TOOKE, JOHN HORNE, baptismal name JOHN HORNE, born, the son of a well-to-do poulterer, in London; graduated at Cambridge, and to please his father took holy orders in 1760, but after some years, during which he had tutored abroad, zealously assisted Wilkes in his election to Parliament, and successfully encountered “Junius”; he abandoned the Church and studied for the bar, to which, on account of his holy orders, he was refused a call; became an active political free-lance, and acquired great popularity as a strenuous advocate of parliamentary reform; entered Parliament in 1801, but in the following year was excluded by an Act making it illegal for any one in priest’s orders to be returned; inherited the fortune and assumed the name of his friend William Tooke of Purley; is best known as the author of the “Diversions of Purley,” “a witty medley of etymology, grammar, metaphysics, and politics” (1736-1812).

TOOLE, JOHN LAWRENCE, a celebrated comedian, born in London, where he was educated at the City School, and afterwards put to business, but soon took to the stage, serving his apprenticeship and gaining a considerable reputation in the provinces before making his appearance at St. James’s Theatre in London in 1854; became the leading low-comedian of his day, and in 1880 took over the management of the Folly Theatre, which he re-named Toole’s Theatre; has unrivalled powers of blending pathos with burlesque, and in such characters as Paul Pry, Caleb Plummer, Chawles, &c., is a special favourite all over the English-speaking world; b. 1832.

TOOM TABARD.  See TABARD.

TOPE, the popular name in Buddhist countries for a species of cupola-shaped tumulus surmounted by a finial, in shape like an open parasol, the emblem of Hindu royalty; these parasol finials were often placed one upon the top of the other until a great height was reached; one in Ceylon attains a height of 249 ft., with a diameter of 360 ft.; were used to preserve relics or to commemorate some event.

TOPEKA (34), capital of Kansas, on the Kansas River, 67 m.  W. of Kansas City; is a spacious, well laid out town, the seat of an Episcopal bishop, well supplied with schools and colleges, and busy with the manufacture of flour, heavy iron goods, &c.

TOePFFER, RUDOLF, caricaturist and novelist of Geneva, where he founded a boarding-school, and became professor of Rhetoric in the Geneva Academy; author of some charming novels, “Nouvelles Genevoises,” “La Bibliotheque de mon Oncle,” &c. (1799-1846).

TOPLADY, AUGUSTUS MONTAGUE, hymn-writer, born at Farnham, Surrey; became vicar of Broad Hembury, Devonshire, in 1768; was an uncompromising Calvinist, and opponent of the Methodists; survives as the author of “Rock of Ages,” besides which he wrote “Poems on Sacred Subjects,” and compiled “Psalms and Hymns,” of which a few are his own (1740-1778).

TORGAU (11), a fortified town of Prussia, on the Elbe, 70 m.  SW. of Berlin; has a church consecrated by Luther, and in the town-church the wife of the great reformer lies buried; scene of a victory of Frederick the Great over the Austrians in November 1760.