B E A 



78 



B E A 



Stowe, in hit Annalt. under the ye*r 1326, mention*, 

 among the precautions which Edward II. took when pre- 

 paring against tlic return of the queen ami Mortimer to 

 England, that ' he ordained tokening* or beacon* to be set 

 up. that the aatne being flro<l might be teen far off, and 

 thereby the people to be raised.' 



The Cottnnian MS. in the British Museum, Augustus I. 

 Tol. i. art 31, preserve* a plan of the harbour* of Poole, 

 Purbeck, Sir., followed, art. 33, by a chart of the coast oi 

 Dorsetshire from Lyme to Weym'outh, both exhibiting tin- 

 beacon* which were erected on the Dorsetshire coast against 

 the Spanish invasion in 1588. Art. 58 preserves a similar 

 chart of the coast of Suffolk from Orwell Haven to Gorl- 

 *ton, near Yarmouth, with the several forts and beacons 

 erected on that coast. 



The power of erecting beacon* was originally in the king, 

 and was usually delegated to the Lord High Admiral. In 

 the c-ighth of Elizabeth an act passed touching sea marks 

 and mariners (chap 13), bv which the corporation of the 

 Trinity House of Deptford Strond were empowered to erect 

 beacons and sea marks on the shores, forelands, tie., of the 

 country according to their discretion, and to continue and 

 renew the same at the cost of the corporation. 



Professor Ward, in his ' Observations on the Antiquity 

 and Use of Beacons in England' (Areho-ologia, vol. i. p. 4), 

 snys, the money due or payable for the maintenance of 

 beacons was called Beconagium, and was levied by the 

 sheriff of the county upon each hundred, as appears by an 

 ordinance in manuscript for the county of Norfolk, issued 

 to Robert de Monte and Thomas de Bardolfe, who sat in 

 parliament as barons, 14th Edward II. 



The manner of watching the beacons, particularly upon 

 the coast, in the time of Queen Elizabeth, may be gathered 

 from the instructions of two contemporary manuscripts 

 printed in the Archeeologia, vol.'viii. pp. 100, 183. The 

 surprise of those by the sea-side was usually a matter of 

 policy with an invading enemy, to prevent the alarm of an 

 arrival from being spread. 



An iron beacon or fire-pot may still be seen standing 

 upon the tower of Hadley Church in Middlesex. Gnmgh, 

 in his edition of Camden, fol. 1789, vol. iii. p. 281, says, at 

 IngleborOUgh, in Yorkshire, on the west edge, are remains 

 of a beacon, ascended to by a flight of steps, and ruins of 

 a watch-house. Collinson, in his History of Somersetshire, 

 4tO. 1791, vol. ii. p. 5, describes the fire-hearths of four 

 large beacons as remaining in his time upon a hill called 

 Dunkery Beacon in that county. He also mentions the 

 remains of a watch-house for a beacon at Dundry (vol. ii. 

 ]>. 105). Beacon-hills occur in some part or other of most 

 counties of England which have elevated ground. The 

 Herefordshire beacon is well known. Gough, in his addi- 

 tions to Camden, ut supr. vol. i. p. 394, mentions a beacon hill 

 at Harescorabe in Gloucestershire, inclosed by a transverse 

 vallation fifty feet deep. Salmon, in his History of Hert- 

 fordshire, p. 349, says, at Therfield, on a hill west of the 

 church, stood one of the four beacon* of this countv. 



BEACON SKIF.I. I), a small market-town of Bucking- 

 hamshire, in the hundred and deanery of Burnhara, twenty- 

 four miles W. by N. of London, and thirty-one S.S.E. of 

 Buckingham. It is situated upon high ground, whence it 

 ha* been supposed that its name is derived from a beacon 

 that formerly occupied the spot. The town consists of four 

 streets, the principal of which, forming part of the road from 

 Uxbridge to High Wycombe, is nearly three quarters of a 

 mile in length. The substratum on which the town stands 

 is chiefly gravel, and the houses are built with Hints or brick. 

 The church, dedicated to All Saints, is built of flint and 

 squared stones, and consists of a nave, chancel, and side 

 -. with a tower at the west end. The remains of Ed- 

 mund Burke, who resided and died at Gregories in this 

 parish, arc deposited in the church ; and the chun 

 contains a white marble table monument in honour of 

 Waller, to wh "in tin- manor belonged, as it still doe* to his 

 descendant. Hull Court, the poets family mansion, is still 

 in existence. The church, a* well a* the manor, was for- 

 merly attached to Burnhum Pri,>ry. The living is a nvt"i\ 

 in the archdeaconry of Bucks and diocese of Lincoln, valued 

 in the king's book at 2G/. 2. SJrf. ; the advowson belting 

 t" Magdalen College, Oxford, which purchased it about the 

 I 705. Beaconsfield derives i:r. it advantage from its 

 situation on the highroad between London and Oxford ; 

 and considerable business in the sale of cult!.- i- done at its 

 market and fair*. The proximity of High Wycombo and 



Uxhridge is, however, said to have rendered the market of 

 less relative ini| \v than in former times. Tho 



market-day is Wednesday, and the fair* are held on Fe- 

 bruary 13th and Holy Thursday, the latter U'ing for cattle. 

 The number of houses in the parish was 341, according to 

 the returns of 1831, when the population consisted of I"b3 

 persons, of whom W'.il were femuh-s. 



(Lysons's Magna Britannia; Beautiet of England and 

 n'alet.) 



HEAD MOULDING. [See MOULDING.] 



1 KAI) TREE. [See MKUA. and EL*OCARPU.] 



BEADLE, the messenger or apparitor of a court, who 

 cites persons to appear to what is alleged against them. It 

 is probably in this sense that we are to understand the 

 bedelli, or under-bailiffs of manors mentioned in several 

 parts of the Dometday Survey. Spelman, Soniner, and 

 Watts, all agree in the derivation of beadle from the Saxon 

 bybel, a cryer, and that froiu bib, to publish, as in bidding 

 the banns of matrimony. The bedelli of manor* probably 

 acted as criers in the lord's court. The beadle of a forest, 

 as Lord Coke informs us in his Fourth Institute, was an 

 ull'iivr who not only warned the forest court* and executed 

 process, but made all proclamations. 



Biithop Kennelt, in the Glossary to his Pumrhnil Antiqui- 

 ties of Oxfordshire, says that rural deans had formerly 

 their beadles to cite the clergy and church ollicers to \isiia- 

 tions and execute the orders of the court Christian. Pa- 

 rochial and church beadles were probably in their origin 

 persons of this description, though now employed in more 

 menial services. 



Bedel, or beadle, is also the name of an officer in the 

 English universities, who in pro. ..,-., precedes the 



chancellor or vice-chancellor, hearing a mace. In Oxford 

 there are three esquire and three yeomen bedels, each at- 

 tached to the respective faculties of divinity, medii-im- and 

 arts, and law. In Cambridge there are three esquire 1 

 and one yeoman bedel. The esquire bedels in the latter 

 university, beside attending the vice-chancellor mi public 

 solemnities, attend also the professors and respondents, 

 collect fines and penalties, and summon to the chancellor's 

 court all members of the senate. (See Dm .. in 



vocc Bedellus : Kennelt. I'aroch. Anliq. vol. it. Gloss. ; Gen. 

 Introd. to Dwni'sifai/ Hook, 8vo. edit. vol. i. p. 247 ; Comb. 

 an/ <>.i-f. I'/iir. Calendars.) 



BEADS ( Rosary Beads) are made of horn, ebony, i\"ry, 

 glass, box-wood, nnd other materials, and arc strung in chap- 

 lets used by the Roman Catholics for the purpose of counting 

 their prayers. The Rosary is a series of prayers said to 

 have been first instituted by St. Dominic about the year 

 1200, in honour of the Virgin Mary, and as an invocation to 

 her for spiritual assistance. It consists of a repetition of the 

 Ave Maria and the Paternoster or Lord's Prayer, both in 

 Latin. It is divided into dccads of ten Ave Marias, each 

 decad being preceded by the Lord's Prayer, and terminating 

 with the Gloria Patri. The full or great ro-.iry con- 

 fifteen decad-, hut the common rosary, which is recited ge- 

 nerally in the evening by pious Catholics, consists of only 

 five decads. At the end of the five decads they recite 

 the Creed, or Symbol of the Apostles, and afterward* 

 (in Italy at least) the Litany of tin; Virgin, which ig 

 different from the Litany of the Liturgy. The rotary is a 

 daily family evening prayer ; the head of the family gays 

 the first part of each Ave Maria, and the other members 

 repeat in chorus the remaining part. [See AVK MARIA.] 

 ' The original rosary of St. Dominic is a recitation of fifteen 

 decads of Ave Marias, preceded each by a Pater, cachdecod 

 being devoted to the meditation of one of the inystti 

 the life of our Saviour. The first five my steri. 

 of the incarnation, nativity, &<:., and arc styled joyful mys- 

 teries. The next five arc those of the passion and death, 

 and are styled sorrowful. The remaining I'r.e are those of 

 the resurrection, ascension, assumption of the Virgin, &c., 

 and are termed glorious. (Touron. /"/' <nic; 



Quinderim Mysteria Jlusarii lieatec Murite I'irsinis, a R. 

 Schiamino.-sodelin. atqucincim, Rome, 1609.) The common 

 chaplct is called Corona, ' a crown,' in honour of the Virgin. 



The bead* an- distinguished by their size and shape, 

 marking tin- l."nl - Prayer being larger than those 

 for the Ave Marias. Rosaries of very small glass beads are 

 worn by pious Catholics round their necks. Tho object of 

 St. Dominic was probably, while doing honour to the Virgin, 

 to fix at the same time the attention of the pious on the 

 contemplation of the principal event* of the Saviour's life. 



