Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/652

596 N O R N O T papers began to be printed. The famous "Norwich school" of landscape painting flourished during the first half of the present century, the principal artists being Crome, Cotman, Stark, and Vincent. Distinguished natives were John Kaye or Caius, Arch bishop Parker, Robert Greene, Thomas Legge, Bishop Cosin, Bishop Pearson, " Old Crome," William Taylor, Amelia Opie, Harriet Mar- tineau, and Dr Crotch, whilst among residents the best known have been Sir Thomas Erpingham, Bishop Hall, and Sir Thomas Browne. See A. D. Bayne, Norwich, its Political, Religious, and Municipal History (1868); Dean Goulburn, Sculptures in the Roof of Norwich Cathedral, with a History of the See (1876) ; Jarrold, Handbook to the City of Norwich (1883) ; and other works cited under NORFOLK. (F. H. G.) NORWICH, a city of the United States, one of the county seats of New London county, Connecticut, lies 16 miles from Long Island Sound at the junction of the Yantic and the Shetucket to form the Thames, and 13 miles north of New London by the New London Northern Railroad. The greater part of the city is built on rising ground between the valleys of the confluent streams, and with its white and handsome houses has a highly pictur esque effect. Besides the court-house (1873), used for county, township, and city affairs, the more conspicuous edifices are the free academy (1856), the Park Church (Con gregational), and Christ Church (Episcopalian). Among the numerous industrial establishments settled at Norwich, on account of the abundant water-power in the district, are cotton, wool, paper and rolling mills (all on a very large scale), as well as factories for firearms, printing-presses, water-wheels, locks, stoves, belts, bolts, wood-type, carriages, &c. Steamers ply daily between the city and New York, and there is a thriving trade in coal, lumber, and general goods. The population of the town was 14,048 in 1860, 16,653 in 1870, and that of the city 15,112 (of the town 21,143) in 1880. In 1659 the Indian chief Uncas, whose grave may still be seen in the old Indian burying-ground, sold the site of Norwich to Major John Mason and a body of thirty-four settlers. The incor poration of the city dates from 1784. NORWOOD, a large suburban district of London, county of Surrey, is situated in a hilly and finely-wooded district about 1 mile south-west of Dulwich and 4 south of Lambeth. It is divided into Upper, Lower, and South Norwood, all consisting principally of villa residences and detached houses inhabited by the better classes. Alms- houses for the poor of St Saviour s, Southwark, were opened at South Norwood in 1863, a Jewish convalescent home in 1869, and the royal normal college and academy of music for the blind at Upper Norwood in 1872. There is also a Catholic convent and orphanage of the Faithful Virgin. Red pottery ware is manufactured in the neigh bourhood. Norwood received its name from an old forest of oak trees. Near it is Gipsy Hill, where at one time dwelt the celebrated Margaret Finch, who died in 1740 at the age of 109, and to whom a monument has been erected in Beckenham churchyard. The population of Norwood (area 1009 acres) in 1871 was 12,536, and in 1881 it was 19,017. NORWOOD, a municipal suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, is situated about 2 miles north-east of the centre of the city, with which it is connected by a tram way. It possesses a post and telegraph office, a mechanics institute, and a branch of the bank of Adelaide. Nor wood along with Kensington forms a municipality, with an area of 1| square miles and a population in 1881 of 10,087. NOSE. See SMELL. NOSSI-BE, an island off Passandava Bay, on the north west coast of Madagascar, in 13 23 S. lat. and 45 59 E. long., is situated 149 miles from Mayotte, and governed, along with the smaller island of Nossi-komba, by a French commandant subordinate to the governor of Mayotte. Nossi-be is of volcanic formation, the north and south parts of older, the central part of more modern date. Be sides a number of true volcanic craters of no great height (the culminating point of the island is only 1486 feet above the sea), M. Velain found a great many crater-lakes or circular troughs level with the ground the result, prob ably, of subterranean explosions which did not last long enough to allow the lava to reach the surface (see Nature, March 1877, p. 417). Nossi-be has an area of 481,845 acres (nearly 750 square miles), of which not more than 1 800 or 2000 acres are planted with sugar-cane, coffee, &c. Trade is mainly carried on with Madagascar, though a few vessels come directly from Zanzibar or Bombay. In 1878 the value of the imports was 1,470,449 francs, that of the exports 2,092,385. The population, consisting mainly of Sakalavas, varies considerably in .number. Hellville, the European chief town (so called after De Hell, governor of Reunion at the time of the French annexation), had in 1878 from 1200 to 1500 inhabitants and the rest of the island about 6000. In 1837 Tsiomeika, queen of the Sakalavas, was expelled by the Hovas and fled to Nossi-be and Nossi-komba. Failing to obtain assistance from the imam of Muscat, she accepted French protec tion. In 1849 a vigorous attempt was made to expel the French. See Von Jedina in Revue geogr. internal., 1877. NOSTRADAMUS (1503-1566), the assumed name of MICHEL DE NOTREDAME, a French astrologer, who was descended from a family of Jewish origin, and was born at St Remi in Provence 13th December 1503. After completing a course of study in humanity and philosophy at Avignon, he entered the school of medicine at Mont- pellier, where he eventually took the degree of doctor of medicine in 1529. Shortly afterwards he settled at Agen, and in 1544 he established himself at Salon near Aix in Provence. Both at Aix and at Lyons he acquired great distinction by his devoted and skilful labours during terrible outbreaks of the plague, and he was already well known before he appeared in the character of a seer. In 1555 he published at Lyons a book of rhymed prophecies under the title of Centuries, which secured him the notice of the superstitious Catherine de Medici of France ; and in 1558 he published a second and enlarged edition with a dedica tion to the king. The seeming fulfilment of some of his predictions greatly increased his influence, and Charles IX. named him his physician in ordinary. He died 2d July 1566. The Centuries of Nostradamus have been frequently reprinted, and have been made the subject of many commentaries. In 1781 they were condemned by the papal court, being supposed to con tain a prediction of the fall of the papacy. Nostradamus was the author of a number of smaller treatises. See especially Bareste, Nostradamus (Paris, 1840). NOTARY or NOTARY PUBLIC. In Roman law the nota- rius was originally a slave or freedman who took notes (notse) of judicial proceedings in shorthand or cipher. The notary of modern law corresponds rather to the tabellio or tabularius of Roman law than to the notarius. In the canon law the notary was a person of great importance, and it was a maxim of that law that his evidence was worth that of tAvo unskilled witnesses. In most European countries he still holds something of his old position under the canon law. In France, for instance, a document attested by a notary is said to be "legalized, "a term much too strong to express the effect of such attestation in England, where the notary public, in spite of his name, is not recognized as a public officer to such a degree as the notary in other countries. The office of notary in England is a very ancient one. It is mentioned in statute law as early as the Statute of Pro- visors, 25 Edward III. stat. 4. The English notary is a skilled person, nominated since 25 Henry VIII. c. 21 by the archbishop of Canterbury through the master of the facul ties (now the judge of the provincial courts of Canterbury and York), in order to secure evidence as to the attesta-