..1 



CORTE. 



COSFORD. 



602 



ia allowed to hang at the back of the neck. They generally garry a 

 loaded musket, and have commonly a stiletto concealed about them, 

 though this is prohibited by the French authorities. There are few 

 peculiarities in the dress of the women : those in the neighbourhood 

 of Ajaccio frequently wear a largo round straw hat ; those near 

 Bastia have the head covered with a sort of veil, like the Italian 

 peasantry. The villages are chiefly built on eminences : the houses 

 are mere huts of four walls covered with a rude roof, and many of 

 them have only one opening, serving for door, window, and chimney. 

 Some are built of unwrought stone, and have a second story, the 

 ascent to which is not by a staircase, but by a ladder. The fire, 

 when one is lighted; is in the centre of the room. The furniture 

 consists of stools, benches, and tables of the rudest construction. 

 They use a pine stick for a flambeau or caudle. These particulars 

 apply only to the villages of the interior. The religion is the Homan 

 Catholic. 



(Dictionnaire de la France ; Annuairepour CAn 1853.) 



CORTE. [CORSICA.] 



CORT0'NA, an episcopal city in Tuscany, in the province of 

 Arezzo, 15 milea S. by E. from the town of Arezzo, is built on tlie 

 slope of a high and steep hill facing the south, and commands a 

 splendid view of the fertile Val di Chiana and of the Lake of 

 i, the ancient Thrasymene. Its origin is lost in the remotest 

 antiquity. Diouysius says that it was originally an Umbriau city, 

 that it was seized by the Pelasgiaus. Virgil, no mean antiquarian, 

 speaks of the city under the name of Corythus, and immortalises the 

 old legend of its foundation by Uardanus. (' ^Eneid' iii. 167, vii. 206.) 

 It seems to have been the central stronghold of the Pelasgiaus and 

 Etruscans. Its walls which still remain are of the structure called 

 Cyclopean or Pelasgic, consisting of large polygonal stones put 

 together without cement. About the middle of the 5th century of 

 Rome we find Corytum allied to the latter, and it remained faithful 

 to ita alliance during the second Punic war, when Hannibal ravaged 

 its territory before the battle of the Lake Thrasymene. Little is 

 known of ita subsequent history, except that according to Dionysius 

 it received a Roman colony moat likely in the time of Sulla. History 

 ia likewise silent about Cortona, after the fall of the empire, until 

 the end of the 12th century, when it appears as an independent 

 municipal community, Uke most other Italian citiea at that time, 

 having ita consuls, and ita council composed of nobles and head 

 tradesmen. The city became an episcopal see in the early ages of 

 Christianity, but in the 13th century the bishop of Arezzo claimed 

 spiritual jurisdiction over it. It was repeatedly at war with ita 

 oura of Arezzo, who plundered the town, and raised the castle 

 in 125S. It afterwards became subject to a powerful family called 

 Casali, who assumed the title of Vicars General and Lords of Cortona 

 for nearly a century. In 1409 the citizens being dissatisfied with 

 their lord, called in the Neapolitan troops of King Ladislaus, who 

 put to death Caaali, took possession of Cortona, and then sold it two 

 years after to the Florentines for 60,000 golden florins. From that 

 time Cortona has remained subject to Florence. 



The city with ita suburbs contains 5000 inhabitants. It still gives 

 title to a bishop. Its territory ia very fertile, especially in wine, 

 corn, olive and mulberry-trees. The high road from Florence to 

 Perugia passes near Cortona. 



The cathedral, built in the llth century, has some good paintings, 

 and a fine basao-rilievo of the Roman time. The other churches 

 and convents are also rich in paintings. There is a diocesan seminary 

 for clerical students, a college kept by the fathers of the Pious 

 Schools, a conservatorio for female education, kept by nuns, and a 

 drawing school. The Academia Etrusca, founded herein 1726, has 

 published several volumes of memoirs on Etruscan antiquities, and 

 Lag a library with some valuable manuscripts, and a museum. There 

 ia in the suburbs a remarkable Etruscan monument, supposed to have 

 been a sepulchre, of similar construction to the city walls; it ia 

 named Tanella di Pitagora, Cortona being confounded with Crotona, 

 the residence of Pythagoras. 



(IHzi<ma.no O'eoyrafico Storico della Totcana ; ValeVy, Voyayet 

 LiUlrairei^en Italic; Denis, Etruria.) 



CORUNA (in English commonly written Corunna), a city and sea- 

 port of Spain, capital of the modern province of Coruna, one of the 

 divisions of the ancient province of Oalicia, ia situated in 43 22' X. 

 lat., 8 21' W. long., 42 milea N. by E. from the city of Santiago. I 

 The population in 1845 waa 18,840. The city is built partly j 

 on the eastern side of a small peninsula or headland, and partly : 

 on the iathuma which joins the peninsula to the mainland. It i 

 conaiata of an upper town and a lower town. The upper town 

 occupies the peninsula ; it is the more ancient, and contains two old 

 pariah churches. The lower town occupies the isthmus, having on 

 one side the Bay of Corufta, and Orsan Bay on the other. The lower 

 town, formerly called the Peacaderia, or Fish-market, ia comparatively 

 modern, and ia well built, mostly of granite. The two principal 

 streets are wide, well paved, and handsome. The houses are furnished 

 with balconies. The town contains a court-house, custom-house, 

 theatre, arsenal, and barracks. It is defended by a citadel, and is 

 otherwiao sufficiently fortified to resist an assault, but is commanded 

 by Home heights to the southward near the walls. The Bay of Coruna 

 forma the harbour, having the entrance between San Diego Point and 



the headland on which the upper town of Coruna is situated. The 

 river Mero enters the bottom of the bay by a ria, or restuary. The 

 harbour is of great extent, has deep water, and is very safe. The 

 inhabitants are chiefly occupied by the herring and pilchard fisheries 

 on the coast, and there are some manufactures of linen and woollen 

 goods, hats, cordage, sail-cloth, and cigars. Ship-building is also 

 carried on. North of the town on an elevation of the headland is 

 the Tower of Hercules, an ancient Roman structure, probably a 

 pharos, now converted into a modern lighthouse ; it is of a square 

 form, 92 feet high, and the walls are more than four feet thick. 



Coruna was founded by the Phoenicians, and was afterwards taken 

 by the Romans, who called it Ardobricum Corunium. The Spanish 

 Armada was refitted here in May, 1588, and 130 ships mounting 2630 

 guns sailed out of the harbour in June in order to make the conquest 

 of England. The French army under Soult was here repulsed by the 

 British army under Sir John Moore, who then received his death- 

 wound, Jan. 16, 1809 ; his body wrapped in a military cloak was interred 

 the same evening by the officers of his staff in the citadel of Coruna. 



(Ford, Handbook of Spain ; Napier, History of the Peninsular War.) 



CORVO. [AZORES.] 



CORWEN, Merionethshire, a town and the seat of a Poor- 

 Law Union, in the parish of Corwen and hundred of Edernion, is 

 situated on rising ground on the right bank of the river Dee, in 

 52 58' N. lat., 3 20' W. long.; distaut 12 miles N.E. by E. from 

 Bala, and 194 miles N.W. by W. from London by road. The population 

 of the parish in 1851 was 2069. The living is a sinecure rectory and a 

 vicarage in the archdeaconry of Montgomery and diocese of St. Asaph. 

 Corwen Poor-Law Union contains 15 parishes and townships, with an 

 area of 65,900 acres, and a population in 1851 of 15,409. 



Corwen ia a small but neat town ; its situation above the river 

 imparts to it a pleasant appearance, and also contributes to its 

 salubrity. The town is supplied with water. Corweu is regarded 

 with interest by the Welsh as the scene of two victories over the 

 English, one in 1165 by Owen Gwynedd over Henry II., and the 

 other by Owen Glyndwr over Henry IV. In the vicinity of the site 

 of Corwen a British or Welsh post existed : it consisted of a circular 

 wall a mile and a half in circumference on the summit of a steep hill, 

 and a circular habitation now in ruins within the inclosure. The 

 parish church, a neat cruciform building, stands in a picturesque 

 situation immediately at the foot of a rocky precipice, forming part of 

 the Berwyn Mountains. The Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists, 

 Baptists, and Independents have places of worship. There are a 

 parochial school for 150 children, and a reading-room. Corwen 

 possesses an endowed hospital for widows of clergymen. 



(Parry, Cambrian Mirror ; Cliffe, Boole of North Walei; Land We 

 Life In, vol. iii. ; Communication from Corwen.) 



COS (Ks), an island in the Archipelago, belonging to Turkey, the 

 modern name of which is Stance, or Slanchio. It lies in the mouth of 

 the Gulf of Ceramus ; its principal city, which was immediately 

 opposite to Halicarnassus, was destroyed by a great earthquake in the 

 Peloponnesian war. (Thucyd., viii. 41.) This city was, in very ancient 

 times, built on the other side of Cape Scandarium (which points up 

 the gulf), and was called Astypalsea (Old Town). The new capital, 

 called Cos, was not large, but well built and picturesquely situated. 

 (Strabo, p. 657.) 



Cos was colonised from Epidaurus at a very early date (Herod., 

 vii. 99), as is indeed sufficiently shown by the worship of ^Esculapius, 

 which prevailed in such a remarkable degree both at Epidaurus and 

 in Cos. (Pausan., iii. 23, 6.) A school of physicians was attached to 

 the temple of ./Esculapius ; the great collection of votive models in which 

 made it a kind of museum of anatomy and pathology. (Strabo, pp. 373, 

 657.) A similarity of origin and religion induced the Coans to form a 

 league with Halicarnassus, Cnidos, and the Rhodian Tripolis ; and the 

 confederacy celebrated the Triopian rites on a promontory of that 

 name near Cnidos. (Herod., i. 144.) Cos subsequently came under the 

 rule of the Athenians and of the Romans. The emperor Claudius 

 made it a free state, and Antoninus Pius rebuilt the city of Cos after 

 it had been destroyed by an earthquake. The ancient constitution of 

 the island seems to have been monarchical. The wines, ointments, and 

 purple dyes of Cos were famous throughout Greece. The climate is 

 delightful. (Leake, 'Morea,' ii. 429.) Hippocrates, Apelles the 

 painter, and Ptolemseus Philadelphus were natives of Cos. 



Cos is 23 miles long and about 65 round. It is generally moun- 

 tainous on the south and west, but there is a large tract of level fertile 

 land towards the north and east. The population is about 8000, 

 composed of Turks and Greeks. The island maintains its ancient 

 reputation fo'r fertility. The chief products are corn, cotton, silk, 

 wine, fruits, &c. The city of Cos still exists. An unhealthy lagoon 

 marks the position of the ancient harbour ; near it is a Turkish castle, 

 which Christian travellers are not permitted to enter. In the walls 

 are some elaborate sculptures. The harbour of Cos is much frequented 

 by merchant vessels. 

 . COSENZA. [CALABRIA.] 



COSFORD, a hundred in the south-western division of the county 

 of Suffolk, which has been constituted a Poor-Law Union. The 

 hundred of Cosford is bounded N. by the hundred of Thedwestry ; 

 E. by the hundreds of Bosmere and Claydon, and Sarnpford ; S. by 

 the river Stour, which forms here the boundary between the counties 



