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 (see ); notice of dishonour, i.e. a notice that a bill of exchange has been dishonoured; notice of action, i.e. a notice to a person of an action intended to be brought against him, which is required by statute to be given in certain cases; notice of trial, i.e. the notice given by a plaintiff to a defendant that he intends to bring on the cause for trial; notice in lieu of personal service of a writ, i.e. by advertisement or otherwise; notice given by one party in an action to the other, at a trial, to produce certain documents in his possession or power; notice to treat, given under the Land Clauses Acts by public bodies having compulsory powers of purchasing land as a preliminary step to putting their powers in force. Notice may be either express or constructive. The latter is where knowledge of a fact is presumed from the circumstances of the case, e.g. notice to a solicitor is usually constructive notice to the client. Notice in some cases may be either oral or written. It is usually advisable to give written notice even where oral evidence is sufficient in law, as in the case of notice to quit. The American use of notice is practically the same as in England.

 NOTKER, a name of frequent occurrence in the ecclesiastical history of the middle ages. (c. 840–912) was a native of northern Switzerland, and for many years magister in the school of St Gall. He compiled a martyrology and other works, but is famous for his services to church music and for the “sequences” of which he was the composer. He was canonized in 1513. His life is in the Bollandist Acta Sanctorum, April 6th. (d. June 29th, 1022) was also an instructor at St Gall. His numerous translations, including those of the Old Testament Psalms, the categories of Aristotle, the De nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae of Martianus Capella, and the De consolatione of Boëthius, into Old High German, may possibly have been the work of his pupils. They possess considerable philological interest, and have been edited by E. G. Graff (Berlin, 1837–1847), and by P. Piper under the title Notkers und seiner Schule Schriften (1883–1884).

 NOTO, a city of Sicily, in the province of Syracuse, and 20 m. S.W. of it by rail, 520 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 22,564. The present town, rebuilt after the earthquake of 1693, has some fine buildings of the early 18th century. The older town lies 5 m. direct to the north (1378 ft.). It was the ancient Netum, a city of Sicel origin, left to Hiero II. by the Romans by the treaty of 263 and mentioned by Cicero as a foederata civitas (Verr. v. 51. 133), and by Pliny as Latinae conditionis (H.N. iii. 8. 14). The remains of this city are almost entirely hidden beneath the ruins of the medieval town, except three chambers cut in the rock, one of which is shown, by an inscription in the library at Noto, to have belonged to the gymnasium, while the other two were heroa, or shrines of heroes. But explorations have brought to light four cemeteries of the third Sicel period, and one of the Greek period, of the 3rd and 2nd centuries There are also catacombs of the Christian period and some Byzantine tombs. See P. Orsi in Notizie degli scavi, 1897, 69–90. Four miles to the S. of Noto, on the left bank of the Tellaro (Helorus) (E. Pais, Atakta, Pisa, 1891, p. 75 seq.) stands a stone column about 35 ft. in height, which is believed to be a memorial of the surrender of Nicias. This is uncertain; but, in any case, in the 3rd century a tomb was excavated in the rectangular area which surrounds it, destroying apparently a pre-existing tomb. The later burial belongs to the necropolis of the small town of Heloron, 750 yds. to the S.E., some remains of which have been discovered. It was a small advanced post of Syracuse, belonging probably to the 6th century See P. Orsi in Notizie degli scavi, 1899, 241.

 NOTT, ELIPHALET (1773–1866), American divine, was born on the 25th of June 1773 at Ashford, Connecticut. He was left an orphan without resources, but graduated in 1795 at Brown University. In 1804 he became president of Union College, Schenectady, New York, a position which he held till his death on the 29th of January 1866. He found the college financially embarrassed, but succeeded in placing it on a sound footing. He was known also as the inventor of the first stove for anthracite coal. His publications include sermons, Counsels to Young Men (1810), and Lectures on Temperance (1847).

 NOTT, SIR WILLIAM (1782–1845), English general, was the second son of Charles Nott, a Herefordshire farmer, who in 1794 became an innkeeper at Carmarthen. William Nott was indifferently educated, but he succeeded in obtaining a cadetship in the Indian army and proceeded to India in 1800. In 1825 he was promoted to the command of his regiment of native infantry; and in 1838, on the outbreak of the first Afghan war, he was appointed to the command of a brigade. From April to October 1839 he was in command of the troops left at Quetta, where he rendered valuable service. In November 1840 he captured Khelat, and in the following year compelled Akbar Khan and other tribal chiefs to submit to the British. On receiving the news of the rising of the Afghans at Kabul in November 1841, Nott took energetic measures. On the 23rd of December the British envoy, Sir William Hay Macnaghten, was murdered at Kabul; and in February 1842 the weak and incompetent commander-in-chief, General Elphinstone, sent orders that Kandahar was to be evacuated. Nott at once decided to disobey, on the supposition that Elphinstone was not a free agent at Kabul; and as soon as he heard the news of the massacre in the Khyber Pass, he urged the government at Calcutta to maintain the garrison of Kandahar with a view to avenging the massacre and the murder of Macnaghten. In March he inflicted a severe defeat on the enemy near Kandahar, and in May drove them with heavy loss out of the Baba Wali Pass. In July he received orders from Lord Ellenborough, the governor-general of India, to evacuate Afghanistan, with permission to retire by Kabul. Nott arranged with Sir George Pollock, now commander-in-chief, to join him at Kabul. On the 30th of August he routed the Afghans at Ghazni, and on the 6th of September occupied the fortress, from which he carried away, by the governor-general's express instructions, the gates of the temple of Somnath; on the 17th he joined Pollock at Kabul. The combined army recrossed the Sutlej in December. Nott's services were most warmly commended; he was immediately appointed resident at Lucknow, was presented with a sword of honour, and was made a G.C.B. In 1843 he returned to England, where the directors of the East India Company voted him a pension of £1000 per annum. He died at Carmarthen on the 1st of January 1845.

 NOTTINGHAM, EARLS OF. The English title of earl of Nottingham has been held by different families, notably by the Mowbrays (1377 to 1475; merged in the Norfolk title from 1397), the Howards (1596–1681), and the Finches (1681; since 1729 united with that of Winchilsea). For the Howard line see the separate article below. Here only the ancestors of the Finch line are dealt with.

(1621–1682), first earl of Nottingham in the Finch line, lord chancellor of England, was descended from an old family (see ), many of whose members had attained to high legal eminence, and was the eldest son of Sir Heneage Finch, recorder of London, by his first wife Frances, daughter of Sir Edmund Bell of Beaupré Hall, Norfolk. In the register of Oxford university he is entered as born in Kent on the 23rd of December 1621, and probably his native place was Eastwell in that county. He was educated at Westminster and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he remained till he became a member of the Inner Temple in 1638. He was called to the bar in 1645, and soon obtained a lucrative practice. He was a member of the convention parliament of April 1660, and shortly afterwards was appointed solicitor-general, being created a baronet the day after he was knighted. In May of the following year he was chosen to represent the university of