DURHAM, a parliamentary and municipal borough, and ancient episcopal city of England, near the middle of Durham co., built around a steep rocky hill 86 ft. high, nearly encircled by the Wear. On the top of the hill are the cathedral and castle. Ancient walls partly inclose the hill, from which are fine views of the fertile wooded country around, and of the suburbs across the river. The chief manufactures of D. are carpets, paper, and iron. In the vicinity are coal-mines, and saline, chalybeate, and sulphureous springs. Pop. '71, 14,406. It sends two members to parliament. D. arose about the year 995, when bishop Aldune brought here St. Cuthbert's bones from Ripon, and built a church to enshrine them. On the site of this church, bishop William de Carilepho, about 1093, began the present magnificent cathedral, a Romanesque structure in the form of a Latin cross, to which additions continued to be made till about 1500. It thus exhibits the gradual changes of style between these periods. It was restored during last century, and has lately undergone extensive renovation. It is 507 by 200 ft., with a central tower 214 ft. high, and two west towers 138 ft. high. The cathedral contains many old monuments. Here lie St. Cuthbert's (q.v.) remains. Here also are Bede's tomb and some manuscripts said to be in his hand-writing. Cardinal Wolsey was a prelate here. The bishop's income is now £8,000. The castle, formerly the resi dence of the bishops of D., but now the seat of the university of D., was founded about
1072, by William the conqueror, in the Romanesque style, but it has since been much altered. The dormitory, now the new library of the cathedral, which belonged to the monastery of D. is one of the finest in England. Two of the bridges over the Wear were erected in D., 12th century. D. was often attacked by the Scots.
A college was founded here in 1290 by the prior and convent of Durham. It was abolished, however, at the dissolution of monastic houses in the reign of Henry VIII., and its.endowments given to the dean and chapter of Durham. Under the common wealth, Cromwell instituted a college here, and endowed it with the sequestrated revenues of the dean and chapter, to whom, however, these revenues again reverted at the restoration, when the college was suppressed. The present university of D. was opened for students in 1833, under the provisions of an act of parliament, obtained by the dean and chapter during the previous year. A royal charter in 1837 empowered the university to bestow degrees. The D. university comprises professorships in divinity and ecclesiastical history, classical literature, mathematics and astronomy, and medicine, with lectureships in Hebrew, classical literature, etc. It has two colleges—University college, and bishop Hatfield's hall.