PEEL TOWERS, the name given to fortresses of the moss-troopers on the Scottish border.

PEELE, GEORGE, dramatist, of the Elizabethan period, born in London; author of “Arraignment of Paris” and “David and Bathsabe,” full of passages of poetic beauty; has been charged with having led the life of a debauchee and to have died of a disease brought on by his profligacy, but it is now believed he has been maligned (1548-1597).

PEEPING TOM OF COVENTRY.  See GODIVA.

PEERS, THE TWELVE, the famous warriors or paladins at the court of
Charlemagne, so called from their equality in prowess and honour.

PEGASUS, the winged horse, begotten of Poseidon, who sprung from the body of Medusa when Perseus swooped off her head, and who with a stroke of his hoof broke open the spring of Hippocrene on Mount Helicon, and mounted on whom Bellerophon slew the Chimera, and by means of which he hoped, if he had not been thrown, to ascend to heaven, as Pegasus did alone, becoming thereafter a constellation in the sky; this is the winged horse upon whose back poets, to the like disappointment, hope to scale the empyrean, who have not, like Bellerophon, first distinguished themselves by slaying Chimeras.

PEGU (6), a town of Lower Burma, in the province and on the river of the same name, 46 m.  NE. of Rangoon, is a very ancient city; the province (1,162) is a rice-growing country, with great teak forests on the mountain slopes.

PEI-HO, a river of North China, 350 miles long; formed by the junction of four other rivers, on the chief of which stands Pekin; has a short navigable course south-eastward to the Gulf of Pechili, where it is defended by the forts of Taku.

PEIRCE, BENJAMIN, American mathematician and astronomer, born in Massachusetts, U.S.; wrote on the discovery of Neptune and Saturn’s rings, as well as a number of mathematical text-books (1809-1880).

PEISHWAH, the name of the overlord or chief minister of Mahratta chiefs in their wars with the Mohammedans, who had his head-quarters at Poonah, the last to hold office putting himself under British protection, and surrendering his territory; nominated as his successor Nana Sahib, who became the chief instigator of the Mutiny of 1857, on account, it is believed, of the refusal of the British Government to continue to him the pension of his predecessor who had adopted him.

PEKIN (1,000), the capital of China, on a sandy plain in the basin of the Pei-ho, is divided into two portions, each separately walled, the northern or Manchu city and the southern or Chinese.  The former contains the Purple Forbidden city, in which are the Imperial palaces; surrounding it is the August city, in which are a colossal copper Buddha and the Temple of Great Happiness.  Outside this are the government offices, foreign legations, the temple of Confucius, a great Buddhist monastery, a Roman Catholic cathedral, and Christian mission stations.  The Chinese city has many temples, mission stations, schools, and hospitals; but it is sparsely populated, houses are poor, and streets unpaved.  Pekin has railway communication with Hankow, and is connected with other cities and with Russia by telegraph.  Its trade and industry are inconsiderable.  It is one of the oldest cities in the world.  It was Kubla Khan’s capital, and has been the metropolis of the empire since 1421.