SOEST, an ancient industrial town in Westphalia, Prussia, is situated in a fertile plain (Sοester Börde), 27 miles to the east of Dortmund and 34 to the southeast of Münster. Its early importance is borne witness to by its six fine churches, of which the most striking are St Peter’s, St Mary-in-the-Fields, founded in 1314 and restored in 1850-52, and the Roman Catholic cathedral, founded in the 10th century by Bruno, brother of Otho the Great, though the present building was erected in the 12th century. This last, with its very original façade, is one of the noblest ecclesiastical monuments of Germany. Remains of the broad wall (now partly enclosing gardens and fields) and one of the gates still remain; but the thirty-six strong towers which once defended the town have disappeared and the moats have been converted into promenades. Iron-working, the manufacture of soap, hats, cigars, and bricks and tiles, linen-weaving, tanning, and brewing, together with market-gardening and farming in the neighbourhood, and trade in cattle and grain, are the leading industries. The population in 1880 was 13,985, and in 1885 14,848, of whom about 6000 were Roman Catholics....