VENDACE is the name of a British freshwater fish of the genus Coregonus, of which two other species are indigenous in the fresh waters of the British Islands, viz., the gwyniad and the pollan. The vendace (C. vandesius) is restricted to some lochs in Dumfriesshire, Scotland; it is, however, very similar to a species (C. albula) which inhabits some of the large and deep lakes of northern Europe. From its general resemblance to a dace the French name of the latter, vaudoise, was transferred to it at the period when French was the language of the court and aristocracy of Scotland. So great is the local celebrity of the fish that a story has been invented ascribing to Mary Queen of Scots the merit of having introduced it into the Lochmaben lochs. It is considered a great delicacy, and on favourable days when the shoals rise to the surface, near the edges of the loch, great numbers may be taken. It spawns in November. In length it scarcely exceeds 8 inches.

Authentic accounts of the vendace have been published by Sir William Jardine, in Edinb. Journ. of Nat. and Geog. Science, iii. p. 4, 1830, and by Robert Knox, in Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb.. xii. p. 503, 1834.

VENDOME, a town of France, chief-lieu of an arrondissement in the department of Loir-et-Cher, is situated on the river Loir, 109 miles soutli-west of Paris by the railway to Tours, at the junction of the line from Blois to Le Mans. The abbey of the Trinity (12th to 15th century) has a fine portal in florid Gothic style. A graceful balustrade runs round the building at the spring of the roof, and two rows of flying buttresses, themselves resting on other elegant buttresses, support the nave. The high gallery of the triforium, the rich traceries of the windows, and the modern fonts are worthy of notice. Part of the building is in the Angevin style of the beginning of the 13th century. In the choir are some fine stalls and glass of the 15th and 16th centuries. The steeple, 262 feet high, which stands isolated in front of the church, belongs to the middle of the 12th century, and is one of the finest examples of Transition architecture. The lower part is rectangular and the upper octagonal, with a stone spire. It has been recently restored. The church of La Madeleine (15th century) is surmounted by a stone spire, an indifferent imitation of that of the abbey. The fine tower of St Martin (16th century) is all that remains of the church of that name. The town-hall occupies the old gate of St George; its river front is composed of two large crenellated and machicolated towers, connected by a pavilion. The ancient hospital of St James afterwards became a college of the Oratorians, in which Mascaron was a professor, but is now a lyceum; the charming chapel, dating from the 15th century, in the most florid Gothic style, is still preserved. Parts of the chateau of the counts of Vendome are as old as the 11th century. A public promenade leads to the curious vaults under the castle. ...

VENDÉE, a maritime department of France, formed in 1790 out of Bas-Poitou, and taking its name from an unimportant tributary of the Sèvre Niortaise, lies between 46° 16' and 47° 5' N. lat. and 0° 32' and 2° 10' W. long., and is bounded by Loire-Inférieure and Maine-et-Loire on the N., by Deux-Sèvres on the E., by Charente-Inférieure on the S., and by the Atlantic Ocean on the W. for 93 miles. The islands of Yeu (or Dieu) and Noirmoutier are included. The Sèvre Nantaise on the N.E. and the Sèvre Niortaise on the S., besides other streams of minor importance, form natural boundaries. The department falls into three divisions—woodland, plain, and marsh. The highest point (945 feet) is situated in the woodland, which occupies the greater part of Vendée, on the water-parting between the Loire and the rivers of the coast. This region, which, geologically, is composed of granite, gneiss, mica-schist, schist, and lias, abounds in springs, and is fresh and verdant; the landscape is characterized by open fields surrounded by trees, which supplied ambushes and retreats to the Vendéans in the civil war at the end of the 18th century. The plain of Vendée is bare and treeless, but fertile, though poor in springs; geologically it is composed of lias and oolite. The marshes, raised above the sea-level within historic times (four centuries ago), consist of two portions, the Breton marsh in the north and the Poitevin marsh in the south. The region includes salt marshes and cultivated areas artificially drained. Its area is constantly being increased by the alluvium of the rivers and the secular elevation of the coast. The department is drained by the Sèvre Nantaise (tributary of the Loire) and the Boulogne (a feeder of Lake Grandlieu in Loire-Inférieure), both draining ...