CHARD, a market town and municipal borough in the Southern parliamentary division of Somersetshire, England, 142½ m. W. by S. of London by the London & South Western railway. Pop. (1901) 4437. It stands on high ground within 1 m. of the Devonshire border. Its cruciform parish church of St Mary the Virgin is Perpendicular of the 15th century. A fine east window is preserved. The manufactures include linen, lace, woollens, brassware and ironware. Chard is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 444 acres.
Chard (Cerdre, Cherdre, Cherde) was commercial in origin, being a trade centre near the Roman road to the west. There are two Roman villas in the parish. There was a British camp at Neroche in the neighbourhood. The bishop of Bath held Chard in 1086, and his successor granted in 1234 the first charter which made Chard a free borough, each burgage paying a rent of 12d. Trade in hides was forbidden to non-burgesses. This charter was confirmed in 1253, 1280 and 1285. Chard is said to have been incorporated by Elizabeth, as the corporation seal dates from 1570, but no Elizabethan charter can be found. It was incorporated by grant of Charles I. in 1642, and Charles II. gave a charter in 1683. Chard was a mesne borough, the first overlord being Bishop Joceline, whose successors held it (with a brief interval from 1545 to 1552) until 1801, when it was sold to Earl Poulett. Parliamentary representation began in 1312, and was lost in 1328. A market on Monday and fair on the 25th of July were granted in 1253, and confirmed in 1642 and 1683, when two more fair days were added (November 2 and May 3), the market being changed to Tuesday. The market day is now Monday, fairs being held on the first Wednesday in May, August and November, for corn and cattle only, their medieval importance as centres of the cloth trade having departed.
CHARDIN, JEAN SIMÉON (1699-1779), French genre painter, was born in Paris, and studied under Pierre Jacques Cazes (1676-1754), the historical painter, and Noël Nicolas Coypel. He became famous for his still-life pictures and domestic interiors, which are well represented at the Louvre, and for figure-painting, as in his Le Bénédicité (1740).
CHARDIN, SIR JOHN (1643-1713), French traveller, was born at Paris in 1643. His father, a wealthy jeweller, gave him an excellent education, and trained him in his own art; but instead of settling down in the ordinary routine of the craft, he set out in company with a Lyons merchant named Raisin in 1665 for Persia and India, partly on business and partly to gratify his own inclination. After a highly successful journey, during which he had received the patronage of Shah Abbas II. of Persia, he returned to France in 1670, and there published in the following year Récit du Couronnement du roi de Perse Soliman III. Finding, however, that his Protestant profession cut him off from all hope of honours or advancement in his native country, he set out again for Persia in August 1671. This second journey was much more adventurous than the first, as instead of going directly to his destination, he passed by Smyrna, Constantinople, the Crimea, Caucasia, Mingrelia and Georgia, and did not reach Ispahan till June 1673. After four years spent in researches throughout Persia, he again visited India, and returned to Europe by the Cape of Good Hope in 1677. The persecution of Protestants in France led him, in 1681, to settle in London, where he was appointed jeweller to the court, and received from Charles II. the honour of knighthood. In 1683 he was sent to Holland as representative of the English East India Company; and in 1686 he published the first part of his great narrative—The Travels of Sir John Chardin into Persia and the East Indies, &c. (London). Sir John died in London in 1713, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, where his monument bears the inscription Nomen sibi fecit eundo.
It was not till 1711 that the complete account of Chardin’s travels appeared, under the title of Journal du voyage du chevalier Chardin, at Amsterdam. The Persian portion is to be found in vol. ii. of Harris’s Collection, and extracts are reprinted by Pinkerton in vol. ix. The best complete reprint is by Langlès (Paris, 1811). Sir John Chardin’s narrative has received the highest praise from the most competent authorities for its fulness, comprehensiveness and fidelity; and it furnished Montesquieu, Rousseau, Gibbon and Helvétius with most important material.
CHARENTE, an inland department of south-western France, comprehending the ancient province of Angoumois, and inconsiderable portions of Saintonge, Poitou, Marche, Limousin and Périgord. It is bounded N. by the departments of Deux-Sèvres and Vienne, E. by those of Vienne and Dordogne, S. by Dordogne and W. by Charente-Inférieure. Area 2305 sq. m. Pop. (1906) 351,733. The department, though it contains no high altitudes, is for the most part of a hilly nature. The highest points, many of which exceed 1000 ft., are found in the Confolentais, the granite region of the extreme north-east, known also as the Terres Froides. In the Terres Chaudes, under which name the remainder of the department is included, the levels vary in general between 300 and 650 ft., except in the western plains—the Pays-Bas and Champagne—where they range from 40 to 300 ft. A large part of Charente is thickly wooded, the principal forests lying in its northern districts. The department, as its name indicates, belongs mainly to the basin of the river Charente (area of basin 3860 sq. m.; length of river 225 m.), the chief affluents of which, within its borders, are the Tardoire, the Touvre and the Né. The Confolentais is watered by the Vienne, a tributary of the Loire, while the arrondissement of Barbexieux in the south-west belongs almost wholly to the basin of the Gironde.
The climate is temperate but moist, the rainfall being highest in the north-east. Agriculturally, Charente is prosperous. More than half its surface is arable land, on the greater part of which cereals are grown. The potato is an important crop. The vine is predominant in the region of Champagne, the wine produced being chiefly distilled into the famous brandy to which the town of Cognac gives its name. The best pasture is found in the Confolentais, where horned cattle are largely reared. The chief fruits are chestnuts, walnuts and cider-apples. The poultry raised in the neighbourhood of Barbezieux is highly esteemed. Charente has numerous stone quarries, and there are peat workings and beds of clay which supply brick and tile-works and earthenware manufactories. Among the other industries, paper-making, which has its chief centre at Angoulême, is foremost. The most important metallurgical establishment is the large foundry of naval guns at Ruelle. Flour-mills and leather-works are numerous. There are also many minor industries subsidiary to paper-making and brandy-distilling, and Angoulême manufactures gunpowder and confectionery. Coal, salt and timber are prominent imports. Exports include paper, brandy, stone and agricultural products. The department is served chiefly by the Orlêans and Ouest-État railways, and the Charente is navigable below Angoulême. Charente is divided into the five arrondissements of Angoulême, Cognac, Ruffec, Barbezieux and Confolens (29 cantons, 426 communes). It belongs to the region of the XII. army corps, to the province of the archbishop of Bordeaux, and to the académie (educational division) of Poitiers. Its court of appeal is at Bordeaux.