i:rUK-KT-LOIR. 



EUROPE. 



which John 1 1., king of France, who was taken prisoner at the battle 

 of Poitien, obtained his liberty, and the cession of all the possession* 

 of the PUutagenet* in the north of France, with the exception of a 

 small territory round Calais. The chateau in which the treaty was 

 signed U now used as a barn. The plain on which the English army 

 was encamped was in memory of this peace immediately exempted 

 from tithes, and this exemption continued till the suppression of 

 tithe* at the first French revolution. Courriilf, on the slope of a 

 hill above the Eure, 11 miles by railway W. from Chartres, ha* a 

 population of 1547. Near it is the fine old castle of VUlebon, in 

 which Sully died in 1641. The chateau of Villebon which is built in 

 the castellated gothic style is one of the best preserved structures of 

 its age in France. Tho principal facade is broken into three divisions, 

 three lights high, by four massive but elegant round towers, crowned 

 by projecting crenellated parapet*. On the opposite front are three 

 aimilar towers. A wide wet ditch crossed by a drawbridge encircles 

 the building, some of the apartment* in which remain in the same 

 state a* when the Duke of Sully occupied them, d'atlanlo*, N.I'., of 

 Chartrea, has a large corn-market and a remarkably fine gothic church, 

 which date* from the 12th century: population, 1454. Of its old 

 fortifications (for it was strongly fortified, and occupied more than 

 once by the English in the first half of the 15th century) there 

 remain only a tower and a gateway. Illitri on the left bank of the 

 Lou-, has the remains of a fine old castle, and 2916 inhabitants, who 

 manufacture broadcloth, blankets, hosiery, leather, tiles, and bricks. 

 Jaitrillt, a small place near the Paris - Orleans railroad, has 1086 

 inhabitant*. Toury on the same railway has a population of 1250. 

 The keep of its old castle still remains. Maintenon, 12 miles by 

 railway N.E. from Chartres, is a well-built town at the junction of the 

 Voiae and the Eure, and is remarkable for its castellated residence, 

 originally built by Philippe Auguste, and afterwards rebuilt by 

 Louis XI. and Charles VIII. The castle was the residence of Madame 

 de Maintenon, Louis XIV.'s wife or mistress. Near it are seen the 

 ruins of the aqueduct commenced by Louis XIV. to bring the waters 

 of the Eure to Versailles. A great portion of the works were demo- 

 lished by Louis XV., who wanted the materials to build the castle of 

 Crecy near Dreux, for his mistress the Marchioness de Pompadour. 

 There are a well-preserved Roman camp and several Druidical monu- 

 ments near this town. The chateau of Maintenon belongs to the 

 De Noailles family, and is in a state of complete repair. Vortt, 12 miles 

 from Chartres, has 1283 inhabitants, who manufacture caps and gloves. 



2. In the second arrondissement the chief town, ClUltcau-Dun, 

 stands in 48 4' 11" N. Ut, 1 20' 20" K. long., on a hill above the 

 Loir, which flows in two arms through a narrow valley of great 

 beauty and fertility, shut in by hills which are covered with vines and 

 plantations. The town was almost entirely destroyed by fire in 1 723, 

 anil has been since rebuilt on a regular plan. The streets are all straight, 

 and abut in a spacious square on the summit of the hill, from which the 

 whole town can be seen. The castle, one of the towers of which 

 was built in 935 by Thiboult lo Tricheur, is a remarkable structure ; 

 from it there is a fine view of the town and the beautiful scenery of 

 the neighbourhood. ChAteau-Dun has 6680 inhabitants, a tribunal of 

 first instance, a college, public library, and some important manufac- 

 tures of blanket* and leather. Bannerol, a busy manufacturing town 

 with 2671 inhabitants, stands N.E. of Chateau-Dun. A little way out 

 of the town on the road to Chartres is seen the Chateau of Condreaux, 

 once the residence of Marshal Ney. There is a large dolman in a 

 prostrate condition a little east of the town. Srou, on the Ozanne, a 

 feeder of the Loir, has 2444 inhabitants, who manufacture linen, 

 serge, neves, tiles, and weaving gear. There are deep marl-pit* near 

 Brou. floyrt, south of Chateau-Dun on the Loir, has beet-root sugar 

 manufactories, and 2324 inhabitants. Near Cloyes is Courtalin, a 

 village in which market* are held hi Urge covered buildings. There 

 is hen a fine chateau belonging to the Montmoreucies, and built in 

 the 15th century. Orgira, a small place 16 miles E. from ChAteau- 

 Dun, give* name to a large forest in which there i* a vast quarry 

 that furnished stone to build the cathedral of Chartres. This quarry 

 became the retreat of a desperate band of robbers from 1797 to 1800. 



S. Of the third arrondiasement the chief town is Dreux, which has 

 been noticed in a separate article. [DRBDX.] Antt, in the north-east 

 of the department, and hi a neighbourhood rich in historical assocU- 

 0M, stands on tl,p rfRht bunk of the F.ure, and has 1409 inhabitants. 

 The castle and lordship of Anet, after paining through many noble 

 and royal band*, was given by Charles VII. to Pierre de Bn5z5 in 



149, to recompense him for his aid hi driving the English out of 

 Normandy. Louis de Brcz,:, Pierre's grandson, had for his second 

 wife Diane de Poiticn., who in her widowhood exercised so great an 

 influence over Henri II. In 1552, by Henri's orders, Philibert Delorme 

 built at Anet a chateau for Diane, which for iU imposing architecture, 

 richne of decoration, for pfctunsquenesi of site, and the elegance 

 and TtrMd beauty of it* grounds, was unequalled in France. This 

 caUUaUd mansion wa* demolish*! in the wild havoc of the first 

 French revolution. One win* ha* been watoitH ; the principal facade 

 was conveyed to Paris under the Consulate, and re-er^ted in the court 

 of the Palais des Beaux Arts. The beautiful monument r-f Diane de 

 , which was of black marble and surmounted by a SwSue of 

 1 beauty, had been disperse.) in fragment, among t 



Juke 



' ' 



ft celebrated beauty, had been dispersed in fragments among t 

 TilUgm, but WM restored by M. Lenolr, and transported by the DM 



of Orleans in 1816 to Dreux, where it is now deposited in the royal 

 dispel. (TiAltau-titirf, a well-built town in the Perche district, stand* 

 near a large forest S. W. of Dreux, and has 1 352 inhabitant*. Near to 

 it westward is l>ig*y. with a copulation of 1283. Perit- VidaiM, a 

 small place, dewrves mention for iU fine old castle and park, and for 

 iU mineral spring. fiogaU-U-Rn, S.8.E. of Druux, on the left bank 

 of the Eure, has 1336 inhabitants. Philippe de Valoi* died here in 

 1850. In the abbey-church of the abbey of Coulombs, which wa* 

 founded in 1028, and stood on the right bank of the river opposite 

 Nogent-le-Hoi, was formerly the monument of Jacques de Brew! and 

 Charlotte of France, the natural daughter of Charles VII. and Agnes 

 Sorel. Senonehft, situated at the edge of a Urge forest near the source 

 of the Blaise, has steam-engine factories, iron-foundries, and smelting 

 furnaces. The inhabitants number 1973, and trade in Umber, char- 

 coal, and lime. 



4. In the fourth arrondissement the chief town is Nogeni-lt-Rotrvu, 

 which takes its distinctive designation from Kotrou, a count of Perche. 

 It stands in the beautiful valley on the left bank of the Huisue, at 

 the foot of a steep hill, on the summit of which is an ancient gothic 

 castle, one of the residences of Sully. The town is in general well 

 built ; in the interior there is a square formed of good houses and 

 lined with fine trees, which inclose a largo space of greensward, and 

 afford an agreeable promenade. It has throe churchen, one of which 

 named St-Laureut dates from the llth century, three hospitals, a 

 tribunal of first instance, a college, a consultative chamber of manu- 

 factures, and 6929 inhabitant*, who manufacture serge, drugget, 

 cotton-yarn, and leather. There are dye-houses and fulling-mills, and 

 at the entrance of the town several mills are driven by the water* of 

 a cascade formed by the little river Arcise, a feeder of the Huiane. 

 The town trades also in linen, hump, clover-seed, hay, and straw. 

 Sully's tomb in the chapel of the HOtel-Dieu, on which there is a long 

 eulogistic inscription, escaped the fury of the first revolution, but hid 

 bones were torn out of their resting-place and dispersed. In 1428 

 the Earl of Salisbury seized upon Nogent-le-Uotrou, but the French 

 soon after recovered it, and threw a garrison into the castle for the 

 purpose of annoying the English army whilst laying siege to Orleans. 

 The Karl of Salisbury again appeared, stormed the town, hung thu 

 garrison, and burnt the castle. This castle was built in 1030 ; it had 

 five towers, one of which still remains. Autlion, & of Nogent, baa 

 1584 inhabitant*. La-Loupe, 15 miles by railway N.K. from Nogent, 

 has* population of 1161. Champ road, a small place E. of Nogent, 

 has iron-milieu, iron-works, and peat-beds : population about 1000. 



The department forma the see of the I3ishop of Chartres, is com- 

 prised in the jurisdiction of the High Court of Paris, and belongs to 

 the 1st Military Division, of which Paris is head-quarters. 



(1'ii-lionnaire de la Prance ; A nnvairt pour FAn 1S53.) 



KUKOl'K is one of the great division* of the globe, forming tins 

 north-western part of the Old Continent, of which it occupies a little 

 more than two-seventeenths ; Asia contains nearly uiue-seventeeuthH, 

 and Africa somewhat more than six-seventeenths. The surface of 

 Europe contains about 3,900,000 square miles. 



Europe is separated from America by the wide expanse of the 

 Northern Atlantic, which washe* its western and northern shores, and 

 from Africa by the Mediterranean Sea. The boundary-lino which 

 divides Europe from Asia u only in part indicated by nature. This 

 line runs through the Archipelago, the Strait of the Dardanelles, the 

 Sea of Marmara, and the Strait of Constantinople to the Block Sea, 

 which is traversed by it. In the last century the remaining part of 

 the line was drawn through the Strait of \ enikale and the Sea of 

 Azof, and then along the river Don as far as the point where it 

 approaches nearest to the river Volga, and afterwards along thi* river 

 to its confluence with the Kama, it then followed the Kama to its 

 sources in the Ural Mountains, and was continued along the crest 

 of this range to the source of the Kara, and thence along that 

 to the Gulf of Kara, This boundary-Hue i now abandoned as being 

 too vague, and another is substituted for it. The new line traverses 

 the Black Sea to the western extremity of Mount Caucasus, south of 

 Anapa ; it then runs along the watershed of this range east-south-cast 

 to it* eastern extremity, where it reaches the Caspian Sea at 

 gait, north of the peninsula of Absheran. Thence it runs through 

 the Caspian Sen, which it leaves at the mouth of the river Ural, whose 

 course it follows up to it* sources in the Ural Mountains. Tho 

 Ural Mountains and the river Kara constitute the remainder of this 

 boundary-line. 



The most northern point of the European continent is Cap 

 Kvn. in 71 G' N. Ut ; North Cape, in 71 10* N. Ut, i* on an island 

 called Magcrue. The most southern point* are Punu <lu Tarifa in 

 Spain (36" N. Ut), and Cape Matapan (36 17' N. Ut) in Greece. The 

 most western points are Cane St Vincent (9 W. long.), Cape Koca 

 (9 28' W. long.), and Cape Finisterre (9" 27' W. long.). The most 

 eastern point is hi the Ural Mountains, west of Kkatarinburg 

 (60 20' K. long.). But some of the islands extend farther south and 

 west than the continent. The most southern point of the inland of 

 ( '.in. lin is 34 55' N. lat The Blasket islands on the west of Ireland 

 !!> in 10' 5' W. long. Cape Fugleberg in Iceland is near 25' W. long., 

 .mil (lie most western of the Azores, Corvo and Floras, 31 W. long. 

 The most northern extremity of Nowaya Szcmlia is about 77 N. lat 

 A. straight lino drawn from Cape St. Vincent to the mouth of the 



