Oakham

Oakham, the county town of Rutland, in the vale of Catmose, 25 miles WNW. of Peterborough. The castle, every peer passing which must forfeit either a horseshoe or a fine, is in ruins except the hall, used for county business. The fine parish church, with a lofty spire, was restored by Scott in 1858-59 at a cost of £6100; and Archdeacon Johnson's grammar-school (1584; reconstituted 1875) has an endowment of £1200 a year. Beer, boots, and hosiery are made. Pop. 3342.

Oakland

Oakland, capital of Alameda county, California, on the east side of San Francisco Bay, 4 1/2 miles from San Francisco. It has wide streets adorned with evergreen oaks, and is surrounded with gardens and vineyards. It is the terminus of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and steam ferryboats ply constantly to San Francisco. Besides a Congregational seminary, a large R. C. college (1889), and the state home for the blind, the city contains canning-factories, manufactories of cottons, woollens, jute, iron, nails, shoes, pottery, carriages, etc. Pop. (1870) 10,500; (1900) 66,960.

Oakworth

Oakworth, a town in the West Riding of Yorkshire, 3 miles SW. of Keighley, with cotton and worsted industries. Pop. 4681.

Oamaru

Oamaru (O-a-ma-roo'), a port and bathing-resort of New Zealand, 78 miles by rail NE. of Dunedin. Pop. 5621.

Oatlands Park

Oatlands Park, Surrey, near the Thames, 3 miles ESE. of Chertsey, a former royal palace, purchased in 1794 by the Duke of York, and in 185S opened as an hotel.

Oban

Oban, a fashionable watering-place of Argyllshire, 84 miles WNW. of Stirling, and 136 of Edinburgh, by a railway opened in 1880. It curves round a beautiful and almost land-locked bay, which, sheltered from every wind by the island of Kerrera on the west and by the high shores of the mainland, forms a spacious haven, crowded in summer by yachts and steamers. A mere 'clachan' when Dr Johnson visited it in 1772, Oban began to be feued in 1803-20, and in 1832 was constituted one of the Ayr parliamentary burghs. It is now the great tourist headquarters of the West Highlands, possessing some thirty hotels and splendid steamboat facilities. Objects of interest are the pictiuresque ruins of Dunolly and Dunstaffnage Castles, and a prehistoric cave-dwelling, discovered in 1890. Pop. (1821) 1359; (1901) 6274.

Obeid

Obeid, El, capital of Kordofan, in the eastern Soudan, 220 miles S\V. of Khartoum, with trade in gum-arabic, ivory, gold, and ostrich-feathers. Pop. 35,000. Near this, in Nov. 1883, an Egyptian force under Hicks Pasha, with an English staff, was exterminated by the Mahdi.

Ober-Ammergau

Ober-Ammergau (Ammergow'), a village of 1281 inhabitants, in the valley of the Ammer in Upper Bavaria, 45 miles SW. of Munich. Here the famous Passion Play (established 1633) has been performed every ten years.

Oberhausen

Oberhausen, an important manufacturing town in the Rhine province of Prussia, 40 miles N. of Cologne. It has large iron and other works, and coal-mines. Pop. 42,500.