Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/744

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1em  ASHBURTON, a borough and market-town of England, in the county of Devon, 192 miles W.S.W. of London, and 18 from Exeter. It stands in a valley surrounded on every side by hills, at a short distance from the river Dart, and consists principally of one long street. The church of St Andrew is a handsome Gothic structure, built in the form of a cross, with, a tower 90 feet high. Ashburton was the seat of one of the stannary courts. Before the Reform Act of 1832 it returned two members to parlia ment; from that time it returned one till 1868, when it vas disfranchised. Population in 1871, 2335, principally employed in the manufacture of serge, or in the tin and copper mines and slate quarries in the vicinity.  ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH, a market-town of England, county of Leicester, 17 miles north-west of Leicester, on the railway from that city to Burton. The town, which derives the adjunct to its name from the Norman family of La Zouch, consists principally of one long street. It contains six churches and chapels, and has a grammar school and several charity schools. The church of St Helen is a fine old building, containing the tombs of the Hunt ingdon family, and a &quot; finger pillory.&quot; The Ivanhoe baths, erected in 1826, are much frequented for their saline waters, which, as containing bromine, are found useful in scrofulous and rheumatic complaints. To the south of the town are the extensive remains of Ashby Castle, built in 1480 by Sir William Hastings, ancestor of the earls of Huntingdon, who was created baron of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in 1461. It was one of the castles in which Mary Queen of Scots was confined. Population (1871), 7302, principally engaged in the manufacture of stockings, leather, malt, and firebricks, or in the coal and iron mines of the vicinitv.  ASHDOD. See.  ASHFORD, a market-town of England, county of Kent, 12 miles south-west of Canterbury, and 53 from London. It is pleasantly situated on a gentle eminence near the junction of the upper branches of the river Stour, and is a chief station of the South-Eastern Railway. Many of its houses are well built and handsome ; its principal street is nearly half a mile in length, and well paved and lighted. It has a fine old Gothic church, with a lofty, well-propor tioned tower, and many handsome monuments. The free grammar school was founded by Sir Norman Knatchbull in the time of Charles I. Population of parish (1871), 8458.  ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE, or, a parliamentary borough in the county of Lancaster, and hundred of Salford, on the northern bank of the river Tame, 61 miles east of Manchester, and 197 from London. Like Manchester, it has had a rapid growth from an insignificant country town to a populous and thriving borough. Notwithstanding this it is well built, and contains many spacious streets and handsome public edifices. Among the latter are 4 large churches, 15 dissenting chapels, a spacious town-hall, and a very large and prosperous market-house. There are three banks, a savings-bank, a theatre, a mechanics institute, and numerous week-day and Sunday schools. The cor poration have built, at a cost of 16,000, a magnificent set of public baths. There are three newspapers published in the town. At a short distance to the north of the town are the infantry and cavalry barracks, erected in 1843 at a cost of 42,500, and the union workhouse, erected in 1851 at an expenditure of 12,000. A magnificent in firmary, built and endowed by public subscriptions, fronts the workhouse. A large public park is provided for the people midway between this and neighbouring borough of Stalybridge. A union hospital for infectious and other diseases has just been completed. The modern growth of Ashton dates from the introduction of the cotton trade in 1769. It enjoys many facilities for manufacturing indus try, coal being very plentiful in the neighbourhood, four important railway lines passing through it, and canals con necting it Avith Manchester, Huddersfield, and Derbyshire. The town, though essentially modern, has an origin of great antiquity, and still exercises many of its ancient feudal customs and manorial privileges. It is divided into four wards, governed by a mayor, eight aldermen, and twenty- four councillors; and since the Reform Act of 1832 it ha3 returned one member to the House of Commons. In 1821 it had a population of only 9222, which in 1851 had increased to 29,798, chiefly engaged in spinning cotton yarn and weaving ginghams and calicoes by machinery in the numerous large factories. Population of parliamentary borough in 1871, 37,389; of municipal borough, 31,984.