Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/313

 S U S O Z 291 SOUTHPORT, a municipal borough of Lancashire, England, and a favourite seaside resort, is situated between the estuaries of the Mersey and the Kibble, 18 miles north of Liverpool, and is a terminal station of three railway systems. Its foreshore consists of a great expanse of firm, bright sands, to the radiation of heat from which is attributed the mildness of its winter climate. Its proximity to Liverpool, Manchester, and other large manufacturing towns has drawn to it a large resident population, and its visitors, in quest of health and pleasure, number many thousands annually. Its spacious streets, laid out at right angles to each' other, are bordered with trees and ornamental gardens. The promenade along the shore is two miles in length; in its centre is the pier, a mile long, down which tramcars are drawn by a stationary steam-engine. Other facilities for outdoor enjoyment are provided in Hesketh Park (presented to the town by the late Rev. Charles Hesketh, rector of North Meols, and one of the lords of the manor), the Botanic Gardens, Kew Gardens, and the Winter Gardens. The last, laid out at a cost of 130,000, include a large conservatory, a fine enclosed promenade, a theatre, and an aquarium. There is also a glaciarium, or skating and curling hall, in which those amusements may be practised on real ice all the year round. The Victoria baths were erected in 1870 at an expenditure of 50,000. The principal public buildings are the town-hall, the Cambridge hall (used for concerts &c.), and an extensive range of markets, erected in 1881 at a cost of 40,000. Among the benevolent institutions are a general infirmary, a convalescent hospital, a sana- torium for children, and a neuro-hydropathic hospital. Southport has also a free library and art gallery (the gift of the late William Atkinson), a literary and philosophical institute, and a college (Trinity Hall) for the education of the daughters of Wesleyan ministers; and the town council are now (1886) engaged in building a museum and schools of science and art. The first house in Southport (an inn for the reception of sea-bathers) was built in 1791, and soon after other houses were erected on the site now known as Lord Street. The population, which in 1809 was 100, had increased in 1851 to 4766, and in 1861 to 10,097. In 1867 the town received a charter of incorporation, and since then its progress has been remarkable. In 1871 the population of the borough (area 7526 acres) was 18,086 ; in 1881 this had grown to 32,206, and in 1886 it was estimated at 36,596. Its sanitary arrangements are very perfect, and the water supply is abundant and excellent. Southport gives its name to one of the parlia- mentary divisions of South-West Lancashire. SOUTH SHIELDS. See SHIELDS, SOUTH. SOUTHWARK. See LONDON. SOUVESTRE, EMILE (1806-1854), a French novelist of merit, was born on April 15, 1806, and died on July 5, 1854. He was a native of Morlaix, and his affection for Brittany coloured most of his best work in after life. He had rather a chequered career of employment besides his literary pursuits. He was by turns a bookseller's assistant, a private schoolmaster, a journalist, and professeur at the grammar schools of Brest and Mulhouse. In 1848 he received what may sound to English ears the odd appoint- ment of " professor of administrative style " in a school founded for the instruction of civil servants. His literary work, however, was his labour of love. He began like most Frenchmen with the drama, but was never very successful with it. In novel-writing he did much better, and with Jules Sandeau (though on a somewhat lower level of writing, construction, and grasp of character) may be said to rank as the chief recent French novelist who deliberately aimed at making the novel an engine of moral instruction. With less genius and less sense of art than Sandeau, he did not always escape the reproach of dulness. His best work is undoubtedly to be found in the charming Derniers Bretons (1835-1837) and Foyer Breton (1844) (where the folklore and natural features of his native province are worked up into story form, with a success hardly excelled by any other writer), and in Un Philosophe sons les Toits, which received the honour of an academic prize in the year 1851. This Souvestre deserved, not merely for his sentiments, but for his easy and agreeable style. He also wrote a not inconsiderable number of other works novels, dramas, essays, and miscellanies. SOWERBY, JAMES (1757-1822), was at first a painter, but soon applied his art to the illustration of botanical and conchological works, which are still highly valued, especially his English Botany (12 vols. 8vo, 1846). His son George (1788-1854) followed in his father's steps, and produced a monumental work on couchology. SOWERBY BRIDGE, a manufacturing town in the West Riding of Yorkshire, is situated on both sides of the river Calder, at the termination of the Rochdale Canal, and on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, 2 miles south-west of Halifax, and 8 north-west of Huddersfield. Christ church, dating from 1526, was rebuilt in 1819. The other public buildings include the town-hall (1857) and the local board offices, opened in 1878, attached to which are the public baths and the slaughter-houses. The town is almost entirely the growth of the last fifty years. It possesses worsted and cotton mills, iron-works, dye- works, and chemical works. The population of the urban sanitary district (area 536 acres) in 1871 was 7041, and in 1881 it was 8724. SOZOMEN, church historian. Hermias Salamanes (Salaminius) Sozomenus came of a wealthy family of Palestine, and it is exceedingly probable that he himself was born (not later than 400 A.D.) and brought up there, in Gaza or the neighbourhood. What he has to tell us of the history of South Palestine was derived from oral tradition. His grandfather, as he himself tells us, lived at Bethel near Gaza, and became a Christian, probably under Constantius, through the influence of Hilarion, who among his other miracles had miraculously healed an acquaintance of the grandfather, one Alaphion. Both men with their families became zealous Christians and conspicu- ous for their virtues. The historian's grandfather became within his own circle a highly esteemed interpreter of Scripture, and held fast his profession even in the time of Julian. The descendants of the wealthy Alaphion founded churches and convents in the district, and were particularly active in promoting monasticism. Sozomen himself had conversed with one of these, a very old man. He was brought up under monkish influences ; so he expressly states, and his history bears him out. As a man he retained the impressions of his youth, and his great work was to be also a monument of his reverence for the monks in general and for the disciples of Hilarion in particular. He became a lawyer and advocate in Constantinople, where as such he wrote his 'EK^yo-tao-riK?; 'Icmopia about the year 440. The nine books of which it i^ composed begin with Constantino and come down to the death of Honorius (423) ; but according to his own statement the author intended to continue it as far as the year 439. From Sozomen himself (iv. 17), and statements of his excerptors Nicephorus and Theophanes, it can be made out that the work did actually come down to that year, and that consequently it has reached us only in a somewhat mutilated condition, at least half a book being wanting. A flattering and bombastic dedication to Theodosius II. is prefixed. When compared with the hjstory of SOCRATES (q.v.}, it is plainly seen to be a plagiarism from that work, and that on a large scale. Some three-fourths of the