by Jerome Napoleon, but in 1906 money was voted for a new building on the Auetor. A new Rathaus (town-hall) has been erected. There are also the Bose Museum, containing collections of pictures and antiquities of Hessian origin, museums of natural history and ethnography, an industrial exhibition hall, and an industrial art school. A handsome Gothic Lutheran church was erected in 1892–1897, a post office (Renaissance) in 1881, and new administrative offices and law courts in 1876–1880. The municipal (or Murhard) library, in the Hanau park, contains 118,000 volumes. The most noticeable of the modern public monuments are those to the emperor William I. (1898), to the musician Spohr (1883), and the Löwenbrunnen (1881). In the Karlsaue, a favourite public promenade lying just below the Schöne Aussicht, are the Orangerie and the marble baths. Cassel is the headquarters of the XI. German army corps, and has a large garrison. It is a favourite residence for foreigners and retired officers and government officials. The industries embrace engine-building, the manufacture of railway carriages and plant, scientific instruments, porcelain, tobacco and cigars, lithography, jute-spinning, iron-founding, brewing and gardening.
On a slope of the Habichtswald Mountains, 3 m. W. of Cassel, and approached by an avenue, is the summer palace of Wilhelmshöhe, erected in 1787–1794. Napoleon III. resided here, as a prisoner of war, after the battle of Sedan. The surrounding gardens are adorned with fountains, cascades, lakes and grottos, the principal fountain sending up a jet of water 180 ft. high and 12 in. in diameter. Here also is an interesting building called the Löwenburg, erected in 1793–1796 in the style of a fortified castle, and containing among other things portraits of Tudors and Stuarts. The principal curiosity is the Karlsburg cascade, which is placed in a broad ravine, thickly wooded on both sides. A staircase of 900 steps leads to the top. On one of the landings is a huge rudely-carved stone figure of the giant Enceladus, and at the top is an octagon building called the Riesenschloss, surmounted by a colossal copper figure of the Farnese Hercules, 31 ft. high, whose club alone is sufficiently capacious to accommodate from eight to ten persons. In different parts of the park, and especially from the Octagon, charming views are obtained. The park was first formed by the landgrave Frederick II., the husband of Mary, daughter of George II. of England, and was finished by his successor the landgrave William, after whom it was named.
The earliest mention of Cassel is in 913, when it is referred to as Cassala. The town passed from the landgraves of Thuringia to the landgraves of Hesse in the 13th century, becoming one of the principal residences of the latter house in the 15th century. The burghers accepted the reformed doctrines in 1527. The fortifications of the town were restored by the landgrave Philip the Magnanimous and his son William IV. during the 16th century, and it was greatly improved by the landgrave Charles (1654–1730), who welcomed many Huguenots who founded the upper new town. In 1762 Cassel was captured by the Germans from the French; after this the fortifications were dismantled and New Cassel was laid out by the landgrave Frederick II. In 1807 it became the capital of the kingdom of Westphalia; in 1813 it was bombarded and captured by the Russian general Chernichev; in 1830, 1831 and 1848 it was the scene of violent commotions; from 1850 to 1851 it was occupied by the Prussians, the Bavarians and the Austrians; in 1866 it was occupied by the Prussians, and in 1867 was made the capital of the newly formed Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau.
See Piderit, Geschichte der Haupt- und Residenzstadt Kassel (Kassel, 1882); Fr. Müller, Kassel seit 70 Jahren (2 vols., 2nd ed., Kassel, 1893); and Hessler, Die Residenzstadt Kassel und ihre Umgebung (Kassel, 1902).
CASSELL, JOHN (1817–1865), British publisher, was born in Manchester on the 23rd of January 1817. His father was the landlord of a public-house, and John was apprenticed to a joiner. He was self-educated, gaining by his own efforts a considerable acquaintance with English literature and a knowledge of French. He came to London in 1836 to work at his trade, but his energies at this time were chiefly centred in the cause of temperance, for which he was an active worker. In 1847 he established himself as a tea and coffee merchant, and soon after started a publishing business with the aim of supplying good literature to the working classes. From the offices of the firm, which became in 1859 Messrs. Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co., were issued the Popular Educator (1852–1855), the Technical Educator (1870–1872), the Magazine of Art (1878–1903), Cassell’s Magazine (from 1852), and numerous editions of standard works. A special feature of Cassell’s popular books was the illustration. At the time of the Crimean War he procured from Paris the cuts used in L’Illustration, and by printing them in his Family Paper (begun in 1853) secured a large circulation for it. The firm was converted in 1883 into a limited liability company, under the name of Cassell & Company, Limited. John Cassell died in London on the 2nd of April 1865.
CASSIA (Lat. cassia, Gr. κασία), the aromatic bark derived from Cinnamomum cassia. The greater part of the supply coming from China, it is sometimes termed Chinese cinnamon. The bark is much thicker than that of true cinnamon; the taste is more pungent and the flavour less delicate, though somewhat similar to that of cinnamon. The properties of cassia bark depend on the presence of a volatile oil—the oil of cassia, which is imported in a fairly pure state as an article of commerce from Canton. Cassia bark is in much more extensive demand on the continent of Europe than in Great Britain, being preferred to cinnamon by southern nations. The chief use of both the oil and bark is for flavouring liqueurs and chocolate, and in cooking generally. When ground as a spice it is difficult to distinguish cassia from cinnamon (q.v.), and it is a common practice to substitute the cheap common spice for the more valuable article. Cassia Buds, which have a pleasing cinnamon flavour, are believed to be the immature fruits of the tree which yields Chinese cinnamon. They are brought in considerable quantities from Canton, and used as a spice and in confectionery. Cassia pulp, used as a laxative, is obtained from the pods of Cassia fistula, or pudding pipe tree, a native of Africa which is cultivated in both the East and West Indies. Some confusion occasionally arises from the fact that Cassia is the generic name of an extensive genus of leguminous plants, which, in addition to various other medicinal products, is the source of the senna leaves which form an important article of materia medica.
CASSIA, VIA, an ancient high-road of Italy, leading from Rome through Etruria to Florentia (Florence); at the 11th mile the Via Clodia (see Clodia, Via) diverged north-north-west, while the Via Cassia ran to the east of the Lacus Sabatinus and then through the place now called Sette Vene, where a road, probably the Via Annia, branched off to Falerii, through Sutrium (where the Via Ciminia, running along the east edge of the Lacus Ciminius, diverged from it, to rejoin it at Aquae Passeris, north of the modern Viterbo[1]), Forum Cassii, Volsinii, Clusium and Arretium, its line being closely followed by the modern highroad from Rome to Florence. The date of its construction is uncertain: it cannot have been earlier than 187 B.C.,[2] when the consul C. Flaminius constructed a road from Bononia to Arretium (which must have coincided with the portion of the later Via Cassia). It is not, it is true, mentioned by any ancient authorities before the time of Cicero, who in 45 B.C. speaks of the existence of three roads from Rome to Mutina, the Flaminia, the Aurelia and the Cassia. A milestone of A.D. 124 mentions repairs to the road made by Hadrian from the boundary of the territory of Clusium to Florence, a distance of 86 m.
See Ch. Hülsen in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopädie, iii. 1669. (T. As.)
CASSIANUS, JOANNES EREMITA, or Joannes Massiliensis (?360–?435), a celebrated recluse, one of the first founders of monastic institutions in western Europe, was probably born in
- ↑ The Via Traiana Nova, or the (viae) tres Traianae, mentioned in inscriptions with the Cassia and Clodia as under the same curator, are not certainly identifiable.
- ↑ Having regard to the military importance of Arretium during the Punic wars, it is difficult to believe that no direct road existed to this point before 187 B.C.
