CALNE, a town of England, in the county of Wiltshire, connected with the Great Western railway system by a branch line opened in 1863, and situated about 16 miles directly east of Bath. It stands in a valley intersected by the little brook of Caine, and is surrounded by the high table-land of Marlborough Downs and Salisbury Plain. The town is clean and well paved, and contains an ancient church (St Mark’s) with a tower by Inigo Jones, and a town-house considerably enlarged by the marquis of Lansdowne, whose seat of Bo wood is about two miles distant. The educational establishments include Bentley’s grammar school founded in 1660, national and infant schools, and an institution for training female servants, which was endowed by Mrs Guthrie, to whom the town is also indebted for a children’s hospital. The principal trade of Caine is the curing of bacon; and there are also flaxmills, paper-mills, and flour-mills in operation. The manufacture of broad cloth, at one time of great importance, is almost extinct. Caine formerly returned two members to parliament, but the number is now reduced to one. Population of the municipal borough in 1871, 2468, and of the parliamentary, 5315. From the remains found in the vicinity, Caine seems to have been an important Roman station. It was the occasional residence of the West Saxon kings; and is celebrated in legendary ecclesiastical history for the escape of Dunstan at the synod held there in 997.

a city in the land of Shinar, built by Nimrod, and one of the cities mentioned Genesis x, 10, as belonging to his kingdom. It is believed to be the same with Calno, mentioned in Isa. x, 9. It is said by the Chaldee interpreters, as also by Eusebius and Jerom, to be the same with Ctesiphon, standing upon the Tigris, about three miles distant from Seleucia, and that for some time it was the capital city of the Parthians. Bochart, Wells, and Michaëlis, agree in this opinion.