The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 52

BALKASH, LAKE, a lake in Siberia, 780 ft. above sea-level, the waters clear, but intensely salt, 150 m. long and 73 m. broad.

BALKH, anciently called Bactria, a district of Afghan Turkestan lying between the Oxus and the Hindu-Kush, 250 m. long and 120 m. broad, with a capital of the same name, reduced now to a village; birthplace of Zoroaster.

BALL, JOHN, a priest who had been excommunicated for denouncing the abuses of the Church; a ringleader in the Wat Tyler rebellion; captured and executed.

BALL, SIR R. S., mathematician and astronomer, born in Dublin; Astronomer-Royal for Ireland; author of works on astronomy and mechanics, the best known of a popular kind on the former science being "The Story of the Heavens"; _b_. 1840.

BALLAD, a story in verse, composed with spirit, generally of patriotic interest, and sung originally to the harp.

BALLANCHE, PIERRE SIMON, a mystic writer, born at Lyons, his chief work "la Palingenesie Sociale," his aim being the regeneration of society (1814-1847).

BALLANTINE, JAMES, gla.s.s-stainer and poet, born in Edinburgh (1808-1877).

BALLANTINE, SERJEANT, distinguished counsel in celebrated criminal cases (1812-1887).

BALL'ANTYNE, JAMES, a native of Kelso, became a printer in Edinburgh, printed all Sir Walter Scott's works; failed in business, a failure in which Scott was seriously implicated (1772-1833).

BALLANTYNE, JOHN, brother of preceding, a confidant of Sir Walter's in the matter of the anonymity of the Waverley Novels; an inimitable story-teller and mimic, very much to the delight of Sir Walter (1774-1821).

BALLARAT' (40), a town in Victoria, and since 1851 the second city in the province, about 100 m. NW. of Melbourne; the centre of the chief gold-fields in the colony, the precious metal being at first washed out of the soil, and now crushed out of the quartz rocks and dug out of deep mines; it is the seat of both a Roman Catholic and a Church of England bishopric.

BALL'ATER, a clean Aberdeens.h.i.+re village on the Dee, a favourite summer resort, stands 668 ft. above sea-level.

BALMAT, JACQUES, of Chamounix, a celebrated Alpine guide (1796-1834).

BALMAWHAPPLE, a prejudiced Scotch clergyman in "Waverley."

BAL'MEZ, an able Spanish Journalist, author of "Protestantism and Catholicism compared in their Effects on the Civilisation of Europe"

(1810-1848).

BALMOR'AL, a castle on the upper valley of the Dee, at the foot of Braemar, 52 m. from Aberdeen, 9 m. from Ballater; the Highland residence of Queen Victoria, on a site which took the fancy of both the Queen and the Prince Consort on their first visit to the Highlands.

BALMUNG, the sharp-cutting sword of Siegfried, so sharp that a smith cut in two by it did not know he was so cut till he began to move, when he fell in pieces.

BALNAVES, HENRY, coadjutor of John Knox in the Scottish Reformation, and a fellow-sufferer with him in imprisonment and exile; afterwards contributed towards formulating the creed of the Scotch Church; born at Kirkcaldy, and educated in Germany; _d_. 1579.

BALSALL, a thriving suburb of Birmingham, engaged in hardware manufacture.

BALTIC PROVINCES, Russian provinces bordering on the Baltic.

BALTIC SEA, an inland sea in the N. of Europe, 900 m. long and from 100 to 200 m. broad, about the size of England and Wales; comparatively shallow; has no tides; waters fresher than those of the ocean, owing to the number of rivers that flow into it and the slight evaporation that goes on at the lat.i.tude; the navigation of it is practically closed from the middle of December to April, owing to the inlets being blocked with ice.

BALTIMORE (550), the metropolis of Maryland, on an arm of Chesapeake Bay, 250 m. from the Atlantic; is picturesquely situated; not quite so regular in design as most American cities, but noted for its fine architecture and its public monuments. It is the seat of the John Hopkins University. The industries are varied and extensive, including textiles, flour, tobacco, iron, and steel. The staple trade is in bread-stuffs; the exports, grain, flour, and tobacco.

BALUE, CARDINAL, minister of Louis XI.; imprisoned, for having conspired with Charles the Rash, by Louis in an iron cage for eleven years (1421-1491).

BALUCHISTAN, a country lying to the S. of Afghanistan and extending to the Persian Gulf. See Beluchistan.

BALZAC, HONORe DE, native of Tours, in France; one of the most brilliant as well as prolific novelwriters of modern times; his productions remarkable for their sense of reality; they show power of observation, warmth and fertility of imagination, and subtle and profound delineation of human pa.s.sion, his design in producing them being to make them form part of one great work, the "Comedie Humaine," the whole being a minute dissection of the different cla.s.ses of society (1799-1850).

BALZAC, JEAN LOUIS GUEZ DE, born at Angouleme, a French litterateur and gentleman of rank, who devoted his life to the refinement of the French language, and contributed by his "Letters" to the cla.s.sic form it a.s.sumed under Louis XIV.; "he deliberately wrote," says Prof. Saintsbury, "for the sake of writing, and not because he had anything particular to say," but in this way did much to improve the language; _d_. 1685.

BAMBAR'RA (2,000), a Soudan state on the banks of the Upper Niger, opened up to trade; the soil fertile; yields grain, dates, cotton, and palm-oil; the natives are negroes of the Mohammedan faith, and are good husbandmen.

BAMBERG (35), a manufacturing town in Upper Franconia, Bavaria; once the centre of an independent bishopric; with a cathedral, a magnificent edifice, containing the tomb of its founder, the Emperor Henry II.

BAMBINO, a figure of the infant Christ wrapped in swaddling bands, the infant in pictures surrounded by a halo and angels.

BAMBOROUGH CASTLE, an ancient fortress E. of Belford, on the coast of Northumberland, now an alms-house.

BAMBOUK (800), a fertile but unhealthy negro territory, with mineral wealth and deposits of gold, W. of Bambarra.

BAMIAN', a high-lying valley in Afghanistan, 8500 ft. above sea-level; out of the rocks on its N. side, full of caves, are hewn huge figures of Buddha, one of them 173 ft. high, all of ancient date.

BAMPTON LECTURES, annual lectures on Christian subjects, eight in number, for the endowment of which John Bampton, canon of Salisbury, left property which yields a revenue worth 200 a year.