ORONSA. 



OSTENDE. 



improving town, with a commercial court, a consultative chamber of 

 manufacture, and 5505 inhabitants. The town is traversed by the 

 Rille, and still preserves some remains of its inclosing walls and ditches. 

 The castle, situated in the centre of the town, is a large brick build- 

 ing, more remarkable for the beautiful gardens and the maguiiiceut 

 lime-trees that surround it than for its architecture. The churches 

 of St. -Martin, St-Barthdlc'my, and St-Jean, and the town-hall are 

 among the chief buildings of the town. The largest pin-factor; iu 

 France U in this town, which has also important manufactures of 

 nails, needles, card-wire, ribands, woollen-yarn, leather, and hardware. 

 In the neighbourhood there are several cupper, tin, and iron-foundries. 

 Longni, E. of Mortagne, has tan-yards, iron-smelting furnaces and 

 foundries, and 2946 inhabitants. 



The department fonns the see of the Bishop of Scez ; is included 

 in the jurisdiction of the High Court, and within the limit of the 

 University-Academy of Caen ; and belongs to the 2nd Military Division 

 of which Rouen is head-quartet*. It returns 3 members to the 

 Legislative Assembly of the French empire. 



OKUNSA. [ABurLESinuK.] 



ORONTES. [SIM*.] 



OROTAVA. [CA1TAKIES.] 



UKP1ERRE. [ALTBJ, HACTEB.] 



ORSCHA. [MouiLBV.] 



ORSETT, Essex, the teat of a Poor-Law Union, in the parish of 

 Onett, U situated in ii 'M N. lat., 0' 21' E. long., distant 20 Uilea 

 8. by W. from ChelmaforJ, and 22 miles E. from London. The popu- 

 lation of the parish of Onett in 1851 was 1592. The living is a 

 rectory in the archdeaconry of KIBTT and diocese of Rochester. 

 Onett Poor-Law Union contain* 18 parishes and townships, with uu 

 area of 41,177 acre*, and a population in 1S51 of 10,030. Onett is 

 quite an agricultural village. The parish church, a commodious 

 building in the transition style from early English to decorated, is 

 handsomely fitted up. The Independents have a chapel There 

 are National school*, a Diocesan Commercial school, a literary 

 and agricultural society, and a savings bank. Patty min are held 

 monthly. 



"iVA. 



lUtTHEZ, a town in the French department of Basses-Pyrenees, 

 25 miles N. W. from Pau, and 37 mile* E. from Bajonne, is pleasantly 

 situated on the right bank of toe Gave-de-Pau, in 43 29' 25* N. lat, 

 46' 25' W. long., at an elevation of 898 feet above the level of the 

 sea, and ha* a tribunal of first instance, a collage, and 6924 inhabit- 

 ant*. There is a suburb on the left bank of the river, which 

 communicate* with the town by an ancient gotbic bridge. On the only 

 pier of this bridge i* a tower. The streets of the town are well laid 

 out, and the house* well built. There are, on a height commanding 

 the town, some ruin* of the ancient castle of Moncade, in which 

 Gaston Phoebus, count of Foiz, lived and died. This castle was also 

 the prison of Blanche of Navarre who was poisoned by her younger 

 sister after two years of captivity. It was also for a time the residence 

 of the mother of Henri IV., Jeanne de Navarre, who founded a 

 Calvinwt college in Orthez, and rendered Calvinism the dominant 

 religion, endowing it with the property of the Catholic Church. The 

 town ha* manufacture* of woollen stuns, linen-yarn, leather, linseed 

 oil, &c- There are also dyehouses, copper foundries, and saw-mill*. 

 The commerce in hide*, ham*, wool, goose feather*, flax, timber, slates, 

 cattle, and marble is considerable. The French under Marshal Soult 

 were defratod after an obstinate battle, by the allied army, nom minded 

 by the Duke of Wellington, near this town, Feb. 27, 1311. 



(iRT'iNA. [ABKCZZO.] 



OKV1ETO, the chief town of the Dclegazione of Onrieto, and the 

 re idence of a cardinal bishop, in the Papal State*, i* built on a steep 

 hill, which rises above the river J'a^lk, an affluent of the Tiber, about 

 16 mile* N.E. from Bolsena, and has 8000 inhabitant*. It is chiefly 

 remarkable for its handsome gothic cathedral, begun about the end of 

 the 12th century, and finished towards the middle of the 14th century. 

 This church was built to commemorate the miracle of the Bleeding 

 Host mentioned in the article JBoLUHA, and uf which it contains 

 memorials in the magnificent silver Reliquary in the chapel of the 

 Santiesimo Corporate. The faca ic, on/ of the finest in Italy, is orna- 

 mented with sculptured and mosaics. The interior contains a very 

 large collection of the sculptures of the 16th century, and is enriched 

 by many beautiful paintings and other works of art. including the 

 HUtory of Antichrist, the Last Judgment, Hell and Heaven of Luca 

 Signorelli, which were studied, admired, and imitated by Michel 

 Angelo and RaOaelle. The other remarkable buildings of Orvieto are 

 the town house and the Jesuits' college, and St. Patrick's well (Pozzo 

 di San Patrizio). excavated in the tufa rock on which the town is built. 

 The country around Onrieto is fertile, and produces a delicate white 

 wine, which is in great repute at Rome. Orvieto is evidently of 

 Ktruecau origin ; the city Ilcrtianum, mentioned by Pliny, is said to 

 have occupied the site, but nothing certain is known of its history. 

 Etruscan remain* exist here. The city has given title to a bishop 

 eJQlii A.D. 609. It was called Urla Vttut in the time of the Longo- 

 berds. The province of Orvieto contain* 300 square miles, with 26,450 

 inhabitant* in 1860. 



. I. [BatBCiA.] 



OfcACCA. 



OSIMO. .[ANCOBA.] 



OSXABllCCK (generally written Ofnaburg in English) is a province 

 of the kingdom of Hanover. It is divided into the following parts : 

 The principality of Osnabriick, 003 4 square miles ; the lower county 

 of Liugen, 1264 square miles; the circles of Meppen and Einsbuhren, 

 693 square miles ; and the county of Bentheiiu, 399 square miles. 

 The area of the whole is 21 22 square miles, and the population accord- 

 ing to the census of December ord, 1S52, amounted to 261,905, 

 consisting of 145,497 Catholics, 89,227 Lutherans, 26,519 Calvinists, 

 684 Jews, and 38 undefined Christians. The whole country is a part 

 of the plain of northern Germany, and is generally poor and sandy. 

 The chief produce is live stock, hemp, and Has ; and the cliief manu- 

 factures woollen stockings and linen. 



Osuabriick was formerly a bishopric, being the first see that was 

 founded in Saxony by Charlemagne. After the Reformation many of 

 the inhabitant* embraced the Lutheran faith, and it was decided by 

 the treaty of Westphalia that it should be governed alternately by a 

 Roman Catholic 'and a Protestant bishop, the latter to be always a 

 prince of the house of Brunswick-Liineburg. As the Catholic bishop 

 was generally an old canon and the 1'rotestauts always chose a young 

 prince, the country remained for a long time under the electoral 

 house of Brunswick : the last bishop of that house was the late Duke 

 of York. In the year 1S02 the country was made over to Hanover 

 as a hereditary temporal principality, iu consideration of certain 

 territorial cessions. It was afterwards annexed first to the kingdom 

 of Westphalia and then to the French empire, and was recovered by 

 its ancient sovereign ou tLe fall of Napoleon. 



Vnabnick, the capital, is situated in 52 16' N. lat., 8 1' E. long., 

 iu a valley on the river Hase. It is surrounded with a wall and ditch, 

 and has five gates. Like most of the old German towns it is irregularly 

 built. The most remarkable public buildings are the palace, built 

 in ItiGj, the cathedral, the Roman Catholic church of St. John, the 

 Lutheran churches of St Mary and St Catherine, and the fine town- 

 hall, in which the treaty of Westphalia was concluded at the same 

 time as at Mlinster. The inhabitants, amounting to about 12,000, 

 have manufactures of coarse woollens, leather, linen, and tobacco. A 

 railway, in course of construction to connect Emdeu with the Cologne- 

 Mindeii line, passes through Osnabriick. 

 A, MOUNT. [THBBSAJ.Y.] 



LA. [NOVAJU.J 



OSSORY, Ireland, a bishop's see, in the archicpiacopal province of 

 Dublin, comprise* nearly the whole county of Kilkenny, a consider- 

 able part of Queen's County, and a small portion of King's County ; 

 and contains 69 benefices. The chapter consists of a dean, precentor, 

 chancellor, treasurer, archdeacon, and seven prebendaries. The see, 

 which derives its name from an ancient principality, waa founded in 

 the 5th century at Saigair, now Seikyrau, or St Kyran parish, in 

 King'* County. In 1052 it was removed to Aghadoe in Queen's 

 County, and near the close of the 12tli century to Irishtown, part of 

 the present city of Kilkenny. By the Church Temporalities Act the 

 see was united to the dioceses of Leighliu and Ferns ; and the income 

 of the bishop was fixed at 42001. The cathedral church and bishop's 

 residence are in the city of KILKENNY. 



OSTENDE, a fortified town and sea-port of Belgium, in the province 

 of West Flander*. is utuated in 51* 14' N. Lit, '2' 56' E. long., 12 

 miles W. from Bruges, 88 miles by railway through Bruges, Ghent, 

 and Malmes W. by N. from Brussels, :m I contains about 15,000 

 inhabitant*. The town is clean and well-built It contains a citadel, 

 5 squares, 3 churches, a prison, an hospital, and a town-ball, which is 

 a large and plain but hand* <>mo building. The town stands upon a 

 plain, and is entered by four gates. Of late years it has been much 

 frequented during the summer as a watering-place ; the sea-bathing is 

 good, and there are excellent baths. The ramparts form an agreeable 

 promenade, but the finest public walk is the Digue, or break-water, 

 built nearly parallel to the seaward rampart uf the town. The water 

 at Ostende is bad. 



Ostendo has great facilities for carrying ou trade with tho interior 

 by means of cantb and railways. The Ostendo ami Bruges Canal 

 allow* vessels of 300 tom to pass through it to Bruges. The Nieuport 

 Canal terminates at Oetende ; and by the canal from Bruges to Ghent, 

 which is a continuation of the cutting from Osteude to Bruges, and 

 which communicates with the Schelde, Ostende is connected with the 

 heart of the kingdom of Belgium. The importance of the town has 

 very cjusiderably increased since the introduction of railways, by 

 which it is connected not only with all the important towns of Belgium 

 but also with those of Germany and France. It is also the principal 

 landing place for travellers between England, Belgium, and Germany. 

 There were 22,665 passengers to and from England in 184S* ; in 1850 

 the number was 26,822. Passenger and mail steamers ply regularly 

 to Dover. The number of ships (not including steamers) that entered 

 the harbour in 1849 waa 464, and the departures numbered 425. The 

 harbour is safe, but the entrance to it is rather intricate. The 

 imports consist chiefly of colonial produce, wool, wine, and British 

 manufactured goods : the export* are, agricultural produce, linens, 

 leather, oak bark, tallow, and salt. 



Ostende was a small village in tho 9th century, but two centuries 

 later the port was much frequented. Old Oatende was destroyed by 

 the sea in 1334. In 1372 the present Oatcnde was merely a fishing- 



