MIDDELBURG 



5394 



MIDDLESBROUGH 



Constantinople by the Turks, 1453. 

 or the discovery of America by 

 Columbus, 1492. The essential 

 facts are that early in the fifth 

 century the old Roman civiliza- 

 tion of Western Europe was sub- 

 merged by the barbarian flood of 

 Teutonic invasion; a new civiliza- 

 tion gradually emerged in a new 

 Europe ; and then the new Europe 

 awoke gradually to fresh intellec- 

 tual ideas, and suddenly to the 

 existence of a whole new world 

 outside itself. 



The Middle Ages again fell into 

 two main periods, roughly known 

 as the Dark Ages and the Age of 



and lurniture and 

 tobacco making. 

 The town con- 

 tains many old 

 houses, and is en- 

 circled by a strip 

 of water known 

 as the Vest. The 

 Gothic Stadhuis, 

 with a tower 180 

 ft. high, dates 

 from the early 

 16th century and 

 has a striking 

 facade, with nu- 

 merous statues of the counts of 

 Holland. The abbey of S. Nicho- 

 las, founded hi 1106, and once 

 a Premonstratensian house, is 

 used for administrative purposes, 

 has cloisters of the 16th century, 

 and contains interesting tapestries. 

 The new church, formerly the 

 abbey church, has a lofty tower, 

 rebuilt 1718, with fine carillon. In 

 the Middle Ages Middelburg was a 

 cloth centre. Pop. 19,500. 



Middelburg. Town in the 

 Transvaal, S. Africa. It is 95 m. 

 by r!y. E. of Pretoria. Near by 

 are extensive coal-mines. It is a 

 growing trading centre with rly. 

 connexion to Pretoria, Johannes- 

 burg, and Louren9O Marques. 

 Middelburg district is a large area 

 bounded N.W. by the Olifants 

 River. Pop. 4,100. There is an- 

 other Middelburg, a town in Cape 

 Province, 91m. from Graaf Reinet. 



Middle Ages OR MEDIEVAL 

 PERIOD. Name given to the ten ot 

 eleven centuries beginning with 

 the 5th of our era, and ending with 

 the 15th the centuries interven- 

 ing between what are called 

 Ancient and Modern times. Defi- 

 nite dates for the beginning and 

 the end of the Middle Ages can 

 only be assigned arbitrarily ; those 

 most in favour are the sack of 

 Rome by Alaric the Goth, 410, or 

 the deposition of the last Roman 

 emperor in Italy, Romulus Au- 

 gustulus, 476, and the capture of 



Middelburg, Holland. Town Hall and market square. 

 Top, left, the Oost Kerk, one of the principal churches 



Chivalry, separated by the epoch 

 of the Norman expansion hi the 

 second half of the llth century and 

 the opening of the prolonged con- 

 test between the empire and the 

 papacy. Some writers restrict the 

 term Middle Ages to the Age of 

 chivalry. See Feudalism ; History. 



Middleboro. Town of Mas- 

 sachusetts, U.S.A., in Plymouth 

 co. It is a summer resort on the 

 Nemasket river, 34 m. S. of Boston 

 by the New York, New Haven and 

 Hartford rly. Middleboro was 

 settled in 1662 and incorporated 

 seven years later. Pop. 8,800. 



Middle Congo OR MOYEN CONGO. 

 Administrative dist. of the Belgian 

 Congo, Africa. The Inkisi, Kwango, 

 Kasai, and Congo constitute the 

 greater portion of its boundaries ; 

 in the S.W. it is - 

 crossed by the rly. 

 from Kinshasa 

 through Madimba 

 towards Matadi. 

 See Congo, Bel- 

 gian. 



Middleman, 

 THE. Drama by 

 H. A. Jones. It 

 was produced 

 Aug. 27, 1889, at 

 the Shaftesbury 

 Theatre, London, 

 where it ran for 

 182 perform- 

 ances. The story ^ddlesbroug 



mosity of Cyrus Blenkarn, an 

 elderly potter, against Joseph 

 Chandler, the employer, who has 

 fattened on his inventions, and 

 whose son has eloped with Blen- 

 karn's daughter, Mary. E. S. Willard 

 played Blenkarn, William Mackin- 

 tosh, Chandler, and Maude Millett, 

 Mary Blenkarn. See Acting. 



Middlemarch. Novel by 

 George Eliot, originally published 

 in eight parts, 1871-72, with the 

 sub-title, A Study of English Pro- 

 vincial Life. It is a story mainly 

 of a modern S. Theresa, Dorothea 

 Brooke, who first, from zeal rather 

 than love, marries the stiff, 

 scholarly, middle-aged egoist, 

 Casaubon, and later his cousin and 

 opposite, Will Ladislaw. Other 

 romances are interwoven with hers. 



Middlemass, MARY JAKE (1834 

 -1919). British writer. Better 

 known as Jean Middlemass and 

 one of the most prolific writers of 

 wholesome stories in the last quar- 

 ter of the 19th century, all her 

 novels convey a distinct moral les- 

 son. Her most popular works in- 

 clude Touch and Go, 1877 ; Inno- 

 cence at Play, 1880 ; A Girl in a 

 Thousand, 1885 ; A Woman's Cal- 

 vary, 1903; At the Altar Steps, 

 1910. She died Nov. 5, 1919. 



Middlesbrough. County and 

 mun. borough, seaport and market 

 town of Yorkshire (N.R.). It 

 stands on the S. side of the Tees 

 estuary, 3 m. from Stockton and 

 238 from London, being served by 

 the N.E. Rly. The chief buildings 

 are those erected for municipal 

 purposes, including the town hall 

 and free library, the royal ex- 

 change, Dorman museum, and 

 Roman Catholic cathedral. Albert 

 Park was the gift of H. W. F. 

 Bolckow, the first M.P. for the 

 borough. The commercial centre 

 of the ironstone mines of the 

 Cleveland district, Middlesbrough 

 has foundries, furnaces, and other 

 works for the production of iron 

 and steel on an enormous scale. 

 Engines, boilers, and other kinds 

 of iron and steel goods, chemicals. 



relates the ani- 



porter bridge in the background 



docks wita the trans- 



