KINKEL, JOHANN GOTTFRIED, German poet and writer on aesthetics, born near Bonn; studied for the Church, but became lecturer on Art in Bonn, 1846; two years later he was imprisoned for revolutionary proceedings; escaped in 1850 to England, and became professor at Zurich in 1866; wrote “Otto der Schuetz,” an epic, and “Nimrod,” a drama (1815-1882).
KINROSS (7), small Scottish county lying between Perth and Fife, round Loch Leven, is agricultural and grazing, with some hills of no great height, and coal mines; the co. town, KINROSS (2), is on the W. shore of Loch Leven; manufactures tartan.
KINSALE (5), a once important seaport in co. Cork, at the mouth of the Bandon, 13 m. S. of Cork; has lost its trade, and is now a summer resort and fishing station; King James II. landed here in 1689, and re-embarked in 1690.
KINTYRE, a long narrow isthmus on the W. coast of Scotland, between the Atlantic and the Firth of Clyde, is chiefly hill and grass country; but at Campbeltown are great distilleries; at Machrihanish Bay, on the W. coast, are fine golfing links.
KIPCHAKS, a nomadic Turkish race who settled on the south-eastern steppes of Russia about the 11th century, and whose descendants still occupy the district.
KIPLING, RUDYARD, story-teller and poet, born in Bombay, and educated in England; went out to India as a journalist; his stories respect Anglo-Indian, and especially military, life in India, and his “Soldiers Three,” with the rest that followed, such as “Wee Willie Winkie,” gained for him an immediate and wide reputation; as a poet, his most successful effort is his “Barrack-Room Ballads,” instinct with a martial spirit, in 1864; he is a writer of conspicuous realistic power; he deems it the mission of civilisation to drill the savage races in humanity; b. 1865.
KIRBY, WILLIAM, entomologist, born in Suffolk; distinguished as the author of “Monographia Apium Angliae,” and “Introduction to Entomology”; was rector of Barham, Suffolk, for 68 years (1759-1850).
KIRGHIZ, a nomadic Turkish people occupying the Kirghiz steppes, an immense tract E. of the Ural River and the Caspian Sea, numbering 21/2 millions, adventurous, witty, and free-spirited; refuse to settle; retain ancient customs and characteristics, and are Moslems only in name.
KIRK SESSION, an ecclesiastical court in Scotland, composed of the minister and elders of a parish, subject to the Presbytery of the district.
KIRKCALDY (27), a manufacturing and seaport town in Fifeshire, extending 4 m. along the north shore of the Forth, known as the “lang toon.” It was the birthplace of Adam Smith, and one of the scenes of the schoolmastership period of Thomas Carlyle’s life; manufactures textile fabrics and floorcloth; is a busy town.
KIRKCUDBRIGHT (40), a Scottish county on the Solway shore between Wigtown and Dumfries, watered by the rivers Nith, Dee, and Cree; has Mount Merrick on the NW. border, and Loch Dee in the middle; one-third of its area cultivated, the rest chiefly hill pasturage. County town KIRKCUDBRIGHT (3), on the Dee, 6 m. from the Solway; held St. Cuthbert’s church.