Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/153

Rh V E L V E N 137 romantic events in the history of the Moorish wars, to which period its old castle belongs. The vegetation of the neighbourhood is most luxuriant, including the aloe, palm, sugar-cane, prickly pear, orange, vine, olive, and sweet potato. The inhabitants are chiefly employed in the various industries connected with the cultivation and export of the products of these. There is also a tunny fishery. The population within the municipal boundaries in 1877 was 24,332. VELIZH, or WELIZ, a district-town of Russia, in the government of Vitebsk, on the Dwina, 53 miles north-east of the city of Vitebsk. It has an active trade in corn and linseed, grown in the neighbouring provinces, and sent by river to Riga in exchange for fish, salt, tobacco, and groceries. The population (16,370 in 1885) has doubled since about 1860. Yeli/h is supposed to have been originally founded by the Lithuanians, but it was deserted in the 16th century. In 1536 the Russians erected here a wooden fort, which, however, was soon taken by the Poles (1580), and it remained in their possession until 1772. VELLEIUS. See PATERCULUS. VELLETRI, a town of Italy, in the province of Rome, and 26 miles by rail to the south-east of that city, is picturesquely situated on a spur of Monte Artemisio on the southern edge of the Alban Hills and overlooking the Pontine marshes. The streets are steep, narrow, and irre gular. In the highest part of the town are the municipal offices, with an important ancient inscription relating to the restoration of the amphitheatre under Valentinian and Valens. Velletri is the seat of the bishop of Ostia ; the cathedral (1660) contains some good sculpture of the school of Sansovino. The neighbourhood produces a cele brated wine, a chief source of wealth to the town. The population in 1881 numbered 13,532. At the close of the Latin War (336 B.C.) the Volscian Velitrse had its walls razed to the ground and its leading inhabitants banished beyond the Tiber, their lands being given to Roman settlers. It became a flourishing municipium, and was the native place of the Octavian family. In the neighbourhood of Velletri Don Carlos, younger son of Philip V. of Spain, in 1734 gained over the Austrians a decisive victory, which ultimately secured him as Charles III. the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. VELLORE, a town and military cantonment of India, in North Arcot district of the Madras presidency, on the right bank of the river Palar in 12 55 17&quot; N. lat. and 79 10 17&quot; E. long. It has a strongly-built fortress, which was famous in the palmy days of the Carnatic, and which is overlooked by hills in the vicinity. In 1780 it with stood a siege for two years by Hyder Ali. After the fall of Seringapatam (1799) Vellore was selected as the resi dence of the sons of Tippoo Sahib, and to their intrigues has been attributed the revolt of the sepoys at Vellore in 1806. Besides the fortress, the town contains a handsome Vishnuvite temple with some good carving. In 1881 the population was 37,491 (males 17,605, females 19,886). VELVET is a silken textile fabric having a short dense piled surface. It is the type of the numerous forms of piled fabric now made, the processes employed in the manufacture of which are noticed under WEAVING (q.v.). In all probability the art of velvet-weaving originated in the far East ; and it is not till about the beginning of the 14th century that we find any mention of the textile. Fustian, however, which differs from velvet only in material, is spoken of in English ecclesiastical inventories as early as the beginning of the 13th century. The peculiar pro perties of velvet, the splendid yet softened depth of dye- colour it exhibited, at once marked it out as a fit material for ecclesiastical vestments, royal and state robes, and sumptuous hangings ; and the most magnificent textures of mediaeval times were Italian velvets. These were in many ways most effectively treated for ornamentation, such as by varying the colour of the pile, by producing pile of different lengths (pile upon pile, or double pile), and by brocading with plain silk, with uncut pile, or with a ground of gold tissue, &c. The earliest sources of Euro pean artistic velvets were Lucca, Genoa, Florence, and Venice, and to the present day Genoa continues to send out rich velvet textures. Somewhat later the art was taken up by Flemish weavers, and in the 16th century Bruges attained a reputation for velvets not inferior to that of the great Italian cities. The principal seats of the modern manufacture are Crefeld and Lyons ; but, at the former centre especially, a large proportion of an inferior texture, having a silken pile on a cotton foundation and known as velveteen, is now made. VENANTIUS. See FORTUNATUS. VENDACE is the name of a British freshwater fish of the genus Coregonus, of which two other species are indi genous in the fresh waters of the British Islands, viz., the gwyniad and the pollan. The vendace (C. vandesius) is restricted to some lochs in Dumfriesshire, Scotland ; it is, however, very similar to a species (C. albula) which inhabits some of the large and deep lakes of northern Europe. From its general resemblance to a dace the French name of the latter, vandoise, was transferred to it at the period when French was the language of the court and aristocracy of Scotland. So great is the local celebrity of the fish that a story has been invented ascribing to Mary Queen of Scots the merit of having introduced it into the Lochmaben lochs. It is considered a great delicacy, and on favourable days when the shoals rise to the surface, near the edges of the loch, great numbers may be taken. It spawns in November. In length it scarcely exceeds 8 inches. Authentic accounts of the vendace have been published by Sir William Jardine, in Edinb. Journ. of Nat. and Gcog. Science, iii. p. 4, 1830, and by Robert Knox, in Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb., xii. p. 503, 1834. VENDEE, a maritime department of France, formed in 1790 out of Bas-Poitou, and taking its name from an un important tributary of the Sevre Niortaise, lies between 46 16 and 47 5 N. lat. and 32 and 2 10 W. long., and is bounded by Loire-Inferieure and Maine-et-Loire on the N., by Deux-Sevres on the E., by Charente-Inferieure on the S., and by the Atlantic Ocean on the W. for 93 miles. The islands of Yeu (or Dieu) and Noirmoutier are included. The Sevre Nantaise on the N.E. and the Sevre Niortaise on the S., besides other streams of minor import ance, form natural boundaries. The department falls into three divisions woodland, plain, and marsh. The highest point (945 feet) is situated in the woodland, which occu pies the greater part of Vendee, on the water-parting between the Loire and the rivers of the coast. This region, which, geologically, is composed of granite, gneiss, mica-schist, schist, and lias, abounds in springs, and is fresh and verdant ; the landscape is characterized by open fields surrounded by trees, which supplied ambushes and retreats to the Vendeans in the civil war at the end of the 18th century. The plain of Vendee is bare and treeless, but fertile, though poor in springs ; geologically it is com posed of lias and oolite. The marshes, raised above the sea-level within historic times (four centuries ago), consist of two portions, the Breton marsh in the north and the Poitevin marsh in the south. The region includes salt marshes and cultivated areas artificially drained. Its area is constantly being increased by the alluvium of the rivers and the secular elevation of the coast. The department is drained by the Sevre Nantaise (tributary of the Loire) and the Boulogne (a feeder of Lake Grandlieu in Loire- Infcrieure), both draining into the basin of the Loire ; and by the Vie, the Lay (with the Yon), and the Sevre Niortaise (with the Autise and the Vendee), which flow into the Atlantic. The climate is that of the Girondin region, XXIV. 1 8