The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 57

BARReRE. See BAReRE.

BARRETT, WILSON, English actor, born in Ess.e.x; made his _debut_ at Halifax; lessee of the Grand Theatre, Leeds, and of the Court and the Princess's Theatres, London; produced his Hamlet in 1884; _b_. 1846.

BARRIE, JAMES MATTHEW, a writer with a rich vein of humour and pathos, born at Kirriemuir ("Thrums"), in Forfars.h.i.+re; began his literary career as a contributor to journals; produced, among other works, "Auld Licht Idylls" in 1888, and "A Window in Thrums," in 1889, and recently "Margaret Ogilvie," deemed by some likely to prove the most enduring thing he has yet written; _b_. 1860.

BARRIER REEF, THE GREAT, a slightly interrupted succession of coral reefs off the coast of Queensland, of 1200 m. extent, and 100 m. wide at the S., and growing narrower as they go N.; are from 70 to 20 m. off the coast, and protect the intermediate channel from the storms of the Pacific.

BARRIeRE, JEAN FRANcOIS, French historian of the Revolution (1786-1868).

BARRIeRE, PIERRE, would-be a.s.sa.s.sin of Henry IV. of France; broken on the wheel in 1593.

BARRIERS, BATTLE OF THE, a battle fought within the walls of Paris in 1814 between Napoleon and the Allies, which ended in the capitulation of the city and the abdication of Napoleon.

BARRINGTON, JOHN SHUTE, 1st Viscount, gained the favour of the Nonconformists by his "Rights of Dissenters," and an Irish peerage from George I. for his "Dissuasive from Jacobitism"; left six sons, all more or less distinguished, particularly Daines, the fourth, distinguished in law (1727-1800), and Samuel, the fifth, 1st Lord of the name, distinguished in the naval service, a.s.sisted under Lord Howe at the relief of Gibraltar, and became an admiral in 1787 (1678-1764).

BARROS, JOO DE, a distinguished Portuguese historian; his great work. "Asia Portugueza," relates, in a pure and simple style, the discoveries and conquests of the Portuguese in the Indies; he did not live to complete it (1493-1570).

BARROT, ODILON, famous as an advocate, born at Villefort; contributed to the Revolutions of both 1830 and 1848; accepted office under Louis Napoleon; retired after the _coup d'etat_, to return to office in 1872 (1791-1873).

BARROW, a river in Ireland rising in the Slievebloom Mts.; falls into Waterford harbour, after a course of 114 m.

BARROW, ISAAC, English scholar, mathematician, and divine, born in London; a graduate of Cambridge, and fellow of Trinity College; appointed professor of Greek at Cambridge, and soon after Gresham professor of Geometry; subsequently Lucasian professor of Mathematics (in which he had Newton for successor), and master of Trinity, and founder of the library; a man of great intellectual ability and force of character; besides mathematical works, left a "Treatise on the Pope's Supremacy," and a body of sermons remarkable for their vigour of thought and nervousness of expression (1630-1677).

BARROW, SIR JOHN, secretary to the Admiralty for 40 years, and much esteemed in that department, distinguished also as a man of letters; wrote the Lives of Macartney, Anson, Howe, and Peter the Great (1764-1848).

BARROW-IN-FURNESS (51), a town and seaport in N. Lancas.h.i.+re, of recent rapid growth, owing to the discovery of extensive deposits of iron in the neighbourhood, which has led to the establishment of smelting works and the largest manufacture of steel in the kingdom; the princ.i.p.al landowners in the district being the Dukes of Devons.h.i.+re and Buccleuch.

BARRY, JAMES, painter, born in Cork; painted the "Death of General Wolfe"; became professor of Painting at the Royal Academy, but was deposed; died in poverty; his masterpiece is the "Victors at Olympia"

(1741-1806).

BARRY, SIR CHARLES, architect, born at Westminster; architect of the new Palace of Westminster, besides other public buildings (1795-1860).

BARRY CORNWALL. See PROCTER.

BART, or BARTH, JEAN, a distinguished French seaman, born at Dunkirk, son of a fisherman, served under De Ruyter, entered the French service at 20, purchased a s.h.i.+p of two guns, was subsidised as a privateer, made numerous prizes; having had other s.h.i.+ps placed under his command, was captured by the English, but escaped; defeated the Dutch admiral, De Vries; captured his squadron laden with corn, for which he was enn.o.bled by Louis XIV.; he was one of the bravest of men and the most independent, unhampered by red-tapism of every kind (1651-1702).

BARTH, HEINRICH, a great African explorer, born at Hamburg; author of "Travels in the East and Discoveries in Central Africa," in five volumes (1821-1865).

BARTHeLEMY, AUGUSTE-Ma.r.s.eILLE, a poet and politician, born at Ma.r.s.eilles; author of "Nemesis," and the best French translation of the "aeneid," in verse; an enemy of the Bourbons, an ardent Imperialist, and warm supporter of Louis Napoleon (1796-1867).

BARTHeLEMY, THE ABBe, JEAN JACQUES, a French historian and antiquary, born at Ca.s.sis, in Provence; educated by the Jesuits; had great skill in numismatics; wrote several archaeological works, in chief, "Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis en Grece;" long treated as an authority in the history, manners, and customs of Greece (1716-1795).

BARTHeLEMY SAINT-HILAIRE, JULES, a French baron and politician, born at Paris; an a.s.sociate of Odilon Barrot in the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848, and subsequently a zealous supporter of M. Thiers; for a time professor of Greek and Roman Philosophy in the College of France; an Oriental as well as Greek scholar; translated the works of Aristotle, his greatest achievement, and the "Iliad" into verse, as well as wrote on the Vedas, Buddhism, and Mahomet; _b_. 1805.

BARTHEZ, PAUL JOSEPH, a celebrated physician, physiologist, and Encyclopaedist, born at Montpellier, where he founded a medical school; suffered greatly during the Revolution; was much esteemed and honoured by Napoleon; is celebrated among physiologists as the advocate of what he called the Vital Principle as a physiological force in the functions of the human organism; his work "Nouveaux Elements de la Science de l'Homme"

has been translated into all the languages of Europe (1734-1806).

BARTHOLDI, a French sculptor, born at Colmar; his princ.i.p.al works, "Lion le Belfort," and "Liberte eclairant le Monde," the largest bronze statue in the world, being 150 ft. high, erected at the entrance of New York harbour; _b_. 1834.

BARTHOLOMEW, ST., an apostle of Christ, and martyr; represented in art with a knife in one hand and his skin in the other; sometimes been painted as being flayed alive, also as headless. Festival, Aug. 24.

BARTHOLOMEW FAIR, an annual market held at Smithfield, London, and inst.i.tuted in 1133 by Henry I., to be kept on the saint's day, but abolished in 1853, when it ceased to be a market and became an occasion for mere dissipation and riot.

BARTHOLOMEW HOSPITAL, an hospital in Smithfield, London, founded in 1123; has a medical school attached to it, with which the names of a number of eminent physicians are a.s.sociated.

BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY, ST., 24th August, day in 1572 memorable for the wholesale ma.s.sacre of the Protestants in France at the instance of Catharine de Medici, then regent of the kingdom for her son, Charles IX., an event, cruelly gloried in by the Pope and the Spanish Court, which kindled a fire in the nation that was not quenched, although it extinguished Protestantism proper in France, till Charles was coerced to grant liberty of conscience throughout the realm.

BARTIZAN, an overhanging wall-mounted turret projecting from the walls of ancient fortifications.

BARTLETT, JOHN H., an American ethnologist and philologist, born at Rhode Island, U.S.; author of "Dictionary of Americanisms," among other works particularly on ethnology (1805-1886).

BARTOLI, DANIELE, a learned Italian Jesuit, born at Ferrara (1635-1685).

BARTOLI, PIETRO, Italian engraver, engraved a great number of ancient works of art (1635-1700).

BARTOLINI, LORENZO, a Florentine sculptor, patronised by Napoleon; produced a great number of busts (1777-1850).