South Island

South Island, the southern of the two larger islands of New Zealand (q.v.).

South Kensington

South Kensington. See Kensington.

South Molton

South Molton, a municipal borough (1590) of Devon, on the Mole, 10 miles ESE. of Barnstaple. It has a fine church, a market-house (1864), and some woollen manufactures. Pop. 2850.

Southowram

Southowram, a SE. suburb of Halifax, York.

Southsea

Southsea, a south-eastern suburb of Portsmouth, is a fashionable watering-place of recent growth, with two piers, a fine esplanade 2 miles long, a canoe lake, a common, a modernised castle of 1540, and other fortifications, barracks, etc.

South Shetlands

South Shetlands, a group of islands in the South Atlantic, lying on the lines of 60° S. lat. and 60° W. long., and covered ever with ice and snow.

South Shields

South Shields. See Shields.

Southwark

Southwark (Suth'ark; th as in this), or 'The Borough,' on the Surrey side of the Thames, was annexed to the City in 1327, and is now a metropolitan borough. Pop. (1901) 206,180.

Southwick

Southwick, a NW. suburb of Sunderland.

Southwold

Southwold (South'old), a Suffolk watering-place, 41 miles by a small branch-line NE. of Ipswich. A municipal borough since 1489, it was almost destroyed by fire in 1659, but retained its fine Perpendicular church (1460), 144 feet long. In Southwold or Sole Bay a bloody but indecisive sea-fight was fought between the English and the Dutch on 28th May 1672. Pop. 2800.

Soutra

Soutra (Soo'tra), a hospice (c. 1164) in Midlothian, on Soutra Hill (1209 feet), 17 miles SE. of Edinburgh. See a work by J. Hunter (1892).

Sow

Sow, a Staffordshire river, flowing 18 miles to the Trent, near Tixall.

Sowerby Bridge

Sowerby Bridge, a manufacturing town in the West Riding of Yorkshire, on the Calder, 3 miles SW. of Halifax. It has a town-hall (1857) and manufactures of worsted and cotton, oilcloth, chemicals, iron, etc. Tillotson was a native of the parish. Pop. (1851) 4365; (1901) 11,477.

Spa

Spa, a watering-place of Belgium, stands amid wooded and romantic hills, 20 miles by rail SE. of Liege, near the Prussian frontier. The springs, all chalybeate and alkaline, are cold, bright, and sparkling, and efficacious in anAemic complaints, nervous diseases, etc. Fancy wooden lacquered ware is manufactured. Pop. 8200. The number of visitors during the season (May-October) is about 15,000. The place was particularly famous as a fashionable resort in the 16th and 18th centuries, and derived great profit from its public gaming-tables, suppressed in 1872.

Spaccaforno

Spaccaforno, a town of SE. Sicily, 30 miles SW. of Syracuse. Near it are 'Troglodyte' caves, ranged tier upon tier. Pop. 10,620.

Spalding

Spalding, a Dutch-looking town on the Welland in Lincolnshire, 14 miles SW. of Boston, with a fine church (Decorated and Perpendicular), built in 1284 and restored by Sir G. Scott, who also planned two of the other three churches in the town. The grammar-school, of which Bentley was master in 1682, was founded in 1568; new school buildings were erected in 1881. This town had, prior to the Conquest, a castle and a monastery; the latter eventually became a priory (1051), attached as a cell to Crowland. The river is navigable for vessels of 70 tons. Spalding is a railway centre, and trades in agricultural produce. Pop. 9500.