Tit 



m.\ND, REV. BOBEUT, 



BLESSINGTON, COUNTESS OF. 



root required for the mainline or journal with which ho wu at the 

 time oonn-cted : ail all of them displayed a lively aod genial fancy 

 and a ready wit. Mr. llUnchanl edited the ' True Sun ' newspaper 

 during the whole of iu outer ; the ' Coottitutional ; ' and for a while 

 the ' Court Journal,' and the ' Courier.' For aoiue time prorioui to 

 kit death he had assisted in conducting the ' Examiner.' Hii death 

 occurred under very painful circumstances. HU wife, to whom he 

 wai much attached, became very ill about a year before lii decease. 

 and her illoe** coded in insanity. She rallied for awhile, but relapsed 

 aod died. Under the prolonged anxiety attending her long illneaa 

 and ita fatal termination, hi* own health and spirit* gave way. He 

 wa* attacked by nervous paroxysms, aud during or after one of the*e, 

 put an end to hi* life, February IS, 1845. His death excited much 

 sympathy, especially among hia literary brethren by whom he wai 

 greatly esteemed. Hit ' Ksays and Sketches ' have been collected and 

 published, with a memoir by Sir K. Bulwer Lytton. 



BLAND. THE UEV. ROBERT, B.A., wa born in 1779 in London, 

 where hit father, Dr. Kobert Bland, was an eminent physician. On 

 leaving Pembroke College, Cambridge, he became an assistant muter 

 at Harrow, where he had previously been a pupil. After several other 

 change*, including a abort residence at Amsterdam as clergyman of 

 the ngliah Church, bo married in 1813, and became a curate in Essex. 

 In 1816 he entered on the curacy of Kenilworth, which he retained 

 during the remainder of hi* life. He died at Leamington, on the 

 12th of March 1825. Mr. Bland enjoyed an excellent reputation, not 

 only for his knowledge and taste in the learned languages, and iu 

 French and Italian, but also for his skill as a classical teacher. His 

 character is described as amiable and exemplary. He published two 

 volume* of original poems. ' Edwy and Klgiva,' 8vo, 1808 ; and ' The 

 Four Slave* of Cythera,' a poetical romance, 8vo, 1809. He was also 

 the author of ' Elements of Latin Hexameters and Pentameter*, 1 a 

 work which has gone through several editions. He contributed to 

 periodical publications, and was one of the translators of the Memoirs 

 of Grimm and Diderot, 2 vols. 8vo, 1813. His translations from the 

 minor Oreek poet*, by which he i* bast known, first appeared in a 

 volume entitled 'Translations, chiefly from the Greek Anthology, with 

 Tales and Miscellaneous Poems,' 8vo, 1806 (chiefly by Mr. Blaud and 

 the late Mr. Merivale) ; again, in the form of ' A Collection of the 

 most beautiful Poems of the Minor Poets of Greece, with Notes and 

 Illustrations,' 8vo, 1813 ; and lastly, iu an improved edition with new 

 contributions, which wu published in 1833 by Mr. Merivale. 



BLANK. SIR GILBERT, an eminent physician, was the fourth sou 

 of Gilbert Blane of Blanefield, in the county of Ayr, in Scotland. He 

 was born at BUnefield on the 29th of August 1749. Being intended 

 for the church, he was sent to the University of Edinburgh ; but 

 during his attendance there he was led to devote himself to the study 

 of mediniiMi In the prosecution of this branch of science he acquired 

 the notice not only of his fellow-students, but also of Dr. Robertson, 

 the principal of the university, of Dr. Blair, and Dr. Cullen. 



After obtaining his degree of Doctor of Medicine he was recom- 

 mended by Dr. Cullen to Dr. William Hunter, at that time the most 

 eminent teacher of anatomy in London. Through his instrumentality 

 Dr. Illane was appointed private physician ^o Lord Holdernesse. This 

 appointment introduced him to the notice of many distinguished indi- 

 vidual*, and among others, to Lord Kodncy, who nominated him his 

 private phyaician, in which capacity he accompanied Lord Rodney, 

 wbra in 1780 he assumed the command of the squadron on the West 

 Indian station. In the course of the Ant engagement every officer being 

 either killed, wounded, or employed, Dr. Blane was intrusted by the 

 admiral with the duty of conveying liis orders to the officers at the 

 guns, and in on* of tbsse dangerous missions he was slightly wounded. 

 As a reward for bis services on this occasion, and on the recommenda- 

 tion of Lord Rodney, he was instituted at once, without going through 

 the subordinate grades, to the high offioe of physician to the fleet. 

 In the execution of his duties he was unremitting, and exerted him- 

 self most beneficially in preserving the health and efficiency, as well 

 a* in promoting the comfort of the seamen, on that sickly station. 

 He was present during six engagements under his friend and patron 

 Lord Rodney, and of the battle of the 12th of April 1782 be gave so 

 aimaM an account in a letter to Lord Stair, that his narrative was 

 published. He remained on the West India station till 1788. Soon 

 afur hia return to England be embodied the results of his experience, 

 aad also many of the conclusion* drawn from the returns of the 

 umons of the ships, in a volume, which he published in 1783, 

 entitled ' Observations on the Disease, of Seamen/ 8vo, London. This 

 work has several times been reprinted, with enlargements and improve- 

 ments. For his service* on the West India station a pension wss 

 granUd him by the crown, the amount of which was subsequently 

 doubled, on tbe recommendation of the Lords of the Admiralty. 



In the cou. of Us residence in the West Indies he frequently met 

 the Duke of Clarence, afterwards W.lliam IV., who was then serving 

 a* a midshipman in Lord Rodney's Beet Dr. Blane obtained tbe 

 favourable regatd of his Royal Highness, and upon determining to 

 Mis m London as a physician, he was by the influence of the Duko 

 of CUreoo. appoioted physician extraordinary to the Prince of Wales. 

 In 1785 he was elected phyaician to St. Thomas'* Hospital. About 

 this time be was appointed one of the commissioners of sick and 

 I sailors; aad in 1795 was placed at the head of tbe Navy 



Medical Board. During the time that Earl S|M>ncer wan first lor.l <>f 

 the admiralty, Dr. Blane, seconded by that nobleman, was enabled to 

 effect the introduction into every ship of the use of lemon-juice, as a 

 preventive and cure for scurvy, a measure which has had the beneficial 

 effect of almost completely eradicating scurvy at sea. Dr. UUne 

 xealously directed his attention to improve the condition both of the 

 men engaged in the service, and of the medical officers whose duty it 

 wa* to superintend their health. He cauwd regular returns or journals 

 of the state of health and disease to be kept by every surgeon in the 

 service, and forwarded periodically to the Navy Board. From a careful 

 examination of these returns, he drew up several dissertations which 

 were read before the Medico-Chirurgical Society, in whose transactions 

 they were subsequently published. 



In 1786 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, who appointed 

 him to deliver tho Croouian Lecture in 1788. He selected for hi 

 subject ' Muscular Motion,' his treatment of which evinced the 

 aud variety of bis knowledge as well as the originality of his min I. I 1 

 was printed in 1791, 4 to, aud reprinted iu his 'Select Dissertatione,' 

 London, 1822, of which a second edition appeared in two volumes, 

 1834. An essay on the ' Nardus,' or spikenard of the ancients, was 

 published in the ' Transactions of the Royal Society,' vol. 80, iu the 

 year 1790. During the scarcity in 1799 and 1800, he published a 

 pamphlet on the scarcity and high price of provisions. 



Having attained great eminence as a physician, and his private 

 practice becoming very extensive, he resigned his office of physician to 

 St. Thomas's Hospital He recorded some of his observations made 

 during the twenty years that he held that situation, in a dissertation 

 on the ' Comparative Prevalence aud Mortality ' of different diseases 

 iu London, which was published iu the ' Transactions of the Medico- 

 Chirurgic.il Society,' and reprinted iu his ' Select Dissertations.' The 

 last public service ou which Dr. Blane was employed was on a profes- 

 sional mission to inquire and report on the cause of the sickness of 

 the army ill \\alcheren in 1S09; and to North fleet, to report ou tho 

 expediency of establishing a dockyard and naval arsenal at that place 

 in 1810. The title of baronet was conferred upon him iu IS 12, and in 

 the same year he was appointed phyaician in ordinary to the Prince 

 Regent. 



In 1819 he published 'Elements of Medical Logic,' which in a few 

 years went through several editions. Of all his writings, this is cal- 

 culated to be the most permanently useful. His observations on tbe 

 disease* of seamen however must always be worthy tho attentive 

 perusal of all who are designed for that branch of the public service. 

 Iu 1821 he suffered severely from an attack of prvrigo icnilii, from the 

 harassing irritation of which he could only obtain relief by tbe use of 

 opium ; and as the disease never completely left him, he acquired a, 

 habit of consuming a quantity of that potent drug, equal to what any 

 of the opium-eaters of the Host cau take. In 1 826 he was elected a 

 member of the Institute of France. In 1830, on the accession of King 

 William IV., he was nominated first physician to his Majesty. Mis 

 last appearance before the public was as the author of a pamphlet, 

 entitled ' Warning to the British Public against the alarming approach 

 of the Indian Cholera,' 1831. His later years were spent in retirement 

 from professional labours, and in the revision of his ' Select Disserta- 

 tions,' the second editiou of which he lived to see published. He died 

 ou the 20th of June 1834, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. 



BLESSINOTON, MARGUERITE, COUNTESS OK, was born at 

 Knock brit, near Cloumel, Tipperary county, Ireland, on the 1st of 

 September, 1789, and was the third daughter of Mr. Edmund Power, 

 who was of respectable family, but broken fortune and reckless habits. 

 She was married in her fifteenth year to a Captain Farmer, but tho 

 marriage was a very unhappy one, and Mrs. Farmer after a time 

 quitted his house. He was killed by falling from a window iu the 

 King's Bench prison while in a state of intoxication, and within four 

 mouths his widow was married to the Earl of Blessington, February 

 1818. After exhausting every means of enjoyment in England and 

 Ireland, the earl and countess started in September 1822 on a conti- 

 nental tour, which, partly owing to the earl's property having became 

 considerably encumbered, was prolonged till hU death. At Paris they 

 were joined by the Count Alfred d'Orsay, who in 1827 married a 

 daughter of Lard Blessington by his first wife. It was an unhappy 

 marriage, and a .separation eventually took place ; but Count d'Orsay 

 continued after the death of Lord Blessiugtou to reside with Lady 

 Blessington during the remainder of her life. Lord Blessiugton died 

 at Paris in May 1829. Lady Blessington on her return to London 

 made her house the centre of a brilliant circle of persons of social and 

 intellectual eminence. She quickly became one of the celebrities of 

 London ; and for nearly twenty yean tbe taloni first of Seamore-place 

 and afterwards of Gore House, disputed the palm with those of Holland 

 House as the resort of the learned, tbe witty, and the famous of the 

 day. But Lady Blessington aspired to be something more than m.-r 1 y 

 their hostess. She had in 1822 published a couple of volumes of 

 'Sketches,' and in 1832 she fairly entered upon her career of author- 

 ship by contributing to the ' Mew Monthly Magazine' a 'Journal of 

 Conversations with Lord Byron.' She had become acquainted with 

 Lord Byron when residing on the continent, and as she repeated hi.-i 

 remarks with little reserve, the 'Journal' excited considerable interest, 

 and was soon republished in a separate form. From this time Lady 

 | Blessington continued to write for the press with little intermission. 



