B IT R 



105 



H IT R 





T the 



: 



TIITII.' 



'.' the class 

 .indii.i, and order ! , , p. 



1JU11CH \Kni -law 



,1 order Moi Srr l>r'< 



') &c. p. 272; 

 and i 



BUK1 vn in Oxfordshire, about 



.. \\'. from Loi.d.m, is situated on a 

 Mini!, near the river \Vindrus>h, and is chi-f- 

 inntkable as being one of t lie ulclr - . the 



Mercian kingdom. Many of the houses are modern 

 built ; and the church, which is a spacious and hand- 

 some- edifice, with a Tory fine spire, displays some 

 curious specimens of ancient architecture. The 

 south porch is highly decorated ; and the en- 

 trance on the west is ornamented with birds 1. 

 Sec. Burford has a considerable manufactory for 

 and duffels, but it is particularly famous for 

 saddles. Though not a corporate town, it is go- 

 verned by two bailiffs, and has a common seal. The 

 horse races, which are held on .the neighbouring 

 downs, are much frequented by the Oxford students 

 and the surrounding gentry. A field, called Battle- 

 edge, a little west of the town, is shewa as the 

 scene of a dreadful conflict which happened in 7.3'-*, 

 between Ethelbald, king of Mercia, and Cuthred, 

 king of Wessex, when the former was completely 

 defeated ; and a festival is still celebrated by the in- 

 habitants on Midsummer eve, in commemoration of 

 the victory. It has two annual fairs, and a market 

 on Saturday, which is well supplied with cattle and 

 corn. It contains 304- houses, and 1516 inhabitants, 

 of whom G99 were returned in 1801 as employed in 

 trade and manufactures. N. Lat. 51 50', E. Long. 

 1*38'. (L) 



BURGAGE-TENURE, is a species of holding 

 known to both the English and Scots law, by which 

 a proprietor ot lands, houses, or other tenements, 

 within the liberties or incorporated territory of a bo- 

 rough, holds of the king, or other person, under the 

 burden of certain services to the borough, or a fixed 

 rent-charge to the lord. In England, it is consider- 

 ed as a relict of the ancient Saxon liberty, being no- 

 thing else than a tenure in socage, the free or certain 

 nature of which the lawyers of that country are fond 

 of tracing to those remote times. Hence they ac- 

 count for the variety of customs, not strictly feudal, 

 by which property held under this tenure is affected. 

 Among these the most remarkable seems to be, that 

 known by the name of BoROUOH-ng&A, of which 

 we have already given some account. In some Eng- 

 lish boroughs, too, the widow has right, by privi- 

 lege of this tenure, to be endowed of the w/iolc of 

 her husband's tenements, and not of a third only, as 

 at common law. In others, the tenements might 

 have been disposed of by will, previously to the sta- 

 tute of Henry VIII., by which that right was made 

 universal. There are about 29 bnrgag'e-tenure bo- 

 roughs in England, in which the right of voting for 

 burgesses to serve in parliament belongs to every in- 



voi,. v. PA in i. 



roprietor of an pot of 



.. 





thci properly undertx 



torn a in that of I'.u 1-r, and perb&s 



ome other*, to boroughi of an ml- nor (,.(!*. Be 

 tin as it may, as, in royal b -'ie whole com- 



munity is thtr king's vasial, i 



j each ir/' 1 -uprirtor holds 



of t ! 



nemrnt*, originally held of a tubjrct, and he had re- 

 fused his concurrence to the 



infeft by the magistrates as the king'* bailies. The 

 serv. .ng and r<tnf- 



i/ur, :cof which is sumV ] fcy 



thi-expn.-s-ii.il. As in England, however, the cut - 

 toms and . falling under this kind of hold- 



ing, are very different in 'different placet, depending 

 partly v\ ;ge, and partly oo the 



particular constitution or set of the borough. But 

 in none of them arc the individual proprietor*, at in 

 the burgage holding boroughi of England, allowed 

 a direct vote in the election of their representatives 

 in parliament, the highest privilege of that nature 

 etTJo v of them being a vote in the elf 



of their magistrates, who, in the case of royal bo- 

 roughs, appoint the delegates who elect the repre- 

 'sentative for any particular district of boroughs.- 

 One i.'iclin.i of law, o :nmon to all royal boroughs, if, 

 that the widow ii entirely .xchukd from her lercc, 

 or third of the rents, of her deceased husband's bur- 

 gage tenements ; a curious contrast to the usage of 

 some English boroughs, where, as above noticed, 

 custom has fixed the opposite extreme, of endowing 

 the widow in the whole of the husband's burgage 

 rents. See Blackst. Cum. lib. ii. cap. 6.; Bankt. and 

 Ersk. I nut. &c. (j. B.) 



BURGER, GODFREY AUGUSTUS, a popular Ger- 

 man poet, and well known >untry as the 

 author of the celebrated ballad ot Leonora, was born 

 at Wolmerswende, in the principality of Halbertadt, 

 on the 1st of January 1718. In his infa-. 

 himself informs us, he displayed no uncommon indi- 

 cations of superior genius ; but was, on tin < vt- rrary, 

 considered by his parents, as remarkable or.! 

 pidity and indolence. The first ten years of h life 

 were employed in learning to read and write hit na- 

 tive language ; the Bible and book ot church hymn* 

 his principal and favourite smJy ; and hit me- 

 mory being naturally retentive, he easily remembered 

 what he read from these volumes. From the prophe*- 

 tic books of the Old Ti -nd the volume of 

 hymns already mentioned, he caught the fim glow of 

 poetical inspiration ; and to tK 



ne recollected, and mentioned with emotion, the enthu- 

 siasm to which they had elevated his vouthful mind. 



Even so early as the expiration of hu first dectn- 

 itium t Burger exhibited that symptom of a pot :. 

 disposition the love of solitude ; and without any 

 external encouragement, or other learning, than that 

 with which his hitherto very limited n:ige of read- 

 ing had supplied him, he began to write verses be- 

 fore he had been taught so much as the first prin- 

 o 



: . 



