CARMAUX, a town of southern France, in the department of Tarn, on the
left bank of the Cerou, 10 m. N. of Albi by rail. Pop. (1906) 8618. The
town gives its name to an important coal-basin, and carries on the
manufacture of glass.
CARMEL, the mountain promontory by which the seacoast of Palestine is
interrupted south of the Bay of Acre, 32 deg. 50' N., 35 deg. E. It
continues as a ridge of oolitic limestone, broken by ravines and
honeycombed by caves, running for about 20 m. in a south-easterly
direction, and finally joining the mountains of Samaria. Its maximum
height is at '_Esfia_, 1760 ft. It was included in the territory of the
tribe of Asher. No great political event is recorded in connexion with
it; it appears throughout the Old Testament "either as a symbol or as a
sanctuary"; its name means "garden-land." Its fruitfulness is referred
to by Isaiah and by Amos; Micah describes it as wooded, to which was no
doubt due its value as a hiding-place (Amos ix. 3). It is now wild, only
a few patches being cultivated; most of the mountain is covered with a
thick brushwood of evergreens, oaks, myrtles, pines, &c., which is
gradually being cleared away. That the cultivation was once much more
extensive is indicated by the large number of rock-hewn wine and olive
presses. Vines and olives are now found at '_Esfia_ only. The
outstanding position of Carmel, its solitariness, its visibility over a
wide area of country, and its fertility, marked it out as a suitable
place for a sanctuary from very ancient times. It is possibly referred
to in the Palestine lists of Thothmes III. as _Rosh Kodsu_, "the holy
headland." An altar of Jehovah existed here from early times; it was
destroyed when the Phoenician Baal claimed the country under Jezebel,
and repaired by Elijah (1 Kings xviii. 30) before the great sacrifice
which decided the claims of the contending deities. The traditional site
of this sacrifice is at _El-Muhraka_, at the eastern end of the ridge.
The Druses still visit this site, where is a dilapidated structure of
stones, as a holy place for sacrifice. On the bank of the Kishon below
is a mound known as _Tell el-Kusis_, "the Priest's mound," but the
connexion that has been sought between this name and the slaughter of
the priests of Baal is hardly justifiable. Other sites on the hill are
traditionally connected with Elijah, and some melon-like fossils are
explained as being fruits refused to him by its owner, who was punished
by having them turned to stone. Elisha was stationed here for a time.
Tacitus describes the hill as the site of an oracle, which Vespasian
consulted. Iamblichus in his life of Pythagoras speaks of it as a place
of great sanctity forbidden to the vulgar. A grove of trees, called the
"Trees of the Forty" [Martyrs], still remains, no doubt in former times
a sacred grove. So early as the 4th century Christian hermits began to
settle here, and in 1207 the Carmelite order was organized. The
monastery, founded at the fountain of Elijah in 1209, has had many
vicissitudes: the monks were slaughtered or driven to Europe in 1238 and
the building decayed; it was visited and refounded by St Louis in 1252;
again despoiled in 1291; once more rebuilt in 1631, and, in 1635 (when
the monks were massacred), sacked and turned into a mosque. Once more
the monks established themselves, only to be murdered after Napoleon's
retreat in 1799. The church and the monastery were entirely destroyed in
1821 by 'Abd Allah, pasha of Acre, on the plea that the monks would
favour the revolting Greeks; but it was shortly afterwards rebuilt by
order from the Porte, partly at 'Abd Allah's expense and partly by
contributions raised in Europe, Asia and Africa by Brother Giovanni
Battista of Frascati. The villages with which the mountain was once
covered have been to a large extent depopulated by the Druses.
(R. A. S. M.)
CARMELITES, in England called White Friars (from the white mantle over a
brown habit), one of the four mendicant orders. The stories concerning
the origin of this order, seriously put forward and believed in the 17th
and 18th centuries, are one of the curiosities of history. It was
asserted that Elias established a community of hermits on Mount Carmel,
and that this community existed without break until the Christian era
and was nothing else than a Jewish Carmelite order, to which belonged
the Sons of the Prophets and the Essenes. Members of it were present at
St Peter's first sermon on Pentecost and were converted, and built a
chapel on Mount Carmel in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who, as
well as the apostles, enrolled herself in the order. In 1668 the
Bollandist Daniel Papenbroek (1628-1714), in the March volumes of the
_Acta Sanctorum_, rejected these stories as fables. A controversy arose
and the Carmelites had recourse to the Inquisition. In Spain they
succeeded in getting the offending volumes of the _Acta_ censured, but
in Rome they were less successful, and so hot did the controversy
become that in 1698 a decree was issued imposing silence upon both
parties, until a formal decision should be promulgated--which has not
yet been done.
The historical origin of the Carmelites must be placed at the middle of
the 12th century, when a crusader from Calabria, named Berthold, and ten
companions established themselves as hermits near the cave of Elias on
Mount Carmel. A Greek monk, Phocas, who visited the Holy Land in 1185,
gives an account of them, and says that the ruins of an ancient building
existed on Mount Carmel; but though it is likely enough that there had
previously been Christian monks and hermits on the spot, it is
impossible to place the beginning of the Carmelite institute before
Berthold. About 1210 the hermits on Carmel received from Albert, Latin
patriarch of Jerusalem, a rule comprising sixteen articles. This was the
primitive Carmelite rule. The life prescribed was strictly eremitical:
the monks were to live in separate cells or huts, devoted to prayer and
work; they met only in the oratory for the liturgical services, and were
to live a life of great silence, seclusion, abstinence and austerity.
This rule received papal approbation in 1226. Soon, however, the losses
of the Christian arms in Palestine made Carmel an unsafe place of
residence for western hermits, and so, c. 1240, they migrated first to
Cyprus and thence to Sicily, France and England. In England the first
establishment was at Alnwick and the second at Aylesford, where the
first general chapter of the order was held in 1247, and St Simon Stock,
an English anchorite who had joined the order, was elected general.
During his generalate the institute was adapted to the conditions of the
western lands to which it had been transplanted, and for this purpose
the original rule had to be in many ways altered: the austerities were
mitigated, and the life was turned from eremitical into cenobitical, but
on the mendicant rather than the monastic model. The polity and
government were also organized on the same lines, and the Carmelites
were turned into mendicants and became one of the four great orders of
Mendicant Friars, in England distinguished as the "White Friars" from
the white mantle worn over the dark brown habit. This change was made
and the new rule approved in 1247, and under this form the Carmelites
spread all over western Europe and became exceedingly popular, as an
order closely analogous to the Dominicans and Franciscans. In the course
of time, further relaxations of the rule were introduced, and during the
Great Schism the Carmelites were divided between the two papal
obediences, rival generals being elected,--a state of things that caused
still further relaxations. To cope with existing evils Eugenius IV.
approved in 1431 of a rule notably milder than that of 1247, but many
houses clung to the earlier rule; thus arose among the Carmelites the
same division into "observants" and "conventuals" that wrought such
mischief among the Franciscans. During the 15th and 16th centuries
various attempts at reform arose, as among other orders, and resulted in
the formation of semi-independent congregations owing a titular
obedience to the general of the order. The Carmelite friars seem to have
flourished especially in England, where at the dissolution of the
monasteries there were some 40 friaries. (See F.A. Gasquet, _English
Monastic Life_, table and maps; _Catholic Dictionary_, art.
"Carmelites.") There were no Carmelite nunneries in England, and indeed
until the middle of the 15th century there were no nuns at all anywhere
in the order.
Of all movements in the Carmelite order by far the most important and
far-reaching in its results has been the reform initiated by St Teresa.
After nearly thirty years passed in a Carmelite convent in Avila under
the mitigated rule of 1431, she founded in the same city a small convent
wherein a rule stricter than that of 1247 was to be observed. This was
in 1562. In spite of opposition and difficulties of all kinds, she
succeeded in establishing a number, not only of nunneries, but (with the
co-operation of St John of the Cross, q.v.) also of friaries of the
strict observance; so that at her death in 1582 there were of the reform
15 monasteries of men and 17 of women, all in Spain. The interesting and
dramatic story of the movement should be sought for in the biographies
of the two protagonists; as also an account of the school of mystical
theology founded by them, without doubt the chief contribution made by
the Carmelites to religion (see MYSTICISM). Here it must suffice to say
that the idea of the reform was to go behind the settlement of 1247 and
to restore and emphasize the purely contemplative character of primitive
Carmelite life: indeed provision was made for the reproduction, for such
as desired it, of the eremitical life led by Berthold and his
companions. St Teresa's additions to the rule of 1247 made the life one
of extreme bodily austerity and of prolonged prayer for all, two hours
of private prayer daily, in addition to the choral canonical office,
being enjoined. From the fact that those of the reform wore sandals in
place of shoes and stockings, they have come to be called the Discalced,
or bare-footed, Carmelites, also Teresians, in distinction to the Calced
or older branch of the order. In 1580 the reformed monasteries were made
a separate province under the general of the order, and in 1593 this
province was made by papal act an independent order with its own general
and government, so that there are now two distinct orders of Carmelites.
The Discalced Carmelites spread rapidly all over Catholic Europe, and
then to Spanish America and the East, especially India and Persia, in
which lands they have carried on to this day extensive missionary
undertakings. Both observances suffered severely from the various
revolutions, but they both still exist, the Discalced being by far the
most numerous and thriving. There are in all some 2000 Carmelite friars,
and the nuns are much more numerous. In England and Ireland there are
houses, both of men and of women, belonging to each observance.
AUTHORITIES.--A full account is given by Helyot, _Hist, des ordres
religieux_ (1792), i. cc. 40-52; shorter accounts, continued to the
end of the 19th century and giving references to all literature old
and new, may be found in Max Heimbucher, _Orden u. Kongregationen_
(1897), ii. SS 92-96; Wetzer u. Welte, _Kirchenlexicon_ (ed. 2), art.
"Carmelitenorden"; Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopadie_ (ed. 3), art.
"Karmeliter." The story of St Teresa's reform will be found in lives
of St Teresa and in her writings, especially the _Foundations._
Special reference may be made to the works of Zimmerman, a Carmelite
friar, _Carmel in England_ (1899), and _Monumenta historica
Carmelitana_, i. (1905 foll.). (E. C. B.)
CARMICHAEL, GERSHOM (c. 1672-1729), Scottish philosopher, was born
probably in London, the son of a Presbyterian minister who had been
banished by the Scottish privy council for his religious opinions. He
graduated at Edinburgh University in 1691, and became a regent at St
Andrews. In 1694 he was elected a master in the university of
Glasgow--an office that was converted into the professorship of moral
philosophy in 1727, when the system of masters was abolished at Glasgow.
Sir William Hamilton regarded him as "the real founder of the Scottish
school of philosophy." He wrote _Bremuscula Introductio ad Logicam_, a
treatise on logic and the psychology of the intellectual powers;
_Synopsis Theologiae Naturalis_; and an edition of Pufendorf, _De
Officio Hominis et Civis_, with notes and supplements of high value. His
son Frederick was the author of _Sermons on Several Important Subjects_
and _Sermons on Christian Zeal_, both published in 1753.
CARMINE, a pigment of a bright red colour obtained from cochineal
(q.v.). It may be prepared by exhausting cochineal with boiling water
and then treating the clear solution with alum, cream of tartar,
stannous chloride, or acid oxalate of potassium; the colouring and
animal matters present in the liquid are thus precipitated. Other
methods are in use; sometimes white of egg, fish glue, or gelatine are
added before the precipitation. The quality of carmine is affected by
the temperature and the degree of illumination during its
preparation--sunlight being requisite for the production of a brilliant
hue. It differs also according to the amount of alumina present in it.
It is sometimes adulterated with cinnabar, starch and other materials;
from these the carmine can be separated by dissolving it in ammonia.
Good carmine should crumble readily between the fingers when dry.
Chemically, carmine is a compound of carminic acid with alumina, lime
and some organic acid. Carmine is used in the manufacture of artificial
flowers, water-colours, rouge, cosmetics and crimson ink, and in the
painting of miniatures. "Carmine lake" is a pigment obtained by adding
freshly precipitated alumina to decoction of cochineal.
CARMONA, a town of south-western Spain, in the province of Seville; 27
m. N.E. of Seville by rail. Pop. (1900) 17,215. Carmona is built on a
ridge overlooking the central plain of Andalusia, from the Sierra
Morena, on the north, to the peak of San Cristobal, on the south. It has
a thriving trade in wine, olive oil, grain and cattle; and the annual
fair, which is held in April, affords good opportunity of observing the
costumes and customs of southern Spain. The citadel of Carmona, now in
ruins, was formerly the principal fortress of Peter the Cruel
(1350-1369), and contained a spacious palace within its defences. The
principal entrance to the town is an old Moorish gateway; and the gate
on the road to Cordova is partly of Roman construction. Portions of the
ancient college of San Teodomir are of Moorish architecture, and the
tower of the church of San Pedro is an imitation of the Giralda at
Seville.
In 1881 a large Roman necropolis was discovered close to the town,
beside the Seville road. It contains many rock-hewn sepulchral chambers,
with niches for the cinerary urns, and occasionally with vestibules
containing stone seats (_triclinia_). In 1881 an amphitheatre, and
another group of tombs, all belonging to the first four centuries A.D.,
were disinterred near the original necropolis, and a small museum,
maintained by the Carmona archaeological society, is filled with the
mosaics, inscriptions, portrait-heads and other antiquities found here.
Carmona, the Roman _Carmo_, was the strongest city of Further Spain in
the time of Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.), and its strength was greatly
increased by the Moors, who surrounded it with a wall and ornamented it
with fountains and palaces. In 1247 Ferdinand III. of Castile took the
city, and bestowed on it the motto _Sicut Lucifer lucet in Aurora, sic
in Wandalia Carmona_ ("As the Morning-star shines in the Dawn, so shines
Carmona in Andalusia").
For an account of the antiquities of Carmona, see _Estudios
arqueologicos e historicos_, by M. Sales y Ferre (Madrid, 1887).
CARNAC, a village of north-western France, in the department of Morbihan
and arrondissement of Lorient, 9 m. S.S.W. of Auray by road. Pop. (1906)
667, Carnac has a handsome church in the Renaissance style of Brittany,
but it owes its celebrity to the stone monuments in its vicinity, which
are among the most extensive and interesting of their kind (see STONE
MONUMENTS). The most remarkable consist of long avenues of menhirs or
standing stones; but there is also a profusion of other erections, such
as dolmens and barrows, throughout the whole district. About half a mile
to the north-west of the village is the Menec system, which consists of
eleven lines, numbers 874 menhirs, and extends a distance of 3376 ft.
The terminal circle, whose longest diameter is 300 ft., is somewhat
difficult to make out, as it is broken by the houses and gardens of a
little hamlet. To the east-north-east there is another system at
Kermario (Place of the Dead), which consists of 855 stones, many of them
of great size--some, for example, 18 ft. in height --arranged in ten
lines and extending about 4000 ft. in length. Still further in the same
direction is a third system at Kerlescan (Place of Burning), composed of
262 stones, which are distributed into thirteen lines, terminated by an
irregular circle, and altogether extend over a distance of 1000 ft. or
more. These three systems seem once to have formed a continuous series;
the menhirs, many of which have been broken up for road-mending and
other purposes, have diminished in number by some thousands in modern
times. The alignment of Kermario points to the dolmen of Kercado (Place
of St Cado), where there is also a barrow, explored in 1863; and to the
south-east of Menec stands the great tumulus of Mont St Michel, which
measures 377 ft. in length, and has a height of 65 ft. The tumulus,
which is crowned with a chapel, was excavated by Rene Galles in 1862;
and the contents of the sepulchral chamber, which include several jade
and fibrolite axes, are preserved in the museum at Vannes. About a mile
east of the village is a small piece of moorland called the Bossenno,
from the _bocenieu_ or mounds with which it is covered; and here, in
1874, the explorations of James Miln, a Scottish antiquary, brought to
light the remains of a Gallo-Roman town. The tradition of Carnac is that
there was once a convent of the Templars or Red Cross Knights on the
spot; but this, it seems, is not supported by history. Similar traces
were also discovered at Mane Bras, a height about 3 m. to the east. The
rocks of which these various monuments are composed is the ordinary
granite of the district, and most of them present a strange appearance
from their coating of white lichens. Carnac has an interesting museum of
antiquities.
See W.C. Lukis, _Guide to the Principal Chambered Barrows and other
Prehistoric Monuments in the Islands of the Morbihan, &c._ (Ripon,
1875); Rene Galles, _Fouilles du Mont Saint Michel en Carnac_ (Vannes,
1864); A. Fouquet, _Des monuments celtiques et des ruines romaines
dans le Morbihan_ (Vannes, 1853); James Miln, _Archaeological
Researches at Carnac in Brittany: Kermario_ (Edinburgh, 1881); and
_Excavations at Carnac: The Bossenno and the Mont St Michel_
(Edinburgh, 1877).
CARNARVON, EARLDOM OF. The earldom of Carnarvon was created in 1628 for
Robert Dormer, Baron Dormer of Wyng (c. 1610-1643), who was killed at
the first battle of Newbury whilst fighting for Charles I., and it
became extinct on the death of his son Charles, the 2nd earl, in 1709.
From 1714 to 1789 it was held by the family of Brydges, dukes of Chandos
and marquesses of Carnarvon, and in 1793 Henry Herbert, Baron Porchester
(1741-1811), was created earl of Carnarvon.
His great-grandson, HENRY HOWARD MOLYNEUX HERBERT, 4th earl of Carnarvon
(1831-1890), was born on the 24th of June 1831. He succeeded to the
title in 1849, on the death of his father, Henry John George, the 3rd
earl (1800-1849). Soon after taking his degree at Oxford he began to
play a prominent part in the deliberations of the House of Lords. In
1858 he was under secretary for the colonies, and in 1866 secretary of
state. In this capacity he introduced in 1867 the bill for the
federation of the British North American provinces which set so many
political problems at rest; but he had not the privilege of passing it,
having, before the measure became law, resigned, owing to his distaste
for Disraeli's Reform Bill. Resuming office in 1874, he endeavoured to
confer a similar boon on South Africa, but the times were not ripe. In
1878 he again resigned, out of opposition to Lord Beaconsfield's policy
on the Eastern question; but on his party's return to power in 1885 he
became lord-lieutenant of Ireland. His short period of office, memorable
for a conflict on a question of personal veracity between himself and Mr
Parnell as to his negotiations with the latter in respect of Home Rule,
was terminated by another premature resignation. He never returned to
office, and died on the 29th of June 1890. As a statesman his career was
marred by extreme sensitiveness; but he was beloved as a man of worth
and admired as a man of culture. He was high steward of the university
of Oxford, and president of the Society of Antiquaries. The 4th earl was
succeeded by his son, George Edward Stanhope Molyneux (b. 1866).
CARNARVON, a market town and municipal borough, and the county town of
Carnarvonshire, north Wales, 68-1/2 m. W. of Chester by the London &
North-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 9760. It stands very nearly on the
site of Caer Seint, capital of the Segontiaci, and was fortified in 1098
by Hugh Lupus, earl of Chester, after Roman occupation, a fort, baths
and villa, with coins and pottery, having been exhumed here. As the
castle was begun only in 1284, Edward II., supposed to have been born in
its Eagle Tower on the extreme west, can only have been born outside.
The castle is an irregular oblong building on the west of the town,
surrounded by walls and having thirteen polygonal towers. There is still
much of the town wall extant. The parish church (Llanbeblig) is some
half-mile out of the town, the institutions of which include a town and
county hall, a training college, and a gaol for Anglesey and
Carnarvonshire jointly. Manufactures in the town are scanty, but
Llanberis and Llanllyfni export hence slates, "sets" and copper ore. A
steam ferry unites Carnarvon and Tan y foel, Anglesey, while a summer
service of steamers runs to Menai Bridge, Bardsey, &c. The borough forms
part of a district returning a member to parliament since 1536. To this
district the Reform Act added Bangor. The county quarter sessions and
assizes are held in the town, which has a separate commission of the
peace, but no separate court of quarter sessions. Three weekly Welsh
(besides English) newspapers are published here.
CARNARVONSHIRE (Welsh _Caer'narfon_, for _Caer yn Arfon_), a county of
north Wales, bounded N. by the Irish Sea, E. by the county of Denbigh,
S.E. by Merioneth, S. by Tremadoc and Cardigan Bays, S.W. by Carnarvon
Bay, W. by the Menai Straits (separating the county from Anglesey), and
N.W. by Conway Bay. Area, 565 sq. m. There is, owing to the changed bed
of the Conwy stream, a small detached part of the county on the north
coast of Denbighshire, stretching inland for some 2-1/2 m. between Old
Colwyn and Llandulas. About half the whole length of the county is a
peninsula, Lleyn, running south-west into the Irish Sea, and forming
Cardigan Bay on the south and Carnarvon Bay on the north. The county is
rich in minerals, e.g. lead, copper, some gold. Its slate quarries are
many and good. Its mountains include the highest in England and Wales,
the summit of Snowdon (Wyddfa or Eryri) being 3560 ft. The principal
mountains occupy the middle of the county and include Carnedd Llewelyn
(3484 ft.), Carnedd Dafydd (3426), Glydyr Fawr (3279) and Glydyr Fach
(3262), Elidr Fawr (3029), Moel Siabod (2860), Moel Hebog or Hebawg
(2566). The valleys vary from the wildness of Pont Aberglaslyn gorge to
the quiet of Nant Gwynnant. Those of Beddgelert and Llanberis--at the
south and north base of Snowdon respectively--are famous, while that of
the Conwy, from Llanrwst to Conway (Conwy), is well set off by the
background of Snowdonia.
The largest stream is the Conwy, tidal and navigable for some 12 m. from
Deganwy; this rises in Llyn Conwy, in the south-east, divides Carnarvon
from Denbigh (running nearly due north) for some 30 m., and falls into
the sea at Deganwy. The Seint (wrongly spelled Seiont) is a small stream
rising in Snowdon and falling into the sea at Carnarvon, to which it
gave its old name Segontium (Kaer Seint yn Arvon in the _Mabinogion_).
The Swallow Falls are near Nant Ffrancon (the stream of the Beaver or
Afanc, a mythological animal). Nant Ffrancon leads north-west from near
Capel Curig and Bettws y coed and past Bethesda, reaching the sea in
Beaumaris Bay. The lakes, numerous and occasionally large, include: Llyn
Peris and Llyn Padarn at Llanberis, north of Snowdon; Llyn Ogwen, north
of Glydyr Fawr; Llyn Cowlyd and Llyn Eigiau, both north of Capel Curig;
Llyn Llydaw, on Snowdon; Llyn Cwellyn, west of Snowdon; Llyn Gwynnant,
east of Snowdon; Llyniau (Nant y llef or) Nantlle, near Llanllyfni; Llyn
Conway.
The greater part of the county, including the mountainous Snowdon
district and nearly all the eastern portion of the promontory of
Lleyn, is occupied by rocks of Ordovician age, the Arenig, Bala and
Llandeilo series. These are dark slates and thin-bedded grits with
enormous masses of interbedded igneous rocks, lavas and ashes, the
product of contemporaneous volcanoes. At the base of Snowdon are Bala
grits and slates, above them lie three beds of felspathic porphyry,
which are in turn succeeded by a great mass of calcareous and sandy
volcanic ashes, while upon the summit are the remnants of a lava
sheet. The whole mountain is part of a syncline, the beds dipping into
it from the north-west and south-east.
Next to the Ordovician, the Cambrian rocks are the most important;
they are found in three separate areas; the largest is in the
north-west, and extends from Bangor to Bethesda, through Llyn Cwellyn
and Llanwada to the coast near Clynnogfawr. The second area lies west
of Tremadoc, which has given its name to the upper division of the
Cambrian system. The third forms the promontory south of Llanenga.
Cambrian slates are extensively quarried at Penrhyn, Llanberis and
Dinorwic. Pre-Cambrian schists and igneous rocks occupy a strip, from
2 to 3 m. wide, along the coast from Neirn to Bardsey Island. A very
small area of the Denbighshire Silurian enters this county near Conway
near the eastern border; it comprises Tarannon shale and Wenlock beds
with graptolites.
The striking headland of the Great Orme as well as Little Orme's Head
is composed of carboniferous limestone, containing corals and large
_Productus_ shells. A narrow strip of the same formation runs along
the Menai Straits for several miles south of the tubular bridge. At
the southern extremity of the limestone a small patch of coal measures
is found.
Glacial drift--gravel, boulders and clay--is abundant along the
northern coast, and in the neighbourhood of Snowdon it is an important
feature in the landscape; massive moraines, perched blocks, striated
stones and other evidences of ice action are common. On Moel Trygarn
and on the western flanks of Snowdon marine shells have been found in
the drift up to an elevation of 1400 ft. above sea-level. Blown sand
occurs along the coast near Conway, south-west of Carnarvon and on the
south coast. Several hollows and pipes in the carboniferous limestone
about Orme's Head contain clays and sands of mixed origin, including
Upper Carboniferous, Triassic and drift materials. The igneous rocks,
especially those of volcanic origin, constitute one of the most
striking geological features of the county; they comprise felsites,
rhyolites, quartz porphyries, enstatite diabases, andesite tuffs,
diabases and granite.
The climate is cold and damp in winter, except in the peninsula, Lleyn,
and on the mild coast. Arable land, but a small proportion of the
surface, is mostly in the Conwy valley or near the sea. Principal crops
are oats, barley and potatoes, with some little wheat. The valley soil
(alluvial) is often fertile, chiefly as meadow and enclosed pasture.
Dairy and sheep-farming occupy most farmers. The small mountain ponies,
especially of Llanbedr (Conwy Vale), are famous, and Welsh ponies were
known for staying power even to Arrian (_Cynegetics_). Agriculture still
too much follows the old routine, besides losing by the influx of labour
into the towns or to the mining industry and "set works" (stone).
The county is served by the London & North-Western railway; its terminus
is Afon Wen, within 4 m. of Pwllheli. Between these stations plies the
Cambrian, which runs along the Cardigan Bay coast and terminates at
Pwllheli. The North Wales Narrow Gauge line runs from Dinas, south of
Carnarvon, to Snowdon Ranger, 4 m. from Beddgelert. The main line of the
London & North-Western runs along the northern coast, with branches from
Llandudno junction to Blaenau Festiniog, along the Denbighshire side of
the Conwy stream; from Menai Bridge to Carnarvon (thence continuing to
Llanberis, or, by another line, to Afon Wen). The chief ports are
Portmadoc, Pwllheli, Carnarvon, Port Dinorwic and Bangor. Near Portmadoc
is Criccieth, with a castle resorted to by visitors; Pwllheli is also a
summer resort, and a tramway runs thence to within a short distance of
Abersoch, another favourite watering-place. Nefyn (some 6 m. from
Pwllheli), still unserved by rail or tram, was the scene of a royal
tournament in the 15th century, and is another bathing resort; near are
Carreg Llam and Pistyll farm (see BARDSEY).
The area of the ancient county is 361,156 acres, with a population in
1901 of 126,883. The area of the administrative county is 365,986 acres.
The inhabitants practically all speak Welsh (slightly differing,
especially in Lleyn, from that of Anglesey). Over 80 is the percentage
in Carnarvonshire, as against over 90 for Anglesey. The county is
divided into two parliamentary divisions, south (Eifion) and north
(Arfon).
The Carnarvon district of boroughs is formed of Bangor city, Carnarvon,
Conway, Criccieth, Nefyn and Pwllheli. There are four municipal
boroughs: Bangor (pop. 11,269), Carnarvon (9760), Conway (4681) and
Pwllheli (3675). Other urban districts are: Bethesda (5281), Bettws y
coed (1070), Criccieth (1406), Llandudno (9279), Llanfairfechan (2769),
Penmaenmawr (3503) and Ynyscynhaiarn (4883). Carnarvon, where assizes
are held, is in the north Wales circuit. Except a few parishes (in and
near Llandudno) in St Asaph diocese, Carnarvonshire is in the diocese of
Bangor, and contains sixty-one ecclesiastical parishes or districts,
with parts of four others. Bangor, Carnarvon, Pwllheli and Llandudno are
the principal towns, with Criccieth, Nefyn, Portmadoc and Tremadoc.
Carnarvonshire was occupied by the Segontiaci, with difficulty subdued
by Ostorius Scapula and C. Suetonius Paulinus (Paullinus). From here
Agricola crossed to conquer Anglesey. Relics of British forts and camps
have been discovered. Caerhun (Caer Rhun) and Carnarvon (Caer Seint) are
respectively the old Conovium and Segontium of Britannia Secunda. The
county was part of Gwynedd kingdom, until Edward I. in 1277 restricted
that to Snowdon proper. The early fortresses at Deganwy, Dinorwic, Dinas
Dinlle, &c., and the later castles of Conwy (Conway), Carnarvon,
Criccieth and Dolbadarn, bear witness to the warlike character of its
inhabitants.
See Edw. Breese, _Kalendar of Gwynedd_ (London, 1874).
CARNATIC, or KARNATAK (Kannada, Karnata, Karnatakadesa), a name given by
Europeans to a region of southern India, between the Eastern Ghats and
the Coromandel coast, in the presidency of Madras. It is ultimately
derived, according to Bishop Caldwell (_Grammar of the Dravidian
Languages_), from _kar_, "black," and _nadu_, "country," _i.e._ "the
black country," "a term very suitable to designate the 'black cotton
soil,' as it is called, of the plateau of the Southern Deccan." Properly
the name is, in fact, applicable only to the country of the Kanarese
extending between the Eastern and Western Ghats, over an irregular area
narrowing northwards, from Palghat in the south to Bidar in the north,
and including Mysore. The extension of the name to the country south of
the Karnata was probably due to the Mahommedan conquerors who in the
16th century overthrew the kingdom of Vijayanagar, and who extended the
name which they found used of the country north of the Ghats to that
south of them. After this period the plain country of the south came to
be called Karnata Payanghat, or "lowlands," as distinguished from
Karnata Balaghat, or "highlands." The misapplication of the name
Carnatic was carried by the British a step further than by the
Mahommedans, it being confined by them to the country below the Ghats,
Mysore not being included. Officially, however, this name is no longer
applied, "the Carnatic" having become a mere geographical term.
Administratively the name Carnatic (or rather Karnatak) is now applied
only to the Bombay portion of the original Karnata, viz. the districts
of Belgaum, Dharwar and Bijapur, part of North Kanara, and the native
states of the Southern Mahratta agency and Kolhapur.
The region generally known to Europeans as the Carnatic, though no
longer a political or administrative division, is of great historical
importance. It extended along the eastern coast about 600 m. in length,
and from 50 to 100 m. in breadth. It was bounded on the north by the
Guntur circar, and thence it stretched southward to Cape Comorin. It was
divided into the Southern, Central and Northern Carnatic. The region
south of the river Coleroon, which passes the town of Trichinopoly, was
called the Southern Carnatic. The principal towns of this division were
Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Madura, Tranquebar, Negapatam and Tinnevelly. The
Central Carnatic extended from the Coleroon river to the river Pennar;
its chief towns were Madras, Pondicherry, Arcot, Vellore, Cuddalore,
Pulicat, Nellore, &c. The Northern Carnatic extended from the river
Pennar to the northern limit of the country; and the chief town was
Ongole.[1] The Carnatic, as above defined, comprehended within its
limits the maritime provinces of Nellore, Chingleput, South Arcot,
Tanjore, Madura and Tinnevelly, besides the inland districts of North
Arcot and Trichinopoly. The population of this region consists chiefly
of Brahmanical Hindus, the Mahommedans being but thinly scattered over
the country. The Brahmans rent a great proportion of the land, and also
fill different offices in the collection of the revenue and the
administration of justice. Throughout the country they appropriate to
themselves a particular quarter in every town, generally the strongest
part of it. Large temples and other public monuments of civilization
abound. The temples are commonly built in the middle of a square area,
and enclosed by a wall 15 or 20 ft. high, which conceals them completely
from the public view, as they are never raised above it.
At the earliest period of which any records exist, the country known as
the Carnatic was divided between the Pandya and Chola kingdoms, which
with that of Chera or Kerala formed the three Tamil kingdoms of southern
India. The Pandya kingdom practically coincided in extent with the
districts of Madura and Tinnevelly; that of the Cholas extended along
the Coromandel coast from Nellore to Pudukottai, being bounded on the
north by the Pennar river and on the south by the Southern Vellaru. The
government of the country was shared for centuries with these dynasties
by numerous independent or semi-independent chiefs, evidence of whose
perennial internecine conflicts is preserved in the multitudes of forts
and fortresses the deserted ruins of which crown almost all the elevated
points. In spite, however, of this passion of the military classes for
war the Tamil civilization developed in the country was of a high type.
This was largely due to the wealth of the country, famous in the
earliest times as now for its pearl fisheries. Of this fishery Korkai
(the Greek [Greek: Kdlcha]), now a village on the Tambraparni river in
Tinnevelly, but once the Pandya capital, was the centre long before the
Christian era. In Pliny's day, owing to the silting up of the harbour,
its glory had already decayed and the Pandya capital had been removed to
Madura (_Hist. Nat._ vi. cap. xxiii. 26), famous later as a centre of
Tamil literature. The Chola kingdom, which four centuries before Christ
had been recognized as independent by the great Maurya king Asoka, had
for its chief port Kaviripaddinam at the mouth of the Cauvery, every
vestige of which is now buried in sand. For the first two centuries
after Christ a large sea-borne trade was carried on between the Roman
empire and the Tamil kingdoms; but after Caracalla's massacre at
Alexandria in A.D. 215 this ceased, and with it all intercourse with
Europe for centuries. Henceforward, until the 9th century, the history
of the country is illustrated only by occasional and broken lights. The
4th century saw the rise of the Pallava power,[2] which for some 400
years encroached on, without extinguishing, the Tamil kingdoms. When in
A.D. 640 the Chinese traveller Hsuan Tsang visited Kanchi (Conjevaram),
the capital of the Pallava king, he learned that the kingdom of Chola
(Chu-li-ya) embraced but a small territory, wild, and inhabited by a
scanty and fierce population; in the Pandya kingdom (Malakuta), which
was under Pallava suzerainty, literature was dead, Buddhism all but
extinct, while Hinduism and the naked Jain saints divided the religious
allegiance of the people, and the pearl fisheries continued to flourish.
The power of the Pallava kings was shaken by the victory of Vikramaditya
Chalukya in A.D. 740, and shattered by Aditya Chola at the close of the
9th century. From this time onward the inscriptional records are
abundant. The Chola kingdom, which in the 9th century had been weak, now
revived, its power culminating in the victories of Rajaraja the Great,
who defeated the Chalukyas after a four years' war, and, about A.D. 994,
forced the Pandya kings to become his tributaries. A magnificent temple
at Tanjore, once his capital, preserves the records of his victories
engraved upon its walls. His career of conquest was continued by his son
Rajendra Choladeva I., self-styled Gangaikonda owing to his victorious
advance to the Ganges, who succeeded to the throne in A.D. 1018. The
ruins of the new capital which he built, called Gangaikonda Cholapuram,
still stand in a desolate region of the Trichinopoly district. His
successors continued the eternal wars with the Chalukyas and other
dynasties, and the Chola power continued in the ascendant until the
death of Kulottunga Chola III. in 1278, when a disputed succession
caused its downfall and gave the Pandyas the opportunity of gaining for
a few years the upper hand in the south. In 1310, however, the
Mahommedan invasion under Malik Kafur overwhelmed the Hindu states of
southern India in a common ruin. Though crushed, however, they were not
extinguished; a period of anarchy followed, the struggle between the
Chola kings and the Mussulmans issuing in the establishment at Kanchi of
a usurping Hindu dynasty which ruled till the end of the 14th century,
while in 1365 a branch of the Pandyas succeeded in re-establishing
itself in part of the kingdom of Madura, where it survived till 1623. At
the beginning of the 15th century the whole country had come under the
rule of the kings of Vijayanagar; but in the anarchy that followed the
overthrow of the Vijayanagar empire by the Mussulmans in the 16th
century, the Hindu viceroys (_nayakkas_) established in Madura, Tanjore
and Kanchi made themselves independent, only in their turn to become
tributary to the kings of Golconda and Bijapur, who divided the Carnatic
between them. Towards the close of the 17th century the country was
reduced by the armies of Aurangzeb, who in 1692 appointed Zulfikar Ali
nawab of the Carnatic, with his seat at Arcot. Meanwhile, the Mahratta
power had begun to develop; in 1677 Sivaji had suppressed the last
remnants of the Vijayanagar power in Vellore, Gingee and Kurnool, while
his brother Ekoji, who in 1674 had overthrown the Nayakkas of Tanjore,
established in that city a dynasty which lasted for a century. The
collapse of the Delhi power after the death of Aurangzeb produced
further changes. The nawab Saadet-allah of Arcot (1710-1732) established
his independence; his successor Dost Ali (1732-1740) conquered and
annexed Madura in 1736, and his successors were confirmed in their
position as nawabs of the Carnatic by the nizam of Hyderabad after that
potentate had established his power in southern India. After the death
of the nawab Mahommed Anwar-ud-din (1744-1749), the succession was
disputed between Mahommed Ali and Husein Dost. In this quarrel the
French and English, then competing for influence in the Carnatic, took
opposite sides. The victory of the British established Mahommed Ali in
power over part of the Carnatic till his death in 1795. Meanwhile,
however, the country had been exposed to other troubles. In 1741 Madura,
which the nawab Dost Ali (1732-1740) had added to his dominions in 1736,
was conquered by the Mahrattas; and in 1743 Hyder Ali of Mysore overran
and ravaged the central Carnatic. The latter was reconquered by the
British, to whom Madura had fallen in 1758; and, finally, in 1801 all
the possessions of the nawab of the Carnatic were transferred to them by
a treaty which stipulated that an annual revenue of several lakhs of
pagodas should be reserved to the nawab, and that the British should
undertake to support a sufficient civil and military force for the
protection of the country and the collection of the revenue. On the
death of the nawab in 1853 it was determined to put an end to the
nominal sovereignty, a liberal establishment being provided for the
family.
The southern Carnatic, when it came into the possession of the British,
was occupied by military chieftains called poligars, who ruled over the
country, and held lands by doubtful tenures. They were unquestionably a
disorderly race; and the country, by their incessant feuds and
plunderings, was one continued scene of strife and violence. Under
British rule they were reduced to order, and their forts and military
establishments were destroyed.
See INDIA: _History_. For the various applications of the name
Carnatic see the _Imperial Gazetteer of India_ (Oxford, 1908), _s.v._;
for the results of the latest researches in the early history of the
country see V.A. Smith, _Early History of India_ (2nd ed., Oxford,
1908), and Robert Sewell, _A Forgotten Empire_ (Vijayanagar), (London,
1900).