SPREE, RIVER. 



STAFFORD. 



I'ubria. It b bouodod N. by the provinces of Perugia 

 E. bv UM province of Aiooli and the kiugdom of 



" ..-. W* * __ *!._. -* I 



Sil^a b UM province of RMti; and W. by that of Viterbo, 

 VotBvkiok it b divided for the mart part by the Tiber. The area 



b 11 JO rniifr- miW, MX! the population by the census of 1850 was 

 LTOS. Tb Central Apennines cover the eastern part of the pro- 

 hich an ilout* della Sibilla (7300 feat) and Mont* Vittoro 



(81 JO ft). the two highest (ummiU in te tate* o te urc. 

 faujft i~~ from the main chain itretch over other parU of the 

 arbor, t-iv A -^"C the provinc* a very billy country. A part of the 



, 



proTinor extends to UM eastern slope of the Apennines, and IB drained 

 by the Troeto. The ml of the surface belong! to the basin of the 

 Tiber. The Maroggia flows northward past Spolcto, and joins the 

 Topioo brlow Fuliguo, on iU way to meet the Tiber. The Nera flows 

 south put Trnii, and being joined by the Corno and the Velino, also 

 i the Tiber. The Nera and the Maroggia are separated by the 

 _Uina of Somma, a ridge which is crossed between Spoleto 

 _ Tarai. The most fertile part of the country is the valley of 

 Sftolrto, traTersed by the Maroggia and yielding good crops of maize ; 

 wheat, poise, melons, vines, almonds, chestnuts, and olives also flourish 

 in the valleys. Horned cattle ore numerous, and much cheese is mode. 

 BMS and silkworms are reared. The chief minerals are limestone, 

 marble, gypsum, and pottera'-clay. 



The province of Spoleto proper is divided into the three districts of 

 Spoleto, Norcia, and Terui. Spoleto (ancient Spoletum), the head town 

 of the province, is situated on a hill above the Maroggia, on the high 

 road from Rome to Ancona, and bos about 8000 inhabitants. An 

 aqueduct, which served also as a bridge, crosses the Maroggia ; it is a 

 work of the Longobard times, but is now in a ruinous state. Spoleto 

 has a handsome cathedral, adorned with frescoes by Filippo Lippi. 

 Several other churches, the town-house, and the palace of the family 

 Aiy^jni t are also worthy of notice. The castle of Spoleto contains 

 lom* remains of Cyclopean walls. There ore also remains of a Roman 

 theatre, of several temples, and other antiquities. Spoleto is a bishop's 

 sec, and has a college and manufactories of hats and woollens. It 

 curies on a considerable trade in corn, oil, wine, and truffles, which 

 are found in the neighbourhood. Spoletum, then a Latin colony of 

 Rome, was attacked by Hannibal after the battle of Trasimeuus, but 

 the inhabitants repulsed his attack, and thus checked his advance 

 towards Rome. (Uvy, xxii. 9.) An inscription above the gate called 

 the Oat* of Hannibal records the event. Half-way between Spoleto 

 and Foligno are the sources of the Clitumnus, a small limpid feeder 

 of the Maroggia. The fine largo-horned cattle which fed on the banks 

 of the Clitumnus were preferred by the ancient Romans for sacrifice, 

 and also for the ceremony of their triumphs. (Virgil, ' Qeorg,' ii. 146.) 



The other towns of the province ore : 1'erni, the ancient Interamna, 

 built near the confluence of the Velino with the Nero, a bishop's eee, 

 with an old cathedral, the remains of an amphitheatre, two ancient 

 temples and thermic, and about 6000 inhabitants. About three miles 

 above Tiiui is the celebrated cascade of the Velino (sometimes called 

 the ' Falls of Terni '), which is described in the article RIETI (vol. iii., 

 cob. 303, 304). A'arni, situated on a lofty precipitous hill on the left 

 bank of the Nar, about eight miles above its junction with the Tiber, 

 is the ancient Piarnia. Before the conquest of the town by M. Fulvius, 

 B.C. 299, it was called AVgumunt, and it was an important city of 

 Umbria. The Romans colonised it, and changed the name to Nurnia, 

 from its position on the Nar. Under the republic and the empire 

 Narnia was a flourishing municipal town, and ite strong position com- 

 manding the Flamiuian Way, made it on important military post. The 

 bridge constructed by Augustus, by which the Flaminian Way was 

 earned acrocs the ravine in which the Nar flows, was one of the most 

 magnificent structures of the kind. It consisted of three arches, and 

 the whole was built of massive blocks of white marble. The piers and 

 one arch still remain. Narni at an early period ( A.D. 360) became, and 

 still is, the seat of a bishop. The principal buildings are the castle, 

 a convent crowned with towers, and the cathedral, which dates from 

 UM 19th century, and is dedicated to St Giovenale, the first bishop 

 of the see. The emperor Nerva and Pope John XVIII. were natives 

 of NarnL Population, 3300. Amelia, a Email town of 2000 inhabit- 

 ant* and a bishop's sre, situated on a hill not far from the left bank 

 of UM Tiber, and above the confluence of the Nera, is noted for its 

 rauins and its prunes. It occupies the site of the ancient Amelia, 

 which i* said to have been built by the Umbri several centuries before 

 UM foundation of Rome, and was afterwards in possession of the 

 Ktrocus. (Pliny, Hist Nat,' iii. 19.) A considerable portion of 

 UM ancient polygonal walls still remain. Betayna, the ancient 

 Jltrania, likewise a town of the Umbri, near the confluence of the 

 Maroggi. with the Topino, has about 2000 inhabitant*. Norcia, the 

 ancient \*ma, at the northern extremity of the province, and at the 

 foot of Monte della Sibilla, is a bishop's see, and has 3000 inhabitants. 

 A great number of swine are reared in the neighbourhood. The Corno, 

 an affluent of the Nera, flows through a deep glen near Norcia. 

 1VER. (BERLIN; BiusDBiBG.] 



i>. flu-mou; MASSACHUSETTS; OHIO.] 



OBFOLKj 



BQUILLACK. [CALABRIA.] 



8TACKPOLE. ' rrxBRoKBimnE.] 



3TADE, a forli&rd town hi Hanover, the capital of the province of 



SUde, 'is situated in 55 36' N. lat, 9 24' E. long., about 22 mile* 

 W. from Hamburg, in a marshy country on the bonks of the Schwinge, 

 a navigable stream which fulls into the Elbe about three miles below 

 the town. A mong the public building* are three churches, a town- 

 ball, a gymnasium, an orphan asylum, and a poorhouse. The town, 

 with the suburbs, contains about 0000 inhabitants, who have manu- 

 factures of flannel, wonted stockings, hats, and lace. There ore 

 breweries and brandy distilleries, a cannon foundry, and a rope-walk. 

 The transit trade is of some importance. The exports are fat oxen, 

 wooden wares, and stockings. Some vessels go every year to the 

 Greenland whale-fishery, and also to the seal and herring fishery. 



At the mouth of the Schwinge is the castle of Bruushausen, oil' v. l.i.-h 

 an armed vessel is constantly stationed, for the purpose of collecting 

 the duties levied by the Hanoverian government on all vessels passing 

 up or down the Elbe. Since the completion of the railroad nml tin- 

 commercial harbour at Harburg, tho Hanoverian government has 

 reduced the toll on chips bound fur this port, but still maintains the 

 higher dues on vessels making for Hamburg. 



STAFFA, a small uninhabited basaltic island on the western i<!> 

 of Scotland, about 8 miles W. from Mull, in 66 28' N. lat. 6* 20' 

 \V. long. 



The island is composed of amorphous and pillared basalt: the 

 pillars have in many ports of the rugged coast yielded to the action of 

 the sea, and permitted the formation of caves, some of them uncom- 

 monly picturesque, which are generally arched over by what seems to 

 be amorphous trap-rock, but really is often prismatised in on irregular 

 manner. The island has a very broken and unequal surface, affording 

 poor posture. 



Skirting the coast in a boat, the caves and ranges of pillars, erect, 

 or curved beneath a huge entablature of rock, and the regular pave- 

 ment formed by the angular sections of the pillars, astonish the 

 spectator. Fingol's Cave, the largest and most attractive of tin 

 may bo entered on foot on the couth side, along a rugged pavement 

 of pillar-tops. Its roof is formed partly of pillar-sections, and partly 

 of the already-mentioned amorphous trap ; the sides are straight ver- 

 tical prisms of basalt, washed at their base by a deep and often tumul- 

 tuous sea. Its length from the rock outside is 371 feet, from the 

 pitch of the arch 250 feet ; the breadth at the mouth is 54 feet, at the 

 farther end 20 feet ; the height of the arch at the mouth is 118 feet, 

 at the inner end 70 feet; the pillars outside vary from 40 to . 

 in height The Boat Cave, the Cormorant Cave, and Fingal's Cavo, 

 may, in ordinary weather, be explored in a boat, and a lauding may 

 be effected on Buachailld (Boo-cha-la), the ' Herdsman's Isle,' which is 

 remarkable for its arched columns of basalt. 



The basaltic mass of StafTa may be regarded in three parts : a sub- 

 jacent amorphous and lava-like moss, 11, 17, or 20 feet exposed, on 

 which (especially beyond the north-west side of Fingal's Cave) tho 

 pillars rest, and these are covered by a seemingly amorphous but 

 really irregularly prismatic entablature, from 30 to 66 feet in thick- 

 ness. The tops of the pillars are usually in a nearly regular plane 

 declining to the south-east, and their bases are also in a surface nearly 

 parallel. The section of the pillars is rarely triangular or quadrangu- 

 lar, generally pentagonal or hexagonal. Some of them are two feet in 

 diameter, others as email as one foot, nine inches, or even six inches. 

 They are less regularly jointed than those of the Giants' Can 

 and usually the joint surfaces are concave in the lower stone. Zeolitic 

 minerals occur sparingly in the basalt and in the interstices of tho 

 pillars. Steamers make excursions from Oban to Staffa during 

 summer. 



STAFFORD, the county town of Staffordshire, a market-town, 

 municipal and parliamentary borough, and the seat of a Poor-Law 

 Union, is situated on tho left bonk of the river Sow, in 52 4S' N. lat., 

 2 7' W. long., distant 141 miles N.W. by W. from London by road, 

 and 132J miles by the London and North-Western railway via Tivnt 

 Valley. The population of the borough of Stafford in 1851 was 

 11,829. The borough is governed by 6 aldermen and 18 councillors, 

 of whom one is mayor, and returns two members to the Iiu 

 Parliament The living is a rectory in the archdeaconry of Stafford 

 and diocese of Lichficld. Stafford Poor-Law Union contai 

 parishes and townships, with an area of 49,685 acres, and a population 

 in 1851 of 22,632. 



According to the 'Saxon Chronicle,' Ethelfleda, 'lady of SI. 

 built a fort at this place in the year 913 to keep the Danes of tho 

 neighbourhood in check. There was a castle near it in the middlo 

 ages. In the civil war of Charles I. the Royalists, after the capture 

 of Lichfield Close by the Parliamentarians, retired to Stafford ; ami an 

 indecisive battle was fought at 1 lop ton Heath, two or three milr 

 the town, March 19th, 1643. The town was subsequently taken by 

 the Parliamentarians; at a later period the castle was also taken. 

 The castle, which is a mile and a half S.W. from the town, in Costlo 

 Church parish, has been of late years rebuilt The town is well sup- 

 plied with water, and the streets are lighted with gas and paveil. 

 nouses are in general well built, mostly of brick, nnd roofeil with 

 slate. Over the river Sow is a neat bridge. Tho public buildings are 

 the county hall, a spacious stone building in the market-square; tho 

 county jail, and house of correction ; the county infirmary; and tho 

 county lunatic asylum, n capacious ami well-arranged building. There 

 are two parochial churches : St Mary's, formerly collegiate, is a large 



