CLERMONT-FERRAND. 



CLEVES. 



510 



some of the inhabitants. The market-day is Wednesday, and fairs 

 are held on April 21st, Trinity Monday, and October 27th, for cattle 

 sheep, and pigs. A county court is held in Cleobury. 



(Communication from Cleobury-ifort inter.) 



CLERMONT-FERRAND, the capital of Basse-Auvergne and of 

 the department of Puy-de-D6me, in France ; the seat of a provincial 

 university, of an academy of sciences, literature, and art, of an 

 endowed college, of a secondary school of medicine, and a depart- 

 mental school of midwifery, of a consultative chamber of manufac- 

 tures and an exchange ; stands at the entrance of a vast semicircular 

 plain, hemmed in except towards the east by a line of hills clothed 

 with woods . and vineyards, behind which springs up the majestic 

 peak of the Puy-de-D6me. To eastward the view extends for several 

 miles over the beautiful district of the Limagne. The town is built 

 close to a mountain torrent, which rises in the Puy-de-D6me, and 

 flows into the Allier ; it stands at a distance of 237 miles S. by E. 

 from Paris, in 45 46' N. lat., 3 5' E. long., and has 30,563 inhabit- 

 ants, without including the suburb of Montferrand, which numbers 

 about 5000 inhabitants. 



In approaching the town from Paris the traveller passes through 

 the suburb of Montferrand, which is united to Clermont by a noble 

 avenue, 2 miles long, perfectly straight, and bordered with willows 

 and walnut-trees. Clermont itself, built on an eminence, forms when 

 at a little distance, a noble termination to this avenue, and 

 inspires the traveller with a notion of beauty which the interior of 

 the town does not realise. It is not well laid out ; the streets are 

 narrow, and the houses, though not ill-built, yet present, from the 

 dark colour of the lava which is the chief building material, a sombre 

 appearance. The town is separated from the faubourgs by a line of 

 boulevards, which are for the most part planted with trees. The 

 squares are large but irregularly built. The Place-du-Taureau is 

 remarkable for a handsome fountain in the form of an obelisk, dedi- 

 cated to the memory of General Desaix. This Place and those of 

 Poterne and L'Espague command most agreeable prospects : that of 

 Delille, or Champleix, is adorned with a gothic fountain, richly sculp- 

 tured. The Place-d' Armes, or de Jaude, as it is also called, is inclosed 

 mostly by new and well-built houses. In recent times many improve- 

 ments have been introduced, by widening the streets and laying down 

 smooth pavements instead of the rough pebbles formerly used. The 

 fountains are supplied with water which is conveyed through pipes to 

 the highest part of the town. One of the most remarkable of them 

 is the Chateau d'Eau, which presents a multitude of sculptured 

 figures, bas-reliefs, jet*, and basins, disposed in a pyramidal form, and 

 producing a singular but rich effect. 



Of the public buildings the principal is the cathedral. The first 

 cathedral of Clermont was built in the 5th century, by St. Namatius, 

 ninth bishop of Auvergne. According to Gregory of Tours, this 

 structure was 164 feet long and 65 feet wide ; it was lighted through 

 42 windows, entered by 8 doors, and the roof was supported by 

 70 columns. This church was destroyed by the barbarians, rebuilt 

 and again destroyed. The present cathedral dates from A.D. 1248 ; it 

 stands in the centre of the city, and though it has never been com- 

 pletely finished, is regarded as one of the finest monuments of gothic 

 architecture in France. The interior is 328 feet long, 140 feet broad, 

 and 108 feet high, from the pavement to the vault of the roof, which 

 is supported by 56 clustered pillars. The pillars of the choir are 

 especially remarkable for their delicacy. The choir is surrounded by 

 chapels. Of the painted windows the splendid roses of the transept 

 are particularly worthy of attention. The whole structure is covered 

 in with lead, and over the aisles are terraces, whence extensive views 

 are obtained over the town and the surrounding country. The dark 

 stone with which the structure is built gives it a severe and imposing 

 aspect, increased by its lofty site. There is no good near view of the 

 exterior, on account of the houses and shops that press close upon it. 

 The church of Notre-Dame-du-Port is curiously decorated and very 

 ancient, many of its parts dating from the time of the original con- 

 struction in A.D. 863. The other remarkable objects at Clermont are 

 the public library, containing 18,000 volumes, the botanical garden, 

 the endowed college, the museum of natural history, mineralogy, and 

 antiquities, the house in which Pascal was born in the Rue St.-Genes, 

 the theatre, town-house, court-house, the buildings in which the corn 

 and linen markets are held, the two large hospitals, and the numerous 

 promenades in the town and its environs. In the Place Jaude there 

 is an intermittent fountain, the waters of which are advantageous in 

 fevers and diseases of the digestive organs. In the suburb of St. 

 Alyre, a fountain gives birth to a little stream which deposits such a 

 quantity of calcareous and ferruginous sediment as gradually to raise 

 ita bed to a level with the surface of the fountain, when of course the 

 waters would flow in a new channel and with the same result. But 

 to prevent the ground from being covered with these petrifactions 

 the bed of the stream is destroyed from time to time. Once only the 

 process was suffered to go on to the last degree, and the result was a 

 level wall 13 feet broad, 262 feet long, and with a height varying with 

 the slope of the gnnui'1. 



i uiont is the seat of a bishop, whose see comprises the depart- 

 ment of Puy-d<;-IWme; it is also the head-quarters of the 20th Mili- 

 tary Division, which includes the departments of Puy-de-D6me, Haute- 

 Loire, and CantaL 



Woollen cloth, consisting of piece-dyed goods for the home market 

 and for exportation to the Levant, jewellery, and plated goods are 

 the chief industrial articles ; but silk stockings, room-paper, cotton- 

 yarn, painted glass, and various other articles are manufactured. The 

 town has also a large commerce in the linen of Auvergne, corn, hemp, 

 wool, flax, hides, wine, oil, salt, dried and preserved fruits, cattle, 

 cheese, and various other objects of local industry. 



Clermont-Ferrand occupies the site of Augustonemetum, which 

 Strabo calls Nemossus, and erroneously places on the Loire. It was 

 afterwards called Arverni, from the Celtic nation whose capital it 

 was, and whose name is perpetuated in Auvergne. Julius Ctesar 

 does not mention Nemetum or Augustonemetum ; in his time the 

 capital of the Arverni was Gergovia, which he unsuccessfully besieged. 

 An annalist of the time of Pepin mentions the castle of Clarua Mons 

 which defended the ancient town, and from this no doubt the modern 

 name Clermont is derived. The ancient town seems to have occupied 

 the height on which the cathedral stands, and the level ground to 

 the south-east of it j several fragments of marble columns and parts 

 of mosaics have been found on this site. In A.D. 408 the town was 

 sacked by the Vandals, who destroyed all the principal edifices ; in 

 412 it was again taken by the soldiers of Honorius. Euric, the 

 Arian king of the Visigoths, unsuccessfully besieged it in 473, but it 

 fell into his hands with the rest of Auvergne the following year, when 

 he imprisoned Sidouiug Apollinaris, bishop of Auvergne, for encou- 

 raging the townsfolk in resisting the siege. Thierry, the natural son 

 of Clovis, took Clermont in 507, when all Auvergne was first sub- 

 jected to the Fraukish kings. Childebert having seized upon Clermout 

 in 532, Thierry besieged aud took it, destroying the Roman aqueduct, 

 and plundering the inhabitants of all they possessed. The town 

 was ravaged again by Pepin, who made himself master of the castle 

 of Clarus Moas in 761. From the plundering ravages of the North- 

 men it suffered severely in 853 and 916. 



In a council held at Clermont A.D. 1095, the first crusade was 

 resolved on. Pope Urban II. presided. The transactions of this 

 council were numerous and important. In the middle ages, and up 

 to the period of the French revolution, Clermont ranked as the capital 

 of Auvergne. The bishopric of Auvergne was founded about A.D. 250, 

 aud the bishop held the first rank among tha suffragans of the arch- 

 bishop of Bourges ; and until the erection of the bishopric of St. 

 Flour ia 1317 was the only bishop in Auvergne. Since about 1160 

 the prelates have been styled bishops of Clermont. The diocese at 

 present comprehends the department of Puy-de-L)5me. 



Louis le Gros besieged Clermont in the year 1100, jn order to 

 compel the townspeople to admit the bishop whom they had expelled. 

 In the intestine commotions aud the wars with the English in the 

 12th and 13th centuries, the town suffered often ; in 1220 they were 

 allowed the privilege of defending themselves, of meeting and choosing 

 their own officers, and hi lieu of this service were exempted from 

 all taxes. In 1285 the high tribunal of justice was for some reason 

 transferred to Moutferrand by Philip the Fair. Clermont was again 

 made the capital of the duchy of Auvergne in 1556, and the first com- 

 mission of assizes was held there in November of that year. Duriug 

 the wars of the League the inhabitants of Clermont were devoted 

 adherents of the king. From the 28th of September 1665, to the 

 1st of February following, a commission of assize sat in Clermont to 

 investigate and punish the vexatious oppressions of the Auverguat 

 nobles. 



The environs of Clermont are very interesting on account of 

 abundance of evidence they bear of the volcanic agency that once 

 desolated the region of Auvergne. The gorge in which the village of 

 Royat is built abounds with springs that gush forth from basaltic rocks, 

 and flow in beds hollowed out in what was once a molten torrent of 

 lava. The Puy-de-D6rne and other summits that surround it are 

 ea-iily reached from Clermont. 



The plateau of Gergovia, some three miles to the south-east of the 

 town, is considered to be the site of the Gergovia from which Julius 

 Caosar was obliged to retire in his campaign against Vercing^torix. 

 (' Bell. Gall.' vii.) 



(Dictionnaire de la France.) 



CLERMONT-LODEVE. [HfeBAUW.] 



CLERMONT-OISE. [OiSE, Department of] 



CLEVEDON. [SOMERSETSHIRE] 



CLEVELAND. [YORKSHIRE.] 



CLEVES (Kleve, German), the most north-westerly district of the 

 kingdom of Prussia, and part of the old duchies of Cleves and Guel- 

 derland, is the name of a circle in the province of Diisseldorf, in the 

 Prusso-Rhenish provinces. It contains about 185 square miles, and 

 had a population of 45,000 (chiefly Roman Catholics) in 1846. Cleves 

 lies between the Rhine and Holland. The surface is partly of 

 moderate elevation, but for the most part a complete level, and some 

 of it near the Rhine is so low as to be flooded occasionally by the 

 river, from which however it is protected by a hi?h dam. The soil, 

 though very sandy in many parts, has in general been rendered 

 extremely productive by careful cultivation. There are few parts of 

 Germany in which farming is conducted on a better or more profitable 

 system than in Kleve. In the westerly districts lies the extensive 

 Reichswald, or Forest of Cleves : 3 1,000 acres of this circle are occupied 

 by woods and forests, while of the remainder 58,350 acres are arable 



