the chancel arch, and of Early English in the north aisles and transepts. It possesses one of the finest of the characteristic towers of Somerset, but only a facsimile reproduction (erected 1857–62) of the old one. There are still some remains of the Augustinian priory founded by Bishop Giffard, and there are also two modern convents. Taunton is an important centre of education, the principal institutions being the grammar school (founded in 1522 by Richard Fox, bishop of Winchester), Huish's schools, the Independent college (1841), and the Wesleyan collegiate institution (1847). The other principal public buildings are the old market-house, the assembly rooms, the new market in the Ionic style, and the shire hall in the Elizabethan style, opened in 1858 at a cost of £28,000, The charitable institutions include the Taunton and Somerset hospital (opened in 1809 and extended in 1870 and 1873), the eye infirmary (1816), Gray's almshouses and chapel (1635), St Saviour's home for boys (1870), and the servants' training home (1882). The town possesses manufactories of silk, collars and cuffs, and gloves, iron and brass foundries, coach-building works, and breweries. There is also a considerable agricultural trade. The population of the municipal and parliamentary borough (area 1249 acres) in 1881 was 16,614. The population of the same area in 1871 was 15,466.
Taunton has played a prominent part during the troubled periods of English history. Various Roman remains prove it to have been occupied by the Romans; but it first obtained historical notice when Ine, king of the West-Saxons, made it the border fortress of bis kingdom. It takes the name Taunton, or Thoneton, from its situation on the Tone or Thone. The castle was razed by Ethelburg after expelling Edbricht, king of the South-Saxons. About the time of William the Conqueror the town and castle were granted to the bishop of Winchester, and for many years the castle was the bishop's principal residence. In the reign of William it possessed a mint. In 1497 the town and castle were seized by the impostor Perkin Warbeck. Taunton was made the seat of the suffragan see of Taunton and Bridgwater in 1538, but, on the death of William Finch, the first bishop, in 1559, the Act had no further operation in reference to Taunton. Like the other towns of Somerset, Taunton was strongly Puritan in its sympathies. Situated at a point where the main roads of the county met, it was during the Civil War almost constantly in a state of siege by one or other of the rival parties. Having been garrisoned by the Parliamentary forces, it was captured by the Royalists in the summer of 1643, but on 8th July 1644 it was, after a long siege, taken by Blake, who held it with heroic pertinacity till relieved by Fairfax on the 11th May 1646, and again after it was invested by 10,000 troops under Goring till the siege was finally raised on the 3d July. Still constant to its Puritan traditions, Taunton welcomed Monmouth in 1685 with acclamation, and he was proclaimed king there on the 20th June, the maidens of the town presenting him with a standard. As a consequence, Taunton was made the chief example of the fearful vengeance of Jeffreys, who, at the assizes held in the castle, condemned no fewer than 134 inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood to death, and a much larger number to transportation. Taunton obtained a municipal charter from Charles I. in 1627, which was revoked in 1660. A second charter, granted by Charles II. in 1677, was permitted to lapse in 1792 owing to the corporation allowing a majority of their number to die without filling up the vacancies. From this time until it again received municipal government, 17th April 1877, it was under the care of two bailiffs appointed at the court leet of the lord of the manor. Formerly the town returned two members to parliament, but in 1885 the number was reduced to one.
See Toulmin's History of Taunton, edited by Savage, 1822; and several papers in the Proceedings of the Somerset Archæological Society for 1872.
TAUNTON, a city of the United States, the county-seat of Bristol county, Massachusetts, lies some 31 miles nearly south from Boston. The town proper, sometimes called Taunton Green, stands on the right bank of the Taunton river, at the head of navigation, about 17 miles above its mouth. The entire area enclosed within the corporate limits is 37 square miles. Taunton is traversed by the main line of the Old Colony Railway, which connects it with Boston and Fall River, Mass., and Providence, R.I. Owing to its situation and its connexions by rail and sea, Taunton has become a supply point for the greater part of south-eastern Massachusetts. The population of the city was 18,629 in 1870, 21,213 in 1880, and 23,674 in 1885, showing an increase somewhat in excess of that of the State at large. Fully one-fourth of the population are of foreign birth, and the proportion is increasing. The State lunatic asylum is in Taunton. The leading industries are the manufacture of cotton goods, iron and steel products (particularly locomotives, machinery, nails and spikes), and silver-plated table ware. Taunton was incorporated as a town in 1639, and received a city charter in 1864.
TAURIDA, a government of southern Russia, includes the peninsula of Crimea (q.v.) and a tract of mainland situated between the lower Dnieper and the coasts of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azoff, and is bounded by these two seas on the S., while it has on the N. the governments of Kherson and Ekaterinoslaff. The area is 24,540 square miles, of which 6990 square miles belong to the Crimea; its continental part consists of a gently undulating steppe of black earth, with only a few patches of salt clay on the banks of the Sivash or Putrid Sea, and sands in the lower course of the Dnieper. It is watered by the Dnieper, which flows along the frontier for 180 miles, and by two small rivers, the Molotchnaya and Berda. Many small lakes and ponds occur in the north, especially among the Dnieper sands, as well as on the Kinburn peninsula, at the mouth of the Dnieper, where salt is made. There are no forests except the artificial plantations in the colonies of the Mennonites. The climate is continental, and resembles that of central Crimea and Kherson. The population in 1883 was 940,530 (247,780 in Crimea). The continental portion, although less mixed than that of the peninsula, consists of Russians (Great, Little, and White Russians), who constitute 83 per cent. of the population, Germans (11 per cent.), Bulgarians (5 per cent.), and Jews (1 per cent.).
Agriculture and cattle-breeding are the leading occupations. Wheat is the chief product, and by the Germans and Russian Nonconformists on the Molotchnaya agriculture is carried to a high degree of perfection. In 1882 there were within the government 356,270 horses, 485,800 cattle, and 3,985,300 sheep (2,891,700 merinos). Salt is made both on the mainland and in the Crimea, and the fisheries along the coast supply an export trade. Manufactures are insignificant, but there is a brisk export trade in grain, salt, fish, wool, and tallow. The main centres of trade are the Kakhovka port on the Dnieper, Berdyansk on the Sea of Azoff, and the seaports of Eupatoria, Sebastopol, Sudak, and Theodosia. The government is divided into eight districts, the chief towns of which (with populations in 1881) are Simferopol (29,030), capital of the government, Eupatoria (13,420), and Theodosia (10,800) in Crimea, and Aleshki (8915), Berdyansk (18,180), Melitopol (13,310), Perekop (4280), and Yalta (3000) on the continent. Several villages, such as Bolshoy Tokmak (8000) and Andreevka (7300), have each a population of more than 5000.
TAUROMENIUM.See Taormina.
TAURUS.(See Asia Minor, vol. ii. p. 704-5)
