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# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Saxifrage

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​SAXIFRAGE (Saxifraga), a genus of plants which gives its name to the order of which it is a member. There are nearly 200 species distributed in the temperate and arctic parts of the northern hemisphere, frequently at considerable heights on the mountains, and also found on the Andes. They are mostly herbs with perennial rootstocks and leaves in tufts or scattered on the flower-stalks. The arrangement of the flowers is very various, as also are the size and colour of the flowers themselves. They have a flat or more or less cup-shaped receptacle, from the margin of which spring five sepals, five petals and ten (or rarely five) stamens. The pistil is often partly adherent to the receptacle, and is divided above into two styles; the ovules are numerous, attached to axile placentas; and the seed-vessel is capsular. Fifteen species are natives of Britain, some alpine plants of great beauty (S. oppositifolia, S. nivalis, S. aizoides, &c.), and others, like S. granulata, frequenting meadows and low ground, while S. tridactylites may be found on almost any dry wall. S. umbrosa is London Pride or St Patrick's Cabbage, a common garden plant, a native of the Spanish Peninsula and also of the mountains of W. and S.W. Ireland. Many species are in cultivation, including the Bergenias or Megaseas with their large fleshy leaves and copious panicles of rosy or pink flowers, the numerous alpine species, such as S. pyramidalis, S. cotyledon, &c., with tall panicles studded with white flowers, and many others, most of them adapted for rockwork.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Say

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​ SAY, a town on the right bank of the river Niger in 13° 4' N. and 2° 30' E., in the French colony of Upper Senegal and Niger. In the agreement of 1890 between Great Britain and France for the delimitation of their respective spheres of influence in West Africa, Say was taken as the western end of an imaginary line which ran eastward to Banna on Lake Chad. To the north the “light soil” of the Sahara — a phrase used by Lord Salisbury in explaining the nature of the agreement in the House of Lords — was recognized as French; to the south the Sokoto empire (northern Nigeria) fell to Great Britain. By the convention of 1898 Say, however, and a considerable tract of territory south and east of the town were ceded to France. (See Africa, § 5.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Saxifragaceae

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​SAXIFRAGACEAE, in botany, a small natural order of Dicotyledons belonging to the sub-class Polypetalae and containing 27 genera with about 350 species distributed through the Arctic and north temperate zone, often alpine. It is represented in Britain by its largest genus Saxifrage (q.v.), Chrysosplenium (golden saxifrage) and Parnassia (grass of Parnassus). The plants are herbs, generally with scattered exstipulate leaves with a broad leaf-base. The small flowers are generally arranged in cymose inflorescences and are bisexual, regular and hypogynous, perigynous or more frequently more or less epigynous, this variation in the relative position of the ovary occurring in one and the same genus Saxifraga (fig. 1). The flowers are 5-merous, more rarely 4-merous, having 5 (or 4) sepals, 5 (or 4) free petals, two 5- or 4-merous whorls of free stamens which are obdiplostemonous, i.e. those of the outer whorl are opposite to the petals, and two carpels (see fig. 2). The carpels are sometimes free, more generally united at the base, or sometimes completely joined to form a one- or two-chambered ovary with two free styles. The fruit is a many-seeded capsule.
* Fig. 1. — Saxifraga umbrosa, London Pride, about half natural size, 1, Flower enlarged. 2, Vertical section of ovary with sepals, more enlarged.
* Fig. 2. — Diagram of a saxifrage (Saxifraga tridactylites). The calyx and corolla each consist of five parts, there are ten stamens in two series, and a pistil of two carpels.
More than half the species (200) are contained in the genus Saxifrage (q.v.). Chrysosplenium, with 39 species, two of which are British, ​has a very similar distribution. The North American genus Heuchera has sometimes apetalous flowers. Astilbe has 6 species in temperate Asia and north-eastern North America; A. japonica is commonly grown in the spring as a pot-plant, and often misnamed Spiraea.
The order is frequently much extended to include other groups of genera differing in habit and more or less in general conformation from those to which the order is here confined, and which are then regarded as forming one of several tribes. Among these is the order Ribesiaceae, comprising one single genus Ribes, to which belong the gooseberry (R. Grossularia) and currants of gardens. These are shrubs with racemes of flowers which have only one whorl of stamens (isostemonous), an inferior unilocular ovary with two parietal placentas, and fruit a berry. Another is the Hydrangeaceae, to which belong Hydrangea (q.v.), Deutzia and Philadelphus, all well known garden plants; P. coronarius is the so-called Syringa or mock-orange. They are shrubs or trees with simple generally opposite leaves, 5-merous flowers with epigynous stamens and a 3- to 5-locular ova .
Escallonia, which represents a small group of genera with leathery gland-dotted leaves, is also often included.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Montefrio

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​MONTEFRIO, a town of southern Spain, in the province of Granada, on the river Bilano. Pop. (1900), 10,725. Montefrio is largely Moorish in character, and dominated by a Moorish castle. Being built midway between the Sierra de Priego and Sierra Parapanda, and commanding the open valley between these ranges, it became one of the chief frontier fortresses of the Moors in the 15th century. Its industries include manufactures of cotton stuffs, alcohol and soap.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Monteil, Amans Alexis

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​MONTEIL, AMANS ALEXIS (1769–1850), French historian, was born at Rodez in 1769, and died at Cely (Seine-et-Marne) in 1850. His tastes were historical, and he taught history at Rodez, at Fontainebleau and at St Cyr. He held that a disproportionate importance had been given to kings, their ministers and generals, and that it was necessary rather to study the people. In his Histoire des français des divers états, ou histoire de France aux cinq derniers siècles (10 vols., 1828–1844) he undertook to describe the different classes and occupations of the community. For this he made a collection of manuscripts, which he sold in 1835 (many of them passed into the library of Sir Thomas Philipps), drawing up a catalogue under the singular title of Traité de matériaux manuscrits de divers genres d’histoire. He boasted of having been the first to write really “national” history, and he wished further to show this in a memoir entitled L’Influence de l’histoire des divers états, ou comment fût allée la France si elle eût eu cette histoire (1840; reprinted in 1841 under ​the title: Les Français pour la première fois dans l’histoire de France, ou poétique de l’histoire des divers états). Monteil did not invent the history of civilization, but he was one of the first in France, and perhaps in Europe, to point out its extreme importance. He revised the third edition of his history himself (5 vols., 1848); a fourth appeared after his death with a preface by Jules Janin (5 vols., 1853).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Montemayor, Jorge

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​MONTEMAYOR (or Montemôr), JORGE (1520?–1561), Spanish novelist and poet, of Portuguese descent, was born about 1520 at Montemôr o Velho (near Coimbra), whence he derived his name, the Spanish form of which is Montemayor. He seems to have studied music in his youth, and to have gone to Spain in 1543 as chorister in the suite of the Portuguese Infanta Maria, first wife of Philip II. In 1552 he went back to Portugal in the suite of the Infanta Juana, wife of D. João, and on the death of this prince in 1554 returned to Spain. He is said to have served in the army, to have accompanied Philip II. to England in 1555, and to have travelled in Italy and the Low Countries; but it is certain that his poetical works were published at Antwerp in 1554, and again in 1558. His reputation is based on a prose work, the Diana, a pastoral romance published about 1559. Shortly afterwards Montemayor was killed in Piedmont, apparently in a love affair; a late edition of the Diana gives the exact date of his death as the 26th of February 1561. The Diana is generally stated to have been printed at Valencia in 1542; but, as the Canto de Orfeo refers to the widowhood of the Infanta Juana in 1554, the book must be of later date. It is important as the first pastoral novel published in Spain; as the starting-point of a universal literary fashion; and as the indirect source, through the translation included in Googe’s Eglogs, epytaphes and sonnets (1563), of an episode in the Two Gentlemen of Verona. Though Portuguese was Montemayor’s native language, he only used it for two songs and a short prose passage in the sixth book of the Diana. His mastery of Spanish is amazing, and even Cervantes, who judges the verses in the Diana with unaccustomed severity, recognizes the remarkable merit of Montemayor’s prose style. That he pleased his own generation is proved by the seventeen editions and two continuations of the Diana published in the 16th century, by parodies, imitations and renderings in French and English.
Bibliography.—G. Schönherr, Jorge de Montemayor, sein Leben und sein Schäfroman (Halle, 1886); D. García Peres, Catalogo razonado biográfico y bibliográfico de los autores portugueses que escribieron en castellano (Madrid, 1890); Hugo A. Rennert, The Spanish Pastoral Novel (Baltimore, 1892); J. Fitzmaurice-Kelly, “The Bibliography of the Diana” in the Revue hispanique (1895); R. Tobler, “Shakespeare’s Sommernachtstraum und Montemayor’s Diana" in the Jahrbuch der deutschen Shakespeare-Gesellschaft (1898); M. Menéndez y Pelayo, Orígenes de la novela (Madrid, 1905).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Monteith

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​MONTEITH, the name given to a large bowl, often made of silver, with a movable rim and scalloped edges, from which wine glasses, punch ladle, &c., could be hung, so that they might be cooled in the water with which it was filled. According to Anthony Wood (Life and Times, iii. 84, quoted in the New English Dictionary) the name was given to the bowl from a “fantastical Scot . . . Monsieur Monteigh who . . . wore the bottome of his cloake or coate so notched,” i.e. scalloped.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Montefalco

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​MONTEFALCO, a town of the province of Perugia, Italy, 6 m. S.W. of Foligno, situated on a hill, 1550 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901), 3397 (town); 5726 (commune). Its churches contain a number of pictures of the Umbrian school; S. Francesco has good frescoes (scenes from the life of S. Francis) of 1452, by Benozzo Gozzoli, in the choir. There is also a communal picture-gallery in the picturesque Palezzo Comunale.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Montefiascone

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​MONTEFIASCONE, a town and episcopal see of the province of Rome, Italy, built on a hill (2077 ft.) on the S.E. side of the Lake of Bolsena, 70 m. by rail N.W. of Rome. Pop. (1901), 3041 (town); 9731 (commune). The cathedral (1519) is one of the earliest structures by Sammicheli, S. Maria della Grazie is also by him. The town has in San Flaviano (built in 1032, repaired and enlarged in the Gothic style late in the 14th century), a curious double church of importance in the history of architecture (cf. G. T. Rivoira, Origini dell’ architettura lombarda, i. 326 sqq.); in its interior some 14th-century frescoes were discovered in 1896. In the crypt is the grave of a traveller, who succumbed to excessive drinking of the local wine known as Est, est, est. The story is that his valet who preceded him wrote “est” on the doors of all the inns where good wine was to be had, and that here the inscription was thrice repeated. It is possible that Montefiascone occupies the site of the Fanum Voltumnae, at which the representatives of the twelve chief cities of Etruria met in the days of their independence; while under the Empire the festival was held near Volsinii.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Monteleone Calabro

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​MONTELEONE CALABRO, a city of Calabria, Italy, in the province of Catanzaro, beautifully situated on an eminence gently sloping towards the Gulf of Sta Eufemia, 1575 ft. above sea-level, 70 m. N.N.E. of Reggio di Calabria by rail. Pop. (1901), 10,066 (town); 13,481 (commune). It was almost totally destroyed by earthquake in 1783, but under the French occupation it was rebuilt and made the capital of a province. It suffered, however, considerably in the earthquake of 1905. The castle was built by Frederick II. The principal church contains some sculptures by the Gagini of Palermo.
Monteleone is identical with the ancient Hipponium, said to be a Locrian colony and first mentioned in 388 B.C., when its inhabitants were removed to Syracuse by Dionysius. Restored by the Carthaginians (379), occupied by the Bruttii (356), held for a time by Agathocles of Syracuse (294), and afterwards again occupied by the Bruttii, Hipponium ultimately became as Vibo Valentia a flourishing Roman colony, founded in 239 or 192 B.C. It was important as the point where a branch from Scolacium (Squillace) on the east coast road joined the Via Popillia. The harbour established by Agathocles proved of great service as a naval station to Caesar and Octavian in their wars with Pompeius Magnus and Sextus Pompeius, and remains of its massive masonry still exist at the village of Bivona on the coast, while the fort occupies the site of a temple. Its tunny-fish were famous. In the town itself there are remains of a theatre, of Roman baths (?), a mosaic pavement in the church of St Leoluca (patron saint of Monteleone), and some Latin inscriptions. The town walls too of the Greek city can be traced for their whole extent, about 4 m. They are well constructed of regular parallelograms of a sandy tufa, laid in headers and stretchers. The Roman town occupied only a part of the Greek site, the portion occupied by the modern town, the streets of which still preserve the Roman arrangement. It was supplied with water by an aqueduct, the reservoir of which is situated at the village of Papaglionti. The Capialbi and Cordopatri families have private collections of antiquities.
See V. Capialbi in Mem. Inst. (Rome, 1832), pp. 159 sqq.; F. Lenormant, La Grande-Gréce (Paris, 1882), iii. 155 sqq.  (T. As.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Stade

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​STADE, a town of Germany in the Prussian province of Hanover, situated on the navigable Schwinge, 35 m. above its confluence with the Elbe, 20 m. N.W. of Hamburg on the railway to Cuxhaven. Pop. (1905), 10,837. It carries on a number of small manufactures and has some shipping trade, chiefly with Hamburg, but the rise of Harburg has deposed it from its former position as the chief port of Hanover. In the neighbourhood are deposits of gypsum and salt. The fortifications, erected in 1755 and strengthened in 1816, were demolished in 1882.
According to the legend, Stade was the oldest town of the Saxons and was built in 321 B.C. Historically it cannot be traced farther back than the 10th century, when it was the capital of a line of counts. In the 13th century it passed to the archbishopric of Bremen. Subsequently entering the Hanseatic League, it rose to some commercial importance. In 1648 Stade became the capital of the principality of Bremen under the Swedes; and in 1719 it was ceded to Hanover, the fate of which it has since shared. The Prussians occupied it without resistance in 1866.
See Jobelmann and Wittpennig, Geschichte der Stadt Stade (Stade, 1898).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Stable

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​STABLE, a building in which horses are kept, including the stall in which they stand, furnished with manger and rack, the room in which the harness is kept and attended to, the loft in which the hay and corn are stored, and other accessory rooms, &c. (See Horse.) This is the current usage, but the word was formerly applied, as was the Latin stabulum, i.e. standing-place (from stare, to stand), to a stall or enclosure for all kinds of domestic animals, cows, sheep, &c. The adjective “stable,” meaning firmly established, comes directly from Latin stabilis, also from stare, to stand.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/St Yrieix

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​ST YRIEIX, a town of west central France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Haute-Vienne, on the left bank of the Loue, 26 m. S. of Limoges on the railway to Brive. Pop. (1906) town 3604, commune 7916. The town possesses a church in the early Gothic style known as Le Moûtier, dating from the 12th and 13th centuries, and a tower of the 12th century which is a relic of its fortifications. Its quarries of kaolin discovered in 1765 were the first known in France. The town owes its name to Aredius (popularly St Yrieix) who in the 6th century founded a monastery to which its origin was due.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/St Étienne

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​ST ÉTIENNE, an industrial town of east-central France, capital of the department of Loire, 310 m. S.S.E. of Paris and 36 m. S.S.W. of Lyons by rail. Pop. (1906), town, 130,940; commune, 146,788. St Étienne is situated on the Furens, which flows through it from S.E. to N.W., partly underground, and is an important adjunct to the silk manufacture. The town is uniformly built, its principal feature being the straight thoroughfare nearly 4 m. long which traverses it from N. to S. The chief of the squares is the Place Marengo, which has a statue of F. Garnier, the explorer, and is overlooked by the town hall and the prefecture, both modern. The church of St Étienne dates from the 15th century, and the Romanesque church of the abbey of Valbenoite is on the S.E. outskirts of the town. A valuable collection of arms and armour, a picture gallery, industrial collections, and a library with numerous manuscripts are in the Palais des Arts. St Étienne is the seat of a prefect, and has an important school of mining, and schools of music, chemistry and dyeing, &c.
The town owes its importance chiefly to the coal-basin which extends between Firminy and Rive-de-Gier over an area 20 m. long by 5 m. wide, and IS second only to those of Nord and Pas-de-Calais in France. There are concessions giving employment to some 18,000 workmen and producing annually between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 tons. The mineral is of two kinds—smelting coal, said to be the best in France, and gas coal. There are manufactures of ribbons, trimmings and other goods made from silk and mixtures of cotton and silk. This industry dates from the early 17th century, is carried on chiefly in small factories (electricity supplying the motive power), and employs at its maximum some 50,000 hands. The attendant industry of dyeing is carried on ona large scale. The manufacture of steel and iron and of heavy iron goods such as armour-plating occupies about 3000 workmen, and about half that number are employed in the production of ironmongery generally. Weaving machinery, cycles, automobiles and agricultural implements are also made. The manufacture of fire-arms, carried on at the national factory under the direction of artillery officers, employs at busy times more than 10,000 men, and can turn out 480,000 rifles in the year. Private firms, employing 4500 hands, make both military rifles and sporting-guns, revolvers, &c. To these industries must be added the manufacture of elastic fabrics, glass, cartridges, liqueurs, hemp-cables, &c.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Stabiae

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​STABIAE, an ancient town of Campania, Italy, on the coast at the east extremity of the Gulf of Naples (mod. Castellammare di Stabia). It was dependent upon Nuceria Alfaterna (q.v.) until it joined the revolt against Rome in the Social War (90 B.C.). In 89 it was taken and destroyed by Sulla, and its territory given to Nuceria as a reward for fidelity to Rome. The place, however, continued to be visited for its natural beauties, its mineral springs and its pure milk. Remains of fine villas have been found about half a mile to the east of the modern town, and also the remains of a temple to the genius of Stabiae, which no doubt occupied the same site as it had done in Oscan times. None of these remains is now visible. The town was destroyed by the eruption of A.D. 79 (in which the elder Pliny met his death), but was soon rebuilt on the site now occupied by the modern Castellammare. Above the town on the east is the Mons Lactarius (from lac, milk). Here took place the battle between Narses and Teias in A.D. 553, which put an end to the Gothic domination in Italy.
See M. Ruggiero, Scavi di Stabia del 1749 al 1782 (Naples, 1881); J. Beloch, Campanien, 2nd ed. p. 248 sqq. (Breslau, 1890). (T. As.)
# A Book of the Cevennes/Preface

PREFACE
THE Cevennes are a mountain fringe to the uplifted plateau of Central France, and are less visited by English tourists than any other mountainous district in la belle France. They have been most unjustly neglected. The scenery is singularly varied. The historical associations are rich, but mainly tragic.
This is not a guide-book, but an introduction to the country, to be supplemented by guide-books. The area is so extensive, that I have had to exercise restraint and limit myself to a few of the most salient features and most profitable centres whence excursions may be made. The Cevennes should be visited from March to June, afterwards the heat is too great for travelling to be comfortable. For inns, consult the annual volume of the French Touring Club; Baedeker and Joanne cannot always be relied on, as proprietors change, either for the better or for the worse. I have been landed in unsatisfactory quarters by relying on one or other of these guide-books, owing to the above-mentioned reason.
The "Touring-Club de France," Avenue de la Grande Armee 65, Paris, is doing excellent work in refusing to recommend a hotel unless the sanitary arrangements be up-to-date.
# A Book of the Pyrenees

La Vallée du Lys
A BOOK OF
THE PYRENEES
BY
S. BARING-GOULD
AUTHOR OF "A BOOK OF BRITTANY," "A BOOK OF THE RIVIERA," ETC.
IT IS THE SOUL THAT SEES; THE OUTWARD EYES PRESENT THE OBJECT, BUT THE MIND DESCRIES.
LONGFELLOW
WITH TWENTY FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS
METHUEN & CO.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON
First Published in 1907
CONTENTS
Chapter
Page :
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
page :
From a photograph by Messrs. Levy and Sons, Paris :
From a photograph by Messrs. Levy and Sons, Paris :
From a photograph by Messrs. Levy and Sons, Paris :
Note.—The illustrations are from photographs by Messrs. Neurdein fréres, of Paris, except where other acknowledgment is made. :
PREFACE
THIS Book of the Pyrenees follows the same lines as my Book of the Rhine and Book of the Riviera, It is not a guide, but an introduction to the chain, giving to the reader a sketch of the History of the Country he visits.