﻿KORDBERO. 



NORFOLK. 



looa 



pretty well built, but the streets are narrow, crooked, and irregular. 

 The town-hall, the theatre, the hospital, the church of St.-G^ry ; the 

 public library, which contains 18,000 volumes; and the academy of 

 painting, sculpture, and architecture, are among the most remarkable 

 buildings and establishments in the town. The befiroi, or clock-tower, 

 which was erected in 1237, fell down April 7th 1843. Valenciennes 

 has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a college, a custom- 

 house, an arsenal, large provision stores, and barracks. The principal 

 manufactures are lawn, lace, hosiery, toys, nails, oil, soap, colours, 

 pottery, &c. ; there are also cotton-printing factories, oil-mills, beet-root 

 sugar factories, dye-honses, bleach-works, tan-yards, and grain-distil- 

 lerieg. St-Amano-les-Eacx. Amin, a village of about 5000 inhabit- 

 ants, situated a mile N.W. from Valenciennes, of which it might be 

 called a suburb, is the centre of one of the best coal-fields in France. 

 Besides the works in the mines, there are at the surface several large 

 establishments, such as foundries, saw-mills, rope- walks, forges, timber- 

 yards, &C., for the construction of all the steam and other machinery 

 required in the mines. There are also naileries, chicory-mills, cast-iron 

 foundries, glass-works, salt-refineries, breweries, distillerie.?, and brick- 

 works. Bouchain stands in a strong position on the Escaut, 11 miles 

 S.W. from Valenciennes; it is fortified, and has 1400 inhabitants. 

 Condi-mr-C Eicaut, 8 miles N.E. from Valenciennes, is situated on the 

 Escaut, close upon the Belgian frontier, and has a population of 5103. 

 It is a well-built fortified town, and poneaees a handsome town-house 

 and an arsenitL The defences were conatmcted by Vauban : by means 

 of a sluice the town may be surrounded with water. Oil, salt, nails, 

 ropes, and leather are the chief inda^rial products ; boats are built ; 

 there are also chicory-mills, dye-houses, and bleach-works. Denain, 

 situated 5 miles by nulway W. from Valenciennes, in the centre of a 

 rich coal-field, on the left bank of the Escaut, has a population of 

 5144. This town has sprung up almost entirely since 1826, when the 

 population was only 900. The streets are straight and regular ; here 

 and there are iron-forges and smelting-fumaces, and shafts leading to 

 the mines with short railroads, by which the coals are conveyed to the 

 docks on the river bank. There is a good market in the town. Beet- 

 root sugar is manufactured. Denain is celebrated for the defeat of the 

 allies, under Lord Albemarle, by the French, under Uarahal de Villars, 

 July 23, 1712. A short way south of Condd is Prema, or Frinet-tur- 

 V Eicaut, which has glass-works, distilleries, breweries, steam flour-mills, 

 and 4109 inhabitants, many of whom are employed in the aereral coal- 

 mine* of the neighbourhood. 



7. The seventh arrondissement is named from its chief town, 

 Cajcbbai. Caleau-Cambrait, 15 miles S.E. from Cambrai, on the 

 right bank of the Selle, is a weU-built town, with a college and 7686 

 inhabitants. The town, which is famous for the treaty signed in it 

 between Philip 11. of Spain and Henri II. of France in 1559, takes its 

 name from the chAteau (corruptly pronounced cateau) built for its pro- 

 tection, and bora its position m Uie Cambresia or territory of Cambrai. 

 The former archbishop's palace (now converted into a cotton factory), 

 is the most imposing stmctore in the town. The manufactures are 

 shawls, merinos, lawn, calico, soap, woollen- and cotton-yam, beer, gin, 

 leather, and salt SoUtmei, famous for its Benedictine abbey, still 

 subsisting, stands 12 miles E. from Cambrai, and has 5295 inhabitants, 

 who manufactare lawn, gauze, merino, cotton-stufiit, beer, leather, soap, 

 kc The parish church is a lufga handsome structure, surmounted by 

 a spire above 200 feet high. Crivecotur, situated near the right bank 

 of the Escaut, and famous for the defeat of Chilperio IL by Charles 

 Hartel, March 21, 717 ; and Clary, S. by E. of Cambrai, are small 

 places of a little over 2000 inhabitants each. 



The department forms the see of the Archbishop of Cambrai. It is 

 incluiled in the jurisdiction of the High Court and within the limits 

 of the University- Academy of Douai ; and belongs to the 8th Military 

 Division, of which Lille is head-quarters. The department of Nord 

 returns 8 members to the Legislative Body of the French empire. 



(Dictumnaire de la France; Annuaire du Dfparttmmt dvt Nord ; 

 Arnmaire pour tAn 1853 ; OfficUU Papert.) 



NOBDBERO. [Alsen.] 



NORDEN. [Adwch.] 



NORDHAUSEN. [Krfurt.] 



NORDHEIM. [HiLDEsiiKiM.1 



NOBDLAND. [TBosDejEM.] 



NORDLINOEN. ISchlkbwio.I 



NORDSTRAND. rSoHLMWia] 



NORE. rTnAME8.J 



NORFOLK, a maritime oonnty of England, on the eastem coast, is 

 bounded 3. by Suffolk, from which it is separated by the Waveney 

 and the Little Ouae; W. by Cambridgeshire ; N.W. by Lincolnshire 

 and the Wash ; and on all other sides by the North Sea. Its greatest 

 length from Yarmouth to the neighbourhood of Wiabeach is 67 miles, 

 and its greatest breadth near 1° E. long, is 42 miles. The area is 

 2116 square miles, or 1,354,301 statute acres. The population in 1841 

 was 412,664; in 1861 it was 442,714. In area it U the fourth of 

 English counties, being exceeded only by Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, 

 and Devonshire. 



CoaMline, *«.— The Norfolk coast, extending from the sestuary of 

 the Yare to that of the Nen in Cross-Keys Wash, is above 90 miles 

 m length, and for the most part low, and liable to continual encroach- 

 ments from the sea. Between Happisburgh and Weyboume, a dis- 



tance of about 20 miles, are low cliffs called the Mud Cliffs, formed 

 chiefly of clay and masses of imbedded chalk. From the mouth of 

 the Yare to the commencement of the cliffs there is a low aaudy coast 

 skirted by saud-banks. The chauuel between these banks and the 

 shore is known as Yarmouth Roads, aud constitutes a safe anchorage, 

 in 10 to 13 fathoms water. In time of war this roadstead has been 

 the usual rendezvous of the North Sea fleet ; and at all times it is 

 frequented by the colliers in their way southward. West of the cliffs 

 a low sandy or shingly coast succeeds, extending to St. Edmund's Point, 

 at the entrance of the Wash. Alons this coast is a line of sand-hills. 

 The sands, by which Braucaster Bay in this part of the coast is 

 defended to seaward, render it tolerably safe anchorage, with a depth 

 in some parts of 16 or IS fathoms. At Hunstanton, near St. Edmund's 

 Point, are cliffs nearly 80 feet high. The Wash is an aistuary, having 

 extensive sand- and mud-banks dry at low water, with channels of 

 deeper water between them. The Oiise aud the Nen both flow into 

 it. The deeper water off the Norfolk coast is known as Lynn Deeps. 

 A considerable breadth of very fertile land has been rechiimed from 

 the sea by successive embankments in that part of Norfolk which lies 

 west of Lynn. One of the embankments, which is most inland and no 

 doubt very ancient, is called the Roman Bank ; it is many miles in 

 length, and extends a long way into the adjacent part of Lincolnshire. 

 The works of the Norfolk .lEstuary Improvement Company, noticed 

 under Ltnn, add a considerable breadth of land to this district. The 

 creeks and harbours on the Norfolk coast are — Yarmouth, Cley and 

 Blakeney, Wells, Burnham, Brancaater, Thornham, Heacham, Snet- 

 tisham, and Lynn. There are lighthouses at Winterton, 8 miles N. 

 from Yarmouth ; at Happisburgh, at Cromer, and at Hunstanton. 



Surface and Geological Character. — Norfolk contains no hills. The 

 rivers flow through valleys of varying breadth, skirted by low rising 

 grounds. The hiahest ground in the county is probably on the north- 

 west side, where the chalk downs appear, extending north and south 

 from near St. EMmund's Point to Castle Acre, between Lynn and 

 Swaffham, where they sink beneath the marshy valley of the Nar, 

 whence they again emerge and extend to Downham. This high ground 

 subsides gradually towards the east, where the chalk sinks under the 

 beds of diluvium (or alluvium, for our authorities are not agreed) 

 which overspread a large portion of this county and the adjacent 

 county of Suffolk ; but on the west, towards the shore of the Wash, 

 the chalk has a steeper escarpment. On this side the chalk-marl and 

 greensand crop out from beneath it ; and beds of similar character to 

 those of the Weald in the south-east part of England crop out from 

 beneath these formations. The western part of the county is included 

 in the great Fen district. The chalk has been found in many places, 

 in the eastern part of the county, beneath the diluvial beds. Near 

 Cromer large portions of it have been washed away by the sea, and 

 the point of Foulness near that town has evidently been the site of 

 a farther extension of the chalk towards the north-east ; aud some of 

 the shoals which render the navigation of this coast so dangerous are 

 formed of aggregated masses of ponderous chalk-flints. The diluvial 

 beds vary in character. In the eastern part they are of gravel, sand, 

 and clay, embodying in many places fragments of chalk, and con- 

 taining a substratum of fossil shells, several feet in thickness, called 

 * crag-pit shells.' Beds of gravel are found on the sides of the valleys 

 which intersect this district. At Norwich, and to the north aud 

 west of the city, thick beds of sand and gravel are found resting on 

 the chalk, with patches of alluvial clay and brick-earth interspersed. 

 In the western parts of the diluvial districts large blocks or boulders 

 of gray or greenish sandstone, distinguished by its peculiar fossils, 

 are found in pits of the clay or marl which rests upon the chalk. 

 This side of the county is however chiefly distinguished by sandy 

 beds. 



Chalk is dug for lime in many places ; excellent sand for glass- 

 making is procured between Snettiaham and Castle Rising ; potters'- 

 earth and good brick-earth are found ; marl is dug in the valley of 

 the Bure ; and the Fen districts of the west furnish peat for fuel and 

 manure. 



Hydrography ; Changea of the Coaii. — The principal streams flow 

 from the north-west part of the county. The Wensum rises at Wick- 

 end, 7 miles W. from Fakenham, and, after making a circuit past that 

 town, flows south-east in a winding channel 45 miles to Norwich, 2 

 miles below which it joins the Yare. The Yare rises at Shipdham, 

 between Watton and East Dereham, and flows east to join the Wensum 

 after a course of 25 miles. The stream formed by their united waters, 

 by some called Wensum, by others Yare, flows first south-east and 

 then north-east through Reedham Marsh, till it expands into a large 

 sheet of water called Breydon Water, 4 miles long and in some parts 

 1 mile broad, at the south-western extremity of which it receives the 

 Waveney, and at the north-eastern the Bure ; after rooeiviug these it 

 flows 3 miles southward into the German Ocean. From the source 

 of the Wensum, the real head, to the outfall of the river, is 74 miles. 



The Waveney rises at Lopham, between Thetford and Diss, and 

 flows first east and then north-east past Diss, Bimgay, and Beccles, to 

 its junction with the Yare, nearly 60 miles. The Bure rises in the 

 northern part of the county, at Melton Constable, between Foulsham 

 and Holt, and flows south-east past Aylsham 50 miles to ita junction 

 with the Yare. These rivers receive several small tributary streams. 

 In the lower port of their course the Yare, Waveney, and Bure flow 



