The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 90

BRITANNIA, a name for Britain as old as the days of Caesar, and inhabited by Celts, as Gaul also was.

BRITANNIA TUBULAR BRIDGE, a railway bridge spanning the Menai Strait, designed by Robert Stephenson, and completed in 1850; consists of hollow tubes of wrought-iron plates riveted together, and took five years in erecting.

BRITANNICUS, the son of Claudius and Messalina, poisoned by Nero.

BRITISH ARISTIDES, name applied to Andrew Marvell from his corresponding incorruptible integrity in life and poverty at death.

BRITISH a.s.sOCIATION, an a.s.sociation, of Sir David Brewster's suggestion, of men of all departments of science for the encouragement of scientific research and the diffusion of scientific knowledge, which holds its meetings annually under the presidency of some distinguished scientist, now in this, now in that selected central city of the country; it is divided into eight sections--mathematical, chemical, geological, biological, geographical, economic, mechanical, and anthropological.

BRITISH COLUMBIA (98), a western fertile prov. of British America, extending between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, and from the United States on the S. to Alaska on the N., being 800 m. long and four times the size of Great Britain; rich in timber and minerals; rain is abundant, and cereals do well.

BRITISH LION, the name given to John Bull when roused by opposition.

BRITISH MUSEUM, a national inst.i.tution in London for the collection of MSS., books, prints and drawings, antiquities, and objects of natural history, ethnology, &c.; founded as far back as 1700, though not opened, in Montagu House as it happened, for the public benefit till 1759.

BRITOMART, is a lady knight in the "Faerie Queene," representing chast.i.ty with a resistless magic spear.

BRITTANY (3,162), an old French prov., land of the Bretons, comprising the peninsula opposite Devon and Cornwall, stretching westward between the Bays of Cancale and Biscay, was in former times a duchy; a third of its inhabitants still retain their Breton language.

BRITTON, JOHN, topographer and antiquary, born in Wilts.h.i.+re in humble position; author of "Beauties of Wilts.h.i.+re," instalment of a work embracing all the counties of England and Wales; his princ.i.p.al works, and works of value, are "Antiquities of Great Britain" and "Cathedral Antiquities of England"; his chief work is 14 volumes; the "Antiquities in Normandy" did much to create an interest in antiquarian subjects (1771-1857).

BRIXTON, a southern suburb of London, on the Surrey side, a district of the city that has of late years extended immensely.

BROAD ARROW, a stamp like an arrow-head to indicate government property.

BROAD BOTTOM MINISTRY, a coalition of great weight under Mr. Pelham, from Nov. 1744 to Mar. 1755, so called from the powerful parties represented in it.

BROAD CHURCH, that section of the Church which inclines to liberal opinions in theology, and is opposed to the narrowing of either spirit or form, perhaps to an undue degree and to the elimination of elements distinctive of the Christian system.

BROADS, THE NORFOLK, are a series of inland lakes in the E. of Norfolks.h.i.+re, which look like expansions of the rivers; they are favourite holiday resorts on account of the expanse of strange scenery, abundant vegetation, keen air, fis.h.i.+ng and boating attractions.

BROB'DINGNAG, an imaginary country in "Gulliver's Travels,"

inhabited by giants, each as tall "as an ordinary spire-steeple"; properly a native of the country, in comparison with whom Gulliver was a pigmy "not half so big as a round little worm plucked from the lazy finger of a maid."

BROCA, PAUL, an eminent French surgeon, anthropologist, and one of the chief French evolutionists; held a succession of important appointments, and was the author of a number of medical works (1824-1880).

BROCHANT DE VILLIERS, a mineralogist and geologist, born in Paris; director of the St. Gobin manufactory (1773-1810).

BROCHS, dry-stone circular towers, called also Picts' towers and Duns, with thick Cyclopean walls, a single doorway, and open to the sky, found on the edge of straths or lochs in the N. and W. of Scotland.

BROCKEN, or BLOCKSBERG, the highest peak (3740 ft.) of the Harz Mts., cultivated to the summit; famous for a "SPECTRE" so called, long an object of superst.i.tion, but which is only the beholder's shadow projected through, and magnified by, the mists.

BROCKHAUS, FRIEDRICH ARNOLD, a German publisher, born at Dortmund; a man of scholarly parts; began business in Amsterdam, but settled in Leipzig; publisher of the famous "Conversations Lexikon," and a great many other important works (1772-1823).

BROCOLIANDO, a forest in Brittany famous in Arthurian legend.

BRODIE, SIR BENJAMIN, surgeon, born in Wilts.h.i.+re; professor of surgery; for 30 years surgeon in St. George's Hospital; was medical adviser to three sovereigns; president of the Royal Society (1783-1862).

BRODIE, WILLIAM, a Scottish sculptor, born in Banff; did numerous busts and statues (1815-1881).

BROGLIE, ALBERT, son of the following, a Conservative politician and litterateur, author of "The Church and the Roman Empire in the 4th century"; _b_. 1821

BROGLIE, CHARLES VICTOR, DUC DE, a French statesman, born at Paris; a Liberal politician; was of the party of Guizot and Royer-Collard; held office under Louis Philippe; negotiated a treaty with England for the abolition of slavery; was an Orleanist, and an enemy of the Second Empire; retired after the _coup d'etat_ (1785-1870).

BROGLIE, VICTOR FRANcOIS, DUC DE, marshal of France, distinguished in the Seven Years' War, being "a firm disciplinarian"; was summoned by royalty to the rescue as "war G.o.d" at the outbreak of the Revolution; could not persuade his troops to fire on the rioters; had to "mount and ride"; took command of the Emigrants in 1792, and died at Munster (1718-1804).

BROKE, SIR PHILIP BOWES VERE, rear-admiral, born at Ipswich, celebrated for the action between his s.h.i.+p _Shannon_, 38 guns, and the American s.h.i.+p _Chesapeake_, 49 guns, in June 1813, in which he boarded the latter and ran up the British flag; one of the most brilliant naval actions on record, and likely to be long remembered in the naval annals of the country (1776-1841).

BROMBERG (41), a busy town on the Brahe, in Prussian Posen; being a frontier town, it suffered much in times of war.

BROME, ALEXANDER, a cavalier, writer of songs and lampoons instinct with wit, whim, and spirit; and of his songs some are amatory, some festive, and some political (1626-1666).

BROME, RICHARD, an English comic playwright, contemporary with Ben Jonson, and a rival; originally his servant; his plays are numerous, and were characterised by his enemies as the sweepings of Jonson's study; _d_. 1652.

BROMINE, an elementary fluid of a dark colour and a disagreeable smell, extracted from bittern, a liquid which remains after the separation of salt.