SWINBUBNE, ALGERNON CHARLES, one of the first of living English poets, is the son of admiral Charles Henry Swinburne, by lady Jane Henrietta, daughter of the third earl of Ashburnham, and was born in London on April 5,1837. He entered as a commoner at Balliol college, Oxford, in 1857, but left the university without graduating. His first literary venture, a volume published in 1861, containing two plays, The Queen and Rosamund, attracted little attention ; but Atalanta in Calydon, a tragedy, which appeared in 1865, at once established his reputation. Afterward came Chastelard, a tragedy (1865); Poems and Ballads (1866); A Song of Daly (1867); Siena (1868); Songs before Sunrise (1871); Bothwell, a tragedy (1874); Erechtheus (1875); and a new series of Poems and Ballads in 1878. Swinburne belongs to what has been aptly called the "fleshly school" of poetry, and even those who most admire his power of poetical expression, richness of coloring, and happy lyrical effects must deplore the sensuous tone of his muse. He has also been severely animadverted upon for the wanton violence
with which be attacks the most sacred beliefs of his fellow-men. Swinburne is well known in the department of poetical criticism. A collection of his Essays and Studies was published in 1875; his Note on Charlotte Bronte in 1877.
SWI/tDOIT, an old market-t.- of Wilts, 77 m, w. of London by the Great Western rail way. It contains a handsome church, large corn-exchange, and excellent shops. About a mile n. of the town is Swindon junction, the great central establishment and manufac tory of the Great Western railway company.
- A considerable town has risen around the station, called the New Town, and consist ing for the most part of dwellings for the employees of the railway. There are also a large and remarkably beautiful church, a: public park, library, and mechanics' institu tion. Pop. of Old Town, '71, 4,092; of New Town, 7,628.