ned his great reputation by the publication (1726) of his
masterpiece "Gulliver's Travels," the most daring, savage, and amusing
satire contained in the world's literature; "Stella's" death and the slow
progress of a brain disease, ending in insanity, cast an ever-deepening
gloom over his later years (1667-1745).

SWILLY, LOUGH, a narrow inlet of the Atlantic, on the coast of
Donegal, North Ireland, running in between Dunaff Head (E.) and Fanad
Point (W.), a distance of 25 m.; is from 3 to 4 m. broad; the entrance is
fortified.

SWINBURNE, ALGERNON CHARLES, poet and prose writer, born in London,
son of Admiral Swinburne; educated at Balliol College, Oxford, went to
Florence and spent some time there; his first productions were plays, two
of them tragedies, and "Poems and Ballads," his later "A Song of Italy,"
essay on "William Blake," and "Songs before Sunrise," instinct with
pantheistic and republican ideas, besides "Studies in Song," "Studies in
Prose and Poetry," &c.; he ranks as the successor of Landor, of whom he
is a great admirer, stands high both as a poet and a critic, and is a man
of broad and generous sympathies; his admirers regard it as a reproach to
his generation that due honour is not paid by it to his genius; _b_.
1837.

SWINDON (32), a town in Wiltshire, 77 m. W. of London; contains the
Great Western Company's engineering works, which cover 200 acres, and
employ 10,000 hands.

SWINEMUeNDE (9), a fortified seaport on the island of Usedom, in the
Baltic, near the mouth of the Swine, one of the outlets of the Oder.

SWISS CONFEDERATION, a league of the several Swiss cantons to resist
an attempt on the part of the Emperor Albrecht to incorporate certain of
the free towns into his family possessions.

SWISS GUARDS. See GARDES SUISSES.

SWITHIN, ST., bishop of Winchester from 852 to 862; was buried by
his own request in Winchester Churchyard, "where passers-by might tread
above his head, and the dews of heaven fall on his grave." On his
canonisation, a century after, the chapter resolved to remove his body to
a shrine in the cathedral, but their purpose was hindered on account of a
rain which lasted 40 days from the 15th July; hence the popular notion
that if it rained that day it would be followed by rain for 40 days
after.

SWITZERLAND (2,918), a republic of Central Europe, bounded by
Germany (N.), France (W.), Italy (S.), and Austria and Germany (E.); in
size is slightly more tha