B L A 



B L A 



DMT AnUuff. thai .,r 11.. KnfUiluMn 

 I. etlM UUckw.t.t.- 



(Statistical Survey of the Co. Cork; Ingli*' Inland in 

 1834.) 



BLACKWATER, a river of tlio county Armagh, in Ire- 

 land, runs in a north-easterly direction from the confine* 



.in- an 1 Fermanagh, and Hows by Blackwator town 

 and Charlcmont into the 8outh-wcstem extremity of Loch 

 Ne.mh. IN ancient name was Avon More, or tho great 

 river, a title merited only by comparison with the smaller 

 ttreami of the district, 'The Armagh Blackwatcr is not 

 remarkable for anything except its historical importance, 

 as having long been the boundary between the jurisdic- 

 tion of the English Pale and the independent country of 

 the Tyrone O'NeilU. To restrain these turbulent chief- 

 tain*. Sir John Perrot, in 1584, after passing through their 

 territory on an expedition into O'Kane's Country (now 

 Londonderry county), first proposed the erection of a fort 

 which might command the puses into Armagh, and keep 

 ill's neighbouring places of Dungannon and Benburb 

 in chock. It was the planting of this garrison which 

 proved the proximate cause of Tyrone's great rebellion ; and 

 as tho most important battle gained by the Irish during 

 that insurrection was fought in the immediate vicinity, the 

 Hlackwater derives considerable interest from this circum- 

 stance. O'Neill made this fort the bone of contention ; it 

 w.i^ on account of violences committed by its garrison that 

 he justified his first rising in arms as in his private quarrel, 

 ami it was taken and retaken again and again before he 

 finally compromised his loyalty to the queen. At length, 

 however, in 1598, Captain Williams, the warden, being 

 closely pressed by a powerful force of the Irish under 

 O'Neill, O'Donnell, and Maguire, Marsha] Bagnal marched 

 to his relief at the head of a well-appointed army. A con- 

 siderable proportion of the soldiers were Irish in the queen's 

 pay, and with them many of the young native nobility. Of 

 these the most distinguished was the queen's Reilly, 

 sirnamed Maelmurry Dhas, or the Handsome. This force 

 in point of numbers was inferior to the insurgent army, but 

 in discipline and equipment much superior. They marched 

 from Armagh before daybreak, and early in the morning 

 the action commenced. O'Neill had intrenched himsell 

 behind a shallow stream llowing through a marsh ; tin- 

 place was called Athbury, or tho yellow ford, from the colour 

 of the soil. Being approached through woods and narrow 

 passes, it gave the Irish advanced guard an opportunity 

 of galling the English march for half an hour before they 

 got upon the plain. Here O'Neill had employed a stratagem 

 similar to that of Bruce at Bannockburn : the ground was 

 set thick with covered pitfalls, and the men at arms charging 

 across the open fields were at once thrown into confusion. 

 But, in spite of this check, tho English passed the ford, and 

 drove their antagonists to their trenches. The artillery was 

 now brought up, and still, notwithstanding the bursting o! 

 a field-piece and the explosion of a powder cask, the assail- 

 anU had again the advantage. Marshal Bagnal, at the 

 head of his nidi, charged over the levelled breast-work, 

 and neither O'Neill nor O'Donnell, though distinguished 

 leaders, and fighting at the heads of their respective 

 names, could maintain their ground. The victory now 

 soemcd won, when Bagnall received a shot in the head which 

 killed him instantly, and the clans returned to the conflict 

 O'Neill himself led his galloglasses to the charge: the Eng- 

 lish, disheartened by the death of their leader, gave way ; 

 tin; Irish pushed their advantage, and drove them back 

 upon the ditch ; here they got entangled in the trenches, 

 and the rout became general ; the slaughter was very great, 

 and multitudes were trodden to death. Few of the English 



-cd the ford. The Irish historians attribute the pre- 

 servation of those who did escape to the loyalty of O'Reilly 

 who covered the retreat, and was almost left alone on the 

 field before ho fell. The victory was complete : Armag 

 and the fort of Blackwater surrendered next day, and the 

 remnant of the English army returned to Newry. The 



-\i loss is estimated at from 1500 to 2500 men, with 

 all tho baggage, ammunition, and artillery. It may seem 

 that undue importance is attributed to an action' when 

 i ..nip:ir;ilively few were engaged on either side; bu 

 among the potty skirmishes of that desultory war up 

 to this time, Athbury is by fur the most worthy of the 

 name of battle, and it* effects were so important that 

 \n lesi than three months, there were thirty thousan( 

 men in arms in various parts of thu country against 



he queen. The confiscations of the counties toon after 

 ed to the colonizing i.f Tyrone with men who no longer 

 required the maintenance of a garrison for their control, and 

 the fort went to decay. Blackwatcr town is now an incon- 

 siderable place, but has a good linen market, ami i- in 

 the centre of a rich and flouncing district.* (Cox's Hit- 

 tory qf Ireland; O'Sullivan's ///'/. Citthul. Hib. Com- 

 oetid.) 



BLACKWELL, THOMAS, was born at Aberdeen in 

 1701. His father was one of the niin inters of that city, and 

 filled at the same time the office of principal of Marischal 

 College. After having taken the degree of A.M. in the 

 University of Aberdeen, at the age of seventeen, and i 

 appointed by the crown professor of Greek in the Marischal 

 College in 1723, he succeeded his father as principal in 

 17.18. In 1752 tho degree of LL.D. was conferred upon 

 him. He had the merit of introducing an improved system 

 of education into Marischal College, and before his death 

 had the gratification of witnessing its success. An ac- 

 count of this plan was printed by direction of the college 

 authorities. 



Blackwell is allowed to have been a man of considerable 

 acquirements, but he often rendered himself ridicule; 

 his pedantry and affectation of universal knowledge. He 

 was well versed, according to the learning of that day, in tin- 

 Greek and Latin writers, and was acquainted with the princi- 

 pal languages of modern Europe. His habits were studious 

 and retiring, but he rather courted the acquaintance of men 

 of superior reputation. He was abstention* to a degree pro- 

 judicial to his health. Being allliuled with a consumptive 

 disease, he left Aberdeen in the month of February, 1 757, 

 with a view of trying tho effect of a change of air, but he 

 died at Edinburgh in the following month. 



The following is a list of his works : ' An Inquiry into 

 the Life and Writings of Homer, 1 1 735. ' A Key to the 

 Inquiry, containing a translation of the numerous Greek, 

 Latin, Spanish, Italian, and French notes in the original 

 work,' 1736. 'Letters on Mythology,' 1748. ' Memoirs of 

 the Court of Augustus,' 3 vols. : the first was published in 

 1753, the second in 1755, and the third, which is incom- 

 plete, was published in 17G4, after his death. 



BLADDER, THE, of urine, or vesica urinaria, so called 

 to distinguish it from the gall-bladder, is a musculo-mem- 

 branous bag or pouch, which serves as a temporary i 

 voir for the urine ; it communicates with the kidneys by 

 means of the ureters, and opens externally by means of the 

 urethra. 



The urinary apparatus is confined to tho red-blooded 

 classes of animals, all of which have kidneys, whilst some 

 orders and genera have no urinary bladder. In quadrupeds 

 the bladder is of a pyriform shape, and is completely sur- 

 rounded by the peritonoBUm or serous lining of the abdomen ; 

 and it .may be taken as a general rule, that it is bma'.'.er, 

 stronger, and more muscular in carnivorous than in grami- 

 nivorous animals : in the latter it is almost membranous, 

 and in some of them is particularly large. 



In tho whole class of birds there is no urinary bladder, 

 and the ureters open into the cloaca, a musculo-membranous 

 bag, which takes the place of the rectum, bladder, and 

 uterus, and serves as u reservoir for the solid excrements, 

 the urine, and eggs. Tho urine in these animals dilutes the 

 fa-ces and forms the carbonate of lime, which constitutes the 

 basis of the shell. The urinary bladder exisU in several 

 genera and species of fishes. In the human subject, tho 

 bladder is placed in the pelvis, or basin, immediately behind 

 the symphysis pubis and before the rectum, or terminal por- 

 tion of the intestines, in the male ; but it is separated from it 

 in the female by the uterus and vagina. Its form and rela- 

 tions vary according to the age of the individual. In infancy 

 it is of a pyriform shape, and is contained almost entirely in 

 the abdomen, thus resembling its permanent condition in 

 quadrupeds. At this period it may be considered as 

 sisling of three portions, the narrow tapering part, or m-i-k, 

 the upper rounded portion, or jundui (sometimes 

 lUinniil), and tho intermediate portion, or //</</// : but as the 

 pelvis expands, the bladder gradually subsides into it and 

 undergoes a remarkable change of form. Thus, in the adult 



There are three other HUrkwatcn : om- in tln> county of Meath, \vhicli 

 njKW* K'-li,, uii-1 ulU ittln tin; Boyoe at Naran ; lUHttu.T in tin- ruiinty of 



:.nln,h fall* into tin* &hannun north of Laneftboruugh ; '" i! 

 in tlio county f Wrxfonl, which ir.iclir* the goa at Bannow 11. i\. Thu 



<iamc il takcu from thu onlin.iry appcaranct of deep 

 o SuUitati. in tiii. algnnokin uf that near Armagh, lias tin* 



[e 'Vel quod uln- : \t lnci<li et purii turli'lior fluit, vel 



paMage ' Vrl (|IUM| ulus lu-inii fluviU luculii ct purii turhi'tiur fluit 

 quod >|>ri Augli Bigru et ailvono Marie ad ilium u>l>e lijoa cuolukraut.' 





