Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/667

Rh N V N O Y 609 of the Dnieper. In the 17th century the site was occupied by several villages of the Zaporog Cossacks, which were known under the name of Samartchik, and derived their wealth from valuable fisheries. In 1687 Prince Golitzyn founded here the Ust-Samara fort, which was destroyed after the treaty of the Pruth ; it was rebuilt again in 1736, and the settlement of Novoselitsy established, which re ceived a municipal constitution about the end of the last century. The very fertile surrounding country was rapidly colonized, and now has several villages each of more than 5000 and one above 10,000 inhabitants. The population of Novomoskovsk, which numbers 11,000, is chiefly engaged in agricultural pursuits. Some are employed in tanneries, and there is also some trade in horses, cattle, tallow, skins, tar, and pitch. As many as 150,000 head of cattle change hands at the yearly fair. In the immediate neigh bourhood is the Samarsko-Nikolaevskii monastery, which is visited by many pilgrims. NOVOTCHERKASSK, capital of the province of the Don Cossacks, is situated 737 miles south-south-east from Moscow, and 40 miles from the sea of Azoff. It was founded in 1805, when the inhabitants of the Tcherkassk stanitsa (now Old Tcherkassk) were compelled to leave their abodes on the banks of the Don on account of the frequent in undations. They were settled on a hill, 300 feet above the low plain, at the junction of the Don with the Aksai, and it was the intention of the authorities to create there, around the chief town of the Don Cossacks, a large agri cultural colony ; but the want of drinking water proved a great obstacle, and it was decided to transfer Novotcher- kassk to another site, when Nicholas I., after a visit in 1837, ordered that it should remain where it was. In 1863 a water-supply was obtained by the construction of an aqueduct 18 miles long, with a steam-engine pumping 325,000 gallons per day. In the following year the town was brought into railway communication with Voronesh and Rostoff, from which last it is 32 miles distant. It is finely situated, and an extensive view over the low prairies of the Don is obtained from the top of the hill. The town has a public garden, a theatre, a clubhouse, and is adorned by the palace and gardens of the ataman of the Cossacks, and by a monument to Platoff. The educational institutions include a gymnasium for boys, and another for girls, besides several lower schools. Since the introduction of a water-supply and the construction of a branch rail way line to the Grushevskiya coal-mines, Novotcherkassk has been developing rapidly ; wide suburbs extend to the south-west, and the right bank of the Aksai is dotted with the villas of the Cossack officials. Manufactures, how ever, make but slow progress ; there are only a few candle- works, brick-works, distilleries, tobacco-works, and manu factories of champagne, with an aggregate production in 1879 of 240,000 roubles (out of a total for all the province of 1,909,000 roubles). An active trade is carried on in corn, wine, and timber (exports), and manufactures and grocery wares (imports). There are two fairs of some local importance. The population of the town is 34,000. NOWGONG or NAOGAOST, a district in the chief-com- missionership of Assam, India, lying between 25 45 and 26 40 N. lat. and 92 and 93 50 E. long., is bounded on the N. by the Brahmaputra, separating it from Darrang, E. and S. by Sibsagar and the Naga and Khasi Hills. The district, which has an area of 3417 square miles, con- .sists of a wide plain much overgrown with jungle and cane- brakes, intersected by numerous offshoots and tributaries of the Brahmaputra, and dotted with shalloAv marshes. It is estimated that about a hundred minor streams become navigable in the rainy season. The Mikir Hills cover an area of about 65 miles by 35 in the south of the district ; the highest peak is about 3500 feet. The slopes are very steep, and are covered with dense forest. The KamAkhyA Hills are a small range near the bank of the Brahmaputra, about 1500 feet high. On the summit of the highest peak is a celebrated temple of KamakhyA, the local goddess of love, where three annual festivals are held, attended by crowds of pilgrims from all parts of the country. Only about one-ninth of the area of the district has been as yet brought under cultivation. Wild beasts of all kinds abound. The population in 1881 was 310,579, of whom about 12,000 were Mohammedans and the rest mainly aborigines or semi-Hinduized aborigines and Hindus in about equal proportions. The great bulk of the aborigines consists of the cognate tribes of Mi ki rs, Lalangs, and Cacluins. The population of the town of Nowgonf was only 4200 in 1881. The staple crop is rice. Tea cultivation and manufacture are carried on by means of European capital and under European supervision. The principal means of communication are afforded by the rivers. The chief road, that from Nowgong town to Gauhati in Kamrup, runs for 44 miles through the district, but is uu- bridged. The climate of Xowgong is extremely unhealthy. NOY, WILLIAM (1577-1634), attorney-general, was born, it is believed, on the family estate of Pendrea in Bur- yan, Cornwall, in 1577, his father belonging to a family whose pedigree is included in the visitation of Cornwall in 1620. He matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford, 27th April 1593, and looked back upon his academical life with such affection that, twenty years later, when the privileges of that institution were invaded by Lord Petre, he pleaded its cause gratuitously and successfully. His legal career began at Lincoln s Inn, and throughout life he was a diligent student of the grounds and precedents on which English law is based. From 1603 until his death he was elected, with one exception, to each parliament, sitting invariably for a constituency of his native county. For several years his sympathies were in antagonism to the wishes of the court, so that his historical knowledge was freely laid at the service of the opposition. Every commission that was appointed numbered Noy among its members, and even those who were opposed to him in politics acknowledged his learning. A few years before his death he was drawn over to the side of the court, and in October 1631 he was created attorney-general, but was never knighted. It was through his advice that the impost of ship-money was levied, and popular feeling vented its rage against him for its disastrous revival. Noy had long been a martyr to disease of the stone, and his death occurred, under circum stances of great agony, 9th August 1634 ; two days later he was buried at New Brentford church. Though he was of a reserved, almost morose disposition, and after his change of principles had little regard for the feelings of his old friends, many acts of kindness which he showed can be gleaned from the literature of his time. His prin cipal works, On tJie grounds and maxims of the laws of this kingdom (1641) and The compleat laivyer (1661), went through many editions. Further particulars concerning him and his children may be found collected in Davies Gilbert s Cornwall, iii. 143-60, and in the Bibliotheca Cor- nubiensis, vols. i. and iii. NOYON, a city of France, department of Oise, 67 miles north -north -east of Paris by the railway to Brussels, is built at the foot and on the slopes of a hill, and traversed by a small stream, the Verse, which joins the Oise a mile farther down. The old cathedral of Notre Dame, con structed during the latter half of the 12th century, is a fine example of the mixture of Romanesque and Gothic architecture. In plan it is a Latin cross, with a total length from east to west of 343 feet, and from north to south of 66. The west front has a porch, added in the 14th century, and two unfinished towers, their upper por tions dating from the 13th century; its decorations have been greatly mutilated. The nave (167 feet long and 66 XVII. 77