a parliamentary borough of N. Wales, county of Flint, stands in the midst of beautiful scenery on the left bank of the Dee, here crossed by a fine stone bridge, 14 miles S. of Chester, and 21 S.S.E. of Flint. It is a neat and generally well-built place; and has a fine old church, with some yews of great size and beauty in the churchyard. The people live by agriculture, and no manufacture or trade is carried on. Overton unites with Flint and other boroughs in returning a member to Parliament. Pop. (1851) 1479.

OVERTURE (Fr. Ouverture), a piece of instrumental music which precedes the opera, the pantomime, the cantata, &c.; and named Sinfonia by the Italians. The overture originated in France, and received a settled form from Lulli in particular. The opera overture has now no settled form, but is moulded according to the fancy of the composer. In the latter part of the last century overtures for concert-rooms and theatres were introduced. Among the composers of these were Stamitz, Abel, Lord Kelly (a Scotchman), Vanhall, Haydn, Pleyel. This kind of overture was, in fact, the early form of the symphony, afterwards developed by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Some writers think that the overture to an opera ought to consist of a sort of analysis of the opera itself; but the Spaniard Don Tomas de Viarte, in his poem La Musica, very properly dissents from that opinion, and considers opera overtures so constructed as

"Diligencia pueril que en vano ostentan; Porque la imitacion no causa agrado, Si antes non se conoce lo imitado."

(O. F. G.)

OVERYSSEL, a province of Holland, bounded on the N. by those of Friesland and Drenthe, E. by Hanover and Rhenish Prussia, S. by the province of Gelderland, and W. by Gelderland and the Zuider Zee. Length, from N.W. to S.E., about 60 miles; breadth, 27 miles; area, 1282 square miles. It is entirely low and flat, with few hills and no mountains. The principal river is the Yssel, which separates it from Gelderland, and falls into the Zuider Zee below Kampen. The province is also watered by the Vecht and its tributaries; but none of these is of any importance. With the exception of a tract of rich clayey soil along the Yssel, the surface consists of wet and marshy ground, or of sandy and barren heaths. There are several lakes, but not of any size. The climate is damp, and not very salubrious. Wheat, barley, rye, buckwheat, pulse, potatoes, and fruits, are raised in the more fertile regions; but the inhabitants depend for their subsistence mainly on the rearing of cattle and digging of peat. The pastures are good, especially in the west; and horses, oxen, and sheep are bred. Bees are likewise a source of much profit, and fishing forms a lucrative employment. The chief manufactures are linen, woollen, and cotton fabrics; calico, damask, paper, &c. Spinning, bleaching, dyeing, and boatbuilding are also carried on. The capital is Zwolle; and among the other towns the chief are Deventer and Kampen. Pop. (1856) 233,723. (See HOLLAND.)

OVIDIO NASO, Publius, in some respects the greatest poetical genius of Rome, was born at Sulmo, in the country of the Peligni, on the 20th of March n.c. 43. In that year Cicero was murdered, and on the very day of the poet's birth the consuls Hirtius and Pansa died in the campaign of Mutina. His father, a member of an old equestrian family, was only moderately wealthy. At an early age the poet and his brother Lucius, who was exactly a year older than he, were sent to Rome to be educated for the bar. Though placed under the first teachers of eloquence of that age, Arellius Fuscus and Portius Latro, the poet never took kindly to the study of oratory. His tendencies were all to literature, and especially to poetry. His father, with whom poetry was only a synonyme for poverty, warned him, but in vain, against his favourite pursuit. The death of his elder brother Lucius placed him in circumstances of moderate affluence, and from that time he was allowed to follow out his tastes pretty much as he chose. After completing his education, and mastering the Greek tongue at Athens, he travelled with the poet Macer in Asia and Sicily. After spending nearly a year in the latter country, he returned to Rome. His delicate health and indolent temper disqualified him for active life. It does not appear that he ever practised at the bar. He sat for a short time as a judge in the court of the Triumviri Capitales, and afterwards of the Centumviri, besides acting occasionally as a judge. His chief pleasure, however, was in the literary society of the capital. Among his friends he counted such men as Bassus, Ponticus, Propertius, and Macer. Virgil he only saw once. Horace, who was twenty-two years his senior, he often met. His intimacy with Tibullus was fast ripening into friendship when that poet was prematurely cut off. Unlike most of these literary friends, he owed nothing to the favour of Mecenas. It is a significant fact that the name of that patron of letters does not occur once in all the poet's works. Ovid was three times married. His first wife proved unworthy of his choice, and was soon put away. His second was in like manner speedily divorced, though her chastity was, on the poet's own admission, beyond dispute. The real culprit in this case was the poet himself. Falling in with the fashion of the day,—a fashion which accorded only too well with his inclinations,—Ovid devoted himself to his mistress Corinna, and probably to other women. When about thirty years of age, he espoused his third wife, a member of the Fabian family. With her he lived happily till his exile, and by her he had his only child, his daughter Perilla. This daughter was twice married, and had a child by each husband. Not long after the birth of the first of these children, Ovid's father died, at the age of ninety. His mother survived her husband only a few months. They had lived to witness their son's rise and growing fame. They were spared the sight of his fall and banishment.

Ovid's life at Rome was on the whole a singularly fortunate and happy one. He had competent means, a house near the Capitol, a pleasant garden between the Flaminian and Clodian ways, a farm of some value in the country of the Peligni, access to the best literary society of Rome, and the favour of Augustus himself. His growing fame as a poet was justified by his three books of Amores, his Epistolae Heroidum, and his Ars Amatoria. The last of these works was published in A.D. 2, the year in which the elder Julia was sent into exile by her father. He had also completed, though he had not published, his Metamorphoses and his Fasti. He had submitted these, the most valuable and important of his works, to his literary friends, and was engaged in giving them the finishing touches, when he was overtaken by the great calamity of his life. In the year A.D. 8, he was banished from Rome. The place of his exile was Tomi, or, as he himself calls it, Tomis, an old Milesian colony on the shores of the Black Sea, near one of the mouths of the Danube. His sentence was a simple relegatio, and did not involve the loss of citizenship or the confiscation of his property. He himself described with the most touching pathos (Trist. i. 3) the last night he was allowed to spend in Rome, and the pangs with which he tore himself forever from his friends and family. The voyage to Tomi occupied the greater part of a year, and more than once the poet was in danger of his life from shipwreck. When at last he reached his destination, it almost seemed as if death would have been preferable. Tomi could hardly be said to be within the pale of civilization. The inhabitants were barbarous and ignorant, the soil barren, and the climate so cold that in winter even the wine froze. Savage hordes of Getæ from the northern banks of the river sometimes attacked the place, and rendered life itself insecure. It is hardly to be wondered at that in his petitions to be recalled, or at least transferred to some less utterly miserable place of exile, the poet should use the language of fulsome and even abject flattery to Augustus. But the emperor was inexorable; and neither the poet's own urgent prayers, nor the interest of his friends, availed to procure any mitigation of his sentence. He was left to drag out his remaining years, a prey to anxiety and despair, perhaps also to remorse. With his new townsmen he ingratiated himself by learning their language, and versifying their local legends and traditions. So popular did he make himself among them by these arts, that they passed a decree exempting him from all taxes. While his health allowed, he spent his time in putting the finishing touches to his Fasti, and in writing those letters to his wife and friends at Rome which we now possess in four books, under the title of Letters from Pontus. To this period of his life we also owe his Ibis, and the five books of the Tristia. It is from this last-named work that the events of the poet's life are chiefly known. Ovid died at Tomi A.D. 18, in the sixtieth year of his age and tenth of his exile.

Much has been written, and to little purpose, on the cause or causes of Ovid's banishment. The ostensible ground was the immoral tendency of many of his writings, especially his Ars Amatoria. But he confesses that this was a mere pretext, and hints obscurely at some "error" as the real cause of his punishment. What this "error" was, is useless to conjecture; but we may conclude that it took the nature of a grave moral offence, as, on the poet's own admission, it deserved a severer punishment than even the very severe punishment it received. It was long a favourite theory with some scholars that the crime in question was an intrigue with the emperor's daughter Julia, the Corinna, as they maintain, of the Amores. A refutation of this view, however, is contained in the fact, that Julia was exiled ten years before her supposed paramour. A more plausible theory is that which alleges an intrigue between the poet and the younger Julia, the emperor's grand-daughter. It is a strong objection to this view that Ovid was old enough to be the younger Julia's father; but it receives a curious confirmation from the circumstance that they were both banished in the same year. The idea that he fell under the displeasure of the imperial family for his political views, is both at variance with his own statements, and is not sufficiently supported by historical evidence. The real cause was no doubt the "error" to which he himself alludes. What that "error" was, is, and is likely ever to be, a mystery.

The longest and most ambitious of Ovid's works is his Metamorphoses, in fifteen books. It is the only one of all his writings in which he does not use the elegiac metre. The mythologies of Greece and Rome furnished Ovid with the materials for this work, which comprises every, or nearly every legend and tradition involving, as the name implies, a transformation. The component parts are worked into a harmonious whole with rare skill; while many of the episodes are unrivalled in Latin literature for vigour of fancy, warmth of colouring, and simplicity and variety of diction. Next in importance to the Metamorphoses come the Fasti, in twelve books, six of which only have survived. This work is a kind of poetical Roman calendar, in which, beginning with January, he describes the rites and festivals peculiar to every day of every month, preserving every old story or interesting legend attached to each. As much of this work was drawn from the oral traditions current among the common people, and from ancient chronicles extant in his day, but long since lost, the Fasti form a valuable historical monument. It is inferior in general effect to the Metamorphoses, but is read with interest for the events it relates, and with pleasure for the real poetry with which these are set off. Of his minor works, the Amores and the Ars Amanti are notable for the deep knowledge of human nature, and especially of the female heart, which they display. The general tone of both is indefensibly immoral, and in many passages they breathe a warmth and even grossness of passion which nothing can excuse. The effect of such writings could not but have been dangerous to the morals of the people, and the danger is enhanced rather than diminished by the transparent veil under which the author affected to hide his voluptuous pictures. Even his Epistolæ Heroidum, a work still highly popular as a text-book for schools, is far from being quite free of these vices. In addition to the works already mentioned, Ovid wrote a tragedy entitled Medea, which is mentioned in terms of praise by Tacitus and Quintilian. It has long since perished.

The memoirs of Ovid are numerous. The most careful and elaborate, though not the most correct, is that of Masson, originally published at Amsterdam in 1708, and frequently reprinted since that date. The most accurate and reliable, besides the most interesting, is the Life of the poet in Italian by Rosmini, Milan, 1821. Besides these there are numerous shorter sketches, of which may be specified the two old Latin biographies generally prefixed to the larger editions of Ovid's works, and those by Manutius, Paulus Marcius, and others, which are given collectively in Burman's edition.

The editio princeps of Ovid appeared at Bologna in 1471, and at Rome in the same year. The first Alline edition was published in 1502. The Elzevir edition of Heinsius appeared at Leyden in 1629; and that In usu Delphini at Lyon in 1689. The best is that of Burman (see Burman, Peter), Amsterdam, 1727, which has not been superseded by the later French edition of J. A. Amar in Le Maire's Bibliotheca Latina, or by the German one of J. C. Jahn, Leipzig, 1828. The editions of the separate works are numerous, and some of them excellent. The translations of Ovid into the languages of modern Europe are very numerous. Of these we can only indicate here a few of the best that have appeared in English. The most admired is "Ovid's Metamorphoses, in fifteen books, translated by the most eminent hands," London, 1717. The "eminent hands" in question were Dryden, Addison, Congreve, Rowe, Gay, Phillips, Croxall, Sewell, and Garth; the last of whom wrote the preface and saw the work through the press. This version has been frequently reprinted. The earliest English verse translation of the Meta- morphases is that of Arthur Golding, London, 1567. The first five books of the same work were "Englished in verse, mythologized, and represented in figures" by G. Sandys, Oxford, 1626. A blank-verse translation of the whole poem was published by Howard in London, 1807. The Epistles were rendered into English verse by several hands—viz., Dryden, Otway, Settle, and others. This translation, which has been several times reprinted, appeared first in London in 1680, with a preface by Dryden. Of the literal prose translations may be mentioned that by Clarke, London, 1735; another which appeared in 1748; and that by H. T. Riley, published in 1851-2, forming 3 vols. of Bohn's Classical Library.

Ovid has always been highly popular in France; and the French translations of his various works are very numerous. A very complete list of these is appended to the article on Ovid in the Biographie Universelle, by M. Villeneuve.

OVIEDO, a province at the northern extremity of Spain, constituting the greater part of the principality of the Asturias, lying between 42° 57' and 43° 38' N. Lat. and 4° 35' and 7° 4' W. Long. Its natural limits are so marked as not to have been much disturbed in the various governmental divisions; and its actual boundaries are,—N., Bay of Biscay; E., the province of Santander; S., Leon; W., Lugo. It is separated from Santander by the River Deva, and from Lugo by the River Eo. Its greatest length, from E. to W., is 147 miles; breadth, from N. to S., about 53; and its area, 3674 square miles. It has a coast-line of about 148 miles, from Rivadeco on the W., to Santieste on the E., of extremely irregular outline, bristling with headlands, of which the most prominent are the Cabo de Peñas, de Torres, and San Lorenzo, and indented with creeks and estuaries, into which numerous streams descend, which being of little volume, and encountering a stormy sea, deposit dangerous bars. The chief of these estuaries are those of Navia, Pravia, Aviles, and Villaviciosa. Little has been done to improve the naturally bad harbours, of which the principal are those of Gijon, stretching 2 miles inland, from between Capes Torres and San Lorenzo; Ribadesella, with 10 feet of water on its bar; and Lastres. Jovellanos projected a harbour in the Bay of El Musel, near Gijon, protected by Cape Torres. There is no bar; the bottom is firm and level; and the execution of this project is most important for the development of the province. The surface of the country is extremely broken by two chains of mountains and their offshoots. A branch of the Pyrenees, formerly known as the Hervaseos, extending in an unbroken line parallel to the coast from Leitariegos to Peñamellera, forms the south rampart of the province, and sends off innumerable cordales, which form, at their junction with the main cordillera, deep and precipitous valleys, but broaden and diminish as they proceed, cultivated in terraces, or covered with oak and chestnut forest. The main chain is very lofty, rising in some parts to more than 10,000 feet, and presents a series of conical summits, covered with snow some months in the year, and generally loaded with the masses of vapour from the Atlantic which they arrest. Another chain of less elevation stretches from Pravia on the W., to Peñamellera on the E., where it joins the former; and the comparatively broad spaces between the cordales and the south declivities of this "cordillera of the coast" are the most fertile and delicious valleys of the Asturias,—traversed by numberless streams, covered with verdure, and very populous. Next the coast is an isolated group of mountains, from Buron westward, where offshoots descend into the sea. The principal rivers are the Nalon, Narcea, Navia, Piloña, Selas, and Eo. Nalon, which is the largest, rises in the pass of Tarna, flows N.W. 62 miles, and falls into the Bay of Biscay at Muros. Especially after its junction with the Narcea in Ambas Mestas, its waters abound with fish, salmon, lampreys, trout, and mullet; at its mouth are valuable salmon-fisheries. Narcea, also a good fishing stream, and for most of its course rapid, rises on the borders of Leon, receives the Niron and the Pigueña, and joins the Nalon on its right at Pravia, after a course of 54 miles. The Navia rises in Lugo, and flows N.N.E. about 90 miles to the sea at Navia. The Piloña or Infiesto, from Peñamayor, joins the Sella at Las Arpondas, and falls into the sea at Ribadesella. The Eo, rising in Lugo, has a N.E. course of about 50 miles, and joins the sea at Rivadeco, in a beautiful bay famed for its salmon and its oysters. Communication with Galicia and Castile is possible only by the eighteen or twenty difficult passes of the south cordillera. The Camino Real along the coast from Santander to Ferrol is also extremely bad, broken, and impassable in winter, being almost quite unpaved with bridges; and the roads in the interior, with few exceptions, are proportionally wretched, seldom pretending to be anything more than rough bridle-paths.

In regard to geological structure, the province may be divided into three districts. Of the west part, between the rivers Eo, Navia, and Narcea, the base is transition or Cambrian rocks. The principal rocks are slate, trap, and quartz; among which are some thin beds of limestone which bear traces of very ancient exploration, and various groups of igneous formation—more frequently veins of oxide and carbonate of iron, and magnetic pyrites, to which class of Cambrian belongs also the Cabo de Peñas. The eastern part of the province, with the chain of hills from Leitariegos to Peñamellera, and its cordales, is of Silurian formation, limestone predominating, with occurrence of slate and quartz rocks, over which the soil is thin and poor. This part presents the strikingly picturesque scenery peculiar to its formation, among the aspects of which may be mentioned the singular gulls or subterranean passages of the mountain streams, and many caves of great extent, as that of Sequeros in the concejo of Tineo, adorned with beautiful stalactites. Among the valuable mineral products of this tract are building-stones, marbles, lithographic stones, and coloured marls; with veins of copper, cobalt, iron, calamine, antimony, argeniferous galena, and coal of an inferior quality. The centre of the province is carboniferous abounding with organic remains; and its mineral products are coal, gypsum, salt from various springs, as of Sariego Muerto, and Sariego de Siero. There are extensive chalk deposits in the coasts of Gijon, Villaviciosa, and Colunga, and in the central concejos of Llanera, Siero, &c. Deposits of turf in Cudillero, Arteedo, and other points, supply their population with fuel.

Agriculture is very backward, although, in spite of the unequal surface, the humidity, and the much ground occupied with sterile rock and sand, this province enjoys a climate and soil of rare excellence, as is proved by the variety and abundance of its products even in its neglected state. Wheat is not much grown, and the little is partly exported. An early indigenous variety, called escanda, is used. The staff of life is maize, made into a kind of bread called borona. Beans, peas, and potatoes are grown everywhere. Great quantities of rye and hay are grown in the poorer tracts. The fruits and legumes are excellent, especially the stone fruit of Candamo and the limestone tracts. From Llanes to Aviles, in the coast concejos, and in many districts of the interior, large quantities of apples are grown, from which cider is made,—the favourite beverage of the province. It is also exported to the neighbouring provinces and to Spanish America. The oak and chestnut forests supply bark for tanning, charcoal for the iron-works, and wood for construction. The hazel grows wild plentifully along the streams, and the nuts are exported to England from Gijon and Villaviciosa. In the small towns the cherry, fig, plum, pear, walnut, and chestnut are abundant. Along the whole coast the orange and lemon were grown when there was an export trade; their occurrence is now limited to the part between Llanes and Ribadesella. The growth of wine, general in the Asturias before the sixteenth century, is now confined to Candamo, Grado, Tineo, and some of the western districts. Among useful but less carefully cultivated products, are the bilberry (used in dyeing leather), madder, kermes, hop, and saffron. In the large natural pastures are reared, by a system of migration, great quantities of horned cattle, sheep, and goats. The refuse of maize and acorns support many swine. The horses are small, but strong, sure, and active. The excessive division of property, and ignorance of good methods, combine to injure greatly the agricultural prosperity of the province; and though the cultivation, such as it is, has continued to push its way and reclaim useless ground, this has not always been done with prudence, and the effect has been in many cases, by loosening the exposed and precarious soil, to convert good though rough pasture into utter rock and barrenness. The wolf, fox, and hare are frequent; but the larger game—the bear, wild boar, deer, and mountain goat—have disappeared, and are only to be met with in the wildest parts of the S. cordillera. Partridges, quails, woodcocks, &c., are frequent.

The mineral industry of the province is the most important, but more so in prospect than in reality. Jovellanos was the first to direct public attention to the extent and value of the coal deposits, and much has been done since his time, though the want of native enterprise, of good harbours and roads, and the supineness of government, have been heavy drawbacks. Coal in great abundance and good quality is found chiefly at Langreo, Tudela, Santoñime, Mieres, Ferroñes, Lieres, Nava, and Torazo. The quantity extracted at Langreo in 1847 amounted to 5000 cwt.s daily. At S. Maria del Mar, in Avilés, where are galleries under the sea-bottom, it is not so good. The whole amount extracted in 1847 was 473,000 cwt.s. Other minerals have been already indicated. Iron is found in many places, but is not worked to any extent, except in Castropol. Langreo, which, with iron, has all the necessary adjuncts of coal, water-power, and tolerable roads, is not taken advantage of. Copper is found at Po de Cabrales, Calduceño de Llanes, &c.; cinnamon to some extent at Mieres. The cobalt of Peñamellera, and the argentiferous lead of San Esteban de Leces, near Ribadesella, have been abandoned. The ancient tin mines at Salave are deserted. The principal manufactures are,—utensils of copper at Avilés; nails and iron instruments at Boal, La Veguía, Coaña, Nava, Castropol, &c.; linens and damasks in Avilés (a house manufacture of coarse linen and quilts is carried on in all the rural districts); pottery at Cedeira, Faro, and Avilés; common delft at La Pola de Siero. In Oviedo and Gijon a good deal of beautiful cabinet-work is made with the walnut, cherry, yew, and other native woods. Fish are cured for export at Cudillero, Luanco, Candas, and Lastrés. Lard is made at Salas, Piñorá, &c.; cheese at Cabrales. The commerce of the province has been sufficiently indicated. For internal trade there are fairs at Oviedo on Assumption Day, All Saints', and St Matthew's; at Gijon on St Ferdinand's and St Michael's; at Avilés on St Augustin's; at Villaviciosa on St John's; but they are much decayed.

The Asturian is strong, enduring, and laborious, of simple and primitive habits, and proverbial thrift. Many migrate yearly to the various provinces of Spain, particularly the wine-growing, where they become domestic servants, or engage in shop-keeping, &c., and having acquired a competence, return to their native hills. The dialect, called bable, is nearly identical with the ancient Castilian. Jovellanos endeavoured to enrich the literary language with ancient words, which it alone preserves, and to illustrate by it the progress of the national tongue and the changes of national manners. In this secluded region, among this hardy stock, an infinite number of primitive usages are preserved in weddings, games, funerals, and church ceremonies, of whose antiquity documentary evidence exists in the charters and municipal laws granted by the native princes, from Alonso VI. downwards. For a similar reason, the church architecture of the Asturias—the most ancient in Spain, perhaps in Europe—is interesting, giving a period of transition from the Roman to the later pointed Gothic or Tedesco. It has many points of resemblance with the early Saxon. Good specimens are the S. Maria de Naranco, the S. Miguel de Lino, and the S. Julian, at Oviedo.

The province of Oviedo (Asturia Transmontana) was first properly subdued by Publius Carisius under Augustus. The names of several towns, various inscriptions, and vestiges of mines, attest the Roman dominion. It was the last province in Spain to submit to the Goths. In the eighth century Pelayo took refuge there after the fatal battle of the Guadalete, and the Asturians maintained their independence under his descendants throughout the Moorish period. The Asturias was made a principality in 1388, and the title conferred by Don Juan I. on his son Enrique, in imitation of the title of Prince of Wales, when Enrique married Catharine, daughter of the Duke of Lancaster. Oviedo suffered much in the war of independence—the capital being twice plundered, once by Ney in May 1809, and afterwards by Bonnet. The Asturians are considered by Spanish writers to have done miracles in that war; but the only important step they took was to send the Conde de Toroeno for assistance and money to London. There is a kind of Bocotian stigma on the Asturias; but they have produced many eminent men, of whom it will be sufficient to mention the name of Jovellanos, poet and patriot, worthy of a more grateful country. The province is divided into 15 partidos; and in 1849 had a population of 450,610.

Oviedo, chief town of the preceding, is situated about 14 miles S. of Gijon and the coast, on a slope. About a mile to the N.W. is the Sierra de Naranco, 1070 feet above the sea, by which the town is protected from the N. winds, though the vapours collected by it in the spring and autumn render the climate extremely humid, and do not conduce to its salubrity. Most part of the town was burned in 1521, and the reconstruction, till within some years, has been irregular. The four main streets are formed by the roads connecting Gijon and Leon, N. and S., and Santander and Grado, E. and W., which cross each other in a central plaza. The streets are clean and well-lighted; the houses are built with projecting roofs. In the central plaza are the Casas Consistoriales, with a piazza,—the finest, it is said, in Spain. There are two prisons: one known as the Real Castillo—the fortress, with some changes, built by Alonso III., A.D. 913, on the west in an angle of the walls. It was partly destroyed with gunpowder by General Bonnet in 1818. The other is called the Carcel Galera. There is a theatre, capable of containing 700 spectators. The university, founded by Philip III., in 1604, after the project of Valdés, Archbishop of Seville, is a square building, 180 feet every way; the N. gate has two lofty Doric pillars on each side; the E. gate is more handsome. These entrances open on a central court with pillared galleries. The university has a library, founded in 1764, of 12,000 volumes; a museum of natural science, particularly mechanics and chemistry; and various theological and philosophical chairs. There is a normal school, three other public schools, and 17 private. The poor-house (Hospicio Provincial) is a large and handsome edifice, of date 1752. In 1837 the three hospitals of the town were consolidated into a general hospital in the ex-convent of San Francisco. The present cathedral was commenced in the fourteenth century, the previous church, erected in the ninth century, being taken down, and nothing is now left of it save the Camara Santa. The west front Oviedo y Valdez has a fine portico of ornamented arches, with two lateral towers, of which the completed one rises 200 feet; the uncompleted tower was surmounted in 1575 with a pyramidal top. Of the lateral chapels, the most remarkable are the Capilla del Rey Casto (Alonso II.), where are the remains of many successive princes of the House of Pelayo; and the Camara Santa, containing in an arca the relics saved by Don Pelayo when he fled to the Asturias. Besides the cathedral, there are four parish churches and six convents in Oviedo. The churches remarkable for their early architectural style have been already mentioned. Outside the town, on the Gijon road, is a black marble monument to Jovellanos, re-erected in 1835. The industry of the town, and productions of the neighbouring country, have been indicated in the preceding article. Pop. (1847) 9384.

OVIEDO Y VALDEZ, Gonzalo Fernandez de, an early historian of the New World, was born at Madrid, of noble descent, in 1478. He was attached in his boyish years to the court of Ferdinand and Isabella as one of the pages of Prince John, where he received an excellent education. The discoveries of Columbus had just opened up the New World to Spanish enterprise; and in 1513 Oviedo was sent out to San Domingo as a supervisor of gold smeltings, where, except occasional visits to Spain and Spanish America, he remained during the rest of his life. In this position he is said to have treated the natives of the island with great cruelty, so that their gentle and feeble race rapidly melted away under the harsh servitude of the gold mines. In addition to his original appointment, Oviedo held several important offices under the Spanish government in Hayti. He had always exhibited a passion for writing; and the post of historiographer of the Indies to Charles V., was quite to his liking. Besides some inconsiderable chronicles of Ferdinand and Isabella, and of Charles V., and a Life of Cardinal Ximenes, he wrote two works of abiding interest and value: one was La General y Natural Historia de las Indias Occidentales, consisting of fifty books, of which twenty-one were published at Seville in 1535, while the rest remain still in manuscript. Several editions of this History have been published, of which the latest is that begun in 1851 by the Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid. It was translated into French by Poleur in 1556, and into English by Eden in 1555. This work contains a great mass of valuable information, thrown together in a crude, indigested state, and written in a loose, rambling, moralizing style, sadly provoking to the reader's patience. It is worthy of notice also, that his contemporary, the brave and philanthropic Las Casas, the defender of the American Indians, a man who had ample means of knowing about the affairs of the New World, denounces the History of Oviedo as "as full of lies almost as pages." The benevolent churchman and the courtly historian had separate interests, however, which kept up a constant hostility between them. Las Casas was doubtless much the nobler man of the two, but Oviedo was not therefore necessarily a wholesale fabricator. The other work for which Oviedo is still esteemed among scholars is Las Quinquagenas, written during the latter years of the author's life, and devoted to fond recollections of his native land, and of the principal characters who had figured there during his time. It consists of a series of immethodical dialogues, full of gossip and curious anecdote, drawn from the memory of a long life. It occupies three folios of MS. in the National Library of Madrid, but has never been printed. The author concludes by saying that it was finished on the 23rd May 1556, when he was seventy-nine years old. He died at Valladolid during the following year. (See Ticknor's Hist. of Spanish Literature, vol. i., p. 514; and Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella, vol. i., p. 187.)