237 



CALABRIA. 



CALAIS. 



238 



collegiate, and several silk factories : population, 8000. Bagnara, on 

 the shore road, south of Palmi, is famous for the beauty of its women, 

 and has about 3000 inhabitants. Casalnuovo, finely situated at the 

 western base of the mountains, high enough to be above the influence of 

 malaria which in summer and autumn infects the plain of Gioja, on the 

 cross-road from Gerace to Gioja, is almost entirely built of wood, having 

 been destroyed by the earthquake of 1783 : population, 8500. Gioja, 

 supposed to occupy the site of the ancient Metaurum Bruttiorum, gives 

 name to the Gulf of Gioja. It is a small town situated near the coast 

 and the mouth of the Marro : population about 5000. The Marro 

 is the ancient Metaurus Bruttiorum, in whose seven head-streams 

 Orestes is fabled to have purified himself from the stains of his 

 mother's blood. The mouth of the river is famous now as in ancient 

 times for its tunny fishery. Oppido, an episcopal town, on the western 

 flank of the Aspromonte, and east of Palmi, has a population of 8000. 

 It is supposed to occupy the site of the ancient Mamertium. Tho 

 earthquake of 1783, which damaged so many towns in this part of 

 Italy, has left numerous marks of its violence throughout the whole 

 district, consisting of landslips, subsidences and chasms in the earth, 

 funnel-shaped hollows (some of them filled with water), and suddenly- 

 formed defiles. In Oppido several houses were ingulphed, and in the 

 neighbourhood an olive-plantation for a width of 500 feet subsided 

 200 feet below the surrounding surface. Among the other towns are 

 Sotarno, picturesquely seated among olive-groves, near the Mesima, 

 population 2000 ; Laureana, a thriving village situated on an emi- 

 nence at the junction of the Metoro with the Mesimaj Polistena, in a 

 high plain watered by a feeder of the Marro, N.E. from Palmi, popu- 

 lation about 4000 ; this town is built since 1783, the old Albanian 

 town of Polistena was then thrown bodily by the earthquake into the 

 ravine between the two hills on which it stood ; Seminara, close to 

 Palmi, population 3000. The French under D'Aubigny defeated the 

 Spaniards under Gonsalvo de Cordoba in the plain of Seminara in 

 1495 ; and on the 21st of April 1503 the French army under D'Aubigny 

 was signally defeated by the Spaniards commanded by Ugo de Car- 

 dona, one of Gonsalvo's best generals. The low parts of the coast 

 along the Gulf of Gioja and near the rivers are subject to malaria. 



The extensive region now known by the name of Calabria was in 

 the Roman times chiefly occupied by the ,Brettii or Bruttii, whom 

 some historians have represented as runaway slaves and outlaws, and 

 others as a wild aboriginal race, living in the extensive forests which 

 then extended over the greater part of the country. The eastern coast 

 was early colonised by the Greeks, and became known, with the rest 

 of the coast as far as Tarentum, by the general denomination of 

 Megalc! Hellas, or Magna Gracia. But the oldest name of the most 

 southern peninsula of Calabria (that bounded on the north by the 

 gulfs of Squillace and Sant' Kufemia), was Italia, a term which was 

 afterwards extended to comprise the country as far as Taranto (Taras 

 or Tarantum), and finally became the name of the whole peninsula of 

 Italy. (Aristot ' Polit.' vii. 10.) The name of Calabria was given by 

 the Greeks to quite a different country, namely, the north-eastern coast 

 of the lapygian or Messapian peninsula from Brundisium to Hydruu- 

 tutn ; the Salentinea occupied the southern part of the same penin- 

 sula. The name of Calabria, as applied to that part of lapygia, 

 continued in use under the Romans, and afterwards under the 

 Byzantine emperors, a* we find in Paulus Diaconus in the 8th century, 

 and Luitprand of Cremona in the 10th, who both speak of Apulia and 

 Calabria as one province, while they call the modern Calabria by the 

 name of Bruttia, which by Constantino's division of the empire made 

 one province with Lucania. How the name of Calabria came to be 

 transferred to the country of the Bruttii is not clearly ascertained ; 

 but it would appear that the Byzantines having lost in the 1 1th cen- 

 tury the old Calabria, and still retaining several towns on the coast of 

 the former Magna Grsecia, transferred the name of the former pro- 

 vince to their last remaining possessions in Southern Italy. The first 

 Norman conquerors took the title of Dukes of Apulia and Calabria. 

 Under the Angevins the presumptive heir to the throne was styled 

 Duke of Calabria, which custom has continued to this day. Calabria 

 made a determined resistance against the French, first in 1799, when 

 the Calabrian* under Cardinal Kufib reconquered the kingdom, and 

 afterwards in 1806-7, when they waged a partisan warfare against the 

 invaders. They were not ultimately subdued till 1810. 



The Calabriana are a proud, thoughtful, and warm-hearted fiery 

 race. They are personally brave and faithful to their word ; are 

 generally good marksmen, and make good soldiers under proper dis- 

 cipline. Their dialect resembles the Sicilian. The crimes which in 

 former times were frequent in Calabria have greatly diminished ; 

 murders are no longer frequent ; and banditti have all but disap- 

 peared. The higher orders are sociable, well-informed, and hospi- 

 table. " Most of their towns," says Keppel Craven, " are built on 

 conical hills, which they crown to the very top ; the lower houses 

 being joined together by thick walls, constitute a kind of rampart. 

 The women wear a body with the full shirt sleeves, and a thickly- 

 plaited petticoat of coarse cloth, and on the head a cloth folded like 

 a napkin, as in other parts of the Neapolitan and Roman states. The 

 men wear short jackets and close hose, generally of black cloth, 

 leather gaiters or coarse stockings, with shoes of undressed skin tied 

 by thongs half-way up the leg, sandal fashion. Their hats are coni- 

 cal and high, with hardly any brim to them. The principal deficiencies 



of Calabria are want of harbours along the coasts, and the malaria 

 which prevails in most of the large valleys. By embanking the rivers 

 and draining the marshes the atmosphere is in parts improving. 

 The great carriage-road from Naples, which has been continued to 

 Reggio through the whole length of Calabria, with branch roads 

 towards both seas, is another essential improvement. 



(Strabo ; Gibbon, Decline and Fall; H. Gaily Knight, Normans in 

 Sicily ; Keppel Craven, Tour in the Southern Provinces of Naples ; 

 Dictionary of Oreek and Roman Geography ; Blewitt, Handbook for 

 South Italy; Afan di Rivera, Considerazioni suite Due Sicilie ; Colletta, 

 Storia del Reame di Napoli ; Serrao, De' Terremoti di Calabria ; Dic- 

 tionary of Classical Biography ; Biographic Universclle.) 



CALAHORRA. [CASTILLA LA VIEJA.] 



CALAIS, a fortified town and sea-port of France, in the department 

 of Pas-de-Calais, is situated on the south shore of the Strait o'f Dover, 

 20 miles N.E. from Boulogne, 22 miles S.E. from Dover, and 190 

 miles N. from Paris (by railway as far as Boulogne), in 50 58' N. lat., 

 1 51' E. long., and has about 13,000 inhabitants, many of whom are 

 English. The first mention made of Calais occurs in certain title- 

 deeds of the 9th century, when it was a mere fishing village. The 

 harbour, which was naturally formed by a small stream called De 

 Hames, was improved by order of Baldwin IV., Count of Flanders, 

 about the year 997. Philippe of France, count* of Boulogne, sur- 

 rounded the town with a wall flanked at regular distances by small 

 towers and defended on the outside by wet ditches. Such was the 

 solidity of the masonry that this wall still remains. In 1227 Philippe 

 also erected a vast keep, which was called the castle of Calais ; this 

 was demolished in 1560, when the present citadel was erected. After 

 the battle of Crecy Edward III., king of England, on the 1st of 

 August 1346 invested Calais, which was defended by the townsmen 

 commanded by Jean de Vienne. After the siege had lasted eleven 

 months, the King of France at the head of an army of 60,000 men 

 approached to relieve the town, but judging the English position to 

 be unassailable he left Calais to its fate. The townsfolk, pressed by 

 famine, offered to capitulate, having nobly defended their town for 

 above twelve months. The cruel terms imposed by Edward, the 

 noble self-devotion of Eustache de St.-Pierre and his companions, and 

 the generous and successful intercession of Queen Philippa, are well 

 kuowu. Edwai d entered the town on the 29th of August 1347, drove 

 all the inhabitants from the town, re-peopled it with English, and sent 

 the garrison prisoners to the Tower of London. The English improved 

 the town and added to its defences; they held it till 1556, when the 

 Duke of Guise stormed it after a seven days' siege, and drove all the 

 English from the town. Since that time Calais has remained in the 

 hands of the French, with the exception of about two years 159G-8 

 when it was held by the Spaniards till the peace of Vervins. 



The ramparts, forts, and citadel which defend the town render 

 Calais a fortress of the first class. The sea washes it on the north 

 and west, and on the south and east low marsh land, which can be 

 easily flooded, stretches up to the walls except for a space of about 

 250 yards, and this approach is commanded by the cross fire of the forts. 



The town and citadel form a parallelogram, having one of the 

 longer sides towards the sea. The citadel is at the western end of 

 the town ; it is large and strong, and commands at once the town, the 

 port, and the country around. The harbour, which is a tidal one, 

 small and shallow, is entered by a channel formed by two moles built 

 of stone and three quarters of a mile long ; it admits vessels of 400 

 to 500 tons, and has steam communication with Dover twice a day, 

 and with London. The spot on which Louis XVIII. landed in 1814 

 is marked by a pillar. From the port the town is entered by a draw- 

 bridge and gate erected by Cardinal Richelieu in 1685. The town is 

 pretty well built ; the streets are straight, clean, and well paved ; the 

 houses constructed of stone and brick. The centre of the town is 

 occupied by the Place-d'Armes, a spacious square which serves tor a 

 market-place. In this square stands the Hotel-de-Ville, in front of 

 which are statues of Eustache de St.-Pierre, the Duke of Guise, and 

 Cardinal Richelieu. A tower 124 feet high stands in the centre of 

 the Place-d'Armes, which serves as a landmark by day and a light- 

 house by night. The cathedral was built during the English occu- 

 pation of the town ; it is a handsome gothic building, cuntains 11 

 side chapels, and a picture of the Assumption by Vandyke. The 

 other remarkable objects in the town are the Hotel-de-Guise, in 

 which Henry VIII. used to lodge, the public library, the theatre, and 

 the barracks. The outer ramparts and the mole afford excellent 

 promenades. The town is entered from the land side by a strongly 

 defended gate and drawbridges. 



Calais possesses a tribunal and chamber of commerce, and schools 

 of design and hydrography ; it has some foreign ana a brisk coasting 

 trade ; vessels belonging to the town are employed in the cod, herring, 

 and mackerel fisheries. Corn, wine, oil, brandy, linen, wood, coal, eggs 

 (of which above 50 millions are annually sent to England), and colonial 

 produce are the principal articles of commerce. The town has com- 

 munication by canals with Arras, Dunquerque, Gravelines, and St.- 

 Omer ; and by railroad with Belgium and with Paris through Lille 

 and Douai. It has instantaneous communication with Dover by 

 submarine electric telegraph-wires, which were first employed for mes- 

 sages, September 27, 1851. Calais used to be the principal landing- 

 place for English travellers in France, but in this respect it is now 



