nave with aisles, transept and choir with ambulatory and side chapels, there are fine rose-windows with stained glass of the 14th century, and other works of art. Of the other buildings of Coutances the church of St Pierre, in which Renaissance architecture is mingled with Gothic, and that of St Nicolas, of the 16th and 17th centuries, demand mention. There is an aqueduct of the 14th century to the west of the town. Coutances is a quiet town with winding streets and pleasant boulevards bordering it on the east; on the western slope of the hill there is a public garden. The town is the seat of a bishop, a court of assizes and a sub-prefect; it has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a lycée for boys, a communal college and a training college for girls, and an ecclesiastical seminary. Leather-dressing and wool-spinning are carried on and there is trade in live-stock, in agricultural produce, especially eggs, and in marble.
Coutances is the ancient Cosedia, which before the Roman conquest was one of the chief towns in the country of the Unelli. Towards the end of the 3rd century its name was changed to Constantia, in honour of the emperor Constantius Chlorus, who fortified it. It became the capital of the pagus Constantinus (Cotentin), and in the middle ages was the seat of a viscount. It has been an episcopal see since the 5th century. In the 17th century it was the centre of the revolt of the Nu-pieds, caused by the imposition of the salt-tax (gabelle).
A good bibliography of general works and monographs on the archaeology and the history of the town and diocese of Coutances is given in U. Chevalier, Répertoire des sources, &c., Topo-Bibliographie (Montbéliard, 1894–1899), s.v.
COUTHON, GEORGES (1755–1794), French revolutionist, was born at Orcet, a village in the district of Clermont in
Auvergne. He studied law, and was admitted advocate at
Clermont in 1785. At this period he was noted for his integrity,
gentle-heartedness and charitable disposition. His health was
feeble and both legs were paralysed. In 1787 he was a member
of the provincial assembly of Auvergne. On the outbreak of
the Revolution Couthon, who was now a member of the municipality
of Clermont-Ferrand, published his L’Aristocrate converti,
in which he revealed himself as a liberal and a champion of
constitutional monarchy. He became very popular, was appointed
president of the tribunal of the town of Clermont in
1791, and in September of the same year was elected deputy to
the Legislative Assembly. His views had meanwhile been
embittered by the attempted flight of Louis XVI., and he
distinguished himself now by his hostility to the king. A visit
to Flanders for the sake of his health brought him into close
intercourse and sympathy with Dumouriez. In September 1792
Couthon was elected member of the National Convention, and
at the trial of the king voted for the sentence of death without
appeal. He hesitated for a time as to which party he should
join, but finally decided for that of Robespierre, with whom he
had many opinions in common, especially in matters of religion.
He was the first to demand the arrest of the proscribed Girondists.
On the 30th of May 1793 he became a member of the Committee of
Public Safety, and in August was sent as one of the commissioners
of the Convention attached to the army before Lyons. Impatient
at the slow progress made by the besieging force, he decreed
a levée en masse in the department of Puy-de-Dôme, collected
an army of 60,000 men, and himself led them to Lyons. When
the city was taken, on the 9th of October 1793, although the
Convention ordered its destruction, Couthon did not carry out
the decree, and showed moderation in the punishment of the
rebels. The Republican atrocities began only after Couthon
was replaced, on the 3rd of November 1793, by Collot d’Herbois.
Couthon returned to Paris, and on the 21st of December was
elected president of the Convention. He contributed to the
prosecution of the Hébertists, and was responsible for the law
of the 22nd Prairial, which in the case of trials before the Revolutionary
Tribunal deprived the accused of the aid of counsel or
of witnesses or their defence, on the pretext of shortening the
proceedings. During the crisis preceding the 9th Thermidor,
Couthon showed considerable courage, giving up a journey to
Auvergne in order, as he wrote, that he might either die or
triumph with Robespierre and liberty. Arrested with Robespierre
and Saint-Just, his colleagues in the triumvirate of the
Terror, and subjected to indescribable sufferings and insults,
he was taken to the scaffold on the same cart with Robespierre
on the 28th of July 1794 (10th Thermidor).
See Fr. Mège, Correspondance de Couthon ... suivie de “l’Aristocrate converti,” comédie en deux actes de Couthon (Paris, 1872); and Nouveaux Documents sur Georges Couthon (Clermont-Ferrand, 1890); also F. A. Aulard, Les Orateurs de la Législative et de la Convention (Paris, 1885–1886), ii. 425–443.
COUTTS, THOMAS (1735–1822), English banker and founder of the banking house of Coutts & Co., was born on the 7th of September 1735. He was the fourth son of John Coutts (1699–1751), who carried on business in Edinburgh as a corn factor and negotiator of bills of exchange, and who in 1742 was elected lord
provost of the city. The family was originally of Montrose, but
one of its members had settled at Edinburgh about 1696. Soon
after the death of John Coutts the business was divided into two
branches, one carried on in Edinburgh, the other in London.
The banking business in London was in the hands of James and
Thomas Coutts, sons of John Coutts. From the death of his
brother in 1778, Thomas, as surviving partner, became sole head
of the firm; and under his direction the banking house rose
to the highest distinction. His ambition was to establish his
character as a man of business and to make a fortune; and he
lived to succeed in this aim and long to enjoy his reputation and
wealth. A gentleman in manners, hospitable and benevolent, he
counted amongst his friends some of the literary men and the
best actors of his day. Of the enormous wealth which came into
his hands he made munificent use. His private life was not
without its romantic elements. Soon after his settlement in
London he married Elizabeth Starkey, a young woman of humble
origin, who was in attendance on the daughter of his brother
James. They lived happily together, and had three daughters—Susan,
married in 1796 to the 3rd earl of Guilford; Frances,
married in 1800 to John, 1st marquess of Bute; and Sophia,
married in 1793 to Sir Francis Burdett. Mrs Coutts dying in
1815, her husband soon after married the popular actress,
Harriet Mellon; and to her he left the whole of his immense
fortune. He died in London on the 24th of February 1822.
His widow married in 1827 the 9th duke of St Albans, and died
ten years later, having bequeathed her property to Angela,
youngest daughter of Sir Francis Burdett, who then assumed the
additional name and arms of Coutts. In 1871 this lady was
created Baroness Burdett-Coutts (q.v.).
See C. Rogers, Genealogical Memoirs of the Families of Colt and Coutts (1879); and R. Richardson, Coutts & Co. (1900).
COUTURE, THOMAS (1815–1879), French painter, was born at Senlis (Oise), and studied under Baron A. J. Gros and Paul Delaroche, winning a Prix de Rome in 1837. He began exhibiting historical and genre pictures at the Salon in 1840, and obtained several medals. His masterpiece was his “Romans in the Decadence of the Empire” (1847), now in the Luxembourg; and his “Love of Money” (1844; at Toulouse), “Falconer” (1855), and “Damocles” (1872), are also good examples.
COUVADE (literally a “brooding,” from Fr. couver, to hatch, Lat. cubare, to lie down), a custom so called in Béarn, prevalent among several peoples in different parts of the world, requiring that the father, at and sometimes before the birth of his child, shall retire to bed and fast or abstain from certain kinds of food, receiving the attentions generally shown to women at their confinements. The existence of the custom in ancient classical times is testified to by Apollonius Rhodius, Diodorus (who refers to its existence among the Corsicans), and Strabo (who noticed it among the Spanish Basques, by whom, as well as by the Gascons, it has been said to be still observed, though the most recent researches entirely discredit this). Travellers, from the time of Marco Polo, who relates its observance in Chinese Turkestan, have found the custom to prevail in China, India, Borneo, Siam, Africa and the Americas. Even in Europe it cannot be said to have entirely disappeared. In certain of the Baltic provinces of Russia the husband, on the lying-in of the wife, takes to his bed and groans in mock pain. One writer believes he found traces of
