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ORMSKIRK, a market town and urban district in the Ormskirk parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, 11 m. N.E. of Liverpool by the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway. Pop. (1901), 6857. The church of St Peter and St Paul is a spacious building in various styles of architecture, but principally Perpendicular. It possesses the rare feature of two western towers, the one square and embattled, the other octagonal and bearing a short spire. There are various Norman fragments, including a fine early window in the chancel. To the south-east of the church, and divided from it by a screen, is the Derby chapel, the exclusive property of the earls of Derby, whose vault is contained within. A free grammar school was founded about 1614. Rope and twine making, iron-founding and brewing are carried on, and the town has long been famous for its gingerbread.

The name and church existed in the time of Richard I., when the priory of Burscough was founded. A few fragments of this remain about 2 m. N. of Ormskirk. The prior and convent obtained from Edward I. a royal charter for a market at the manor of Ormskirk. On the dissolution of the monasteries the manor was granted to the earl of Derby.

 ORNAMENT (Lat. ornare, to adorn), in decorative art, that element which adds an embellishment of beauty in detail. Ornament is in its nature accessory, and implies a thing to be ornamented, which is its active cause and by rights suggests its (q.v.). It does not exist apart from its application. Nor is it properly added to a thing already in existence (that is but a makeshift for design), but is rather such modification of the thing in the making as may be determined by the consideration of beauty. For example, the construction and proportions of a chair are determined by use (by the necessity of combining the maximum of strength with the minimum of weight, and of fitting it to the proportions of the human body, &c.); and any modification of the plan, such as the turning of legs, the shaping of arms and back, carving, inlay, mouldings, &c.—any reconsideration even of the merely utilitarian plan from the point of view of art—has strictly to do with Ornament, which thus, far from being an afterthought, belongs to the very inception of the thing. Ornament is good only in so far as it is an indispensable part of something, helping its effect without hurt to its use. It is begotten of use by the consideration of beauty. The test of ornament is its fitness. It must occupy a space, fulfil a purpose, be adapted to the material in which and the process by which it is executed. This implies treatment. The treatment befitting a wall space does not equally befit a floor space of the same dimensions. What is suitable to hand-painting is not equally suitable to stencilling; nor what is proper to mosaic proper to carpet-weaving. Neither the purposes of decoration nor the conditions of production allow great scope for naturalism in ornament. Its forms are derived from nature, more or less; but repose is best secured by some removedness from nature—necessitated also by the due treatment of material after its kind and according to its fashioning. In the case of recurring ornament it is inept to multiply natural flowers, &c., which at every repetition lose something of their natural attraction. The artist in ornament does not imitate natural forms. Such as he may employ he transfigures. He does not necessarily set out with any idea of natural form (this comes to him by the way); his first thought is to solve a given problem in design, and he solves it perhaps most surely by means of abstract ornament—witness the work of the Greeks and of the Arabs. The extremity of tasteless naturalism, reached towards the beginning of the Victorian era, was the opportunity of English reformers, prominent amongst whom was Owen Jones, whose fault was in insisting upon a form of ornament too abstract to suit English ideas. William Morris and others led the way back to nature, but to nature trained in the way of ornament. The Styles of ornament, so-called, mark the evolution of design, being the direct outcome of Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Gothic or other conditions, in days when fashion moved slowly. Post-Renaissance ornament goes by the name of the reigning king; but the character of the historic periods was not sought by artists; it came of their working in the way natural to them and doing their best. “Style,” as distinguished from “the Styles,” comes of an artist's intelligent and sympathetic treatment of his material, and of his personal sincerity and strength. International traffic has gone far to do away with national characteristics in ornament, which becomes yearly more and more alike all the world over. The subsidiary nature of ornament and its subjection to conditions lead to its frequent repetition, which results in pattern, repeated forms falling inevitably into lines, always self-asserting, and liable to annoy in proportion as they were not foreseen by the designer. He cannot, therefore, safely disregard them. Indeed, his first business is to build pattern upon lines, if not intrinsically beautiful, at least helpful to the scheme of decoration. He may disguise them; but capable designers are generally quite frank about the construction of their pattern, and not afraid of pronounced lines. Of course, adaptation being all-essential to pattern, an artist must be versed in the technique of any manufacture for which he designs. His art is in being equal to the occasion.

 ORNE, a department of the north-west of France, about half of which formerly belonged to the province of Normandy and the rest to the duchy of Alençon and to Perche. Pop. (1906) 315,993. Area, 2371 sq. m. It is bounded N. by Calvados, N.E. by Eure, E. and S.E. by Eure-et-Loir, S. by Sarthe and Mayenne and W. by Manche. Geologically there are two distinct regions: to the west of the Orne and the railway from Argentan to Alençon lie primitive rocks connected with those of Brittany; to the east begin the Jurassic and Cretaceous formations of Normandy. The latter district is agriculturally the richest part of the department; in the former the poverty of the soil has led the inhabitants to seek their subsistence from industrial pursuits. Between the northern portions, draining to the Channel, and the southern portion, belonging to the basin of the Loire, stretch the hills of Perche and Normandy, which generally have a height of from 800 to 1000 ft. The highest point in the department, situated in the forest of Écouves north of Alençon, reaches 1368 ft. The department gives birth to three Seine tributaries—the Eure, its affluent the Iton, and the Risle, which passes by Laigle. The Touques, passing by Vimoutiers, the Dives and the Orne fall into the English Channel, the last passing Sées and Argentan, and receiving the Noireau with its tributary the Vère, which runs past Flers. Towards the Loire flows the Huisne, a feeder of the Sarthe passing by Mortagne, the Sarthe, which passes by Alençon, and the Mayenne, some of whose affluents rise to the north of the dividing range and make their way through it by the most picturesque defiles. The department, indeed, with its beautiful forests containing oaks several centuries old, its meadows, streams, deep gorges and stupendous rocks, is one of the most picturesque of all France. In the matter of climate Orne belongs to the Seine region. The mean temperature is 50° F.; the summer heat is never extreme; the west winds are the most frequent; the rainfall, distributed over about a hundred days in the year, amounts to 36 in. or about 5 in. more than the average for France.

Horse-breeding is the most flourishing business in the rural districts; there are three breeds—those of Perche, Le Merlerault and Brittany. The great government stud of Le Pin-au-Haras (established in 1714), with its school of horse-breeding, is situated between Le Merlerault and Argentan. Several horse-training establishments exist in the department. A large number of lean cattle are bought in the neighbouring departments to be fattened; the farms in the vicinity of Vimoutiers, on the borders of Calvados, produce the famous Camembert cheese, and others excellent butter. The bee industry is very flourishing. Oats, wheat, barley and buckwheat are the chief cereals, besides which fodder in great quantity and variety, potatoes and some