M 



CHARLESTOWN. 



CHARTRKS. 



426 



taining about 24,000 volumes. There are several banks and assurance 

 companies. Four daily and four weekly newspapers are published 

 in the city. Charleston possesses one of the finest floating dry docks 

 in the United States. The yellow fever has made frequent ravages 

 in Charleston, but its effects have been chiefly confined to strangers, 

 and especially those from more northern climates. The place is not 

 considered unhealthy by natives. 



Charleston is a place of very considerable trade. Nearly all the 

 cotton and rice exported from the state are shipped from this port. 

 The amount of registered and licensed tonnage belonging to the port 

 in 1850 was 33,293 tons, of which 17,916 tons were employed in the 

 coasting trade. In the year ending 30th June, 1850, the vessels that 

 entered and left the port hi the prosecution of foreign trade were 

 inwards 303 of 96,619 tons ; outwards 351 of 121,367 tons ; but the 

 main trade as explained under CAROLINA, SOUTH, is carried on 

 coastwise with New York, whence the staple commodities of South 

 Carolina are shipped to foreign countries. For carrying on this trade 

 with New York there are several well provided lines of steam-ships 

 and sailing vessels. Regular lines of packets also sail between 

 Charleston and Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Providence, New 

 Orleans, Wilmington, and Savannah. The cotton received in Charles- 

 ton from the interior in 1850 amounted to 400,714 bales, and of sea- 

 island to 17,994 bales, of which 365,327 bales of upland, and 16,437 

 bales of sea-island were exported. The receipts of rice in the same 

 year amounted to 147,690 barrels, and the exports to 134,417 barrels. 

 Cotton and rice are now the staple exports ; the former staple exports 

 of Charleston, staves, lumber, furs, peltries, indigo, and tobacco being 

 of very inferior importance. The inland communication of the city 

 is facilitated by the Santee Canal which connects the port with the 

 Santee River. But a far more important auxiliary has been the 

 system of railways carried out in South Carolina, by which the city 

 is placed in close connection with most of the more fertile districts 

 of the state ; and when the railways now in course of construction 

 are completed Charleston will have access both to the Mississippi 

 and the Ohio. 



The Charleston College was chartered in 1785 ; it is now one of 

 the most flourishing institutions of the kind in the southern states : 

 in 1850 it had 6 professors and 70 students. The college buildings are 

 commodious. It possesses a good philosophical apparatxis, and a 

 library of 2000 volumes. The Medical College, which was established 

 in 1833 is empowered to confer medical degrees : in 1850 it had 

 8 professors and 150 students. The building is a handsome edifice, for 

 which the city council of Charleston appropriated 15,000 dollars. The 

 other public schools are a high-school founded in 1839, which averages 

 from 130 to 150 pupils, and free schools with about 400 scholars. 



CHARLESTOWN. [ABERDEEN-SHIRK ; FIFESHIBE; MASSACHU- 

 SETTS.] 



CHARLEVILLE. [ARDENNES.] 



CHARLOTTE TOWN. [PRINCE EDWARD'S ISLAND.] 



CHARLOTTENBURG. [BRANDENBCRO.] 



CHARLOTTESVILLE. [VIRGINIA.] 



CHARLY. [AISNE.] 



CHAROLLAIS, a district of Bourgogne, named from its chief town 

 C'harolles, gave during their father's lifetime the title of count to 

 Philippe le Bon and Charles le T&ne'raire, the two last of the great 

 feudal dukes of Bourgogne. It is now included in the department of 

 Sa6ne-et-Loire, except a small part west of the Loire, which is in the 

 department of Allier. The Canal du Centre which connects the 

 Loire with the Saone, is sometimes called the Charollais Canal. 



CHAROLLES. [SAONE-ET-LOIRE.] 



CHARTRAIN, a district in France comprising the territory about 

 Chartres, formed part of the more extensive district of La-Beauce. It 

 takes its name immediately from its capital, Chartres, but originally 

 from the Celtic tribe Carnutes, by whom, at the time of the Roman 

 invasion, it was peopled. This nation is mentioned by Livy among the 

 tribes which invaded Italy in the time of Tarquinius Priscus. In the 

 time of Csesar they extended from the Seine to the country south of 

 the Loire; their chief towns were Genabum (Orleans), Autricum 

 (Chartres), and Durocassis (Dreux). The district of Chartrain is now 

 included in the department of Eure-et-Loir. 



CHARTRES, a city in France, capital formerly of La-Beauce, now 

 of the department of Eure-et-Loir, the seat of tribunals of first in- 

 stance and of commerce, of a communal college and diocesan seminary, 

 stands on the slope and at the foot of a hill above the Eure (a feeder 

 of the Seine), 55 miles by railway S.W. from Paris, in 48 26' 24" N. lat., 

 and 1 29' 53" E. long. ; and has a population of 16,680, including 

 the whole commune. 



Chartres is a very ancient city. Under the Roman dominion it was 

 called Autricum (from Autura the ancient name of the Eure), but 

 in the 4th century this name was replaced by that of the people, 

 the Carmitcs [CHARTRAIN], in whose territory it was. The only 

 remains of Roman antiquity are some subterranean aqueducts and 

 Damages. The town is supposed to have been a great centre of 

 Druidical worship ; to Druidixm succeeded the worship of the 

 gods of the Capitol, and these gave place to Christianity about 

 the end of the 4th century A.D. On the downfall of the. Roman 

 empire it passed into the hands of the Prankish kings. About A.D. 600 

 Thierry II., king of Orleans and Bourgogne, besieged the town, which 



was well fortified, and succeeded in taking it by making a breach 

 in the aqueduct and depriving the inhabitants of water. In 858 

 it was pillaged and burnt by the Northmen ; when re-built it was 

 soon after taken again by them under their famous leader Hastings, 

 but given up on the townsmen and the bishop agreeing to pay a certain 

 sum as a rausotn. Their neglect to pay this tribute caused another 

 siege and capture of the town in 872. In 911 the townsmen suc- 

 cessfully resisted the attacks of the famous Rollo, the first duke of 

 Normandie. 



In the middle ages Chartres was the capital of a county which was 

 in the 10th ceutury united with that of Blois and Tours. Towards 

 the end of the llth century the city was surrounded by ramparts 

 which still remain. The ramparts were pierced by seven gate-entrances, 

 one of which (Porte Guillaume) still retains its warlike appearance, 

 being flanked by two massive towers united by a curtain, and crowned 

 by a projecting gallery with parapets and machicolations. 



In the bloody feuds between the Bourguiguons and Armaguacs 

 Chartres was taken by the former, and passed under the dominion 

 of the English, who held it till 1432, when it was recovered from them 

 by surprise by Dunois. In 1591 it was taken by Henri IV., who was 

 consecrated in the cathedral three years afterwards. The county of 

 Chartres when bestowed on the Duchess of Ferrara was erected into 

 a duchy ; it subsequently came by marriage to the dukes of Nemours, 

 by whom it was resigned to the crown. Louis XIII. bestowed it upon 

 his brother Gaston, duke of Orleans ; upon his death Louis XIV. gave 

 it to his brother Philippe, duke of Orleans, from whom the duchy 

 was inherited up to the period of the first French revolution by his 

 lineal descendants. The eldest sou of Louis Philippe bore the title of 

 Duke of Chartres at the time of his father's accession to the throne. 



The city of Chartres is situated on the brow of a hill, at the foot 

 of which is the river Eure, which flows here in two channels one 

 within and the other without the ramparts, which are surrounded by 

 a circuit of public walks. Chartres is divided into the upper and 

 lower towns : the upper has some tolerably commodious streets, and 

 contains the principal public edifices ; the lower town is ill built and 

 ill laid out ; the streets which unite the two are so steep as to be 

 almost inaccessible to carnages. Everything about the place has an 

 air of antiquity : the houses are for the most part old and built of 

 wooden planks ; many of them have the gable towards the street and 

 the doorway in the form of a pointed arch, with gothic ornaments. 

 The suburb of Bourgneuf by which the road from Paris enters the 

 town is long and straggling, and consists of cottages with their gables 

 towards the street. There are in Chartres four squares : one in the 

 lower town, that of St.-Pierre, bordered with two rows of trees, and 

 adjacent to the ancient gothic church, from which it takes its name ; 

 two in the upper town, namely, the corn-market and the herb-market ; 

 and one, the handsomest of all, called La Place des Barricades, outside 

 the walls. The herb-market is adorned by an obelisk erected in memory 

 of General Marceau. The Eure below the town drives a great number 

 of mills. 



The finest edifice in Chartres is the gothic cathedral of Notre Dame, 

 which is one of the largest churches iu France, and one of the most 

 vast and imposing structures of the middle ages. It was commenced 

 about 1020 by Bishop Fulbert, but dedicated only in 1260 when still 

 unfinished, one of the spires not having been erected till the 16th 

 century. The principal front, which is 164 feet in breadth, presents 

 two square towers surmounted by two lofty octagonal pyramids, and 

 separated by an interval of 55 feet. The old spire, which rises to the 

 height of 374 feet, is of plain architecture, but cased with stone curi- 

 ously carved like the scales of a fish, and appears to lean towards the 

 spectator on whatever side he stands. The new spire is 413 feet high, 

 built in the florid style, and so much admired as to have become pro- 

 verbial for its beauty. The lower story of the facade, which is ap- 

 proached by five stone steps, has a triple portal with pointed arches, 

 and adorned with statues. Above the doorways are three arched 

 windows with stained glass, aud still higher a superb rose window. 

 The entrances on the north and south sides are also approached by 

 flights of stone steps ; that on the south has 17 steps, on the extre- 

 mities of which are columns and statues. In each of these fronts are 

 triple projecting porticoes with deep doorways between them ; over 

 these are niches for statues and a series of five windows, with a circular 

 window above as before. The interior of the church is admirable for 

 the justness of its proportions ; it is richly decorated and dimly lighted 

 through above 130 painted glass windows, most of which date from 

 the 13th century, and are so charged with colour as scarcely to allow 

 light enough to penetrate the building to enable persons to read. 

 Among many decorations of the interior must be named the screen 

 that separates the choir from its aisles, the tracery work on which 

 has been compared to ' point-lace in stone.' The choir is beautiful ; 

 it is adorned with statues and bas-reliefs of various merit : the Descent 

 from the Cross, a bas-relief by Bridan, is a chef-d'ojuvre ; and the Pre- 

 sentation of our Saviour in the Temple, by the same sculptor, is much 

 admired. There is a noble group behind the high altar of the As- 

 sumption of the Virgin, also by Bridan. The inner dimensions of the 

 cathedral are as follows : entire length, 436 feet, breadth, 1114 feet; 

 length of transepts, 213 feet, breadth, 39 feet; nave, 246 feet in 

 length ; height to the keystone of the vault, 115 feet. I he aisles are 

 22 feet wide and 52 feet high. There are double aisles round th 



