The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 53

BANBURY, a market-town in Oxfords.h.i.+re, celebrated for its cross and its cakes.

BANCA (80), an island in the Eastern Archipelago, belonging to the Dutch, with an unhealthy climate; rich in tin, worked by Chinese.

BANCROFT, GEORGE, an American statesman, diplomatist, and historian, born in Ma.s.sachusetts; his chief work "The History of the United States,"

issued finally in six vols., and a faithful account (1800-1891).

BANCROFT, HUBERT, an American historian, author of a "History of the Pacific States of N. America"; _b_. 1832.

BANCROFT, RICHARD, archbishop of Canterbury, a zealous Churchman and an enemy of the Puritans; represented the Church at the Hampton Court Conference, and was chief overseer of the Authorised Version of the Bible (1554-1610).

BANCROFT, SIR SQUIRE, English actor, born in London, made his first appearance in Birmingham in 1861; married Mrs. Wilton, an actress; opened with her the Haymarket Theatre in 1880; retired in 1885, at which time both retired, and have appeared since only occasionally.

BANDA ISLES, a group of the Moluccas, some twelve in number, belonging to Holland; yield nutmegs and mace; are subject to earthquakes.

BANDA ORIENTAL, See URUGUAY.

BANDELLO, an Italian Dominican monk, a writer of tales, some of which furnished themes and incidents for Shakespeare, Ma.s.singer, and other dramatists of their time (1480-1562).

BANDIE'RA, brothers, born in Venice; martyrs, in 1844, to the cause of Italian independence.

BANDINELLI, a Florentine sculptor, tried hard to rival Michael Angelo and Cellini; his work "Hercules and Cacus" is the most ambitious of his productions; did a "Descent from the Cross" in bas-relief, in Milan Cathedral (1487-1559).

BANFF (7), county town of Banffs.h.i.+re, on the Moray Firth, at the mouth of the Deveron; the county itself (64) stretches level along the coast, though mountainous on the S. and SE.; fis.h.i.+ng and agriculture the great industries.

BANFFY, BARON, Premier of Hungary, born at Klausenburg; became in 1874 provincial prefect of Transylvania; was elected a peer on the formation of the Upper Hungarian Chamber, and was made Premier in 1893; he is a strong Liberal; _b_. 1841.

BANGA, the Hindu name for the Delta of the Ganges.

BAN'GALORE (180), the largest town in Mysore, and the capital; stands high; is manufacturing and trading.

BANGHIS, a low-caste people in the Ganges valley.

BANGK'OK (500), the capital of Siam, on the Menam; a very striking city; styled, from the ca.n.a.ls which intersect it, the "Venice of the East"; 20 m. from the sea; the centre of the foreign trade, carried on by Europeans and Chinese; with the royal palace standing on an island, in the courtyard of which several white elephants are kept.

BANGOR (9), an episcopal city in Carnarvon, N. Wales, with large slate quarries; a place of summer resort, from the beauty of its surroundings.

BANGORIAN CONTROVERSY, a controversy in the Church of England provoked by a sermon which Hoadley, bishop of Bangor, preached before George I. in 1717, which offended the sticklers for ecclesiastical authority.

BANGWEO'LO, a lake in Equatorial Africa, discovered by Livingstone, and on the sh.o.r.e of which he died; 150 m. long, and half as wide; 3690 ft. above sea-level.

BANIAN DAYS, days when no meat is served out to s.h.i.+ps' crews.

BANJARI, a non-Aryan race in Central India, the carriers and caravan-conductors of the region.

BANIM, JOHN, Irish author, a native of Kilkenny, novelist of Irish peasant life on its dark side, who, along with his brother Michael, wrote 24 vols. of Irish stories, &c.; his health giving way, he fell into poverty, but was rescued by a public subscription and a pension; Michael survived him 32 years (1798-1842).

BANKS, SIR JOSEPH, a zealous naturalist, particularly in botany; a collector, in lands far and wide, of specimens in natural history; left his collection and a valuable library and herbarium to the British Museum; president of the Royal Society for 41 years (1744-1820).

BANKS, THOMAS, an eminent English sculptor, born at Lambeth; first appreciated by the Empress Catharine; his finest works, "Psyche" and "Achilles Enraged," now in the entrance-hall of Burlington House; he excelled in imaginative art (1735-1805).

BANNATYNE CLUB, a club founded by Sir Walter Scott to print rare works of Scottish interest, whether in history, poetry, or general literature, of which it printed 116, all deemed of value, a complete set having been sold for 235; dissolved in 1861.

BAN'NOCKBURN (2), a manufacturing village 3 m. SE. of Stirling, the scene of the victory, on June 24, 1314, of Robert the Bruce over Edward II., which rea.s.serted and secured Scottish independence; it manufactures carpets and tartans.

BAN'SHEE, among the Irish, and in some parts of the Highlands and Brittany, a fairy, believed to be attached to a family, who gave warnings by wailings of an approaching death in it, and kept guard over it.

BANTAM, a chief town in Java, abandoned as unhealthy by the Dutch; whence the Bantam fowl is thought to have come.

BANTING SYSTEM, a dietary for keeping down fat, recommended by a Mr.

Banting, a London merchant, in a "Letter on Corpulence" in 1863; he recommended lean meat, and the avoidance of sugar and starchy foods.

BANTRY BAY, a deep inlet on the SW. coast of Ireland; a place of shelter for s.h.i.+ps.

BANTU, the name of most of the races, with their languages, that occupy Africa from 6 N. lat. to 20 S.; are negroid rather than negro, being in several respects superior; the name, however, suggests rather a linguistic than an ethnological distinction, the language differing radically from all other known forms of speech--the inflection, for one thing, chiefly initial, not final.