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by allowing a certain time, marked by the recitation of ten 

 A vu Marias, to the meditation upon each event or mystery. 

 The name of rosary is figurative : it means a chaplet of 

 spiritual roses, divided into three sets, white, red, and da- 

 mask roses, corresponding to thy joyful, sorrowful, and 

 glorious mysteries. Such are the allegory and its explana- 

 tion. ( The Rosarie of our Ladie otherwise called our Ladle's 

 Psalter, Antwerp, 1600.) 



The Turks and other eastern nations have also chaplets 

 of beads made of amber or other materials, which they turn 

 through their fingers while sitting in a listless mood, but 

 not, as it seems, for any purpose of prayer. The Turkish 

 chaplet is called ' Combolo'io.' 



BEAGLE, a small well-proportioned hound, slow but 

 gure, having an excellent nose and most enduring diligence, 

 formerly much in fashion for hunting the hare, but now 

 comparatively neglected, its place being occupied, where 

 hare-hunting is patronized, by the harrier. [See HARRIER.] 



[The Beagle.) 



These were the little hounds so much prized by ' the 

 good old English gentleman ;' for, at a trilling expense, 

 and greatly to the delight of the neighbouring rustics who 

 followed on foot, he could keep his ten or eleven couple, 

 not more than so many inches high individually, and, 

 mounted on his easy pad, would generally make certain of 

 killing his hare, though it frequently cost him two or three 

 hours to perform the feat. During this protracted chase 

 he had ample leisure for enjoying the sight of his admi- 

 rably matched pack, running so well together that ' they 

 might have been covered with a sheet,' and for gratifying 

 his ears with their tunable cry. 



The hare distanced them immeasurably at first, and, in 

 the course of the run, she might be observed to sit and 

 listen ' sad on some little eminence,' but 



I n louder peals, the loaded winds 



Brought on the pothering stonn' 



and, after exhausting all her speed, shifts, and doublings, 

 she almost always fell a victim to their persevering and de- 

 structive instinct. 



A well-bred beagle of the proper size, which should not 

 exceed that above-mentioned, is a very pretty and sym- 

 metrical variety. This symmetry (the term is used in 

 relation to the purposes for which the dug is employed) was 

 the result of much care among amateurs, who spared no 

 efforts to bring it to what they considered the standard of 

 perfection. 



Some prided themselves on the diminutive but still 

 effective size of their pucks. Daniel and others have not 

 forgotten to commemorate Colonel Hardy's ' cry of beagles.' 

 They amounted to ten or eleven couple, and were always 

 carried to and from the field in a pair of panniers upon a 

 horse's hack. Small as they^vere, they rarely failed, though 

 tli.'y could never get near enough to press the hare in the 

 early part of the run, to stick to her and worry her to death 

 at last. 



Such diminutive hounds are sometimes called 'lap-dog 

 beagles' and ' rabbit beagles.' 



Tin: fairy pack above alluded to had a little barn for their 

 kennel, where also their panniers were kept. The door was 

 one night broken open, and every hound, panniers and all, 

 stolen ; nor could the disconsolate owner ever discover either 

 the thieves or their booty. 



HKAMINSTKK, or BEMINSTER FORUM, a mar- 

 ket-town in Dorsetshire, in the Bhdport division of the 



hundred of Beaminster, 123 miles W.S.W. of London, and 

 14$ W.N.W. of Dorchester. It is situated on the river Birt, 

 which issues from several springs running from the hills 

 with which the town is surrounded. Beaminster is of consi- 

 derable antiquity. In Domesday Book, Beminstre is classed 

 among the lands belonging to the bishopric of Sarum, 

 Begeminster was given by Bishop Ormund, in 1091, to 

 augment two of the prebends of his cathedral. The parish 

 consists of three manors, Beaminster Prima, Beaminster 

 Secunda, and Beaminster Parsonatus, all of which are held 

 by lease by the present lords under the church of Salisbury. 

 Leland thus describes Beaminster in his time: 'It is a 

 praty market town, and usith much housbandry, and lyith 

 in one street from N. td*S., and in another from W. to E. 

 There is a faire chapelle of ease in this town. Netherby 

 [Netherbury] is the paroch chirch to it, and Beminstre is a 

 prebend to the chirch of Saresbyri.' The town was almost 

 entirely destroyed by fire in 16-44, while Prince Maurice 

 was in quarters there. It was re-built by the assistance of 

 parliament, but in 1684 was again consumed ; and, finally, 

 in 1781, upwards of fifty houses, besides barns, stables, and 

 other buildings, were reduced to ruins. To these fires, 

 however, the town is indebted for its present very respectable 

 appearance, most of the houses being good modern build- 

 ings. The streets have lately been paved by a subscription 

 of the inhabitants, and the shops and some of the houses are 

 now lighted with gas. The church and free-school are the 

 principal buildings of the town. The church is dedicated 

 to the nativity of the Blessed Virgin, and although only a 

 chapel of ease to the vicarage of Neflierbury, is a large 

 handsome structure, standing on an eminence on the south 

 side of the town. It is supported in the inside by Gothic 

 arches and pillars of Ham-hill stone. The tower is nearly 

 100 feet high, and is decorated with sculptures, illustrative 

 of the woollen trade, for which the town was famous at the 

 time they were executed : there are also figures of one or 

 two of the kings, and a-number of roses, of which tradition 

 states that the figures are those of kings who reigned at the 

 times that repairs were done to the church, and that the 

 roses commemorate the union between the houses of York 

 and Lancaster. The town has a commodious workhouse, 

 which is maintained partly by the rents of a small estate, 

 and partly by the poor-rates. There is also an almshouse, 

 built about 1627 by Sir John Strode, and afterwards en- 

 dowed by him and his daughter, Lady Joan Tuberville, for 

 the maintenance of six poor women. The free-school was 

 founded in or about the year 1 684 by Mrs. Frances Tucker, 

 for the education of twenty of the poorest boys in Beamin- 

 ster, three or four of whom are to be apprenticed to the sea 

 service. The estate with which this school is endowed was 

 let in the year 1707, at 65/. a year, which is now increased 

 to 1GOA ; the surplus has been employed in increasing the 

 number of boys at the school from 20 to 100, and in 

 providing fuel, which is sold to the poor at a reduced rato 

 during the winter. The Rev. Samuel Hood, the father 

 of Lords Hood and Bridport, was master of this school in 

 1715. The number of houses in Beaminster was 5C7 in 

 1831, when the population amounted to 2968 persons, of 

 whom 1573 were females. During the year 1834, the town 

 was visited with an extraordinary mortality, owing princi- 

 pally to the small-pox and measles, which raised the pro- 

 portion of deaths to one in twenty-six on the whole number 

 of inhabitants. The inhabitants are chiefly engaged in 

 the manufacture of sail-cloth, of iron, tin, and copper wares. 

 The market is held on Thursday, and there are fairs on 

 April 14, September 10, and October 9. The quarter- 

 sessions were held here in the reign of Elizabeth and the 

 seven first years of Charles I., but they were afterwards 

 removed to Bridport. (Hutchins's History and Antiquities 

 of the Counties of Dorset ; Beauties of England and 

 Wales ; Communication of a Correspondent, $c.) 

 BEAMS. [See MATERIALS, STRENGTH OF.] 

 BEAN. [See FABA, PHASEOLUS, and DOUCHOS.] 

 BEAN, a leguminous plant, extensively cultivated in the 

 garden and in the field, classed by Linnaeus in the Diadel- 

 phia Decandria, and by Jussicu among the Leguminosce. 

 There are two distinct kinds of beans cultivated ; the one 

 is called the Faba vu/garis or Vicia. Faba, which is our 

 common garden and field bean ; the other is the Phaseolus 

 vulgaris, the French bean, haricot, or kidney-bean. We 

 here consider them only in an agricultural point of view. 



The common bean, of which there are several varieties, 

 bears a pod containing several oblong rounded seeds, which 



