677 



STRANGFORD. 



STRASBOURG. 



07S 



other islands. It is bounded N. by the Baltic, E. and S. by the Peene, 

 which separates it from the government of Stettin, and W. by Meck- 

 lenburg-Schwerin, from which it is divided by the navigable rivers 

 T rebel and Reckenitz. The area is 1672 square miles, with a popula- 

 tion of 187,053 at the end of 1849. The surface of the government ia 

 flat. The soil is a heavy loam and black mould of superior fertility. 

 The product* consist chiefly of wheat, rye, barley, peas, flax, and 

 tobacco. The breed of horned cattle is not numerous, for want of 

 sufficient pasture ; sheep and hoga however are reared in great num- 

 bers, and there are immense flocks of geese. There are no manufac- 

 tures of any importance except perhaps tobacco and spirits. The 

 exports are flour, malt, and corn. The fisheries are very profitable. 



Straltund, the capital of the government, is situated in 54 15' 

 N. lat., 13 8' E. long., in a sandy plain, bounded on one side by the 

 Strait of Gellen (which separates the island of Riigen from the conti- 

 nent), and on the other sides by hikes and marshes, so that the town 

 is connected with the continent only by bridges. The fortifications 

 have been greatly strengthened in recent times. Stralsund is a gloomy 

 place ; the houses are built in the old style, the streets irregular, and 

 the squares and market-places inconsiderable : it is however clean and 

 well paved. The three principal churches are built in the gothic style, 

 and contain many fine paintings. Among the other public buildings 

 are the government-house, the town-hall (which contains the public 

 library), the gymnasium (which has a library and cabinet of medals), 

 the mint, the arsenal, and the water-works by which the city is sup- 

 plied with good water. The manufactures consist of woollens, linen, 

 sugar, starch, soap, candles, tobacco, leather, looking-glasses, household 

 furniture, and playing-cards. There are brandy distilleries and oil- 

 mills. The chief exports are wheat, malt, timber, wool, linen, ic. 

 The harbour is spacious and safe, and deep enough for ships drawing 

 15 feet water. Stralsund was built about the year 1209, and was a 

 member of the Hanseatic League. The town was unsuccessfully 

 besieged by Wallensteiu in 1628. In 1678 it was taken by the elector 

 Frederick William of Brandenburg; in 1715 by Frederick William I., 

 king of Prussia ; and in 1807 by the French. By the treaty of Kiel 

 in 1810 it was ceded with all Swedish Pomerania to Denmark, and by 

 Denmark in 1815 to Prussia. The population of Stralsund is about 

 17,000. 



The most important of the other towns of the government of Stral- 

 xund are /tor/A, a small seaport town with about 5000 inhabitants, 

 . !ii|>i milding docks, and some trade in corn, wool, Ac., U situated at the 

 mouth of the river Barth, in an inlet of the Baltic, 10 miles N.W. from 

 Stral-uud. Greifticaldf, 20 miles S. by E. from Stralsund, and about 

 2 miles from the mouth of the Ryck, which forms a good harbour for 

 small vessels. This town is pretty well built, surrounded by prome- 

 nades formed ont of the old ramparts, and has a population of 12,000. 

 It has a university, a botanical garden and observatory, a gymnasium, 

 and a training-school. The industrial products are soap, leather, 

 tobacco, oil, fait, Ac. Ship-building and the coasting trade are actively 

 carried on ; steamers ply regularly in the open season to Sweden. 

 Wolgast, a email seaport town at the mouth of the Peene, has ship- 

 building ynrd, manufactures of soap and tobacco, and about 6000 

 inhabitants, who have some coasting trade. J'utbut, on the south 

 coast of the isle of Riigen, gives title to a prince, and is much resorted 

 to in summer for its baths. 



STRANGFORD. [DowxsmnE.] 



STRANORLAR, County Donegal, Ireland, a market-town and the 

 neat of a Poor-Law Union, is situated near the left bank of the river 

 Finn, on the road from Londonderry to Donegal, in 54" 48' N. lat, 

 7 46' W. long., distant by road 14 miles W. by S. from Lifford, and 

 144 miles N..V.W. from Dublin. The population in 1851 was 612. 

 Stranorlar Poor- Law Union comprises 11 electoral divisions, with an 

 area of 121,151 acres, and a population in 1851 of 21,970. The town 

 contains a church, a Roman Catholic chapel, two Presbyterian meeting- 

 houses, and a dispensary. There are several large blcaching-greens 

 near the town. Petty sessions are held monthly. Fairs are held six 

 limes a year. 



STRANRAER. [WiGTOKSHmr,] 



STRASBOURG, a town in France, capital of the department of 

 I!as-Rhin, is situated on the 111 at a distance of about 2 miles from 

 the left bank of the Rhine, 321 miles by railway K. from 1'arin, in 

 48* 3*' 67" N. lat., 7 44' 16" E. long., 473 feet above the level of the 

 .<(, and had 64,242 inhabitants in the commune in 1851, exclusive of 

 the garrison and other sections of the floating population. A rail- 

 road 89 miles in length runs up the left bank of the Rhine from 

 Strasbourg through Colmar and Mulhausen to Basle. 



Strasbourg occupies the site of the Roman Aryenlaratum, which 

 was in the territory of the Tribocci. It was near this town that 

 Julian defeated the Allemans (A.D. 357). At a subsequent period it 

 appears to have fallen into the hands of the Allemans, from whom it 

 was taken by Clovis and the Frank?. The Geographer of Ravenna 

 calls it Stratitljuryium, which was subsequently modified into Stratz- 

 liury and Slratsburrj. The Reformation was introduced in 1523, and 

 the, Protestants obtained possession of several of the churches. In 

 1681 Strasbourg was ceded with the rest of Alsace by Austria to 

 Louis XIV., who so improved the defences as to render it one of the 

 strongest fortresses in Europe. 



The town stands in a flat situation, in form irregular ; in circuit 6 



or 6 miles. It is surrounded by a wall strengthened by bastions, 

 ditches, and outworks, and has at its eastern extremity a citadel, with 

 five bastions, constructed by Vatican, the outworks of which extend 

 as far as the Rhine. This river is crossed by a bridge of boats to 

 Kehl, a fortress in Baden, on the right bank, which is connected by a 

 short branch with the railway from Basle to Frankfurt-am-Mayii. 

 Strasbourg is entered by seven gates. 



The river 111 flows through the town in a north-north-east direction. 

 After it enters the city it divides into several branches, which reunite 

 before it quits the place. The principal arm, which bears the name 

 of the Bruche, is navigable, and receives on its right bank the Canal 

 of the Rhine. The river can be made to inundate the neighbourhood, 

 by means of a sluice at the point where it enters the town. There 

 are about 50 bridges, some of stone, others of wood. Some of the 

 branches of the 111 seem to have been ditches dug to encircle and 

 defend the town before it had attained its present extent. 



The city is irregularly built. The principal streets are wide enough 

 and well laid out, and several of the squares are spacious and regular ; 

 but the greater number of the streets are narrow and crooked. The 

 houses are all solidly built of stone, high, and, iu many instances, 

 surmounted by lofty roofs furnished with two or three tiers of windows. 

 These picturesque high-roofed houses are gradually disappearing 

 before modern improvements. 



The principal public building is the cathedral of Notre-Dame, a Gothic 

 edifice of singular beauty, which was founded in 1015 and not com- 

 pleted till 1439. The interior, consisting of a nave and aisles, tran- 

 septs and choir, is 357 feet long and 79 feet high. The nave is 35 

 feet wide, and is separated from the aisles by nine massive pillars on 

 each side. The choir has no aisles : it is 67 feet wide and lower thau 

 the nave. The interior is lighted through fine stained glass windows, 

 one of which, over the great western door, is a magnificent rose 

 window 48 feet in diameter. The stone pulpit, unequalled for the 

 richness, variety, aud elaborateness of its sculptured ornaments; an 

 organ of admirable power aud softness ; aud a remarkable astronomical 

 clock ; in the south transept are remarkable objects of the interior. 

 The clock, which was made in 1571, after going for about 200 years 

 went out of order aud remained useless for nearly 50 years ; it was 

 repaired a few years ago by a watch-maker of the town, and still 

 maintains its character as a most elaborately-finished, complicated 

 and surprising piece of machinery. The most striking part of the 

 cathedral is its western front, a masterpiece of enriched architecture. 

 It is divided into three compartments by ornamented buttresses ; and 

 each compartment again into three portions by horizontal bands. Tho 

 lower portions are occupied by three doorways, that in the centre 

 being the most ornamented and the loftiest. In the second story the 

 most striking feature is the enormous marygold window above 

 mentioned ; aud three equestrian statues of Clovis, Dagobert, and 

 Rudolph of Hapsbunrh, in canopied openings in the buttresses. A 

 fourth canopied opening is unoccupied. The third or upper portion 

 has some beautiful windows. The northernmost of tho three com- 

 partments is surmounted by a tower and 'spire. At each of the four 

 corners of the tower is a spiral staircasa inclosed in open work. The 

 spire rises to the height of 466 feet above the pavement. It was 

 originally designed to erect a similar spire over the south portal. Tho 

 building was much injured during the first French revolution, but it 

 has been since restored. 



Of the other churches the most remarkable are those of St-fiticnuo 

 (the oldest structure in Strasbourg), Sainte-Aurelie, St.-Pierre-le- 

 Vieux, !St.-Jean, St-Pierre-le-Jeune (the choir of which belongs to the 

 Catholics, the nave to the Lutherans) ; the Temple Neuf (formerly a 

 Dominican, now a Lutheran church) ; St.-Louis ; and St-Thomax, which 

 belongs to the Lutherans and contains a mausoleum of Marshal do 

 Saxe. Tho Temple Neuf has some lancet-shaped stained glass-windows 

 of exqusite beauty. Among tho other public buildings are tho 

 ancient castle, with a terrace-walk on the Bruche ; the episcopal 

 palace; the office of tho prefect; the town-hall; the custom-house; 

 the court-house ; the public granary ; the theatre, which is adorned 

 with an Ionic colonnade ; the academy buildings, which contain col- 

 lections of natural history and anatomy, and a medical library of 12,000 

 volumes; the college buildings; the episcopal seminary; the civil 

 hospital ; the orphan asylum ; the corn-market, &c. The public 

 library, consisting of 180,000 volumes, is kept in the building of which 

 the Temple Neuf forms a part. Among the military structures tlio 

 principal are the arsenal, the artillery school, the cannon foundry, 

 the Finkmatte and several other barracks, and the hospital. Tho 

 vegetable market is adorned with a statue of Gutenberg ; on an island 

 in the Rhine, seen from the road to Kehl, is a monument in honour 

 of Desaix ; and on the Polygon, or artillery exercising ground, about 

 a mile ont of the town, is a monument to General Kleber. There are 

 several public walks. 



The trade of the town is very considerable : its manufactures include 

 jewellery, metal buttons, starch, alum, oil of vitriol, white-lead, steel, 

 cutlery, pin.", combs, cast-iron goods, earthenware, porcelain, enamel, 

 soap, oil from Feeds, chicory, marocco and other leather, straw and 

 other hats, woollen and cotton stuff's, cotton-yarn, hosiery, printed 

 flannels, sail-cloth, oil-cloth, thread, carpeting, furs, paper-hangings, 

 playing-cards, &c. There are bleach-grounds, dye-houses, rope-walks, 

 tan-yards, breweries, printing-offices, plaster-kilns, tile-yards, an iron- 



