B E A 109 



ever, send any member to parliament until the reign o 



Edward VI. By the Reform Bill, the towns of Llangefn 



Amlwch, and Holyhead, with Beaamaris, now send a mem 



ber. The bill made no alteration in the boundary of th 



borough, which embraced a district of about ten miles ii 



circuit, and was therefore considered sufficiently extensive. 



Beaumaris seems to have flourished under the royal fa 



vour, and to have attained some commercial importance ; fo 



Sir John Wynne, in characterising the inhabitants of th 



three castellated towns of the Menai, upwards of two centu 



ries ago, speaks of ' the lawyers of Caernarvon, the mer 



chants of Beaumaris, and the gentlemen of Conway.' An 



inference to the same effect has been made from the loca 



tokens which were, at a somewhat later time, in use among 



the opulent tradesmen as a substitute for copper coin ; i 



practice at that time common in places of considerable 



traffic. ' At present,' says the Boundary Report, ' it has 



not any trade or manufactures, but it derives a considerable 



profit from being the resort of visitors for sea-bathing 



many of whom come from Liverpool.' The bay before the 



town affords good anchorage for ships, having seven fathoms 



water at the lowest ebb. Vessels often find security there 



in hard gales, and occasionally undergo repairs upon the 



beach. A few sloops belong to Beaumaris, but they are 



chielly employed in carrying for other ports. 



The town of Beaumaris consists of several streets, ol 

 which one, terminated by the castle, is well built, and the 

 houses are in general neat. The chapel, dedicated to the 

 Blessed Virgin, had formerly one aisle distinguished as the 

 chapel of St. Mary, and the other as that of St. Nicholas : 

 it is now known exclusively by the former name. It is a 

 spacious and rather elegant structure, consisting of a chancel, 

 nave, and two aisles, with a square embattled tower. It 

 was formerly a chapelry in the parish of Llandegfan, but is 

 now a distinct parish church. The town-hall is a commo- 

 dious modern structure ; the basement story contains a 

 prison. Above, besides the apartments for the transaction 

 of municipal business, is a handsome apartment, which 

 forms the finest ball-room in the principality. There is 

 also a county-hall, a county prison, and a custom-house, 

 which is the comptrolling-office not only to the different 

 parts of the island, but to those on the Caernarvon side of 

 the Menai. Near the town is a ferry, which belonged to 

 the crown until the reign of Elizabeth, who granted it to 

 the corporation. The other five ferries of the Menai had 

 previously been transferred to private hands by Henry VIII. 

 The last Lord Bulkeley, who did much for the improvement 

 of Beaumaris, made a fine road at his sole expense, from 

 the town, along the banks of the Menai, to the Menai 

 bridge, a distance of -4} miles. 



In the year 1603 a free school was founded and liberally 

 endowed at Beaumaris by David Hughes, Esq., a native of 

 the town. Among the other establishments for education 

 is an extensive school, the pupils of which pay one penny 

 a-week. There are almshouses for ten poor persons, six of 

 whom are indebted for their provision to the founder of the 

 free school ; the other four were added by the last Lord 

 Bulkeley. 



The town, as re-incorporated in the fourth year of Queen 

 Elizabeth, is governed by a mayor, two bailiffs, chosen an- 

 nually, and chief burgesses, forming altogether a governing 

 body limited to twenty-four persons. These twenty-four 

 capital burgesses were the only electors of the parliamentary 

 representative previously to the Reform Bill. The market- 

 days are Wednesday and Saturday. The fairs are on Fe- 

 bruary J3, Holy Thursday, September 19, and December 1 9, 

 for cattle. The population of the borough, in 1 83 1 , amounted 

 to 2675, of whom 1444 were females, according to the Popu- 

 lation Abstract ; but the recent report on Municipal Corpo- 

 rations estimates the population at only 2497. 



(Pennant's Tour in Wales; Grose's Antiquities of Eng- 

 land and Wales, vol. iv. ; Beauties of England and Wales, 

 vol. xvii. ; Boundary Reports, part vii. ; Report on Muni- 

 cipal Corporations, &c.) 



BEAUMONT, the name of above sixty towns and villages 

 in France, as we find by a comparison of the Dictionnaire 

 tift Qaulet, <$-c.,of Expilly (Paris, 1762), with the Diction- 

 naire Universe! de la France (Paris, 1804), of which only 

 the following are of sufficient importance to require notice. 



Benumunt dv-Lomagne (so called, as being in Lomagne, 

 a district of the antient Armagune), a town in the depart- 

 ment of Tarn et Garonne, on the road between Montauban 

 and Aurh. It is on the left bank of the little river Girnone, 



B E A 



an affluent of the Garonne. Coarse woollen cloths, hats, and 

 leather, are the chief manufactures of this little town, which, 

 in 1S32, had a population of 3126 for the town, and 4130 

 for the whole commune. It is in 43 3 53' N. lat., and 1 0' 

 E. long. 



Beaumont sur Oise, in the department of Seine et Oise 

 is about 1 9 miles north of Paris, on the road to Beauvaisi 

 Abbeville, Boulogne, and Calais. It is on the left or south' 

 bank of the river Oise, over which there is a very handsome 

 bridge ; and on the summit of the hill, on the slope of which 

 the town is built, there are the remains of an antient castle. 

 Some braid (passementerie) is mads here, and some trade 

 is carried on in corn, flour, and glass. The population in 

 1832 was 1892. 



Beaumont had a collegiate church up to the period of the 

 Revolution. This town was pillaged by the Burgundians in 

 the year 1416, while Charles Duke of Orleans, to whom it 

 then belonged, was a captive in England. It is in 49 8' N 

 lat.. and 2 16'E. long. 



Beaumont-le-Koger, in the department of the Euro, is 

 situated on the right bank of the river Rille, which falls 

 into the Seine near its mouth. The town was built, at least 

 augmented, by Roger, one of the lords of the territory in 

 which it is situated. Louis IX. (otherwise St. Louis) King 

 of France, obtained it of its former lords, and united it to the 

 domains of tho crown ; but a century afterwards it was 

 alienated by John II. to Louis, brother of Charles of Evreux, 

 King of Navarre. It returned, however, into the possession 

 of the French kings, having been ceded by Charles III., 

 King of Navarre, who had inherited it< to Charles VI. of 

 France. 



There is a large village called Vieille, on the opposite 

 >ank of the river, which may be considered as a suburb of 

 he town, with which it is connected by a stone bridge. 

 Beaumont had, before the revolution, a Benedictine priory, 

 dependent upon the abbey of Bee, as well as a parish church 

 dedicated to St. Nicholas. Formerly the townsmen manu- 

 actured woollen and linen cloths, and nails, and a consi- 

 lerable quantity of linen was bleached in the village of 

 Vieille. (Le Grand Dictionnaire de Martiniere, 1730.) At 

 iresent there is a large woollen-cloth manufactory emplny- 

 ng 400 workmen ; also a glass-work, which employs 100. 

 This last manufactures annually 400,000 bottles, which are 

 chiefly destined to Bretagne. Population, as given in the 

 Dictionnaire Unicersel de la France (Paris, 1804), 1325. 

 rVe have no later authority. 



There was formerly a strong castle here, built upon a 

 recipitous rock. West of the town is a considerable wood, 

 above seven miles long, from N.N.W. to S.S.E. and two 

 nd a half miles wide, which takes from it the name of 

 lie Forest of Beaumont. (Dictionnaire Universel de la 

 7 rance, Paris, 1804.) Beaumont-le-Roger is in 49 4' N. 

 at., and 46' E. long. 



Beaumont-sur-Surthe, otherwise Beaumonl-le- Vicomte, 

 > a town in the former province of Maine, and the present 

 epartment of Sarthe. It lies on the right (which, from the 

 inuous course of the river, is here the north) bank of the 

 iarthe ; and on the road from Alencon to Tours ; 1 2 miles 

 . of Ale^on, and 127 miles W.S.W. of Paris ; 48 13' N. 

 at., and 6' E. long. 



This town takes its distinctive adjunct of Le-Vicomte, 

 iceause built by the former viscounts of Mans. It was 

 onsidered a place of considerable strength ; and was se- 

 eral times taken and retaken in the wars which William 

 lie Conqueror, as Duke of Normandy, carried on with the 

 ounts of Maine. Henry IV. of France, during the life- 

 me of his father, and after the death of his elder brother, 

 ook from this town the title of Due de Beaumont. 



There are not any remains of the fortifications now. The 

 manufactures of the town consist of linen cloth and serge, 

 'he population, in 1832, was 1918 for the town, and 2381 

 or the whole commune. 



BEAUMONT, a commune of Ilainault, bounded on 

 10 north by that of Thirimont; on the north-east by Stre; 

 n the east by Brabancon and Clermont (the latter in the 

 rovince of Namur); on the south-east by Solre Saint 

 lery ; and on the west by the commune of Leval-Chaude- 

 ille. 



The district is watered by the little river Beaumont, known 

 [so under the name of Hantes, which falls into the Sambre. 

 n its course through Beaumont it gives motion to several 

 mills, iron works, and establishments for sawing marble. 

 The town of Beaumont, which is situated on the high 



