingtonshire coast village, 3 miles NE. of Longniddry. Pop. 505.

Abernethy

Abernethy, a small police-burgh of Perthshire, near the Earn's influx to the Tay, 8 1/2 miles SE. of Perth. The ancient capital of the Picts, and from 865 till 908 the seat of the sole Scottish bishopric, it retains one of the two Round Towers in Scotland, 73 feet high. Pop. 852.

Abersychan

Abersychan, an iron and coal mining town of Monmouthshire, 11 miles N. of Newport. Pop. (1901) 17,770.

Abertillery

Abertillery, a town of Monmouthshire, 16 miles NNW. of Newport. Pop. 21,945.

Aberystwith

Aberystwith, a watering-place and municipal borough of Cardiganshire, on the Ystwith, at its mouth in Cardigan Bay, 242 miles NW. of London by rail. It is the seat of the University College of Wales (1872). There are remains of a castle (1109). Till 1885 it was one of the Cardigan parliamentary boroughs. Pop. (1851) 5231; (1891) 6725; (1901) 8015.

Abingdon

Abingdon, a municipal borough of Berkshire, situated at the junction of the Ock and the Thames, 6 miles S. of Oxford, and 60 WNW. of London. 'Abbaddun' (Abbot's town) was an important place in the 8th century, and its Benedictine abbey, rebuilt in 955, was very rich. Its school, founded in 1563, was rebuilt in 1870. A large clothing manufactory employs many hands. Till 1885 Abingdon returned a member to parliament. Pop. (1851) 5954; (1901) 6480.

Abington

Abington, a Lanarkshire village, on the Clyde, 14 miles SSE. of Lanark.

Abkhasia

Abkhasia, or Abasia, a district of Asiatic Russia, between the Caucasus and the Black Sea. The inhabitants, who numbered at the outbreak of the Turkish war of 1878 about 30,000, are now, by emigration, less than half as numerous. Russia gained possession of the fortresses of Abkhasia in 1824, but finally subdued the people only in 1864. See Caucasus.

Abo

Abo (pronounced Obo), the chief town of a government in Finland, on the river Aurajoki, near its embouchure in the Gulf of Bothnia, 170 miles WNW. of Helsingfors by rail. It has an active trade, and exports timber, and bar and cast iron. Its university was transferred to Helsingfors after the great fire of 1827. A peace between Sweden and Russia was signed here in 1743. Pop. (1890) 31,671; (1900) 37,700.

Abomey

Abomey. See Dahomey.

Aboukir

Aboukir', a coast-village of Egypt, 13 miles NE. of Alexandria. In Aboukir Bay Nelson won the great ' Battle of the Nile' over the French fleet, August 1, 1798. Here Napoleon in 1799 defeated a Turkish army; and here Sir Ralph Abercromby's expedition landed in 1801.

Abousambul

Abousambul. See Abu-Simbel.

Aboyne

Aboyne', a Deeside village, 32 1/2 miles W. by S. of Aberdeen. Aboyne Castle is the seat of the Marquis of Huntly. See his Records of Aboyne (1894).