313 



AMHARA. 



AMIENS. 



AMHARA. [ABYSSINIA.] 



AMHERST, a town in the state of Massachusetts, North America, 

 in 42 22' N. lat., 72 31' W. long., distant 82 miles from Boston, 382 

 miles from Washington, and a few miles east of the Connecticut 

 River, two feeders of which afford a good water-power : population, 

 2600. It is the seat of Amherst College, which was founded in 1821, 

 and incorporated in 1825. The institution has a president, ten pro- 

 fessors, and several other teachers ; a library of 20,000 volumes ; 

 excellent philosophical apparatus ; cabinets of natural history and 

 mineralogy; and about 190 students annually. The college buildings 

 are convenient and commanding. Indigent students have their rooms 

 furnished. There is also an academy in the town. 



AMHERST, a town in the north-east angle of the Gulf of Marta- 

 ban, in the peninsula beyond the Ganges, lies in 16 5' N. lat., 97 25' 

 E. long. It was built by the British in 1826, on the termination of 

 the Burmese war ; in nine months it sprung up from a wild jungle 

 to a town of 1600 inhabitants. Since the establishment of Moulmein 

 as the British military position, the progress of Amherst has been 

 checked. 



The town is built on the south bank of the estuary of the Saluen 

 River, which passes from China through the Shan country, and 

 discharges itself into the Gulf of Martaban. The river is scarcely 

 navigable, and the harbour has a bar across its entrance, but the 

 harbour within the bar is of convenient depth. There is a plentiful 

 supply of good water in the town. The military cantonments are 

 situated about a mile and a half from the town, on a dry and elevated 

 spot. 



AMHERSTBURGH, a town in Canada West, in 42 5' N. lat., 

 83 10' W. long., in the township of Maiden, Essex county, stands on 

 the northern shore of Lake Erie, near the mouth of the river Detroit. 

 Being a frontier town, it has some military defences, and contains a 

 garrison. The situation is good, but most of the streets are narrow. 

 Several handsome houses are built on the banks of the river below 

 the town. The military reserve of 100 acres, outside the town, 

 forms a fine grazing common. In 1845 a charter was granted for a 

 half-yearly fair at Amherstburgh. Steam-boats from Buffalo, Gere, 

 and Chatham stop at this town. There were in 1845 about 1000 

 inhabitants, five churches and chapels, a market-place, court-house, 

 news-room, and several manufactories. 



AMIENS, an ancient and episcopal city of France, the capital 



Boulogne : population, including the suburbs, 47,000. The city is 

 the seat of a high court of appeal for the departments of Somme, 

 Oise, and Aiane ; of tribunals of first instance and of commerce ; of a 

 university, an ecclesiastical seminary, and an endowed college ; of a 

 medical society and an academy of science, agriculture, commerce, and 

 the fine arts ; of an exchange and chamber of commerce, consultative 

 chamber of manufactures, and a council of Prud' Hommes. 



The city is built nearly in the centre of the fertile plain of Picardie, 

 at a distance of about 40 miles from the mouth of the Somme, which 

 river has been made navigable for small steamers and vessels of 100 

 tons from the English Channel up to the town. The lateral canal of 

 the Somme ia carried upwards nearly to the source of that river, con- 

 necting the town with the St-Quentin Canal, which extends the 

 water-communication of Amiens to the basins of the Scheldt and 

 Seine. The Great North of France railway connects the city with 

 Paris, Lille, and Belgium, and a branch-line through Abbeville is 

 completed northward as far as Boulogne. Several excellent common 

 roads also meet in the town, which has thus great facilities for the 

 transport of its numerous and important industrial products. 



The fortifications of the city have been all dismantled ; the fosse 



ban been filled up, and part of it is now traversed by the Abbeville 



railway. The ramparts are levelled, and replaced by a boulevard, 



prettily planted, and about three miles in circuit. Hound the boulc- 



ird, on the northern side, the Somrae Canal sweeps in a. graceful 



urve ; and on the north-west flows the Somme itself, the waters of 



uch are conducted by eleven canals, crossed by a great number of 



3 bridges, to drive the machinery of several factories in the lower 



part of the town. Like most old French towns, Amiens consists of 



i upper and a lower quarter; and besides these there are large well- 

 built suburbs, erected outside the line of the old fortifications. In 

 town the streets are wide, straight, and uniformly built. 

 The lower quarter, winch is inhabited chiefly by the manufacturing 

 part of the population, and from the number of its canals was called 

 I. big 'little Venice,' consists of narrow streets, formed 



S byT^iqTrfan - h - **%?%?-** "*** **< an > *>"? 



The chimneys of numerous factories, 



?tlL ? outsklr * of .the town, rise high above the houses, tal 

 and tasteless enough, but withal presenting indications of a considerable 



amount of material prosperity/ 



worthy so important a city; the largest i, that in which the vege- 



^theOat Iral f M* "** f^* "erything el se in Amiens 



orld ThJ * t f v m ^ i6cent thic ch relle in thc 



world. Ine first stone of the building was laid in A n 



Evrard de Fouillay, forty-fifth bishop of AmieL ; li\h? 



completed in 1288, except the west front, which was not finished for 

 a century afterwards. The building is cruciform, and consists of a 

 nave, aisles, transept, choir, and a polygonal apse. Its whole length, 

 outside the walls, ia 442 feet. 



The nave, which is 42 feet broad, is separated from the aisles by 

 massive piers, each consisting of a central and four engaged columns, 

 which support the lofty vault 140 feet in height half as high again 

 as the roof of Westminster Abbey. The perspective below extends 

 beyond the aisles into the side chapels, formed all round the building 

 between the buttresses, at the outer edge of which, contrary to gene- 

 ral usage, the side walls are built. The interior has been described 

 as one of the most magnificent that architectural skill has ever pro- 

 duced ; its grand proportions and noble simplicity, its massive strength 

 and almost springy lightness, are the admiration of every beholder. 

 Nor are the decorations unworthy of the grand design. The exquisite 

 wood and metal carvings, the beautiful stained-glass of the clerestory, 

 and three rose-windows flooding the interior with many-tinted light, 

 the rich and tasteful ornature of the marble altars, the statues, the 

 paintings, the pulpit supported by figures representing the three 

 theological virtues, the delicate tracery of the screen and stalls of the 

 choir, claim the attention of every visitor, and, combined, form of 

 this noble interior a museum of art dedicated to the noblest of all 

 purposes the honour and glory of God. 



The west front, a beautiful picture in itself, consists of three richly 

 decorated stages, surmounted at each end by the topmost story of the 

 two towers, which form a striking part of the facade. The lowest 

 stage is pierced by three vast and deeply-recessed portal-entrances, 

 the arches of which are supported by statues placed in niches, while 

 rows of statuettes supply the place of mouldings, the whole forming 

 one mass of sculpture. Over the portals are bas-reliefs ; those over 

 the central door representing the Last Judgment ; those over the 

 south door the Death and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin ; and 

 over the north door ia represented the life of St. Firmin, the apostle 

 of Picardie. The second stage presents two bands of beautiful gothic 

 niches containing colossal statues of the kings of France ; the third 

 contains a magnificent rose-window in the centre, flanked by two 

 pointed ones in the towers, and terminates in a band of beautiful 

 stone tracery forming a parapet, behind which rises the upper story 

 of the two towers ; of these the northern is somewhat the higher. 

 A light and graceful spire, supported on large beams that rest on the 

 four principal piers at the intersection of the nave and transept, rises 

 to the height of 213 feet above the pavement ; it is octagonal in plan, 

 and constructed of oak and chestnut timber. The cathedral contains 

 several remarkable tombs. 



Of the other buildings it is only necessary to enumerate the prin- 

 cipaL The town-hall is a handsome modem building, completed 

 in 1760; in it is a good collection of paintings which adorns the 

 hall of council, as the apartment is called, in which the Treaty of 

 Amiens was signed. The large buildings of the former abbey of St.- 

 Jean, situated in the highest part of the town, are now occupied as a 

 college. The grand seminary, erected by the Lazarist Congregation 

 in 1739, srands in the suburbs of Noyon. The building contains a 

 beautiful chapel and a theological library of 15,000 volumes. Other 

 noteworthy objects are the court-house, the citadel, the cavalry 

 barracks, the botanical gardens, the railway -station, the theatre, the 

 corn-market, the water-works, the commercial library (a handsome 

 doric structure situated in the Rue Royale, and containing 40,000 

 volumes), and the public walk called La-Hautoye. This last consists 

 of five shady alleys diverging from a central point, and has ball and 

 racket courts in the triangles between the alleys ; it takes its name 

 from a lady who, in the last century, gave it for the benefit of the 

 youth of the town. Near it is the Champ-de-Mai, a wide area for 

 military exercises. 



Ainiena is the centre of large cotton and woollen manufactures which 

 have grown greatly in importance since the introduction of steam 

 machinery. Large quantities of woollen, cotton, and linen yarn are 

 spun. The most important tissues are cotton-velvet, merino, and a 

 mixture of silk and wool called alepine, of which about 36,000 pieces 

 are produced annually. The manufacture of carpets is extending. 

 Other products are woollen hosiery; corduroya, plush, and various 

 other cotton stuffs ; serge, kerseymere, soap, oil, &c. There are several 

 dye-houses and bleach-mills. Amiens has a considerable commerce in 

 corn, colonial produce, Ac. It is famous for its duck-pies, which are 

 largely exported. 



The city occupies the site of the ancient Sanmrobriva, chief town of 

 the Ambiani, whose name is preserved in that of the city. Julius 

 Ctesar spent the winter of B.C. 54 with three of his legions in 

 Samarobriva. The town was greatly embellished by the Romans, 

 who held it till the middle of the 5th century. Chlodion, chief or 

 king of the Salian Franks, seized the town in 444 and made it for a 

 while his capital. The see of Amiens was founded about A.D. 303 ; its 

 prelates for a long time were also temporal lords of Amiens and its 

 dependencies. From the bishops the lordship passed to the counts of 

 Boves and from these to the house of Vermandois, a member of 

 which, Isabella de Vermandois, brought Amiens as a dowry to 

 Philippe of Alsace: Philippe ceded the town in 1185 to Philippe 

 Auguste, who united it to the domains *of the French crown. In 

 1435 Charles VII. pledged Amiens, among other cities, to Philippe, 



