ST GEORGE'S 



ST HELENA 



87 



of natural history, works of art, and antiquities. 

 The city carries on a large trade in its staple com- 

 modity, embroidered textiles (cotton, muslin, &c.), 

 and in agricultural products. Pop. (1888) 27,910. 

 The original nucleus of the place was the cell of St 

 Gall (c. 550-645), an Irish follower of St Columban, 

 who settled here in 614. Around this soon grew 

 up a monastery of the Benedictine order, which 

 was promoted by Charles Martel to the dignity 

 of an abbey. The abbey gradually became one 

 of the masterpieces of mediaeval architecture ; 

 whilst the monks were indefatigable in the col- 

 lection and transcription of MSS. biblical, patris- 

 tic, historical (sacred and profane), classical, litur- 

 gical, and legendary. Several of the classics, 

 especially Quintilian, Silius Italicus, and Am- 

 mianus Marcellinus, have been preserved solely 

 through the MSS. of St Gall. Its monastic schools 

 enjoyed the greatest reputation for learning 

 from the 9th to the 12th century. Amongst 

 its more distinguished pupils were Notker and 

 Ekkehard. They were noted also for the cul- 

 tivation of music ( Notker Labeo being the chief 

 ornament), and its MSS. , preserved in the library, 

 have been extensively made use of by the restorers 

 of ancient ecclesiastical music. By the 10th cen- 

 tury a walled town had grown up around the 

 monastery. After long struggles the townsmen 

 succeeded, in the 13th century, in throwing off the 

 supremacy of the abbey, though shortly before this 

 the abbots were elevated to the rank of princes of 

 the empire. In 1454 the town was admitted to the 

 Swiss confederation, and in 1528, through the 

 influence of the reformer Vadianus, it em- 

 braced the new doctrines. At the close, how- 

 ever, of the religious war in 1531 the Catholic 

 religion was re-established, and the abbot re- 

 instated. At the French Revolution the abbey 

 was secularised (1798), and its revenues were soon 

 afterwards sequestrated ( 1805 ). By a later arrange- 

 ment (1836) St Gall was erected into a bishopric. 

 The French republicans created the canton of Sands 

 out of the town and abbey lands, with others, in 

 1799 ; and in 1803 the existing canton of St Gall 

 was formed. 



See historical works by Von Arx(4vols. St Gall, 

 1830), Baumgartner (3 vols. Zurich and Einsiedeln, 

 1868-90), Henne-Am Rhyn (1863), and Naf (1867). 



St George's. See BERMUDAS. 



8t-Gerinain-en-Laye, a town_ of France, 

 dept. Seine-et-Oise, stands on an eminence above 

 the Seine, with a royal forest ( 10,000 acres) behind 

 it and the river before it, Paris in the distance, 

 13 miles to the E. by rail. Above the river runs 

 the famous terrace (2625 yards long by 115 feet 

 wide), made by Len&tre in 1672. The historic 

 associations cluster round the old royal castle, 

 which, until Louis XIV. removed the court to 

 Versailles, was the favourite residence of the kings 

 of France. Here were l>orn Henry II., Charles IX., 

 Louis XIII., and Louis XIV., and here died Louis 

 XIII. King James II. of England lived in this 

 castle from 1689 to his death in 1701. After 

 that it was turned into barracks, then into a mili- 

 tary prison, and finally by Napoleon III. into a 

 museum of Gallo-Roman antiquities. Peace was 

 signed within its walls between Charles IX. and 

 the Huguenots in 1570, and the peace lietween 

 France and Brandenburg in 1679. The Fete des 

 Loges, one of the most popular of popular festivals, 

 is held annually at a chapel in the forest. The 

 ](.)> It- ()2,4H4 in 1891) manufacture woollens and 

 cottons. See Lacomlie, Le Chdteau <le St-Germain 

 (4th ed. 1874). St Germain-des-Prts, named like 

 the other from Germanus (q.v. ), was a famous 

 Benedictine monastery near Paris (see MAURISTS). 

 Ite church (1001-1 163) ranks as the oldest in Paris. 



St Germans, formerly the seat of the ancient 

 diocese of Cornwall, now a small village, stands on 

 the slope of a hill, on a branch of the river Lynher, 

 9 miles W. by N. of Plymouth. It is notable only 

 for its fine parish church, which has an excellent 

 Norman west front. Pop. of parish ( 1881 ) 2869 : 

 (1891)2877. 



St Gilles, a town of France, dept. Gard, is 

 situated on the Canal de Beaucaire, 12 miles SSE. 

 of Nlmes. Its abbey church, the west front of 

 which is a masterpiece of Romanesque architec- 

 ture, and is covered with the richest decoration, 

 dates from 1116. Pope Clement IV. was born 

 here. Pop. 4876. 



St Gotthard, a mountain-knot of the Alps, 

 that has its feet planted in the Swiss cantons of 

 Uri, Grisons, Ticino, and Valais, and lifts its head, 

 9850 feet high, to the eternal snows. In its arms 

 it holds the sources of the rivers Rhine and Rhone, 

 Ticino and Reuss, and so sends the water from its 

 melted snows to the German Ocean, the Mediter- 

 ranean, and the Adriatic. On its shoulder it bears 

 one of the most celebrated of the Alpine passes 

 from Switzerland to Italy. The road that crosses 

 this pass ( 6936 feet ) leads from the shores of Lake 

 Lucerne to the shores of Lago Maggiore. This 

 route was first used by the Longobardi in the 6th 

 century. In the days of Charlemagne the path 

 was made practicable for pack-animals ; but down 

 to 1820 it was not wider than 13 feet. In 1820-24 

 it was widened to 18 feet and smoothed for car- 

 riages. Near the summit of the pass stand two 

 hotels and a hospice, the latter for poor wayfarers, 

 of whom some 12,000 used to travel this way every 

 year. Since 1882, however, a railway has climbed 

 up the lower slopes of the St Gotthard, and then 

 burrowed througli it in a tunnel. The making of 

 this tunnel was Tiegun in 1872 and finished in 1880 ; 

 it extends from Goschenen (at a height of 3639 

 feet) in Uri to Airolo (3757 feet) in Ticino, meas- 

 ures 9J miles in length, is 26 feet wide and 21 high, 

 rises with a gradient that reaches on an average 

 26 in 100 feet, and cost 2,270,000 to make. The 

 total cost of the St Gotthard railway was 9,080,000, 

 of which Switzerland contributed 1,120,000 as 

 a subvention, Italy 2,200,000, and Germany 

 1,200,000 ; whilst 1,840,000 was raised by shares, 

 and 2,720,000 by mortgage. The line has proved 

 very successful financially, the shareholders' divi- 

 dends rising annually. See Nature, vol. xxi. 



St Helena (generally called St Helena, not 

 St Helena), a lonely island in the Atlantic, 1200 

 miles from the west coast of Africa, 1695 from 

 Capetown, and 4477 from Southampton, measures 

 10 miles by 8, and has an area of 47 sq. m. It is 

 part of an old volcano, and reaches 2823 feet in 

 High Hill. Its shores face the ocean as perpen- 

 dicular cliff's 600 to 2000 feet high, and are in many 

 places cleft by deep, narrow valleys. The climate 

 is pretty constant ami generally healthy. Whale- 

 fishing and the growing of potatoes are the prin- 

 cipal occupations of the inhabitants, 6444 in 1871, 

 50;>9 in 1881, 4116 in 1891. Previous to the cut- 

 ting of the Suez Canal St Helena was a favourite 

 port of call for vessels bound to and from India by 

 the Cape of Good Hope, and the inhabitants did a 

 large trade in furnishing these vessels with pro- 

 visions and other supplies. But the shorter route 

 afforded by the Canal and the Red Sea has greatly 

 lessened its importance. The imports were, in 1884, 

 in value, 41,816; in 1896, 30,950. The exports 

 of the island's produce in 1884 were 1436, and in 

 1896 746. The revenue, which in 1884 was 12,186, 

 was in 1896 9161, the expenditure for the same 

 years being 11,209 and 8872. The public debt, 

 which in 1890 was 2250, was in 1896 nil. The 

 value of the whale-fishery varies from 13,000 to 



