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MIDLETOIT. 



MILA.». 



810 



is held eTory Thnrsd«y. Fairs are held on April 6tli, Whit-Tucsday, 

 and October 29th. Midhurst is a borough by prescription, and pre- 

 vious to 1838 returned two members to Parliament. About a quarter 

 of a mile east of Midhurst, stood Cowdry House, the princely seat of 

 the Montagues, built in the reign of Henry VIII., and, except the 

 gate-house, destroyed by fire in 1793. 



MIDLETUIf, county uf Cork, Ireland, a post- and market-town, 

 ond the seat of a Poor-Law Union, is situated near the head of the 

 north-eastern branch of Cork Harbour, in 61° S5' N. lai, 8° 10' W. 

 long., 184 miles E. from Cork by road, and 173^ miles 8.W. by S. from 

 Dublin. The population in 1851 was 8676, besides 2334 inmates of 

 the workhouse. Midleton Poor-Law Union comprises 19 electoral 

 dimions, with an area of 109,266 aoras, and a population in 1851 of 

 44,059. 



Midleton consists mainly of a spaoions and well-built street between 

 the Aranaobora and Iloxborough rirers, terminating at each end in 

 a bridge. In the town are a neat parish church, a Roman Catholic 

 chapel and nunnery, a Free school, or college, founded in 1696, which 

 had 80 scholars in 1862, two National schools, a court-house, a market- 

 house, a bridewell, a fever hospital, and a district dispensary. There 

 •re also distilleries, breweries, oom-storcs, and flour-mills. Vessels of 

 SCO tons ascend to Baillick, within half a mile of Midleton ; and at 

 the port of Ballincurra, about a mile below the town, large shipments 

 are made of rom and other provisions. Quarter and petty sessions are 

 held in Midleton. Fairs are held on May Hth, July 6th, October 

 10th, and November 22nd. The town and neighbourhood are the 

 property of Viscount Midleton. 



MIUIKL, ST. [MKCBI.J 



MILA'N, a province of Austrian Italy, is bounded N. by the 

 province of Como, E. by that of Beraamo (from which it is divided 

 by the Adda), 3. by the province* of Lodi and Pavia, and W. by tho 

 licino, which separates it from the Sardinian territory. The province 

 of Milan is entirely in the great plain of Lombardy, and is watered 

 by the Lambro, the Olona, and other affluents of the Po. Numerous 

 canals, some for irrigation and others for navigation, communicate 

 with these various rivers; The soil is in most parU fertile, and the 

 country is well cultivated, full of large villages, farm-houses, and 

 country-houses; and the appearance of prosperity is general. The 

 chief products are com, rice, fruit, pasture, and silk. The area of the 

 province is 746 square miles; the papulation according to the official 

 return of 1850-1 was 604,512. The province is divided into 16 

 districts. The only town, besides Milan, is Maiua, 10 miles N.E. 

 from Milan, on the Lambro, with about 16,000 inhabitants, and a fine 

 old cathedral founded by the Longobard queen Tbeodelinda: it 

 contains several good paintings, and the portraits of all the sovereigns 

 who have worn the iron crown of Lombardy, from Agilulphus, the 

 husband of Theodelinda, to Charles V. The iron crown, so called 

 because it contains an iron rim which is said to be made of one of 

 the nails from our Saviour's cross, is kept in the cathedral of Honsa. 

 The arohivrs contain many valuable old documents, and some fine 

 manuscripts of the time of Pope Gregory the Great Monia has also 

 a handsome royal palace, with a vast park and gardens : it was the 

 capital of the Lombard kingdom. The neighbourhood of Milan con- 

 taLos many fine country reaidencea belonging to the Milanese nobility 

 and landed gentry. One of them, Moutebello, is memorable from 

 having been the head-quarters of Bonaparte after the campaign 

 of 1797, and during tho negotiations which nreesded the peace of 

 Campoformio. It was at Montabello that he oeoreed the deatruotiou 

 of the republic of Venice. The roads in the province of Milan are 

 Bameroua, wide, and kept in excellent repair. Tho province is 

 trkversad b^ railroads from Milan to Venice, and from MiUu to Como ; 

 the latter hne passes through Monxa, 



MILA'N, the capital of the Austrian crownland of Lombardy, 

 and of the province of Milan, is situated in 46° 28' 2' N. lat., 

 9* 11' 89' K. long., 160 miles by railway W. trom Venice, 80 miles 

 E. by N. in a straight line from Turin, and had 161,962 inhabitanta 

 in 1851. The city Is built in tho miilst of a vast pUin, between the 

 rivers Olona and Lambro, with which it oommunioates by a canal 

 oalled Naviglio Orande, which flows all round the oririnal old town. 

 This canal, and the Martasana and Pavia canals, put Milan in com- 

 monioation with the Lago Maggiore and the Lake of Como on one 

 ■ide^and with the Po on the other. The suburbs, which have been 

 gndilklly built outside of this boundary, and which occupy more 

 ^■o* than the original city, are inclosed and aurronnded by a line of 

 immparts, which is planted with trees, and serves as a promrnade. 

 Thia external drouit of the town is nearly 10 milea. Much of the 

 ipaoe however between the Naviglio and the ramparts is not built 

 gpoP; um) is occupied by gardens and fields. The widest and finest 

 ■traata of Milan are in the external part of the town, or suburbs : 

 thoe* which lead to the principal gatea are called Corso, and serve as 

 fashionable promenades. The Corso di Porta Orientate, which leads 

 to the Bergamo road, is the most freauented. The strveU of the old 

 town are moctly narrow and irregular. The duomo, or cathedral, 

 ■lands nearly in the centre of the town, and its lofty spire, which is 

 •esa ttom almost every part of it, serves ss a directing point to 

 Mrangera. This magnificent building, all of white stone, and dedicated 

 to the Virgin Mary, was begun by Giovanni Galeazzo Viaconti, duke 

 of Milan, in March, 1386. The exterior, with its 100 spires and its 



3000 statues of various sizes, looks like a forest of marble. The 

 style of arobitecture is a kind of flurid gotkic ; the front ia of a mixed 

 style. The interior is vast and impoaiug, and not lo:tiied with orna- 

 ments. There are 520 steps to uuceud, iu order to reach a gallery 

 which runs round the principal spire, from which there ia a moat 

 splendid view of the whole Lombard plahi, and of the uhuiu of the 

 Alps which borders it in the form of a cresceut ou the north side. 

 The churches of Milan abound with fine paintiugs : the famous Last 

 Supper, by Leonardo da Vinci, iu the rofeutory of the former convent 

 of Santa Maria della Urazie, though sadly iujured, ia not yet quite 

 obliterated. 



Milan is a gay, thriving, modern city : its markets are abundantly 

 supplied with every luxury, and the citizens are geuurally fond of 

 good living. Numerous cotl'ee-houses, spleuilid hotels, abundance of 

 handsome corrisges, elegantiy dreased pedestrians, several theatres well 

 supplied with acton and singers, — all attest tho habits of a luxiu-ious 

 capital. Milan has been styled " the little Paris;" and the appellation 

 is appropriate, for it resembles that capital rather thau the other 

 Italian cities. But Milan is also a centre of learuiug : it is thu place 

 of residence of several of the bc-tt Italian writers, and mure bouka are 

 published yearly at Milan than in nil the rest uf Italy. Th>] fine arts 

 are succeesfuUy cultivated at Milan, as the annual exhibition of the 

 works of living artists proves. The museum of Urera contains several 

 excellent paintings of the great masters ; among others the Agar of 

 Queroino, the Marriage of the Virgin by Haphael, and St. Peter aud 

 St. Paul by Quido. Tho Ambroaiim libntry is well kuown fur its 

 numerous and vaiuahlo mauuscripta, aud especially for its palimpsests, 

 derived from tho monastery of liobbio, and among which Mai discovered 

 the treatise ' De Republica ' of Cicero, fragments of several of his lust 

 orations, the lettera of Marcus Aurelius and Fronto, and other valuable 

 remains of ancient Uteratura. Tho library of Urera cuutains 100,000 

 volumes, and is open to tho public. Amuug tho private libraries, that 

 of tho marquis 'Trivulzio contains 30,000 printed vulumea nud 2000 

 manuscripts. 



Mdau abounds with charitable institutions. The great hospital, 

 one of the finest and largest in the world, has been richly endowed by 

 numerous benefactors, whose portraits are preserved within it. Four 

 houses of refuge for poor children an supported by public cuntribu- 

 tions. There an two huge workhouses for the unemployed puur, aud 

 a house of correction for criminals, who are employed iu useful labour. 

 Milan has a savings bank, an insui-onco company, a military college, a 

 veterinary school, a conservaturiu or school uf music, aud a school of 

 the fine arta. For general education, there are two Lyuea, three 

 gymnasia, a clerical seminary, and three cullcgts fur higher female 

 education. The elementary schools are numerous. [LoMiiAROO-VitNa- 

 TiAN KiNoooM.] The Society of Arts aud Sciences bestows annual 

 prizes for inventions relating to agriculture and manufactures. 



The manufactures of Milan an of some importance : thuy consist 

 chiefly of silks, printed cottons, plate-glass, jewellery, artificial tlowers, 

 braid, soap, and leather. 



Milan is an arohbiahop's see. It has a court of appeal, tribunals of 

 first instance^ and of oommeroe. The fortifications were greatly 

 strengthened, sad 14 detached forts erected round the town in 1850. 



The public gardens, the ramparts, the great parade, which occupies 

 the site of the old citadel, and the several avenues plantetl with trees 

 which lead from the gates iu various directions, aOurd pleosimt walks 

 and rides. The climate of Milan is hot in summer, but uccasiunally 

 cold and foggy iu winter : it is however considered healthy. 



The Cinso, or modem amphitheatre, built in tlie time ot tho Frouoh 

 dominion, for the exhibition of chariot and horse races, bull-fights, 

 and other gamea, is of an oval form. The arena, which ia about 

 800 feet in length, can be filled with water aud transformed into a 

 naumachia for boat-races. 



Amongst the palaces, some of which are of striking elegance aud 

 grandeur, may be named — the Palazzo Aroivescovile (' archiepisoopal 

 palace'), with its fafade of simple grandeur; the Palazzo Visoouti, 

 remariiable for the aeries of large busts on the pediments of thu prin- 

 cipal floor windows ; the Palazzo Annone, by Francesco Uichiui, iu a 

 rather peculiar yet majestic stylo ; the Palazzo Mariui, or Di Fiuauza, 

 the work of Ualeozzo Alessio, which, although impure iu taste and 

 too much crowde<l, is an exceedingly rich and picturesque as well as 

 extensive pile of buildings, whose principal I'ayade exhibits three 

 orders, a Doric, an Ionic (in |)ihu<tors), and one consisting uf fluted 

 termini, surmounted by masks ur busts fur their capitals. Among the 

 mora recent structures of this class is tho Palajuo Belgiuiusu, by 

 Giuseppe i'iermariui, the architect uf the Delia Soala theatre, the 

 Monte, or public bank, aud various uther edifloes ; the Villa Belgiuiuso, 

 by the arobitect Leopoldu PoUak ; and the Palaszo Belloni, the work 

 of tho celebrated Cagnola, who likewise erected the magnificent marble 

 triumphal aroh called the Arco della Face, Somewhat akin to tliis 

 last-mentioned structure are several of the arobes, or gateways, forming 

 the entrances into the city. Among these the most remarkable iu 

 point of design is the Porta Ticineuse, or Di Marengo, a classical 

 propyltDum of the Ionic order, presenting a double diatyle iu antis, 

 that is, one in each front, connected by lateral walls, each pieroed by 

 a single plain arch. This also was designed by Cagnola. Thu Porta 

 Nuuva, by the arohiteot Zanoja, is a very tostufuT design, and one 

 that shows ooQtiderable oritjinality. The Porta Orientalo again, with 



