nded in improving its
spacious docks to accommodate an increasing shipping-trade; its exports,
brandy, coal, wheat, &c., are mainly from Nantes and the interior.

ST. NEOTS (4), an old market-town of Huntingdonshire, on the Ouse, 8
m. SW. of Huntingdon; has an interesting old parish church, a corn
exchange, and iron and paper works.

ST. NICHOLAS, the patron saint of boys, who was fabled to bring
presents to good children on Christmas eve; was bishop of Myra in the 4th
century, and had taken a special interest in the young.

ST. OMER (20), a fortified town of France, on the Aa, 26 m. SE. of
Calais; has a fine old Gothic cathedral, a ruined Benedictine abbey
church, a Catholic college, arsenal, &c.; manufactures embrace light
textiles, tobacco pipes, &c.

ST. PAUL (168), capital of Minnesota State, finely situated on the
Mississippi, a little below the mouth of the Minnesota River; in 1849 a
village of 500 inhabitants; is now a beautiful and spacious city,
equipped with colleges, libraries, government buildings, electric
street-railways, &c.; is a centre for 10 railways, and carries on a large
trade in distributing groceries and dry goods throughout the State.

ST. PAUL'S SCHOOL, at West Kensington, London, a famous charity
school founded by JOHN COLET (q. v.), dean of St. Paul's, for
children of "every nation, country, and class"; originally stood in St.
Paul's Churchyard, but was burned out by the Great Fire of 1666; the
present building was opened in 1884. The endowment amounts to L10,000 a
year, and 1000 boys and 400 girls are provided with education and board.
There are a number of Oxford and Cambridge exhibitions.

ST. PETERSBURG (1,036), capital of Russia, an imposing city,
occupying a dreary, isolated site at the head of the Gulf of Finland, on
the banks and delta islands (100) of the Neva, founded in 1702 by Peter
the Great; a large number of bridges span the main stream and its
numerous divisions; massive stone quays hold back the waters, but a rise
of 12 ft. floods the city (a yearly occurrence in the poorer parts); the
river is ice-bound nearly half the year, and is given over to sleighing,
&c.; the short summer is hot; covers nearly 48 sq. m.; its palaces and
government buildings for number and grandeur are unsurpassed; Neva View
is the finest street in Europe; is the centre of Russian political,
literary, scientific, and artistic life; has a university, numerous
academies, cathedral, techn