Aran at the north base of Cader Idris, on the Cambrian and Great Western
railways, 232 m. from London. Pop. of urban district (1901) 2437. It
consists of small squares and narrow streets, with a free grammar school
(1665), market hall, assize hall, county gaol, &c. The so-called
parliament house (1404) of Owen Glendower's members has been demolished.
There is some trade in coarse flannel and tweed. Glendower's treaty
with Charles of France (_Owinus D.G. princeps Walliae ... Datum apud
Dolguelli ..._) was dated here. The families of county rank in the
neighbourhood include those of Nannau, Hengwrt (the famous Hengwrt Welsh
MSS. are at Peniarth), Caerynwch, Fronwnion, Bron-y-gadair, Brynygwin,
Brynadda, Abergwynnant, Garthangharad. The county family, Vaughan,
claims descent from Rodric Fawr, king of North Wales, Glendower's
kinsman and enemy lived at Nannau. Scott (_Marmion_, vi. canto, note)
refers to the demon oak at Nannau in 1813. Among neighbouring hills are
Moel Offrwm (or _Orthrwm_--of sacrifice or of oppression) and Moel
Cynwch.

DOLGORUKI, VASILY LUKICH, COUNT (1672-1739), Russian diplomatist and
minister, was one of the first batch of young Russians whom Peter the
Great sent abroad to be educated. From 1687 to 1700 he resided at Paris,
where he learned thoroughly the principal European languages, acquired
the superficial elegance of the court of Versailles, and associated with
the Jesuits, whose moral system he is said to have appropriated. On his
return home he entered the diplomatic service. From 1706 to 1707 he
represented Russia in Poland; and from 1707 to 1720 he was her minister
at Copenhagen, where he succeeded in persuading King Frederick IV. to
join the second coalition against Charles XII. At the end of 1720 he was
transferred to Versailles, in order to seek the mediation of France in
the projected negotiations with Sweden and obtain the recognition of
Peter's imperial title by the French court. In 1724 he represented
Russia at Warsaw and in 1726 at Stockholm, the object of the latter
mission being to detach Sweden from the Hanoverian alliance, in which he
did not succeed. During the reign of Peter II. (1727-1730) Dolgoruki was
appointed a member of the supreme privy council, and after procuring the
banishment of Menshikov he appropriated the person of the young emperor,
whom he would have forced to marry his niece Catherine but for Peter's
untimely death. He then drew up a letter purporting to be