SAINT-MARTIN 



ST PAUL 



93 



Saint-Martin, Louis CLAUDE, a French 

 philosopher, born at Amboise, 18th January 1743, 

 and died at Aurai near Chatillon, 14th October 1803. 

 Influenced by Biihme and Mystrasin, he was a 

 vigorous opponent of sensationalism and material- 

 ism. Of nis numerous works amongst the best 

 known are Des Erreurs et de la Verite (1775) ; De 

 V Esprit de* Chases ( 1800) ; and L'Homme de Desir 

 (1790). See the Essai on him l>y Caro ( 1852). 



St Mary Church, a town of South Devon, 

 overlooking Babbicombe Bay, 1J mile N. by E. of 

 Torquay, of which it is practically a subur'u. Pop. 

 (1851)2293; (1891)6653. 



St Mary's Loch. See YARROW. 



St Mary's River, the strait connecting Lakes 

 Huron and Superior, with a ' sault ' or rapids fall- 

 ing 204 feet. 



St Maur. See MAURISTS. 



St Mawes, a village of Cornwall, on an off- 

 shoot of Falmouth Harbour, 3 miles E. of Fal- 

 mouth. It has a castle (1542), and from 1562 to 

 1832 returned two members. 



St Michael's, or SAO MIGUEL, the largest and 

 most important of the Azores (q.v.). 



St Michael's Mount, a conical and isolated 

 granite rock in Mount's Bay, Cornwall, 3 miles E. 

 of Penzance. It communicates with the shore by 

 a causeway 560 yards long, which, however, is 

 covered with water eight hours out of the twelve, 

 and sometimes is impassable for two or three days 

 together. The Mount is 195 feet high, is 5 furlongs 

 in circumference, and is crowned by an old and 

 picturesque castle now used as a manorial resi- 

 dencesurmounted by a tower, on one angle of 

 which there is a projecting stone lantern, popularly 

 called ' St Michael s Chair.' At the base of the 

 north or landward side of the Mount is a fishing- 

 village. The 'guarded mount' is said to have 

 received its name from an apparition of St 

 Michael to some hermits ; and Edward the Con- 

 fessor founded upon it a Benedictine priory, which 

 in 1088 was annexed to the abbey of Mont St 

 Michel in Normandy. After the Dissolution it 

 became the residence of five families in turn, until 

 it was sold in 1660 to its present proprietors, the 

 8t Aubyns. For a demolition of the notion that 

 the mount within Cornish-speaking times has been 

 converted from a wooded promontory to an island, 

 see vol. iii. of Max-Muller'g Chips (1870). 



St Michel, MONT, an extraordinary rocky islet 

 of the Norman department of Manche, in the bay 

 of St Michel, 18 miles WSW. of Avranches. It is 

 a solitary cone of granite, a thousand yards in cir- 

 cumference and 242 feet high. It rises sheer out 

 of a level expanse of sand, and, though its elevation 

 is not great, the perfectly flat environment and its 

 pointed crest render it a most striking feature in 

 the landscape. Till 1880-81 it was only accessible 

 by crossing the sands at low-water, there being a 

 firm track across them, with quicksands to right 

 and left ; but a good road was then formed 

 along a causeway a mile in length. A Druid 

 stronghold once, the islet, as the scene of an 

 apparition of St Michael in 708, became the seal 

 of a great Benedictine monastery, which, ' hall 

 church of God, half fortress,' has memories ol 

 Henry I., II., and V. of England, resisting the last 

 successfully in two sieges. The Revolution trans- 

 formed this celebrated place of pilgrimage into a 

 prixon, and such it remained until 1863; in 1874 il 

 was declared a 'monument historiq^ue,' and large 

 sums have been spent on its restoration by Viollet- 

 le-Duc and his successor. The buildings include 

 the chnrch (c. 1140-1521), with Norman nave amf 

 Flamboyant choir; the exquisite cloisters (1228) 

 the Halle des Chevaliers, where Louis XI. in 1469 



xranded the order of St Michael ; and ' La Mer- 

 veille,' the monastery proper, so called from its 

 mee north wall of the 13th century, 246 feet long 

 and 108 high. Beneath is a little fortified town 

 with 200 inhabitants. See Luce, Chronique de 

 Mont St Michel (2 vols. 1879-86). 



St MoritZ, a favourite watering-place in the 

 upper Engadine (q.v.), with chalybeate, sulphur- 

 ous, and other mineral waters, and a pop. of 500. 



St Nazaire, a seaport of France, dept. Loire- 

 [nferieure, is situated on the north side of the 

 estuary of the Loire, 40 miles by rail W. by N. of 

 Nantes. Between 1831 and 1887 1,450,000 was 

 spent on harbour improvements, extensive docks 

 (82 acres) having been built in 1845-57 and 1864-81 

 to accommodate the larger vessels that were unable 

 to get up the Loire to Nantes (q.v.). Since these 

 began to be used the shipping of the place has in- 

 creased at a very rapid rate. In 1887 there entered 

 755 vessels, with a total tonnage of 504,286 tons ; 

 in 1890, 1621 vessels of 860,625 tons (637 of 443,714 

 tons being British and 911 of 381,746 French). 

 The most important of the imports are wine ( J to 

 li million gals.), coal (533,000 to 780,500 tons), 

 tar, iron and lead, wheat and flour, timber, and 

 manure ; the exports embrace chiefly brandy 

 (11,600 to 109,600 gals.), wine, coal, wheat and 

 flour these four in transit eggs and poultry, 

 sardines, butter, bone-dust, vegetables, dyes, glass, 

 and toys. The respective values are not returned ; 

 but in 1886 the total trade was valued at 5, 124,000. 

 Pop. ( 1851 ) 2400 ; (1881)16,314; (1891)26,461. 



St NeotS, a market-town of Huntingdonshire, 

 on the Ouse, 8 miles SSW. of Huntingdon. It 

 takes name from Alfred the Great's eldest brother, 

 whose relics were translated from St Neot in Corn- 

 wall to a Benedictine monastery founded at Eynes- 

 bury, close by, in 974 ; and it has a fine parish 

 church, with a tower 156 feet high, a corn exchange 

 ( 1863), and manufactures of iron, paper, &c. Pop. 

 (1851) 2949; (1891) 4077. See Gorham's History 

 ofEynesbury and St Neots (2 vols. 1824). 



St Nicolas, a town of Belgium, in East 

 Flanders, 12 miles by rail W. by S. of Antwerp, 

 stands in the midst of the district of Waes, a 

 densely-peopled and productive agricultural region. 

 It has a large flax-market, and manufactures 

 cotton and woollen stuffs, lace, needles, bricks, 

 and pottery. A flourishing trade is carried on in 

 linens, flax, corn, &c. Pop. 29,921. 



St Oilier, a town of France, and second-class 

 fortress, dept. Pas-de-Calais, stands in a marshy 

 site, on the Aa, 26 miles SE. of Calais by rail. 

 The chief objects of interest are the Gothic 

 cathedral (13th-15th century), with remarkable 

 sculptures, the ruined tower and arches of the 

 Benedictine abbey church of St Bertin, an arsenal, 

 a museum, and a library. A college for the educa- 

 tion of English and Irish Catholics was opened at St 

 Omer in 1592. It was closed, however, during the 

 Revolution, but still exists as a seminary. Alban 

 Butler was a president, and O'Connell a student. 

 The people carry on active manufactures of tobacco- 

 pipes, tulle, cambric, cloth, and muslin, and a brisk 

 trade in provisions (eggs, vegetables, &c.), sugar, 

 and spirits. Pop. ( 1872) 21,007 ; ( 1891 ) 20,829. 



Saintonge, a former French maritime province, 

 now forming mainly the department of Charente- 

 Inferieure. The capital was Saintes (q.v.). 



St Paul, a city of Minnesota, the capital of the 

 state, occupies a commanding situation on both 

 banks of the Mississippi near ; copjngbt isz, 1997, . n <t 

 the mouth of the Minnesota, "ft,^^?. J ' 

 one of its principal tributaries. 

 It is the outgrowth of a small hamlet of voyageurs, 

 chiefly Canadian, employed in the fur trade, and 



