S I E 
195 
S I E 
the duchy of Berg, on the river Sieg; 6 miles north-east of 
Bonn. .Population 1500. 
SIEGE, s. [siege, Fr.] The act of besetting a fortified 
place; a leaguer. 
Our castle’s strength 
Will laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lie, 
’Till famine eat them up. Shakspeare. 
Any continued endeavour to gain possession.—Give me 
so much of your time, in exchange of it, as to lay an amiable 
siege to the honesty of Ford’s wife. Shakspeare.—[Siege, 
French.] Seat; throne. 
Drawing to him the eyes of all around, 
From lofty siege began these words aloud to sound. 
Spenser. 
Place; class; rank. Obsolete. 
I fetch my life and being 
From men of royal siege. Shakspeare. 
[Siege, Fr.] Stool.—It entereth not the veins, but taketh 
leave of the permeant parts, as the mouths of the meseraicks, 
and accompanieth the inconvertible portion unto the siege. 
Brown. 
To SIEGE, v. a. To besiege. A word not used. 
SIEGEN, a small town of Prussian Westphalia, on the 
river Sieg, formerly the chief town of the principality of 
Nassau-Siegen. It contains 4000 inhabitants, with manu¬ 
factures of woollens, cotton, and leather. In the neigh¬ 
bourhood are some iron and copper foundries. The chief 
part of the principality of Nassau-Siegen was given to Prussia 
in 1815 ; 42 miles east of Bonn. 
SIEGENI, a small town in the island of Malta, contain¬ 
ing 2300 inhabitants. Pomegranates are raised in the neigh¬ 
bourhood in quantities. 
SIEGE-PIECES, in Coiuage, a division of modern coins, 
consisting of those that have been issued upon urgent 
necessity, during a siege, by any city or town. 
SIEGERSDORF, a neat village in Lower Austria, near 
Vienna, with linen manufactures. 
SIEGHARDS, a small town of Lower Austria; 6 miles 
east of Waidhofen, and 61 west-north-west of Vienna. Po¬ 
pulation 1508. 
SIEMIATYCE, a small town of Russian Poland; 7 miles 
south-south-west of Belez, and 51 south-by-west of Bialystok. 
Population 2800. Here is a college, or large central school, 
where a number of young men are educated gratis; also a cas¬ 
tle, with a collection of objects of natural history, formed by 
prince Jablonowski, but now belonging to the government. 
SIENIAWA, a small town of Austrian Poland, on the 
river San ; 20 miles south-east of Krzeszow. 
SIENITE, Granitelle of Saussure, in Geology, a rock 
nearly resembling granite, but composed of felspar and 
hornblende, and occasionally containing quartz and 
mica. 
SIENNA, Territorio di Sienna, or Siennese, a 
province of the grand duchy of Tuscany, bounded by the 
Florentine and the territory of Pisa. It is 62 miles in length, 
and of nearly an equal breadth; its superficial extent is 
about 3100 square miles. It is divided into two districts, 
called Upper and Lower; the former enjoying, from its ele¬ 
vation, a pure and healthy atmosphere, the latter marshy, 
and affected with the mat aria. This province contains 
level tracks of great fertility, and several of its mountains 
contain mineral products. Its population is estimated at 
190,000. 
• SIENNA, or Siena, an ancient and considerable city of 
Tuscany, the capital of the province of Sienna, situated in 
a pleasant and healthy district. Its population amounts to 
24,000. The approach to it from the southern road is 
through a fine avenue planted with trees, and affording, 
from a distance, a view of the town too favourable to be 
realized on entering it. Sienna being built on three emi¬ 
nences, the streets are extremely uneven, winding, and nar¬ 
row, so that the chief part of the town is impassable for 
carriages. The houses are in general of brick, and the 
streets are paved with the same materials. The only hand¬ 
some public square is that in which is the town-house, and 
which contains a beautiful fountain. The piazza here is one 
of the principal attractions for strangers: it is a large square, 
well laid out with walks, and planted with statues. In the 
evening, the time for walking in Italy, it may be called a 
miniature of Hyde Park. The esplanade is a tine shady 
avenue leading to the citadel, the ramparts of which, planted 
with trees, and laid out in the form of terraces, afford several 
interesting points of view. 
The cathedral of Sienna is a magnificent marble structure 
in the Gothic style, and accounted inferior to none in Italy, 
except St. Peter’s at Rome. Its nave is supported by rows 
of beautiful columns; its pavement is embellished with mo¬ 
saics, and with delineations of subjects in sacred history. 
Several of the chapels and altars of this stately edifice are 
deserving of attention, being decorated with beautiful paint¬ 
ings and statues. The town-house is a large building, also 
in the Gothic style, and surrounded with porticos. Adjoin¬ 
ing is the theatre, rebuilt since 1750. There are in Sienna 
several family mansions, or, as they are termed, palaces, but 
none of remarkable architecture. 
The manufactures of Sienna comprise woollen, leather, 
paper, and hats, but all on a small scale. Some traffic is- 
carried on in corn ; and the valuable marble of the environs 
might be made an object of export, did this part of the 
country possess water conveyance. This town is the seat 
of a university, founded so long ago as 1321, and still 
reckoning so many as 60 professors; but their charges are 
in a great measure nominal, and the seminary is of little 
repute. Here are several academies, among which those of 
physics and natural history have acquired some note from 
their published memoirs. The Siennese having compara¬ 
tively little trade, and reckoning among their number a large 
proportion of gentry and literati, lay claim to a reputation 
for politeness, and to a taste in learning -and the arts, in 
particular for speaking Italian with great purity. This town 
has, from first to last, supplied seven occupants of the papal 
chair, but it gave birth also to Socinius, the founder of a sect 
which may be considered almost deistical. 
Sienna lays claim to great antiquity, its origin being 
almost as ancient as that of Rome. It was long, however, 
a petty place. Augustus sent thither a colony, and Pliny 
mentions the town under the name of Colonia Senensis. Its 
prosperity, like that of Pisa, was greatest during the middle 
ages, when it enjoyed an extensive commerce, and is said 
to have been much more populous than at present. It long 
maintained itself as an independent republic; but intestine 
divisions favouring the designs of foreign powers, it became 
successively subject to French and Spanish invaders, and, 
in the latter part of the 16th century, was ceded along with 
its territory to Florence, by Philip II. of Spain. Since then 
it has had no separate government. It is the see of an 
archbishop, and is situated 30 miles south-by-east of Flo¬ 
rence. Lat. 43.22. N. long. 11.10. 15. E. 
SIENNE, a small river of France, in Normandy, which 
falls into the English channel near Havre. 
SIENNICA, a small town in the north-east of Poland; 
28 miles east-by-south of Warsaw 
SIENNO, a small town in the interior of Poland; 30 
miles north-by-west of Sendomir, and 25 south-by-east of 
Radom. 
SIEN-YEOU, a town of China, of the third rank, in 
Fokien. 
SIEOU, a city of China, of the second rank, in Kiang- 
nan. Lat. 33. 45. N. long. 117. 32. E. 
SIEOU-GIN, a town of China, of the third rank, in 
Quangsee. 
SlEOU-OU, a town of China, of the third rank, in 
Honan. 
SIEOU-YUEN-HOTUN, a port of Chinese Tartary. Lat. 
40. 18. N. long. 122. 51. E. 
SIERADZ, a small town in the west of Poland, on the 
Wartha; 
