COW-PEAS
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COWSLIP
wrote essaysr which are much better known than his poetry and rank with those of Goldsmith and Addison. He died on July 28, 1667.
Cow-Peas, a very important leguminous crop for forage and for adding fertility to the soil. They can be grown on soil too poor to support clover. (See NITROGEN-GATHERING CROPS). Its hay yields more dry matter and digestible protein than clover. (See BALANCED RATION.) Being susceptible to frost, the cultivation of most varieties is confined to the southern states. The soy-bean is another leguminous plant much grown for similar purposes. The seeds of both form a valuable concentrated food.
Cow'pens, a village of South Carolina, near which the British under Colonel Tar-leton were defeated by the Americans under General Morgan, Jan. 17, 1781. Corn-wallis dispatched Tarletpn with 1,100 choice troops to drive Morgan into North Carolina. The forces met in an open wood known as Hannah's Cowpens. The Americans, who numbered about 1,000, were drawn up in two lines, with an advance corps of riflemen and a small cavalry reserve. The British charged, driving the riflemen back to the first line; when within bayonet thrust, the first line fell back on the second. A misunderstood order threw the Americans into confusion, and Morgan ordered a retreat to a slight rise where the cavalry were posted. On came the British, but just then the dragoons charged, and at the same time the rear line faced about, poured in a volley at close range, and charged bayonets. The British line was broken and put to flight. The British loss was 800 or 900; the Americans lost 72.
Cowper (koo'per or kou'per), William, a celebrated English poet, was born in 1731 in Hertfordshire, England. When very young he was sent to Westminster School, where, he complains afterward, "he learned the infernal art of lying." One of his school-fellows was Thurlpw, who jokingly promised him an appointment when he should be lord-chancellor, but failed to keep the promise. Cowper studied law and was offered by a cousin a clerkship in the house of lords. But the candidate would have to appear before the bar of the house, and this thought unmanned the poet. A fixed idea that every one was his enemy, the forerunner of madness, took possession of him. He tried to kill himself on several occasions, and for a time was confined in an asylum. After recovering his health, he met his good angel, Mrs. Unwin, in whose family, at Olney, he lived for some time; but his madness burst out again suddenly while he was making a call at the house of his friend, John Newton. He stayed there a year, refusing to go back to his own house, though it was but
next door. In 1779, though he never fully recovered, began the brightest period of his life. As yet he had not written a line, but he followed Mrs. Unwin's counsels like a child, and when, to occupy his mind, she asked him to write poetry, poetry he wrote. He had also made the acquaintance of Lady Austen, another angel whose smiles put life into his brain, and her playful request that he write her a poem on something or other, "this sofa, for instance," resulted in The Task, Cowper's greatest work. One morning he also read her the famous ballad John Gilpin, the story of which she had told him the night before. In 1787 came on another attack of his old trouble, and again he made an attempt upon his life. Yet in these last gloomy years he wrote two of his most beautiful poems, one Addressed to My Mother's Picture and another to My Mary. See his biography, by Prof. Goldwin Smith, in the English Men of Letters Series. He died on April 25,1800. Mrs. Browning was inspired by the pathos of his life to write one of her most poignant and appealing poems.
Cow'slip, a common native flower of English pastures, to be met with also in many other parts of Europe. It is a deli-
COWSLIP
cate, modest little flower, a great favorite both for its beauty and fragrance. It differs from the common primrose, in having umbels or spreading flower-clusters. These clusters or bells were long thought to be the haunts of fairies, and are still sometimes called fairy-cups. The flower commonly called Cowslip in America is a quite different blossom, a member of the Crowfoot family. It also is known as the Marsh Marigold, but is neither true Marigold nor true Cowslip. In appearance it closely
