77 



BOUSSU. 



BRABANT. 



78 



centre of the market place is the town-hall, a substantial building 

 erected in 1822 at a cost of 3600?. The quarter-sessions are held in 

 this building. The streets are lighted with gas. A county court is 

 held in Bourne. The population of Bourne is chiefly agricultural. 

 There are breweries, malt-houses, and tanneries in the town. A 

 tesselated pavement and some Roman coins have been dug up in the 

 neighbourhood. 



BOUSSU. [IlAINAULT.] 



BOW ISLAND (HE-OW), the largest of the coral islands in the 

 Dangerous Archipelago, was discovered by Bougainville in 1768, who 

 gave it the name of La Harpe ; it was visited in the following year 

 by Cook, who gave it the present name. It lies north-west and south- 

 east, is very irregular in shape, and 30 miles in length, with an average 

 breadth of 5 miles. The form is the same as that of other coral 

 island*, confining within a low narrow band of coral, about a quarter 

 of a mile wide, a spacious lagoon studded with knolls, and an average 

 depth of about 1 20 feet between them. The windward (eastern) side 

 ier than the other, which, with the exception of a few clusters 

 of trees and heaps of sand, is little more than a reef, over which the 

 sea washes into the lake ; but there is no passage even for a boat, 

 except in one spot which may be entered by a large ship. This 

 opening lies at the north end of the island, and is only 115 feet broad 

 from reef to reef, with a coral knoll in the centre. Within the lagoon 

 the anchorage is perfectly secure ; the bottom is generally of a fine 

 white sand. Water may be got by digging through the sand into the 

 conil rock. Wood may also be procured, chiefly of the pemphis 

 acidula, of a dark-red colour, and very hard ; there are also cocoa-nut, 

 palm, and pandanuL trees. The lagoon abounds in shell-fish, particularly 

 of the pearl-oyster kind. The inhabitants of the island are an indolent 

 ill-looking race, with broad flat noses, sunk eyes, thick lips, and long 

 bu*hy hair matted with dirt and vermin. Their stature is above the 

 middle size, but they are generally crooked ; their limbs are long, 

 muscles flaccid, and their only covering is the maro round the waist. 

 They appear to have been cannibals. They still show a partiality for 

 raw food, in which state they devour fish, or turtle which are some- 

 times found on the shore. (Beechey, Voyage to the Pacific and 

 Bthriwj i & , 



BOW, STRATFORD-LE. [MIDDLESEX.] 



BOYLE, county of Roscommon, Ireland, in the parish and barony 

 of Boyle, a post-town and the seat of a Poor-Law Union, i 

 situated in 53" 57' N. lat., 8 16' W. long. ; 108 miles W.N.W. from 

 Dublin on the leading road to Sligo. The population in 1851 was 

 xclusive of 872 persons in the Union workhouse. Boyle Poor- 

 Iiw Union comprises 33 electoral divisons, with an area of 159,680 

 acres and a population in 1841 of 68,490, in 1851 of 47,805. 



The town is built on both banks of the Boyle River, a mile above 

 its expansion into Lough Key, and 10 miles west of its junction with 

 .iTni'iu at Carrick-on-Shaunon. Three bridges cross the Boyle, 

 which here flows from went to east between steep banks and through 

 a picturesque country. On the right side of the river is the more 

 11 part of the town, containing the sessions house situated in a 

 handsome area, of which one side is formed by a crescent, and remark- 

 able for the neatness of many of the houses. In the older section of 

 the town on the left bank of the river, the picturesque ruins of the 

 Abbey of Boyle, and the manorial residence of the King family, now 

 converted into a barrack, constitute the principal objects. The town 

 in well-built, chiefly of limestone ; but red sandstone is employed in 

 liey and the public buildings. Lord Lorton's magnificent seat 

 <if Uockingham lies immediately adjacent on the banks of Lough Key. 

 own carries on a considerable retail trade in the supply of 

 imported articles to the neighbouring districts of Roscommou and 

 and has a large market for corn and butter. The adjoining 

 ry has been much improved. The Irish Annals of Boyle, which 

 have been published in Latin and English, commence A.D. 420 and 

 late about the period of their compilation in A.D. 1245. The 

 abbey is a structure of the latter end of the 12th century. Ita remains 

 are considerable. The nave is 1 3 1 feet in length by 25 feet in breadth, 

 exclusive of the side aisles which have disappeared. The building 

 was reduced to its present ruined state by the army of the Earl of 

 Tyrone in 1595. Boyle returned two members to the Irish Parlia- 

 ment; it retains a manor court of small jurisdiction the only 

 remnant of its former municipal privileges. 



BOYNE, a river of Ireland, rises near Carberry, in the barony of 

 try and county of Kildare, whence flowing west not far from 

 K'l'-nderry in the King's County, it receives the waters of that portion 

 of the bog of Allen lying immediately north of the line of the Grand 

 i ; thence turning to the north-east, it receives the Yellow and 

 Milltown rivers out of the bogs extending from Croghan Hill to 

 Tyrrell's Pass in the county of Westmeath. Soon after this it enters 

 the county of Meath at Clonard, crones the Royal Canal, and receives 

 >'!, a large stream flowing parallel to the Yellow River from 

 Miillingar in Westmeath. The Boyne having now left the district 

 of the bog of Alln, Hows through the rich plains of Meath, receiving 

 the waters of many small rivers, till passing Trim, where its banks 

 are crowned with the lofty ruins of numerous abbeys and castles, it 

 sweeps past the base of Tara Hill iu a more northerly direction to 

 Navan, where it meets the Blackwater, descending by a south-east 

 course from the Lake of Virginia on the confines of Cavan. The 



united rivers now become navigable at a distance of 25 English miles 

 direct from the sea, and resuming a more easterly course by 

 Slane and Oldbridge, proceed along the south part of the county of 

 Louth to Drogheda, and thence to the Irish Channel, which the Boyue 

 enters after a winding course of about 60 miles from its source. The 

 navigation of the Boyue from Drogheda to Navau was effected by a 

 company in 1770, and is now vested in the Irish Board of Works. 

 The principal articles carried are coals, wheat, flour, and timber. 

 The revenue is small, the tolls in 1850 being 4632. 9s. 9d. This 

 amount is considerably less than that received in previous years, in 

 consequence of the opening of the Drogheda and Navau brauch 

 railway, which runs near and almost parallel to the line of water- 

 carriage. The rate of toll on the Boyne navigation was in 1850 con- 

 siderably reduced to accommodate the traffic. The Boyne divides 

 the county of Meath diagonally into two nearly equal parts. Its 

 whole course through this county affords rich landscape scenery, 

 the descent of the river being in general gradual, and the sloping 

 banks abounding in historical interest. The river has been called 

 the ' Boyue of Science,' from -the number of monastic institutions on 

 or not far from its banks, among which may be enumerated Clouard, 

 Trim, Bective, Donaghmore, Slane, Mellifont, Monasterboyce, and the 

 various religious foundations of Drogheda. The Boyne however 

 derives its chief interest from the important battle fought on its 

 banks on the 1st of July, 1(590, between the English army under 

 William III. and the Irish under James II. An obelisk of grand 

 proportions was erected in commemoration of it in 1736. It imme- 

 diately faces the ford at Oldbridge, marking the spot where William 

 received his wound on the evening before the engagement. It is 150 

 feet in height by 20 feet at the base. Oldbridge, although only a ford 

 in 1690 had been the site of a bridge at a very early date, for its 

 name, which indicates as much, is found in the patent rolls us far 

 back as the reign of Richard II. The Boyue is also rendered famous 

 in more ancient history by the invasion of Turgesius the Dane, who 

 sailed up it with a fleet of Norsemen to the plunder of Meath 

 A.D. 838. It is a deep and wide river at Drogheda, navigable for 

 vessels of 250 tons, and would be capable of receiving vessels of much 

 greater burden were the bar which now obstructs its entrance 

 partially removed. The total descent of the river is 336 feet 



(Statittical Survey of Meath ; Wilde, Beauties of the Boyne and 

 Blacl-water, Dublin, 1849.) 



BOZOULS. [AvETBON.l 



BRABANT, DUCHY OK, formerly one of the most important pro- 

 vinces of the Netherlands, was bounded N. by Holland and Qelcler- 

 laud, E. by Qelderland and Liege, S. by Haiuault and Namur, and 

 W. by Flanders and Zealand. 



Under the successors of Charlemagne, the dukes of Brabant were 

 possessed of considerable power and influence over the rulers of the 

 other Netherland provinces. Joan, eldest daughter of John III., the 

 last duke of Brabant, bequeathed the duchy to Anthony, second son 

 of Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy ; and by degrees, through 

 intermarriages, inheritance, and purchase, the various Netherland 

 provinces which composed the ' Circle of Burgundy' came under the 

 dominion of the dukes of that name. At the death of Charles the 

 Bold, the last of these dukes, whose daughter Mary was married to 

 Maximilian, the son and successor of Frederick IV., ernperor of Ger- 

 many, Brabant passed under the dominion of the house of Austria. 

 In 1516 Charles V., emperor of Germany and grandson of Maximilian, 

 became king of Spain, and his Netherland dominions were united with 

 the crown of Spain. 



The religioiis persecution instituted in the reign of Philip II. 

 against all who would not profess the Roman Catholic religion, 

 caused the inhabitants of the seven northern provinces to rise iu 

 defence of their liberties ; and in 1581 these provinces were formed 

 into an independent union under the title of ' The United Provinces,' 

 Prince William of Orange being declared Stadtholder. The seven 

 provinces thus allied stood anciently in the following order as 

 regarded their rank : Gelderland, Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, Fries- 

 land, Overyesell, and Groningen. To these were afterwards added, 

 by conquest and under treaties, Drenthe and the ' Ge'ne'ralite'-lands,' 

 so called on account of then- belonging to the States General of the 

 United Provinces. In these Ge'ne'ralite'-lands was included tho 

 existing province of North Brabant. 



The remaining Netherlands provinces,* including South Brabant, 

 continued united with the crown of Spain until 1706, when after 

 tho battle of Ramilies they acknowledged for their sovereign 

 Charles VI., afterwards emperor of Germany, and were thencefor- 

 ward known as the Austrian Netherlands. 



In tho progress of these events the Duchy of Brabant was not only 

 divided in the manner described into separate provinces, but it was 

 also limited in extent by the erection of part of its territory into tho 

 province of Antwerp. In the course of the war which broke out in 

 1793 the whole were united to France. In 1806 the United Provinces 

 were erected into a separate kingdom under Louis Bonaparte, who 

 resigned his crown in 1810, when the territory was re-annexed to 

 France. 



At the Congress of Vienna the whole of the seventeen provinces 

 of the United Netherlands, including both North and South Brabant, 

 were erected into a kingdom under the King of Holland ; but at tho 



