853 



EASTBOURNE. 



ECCLES. 



854 



Poor-Law Union contains 30 parishes and townships, with an area of 

 175,400 acres, and a population in 1851 of 13,664. 



EASTBOURNE, Sussex, a village (formerly a market-town) and 

 the seat of a Poor-Law Union, in the parish of Eastbourne, is situated 

 in 50 46' N. lat., 16' E. long., distant 16 miles S.E. by E. from 

 Lewes, 63 miles S.S.E. from London by road, arid 65 miles by the 

 Brighton and South Coast railway. The population of the parish in 

 1851 was 3133. The living is a vicarage in the archdeaconry of 

 Lewes and diocese of Chichester. Eastbourne Poor-Law Union 

 contains 14 parishes and townships, with an area of 36,373 acres, 

 and a population in 1851 of 8346. 



Eastbourne is believed to be the site of the Roman station Portus 

 Anderida. Many Roman remains have been found in the neigh- 

 bourhood. The village consists of three portions : the oldest including 

 the parish church and some old houses, is farthest inland ; a hamlet, 

 containing a new church, and some good shops, inns, and private 

 residences, is nearer the shore ; and close to the beach is a cluster of 

 dwellings known as Sea Houses, to which have been recently added a 

 beautiful esplanade, and many fine mansions. The parish church 

 consists of a nave, with side-aisles, a large chancel, and a lofty 

 antique tower. In the church are some interesting monuments. The 

 new church, a handsome edifice recently enlarged, is near Sea Houses. 

 There are three small places of worship for Dissenters, Natfonal 

 schools, and an Infant school. Eastbourne is much resorted to for 

 sea-bathing. Along the shore of the bay are situated some of the 

 martello towers erected about the beginning of the present century. 

 There is also a fort capable of accommodating 450 men, and provided 

 with 1 -S guns 24- and 64-pounders and some mortars. At Holywell, 

 near East bourne, are chalybeate springs. Some remains exist of a 

 small establishment of Black friars. 



(Horsfield, ftufsex ; Communication from Eastbourne.) 



EASTER ISLAND, an island in the eastern part of the Pacific 

 Ocean, more than 2000 miles distant from the west coast of South 

 America, is situated near the point 27 20' S. lat., and 109 30' W. long. 

 It is about thirty or forty miles in circuit, with a stony and hilly 

 surface, and an iron-bound shore. The hills rise to the height of about 

 1200 feet. At the southernmost extremity of the island is an extinct 

 volcano. Lava seems to form the principal component of the hills, 

 which rise gradually and are covered with grass. The island has no 

 safe anchorage, no wood for fuel, no fresh water, and no domestic 

 animals, except a few fowls. The inhabitants, who number about 

 2000, live on yams, potatoes, and sugar-cane. In physiognomy, 

 language, and manners, they resemble the inhabitants of the other 

 groups of islands lying farther west. On the island are a number of 

 colossal statues, some of which are 15 or even 18 feet high; they 

 stand on platforms, which have been made with a considerable 

 degree of art. 



EASTHAMPSTEAD, Berkshire, a village and the seat of a Poor- 

 Law Union, in the parish of Easthampstead, is situated in 51 24' 

 N. lat., 0" 45' \V. long.; distant 11 miles E.S.E. from Reading, and 

 29 miles W.S.W. from London by road. The population of the palish 

 in 1851 was 698. The living is a rectory in the archdeaconry of Berks 

 and diocese of Oxford. Easthampstead Poor-Law Union contains 5 

 parishes, with an area of 27,600 acres, and a population in 1851 of 

 6343. Easthampstead is an agricultural parish. 



KASTRY, Kent, a village and the seat of a Poor-Law Union, in the 

 parish of Eastry, is situated in 51 15' N. lat., 1 18' E. long., distant 

 10 miles E. by S. from Canterbury, and 65 miles E.S.E. from London. 

 The population of the parish of Eastry in 1851 was 1697, including 

 464 inmates of the Union workhouse. The living in a vicarage, with 

 the curacy of Worth annexed, in the archdeaconry and diocese of 

 Canterbury. Eastry Poor-Law Union contains 30 parishes, with an 

 area of 45,659 acres, and a population in 1851 of 23,848. Eastry is 

 quite a rural village, and has no trade of any consequence. The 

 parish church is a large and handsome edifice in the early English 

 style. The Wesleyan Methodists have a place of worship, and there 

 are National schools. 



EATON-BRAY. [BEDFORDSHIRE.] 



EATON-SOCON. [BEDFORDSHIBE.] 



EBERSBACH. [LACSITZ.] 



EBREUIL. [ALLIER.] 



EBRO (the Iberut of the Romans), a river of Spain, rises in Castilla 

 la Vieja, in 43 N. lat, 4 3' W. long., and after a course, generally 

 eaat-south-east, of about 350 miles, enters the Mediterranean Sea, in 

 40* 42' N. lat., 50' E. long. 



The source of the Ebro is in the modern province of Santander, at 

 a great elevation, on the side of a ridge which extends from the 

 summit-level of the Cantabrian mountain-chain southward towards 

 the city of Burgos. The stream flows east about 10 miles past the 

 small town of Reynosa, and then south about 10 miles more, after 

 which its course is east past Frias, east-south-east and south-east 

 past Miranda and Haro, and east-south-east past Logrofio, Calahorra, 

 Tudela, and Zaragoza, till it receives the Guadalope, when it turns to 

 the north. It then passes by Mequiuenza, where it receives the Segre, 

 and making a semicircular bend to the south-east, passes by Mora, 

 whence its course is south to Tortosa, and east to the Mediterranean. 

 The main stream enters the sea opposite the island of Buda, but two 

 branches have previously separated from it, one of which flows north 



into the Gulf of Amposta, and the other south into the Gulf of 

 Alfaques. 



With the exception of the marshy land at the mouth of the river, 

 and the level tract between Zaragoza and Mequinenza, the course of 

 the Ebro is generally through narrow and occasionally rocky valleys. 

 Shoals and rapids interrupt the navigation, but a canal has been con- 

 structed which extends from near Tudela to about 40 miles below 

 Zaragoza. It runs parallel to the south bank, and is to be extended 

 to Tortosa when funds have been provided. 



In passing through Castilla la Vieja the Ebro receives the Nebo on 

 the northern bank, and the Oca, the Teron, and the Oja, on the 

 southern bank. In crossing Navarra it receives the river Aragon. 

 The principal affluents which enter it in the province of Aragon are 

 described in the article ARAGON. 



EBSAMBUL. [ABOUSAMBUL.] 



ECBA'TANA, (EKBdraya), the ancient capital of Media, founded 

 by Deioces. (Herod, i. 98.) The genuine orthography of the 

 word appears to be Agbdtana (' Ayfytrava : see Steph. Byzont. v. 

 'Ay/SiraKa). as it is now written in the text of Herodotus, and as we 

 are informed by Stephanus it was written by Ctesias. It appears in 

 the ' Itinerary ' of Isidore of Charax under the form of Apobrttana. 

 In the Book of Judith (c. i.) is a curious account of the building of 

 Ecbatana, and of the enormous strength of its walls and fortifications. 



Ecbatana was situated, according to the testimony of ancient 

 writers, in a plain at the foot of a lofty mountain called Orontes. 

 According to an ancient popular tradition Ecbatana was founded by 

 Semiramis (Diod. ii. 13), but Herodotus ascribes to it a later origin. 

 Herodotus, who had probably seen the place, describes it as built on 

 a conical kind of hill, and consisting of seven circular inclosures or 

 walls, one within another, each wall being higher than that which 

 surrounded it, and the innermost wall, which surrounded the palace, 

 of course the highest of all. Ecbatana being a high and mountainous 

 country was a favourite residence of the Persian kings during summer, 

 when the heat at Susa was almost insupportable. The city, according 

 to Polybius, was not only of vast strength but of extraordinary splen- 

 dour : the royal palace, in particular, was of the richest materials and 

 workmanship ; the only wood used in it was cedar and cypress, and 

 it was wholly covered with plates of gold and silver ; most of these 

 plates were, he says, carried off by the soldiers of Alexander, Anti- 

 gonus, and Seleucus. Ecbatana was the scene of the great events 

 which marked the childhood of Cyrus ; and it was at Ecbatana that 

 Alexander's favourite, Hephscstion, died ; and Alexander is said to have 

 destroyed the celebrated temple of jEsculapius there in grief for him. 



The site of Ecbatana has been a matter of dispute ; but the best 

 recent geographers have generally agreed in placing it on the site of 

 the modern Hamadau. The route of commerce between the low 

 country in the neighbourhood of the ancient Seleuceia and the modern 

 Baghdad and the high table-land of Iran is determined by the physical 

 character of the country, and has continued the same from the earliest 

 recorded history of those countries to the present day. The places 

 marked in the ' Itinerary ' of Isidore as lying between Seleuceia and 

 Ecbatana are the places indicated by modern travellers as lying on the 

 route between Baghdad and Hamadan. This question is fully dis- 

 cussed in No. 4 of the 'Journal of Education/ and in Thirl wall's 

 ' History of Greece,' v. ii., App. 2. 



Recently indeed a modification of the received view has been 

 advanced by Colonel Hawlinson, and supported by him with such a 

 well-digested array of evidence as to command respectful attention, 

 apart from the authority of his high reputation. He believes that 

 there were two independent Median capitals named Ecbatana ; the 

 one in the lower country (Media Magna), which occupied the site of 

 Hamadan ; the other in the mountainous country of Upper Media, or 

 Atropatene, the site of which is now marked by the ruins of Takht-i- 

 Solelman, in the province of Azerbaijan (36 25' N. lat., 47 10' 

 W. long.). This theory is shown to receive much corroboration from 

 various passages in ancient and mediaeval, as well as oriental writers, 

 and a careful examination of the country itself. We can here only 

 refer tl-e reader to the evidence so ably adduced in the ' Journal of the 

 Royal Geographical Society,' vol. x. p. 125, &c. The title merely 

 signified a treasure city, and the above two Median capitals were not 

 the only places which were called Ecbatana. (' Geographical Journal," 

 xi. 31.) It was in a city of the same name in Syria of uncertain 

 position (Herod, iii. 64) that Cambyses died. 



Hamadan, which is on ornearthe site of the Ecbatana of MediaMagna, 

 is near the parallel of 35 N. lat. and in 48 E. long., in a low plain 

 at the foot of Mount Elwund, a mountain which belongs to the chain 

 which forms the last step in the ascent from the lowlands of Irak Arabi 

 to the high table-land of Iran. [AsiA, voL i., col. 582.] "During eight 

 months in the year the climate of Hamadan is delightful; but in 

 winter the cold is excessive, and fuel with difficulty procured. The 

 plain is intersected by innumerable little streams, covered with 

 gardens and villages, and the vegetation is the most luxurious I ever 

 beheld." (Kinneir's 'Persia,' p. 126.) Kinneir says that the summit 

 of Elwund is tipped with continual snow, and seldom obscured by 

 clouds. Hamadan is said to contain about 10,000 inhabitants, a large 

 manufacture of leather, and also a considerable trade, owing to its 

 position on the high road from Baghdad to Tehran aud Ispahan. 



ECCLES. [LANCASHIRE.] 



