BLOIS, the chief town of the department of Loir-et-Cher in France, is situated in the form of an amphitheatre on the steep slope of a hill on the right bank of the Loire, 35 miles. S.W. of Orleans, in 47° 35' N. lat. and 1° 29' E. long. It is united by a bridge of the 17th century with the suburb of Vienne on the other side of the river. The houses of the older part of the town are frequently of antiquarian interest, and the streets, which are in many cases rather stairways than streets, have often a picturesque appearance. The castle is an immense structure built at different periods, part as early as the 13th century. It was the birth-place of Louis XII., and is noted as the scene of the assassination of the duke of Guise and his brother the cardinal by command of Henry III. Among the other remarkable buildings in the town are the Hotel de Ville, the episcopal palace, now occupied by the prefecture, the cathedral of St Louis (a modern structure), and the churches of St Vincent and St Nicholas. An ancient aqueduct, cut in the solid rock by the Romans, conveys the water of several springs to a reservoir, whence it is distributed to different parts of the town. Blois is the seat of a bishopric founded by Louis XIV., and has a communal college, a normal school, and two diocesan seminaries; an exchange, a hospital, a theatre,, a botanical garden, a public library, and an agricultural society. It manufactures gloves, hosiery, hardware, and pottery, and has a considerable trade in wine, brandy, and timber. Population in 1872, 17,475. Though possibly existing under the Roman empire, Blois is first distinctly mentioned by Gregory of Tours in the 6th century, and does not become of much importance till the 9th or 10th, when it forms the chief town of a countship. From that ...