Mancha
LA (män'chä), a district of Spain, in the old kingdom of New Castile, comprising most of the present province of Ciudad Real, with parts of Albacete, Toledo, and Cuena. It is the country of the ever-memorable Don Quixote, his squire Sancho Panza, and of the peerless Dulcinea del Toboso.
MANCHE (mänsh), LA, a maritime department in the N. W. of France, formed from the old province of Normandy, derives its name from La Manche (the English Channel), which washes its rock coasts; greatest length, 81 miles; average breadth, 28 miles; area, 2,475 square miles; pop. about 500,000. The climate is mild, but humid.
Cereals, flax, hemp, beet root, and fruits are extensively cultivated. Horses of the true Norman breed are reared, and excellent cattle and sheep are fed on the extensive pastures. There are valuable granite quarries. The port of Cherbourg and the rock of St. Michel (with its celebrated abbey) belong to this department.