The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 82

BORROWDALE, a valley in the Lake District, W. c.u.mberland, celebrated for its beautiful scenery.

BORTHWICK CASTLE, a ruined peel tower, 13 m. SE. of Edinburgh, where Queen Mary and Bothwell spent four days together in June 1567.

BORY DE SAINT-VINCENT, JEAN BAPTISTE, a French traveller and naturalist (1780-1846).

BOSCAWEN, EDWARD, a British admiral, known from his fearlessness as "Old Dreadnought"; distinguished himself in engagements at Puerto Bello, Cathagena, Cape Finisterre, and the Bay of Lagos, where, after a "sea hunt" of 24 hours, he wrecked and ruined a fine French fleet, eager to elude his grasp (1711-1761).

BOSCOVICH, ROGER JOSEPH, an Italian mathematician and astronomer, born at Ragusa; entered the Order of the Jesuits; was professor in Pavia, and afterwards at Milan; discovered the equator of the sun and the period of its rotation; advocated the molecular theory of physics, with which his name is a.s.sociated; died insane (1701-1787).

BOSIO, BARON, a celebrated Italian sculptor; patronised in France (1769-1845).

BOSNA-SERAI (38), capital of Bosnia, and seat of authority.

BOSNIA (1,200), a province in NW. of the Balkan Peninsula, under Austria-Hungary; the inhabitants of Servian nationality.

BOS'PHORUS (Ox-ford), a channel 17 m. long and from 3 to m. broad, and about 30 fathoms deep, strongly defended by forts, extending from the Sea of Marmora to the Black Sea; subject to Turkey. It derives its name from the channel which, according to the Greek myth, Zeus, in the form of an ox, crossed into Europe with Europa on his back.

BOS'QUET, PIERRE FRANcOIS JOSEPH, a marshal of France, distinguished in Algiers and the Crimea; was wounded at the storming of the Malakoff (1810-1861).

BOS'SUET, JACQUES BeNIGNE, bishop of Meaux, born at Dijon, surnamed the "Eagle of Meaux," of the see of which he became bishop; one of the greatest of French pulpit orators, and one of the ablest defenders of the doctrines of the Catholic Church; the great aim of his life the conversion of Protestants back to the Catholic faith; took a leading part in establis.h.i.+ng the rights of the Gallican clergy, or rather of the Crown, as against the claims of the Pope; proved himself more a time-server than a bold, outspoken champion of the truth; conceived a violent dislike to Madame Guyon, and to Fenelon for his defence of her and her Quietists; and he is not clear of the guilt of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes; wrote largely; his "Discourse on Universal History"

is on approved lines, and the first attempt at a philosophy of history; his Funeral Orations are monuments of the most sublime eloquence; while his "Politique founded on Holy Scripture" is a defence of the divine right of kings. "Bossuet," says Professor Saintsbury, "was more of a speaker than a writer. His excellence lies in his wonderful survey and grasp of the subject, in the contagious enthusiasm and energy with which he attacks his point, and in his inexhaustible metaphors and comparisons.... Though he is always aiming at the sublime, he scarcely ever oversteps it, or falls into the bombastic or ridiculous.... The most unfortunate incident of his life was his controversy with Fenelon"

(1627-1704).

BOSSUT, CHARLES, French mathematician, born near Lyons, _confrere_ of the Encyclopaedists; his chief work "L'Histoire Generale des Mathematiques"; edited Pascal's works (1730-1814).

BOSTON (19), a Lincolns.h.i.+re seaport, on the Witham, 30 m. SE. of Lincoln; exports coal, machinery, corn, and wool, and imports timber and general goods. There is a large cattle and sheep market, also canvas and sail-cloth works. Fox, the martyrologist, was a native. It has a s.p.a.cious church, which is a conspicuous landmark and beacon at sea.

BOSTON (561), on Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, is the capital of Ma.s.sachusetts and the chief city of New England, one of the best-built and best-appointed cities of the Union. With an excellent harbour and eight converging railways it is an emporium of trade, and very wealthy. Sugar, wool, hides, and chemicals are imported; farm produce, cattle, cotton, and tobacco exported; boot and shoe making is one of many varied industries. The many educational inst.i.tutions and its interest in literature and art have won for it the t.i.tle of American Athens. Among famous natives were Franklin, Poe, and Emerson; while most American men of letters have been a.s.sociated with it. The Boston riots of 1770 and 1773 were the heralds of the revolution, and the first battle was fought at Bunker Hill, not far off, now included in it.

BOSTON, THOMAS, a Scottish divine, born at Duns, educated at Edinburgh, became minister of Ettrick; author of the "Fourfold State," a popular exposition of Calvinism, and "The Crook in the Lot," both at one time much read and studied by the pious Presbyterian burghers and peasantry of Scotland; the former an account of the state of man, first in innocence, second as fallen, third as redeemed, and fourth as in glory. He was a shrewd man and a quaint writer; exercised a great influence on the religious views of the most pious-minded of his countrymen (1676-1732).

BOSTON TEA-PARTY, the insurgent American colonists who, disguised as Indians, boarded, on Dec. 16, 1773, three English s.h.i.+ps laden with tea, and hurled several hundred chests of it into Boston harbour, "making it black with unexpected tea."

BOSWELL, JAMES, the biographer of Johnson, born at Edinburgh, showed early a penchant for writing and an admiration for literary men; fell in with Johnson on a visit to London in 1763, and conceived for him the most devoted regard; made a tour with him to the Hebrides in 1773, the "Journal" of which he afterwards published; settled in London, and was called to the English bar; succeeded, in 1782, to his father's estate, Auchinleck, in Ayrs.h.i.+re, with an income of 1600 a year. Johnson dying in 1784, Boswell's "Life" of him appeared five years after, a work unique in biography, and such as no man could have written who was not a hero-wors.h.i.+pper to the backbone. He succ.u.mbed in the end to intemperate habits, aggravated by the death of his wife (1740-1795).

BOSWELL, SIR ALEXANDER, son and heir of the preceding, an antiquary; mortally wounded in a duel with James Stuart of Dunearn, who had impugned his character, for which the latter was tried, but acquitted (1775-1822).

BOSWORTH, a town in Leicesters.h.i.+re, near which Richard III. lost both crown and life in 1485, an event which terminated the Wars of the Roses and led to the accession of the Tudor dynasty to the throne of England in the person of Henry VII.

BOSWORTH, JOSEPH, an Anglo-Saxon scholar, born in Derbys.h.i.+re; became professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford; was the author of an Anglo-Saxon Grammar and Dictionary (1789-1876).

BOTANY BAY, an inlet in New South Wales, 5 m. S. of Sydney; discovered by Captain Cook in 1770; so called, by Sir Joseph Banks, from the variety and beauty of its flora; was once an English convict settlement.

BOTH, JOHN AND ANDREW, Flemish painters of the 17th century, the former a landscape and the latter a figure painter; worked frequently on the same canvas.

BOTHNIA, a prov. of Sweden, divided into E. and W. by a gulf of the name.

BOTHWELL, a village in Lanarks.h.i.+re, on the Clyde, 8 m. SE. of Glasgow; scene of a battle between Monmouth and the Covenanters in 1679.

BOTHWELL, JAMES HEPBURN, Earl of, one of the envoys sent in 1560 to convey Mary, Queen of Scots, from France home; was made Privy Councillor the year after; had to flee to France for an act of conspiracy; was recalled by Mary on her marriage with Darnley; was a great favourite with the queen; was believed to have murdered Darnley, though when tried, was acquitted; carried off Mary to Dunbar Castle; pardoned; was made Duke of Orkney, and married to her at Holyrood; parted with her at Carberry Hill; fled to Norway, and was kept captive there at Malmoe; after ten years of misery he died, insane, as is believed (1525-1577).

BOTOCUDOS, a wandering wild tribe in the forests of Brazil, near the coast; a very low type of men, and at a very low stage of civilisation; are demon-wors.h.i.+ppers, and are said to have no numerals beyond _one_.

BO-TREE, a species of Ficus, sacred to the Buddhists as the tree under which Buddha sat when the light of life first dawned on him. See BUDDHA.

BOTTA, CARLO GIUSEPPE, an Italian political historian, born in Piedmont; his most important work is his "History of Italy from 1789 to 1814"; was the author of some poems (1766-1837).

BOTTA, PAUL eMILE, a.s.syriologist, born at Turin, son of the preceding; when consul at Mosul, in 1843, discovered the ruins of Nineveh; made further explorations, published in the "Memoire de l'Ecriture Cuneiform a.s.syrienne" and "Monuments de Ninive" (1802-1870).

BoTTGER, an alchemist who, in his experiments on porcelain, invented the celebrated Meissen porcelain (1682-1719).

BOTTICELLI, SANDRO, or ALESSANDRO, a celebrated painter of the Florentine school; began as a goldsmith's apprentice; a pupil of Fra Lippo Lippi; the best-known examples of his art are on religious subjects, though he was no less fascinated with cla.s.sical--mythological conceptions; is distinguished for his attention to details and for delicacy, particularly in the drawing of flowers; and it is a rose on the petticoat of one of his figures, the figure of Spring, which Ruskin has reproduced on the t.i.tle-page of his recent books, remarking that "no one has ever yet drawn, or is likely to draw, roses as he has done;... he understood," he adds, "the thoughts of heathens and Christians equally, and could in a measure paint both Aphrodite and the Madonna" (1447-1515).

BoTTIGER, KARL AUGUSTE, German archaeologist, was a voluminous writer on antiquities, especially cla.s.sical (1760-1835).

BOTTOM, a weaver in the interlude in "Midsummer-Night's Dream,"

whom, with his a.s.s's head, t.i.tania falls in love with under the influence of a love-potion.