The watering-place of Les Eaux-Chaudes is 5 m. by road south-west of Eaux-Bonnes, in a wild gorge on the Gave d’Ossau. The springs are sulphurous, varying in temperature from 52° to 97° F., and are used in cases of rheumatism, certain maladies of women, &c. The thermal establishment is a handsome marble building.
There is fine mountain scenery in the neighbourhood of both places, the Pic de Ger near Eaux-Bonnes, commanding an extensive view. The valley of Ossau, one of the most beautiful in the Pyrenees, before the Revolution formed a community which, though dependent on Béarn, had its own legal organization, manners and costumes, the last of which are still to be seen on holidays.
EAVES (not a plural form as is sometimes supposed, but singular; O. Eng. efes, in Mid. High Ger. obse, Gothic ubizwa, a porch; connected with “over”), in architecture, the projecting edge of a sloping roof, which overhangs the face of the wall so as to throw off the water.
EAVESDRIP, or Eavesdrop, that width of ground around a house or building which receives the rain water dropping from the eaves. By an ancient Saxon law, a landowner was forbidden to erect any building at less than 2 ft. from the boundary of his land, and was thus prevented from injuring his neighbour’s house or property by the dripping of water from his eaves. The law of Eavesdrip has had its equivalent in the Roman stillicidium, which prohibited building up to the very edge of an estate.
From the Saxon custom arose the term “eavesdropper,” i.e. any one who stands within “the eavesdrop” of a house, hence one who pries into others’ business or listens to secrets. At common law an eavesdropper was regarded as a common nuisance, and was presentable at the court leet, and indictable at the sheriff’s tourn and punishable by fine and finding sureties for good behaviour. Though the offence of eavesdropping still exists at common law, there is no modern instance of a prosecution or indictment.
EBBW VALE, an urban district in the western parliamentary division of Monmouthshire, England, 21 m. N.W. of Newport on the Great Western, London & North-Western and Rhymney railways. Pop. (1891) 17,312; (1901) 20,994. It lies near the head of the valley of the river Ebbw, at an elevation of nearly 1000 ft., in a wild and mountainous mining district, which contains large collieries and important iron and steel works.