Black pepper is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, known as a peppercorn, dried and used as a spice and seasoning. When fresh and mature, the fruit is about 5 mm in diameter and dark red, contains a single seed, like all drupes. Peppercorns and the ground pepper derived from them may be described as pepper, or more as black pepper, green pepper, or white pepper. Black pepper is native to present-day Kerala in South India, is extensively cultivated there and elsewhere in tropical regions. Vietnam is the world's largest producer and exporter of pepper, producing 34% of the world's crop, as of 2013. Ground and cooked peppercorns have been used since antiquity, both for flavour and as a traditional medicine. Black pepper is the world's most traded spice, is one of the most common spices added to cuisines around the world, its spiciness is due to the chemical compound piperine, a different kind of spicy from the capsaicin characteristic of chili peppers. It is ubiquitous in the modern world as a seasoning, is paired with salt and available on dining tables in shakers or mills.

The word pepper derives from Old English pipor, Latin piper, Sanskrit pippali for "long pepper". In the 16th century, people began using pepper to mean the unrelated New World chili pepper. Black pepper is produced from the unripe drupe of the pepper plant; the drupes are cooked in hot water, both to clean them and to prepare them for drying. The heat ruptures cell walls in the pepper; the drupes dry in the sun or by machine for several days, during which the pepper skin around the seed shrinks and darkens into a thin, wrinkled black layer. Once dry, the spice is called black peppercorn. On some estates, the berries are separated from the stem by hand and sun-dried without the boiling process. Once the peppercorns are dried, pepper spirit and oil can be extracted from the berries by crushing them. Pepper spirit is used in many beauty products. Pepper oil is used as an ayurvedic massage oil and in certain beauty and herbal treatments. White pepper consists of the seed of the ripe fruit of the pepper plant, with the thin darker-coloured skin of the fruit removed.

This is accomplished by a process known as retting, where ripe red pepper berries are soaked in water for about a week so the flesh of the peppercorn softens and decomposes. Sometimes alternative processes are used for removing the outer pepper from the seed, including removing the outer layer through mechanical, chemical, or biological methods. Ground white pepper is used in Chinese and Portuguese cuisine, but in salads, light-coloured sauces, mashed potatoes as a substitute, because black pepper would visibly stand out. However, white pepper lacks certain compounds present in the outer layer of the drupe, resulting in a different overall flavour. Green pepper, like black pepper, is made from unripe drupes. Dried green peppercorns are treated in a way that retains the green colour, such as with sulphur dioxide, canning, or freeze-drying. Pickled peppercorns green, are unripe drupes preserved in brine or vinegar. Fresh, unpreserved green pepper drupes unknown in the West, are used in some Asian cuisines Thai cuisine.

Their flavour has been described as "spicy and fresh", with a "bright aroma". They decay if not dried or preserved, making them unsuitable for international shipping. Red peppercorns consists of ripe peppercorn drupes preserved in brine and vinegar. Ripe red peppercorns can be dried using the same colour-preserving techniques used to produce green pepper. Pink peppercorns are the fruits of the Peruvian pepper tree, Schinus molle, or its relative, the Brazilian pepper tree, Schinus terebinthifolius, plants from a different family; as they are members of the cashew family, they may cause allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, for persons with a tree nut allergy. The bark of Drimys winteri is used as a substitute for pepper in cold and temperate regions of Chile and Argentina, where it is found and available. In New Zealand, the seeds of kawakawa, a relative of black pepper, are sometimes used as pepper. Several plants in the United States are used as pepper substitutes, such as field pepperwort, least pepperwort, shepherd's purse and field pennycress.

The pepper plant is a perennial woody vine growing up to 4 m in height on supporting trees, poles, or trellises. It is a spreading vine, rooting where trailing stems touch the ground; the leaves are entire, 5 to 10 cm long and 3 to 6 cm across. The flowers are small, produced on pendulous spikes 4 to 8 cm long at the leaf nodes, the spikes lengthening up to 7 to 15 cm as the fruit matures. Pepper can be grown in soil, neither too dry nor susceptible to flooding, well-drained and rich in organic matter; the plants are propagated by cuttings about 40 to 50 cm long, tied up to neighbouring trees or climbing frames at distances of about 2 m apart. Competing plants ar

Cowden is a small village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. The parish is located on the northern slopes of south-west of Tonbridge; the old High Street has Grade II listed cottages and village houses, there is an inn called The Fountain. At the 2011 Census the population of the village was 818; the Romans built the London to Lewes Way across. The first owners of the manor received it from King John in 1208. Crippenden Manor, built in about 1607, was once the home of ironmaster, Richard Tichborne, related to the Tichbornes of Tichborne, Hampshire; this branch of the Tichbornes descended from a younger son of John Tichborne and Margaret Martin, who inherited his mother's lands in and around Edenbridge, including Crippenden. Richard was the son of John Tichborne and Dorothy Chaloner, daughter of Thomas Chaloner of Lyndfield and his wife, Alice Shirley. Richard married Dorothy Saxbie, circa 1592, had at least ten children, including Dorothy who married John Tillinghast, son of the Rector of Streat, involved in the iron industry.

Richard formally built the house there. It descended to Captain Edmund Tichborne who sold the manor after 1721; the village appears as Cudena in Textus Roffensis. In 1649 Robert Tichborne, a nephew of Richard Tichborne, petitioned the House of Commons in favour of the execution of Charles I, he was one of the Commissioners. After the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, he was arrested and sentenced to death, but was reprieved, imprisoned in Dover Castle and died, in 1682, in the Tower of London; the family, did not die out in Cowden until 1708, when the last member of the family, John Tichbourne, was buried there. This is old Wealden iron country, recalled by the cast iron memorial slab in the church, to John Bottinge, dated 1622; this was a time when the area was producing guns for the Army and Navy, as well as domestic and agricultural ware. Cowden had its own blast furnace from 1573 until sometime in the 18th century; the rumoured second'upper' Cowden Furnace is now known to have been Scarlets Furnace nearby is on the Kent side of the stream and the three counties meet between old Basings house and Smithers Farm.

Predominantly white English. Christians and atheists; the ancient parish church is dedicated to St Mary Magdalene, has a restored shingle covered spire. Parts of the parish straddle the Kent Water which forms the border with East Sussex and Surrey where the three counties meet, it is centred on a 13th-century church of St Mary Magdalene with its slender, wooden shingled spire, bomb-damaged during World War II and since re-shingled. The spire is perceptibly out of perpendicular, which gave rise to a rhyme: Cowden church, crooked steeple, Lying priest, deceitful people; the church is built of its tower and steeple timber-framed inside. The old bells were recast and rehung in 1911 to commemorate the reign of Edward VII and a sixth bell was added at the Coronation of George V. A stained glass window given to the church in 1947, celebrates'the remarkable preservation of this village during the years 1939-45' and features figures of St Bridget, St Nicholas, St George, St Mary Magdalene, all the company of Sir Walstan.

Below them are 20th-century figures: a sailor, airman, a nurse, others making up a representative group of people involved in World War II, all turned towards a Christ-figure whose protection they seek. The Queen's Arms is a mid 19th century, it is on the Campaign for Real Ale's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors. Its railway station was the scene of a fatal crash in 1994. There is a regular service to Uckfield. Neil Trotter and partner Nicky Ottoway, who won £108 Million in the euromillions purchased a £5 million property with eight bedrooms overlooking vast woodland and fields with its own lake in Cowden, following their win; the traditional mansion is home to Neil’s fleet of Supercars. An attempted break in was reported to the property by a balaclava gang in the months following the purchase of the house, surprising many as Cowden was known as an area with a low crime rate. English author and actress Clemence Dane wrote part of her novel The Arrogant History of White Ben in Cowden, signing the book Cowden 1938 at the end of the tale.

Brigadier Ralph Bagnold, OBE, FRS, desert explorer and the founder and first leader of the Long Range Desert Group, lived at Rickwoods, just outside Cowden, between 1949 and 1983. A world expert on the movement of sand by natural means, he worked with NASA on the movement of sand on Mars, as a result of which a sandy area of that planet is now known as'The Bagnold Dunes'; the English author and illustrator of children's books, Roger Hargreaves, best known as the creator of the Mr Men and Little Miss series of books, lived at Sussex House Farm in Hartfield Road from 1982 to 1988. He is buried in the graveyard of the parish church, in an extension of land which he had donated the year before his death; the English actor Sir John Mills lived in Cowden for several years. Cowden Village Website HomePage Kent Parish Councils Cowden HomePage The Weald Of Kent, Town History Cowden Pound Pastures Cowden Conservation Society Multimap The Fountain Inn, Cowden Cowden Furnace Pond

Rockfleet Castle, or Carrickahowley Castle, is a tower house near Newport in County Mayo, Ireland. It was built in the mid-sixteenth century, is most famously associated with Gráinne Ní Mháille, the'pirate queen' and chieftain of the Clan O’Malley; the castle has been speculated as her place of death. Rockfleet Castle has four floors and is over eighteen metres in height looking out towards the drumlins of Clew Bay. Though entry to the castle was once available to the public, it is now prohibited for safety reasons; the castle was installed with a metal walkway in 2015, from its adjacent grassland surrounding to its door due to the sheer inconvenience of accessing its entrance during high tides. Further renovations through pointing were carried out on the castle’s exterior in 2017 to improve its weathered brick joints. Local legend has it that treasure once housed in the castle is now buried in an unknown location somewhere in the surrounding fields. If found, the individual who exhumed it is said to be met by the Headless Horseman resulting in dire consequences.

Photographs of Rockfleet Castle, accessed: 5 January 2009

The Connecticut Company or Connecticut Land Company was a post-colonial land speculation company formed in the late eighteenth century to survey and encourage settlement in the eastern parts of the newly chartered Connecticut Western Reserve of the former "Ohio Country" and a prized-part of the Northwest Territory)—a post-American Revolutionary period region, part of the lands-claims settlement adjudicated by the new United States government regarding the contentious conflicting claims by various Eastern Seaboard states on lands west of the gaps of the Allegheny draining into the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers. Under the arrangement, all the states gave up their land claims west of the Alleghenies to the Federal government save for parts parceled out to each claimant state. Western Pennsylvania was Pennsylvania's part, the Connecticut Western Reserve was the part apportioned to Connecticut's claim; the specific Connecticut Western Reserve lands were the northeastern part of the greater Mississippi drainage basin lands just west of those defined as part of Pennsylvania's claims settlement.

The Western Reserve is located in Northeast Ohio with its hub being Cleveland. In 1795, the Connecticut Land Company bought three million acres of the Western Reserve. Settlers used the guidelines of the Land Ordinance of 1785, which demanded the owners survey the land before settlement. In 1796, the company began sales on property east of Cuyahoga; the original proprietors, 57 of the wealthiest and most prominent men in Connecticut, included Oliver Phelps, the largest subscriber and chief manager of the project. In 1796, one of the largest shareholders, Moses Cleaveland, planned a settlement on the banks of the Cuyahoga River with Seth Pease; this planned settlement would become the city of Cleveland. The Deeds for the land were executed as follows: Company Introduction The Connecticut Land Company was a company set up by a group of private investors in 1795 with the aim of making a profit from land sales. Towards that end, the company bought a large portion of the eastern part of the Western Connecticut Reserves.

However, poor company management and political uncertainty led to weak land sales, slow economic development, company failure in 1809. Despite its short existence, the Connecticut Land Company was instrumental in the development of the region and left a lasting impact on the landscape. One of the most important legacies of the Connecticut Land Company was the establishment of the settlement of Cleveland. Key Company Figures The ownership of the company was made up of a syndicate of 35 purchasing groups representing a total of 58 individual investors; the leader of this group and the head of the Connecticut Land Company was Oliver Phelps. He was the head manager of this investment project. Another key figure in the company was one of the company's first directors, he was in charge of conducting the first company survey of the Western Connecticut Reserves in 1796. Moses Cleaveland negotiated a treaty with the Iroquois, who gave up all of their land claims east of the Cuyahoga River, he founded a settlement named after him that would become the city “Cleveland” due to a cartographic error.

Company Background In 1795, the Connecticut Land Company paid the state of Connecticut $1.2 million for three million acres of its Western Reserve lands. The $1.2 million raised by the state was used to fund public education. This allowed Connecticut to improve its educational facilities. With regards to the land purchased by the company, it was divided into 1.2 million shares. On September 5, 1795, the company adopted articles of association, each purchasing group was given a proportional share of the land commensurate with the amount of capital invested; the main purpose of the Connecticut Land Company was the pursuit of profits through the sale of the lands to both land speculators and settlers. Land would be sold many times between speculators and investors before it would be sold to someone who would settle it. Due to weak land sales, the company was forced to lower prices and give away free land in order to encourage settlement; the problems that forced the company to lower prices would force the company into bankruptcy.

Company’s Problems One of the problems that befell the Connecticut Land Company was company mismanagement. Sales efforts by the company were not centrally organized; the company did not set up a marketing office in the Western Reserve to promote sales of land. Without an organized, concerted sales campaign by the company, their efforts to sell the land were unsuccessful. In fact, only 1000 people had settled in the region by 1800; the other problem that beset the company and hurt land sales was political uncertainty surrounding the Connecticut Western Reserves. The political confusion concerned the right to govern the land and the legitimacy of the land titles. There were disputes between the Northwest Territory and the state of Connecticut over who had the right to govern the land purchased by the company. In addition, the company wanted Connecticut to guarantee the land titles that the company issues, but Connecticut refused; as a result of this uncertain surrounding the legality of land titles and jurisdiction, many would-be settlers decided not to come.

Making settlement less attractive was the fact that the US government did not recognize the Western Reserve as part of the Northwest Territory until 1800. In practice this means that the US government did not provide settlers with legal or military protection. On April 28, 1800, the Quieting Act was signed by President Adams int

Lancelot Blackburne was an English clergyman, who became Archbishop of York, – in popular belief – a pirate. He was described by Horace Walpole, in his Memories, as "…Blackbourn, the jolly old Archbishop of York, who had all the manners of a man of quality, though he had been a buccaneer, was a clergyman, he was born in a younger brother of Richard Blackburne. He attended Westminster School, in 1676 entered Christ Church, Oxford, he graduated in 1680, was ordained a deacon on 25 September 1681 at Christ Church by John Fell, Bishop of Oxford, travelled to the West Indies. In January 1684 he was granted an MA by the university. A popular story recounts that he spent these years sailing with buccaneers, either as their chaplain or as a pirate himself, he returned to England during 1684, marrying Catherine Talbot on 2 September at the Savoy Chapel, shortly thereafter took up the first of a set of church posts. In 1691 he became a Canon of Exeter, in 1705 Dean of Exeter, succeeding William Wake whose patronage would stand him in good stead, in 1715 Archdeacon of Cornwall.

In 1716 he travelled to Hanover as the personal chaplain to George I and the next year became Bishop of Exeter. As Bishop, he was active in the House of Lords where he supported the repeal of the Occasional Conformity Act. In 1724 he became Archbishop of a position he held until his death. While he continued to be politically active, he neglected his spiritual duties. Instead, he kept apartments in Downing Street and spent much time at the royal court. Downing Street is listed as his abode on the 1739 royal charter of the Foundling Hospital, a charity for which he was a founding governor. Blackburne was Lord High Almoner from 1723 to 1743, his career was controversial, with rumours. The Dictionary of National Biography mentions "his reputation for carnality" and "the laxity of his moral precepts", while Brewer's Rogues and Eccentrics comments that " behaviour was of a standard to be expected of an archbishop. In many respects his behaviour was of a standard to be expected of a pirate." He was famously ejected by John Disney, the vicar of St. Mary's Church, after a confirmation service during which he asked for his pipe and ale.

One local legend in York claimed that Dick Turpin was his butler. Blackburne died at his home in Downing Street, Westminster on 23 March 1743 after a "lingering illness", his wife Catherine had died on 9 June 1726 at the age of 80 and they left no children. It has been claimed that he fathered Thomas Hayter. In a 1780 letter to David Dalrymple, Horace Walpole gave a lengthy description of Blackburne: He was a fine gentleman to the last, to eighty-four. I have heard, but do not affirm it, that Mrs. Blackbourne, before she died, complained of Mrs. Conwys being brought under the same roof. To his clergy he was, I have heard imperious. One story I recollect, which showed how much he was a man of this world: and which the Queen herself repeated to my father. On the King's last journey to Hanover, before Lady Yarmouth came over, the Archbishop being With her Majesty, said to her, "Madam, I have been with your minister Walpole, he tells me that you are a wise woman, do not mind your husband's having a mistress.

See Edmund Waller 1658–1681: Lancelot Blackburne Esq. 1681–1691: The Reverend Lancelot Blackburne 1691–1705: The Reverend Canon Lancelot Blackburne 1705–1717: The Very Reverend Lancelot Blackburne 1717–1724: The Right Reverend Lancelot Blackburne 1724–1743: The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Lancelot Blackburne The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Horace Walpole, Volume 4 "Blackburne, Lancelot". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. Contemporary image of Lancelot Blackburne at the National Portrait Gallery

William Ward Odell MC was an English first-class cricketer who played for Leicestershire. He was born in Leicester and was killed in action in the First World War at Broodseinde in the Passchendaele salient in Belgium. Odell's father was Rev Joseph Odell, a Primitive Methodist minister who had ministries in Wales, where William was born, Brooklyn in the US, Birmingham, where he was in charge of the Conference Hall and where William was educated at the King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys. William's brother Edwin Odell played first-class cricket for Leicestershire in one match. Odell played cricket as an amateur, was a right-handed lower middle order batsman and a right-arm medium pace bowler, he made his first-class cricket debut in a game for Leicestershire against the London County Cricket Club, his first bowling victim was W. G. Grace, caught on the long-on boundary. In the return match two weeks he took nine wickets for 73 runs in the game, Grace again being one of his victims, and in the following Leicestershire game, against Warwickshire, he went one better with match figures of 10 wickets for 103 runs.

From 1902 to 1908, Odell was pretty much an ever-present in the Leicestershire side and the leading wicket-taker in several of those seasons, though he appeared for other amateur teams, including London County and five times for Gentlemen in the series of matches between amateurs and professionals. In 1902, he took 89 wickets in games at an average of 26.41. They included seven Hampshire wickets for 33 runs, which remained his best bowling figures for four years. In his first match for London County in 1902, he took six second innings wickets against Marylebone Cricket Club, including Arthur Conan Doyle for a duck. Odell took 100 wickets in a season for the first time in 1903 and repeated the feat in the next two seasons, his total of 112 wickets in 1904 was the best of his career and his batting improved markedly that season as well, with his 574 runs at an average of 17.39 being his best aggregate of runs in any one season. In 1906 he failed to reach 100 wickets, but his eight for 20 for Leicestershire against MCC at Lord's was the best innings return of his career.

He was back over 100 wickets in 1907, for the only time in his career he took more than 100 for Leicestershire. He was less successful in 1908, his total number of wickets falling to 74, after the season was over a short notice in The Times announced that “owing to business engagements Mr. W. W. Odell will not be able to play for Leicestershire next season except during holidays"; that proved true: Odell appeared only against the Australians in 1909, not at all in 1910 and 1911, only in Thomas Jayes’ benefit match in 1912, only occasional matches in his last two seasons. At the time of his death, Odell was serving as a temporary second lieutenant with the ninth battalion of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment. Less than three weeks before his death he was cited in the London Gazette as having been awarded the Military Cross; the citation read: "For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in taking out a patrol at a critical moment and gaining valuable information, which resulted in bodies of the enemy who were massing for attack being dispersed by our artillery fire.

Throughout all operations he has displayed the utmost courage and coolness." His address in his probate record was in South Yardley, Birmingham and he left a widow, Edith. William Odell at ESPNcricinfo