Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/480

450 N E W N E W barony is mentioned as being possessed by Edward the Confessor, but after the Conquest it was given to the Langtons. Near the town a party of Highlanders were in 1648 taken prisoners by Cromwell s troops, and hanged in an adjoining wood, still called Callow s Cross. The town possessed the privilege of returning two members to par liament from the 5th of Elizabeth, but was disfranchised in 1832. The population of the urban sanitary district in 1871 was 8244, and in 1881 it was 10,580. NEWTOWN (Welsh, Drefnewydd; ancient name, Llan- fair Cedtivairi), a market-town and parliamentary borough of Montgomeryshire, is situated on both sides of the Severn, 11 miles east-north-east of Llanidloes, and 13 south-south west of Welshpool. It is a well-built town with wide and regular streets, although some of the houses are of timber. The principal buildings are the public rooms (1835), the infirmary (1867), and the market-hall (1870). Newtown is the principal seat of the Welsh flannel manufacture, to which now has been added that of tweeds and shawls. It joins with Welshpool, Llanfyllin, Montgomery, Llanidloes, and Machynlleth in returning a member to parliament. The population of the urban sanitary district of Newtown and Llanllwchaiarn in 1871 was 5886, and in 1881 it was 7170. NEWTOWN, a suburban municipal district of Sydney, New South Wales. It consists chiefly of the residences of the better classes, whose business premises are in the city. It possesses a town-hall, a good free library, and a new court-house. There is a public school with an average attendance of about 800. The municipal government was proclaimed 12th December 1862. Newtown is connected with Sydney by railway, tramway, and omnibus. The population in 1881 was 15,828. NEWTOWN ARDS, or NEWTOWNARDES, a market-town, formerly a parliamentary borough, of the county Down, Ireland, is beautifully situated near the northern extrem ity of Lough Strangford, on the Belfast and County Down Railway, 9J miles east of Belfast and 4-| south by west of Bangor. The town, which is sheltered by hills on the west and north, is well built, and possesses a fine square, from which the principal streets diverge. There is a court house and a town-hall. In the market square the pedestal of an ancient cross was erected in 1636. Muslin embroid ery is the principal industry, a hem-stitching factory affording employment to 500 females. There is also a mill for flax and hemp yarns. In the neighbourhood there are freestone quarries. The population in 1871 was 9562, and in 1881 it was 8676. From an early period there were a large number of religious foundations in the district, and the town owes its origin to a Dominican monastery founded in 1244 by Walter de Burgh. The town was forfeited by the O Neills, and given to the Hamiltons and Montgomeries, from whom it passed to the marquis of London derry. It received a charter from James I., and until the Union returned two members to parliament. NEW YEAR S DAY. The first day (calends) of January, as marking the beginning of the year, was observed as a public holiday in Rome from at least the time of the Julian reformation of the calendar. Ovid (Fas., i. 63 sq.) alludes to the abstinence from litigation and strife, the smoking altars, the white-robed processions to the Capitol ; and later writers describe the exchanges of visits, the giving and receiving of presents (strense), the masquerad ing, and the feasting with which the day was in their time celebrated throughout the empire. Libanius (c. 346 A.D.) speaks of it as being in his day the one 1 great holiday common to all under the Roman rule. Participation by Christians in the ordinary New Year s Day observances, as well as in the Saturnalia of the preceding month of December, which was from the first discouraged by the church, called forth repeated protests, not only from eminent individuals such as Tertulllan (De Idol., 14), Augustine (Serm. de Kal. Jan.), and Chrysostom (Horn, in Kal. but also from various provincial synods ; and the sixty-second canon of the Quinisext general council (692) was expressly directed against " the so-called Calends, and Vota, and Brumalia." Christians were expected to spend the day in quiet meditation, reading of scripture, and acts of charity and beneficence. When about the 5th century the 25th of December had gradually become a fixed festival com memorative of the Nativity, the 1st January ultimately also assumed a specially sacred character as the octave of Christmas Day and as the anniversary of the circumcision of our Lord, and as such it still figures in the calendars of the various branches of the Eastern and of the Western Church, though only as a feast of subordinate importance. The practice of giving and receiving " strenae " for luck about the beginning of the year survives in such institu tions as the French "jour d etrennes" and the Scottish " Handsel Monday." The Persians also, it may be men tioned, celebrated the beginning of the year (nev-rtiz) by exchanging presents of eggs. For particulars as to the date of commencement, and also as to the duration, of the year, whether civil or sacred, in various nations and religions, reference may be made to the article CALENDAR. NEW E K I. NEW YORK STATE. Plate XI. ~!"EW YORK, one of the original thirteen United States _L| of America, is situated between 40 29 40" and 45 2" N. lat. and between 71 51 and 79 45 54"-4 W. long. It is bounded N. by Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence river, which separate it from the province of Ontario ; E. by Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut ; S. by the Atlantic Ocean, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; and W. by Pennsylvania, Lake Erie, and the Niagara river. Topography. The State of New York has a triangular outline, with a breadth from east to west of 326 46 miles, and from north to south, on the line of the Hudson, of 300 miles. In addition it includes Long Island and Staten Island on the Atlantic coast. Its area is 49,170 square miles, 47,620 square miles, or 30,476,800 acres, being land, and the remainder portions of the great lakes that border it. The surface is more diversified than that of any other State in the Union. The eastern and southern portions are high, and from these the land slopes gently north and west to Lake Ontario. The mountainous belt of the eastern part is cut through by the great water-gap of the Mohawk valley, which once connected the Ontario basin with the trough of the Hudson below the present ocean-level, and is the most interesting and important feature in the topography of the State. Mountains. The mountains of New York form three distinct groups. (1) The Adirondacks, a series of short ranges having a north-north-east and south-south-west direction, form the centre of the elevated region of the north-east section of the State. The highest of these is Mount Marcy, 5344 feet, with several associated summits which reach the altitude of 5000 feet. (2) The Cat- skill Mountains, with their foothills, occupy about 500 square miles south of the Mohawk valley and west of the Hudson ; the highest peaks reach an altitude of 4000 feet. The Helderberg and Shawangunk Mountains a re topo graphically a portion of the Catskills, the first on the north, the second on the south. These all belong to the