BRASSES, MOKUMKNTAU 



BREACH. 



to with angular uniformity. BOOM inscriptions in the Gothic letter* 

 are TWT handsome Roman letters are rarely ond before the reign of 

 Henry VIII., and an generally inelegant enough. The Oothk foims 

 continued to be uaed oooaaionally till late period. Most of the early 



-VNDB'WKHE-DECRSED THE-U 

 OT-MARCWtN-THE-lERE 



inncriptions are in Latin. French inscriptions occur generally from 

 1850 to 1400. Knglih inscriptions afterwards became more common, 

 but Latin still continued to be frequently used, and there are a few 

 examples of inscriptions in Greek. 



Monumental brasses in England hare been most abundant in the 

 eastern counties and Kent, partly perhaps in consequence of the con- 

 tiguity of these counties to the Continent, whence the use of brasses 

 seems to hare been introduced, and partly of the want of stone suitable 

 for the effigy in relief, for which the brasses appear to have been sub- 

 stituted. In Wales and the north of England brasses are comparatively 

 rare; only one has been found in Scotland, namely, in Glasgow 

 cathedral ; and only two in Ireland (dated 1527 and 1528), in Dublin 

 cathedral. Within the last few years, as a part of the revival of 

 medieval forms, monumental brasses have again come into use, and 

 many very beautiful brasses have been laid down. 



Specimens of monumental brasses are easily obtained by the process 

 called nMring. Paper of moderate thickness, tenacity, and softness, 

 is laid upon the brass, and rubbed with a black or coloured material, 

 which adheres to the paper where the brass is solid, leaving it in its 

 original state where there are incisions, which of course offer no resist- 

 ance to the rubber. With a little care a perfect foe-simile may be 

 obtained. Shoemakers' heel-ball, or pouch-ball, which is a composition 

 of tallow, wax, and lamp-black, is a very convenient rubber ; the opera- 

 tion if clean and easy. Paper of suitable quality and of the full size of 

 a whole slab is manufactured on purpose, as well as suitable heel-balls : 

 but the whitest kind of lining paper used by paper-hanger* answers 

 very weU. 



Another material for making rubbings has been invented by Mr. H. 

 S. Richardson, which is composed of a yellow metallic powder mixed 

 with the adhesive substance of which the rubber is composed, as the 

 lamp-black is mixed with the tallow and wax. When the nibbing U 

 side on a dark-coloured paper, a fac-aimile U obtained not easily dis- 

 tinguishable from the original; the figure appears to be the brass 

 Haelf. and the paper which remain, unacted on by the rubber seems to 

 be the stone slab in which the brass is imbedded. Where great sharp- 

 ness is required, a mixture of black-lead and linseed-oil appUed with a 

 rubber of wash-leather on thick tissue paper is found serviceable. 



The first collection of copies of brasses was made by Sir John 

 Cullum, Craven Ord, and the Rev. Thomas Cole, not by rubbing in 

 the manner just described, but by a rude process resembling copper- 

 plate printing, which was afterwards worked over by the pen, and cost 

 much time and labour. The collection was sold for 43A to the late 

 Francis Douoe, and was bequeathed by him to the British Museum, 

 where it is now in tho print-room. A few examples of brasses are 

 preserved in the museums of the De)>artment of Science and Art, at 

 Jermyn Street and South Kensington. 



'A Series of Monumental Brasses 1 , extending from the reign of 

 Edward I. to that of Elizabeth, by J. G. and L. A. B. Waller,' is the 

 standard work on monumental brasses ; the selection of specimens is 

 very judicious, the plates are exceedingly accurate, and the work is 

 accompanied by explanatory letter-press. See also the Rev. C. Boutell's 

 Monumental Brasses and Slabs,' and ' Monumental Brasseeof England;' 

 and the ' Oxford Manual of Brasses.' 



BRASSIC ACID. [CowA, OIL or.] 



BRAVU'RA, in Music (ItaL, conraye, intrepidity), an air consisting 



" ' many notes are 

 much bravery, 

 Brarnra.) 



Compositions of this sort have generally no object but the display of 

 the singer's force, volubility, and distinctness of articulation ; though 

 some few fine airs of the kind, by Handel, Haase, Piccini, Guglielmi, 

 Ciuiarusa, Mozart, &c., still keep alive a taste for this species of vocal 

 music, and thug inferior works in the same style continue to be 

 tolerated. 



BRAZIL WOOD, Colouring matter of. Commercial Brazil-wood 

 (Pemambuco^eood, Sappan-vood, liukkuaucood, Saint Martha-wood, 

 H'uttum-wood), the product of several species of Ceesalpinia, nat. ord. 

 Leguminoen, yields its colouring matter [HrKill*] to water. The 

 decoction, fine dark red, deepens in colour and improves by age and 

 fermentation. It is used in dyeing* and calico-printing as a spirit 

 colour. It furnishes a crimson almost equal to cochineal, but much 

 less permanent. The colouring matter readily combines with alumina 

 or oxide of tin. It is changed to a permanent yellow by the action of 

 dilute acids. Alkalies give it a beautiful purple hue that unfortunately 

 is very transient. Brazil dye may be obtained in a fit state for printing 

 by concentrating the decoction to a quantity about equal in weight to 

 the wood used, precipitating the dun colouring matter with skim milk, 

 and thickening the liquor, cleared by standing, with British gum. 

 Sulphuretted hydrogen and sulphurous acid decolorise decoction of 

 Brazil-wood strong acids restore the red tint. 



According to Chevreul, brezilin crystallises in small orange needles. 

 It is partly volatilised, jiartly decomposed by heat. Nitric acid par- 

 tially converts it into picric acid. It is soluble in water, alcohol, and 

 ether. Salts of lead and tin give with it a coloured precipitate ; 

 solution of alum precipitates a red lake. It is possible that brezilin is 

 identical with hematin. 



BREACH, the opening formed either by breaching batteries or mines 

 in the rampart of a fortress, to enable the assaulting column to enter. 

 When formed by artillery, the breaching batteries are placed as nearly 

 opposite the place of the desired breach as practicable, in order that 

 the fire of the guns may be nearly perpendicular to the face of the 

 masonry; it is then directed on the escarp revetment, so as to cut 

 a horizontal groove in the masonry of the length of the desired 

 breach, about 80 to 100 feet, at about half or one-third of the height 

 of the revetment from the bottom, if there is no chance of the 

 defenders being able to clear away the dtlira, or about three or four 

 feet above the bottom of the ditch if this be feared. From each 

 extremity of this horizontal groove, two vertical grooves are then 

 made to detach this portion of the masonry wholly from the rest. The 

 fire of the artillery is then directed generally over the detached 

 portion, or what is still better, so as to make a series of vertical grooves 

 parallel to the extreme ones, thereby isolating the counterforts. 

 [REVETMENT.] The masonry then falling into the ditch, a few shells 

 are fired into the rampart to bring portions of the earth down also, 

 which, forming a species of ramp at on inclination of about 45', the 

 assaulting column is enabled to rush up into the works. In order to 

 form a breach, guns of the heaviest calibre procurable are employed, 

 and they should fire short ranges, to obtain the greatest destructive 

 effect from the fire and accuracy in cutting the grooves. When 

 time and mate'riel permit of it, the approaches ore pushed close up 

 to the works, and the breaching batteries established on the counter- 

 scon). While the breaching batteries are being established and the 

 breach made, a great gallery [MINKS] is driven from the besiegers' 

 approaches to the bottom of the counterscarp to give access to the 

 ditch. When, however, from want of mate'riel the approaches cannot 

 be pushed far enough forward, or from want of time it is not con- 

 sidered expedient to defer the formation of the breaching latteries till 

 the covered-way is crowned, as occurred in most of the sieges in the 

 Peninsula, the breaching batteries are established at some distance 

 h.. in I lie place, and their fire is consequently not nearly so effective; 

 for not only is the possibility of striking accurately rendered much less, 

 but if the escarp wall should be well covered by the glacis, the shot, 

 in order to strike the wall low down, will have to be fired with small 

 charges, which giving smaller velocities, and therefore a more curved 

 trajectory, pass over the crest of the glacis. At the same time, being 



