VENTNOR, a town and favourite watering-place on the S. shore of the Isle of Wight, with a fine beach; much resorted to in winter from its warm Southern exposure.

VENUS, the Roman goddess of love, of wedded love, and of beauty (originally of the spring), and at length identified with the Greek APHRODITE (q. v.); she was regarded as the tutelary goddess of Rome, and had a temple to her honour in the Forum.

VENUS, an interior planet of the solar system, revolving in an orbit outside that of Mercury and within that of the earth, nearly as large as the latter; is 67 millions of miles from the sun, round which it revolves in 224 days, while it takes 231/4 hours to rotate on its own axis; it is the brightest of the heavenly bodies, and appears in the sky now as the morning star, now as the evening star, according as it rises before the sun or sets after it, so that it is always seen either in the E. or the W.; when right between us and the sun it is seen moving as a black spot on the sun’s disk, a phenomenon known as “Transit of Venus,” the last instance of which occurred in 1882, and that will not occur again till after 1051/2 years.

VERA CRUZ (24), a chief seaport of Mexico, on the Gulf of Mexico, 263 m.  SE. of the capital; is regularly built and strongly fortified, but is unhealthily situated, and the yellow and other fevers prevail; trade is chiefly in the hands of foreigners; exports ores, cochineal, indigo, dye-woods, &c.

VERDI, GIUSEPPE, Italian composer, born at Roncole, Parma; his musical talent was slow of recognition, but the appearance of his “Lombardi” and “Ernani” in 1843-44 established his repute, which was confirmed by “Rigoletto” in 1851 and “Il Trovatore” and “La Traviata” in 1853; b. 1813.

VERDUN (18), a strongly fortified town in the department of Meuse, 35 m.  W. of Metz; capitulated to the Germans in 1870 after a siege of six weeks.

VERESTCHAGIN, Russian painter, is realistic to an extreme degree and anti-conventional; b. 1842.

VERGIL, POLYDORE, historian and miscellaneous writer, born at Urbino; was a friend and correspondent of Erasmus; was sent to England by the Pope as deputy-collector of Peter’s pence, and was there promoted to ecclesiastical preferments; wrote in Latin an able and painstaking history of England, bringing it down to the year 1538 (1470-1555).

VERIGNIAUD, an eloquent orator of the French Revolution; a man of indolent temper, but by his eloquence became leader of the Girondins; presided at the trial of the king, and pronounced the decision of the court—­sentence of death, presided as well “at the Last Supper of his party, with wild coruscations of eloquence, with song and mirth,” and was guillotined next day, the last of the lot (1753-1793).

VERLAINE, PAUL, French poet, born in Metz; has written lyrics of a quite unique type (1844-1896).

VERMONT (green mount) (332), an inland New England State, W. of New Hampshire and a little larger in size, includes large tracts of both pastoral and arable land; rears live-stock in great numbers, yields cereals, and produces the best maple sugar in the States, and has large quarries of granite, marble, and slate.