AISLE, sometimes written Isle, Yle, and Alley (Lat. and Ital. Ala, a wing; Fr. Aile, Bas coté; Ger. Seitenschiff, Seitenchor), in its primary sense, the wing of a house, but generally used to describe the alleys or passages at the sides of the naves and choirs of churches. In reckoning their number, the nave is usually counted. Thus a nave with an aisle on each side is generally called a three-aisled church; if with two aisles on each side, a five-aisled church. In England there are many churches with one side-aisle only; but there is only one cathedral with five aisles, that at Chichester. There are, however, very many such on the Continent, the most celebrated of which are at Milan and Amiens. Others have three aisles on each side, or seven aisles in all, as the cathedrals at Antwerp and Paris. The most extraordinary, however, is that at Cordova, originally erected for a mosque. It was first built with a nave and five aisles on each side, and eight others afterwards were added, making nineteen aisles in all. Old English writers frequently call the transepts “the cross isle, or yle,” and the nave the “middle ile.”

AISNE, a frontier department in the north-east of France, bounded on the N. by the department of Nord and the kingdom of Belgium, on the E. by the department of Ardennes, on the S.E. by that of Marne, on the S. by that of Seine-et-Marne, and on the W. by those of Oise and Somme; extending at the widest points 75 miles from N. to S., and 53 from E. to W., with an area of 2838 square miles. The surface of the department consists of fine undulating plains, diversified in the north by hilly ground which forms a part of the mountain system of the Ardennes. The chief rivers are the Somme, the Escaut, and the Sambre in the north; the Oise, traversing the north-west, with its tributaries the Serre and the Aisne, the latter of which joins it beyond the limits of the department; and the Mame and the Ourcq in the south. The soil of Aisne is, as a whole, fertile, and in some parts very rich, yielding wheat, barley, rye, oats, hops, flax, fruit, beetroot, and potatoes; there is good pasturage, and much attention is paid to the rearing of cattle, sheep, and horses. Wine is produced, but, except in the valley of the Marne, its quality is inferior. Large tracts of the department are under wood, the chief forests being those of Nouvion and St Michel in the north, Coucy and St Gobain in the centre, and Villers-Cotterets in the south. There are no minerals of importance in the department, but good building-stone and slates of a fair quality are found. Aisne is an important manufacturing department; its chief industrial products being shawls and muslin—as well as other cotton, linen, and woollen goods—glass, including the famous mirrors of St Gobain, iron wares, beetroot sugar, leather, and pottery. It has a good trade, which is much facilitated by railroads (the most important being ...