C I R 
"bridge. Tradition fays the river formerly fan through 
the town. The Stroudwater navigation has communica¬ 
tion with this town, from wliich great advantage cannot 
but arife. It had alio three parifti-churches, though now 
but one, a large and beautiful ftru&ure, fupported by two 
rows of pillars ; whofe tower is forty-four yards high, 
wherein are twelve bells and chimes. The chapels, of 
which there are five, have i'otne good monuments, and 
thofe of St.Mary and St. John fione roofs. The windows, 
now mutilated, were formerly of painted glafs. The altar 
is without baluftrades, but paved with black and white 
marble. It has a done pulpit and two fonts, one modern 
of marble, and an old one of itone on a pillar. St. Law¬ 
rence’s church is now converted into dwelling-houfes.. 
The fouth porch of St. John’s church is a fine Gothic ftruc- 
ture, thirty-eight feet broad and fifty high. Over this porch 
is the town-hall. This town has its name from the river 
Churn, that paftes by it towards the Thames, and the 
word cejlre, i. e. caftle, it having been fortified by the 
Romans, who eftabliftied here a military ftation of the fir ft 
importance, and made it the metropolis of the province 
of the Dobu'ni, whence it became the Corinium of Ptolemy,, 
and the Durocornoniium of Antoninus. Henry III. took 
its caftle from the barons, and demoliflied it. Henry IV. 
gave it a charter and feveral privileges ; and queen Eliza¬ 
beth gave them another, by which it was incorporated, 
with a fteward and bailiff, but is now governed by two 
high con (tables, and fourteen wardfmen over the feven 
wards, appointed annually at the court-leet. It is ob- 
ferved, that in this town the firlt aCt of rebellion was 
committed in 164.1, and that here was the-firft blood fhed 
at the memorable revolution in 1668. The foundation of 
the old wall is vifible in many places, and on examination, 
in 1774.* was found to be eight feet thick, built with hewn 
ftone. Antiquities, efpecially Roman, are dug up here 
every day, as was affine Mofaic pavement, particularly in 
a trail of ground, now converted into a garden, &c. called 
the Leaufes, where great quantities of ancient carvings and 
infcriptions are dug up. A Roman building, fupported 
by brick pillars three feet and a half high, was difcovered 
near this fipot in 1723, and feveral fepulchral ftones, fome 
with, fome without, infcriptions. In 1780 the ground 
was opened, - and a building that had extended upwards 
of forty-three feet was explored : it confided 'of three 
floors, fupported by pillars, and evidently appeared to 
have been the remains of hypocaufts, or fubterraneous 
ovens. The coins found were chiefly of Antoninus, Dio- 
clefian, and Conftantine. There is a piece of ground on 
the fouth-weft of the town, juft without the city-wall, 
called the Querns, full of large heaps of ftones, but now 
covered with herbage, within which is a plat called the 
Bull-ring, which very probably was a Roman theatre. 
Here are feveral hofpitals and alms-houfes, befides a cha- 
rity-fciiool for twenty boys, who are clothed in yellow, 
and taught to make dockings; and another for twenty 
girls, who are put out apprentices. And a legacy of 80I. 
has been left by an old tailor, to be lent to young tradef- 
men, for two years, without intereft, to fet them up, upon 
giving good and fufficient fecurity to repay the principal. 
Cirencefter has lent two members to parliament ever 
fince A. D. 1568. Here are two good weekly markets on 
Monday and Friday j. and three annual fairs, viz. Eafter- 
Tuefday, July 18, and November 8. The town is diftant 
from Briftol thirty-fix miles, Bath thirty-three, Oxford 
thirty-four, Gloucefter feventeen, Cheltenham fourteen, 
and London ninety. 
Adjoining the town is the noble manfion and beautiful 
and extenfive plantations called Oakley-park, the feat of 
earl Bathurft. Not far from which is Badmington, the 
feat of his grace the duke of Beaufort. This magnificent 
manfion (lands almoft in the center of a large traCl of 
ground, incloled by a wall near ten miles in circumfe¬ 
rence, within which are feveral diftinCt parts for red and 
fallow deer; in thefe parks are many large beautiful plan¬ 
tations of firs and forefl trees. The grand approach is 
1 
CIS 615 
through the park, from "VVorcefter-lodge, which Is a fine 
lofty Iree-ftcne building, with iron gates : this (lands at 
the diftance of two 'miles and three quarters from tjic 
houfe, by the road to Cirencefter. Here is a fine collec¬ 
tion of paintings, done by lome of the mod eminent of 
the old mailers ; alfo feveral curious antiques. The li¬ 
brary is very noble, and contains a vaft number of valu¬ 
able books. The.parifh church adjoins the manfion-hoilfe, 
and was lately re-built at the duke’s expence. It is a very 
handfome ftru&ure ; the infide light and airy ; the wood¬ 
work of Dutch oak, highly varnifhed with copal; the 
altar is richly decorated; and upon the pavement, within 
the rails, are the arms-of Beaufort, with lupporters, &c. 
done in Mofaic, compofed of lapis lazuli and other cu¬ 
rious forts of-marble. The altar-piece is a mallerly paint¬ 
ing, reprefenting Chrift difputing with the doCtors ; here 
are alfo two fuperb marble monuments, one ereCted to the 
memory of the late duke, and the other to his father, 
executed by the bed fculptors in Italy. 
CIREN'Z A, a town of Italy, in the kingdom of Naples, 
and province of Calabria Ultra: twelve miles north of 
Girace. 
CIREN'ZA, city of; fee Acerenza. 
CI'REV, a town of France, in the department of the 
the Meurte, and chief 1 place of a canton, in the diftrifl of 
Blamont: three miles eaftTof Blamont. 
CI'RIE, a town of Italy, and capital of a marquifate, 
in the principality of Piedmont, which comprehends 
likewife the towns of St. Maurice, Nolli, and Robafome, 
fituated near the foot-of the Grecian Alps, on the Doria. 
It contains three parifh churches, and feveral religious- 
houfes. In 1705, it was taken by the French, under the 
duke of Feuillade. It is eight miles north-north-weft of 
Turin. 
CIRK'NITZ, a town of Carniola, fituated on a lake 
furrounded with deep and rude mountains of the fame 
name: fourteen miles fouth-fouth-weft oFLaybach, and 
168 (outh-fouth-weft of Vienna. 
CIROFER'RI, an excellent Italian painter and archi¬ 
tect, born at Rome in 1614,. and the difciple of Peter de 
Cortona, whofe dellgns he imitated with fuch exaftnefs, 
that it is difficult to diftinguilh them. He was effeemed 
by pope Alexander VII. and his three fucceflors, and 
died at Rome in 1689. 
CIR'RI, /. in ichthyology, certain oblong and foft ap¬ 
pendages, hanging from the under jaws or mouths of fome 
fifties: thefe cirri, commonly tranftated beards, afford 
marks to diftinguiftt the different fpecies of the fifties on 
which they are found. 
CIRRI'GEROUS, [ cirriger, of cirrus, a lock, and 
gero, Lat. to bear.] Bearing curled locks or crelts of 
feathers. 
CIR'RUS, or Cjrr bus, f. [from y.tpcic, a horn.] In bo¬ 
tany, a clafper or tendril; that fine (piral firing or fibre 
put out from the footllalks, by which fome plants, as the 
ivy, vine, See. fallen themfelves to walls, pales, or trees, 
for fupport. The term is fynonymous to the capreoius, 
clavicula, and viticulus, of other botanills ; and is ranked 
by Linnaeus among the fulcra, or parts of plants that lerve 
for protection, fupport, and defence. 
CIR/SION, f. m botany. See CardiIus. 
CIR'SIUM, /. in botany. See Arctium, Carduus, 
and Cnicum. 
CIRSOCE'LE,/. [from sopero?, a varix, and ir,M, a 
tumour.] A difeafe confiding in a varicoie ftate of the 
(permatic veflels. 
CIR'TA, in. ancient geography, a metropolis and royal 
refidence, not far from the river Ampl’aga, in Numidia 
Propria. A colony furnamed Colonia Sittianorum, very 
rich, when in the hands of Syphax. The colony was led 
by P. Sittius, under the aufpices of Casfar, and was fur- 
named Julia. Now called Co?iJlantina, in Algiers, 
CISAL'PINE, f. Any thing on this fide the Alps. 
The Romans divided Gaul and the country called Lom¬ 
bardy, into Cilalpine and Tranialpine. That which was 
Ciialpine 
