CHATSWORTH, the palatial seat of the Duke of Devonshire, in Derbyshire, 8 m.  W. of Chesterfield, enclosed in a park, with gardens, 10 m. in circumference.

CHATTERTON, THOMAS, a poet of great promise, had a tragic fate, born at Bristol, passed off while but a boy as copies of ancient MSS., and particularly of poems which he ascribed to one Rowley, a monk of the 17th century, what were compositions of his own, exhibiting a genius of no small literary, not to say lyric, power; having vainly endeavoured to persuade any one of their genuineness, though he had hopes of the patronage of Sir Robert Walpole, he left Bristol for London, and made vehement efforts with his pen to bespeak regard, but failed; grew desperate, and committed suicide at the early age of 18 (1752-1770).

CHAUCER, GEOFFREY, the great early English poet, and father of English poetry, the son of a vintner and taverner, born probably in London, where he lived almost all his days; when a lad, served as page in the royal household; won the favour and patronage of the king, Edward III. and his son, John of Gaunt, who pensioned him; served in an expedition to France; was made prisoner, but ransomed by the king; was often employed on royal embassies, in particular to Italy; held responsible posts at home; was thus a man of the world as well as a man of letters; he comes first before us as a poet in 1369; his poetic powers developed gradually, and his best and ripest work, which occupied him at intervals from 1373 to 1400, is his “CANTERBURY TALES” (q. v.), characterised by Stopford Brooke as “the best example of English story-telling we possess”; besides which he wrote, among other compositions, “The Life of St. Cecilia,” “Troilus and Cressida,” the “House of Fame,” and the “Legend of Good Women”; his influence on English literature has been compared to that of Dante on Italian, and his literary life has been divided into three periods—­the French, the Italian, and the English, according as the spirit of it was derived from a foreign or a native source (1340-1400).

CHAUMETTE, PIERRE GASPARD, a violent member of the extreme party in the French Revolution, could “recognise the suspect from the very face of them”; provoked the disgust of even Robespierre, and was arrested amid jeers and guillotined (1763-1794).

CHAUTAUQUA, a summer resort on a lake of the name in the W. of New York State, centre of a novel institution, which prescribes a four years’ course of private readings, and grants diplomas to those who anywhere achieve it.

CHAUVINISM, a name among the French for what is known as Jingoism among the English, i. e. an extravagant zeal for the glory of one’s country or party, from one Chauvin, who made threatening displays of his devotion to Napoleon after his fall in 1815.

CHEDDAR, a village in Somersetshire, on the Mendip Hills, famous for its cheese.