an ancient, large, and considerable city of France, in the department of Aisne and late province of Soissonnais. It was the capital of a kingdom of the same name, under the first race of the French monarchs. It contains about 12,000 inhabitants, and is a bishop's see.

(a) It was at this place, in the year 1772, that Mr Eginton invented his expeditious method of copying pictures in oil. The environs are charming, but the streets are narrow, and the houses ill-built. The fine cathedral has one of the most considerable chapters in the kingdom; and the bishop, when the archbishop of Rheims was absent, had a right to crown the king. The castle, though ancient, is not that in which the kings of the first race resided. Soissons is seated in a very pleasant and fertile valley, on the river Aisne, 30 miles west by north of Rheims, and 60 north east of Paris. E. Long. 3° 24'. N. Lat. 49° 23'.