B A X 



59 



B A X 



its rank of capital early in the fifth century, and was suc- 

 ceeded by Turnacum and Camaracum. Some have sup- 

 posed that it was destroyed about tins time by the barbarians. 

 The name was variously written, Bagacum in the Itinerary 

 of Antoninus, Baganum by Ptolemy, and Basiacum, Bava- 

 cum, and Bacacum in later authorities. In the middle ages 

 it was a mere castle. (D'Anville ; Le Grand Dictionnaire do 

 Martiniere.) 



Bavay retains scarcely any monuments of its former great- 

 ness. A stone of seven faces, in the middle of the place (or 

 square) of the town, marks the convergence of the roads above 

 mentioned. It was substituted in the third century for a 

 more antient one of great height. Many excavations in the 

 neighbourhood, called trous Sarrasins, two subterraneous 

 passages for conveying provisions to the neighbouring for- 

 tresses, and a great number of wells from 8 to 12 feet dia- 

 meter, serve to show the former extent of the place. These 

 remains extend half a mile or more each way. The Dic- 

 tionnaire Universel de la France speaks vaguely of inscrip- 

 tions, tombs of Roman generals, and the ruins of an amphi- 

 theatre; but other authorities do not mention the last two. 

 The town in 1832 contained 1G35 inhabitants. 

 BAWTRY, a market town and township which is gene- 

 rally considered to be in the West Riding of Yorkshire ; part 

 of the town is, however, in Nottinghamshire. Bawtry is 

 partly in the parish of Blyth, and partly in that of Scrooby. 

 That portion which is in Yorkshire belongs to the lower 

 division of the wapentake of Strafforth and Tickhill ; the 

 portion which is in Nottinghamshire belongs to the wapen- 

 take of Bassetlaw. It is 153 miles N. by W. of London, 8 

 miles S.E. of Doncaster, and 44 miles S. by E. of York. 



Bawtry is situated on a slight eminence which gradually 

 slopes towards the river Idle, eastward of the town. This 

 river was considered an important one previous to the im- 

 provements in inland navigation. Falling into the Trent, 

 the Idle formerly conveyed in boats the lead of Derbyshire, 

 the hardwares of Sheffield, and the agricultural produce of 

 the vale of the Don, to Gainsborough, Hull, Sic. A better 

 conveyance for these goods is now found by the navigation 

 of the Don and the Ouse. The road from London to York 

 s through tile main street of Bawtry, in which there 

 are some very respectable houses. The whole town is cleanly 

 and cheerful in its appearance. The population is 1149. 

 The chief employments of the people arc those connected 

 ttith agriculture ; and the retail shops are chielly supported 

 by the neighbouring rural district. The market day is 

 Thursday. The churr.h, which is small, is subordinate to 

 that of Blyth. There is a national school at Bawtry, which 

 is supported by subscription, and which furnishes instruction 

 to about 100 children ; and there are two dissenting meet- 

 ing-houses. The mansion of the Dowager Viscountess 

 Galway is situated at the southern extremity of the town. 

 It is adorned with pleasure-grounds, which are interspersed 

 with flower-gardens, groves and plantations. An elegant 

 aviary on the lawn contains a choice selection of birds. (Com- 

 munication from a correspondent in Yorkshire.) 



Dr. Hunter says (History of the Deanery of Doncaster) 

 that ' The position of Buwtry, on the great north road, occa- 

 sions it to have the appearance of activity and business. 

 Formerly, when the sovereign, or any member of his family, 

 travelled with more state than at present, they were usually- 

 met at Bawtry by the sheriff of the county with a train of 

 attendant^.' 



BAXTER, WILLIAM, an eminent grammarian and 

 critic, nephew of the celebrated Richard Baxter, was born, 

 in 1650, ut Lanlugan in Shropshire. His education is slated 

 to have been so entirely neglected in his early years, that 

 at the age of eighteen, when he went to the school at Har- 

 row-on-thc-Hill in Middlesex, he knew not one letter in 

 a book, nor understood one word of any language but 

 Welsh : but he soon retrieved his lost time, and became a 

 man of great learning. He applied chielly to the study of 

 antiquities and philology. 



His first publication was upon Latin grammar : De Ana- 



, sire Artc Latino; Linguae Commentariolus : in usum 



ctioris Adolescentia;, Vimo. Land. 1679. In 1695 he 



1 Auarie ,n : Anacreonlii Teii Carmina, Gr. Lat. Sub- 



ntiir etiam duo vetustissima Poctriie Sapphus ?!' 



na O-l'i/'iu, una cum corrections Isaaci kostii : et ThtO- 



criti Anacreonticum in mortuum Adonin, 12mo. Lond. 



I ivi.-,; rcpriutrd with improvement* in 1710. In 1701, his 



edition ut Horace made its appearance, typis J. L. ; of 



which 3 second edition was finished by him but a few days 



before his death, and was published by his son John, under 

 the title of Q. Horatii Flacci Eclogce, una cum scholiis per~ 

 petuis, 8vo. Lond. 1725. This for a long time was consi- 

 dered the best edition of Horace which had been published 

 in England. It bore so high a character upon the Continent 

 as to be reprinted by Gesner at Leipzig, with additional notes, 

 in 1752 ; and again at the same place in 1772 and 1778. 

 It was again republished with additions by Zeunius in 1 788 ; 

 and lastly printed at Glasgow for a London bookseller in 8vo. 

 1797. In 1719 Baxter's Glossarium Antiquitatum Bri- 

 tannicarum appeared, dedicated to Dr. Richard Mead, ac- 

 companied with a portrait of the author, engraved by Vertue 

 from a picture by Highmore, painted when Baxter was in 

 his sixty-ninth year. . This work is stated to have been pub- 

 lished under the care of the Rev. Moses Williams, who also 

 afterwards published Baxter's glossary of Roman antiqui- 

 ties, containing the letter A only, under the title of Reliquice 

 BaxleriancE, sive JFillielmi Baxteri Opera posthuma. 

 Pr&mittitur eruditi Auc torts Vitee a seipso conscriptee 

 Fragmentum, 8vo. Lond. 1726. A few copies of this work 

 came out with the title of Glossarium Antiquitatum Roma- 

 narum, in 1731. 



These form the whole of Baxter's printed works. He is 

 said to have had a share in the English translation of Plu- 

 tarch by several hands, published at the beginning of tho 

 last century ; and proposals for printing an edition of Juvenal 

 with his notes were circulated in 1732, hut-without success. 

 Bishop Squire used some of his notes in his edition of 

 Plutarch's treatise de hide et Osiride, published at Cam- 

 bridge in 1744. 



Of smaller scattered pieces by Baxter, there are three 

 letters on subjects of antiquity printed in the Philosophical 

 Transactions, Nos. 306, 311, and 401; and four of his 

 Latin letters to Dr. Gcekie of Cambridge, who had been his 

 pupil, in the first volume of the Archceologia of the So- 

 ciety of Antiquaries. 



Besides Latin and Greek, Baxter is allowed to have been 

 skilled in the British and Irish tongues, as well as in the 

 Northern and Hebrew languages. He was in corre- 

 spondence, also, with the most learned men of his time. 

 The greater part of his life was passed in the education of 

 youth. Nichols, in his Literary Anecdote's, states Baxter to 

 nave kept a boarding-school at Tottenham High Cross in 

 Middlesex ; but Dr. Robinson, in the History of Tottenham 

 (8vo. Lond. 1818, p. 133), says he was the master of the 

 free grammar-school there. He certainly was resident at 

 Tottenham before 1697, and remained there till he was 

 chosen master of the Mercers' School in London, whirh 

 situation he held above twenty years, but resigned it before 

 his death. He died May 31st, 1723, and was buried at 

 Islington. 



(See Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. i. pp. 163-165, 

 329, 348, 349, 351, 363, vol. ii. pp. 24, 350 ; Chalmers's Biogr. 

 Diet. vol. iv. p. 200-202 ; Robinson's Hist. Tottenham, p. 

 133-J35.) 



BAXTER, RICHARD. This eminent Nonconformist 

 divine was born at Rowdon, a small village in Shropshire, 

 on the 12th of November, 1615 ; but he resided till 1625 at 

 Eaton Constantine, about five miles from Shrewsbury. 

 The contiguity of his birth-place to the seat of Lord Newport 

 was probably the means of introducing him to the notice of 

 that nobleman. His father's little property was so much 

 encumbered, as to prevent him from giving his son any edu- 

 cation beyond what could be obtained from the village school- 

 masters, who were neither competent teachers nor moral men. 

 To Mr. John Owen, who kept the free grammar-school at 

 Wroxeter, Baxter acknowledges some obligations. Though 

 he was captain of the school, his acquirements were very in- 

 considerable when he left it. His ambition was to enter one 

 of the universities to qualify himself for the ministry ; but his 

 master, Mr. Owen, probably perceiving that he required 

 more regular instruction than he could expect to receive 

 from a college tutor, recommended him to Mr. Richard 

 Wickstead, chaplain to the council at Ludlow, who had an 

 allowance from government for a divinity student. Though 

 the defects in his previous education were but ill supplied 

 by this arrangement (Wickstead being a negligent tutor), 

 he had access to a good library, where he acquired a taste 

 for those studies which he pursued with such indefatigable 

 diligence in after life. ' Here he continued for eightcf-n 

 months, when he returned to his father's house, and, at Lord 

 Newport's request, supplied fur a few months the place- of 

 his old master at Wroxeter grammar-school. Finding all 



