Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/491

NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE. 433 NEWCOMB. including two piers at its mouth ; £3.250.000 luive been spent on the improvement of the Tvne. llie entrance and many jjarts of the river have liccu deepened by dredging, and. though eight miles from the mouth of the Tyne, the tidal river is as much a port for Newcastle as the Thames is for London. An average of 1.5.000 vessels annualh' enter and clear at the Tyne ports, which comprise Newcastle and North and Siiuth Shields, with a gross tonnage of 10.000.000. I he value of exports, consisting chielly of iron, copper, lead, alkali, and machinery, averages .■<(iO,000,000 annually; and imports, including fiuits, grain, butter, sugar, metals, and petro- leum, average .$50,000,000. The total exjjorts from Newcastle to the United States amount to about $20,000,000. It is the seat of a United States consul. Newcastle dates from the Roman Pons ^Elii — one of the chain of forts by which the wall of Hadrian was fortified. On the withdrawal of the Romans, the deserted camp became the resi- dence of a colony of monks, and the town was called ilonkchester. Robert, eldest son of William the Conqueror, commenced to built a castle here in 1070 or 1080. Hence the modern name of New Castle. William Rufus finished his brother's lastle, surrounded the town with a wall, and gave the inhabitants peculiar privileges. The present castle, which displays better than any other in England the genius of Norman military archi- tecture, was erected by Henry II. between the years 1172 and 1177. Newcastle being made the rendezvous of the vast armaments which the first three Edwards led into Scotland, "it was in their time surrounded with new w'alls of unusual strength and magnitude: portions of them yet remain. Diring the Civil War it declared for the King, and sustained a ten months' siege by the Scots. The coal trade dates from the reign of Henry III. In 1G15, 400 colliers cleared the port, one-half to supply London. Lords Stowel. Eldon. and Collingwood, Mark Akenside, and Hutton, the mathematician, were natives of Newcastle. Intimately connected with it, though not born in it, were Thomas Bewick, the engraver; Robert Jlorrison. the Chinese scholar ; and George and Roliert Stephen- son. Population, in 1801, 28.400; in 1851, 87,800; in 1891, 186.300; in 1901. 214,803. Con- sult Rendel, Xewcastle-on-Tyne : Its Municipal Origin and (Iroirth (London, 1898). NE'W church:. See Swedenborgians. NE-W COLLEGE. A college at Oxford, Eng- land, originally known as the College of Saint JIary of Winchester. It was founded by William of Wykeham. Bishop of Winchester, and some- time Lord Chancellor of Enjiland. in 1379 for a warden, 70 fellows and scholars, 10 chaplains, 3 clerks, and 16 choristers. The college was but a part of Wykeham's plan, which included also the establishment of the famous school at Win- cliester, the first of the English public schools, from whose numbers the scholars of New College were to be chosen. To this new feature in Eng- lish eilucation was added also the beginning of a tutorial system in the college, by which the ordinary university instruction was supplemented liy the work of the fellows of the college with the younger scholars. In the buildings of his college, Wykeham founded the school of English college architecture, and the buildings remain to-day k the finest of the early colleges. In every way, this foundation was the most splendid of its time, but, owing chiefly to certain curious exemptions from university supervision in examinations (cf. King's College, Cambridge), it did not play the part that might have been expected of it during most of its history. Here X'itelli taught Grocyn Greek, and thus gave the college a very real con- nection with the new awakening. It is to-day, in scholarship and athletics, one of the leading col- leges in Oxford. The establishment, as fixed by statutes of lS55and 1881-82. consists of a w^ardcn. 22 fellows, 3 chaplains, 40 scholars, college officers, a choir, with a total of some 250 undergraduates. The connection with Winchester School is still maintained very closely. The bviildings are of great beauty, particularly the hall and the chapel, with windows designed by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and an imposing tower. The gardens, wliicii include in their limits part of the old city wall of Oxford, are among the most attractive in Oxford. The college presents to 40 livings. Among the worthies of New College have been Archbishop Chichele, founder of All Souls' Col- lege, Bishop Waynflete. founder of Magdalen Col- lege, Bishops Ken and Lowth. and Sydney Smith. See King's College, Cambridge; Wi.nciiesteb; OXIOBD UNrVEKSITT; WU-LIAM OF WYKEHAM. NEWCOMB, nu'kom, Simon (1835—). An American astronomer and mathematician, born in Wallace, Nova Scotia, lie was educated in his father's school and came to the United States in 1853. A j-ear afterwards he began teaching in Maryland," and in 1857 was appointed computer on the Nautical Almanac at Cambridge. In 1858 he graduated at the Lawrence Scientific School, and in 1861 was appointed professor of mathe matics in the United States Navy. He negotiated the contract for and supervised the construction of the 26-inch equatorial telescope at the Naval 01)servatory. He was secretary of the Transit of Venus Commission in 1871-74, observed the transit of Venus at the Cape of Good Hope in 1882, and directed several eclipse expeditions, be- ginning in 1860. In 1877 he became senior pro- fessor and director of the autical Almamic. a position which he held till he was retired on ac- count of age in 1897. He was professor of mathe- matics in Johns Hopkins University in 1894-1901 and editor of the American Journal of Mathe- matics. Newcomb became a member of nearly all the Imperial and Royal Societies of Europe and of the various scientific associations of this coun- try. He was also made an associate of the Insti- tute of France, and an officer of the Legion of Honor, being the first American since Franklin to be so honored. He was ])resident of the Amer- ican Association for the Advancement of Science in 1877. of the Society for Psychical Research in 1885-1886, of the Political Society of America in 1887, of the American ilatbematical Society in 1897-1898, and of the Astronomical and Astro- physical Society of .merica. from its foundation in 1899; vice-president of the National Academy of Sciences in 1883-89. and was chosen president of the Saint Louis Congress of .rts ana Sciences. He received the Copley (1S74). ihe Iluygens ( 1878 ) , the Royal Society ( 1890) , and the Bruce medal (1898);* and numerous other prizes and honorary degrees from societies and universities in this country and Europe. In addition to sci- entific attainments he wrote on rinanee and po-