SENLWS  , a

town of northern France, in the department of Oise, on the right side of the Nonette, a left-hand affluent of the Oise, 34 M . N.N.E. of Paris by the Northern railway on the branch line (Chantilly-Crepy) connecting the Paris-Creil and Paris-Soissons lines . Pop . (1906) 6074 . Its antiquity, its historical monuments and its situation in a beautiful valley, in the midst of the three great forests of Hallatte, Chantilly and Ermenonville, render it interesting . Its Gallo-Roman walls, 23 ft. high and 13 ft. thick, are, with those of St Lizier (Ariege) and Bourges, the most perfect in France . They enclose an oval area 1024 ft. long from E. to W. and 794 ft. wide from N. to S . At each of the angles formed by the broken lines of which the circuit of 2756 ft. is composed stands or stood a tower; numbering originally twenty-eight, and now only sixteen, they are semicircular in plan, and up to the height of the wall are unpierced . The Roman city had only two gates; the present number is five . The site of the praetorium was afterwards occupied by a castle occasionally inhabited by the kings of France from Clovis to Henry IV., and still represented by ruins dating from the r rth, 13th and 16th centuries . In the neighbour-hood of Senlis the foundations of a Roman amphitheatre have also been discovered . The old cathedral of Notre Dame (12th, 13th and 16th centuries) was begun in 1155 on a vast scale; but owing to the limited resources of the diocese progress was slow and the transept was finished only under Francis I .

The

total length is 312 ft . (outside measurement), but the nave (92 ft. high) is shorter than the choir . At the west front there are three doorways and two bell towers . The right-hand tower (256 ft. high) is very striking: it consists, above the belfry stage, of a very slender octagonal drum with open-work turrets and a spire with eight dormer windows . The left-hand tower, altered in the 16th century, is crowned by a balustrade and a sharp roof . In the side portals, especially in the southern; the flamboyant Gothic is displayed in all its delicacy . Externally the choir is extremely simple . In the interior the sacristy pillars with capitals of the loth century are noteworthy . The episcopal palace, now an archaeological museum, dates from the 13th century; the old collegiate church of St Frambourg was built in the 12th century in the style which became characteristic of the " saintes chapelles " of the 13th and 14th centuries; St Pierre (chiefly of the 15th and 16th centuries) serves as a market . The ecclesiastical college of St Vincent, occupying the old abbey of this name, has an interesting church probably of the 12th century . Its date has, however, been greatly disputed by archaeologists, who sometimes wrongly refer it to Queen Anne of Russia, foundress in the rrth century of the abbey . The town hall (15th century) and several private houses are also of architectural interest .

Senlis has tribunals of first instance and of

commerce and a sub-prefecture . The manufacture of bricks and tiles, cardboard, measures and other wares are among the industries . The town is an agricultural market . Senlis can be traced back to the Gallo-Roman township of the Silvanectes, which afterwards became Augustomagus . Christianity was introduced by St Rieul probably about the close of the 3rd century . During the first two dynasties of France Senlis was a royal residence and generally formed part of the royal domain; it obtained a communal charter in 1173 . In the middle ages local manufactures, especially that of cloth, were active . The burgesses took part in the Jacquerie of the 14th century, then sided with the Burgundians and the English; whom, however, they afterwards expelled . The Leaguers were there beaten in 1589 by Henry I., duke of Longueville, and Francois de La Noue . The bishopric was suppressed at the Revolution, and this suppression was confirmed by the Concordat . Treaties between Louis XI. and Francis II., duke of Brittany (1475), and between Charles VIII. and Maximilian of Austria (1493) were signed at Senlis .