NASH, RICHARD, known as “Beau Nash,” born at Swansea; installed himself as master of the ceremonies at Bath, and ruler of the assemblies of fashion in that resort; was a charitable man as well as gay; died in poverty, but was honoured with a public funeral (1674-1761).

NASH, THOMAS, English satirist, born at Lowestoft, a Cambridge University wit; wrote plays, as well as pamphlets, bearing on the MARPRELATE CONTROVERSY (q. v.) (1567-1601).

NASHVILLE (81), capital of Tennessee, U.S., on the Cumberland River, 185 m.  SW. of Louisville; a suspension bridge and railway drawbridge joins it with Edgefield suburb; it is an important railway and educational centre, the seat of the Fisk, Vanderbilt, and Nashville universities, and is actively engaged in the manufacture of cotton, tobacco, flour, paper, oil, &c.

NASMITH, ALEXANDER, Scottish landscape painter, born in Edinburgh; did portraits also, and one of Burns in particular, deemed the best likeness we have of the poet (1757-1843).

NASMITH, JAMES, mechanician, son of the preceding, born in Edinburgh; invented the steam-hammer and a steam pile-driver (1808-1890).

NASSAU, till 1866 a duchy of Germany, now included in the Prussian province of HESSE-NASSAU (q. v.).

NATAL (544, of which 47 are whites), British colony in SE.  Africa, somewhat larger than Denmark, fronts the Indian Ocean on the E., having a foreshore of 180 m., between Zululand on the N. and Kaffraria on the S.; the Dragensberg Mountains form its western boundary; enjoys a fine salubrious climate, and possesses abundance of fertile land, watered by some 140 inches of rainfall; along the coast the sugar-cane is largely cultivated, as also some tea, coffee, tobacco, &c., while all kinds of fruits flourish in its sub-tropical climate; the rising ground inland produces good cereals, and large numbers of sheep and cattle find excellent pasturage on the plains and mountain slopes on the W.; excellent coal is mined in large quantities, and iron and copper promise well; wool, sugar, hides, feathers, and ivory are the chief exports, and are shipped mainly at Durban, the chief port; the colony now enjoys the advantages of good railways, schools, representative government, and a legal code based on old Dutch law; PIETERMARITZBURG (q. v.) is the capital; Natal was discovered in 1497 by Vasco da Gama, and after being annexed to Cape Colony in 1844, was declared, 11 years later, a separate colony.

NATHAN, a Jewish prophet who had the courage to charge King David to his face with a heinous crime he had committed and convict him of his guilt, to his humiliation in the dust.

NATION OF SHOPKEEPERS, Napoleon Bonaparte’s contemptuous name for the English.

NATIONAL ANTHEM, its authorship has been long matter of controversy, and it is uncertain to this day; it has been ascribed to H. Carey and to Dr. John Bull.