B L A 



499 



B L A 



with each other by signal. Blaise Hill, which was a strong 

 military post formed and occupied by the Britons, rises on 

 the south-west above the village of Henbury, which is five 

 miles north-north-west of Bristol. The entire hill is occu- 

 pied by the camp, the area of which covers the summit, and 

 on the declivities are the ditches and ramparts. The hill, 

 which is conical, is apparently sixty feet high above the 

 level of the field on the north-west, but much more above 

 the valley on the south-east, where it is so precipitous as to 

 be impregnable. The extent of the area from the rampart 

 on the south-west to that on the north-east is about three 

 hundred and twenty-four yards; the breadth is about a 

 hundred and ten yards, and it contains probably from four 

 to five acres. The sides of the hill are shaped into three 

 ramparts (a a a), and two ditches (b b), as delineated in the 

 plan and section (Fig. 1 and 2.) The ditches and ramparts 

 are not complete all round towards the precipice : on each 

 side they gradually decline into the general slope of the 

 hill ; but whether they have been levelled or were never 

 finished does not appear. There are two entrances (c c), one 

 on the north-east, and the other on the south-west, each 

 winding through the ramparts and up the steep ; this whole 

 path is in the neighbourhood called the fosse-way ; it is 

 wide enough to admit one carriage, and in some parts still 

 retains a covering of pitched stones. From the summit of 

 the hill may be seen Kingsweston Hill (rf), distant more 

 than a furlong, Clifton Down, Knoll, Oldbury.Old Sodbury, 

 Westridge, and Drakestone, which are the sites of seven of 

 the fortresses ; the others are Elberton, the Abby (which is 

 a piece of ground conjectured to have formerly belonged to 

 an abbey), Bloody Acre (situated in Lord Ducie's park at 

 Tortworth), Bury Hill (about a mile from Winterbourne), 

 Burril Camp, near Dyrham (where there is a deep and 

 perfect ditch and a steep bank, which cross a point of the 

 hill which is too steep to need any defence), Horton, 

 Uley Bury (which is one of the most remarkable of the 

 whole, and contains thirty-two acres within trenches), Broad- 

 ridge Green, Painswick Beacon (said to be nearly the 

 highest point of the Cotswold Hills), Church Down, High 

 Brotheridge, a hillock at Witcombe, Crickley Hill, Leck- 

 hampton Hill, Clee Hill, and Breedon Hill. (Seyer's Me- 

 moirs of Bristol ; Atkyn's Gloucestershire ; Bigland's 

 Gloucestershire ; Fosbroke's Gloucestershire, Beauties of 

 England and Wales; Arch&ologia, $c.) 



BLAISOIS, LE, the district of which Blois was the chief 

 place. [See BLOIS.] 



BLAKE, ROBERT, was one of the most intrepid and 

 successful admirals that have adorned the British navy. 

 He was born in August, 1598, at Bridgewater in Somerset- 

 shire, a sea-port town, where his father exercised the busi- 

 ness of a merchant. He was educated at the free-school of 

 that place until he was of age to be removed to Oxford, where 

 ho became successively a member of Alban Hall and 

 Wadham College. Blake was of a studious turn, yet fond of 

 field-sports and violent exercises ; and his first biographer 

 reports a piece of scandal against him, not noticed, we be- 

 lieve, by Clarendon or other contemporaries, that he was 

 given now and then to stealing swans, a species of game, 

 so to call it, then much esteemed, and protected by severe 

 laws. (Lives, English and Foreign, 1704.) We may infer 

 that he had a fair share of scholastic learning, from his 

 having stood, though unsuccessfully, both for a studentship 

 at Christchurch and a fellowship at Merton College ; not 

 to mention Clarendon's testimony that ' he was enough 

 versed in books for a man who intended not to be in any 

 profession, having sufficient of his own to maintain him in 

 the plenty he affected, and having then no appearance of 

 ambition to be a greater man than he was.' He returned 

 to Bridgewater when he was about twenty-five years old, 

 and lived quietly on his paternal estate till 1640, with the 

 character of a blunt bold man, of ready humour, and fearless 

 in the expression of his opinions, which, both on matters of 

 politics and religion, were opposed to the views of the court. 

 These qualities gained for him the confidence of the Pres- 

 byterian party in Bridgewater, which returned him for that 

 borough to the short parliament of April, 1640. The speedy 

 dissolution of that assembly (May 5) gave him little oppor- 

 tunity of trying his powers as a debater ; at least we do not 

 find it recorded that he ever spoke. In the long parliament 

 of November, 1640, he did not sit. 



On the breaking out of the civil war he entered the par- 

 liamentary army, but as to the time or the capacity in which 

 he began to serve we have no certain information. In 



1643 he held the command of a fort at Bristol, when that 

 city was besieged by the royalists. Having maintained 

 his post, and killed some of the king's soldiers after the 

 governor had agreed to surrender, Prince Rupert was with 

 difficulty induced to spare his life, which, it was alleged, 

 was forfeited by this violation of the laws of war. He served 

 afterwards in Somersetshire with good repute; and in 1644 

 was appointed governor of Taunton, a place of great im- 

 portance, as being the only parliamentary fortress in the 

 west of England. In that capacity he gave eminent proof 

 of skill, courage, and constancy, in maintaining the town 

 during two successive sieges in 1645. It is recorded that 

 he disapproved of the extremities to which matters were 

 pushed against Charles I., and that he was frequently heard 

 to say that he would as freely venture his life to save the 

 king's, as he had ever done to serve the parliament. 



In February, 1649, Colonel Blake, in conjunction with 

 two officers of the same rank, Deane and Popham, was ap- 

 pointed to command the fleet ; for the military and naval 

 services were not then kept separate and distinct as in later 

 times. For this new office Blake soon showed signal capa- 

 city. On the renewal of war after the king's death, he was 

 ordered to the Irish seas in pursuit of Prince Rupert, whom 

 he blockaded in the harbour of Kinsale for several months. 

 At length, being pressed by want of provisions, and threat- 

 ened from the land, the prince made a desperate effort to 

 break through the parliamentary squadron, and succeeded, 

 but with the loss of three ships. He fled to the river Tagus, 

 pursued by Blake ; who, being denied' permission by the 

 king of Portugal to attack his enemy, captured and sent 

 home several richly laden Portuguese vessels on their way 

 from Brazil. He finally attacked and destroyed the royalist 

 fleet, with the exception of two ships commanded by the 

 Princes Rupert and Maurice, in the harbour of Malaga, 

 in January, 1651. Both of these actions appear, at first 

 sight, to be breaches of international law. For the latter 

 a valid plea may be found, since it is alleged that Ru- 

 pert had destroyed British shipping in the same harbour. 

 For the former the best excuse is the unsettled state of re- 

 lations between the parliament and the court of Portugal ; 

 but Blake's creed seems to have been that, in maintaining 

 the supremacy of the British flag everywhere and at all 

 hazards, he could hardly do wrong a doctrine which has 

 always been too palatable to the national vanity of the 

 English. These services were recompensed by the thanks 

 of parliament, together with the office of warden of the 

 Cinque ports ; and in March of the same year, Blake, 

 Deane, and Popham were constituted admirals and generals 

 of the fleet for the year ensuing. In that capacity Blake 

 took the Scilly Islands, Guernsey, and Jersey from the 

 royalists, for which he was again thanked by parliament ; 

 and in the same year he was elected a member of the coun- 

 cil of state. 



In March, 1652, Blake was appointed solo admiral for 

 nine months, in expectation of the Dutch war, which did in 

 fact break out in the following May in consequence of Van 

 Tromp, the Dutch admiral, standing over to the English 

 coast, and insulting the English flag. Blake, who was then, 

 lying in Rye Bay, immediately sailed to the eastward, and 

 fell in with the" Dutch fleet in the straits of Dover. A 

 sharp action ensued, May 19, which was maintained till 

 night, to the advantage of the English, who took one Dutch 

 man of war, and sunk another. The Dutch retreated under 

 cover of the darkness, leaving the honour of victory to the 

 English. The States did not approve, or at least disavowed 

 the conduct of their admiral, for they left no means untried 

 to satisfy the English government ; and when they found 

 the demands of the latter so high as to preclude accommo- 

 dation, they dismissed Van Tromp, and placed De Ruyter 

 and Cornelius De Witt in command of their fleet. Mean- 

 while Blake took ample revenge for their aggression. Ho 

 made a number of rich prizes among the Dutch homeward- 

 bound merchantmen, which were pursuing their course 

 without suspicion of danger ; and when he had effectually 

 cleared the Channel he sailed to the northward, dispersed 

 the fleet engaged in the herring fishery, and captured a 

 hundred of the herring busses, together with a squadron of 

 twelve ships of war sent out to protect them. On the 12th 

 of August he returned to the Downs, and September 28th 

 the hostile fleets again came to an engagement, in which 

 the Dutch rear-admiral was taken, and three other of their 

 ships were destroyed. Night put an end to the action, and 

 though for two days the English maintained the pursuit, the 



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