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124 about 108 acres; but new streets stretch far beyond these limits. Large alterations have taken place since the accession of Queen Victoria : the Middle Row and various other districts have been abolished or rebuilt ; the streets have been repaved, and a new supply of water obtained for the town. Of the buildings in Colchester of interest for their antiquity the first is the castle or keep, which occupies an area of 21,168 square feet (or nearly twice that of the White Tower of London), and thus forms the largest specimen extant of this department of Norman architecture. It was founded in 12th century by Eudo, the steward of Henry L, to whom the town was also indebted for the Benedictine abbey of St John s now almost totally demolished. Of the churches the oldest is St Peter s, which like several others has been restored within recent years ; the remains of the church of St Botolph s priory, founded in the early part of the 12th century, present fine examples of Norman workmanship; and St James s, St Giles s, and St Leonard s at the Hythe are all of antiquarian interest. The last preserves some early frescoes. The present century has added largely to the number of the churches and chapels, and many of the newer buildings are not unworthy of the town in which they stand. Of secular structures the most important are the town hall, the county police station (formerly the county jail), the borough jail, the theatre, two corn exchanges, the Eastern Counties asylum for idiots and imbeciles, the Essex and Colchester hospital, and the assembly rooms. The town possesses a free grammar- school, in connection with which is a scholarship at St John s College, Cambridge ; it has also a literary institute with a library attached, a literary, a medical, and other societies. Colchester is the centre of a large agricultural district, and has very extensive corn and cattle markets. Baize was formerly the principal manufacture ; but this has been superseded by silk, more especially the kind employed for umbrellas. The minor industrial establishments include flour-mills, vinegar-works, found ries, engineering-works, rope-yards, printing offices, and lime-works. The import and export trade is conducted at the suburb of Hythe, to which vessels of 150 tons can come up the river. In 1874 the value of the imports was 48,367, and of the exports 9173. The oyster fishery, for which the town has been famous for centuries, is not so extensive as it once was ; but it is still carried on under the control of the Colchester town council, and measures are taken for its maintenance and development. The borough, which returns two members to parliament, has an area of 11,314 acres ; the population was in 1871 26,343, an increase since 1861 of 2534, and since 1801 of 14,823! Colchester is the head-quarters of the Eastern Military District.

Arms of Colchester.

1em  COLCHESTER,, (1757-1829), born at Abingdon, was the son of Dr John Abbot, rector of All Saints, Colchester, and, by his mother s second marriage, half-brother of the famous Jeremy Bentham. From Westminster School, Charles Abbot passed to Christ Church College, Oxford, where he gained the chancellor s medal for Latin verse and the &quot;Vinerian Scholarship. In 1795, after having practised twelve years as a barrister, and published a treatise proposing the incorporation of the judicial system of Wales with that of England, he was appointed to the office previously held by his brother of clerk of the rules in the King s Bench ; and in June of the same year he was elected member of parliament for Helston, through the influence of the duke cf Leeds. In 1796 Abbot commenced his career as a reformer in parliament, by obtaining the appointment of two committees, the one to report on the arrangements which then existed as to temporary laws or laws about to expire, the other to devise methods for the better publication of new statutes. To the latter committee, and a second committee which he pro posed some years later, it is owing that copies of new statutes were thenceforth sent to all magistrates and municipal bodies. To Abbot s efforts were also due the establishment of the Royal Record Commission, the reform of the system which allowed the public money to lie for some time at long interest in the hands of the public accountants, and, most important of all, the Act for taking the first census, that of 1801. On the formation of the Addington ministry in March 1801, Abbot became chief secretary and privy seal for Ireland ; and in the February of the following year he was chosen speaker of the House of Commons a position which he held with universal satisfaction till 1817, when an attack of erysipelas com pelled him to retire. In response to an address of the Commons, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Col chester, with a pension of 4000, of which 3000 was to be continued to his heir. On the 8th May 1829, he died of erysipelas. His speeches against the Roman Catholic claims were published in 1828.  COLCHICUM, the Meadow Saffron, or Autumn Crocus (Colchicum autumnale], is a perennial plant of the natural order Melanthacece or Colchicaccce, found wild in rich moist meadow-land in England and Ireland, in Middle and Southern Europe, and in the Swiss Alps. It has pale- purple flowers, rarely more than three in number ; the perianth is funnel-shaped, and produced inferiorly into a long slender tube, in the upper part of which the six stamens are inserted. The ovary is three-celled, and lies at the bottom of this tube. The leaves are three or four in 