arge majority of the population is
Roman Catholic. The earliest development of towns and villages took
place along the river Maas and its tributaries, and the fortified Roman
camps which were the origin of many such afterwards developed in the
hands of feudal lords. The chief town of the province, 's Hertogenbosch,
may be cited as an interesting historical example. Geertruidenberg,
Heusden, Ravestein and Grave are all similarly situated. Breda is the
next town in importance to the capital. Bergen-op-Zoom had originally a
more maritime importance. Rozendaal, Eindhoven and Bokstel (or Boxtel)
are important railway junctions. Bokstel was formerly the seat of an
independent barony which came into the possession of Philip the Good in
1439. The castle was restored in modern times. The precarious position
of the province on the borders of the country doubtless militated
against an earlier industrial development, but since the separation from
Belgium and the construction of roads, railways and canals there has
been a general improvement, Tilburg, Eindhoven and Helmond all having
risen into prominence in modern times as industrial centres.
Leather-tanning and shoe-making are especially associated with the
district called Langstraat, which is situated between Geertruidenberg
and 's Hertogenbosch, and consists of a series of industrial villages
along the course of the Old Maas.

BRACCIANO, a town in the province of Rome, Italy, 25 m. N.W. of Rome by
rail, situated on the S.W. shore of the Lake of Bracciano, 915 ft. above
sea-level. Pop. (1901) 3987. It is chiefly remarkable for its fine
castle (built by the Orsini in 1460, and since 1696 the property of the
Odescalchi) which has preserved its medieval character. The beautiful
lake is the ancient _Lacus Sabatinus_, supposed to derive its name from
an Etruscan city of the name of Sabate, which is wrongly thought to be
mentioned in the Itineraries; the reference is really to the lake
itself, which bore this name and gave it to one of the Roman tribes, the
_tribus Sabatina_, founded in 387 B.C. (O. Cuntz in _Jahreshefte des
Osterr. Arch. Instituts_, ii., 1899, 85). It is 22 sq. m. in area, 538
ft. above sea-level, and 530 ft. deep; it is almost circular, but is
held to be, not an extinct crater, but the result of a volcanic
subsidence. The tufa deposits which radiate from it extend as far as
Rome; various small craters surround it, while the existence of warm
springs in the dist