-1747).

STALACTITE, a cone of carbonate of lime attached like an icicle to
the roof of a cavern, and formed by the dripping of water charged with
the carbonate from the rock above; Stalagmite being the name given to the
cone formed on the floor by the dripping from a stalactite above.

STALYBRIDGE (44), a manufacturing town of Cheshire and Lancashire,
on both banks of the Tame, 71/2 m. E. by N. of Manchester; is of modern
growth, and noted for its large cotton-yarn and calico factories,
iron-foundries and machine-shops.

STAMFORD (8), an interesting old town, partly in Lincolnshire and
partly in Northamptonshire, on the Welland, 12 m. WNW. of Peterborough;
was one of the five Danish burghs, and is described in DOMESDAY
BOOK (q. v.); a massacre of Jews occurred here in 1140, and in
Plantagenet times it was a place of ecclesiastical, parliamentary, and
royal importance; figures in the Wars of the Roses and the Civil War of
Charles I.'s time; has three fine Early English churches, a corn
exchange, two handsome schools, Browne's Hospital, founded in Richard
III.'s reign, and Burghley House, a noble specimen of Renaissance
architecture; the _Stamford Mercury_ (1695) is the earliest provincial
newspaper; the district is mainly agricultural.

STAMFORD (16), a town of Connecticut, situated amid surrounding
hills in Long Island Sound, 33 m. NE. of New York; is a summer resort,
and has iron and bronze foundries, etc.

STAMFORD BRIDGE, a village of Yorkshire, on the Derwent, 91/4 m. NE.
of York; the scene of Harold's victory over the invading forces of Harold
Haarfager on September 25, 1066.

STAMP ACT, a measure passed by Grenville's Ministry in 1765 enacting
that all legal documents used in the colonies should bear Government
stamps. The Americans resisted on the ground that taxation without
representation in Parliament was unjust. Riots broke out, and the stamped
paper was carefully avoided. In 1766 Pitt championed the cause of the
colonists, and largely through his eloquence Government in that year was
induced to repeal the Act.

STANDING STONES, rude unhewn stones standing singly or in groups in
various parts of the world, and erected at remote periods, presumably in
memory of some great achievement or misfortune, or as having some
monumental reference.

STANDISH, MILES, one of the Puritan fathers, of Lancashire birth,
and a cadet of a family of knightly rank in the county; served in the
Netherlands