268 



BAILLIE-BAKEWELL. 



weeks till the subsiding waters allowed them to 

 return. 



At Bagdad tin- waters were for some time 

 excluded by the walls of the town ; but, on the 

 night of the 26th of April, a part of the wall on 

 the north-west side of the city was undermined 

 and fell. The waters then rushed in, and over- 

 threw in their career about 7000 houses, burying 

 in the ruins nearly 15,000 persons, many of whom 

 were sick or dying of the plague, besides a large 

 number of unburied dead. Those who escaped from 

 the immediate consequences of this fearful irruption, 

 withdrew to such parts of the city as remained en- 

 tire or less ruined, where they were received into 

 the houses of their friends, or congregated, some- 

 times to the number of thirty, in the houses which 

 tin- owners had forsaken, or which the plague had 

 desolated ; and from the daily fall or partial ruin 

 of single houses subsequently, the population was 

 undergoing such a continual process of condensa- 

 tion, until the subsidence of the waters, as com- 

 pletely excluded the city from the benefit which, 

 under ordinary circumstances, would have resulted 

 from the reduced numbers of the population. The 

 inundation is, therefore, to be regarded as the proxi- 

 mate cause of that unexampled amount of destruc- 

 tion which the plague effected. It also resulted 

 from this condensation of the population, and from 

 the deprivation of the usual resources for the dis- 

 posal of the dead, that the sickening horrors of a 

 plague were accumulated tenfold before the eyes 

 of the survivors. Burial-places in the East are 

 generally without the town. These were, at Bag- 

 dad, laid under water, and while the disposition and 

 power lasted to bury the dead at all, every open 

 space the streets, the yards of mosques and 

 stables, were turned up to furnish graves. In a 

 stable-yard, which the terrace of one house over- 

 looked, nearly a hundred graves were opened and 

 filled in the course of one day and a half. It was 

 a fearful thing to see the uncoffined dead brought 

 in barrows, and on the backs of asses, and laid 

 upon the ground till the graves were ready for 

 them. 



At this early period of the plague, the usual 

 custom was generally observed of enfolding the 

 bodies in cotton, like mummies ; but when cotton 

 was becoming scarce and dear, the richest natives, 

 in order to secure for themselves some of the hon- 

 ours of the grave, went in person to purchase their 

 own winding-sheets of the only man who then, at 

 his own house, sold the cotton, and who on this 

 occasion made immense profits which he did not 

 live to enjoy. But with the increase of mortality, 

 both the power and inclination to inter the dead 

 diminished. If the means of removal had existed, 

 they would, without doubt, have forsaken their 

 houses, leaving the accumulated dead unburied in 

 them; but this being precluded, the dead bodies 

 were put out into the streets, where they were 

 greedily devoured by the lean and ravenous dogs 

 which swarm in the cities of the East. He did 

 much, then, who took the dead of his household 

 to the river and threw them in. 



BAILLIE, EVAN, Esq., formerly M. P. for Bris- 

 tol, was a native of Invernesshire. He was one 

 of the most eminent of the merchants of Bristol ; 

 and was chosen member, without a contest, at the 

 general electionof 1802, re-elected in 1806 and 1807, 

 and retired in 1812. After devoting his energies 

 during a long series of years to the affairs of the 

 extensive West India establishment of which he was 



the founder, and to the service of his fellow-citi- 

 zens, upon principle! of integrity and independence, 

 he exchanged the turmoil of civic life for the re- 

 tirement ot his native country, where lie passed the 

 evening of his days. He died at Dochfour near 

 Inverness, June 28, 1835, aged ninety-three. 



His son, the present .lames Kvan Baillie, Esq., 

 has also represented Bristol in three parliaments, 

 having been first chosen in 1830. 



BAIROUT, anciently BERYTUS, a seaport of 

 Syria, situated in long. 35 32' E. lat. 33 45' N. 

 The harbour is now choked up with sand and rub- 

 bish, but there still remains a pier to which boats 

 can approach sufficiently for discharging goods. 

 Large vessels anchor at a distance in the roadMcad. 

 The town itself is an irregular square, open to the 

 sea, and towards the land surrounded by a wall, 

 with a few round towers of little strength. It 

 contains three mosques and four Christian churches. 

 The dwelling-houses are spacious, and the bazars 

 amply furnished with merchandise. The commerce 

 of Bairout exceeds that of any other port in Syria. 

 It is the maritime emporium of Damascus and ot 

 the surrounding country. British manufactures 

 are imported to a considerable extent, and in 

 return, cotton, corn, raw silk, wine and oil received. 

 The ancient Berytus contained a public school of 

 jurisprudence which long enjoyed a high degree of 

 reputation. But the town suffered severely from 

 successive shocks of earthquake, until, in 554, it 

 was totally destroyed. After a long interval, the 

 modern town was founded near the ancient site, 

 and was possessed by the emirs as their capital and 

 only sea-port until they were expelled by Djezzar, 

 pasha of Acre. The population of the place is 

 now estimated at about 7000. 



BAKEWELL ; a parish and market-town in the 

 county of Derby. The parish includes the chapel- 

 ries of Ashford, Baslow, Beeley, Buxton, Chel- 

 merton, Great Longstone with Holme, Mony-Ash, 

 Sheldon, and Taddington with Priestcliffe, the 

 townships of Bakewell, Black well, Brushiield, 

 Bubnell, Flagg, Froggatt, Hart hill, Overhaddon, 

 Rowland, Great Rowsley, and part of Aport, and 

 part of Wardlow, and the hamlets of Calver, Cu-- 

 bar, Hassop, and Little Longstone. It is upwards of 

 twenty miles in length, and eight in breadth. The 

 living is a discharged vicarage, a peculiar of Lich- 

 field, valued in the king's books at 40, and in 

 the patronage of the dean and chapter of Lichfield. 

 The church, dedicated to All Saints, is an ancient 

 and spacious cruciform structure, partly in the 

 Norman and partly in the early English style of 

 architecture, having at the western entrance a 

 highly ornamented Norman arch, and an octagonal 

 tower, with a lofty spire, springing from the inter- 

 section. Within is a stone font of great antiquity 

 and several altar tombs of alabaster supporting 

 recumbent figures. In the churchyard stands an 

 ancient cross, decorated with rude sculpture, but 

 much mutilated. There are mines of coal, lead, 

 and zinc, arid quarries of stone and marble, which 

 give employment to many of the inhabitants. The 

 town is situated on the river Wye near its conflu- 

 ence with the Dervvent. It stands in a beautiful 

 and picturesque vale between Matlock and Bux- 

 ton, the air of which is remarkably salubrious, and 

 has an ample supply of water from numerous 

 springs. The name is derived from the Saxon 

 Baderanwylla, or Badde cum Well, of which it is 

 a contraction and corruption. The original name 

 was derived from the circumstance of there being 



