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DYKE - 5 reference results

van Dyke, Henry, 1852-1933, American clergyman, educator, and author, b. Germantown, Pa., grad. Princeton, 1873, and Princeton Theological Seminary, 1874. He was pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church, New York City (1883-99), professor of English literature at Princeton (1899-1923), and U.S. minister to the Netherlands (1913-16). Among his popular inspirational writings is the Christmas story The Other Wise Man (1896). The themes of his sermons are also expressed in his poetry and the essays collected in Little Rivers (1895) and Fisherman's Luck (1899). He translated (1902) The Blue Flower of Novalis.

See biography by his son, Tertius van Dyke (1935).

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Watt's Dyke

Watt's Dyke: see Offa's Dyke.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press

Offa's Dyke

Offa's Dyke, ancient entrenchment of W England and E Wales, from the Dee estuary to near the estuary of the Wye River. It was built in the 8th cent. by Offa, king of Mercia, as a barrier against the Welsh and lies mainly along the England-Wales boundary. Watt's Dyke, a similar work, roughly parallels a section of Offa's at a distance of c.2 mi (3.2 km). Parts of the dikes are well preserved.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press

Offa's Dyke

Earthwork in western England. It stretches 169 mi (270 km) from the River Severn near Chepstow to the seaward end of the River Dee's estuary. It was built by Offa of Mercia to fortify the boundary between his kingdom and the lands of the Welsh; for centuries it marked the England-Wales boundary. It consisted of a plain bank (in places some 60 ft [18 m] high) and a ditch (12 ft [3.7 m] deep). Many sections remain, and a walking path now runs its length.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.