I'.AROS, BAR' 



HAHON, HA > 



west-outh-we*t wind* sot in towards the end of October, n.l i I- A 

 with their greeUvt strength during Novctulwr, December, and February, 

 u<l are erea powerful in June and July ; the wind* from the westerly 

 prevail in March, but they then veer more toward* the 

 Mooe they blow with greater rioleooe; in April, the east 

 and north-nut, and the wart and north-west winda balance each other, 

 and their comparative strength U nearly equal ; in May, the east, 

 north-east, and north-north-east wind* preponderate ; the latter b|,.w.. 

 the leaa frequently, but with the greateat violence ; in that month the 

 average of the wind* from the westerly quarter* ranges low; their 

 average atrength aleo decrease, with the exception of tli.it from the 

 we*t-euuth-woit, which naff* higher than in April. In August, the 

 weat and weat-eouth-weat winds prevail, but their power is moderate ; 

 the atortny winda of thia month blow from the weet-eouth-west and 

 north-Dorth-weet. September is the calmest period of the year ; in 

 the month the north and aouth winda, and the east and west winds, 

 balance each other; in January, the east and weat winds upon an 

 average are nearly equal, both aa regards the nuinU-r of times they 

 blow, and their average atrength ; the winds from the south-south- 

 west, west-south-west, and the north-westerly quarters are more rare, 

 but they blow with great violence. As the winds from these opposite 

 quarters predominate, so is the character of our winters determined as 

 to miMiwai or severity. 



Sadden depressions of the barometer sometimes occur in weather 

 apparently calm. It is almost an established fact that storms have a 

 circular motion ; and if, when an exhaustion or sudden diminution of 

 the atmosphere takes place, the mercurial column happen to be in the 

 partial vacuum or centre of motion, the air will be at rest ; while the 

 surrounding air at a greater distance from the centre will be violently 

 agitated with a leaa fall of the barometer. This circular motion of the 

 atmosphere is not confined to one spot where the storm may commence 

 and expend its violence, but it has a progressive cycloids! movement 

 onwards, changing constantly the situation of its centre of motion, 

 and, a* it advances, enlarging its circumference, until, having traversed 

 many hundred miles, it becomes exhausted, as the air recovers its 

 equilibrium. These great rarefactions of the atmosphere are probably 

 the effect* of electricity ; they are common in their most terrific form 

 in the Indian Ocean, on the western coast of ' in the West 



Indies. 



In our own climate the approach of thunder-clouds produces 

 violent squalls of wind; and dense and highly electrified clouds will 

 sometimes raise miniature whirlwinds aa they pass overhead. 



BARON, BARON V. Sir Hi-nry Salman (frVoSKtriunt, 1626, in voce 

 Ban) regards the word bam* aa a corruption of the 1-atin rlr : but it 

 is a distict Latin won), used l>y Cicero, for instance, and the supposi- 

 tion of corruption is therefore unnecessary. The Spanish word raron, 

 and the Portuguese bnrSo, are slightly varied forms. The radical ports 

 of rir and faro are probably the same, 6 and r being convertible letters, 

 as we observe in the forms of various words. The word barnncs (also 

 written ftmmei) first occurs, as far as we know, in the bonk entitled 

 De Hello Alexandrine ' (cap. 53), where barones are mentioned among 

 the guards of Cassius Longinus in Spain ; and the word may possibly 

 be of native Spanish or Gallic origin. The Roman writers, Cicero and 

 Penrius, use the word ban in a disparaging sense ; but this may not 

 have been the primary signification of the word, which might simply 



these penons were, both in property and in dignity, 

 I person* who were lint baron m became 



'v. in common language, applied i tli.ni 



But the word had acquired a restricted sense before its introduction 

 into England. and* probably it would not be easy to find any use of it 

 in English affair*, in which it denoted the whole mole population, lint 

 rather some particular class, and that on eminent class. 



Of these by far the mt ii,,|p..rtnnt in the class of persons who held 

 land* of a (UjK-rior liy military and othrr honourable Cervices, and who 

 war* bound to atU-ndaiie. in the courts of that superior to .1 I 

 and to mvtiiit in the various business transacts! tin-re. Tin- pi..p.r 

 designation of these persona was the Barons. A few instances 

 from many will be sufficient to prove thin i-.int. Salman ,,,11. 

 the ' Book of Ramsey' a writ of King Henry I., in which In ip 

 the barons of the honour of Ramsey. In the earliest >i 

 in thf Kxi'hequer, which In-long* t., the thirty-first year of King 

 Henry I., there is mention of the Kirons of Ulithc, meaning the great 

 tenant* i.f tin- lord of that heaour, now oafled the hoaour of TickhUL 

 SeWen c IV ,rter of 



William. Karl of (iloucest. r. in the time of Henry If., which is 

 addruwl " I IM ft omnibus lroiii : t hominihiis 



FranoU et Anglis," meaning the persons who held l.uU of him. Tin 

 court itM-lf iu whii-h these tenants had to p.it- .,,, their -rriccs is 

 called totals day the Court-Baron, more correctly the r,,u r t 

 Baron*, the Curia Baronuui. 



What these barons were to the earls, and other eminent persons 

 whoM land* they held, that the earls and those eminent 

 to the king: that is, aa the earls and liishops, ...nd oth.-r -r. 

 owners, to nw a modern ex]iression, had Ixmcath them a numlN-r of 

 persons holding |rtti.>tw of thrir lands for certain services to be ron- 

 dered in the field or in the court, so the lands which those earls and 

 E?* V*t** V *"***^"*? odd l.y I hen, ..f the kin-, t., wh. 

 had in leturn certain aurvloea to perform of precisely the some kind 

 with those which they exacted from their tenants ; and as those 

 Mate were baron* to them, *o were they barons to tho king. But, 



: I. ll 



- M 

 akjaoaj 



we read of the barons in the early hist. 



Kngland, we are to understand the persons who hel< I 



of the king, and had certain services to perform in return. 



Few things are of more importance to those w h. 

 tho early history and institutions of England, than to obtain a clear 

 idea of what is meant by the word baron, as it appears in the writers 

 on the afflurs of the first two centuries and a half after the Conquest 

 They were tbe tenant* in rlilrf of the crown. Hut to make this 

 intelligible, we may observe that, after the I'oiKmot, there was an 

 actual and fictitious a.- -f absolute pr.pjp.-ity in the whole 



territory of England by the king. The few exceptions in ] 

 circumstances need not here be noticed. Tl,.- kin-, thus in poHsession, 

 granted out the greatest portion of the soil within a few \ . 

 death of Harold and his own establishment on the throne. Tin- ] . i- 

 sons to whom he made these grants wei.-. 1 Tin- great eccle 

 the prelates, and the heads of the monastic institutions, whom pr)l>ly, 

 in in. .ft instances, he only allowed to retain, under a difl'. 

 .if tenure, what had been settled upon them by Saxon piety ; _'. 

 8.1x011*, or native P'nglishmen. who, in a few rare instances, were 

 allowed to possess lands under the new Norman master ; 8. Foreigners, 

 chiefly Normans, persona who had accompanied the king in his expedi- 

 tion and assisted him in obtaining the throne : these were by 

 moat numerous class of the Conqueror's beneficiaries, lie fore the 

 fourteenth or fifteenth year of his reign the distril.nti.m of the lands 

 of Kngland had been carried nearly to the full extent to which it was 

 designed to carry it: for the king meant to retain in his own hands 

 considerable tracts of land, either to form chaces or parks for tidd- 

 sporte, to yield to him a certain annual revenue in money, to be as 

 farms for the provision of his own household, or to be a reserv. 

 out of which hereafter to reward services which might be rei 

 to him. These lands formed the demesne of the crown, nit 

 what ore now meant when wo speak of the ancient demesne of Un- 

 crown. 



When this was done, a survey was taken of the whole : first of tho 

 'ie lands of the king; and next of the lands which had been 

 granted out to the ecclesiastical corporations, or to the private persons 

 who had received portions of land by the gift of the king. At ih. 

 :!iinissioners, to whom the making of this survey was 

 entrusted, were instructed to inquire into the privileges of cities and 

 boron;-- 1. .-t with which we have not at pi. 



The result of this survey was entered of record in the book which has 

 since obtained the name of ' Domesday Book,' i 

 as the moat ancient record of the realm, and for the early d.i' 

 extent, variety, and importance of the information which it col 

 unrivalled, it is believed, by any record of any other nation. V. 

 there it-Ao the people were to whom the king had granted out lii- 

 and at the same time irhal lands each of those people held. It j. 

 us with a view, which is nearly complete, of tin- |rsons who in the 

 first twenty years after the Conquest formed the barons of I' 

 and of the lands which they held; the progenitors .ho, in 



subsequent times, wrested from the crown the difVerent charter* of 

 liberties, and confined the kingly authority of Kngland w itliin narrower 

 limits than those which circumscribed the regal power in most of the 

 other states of Kurope. 



The Indexes which have been prepared to ' Domesday H> 

 us with the names of alxmt 400 persons who held lands inun. 

 of the king. Some of these were exceedingly small '. 

 merged at an early period in greater, or, through forfeit -i 

 circuni timed by the crown. On tin- oihi-r hand, 



1 1. Mm s.lay F.o.ik ' docs not present us with a complete account of th.- 

 v. hole tenancies in chief bcc.mse 1. The four northern c.ninr. 



I. omitt.-d in tin 



_'. Then- \v,i , a creation of new teB 

 the survey, by the grants of the < 'oiniuci 



the reserved demesne. The fi-cijiu-nt rebellions, and the un 

 ,-t.ite in which the public aflhirs of l-'.n-land were in the ; 

 after the i"ou,|ii,-s|, occasioned many r.^umpt 

 tiqns, so that it is not (possible to ti\ upon a.. 



BdBMj tin- number of tenancies in .1 



private ]pvrsolls: but the number, before- they \\clo broken up when 



they had to be divided among c., h, 



a rude colllplltati. >i :!."iO. Ini! 



who held land* in chief are not included. 



When we speak of the king hiving </,' hi .-land, to 



the persons who h.-ld them, we ore not to un.l. 



gift for which nothing was expected in return. In proportion to the 



extant and value of the lauds given services were to be rendered, or 



1'iid. not in menu, 



which the king had a right, under certain oil mand. 



"f two kinils: first, military service, that is, every 



one of those tenants (tenant* from Inun, to hold) was bound to give 



' ' 'n. I in luin- with him t.. MM 



ling in number t.. (In 



extent and \.iluc of his lands; and, secondly, civil service*, whir 1 

 of various kinds, sometimes to perform certain ofli' - in tin.- king's 



