1129 



BLUE MOUNTAINS. 



BODMIN. 



1130 



wood. Augustin Thierry, the historian of the Norman Conquest of 

 England, is a native of Blois. 



Blois is a town of considerable antiquity. An aqueduct cut in the 

 rock, which brings water from a spring at the distance of half a mile 

 to a reservoir close to the walls of the town, is thought to be a Roman 

 work ; but no Roman geographer has mentioned any place that can 

 be identified with Blois. Gregory of Tours, a writer of the 6th 

 century, is the first who makes any clear and distinct mention of this 

 town : he calls it Bleste. Under Charles the Bald, who reigned from 

 840 to 877, it was a place of some consequence ; and under the 

 princes of the second or Carlovingian race, money was coined here. 

 Under these princes Blois with its surrounding territory was erected 

 into a county (called laisoia, and sometimes Blesois), and the counts 

 of Blois seem to have acquired considerable power. Stephen who 

 usurped the throne of England upon the death of Henry I. in 1 135, and 

 hi* brother Henry, bishop of Winchester, were sons of one of the 

 counts of Blois by Adela, daughter of the Conqueror ; and the house 

 of Bluis was more than once united by marriage with the royal family 

 "!' I ice. At length the county of Blois having been sold to Louis, 

 duke n( Orl<5ans, brother of Charles VI., came by inheritance to his 

 grandson, Louis ; and upon the accession of this prince in 1498 to the 

 throne of France under the title of Louis XII., his domains, including 

 this county, became attached to the crown. The county of Blois 

 was subsequently made part of the appanage of Gaston, duke of 

 Orleans, brother of Louis XIII., and of Philip, only brother of 

 Louis XIV., from whom it was inherited by the subsequent dukes of 

 Orleans. 



(Dictiannaire de la France, Paris, 1845.) 



BLUE MOUNTAINS. This mountain chain is necessarily 

 described in connection with the physical geography of Australia; 

 we therefore refer to AUSTRALIA ; WALES, NEW SOUTH. 



BLUE RIDGE. [APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS.] 



BLYTH, or SOUTH BLYTH, or BLYTH NOOK, Northumber- 

 land, a small sea-port town, partly in the parish of Horton, but chiefly 

 in that of Earsdon, and in the east division of Castle Ward, is 

 situated on the right bank of the river Blyth, at its. confluence with 

 the German Ocean, in 55 7' N. lat., 1 30' W. long. ; distant 16 miles 

 N. by E. from Newcastle, and 283 miles. N. by W. from London by 

 road. Cramlington station of the Newcastle and Morpeth railway, 

 which is about 5 miles S.W. from Blyth, is 313 miles distant from 

 London. The population of the town in 1851 was 2060. 



The town owes its origin and prosperity to its commodious and 

 safe haven for small vessels. From an early period the bishops of 

 Durham have had jurisdiction over the river and port of Blyth, as 

 they still have over the river and the wastes between high and low 

 water marks. The river Blyth abounds with sea-fish near its mouth ; 

 and fresh-water fish of very fine quality frequent the higher parts 

 of the stream. The shore near its sestuary aifords abundance of 

 mussels, which are used for bait by the fishermen of the neighbouring 

 places. 



Blyth harbour is so safe that an instance rarely occurs of a vessel 

 sustaining damage in entering it in the most tempestuous weather. 

 It has a light-house erected in 1788 by Sir W. M. Ridley. The tide 

 flows up to the dam at the Bedlington iron-works, 4J miles from 

 the mouth of the river. In 1728 there were 200 vessels entered in 

 the custom-house books as having sailed from the port of Blyth. Its 

 trade afterwards declined : but the opening of the Cowpen colliery, 

 near the end of last century, caused an increase of its trade, which 

 consists chiefly in the export of coal and iron from Bedliugtou, and 

 occasionally corn. Sometimes 30 or 40 sail of laden vessels leave 

 the port at one tide. They usually return in ballast ; few articles 

 are imported, except such timber and stores as are required for the 

 shipping. About 100 vessels now belong to the port. 



Blyth is a pleasant and well-built little place. It has a custom- 

 house, subject to that of Newcastle ; two ship insurance companies, 

 a dock-yard, and two slip-ways for building and repairing vessels. 

 There is a neat chapel-of-ease, erected in 1751 by Sir. W. M. Ridley, 

 the proprietor of the estate ; also places of worship for Wesleyan 

 Methodists, English Presbyterians, and United Presbyterians ; and 

 schools connected with the church and the Wesleyan Methodists. 

 The town possesses a mechanics institute, baths, and two public 

 gardens. There is a neat suburb of recent origin called Waterloo. 

 Several well-built houses have been erected for the workmen of 

 Cowpen colliery. 



BLYTH. [NOTTINGHAMSHIRE.] 



BLYTHING, a hundred in the county of Suffolk, which has been 



'ituted a Poor- Law Union. Blything hundred lies on the eastern 



side of the county, and is bounded N. by the hundred of Wangford ; 



N.E. by the hundred of Mutford and Lothingland ; E. by the North 



Sea ; S. by the hundred of Plomesgate ; and W. by the hundred of 



II",xne. Blything Poor- Law Union is not exactly co-extensive with 



the hundred ; it contains 49 parishes and townships, with an area 



of 91,496 acres and a population in 1851 of 27,876. The Union 



workhouse is at Bulcamp, HALESWORTH. 



I'UAZ ISLAND. [BERMUDAS.] 



BO'BBIO, a province of Piedmont in the administrative division of 

 Alexandria, situated on the northern side of the Ligurian Apennines, 

 u bounded N. by the province of Voghera, W. by the provinces of 



N'ovi and Tortona, S. by the province of Chiavari, and E. by the 

 territory of Piacenza in the duchy of Parma. The province is mostly 

 covered by ramifications of the Apennines, the principal one of which 

 runs in a north-east direction, dividing the valley of the Staffora 

 'rorn that of the Trebbia, both affluents of the Po. The highest 

 summit, Monte Penice, is a calcareous mountain of a pyramidal form, 

 rising north-west of the town of Bobbio, and is crossed by the road 

 leading to Voghera. From the summit of the Penice there is a 

 splendid view of the plains of Lombardy, the hills of Mouferrato, 

 and the chain of the Liguriau Apennines. 



The province of Bobbio has an area of 267 square miles, and the 

 population in 1848 was 37,833. It is divided into four mandainenti, 

 or districts Bobbio, Ottone, Varzi, and Zavatarello, and into 27 

 communes. The valleys produce wheat, maize, wine, and fruit. The 

 mountains are partly covered with forests. Farms are mostly small. 

 Sheep and pigs are numerous ; horned cattle are small and of inferior 

 breed. Many of the inhabitants emigrate to the plains to earn their 

 subsistence. 



Hobbio, the head town, is situated in a valley near the left bank of 

 the Trebbia ; it gives title to a bishop, and has 3700 inhabitants. 

 Besides the cathedral, the church and former convent of St. Colum- 

 banus are deserving of notice. The convent is a vast and handsome 

 building ; the church, which is now a parish church, has 21 altars, 

 some good fresco paintings, and a crypt in which St. Columbanus 

 and several of his disciples are buried. Gerbert, afterwards Syl- 

 vester II., was for a time an inmate of the convent of Bobbio. The 

 church and convent were first built about the end of the 6th century, 

 but they have been rebuilt or restored at various times. The well- 

 known library, rich in valuable and rare manuscripts, among \\hich 

 were several palimpsests, has been distributed among the libraries of 

 Milan, of the Vatican, and of the Turin university. The other 

 buildings deserving of notice are the palace of the ancient family of 

 Malaspina, and the episcopal palace. Ottone, Varzi, and Zavatarello, 

 from which the other mandameuti are named, are mere villages. 



(Dizimario Geografico Statistico deijli Stati Sardi.) 



BOBER. [SILESIA.] 



BOCAGE, LE. [CALVADOS ; VENDEE.] 



BOCCA, the Italian word for 'mouth,' is used with its plural 

 ' bocche,' to designate the mouths of rivers, as ' Bocca d'Aruo,' the 

 mouth of the Arno, 'Bocche di Cattaro,' the succession of narrow 

 straits that lead into the Bay of Cattaro in Albania. The Spanish 

 word 'boca' is similarly used: Boca Chica ('little mouth') is the 

 entrance into the harbour of Carthagena in South America. Booa 

 del Drago (' dragon's mouth') is the strait leading from the north into 

 the Gulf of Paria, between the island of Trinidad and the mainland 

 of Cumana. Bocca Tigre is the name given by Europeans to the 

 entrance of the Canton River in China. 



BOCHNIA. [GALICIA, AUSTRIAN.] 



BOCHOLT AAHAUS. [M.UNSTEK.] 



BOCKING. [BRAINTHEE.] 



BODENSEE. [CONSTASZ, Lake of.] 



BODMIN, Cornwall, a municipal and parliamentary borough, a 

 market-town and the seat of a Poor-Law Union, in the hundred of 

 Trigg. The town is situated in 50 28' N. lat., 4 42' W. long. ; 

 234 miles S.W. by S. from London : the population of the municipal 

 borough in 1851 was 4327; that of the parliamentary borough, which 

 consists of the parishes of Bodmiu, Lanivet, Lanhydrock, and 

 Helland was 6337. The borough is governed by 4 aldermen and 

 12 councillors, one of whom is mayor; and returns two members 

 to the Imperial Parliament. The living is a vicarage in the arch- 

 deaconry of Cornwall and diocese of Exeter. Bodrain Poor-Law 

 Union contains 21 parishes and townships, with an area of 87,410 

 aores, and a population, in 1851 of 20,492. 



Bodmin or Bodrnan, in Cornish Bosvenua or Bosuenna, 'the Houses 

 on the Hill," and in some of the ancient characters called Bosmana 

 and Bodminian, ' the Abode of the Monks,' it is asserted owes its 

 origin to the circumstance of St. Petroc haviug taken up his abode 

 in the valley now occupied by the present town, about the year 520. 

 St. Petroc, who died at Bodmiu in 564, was buried here. The 

 hermitage was inhabited by Benedictine monks till 936, when King 

 Athelstau founded a priory near the site of the old hermitage. This 

 monastery soon fell into disuse, and its large possessions were seized 

 by Robert, earl of Moreton and Cornwall. It passed through 

 various hands, and was alternately inhabited by Benedictine and 

 Augustinian monks, nuns, and secular priests, till it was granted 

 to one Algar, who refounded the monastery in 1125, and filled it 

 with Austin canons, who continued in it till the dissolution of 

 monasteries. Among other privileges the prior held a market and a 

 fair, and possessed a pillory, gallows, &c., from which we may presume 

 that he had the power of inflicting capital punishment. The site of 

 the monastery, with its large demesnes and dependencies, was 

 granted to Thomas Steruhold, one of the translators of the well- 

 known version of the Psalms of David into English metre ; it was 

 subsequently purchased by some of the Rashleigh family. There 

 was also at the dissolution a monastery of Gray Friars in Bodmiu. 

 Some portions of the priory buildings still remain. The gate-house 

 is now used as a dwelling. A portion of the refectory remains. 

 Some antiquaries have supposed that Bodmin was the primary seat 



