ssession of the fleets of Spain and
Portugal; the attempts to achieve it cost much money and much life, and
realised no permanent material advantage.

NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. See NORTH-EAST.

NORTH-WEST PROVINCES (46,905), a province and
lieutenant-governorship of British India, embraces the upper portion of
the Ganges Valley and Doab, and reaches from Bengal to the Punjab,
enclosing Oudh on all sides but the N.; area twice that of England, is
the chief wheat province, and also raises opium, cotton, tea, and sugar;
was separated from Bengal in 1835, and with it in 1877 was conjoined
Oudh; Allahabad is the capital.

NORTHALLERTON (4), a market-town and capital of the North Riding of
Yorkshire, 30 m. NW. of York; in the vicinity was fought the famous
Battle of the Standard, in which David I. of Scotland was routed by the
English, August 22, 1138.

NORTHAMPTON (70), capital of Northamptonshire, on the Nen, 66 m. NW.
of London; has two fine old Norman churches, is the centre of the boot
and shoe manufacture, and is actively engaged in brewing, lace-making,
&c.; in the outskirts is a popular racecourse; was the scene of Henry
VI.'s defeat by the Yorkists on July 10, 1460.

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE or NORTHANTS (302), a midland county of
England, bordering upon nine others; has an undulating fertile surface,
and is distinguished from the surrounding counties by extensive woods and
plantations; is chiefly engaged in agriculture and stock-raising; the Nen
and the Welland are the principal rivers; among its antiquities are
Fotheringay Castle, where Mary Stuart was beheaded, and Burleigh House;
the battles of Edgecote (1469) and Naseby (1645) were fought within its
borders.

NORTHCOTE, JAMES, English portrait-painter; studied under Sir Joshua
Reynolds, whose Life he wrote as well as Titian's; wrote also "Fables"
and "Conversations."

NORTHCOTE, SIR STAFFORD HENRY. See IDDESLEIGH, LORD.

NORTHMEN or NORSEMEN, the name given in the Middle Ages to the
sea-roving, adventure-loving inhabitants of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark;
in their sea-rovings they were little better than pirates, but they had
this excuse, their home was narrow and their lands barren, and it was a
necessity for them to sally forth and see what they could plunder and
carry away in richer lands; they were men of great daring, their early
religion definable as the consecration of valour, and they were the
terror of the quieter nations whose lands they inv