272 



BANBRIDGE BANNISTER. 



situation. In a word, all the schemes of this trus- 

 tee have a humane and useful tendency." 



BANBRIDGE; a thriving little town in the 

 county of Down, Ireland, situated on the river 

 Bann, ten miles N. N. E. from Newry, and sixty 

 miles N. from Dublin. It is only of late years that 

 it has risen to commercial importance as the head 

 of the principal district of the linen manufacture. 

 The town is neat and well-arranged, and in conse- 

 quence of regular employment in the various mills 

 and bleaching greens around, the inhabitants are 

 comfortable. The town-house, a handsome build- 

 ing, was built in 1831 by the Marquis of Downshire, 

 the principal proprietor of the place. Population 

 in 1841, 3324. 



BANGALORE; a fortified town in Hindostan, 

 founded by Hyder, and rendered by him a place of 

 considerable commerce, chiefly in the export of 

 betel, pepper, and sandal-wood. The gardens 

 here of Hyder and Tippoo have been laid out with 

 great care. They are divided into square plots, 

 each of which, according to the Mussulman fashion, 

 has some plant or flower allotted to it, with which 

 it is exclusively filled. Owing to the height of the 

 ground, European fruits and flowers may be reared. 

 Bangalore was stormed by the British troops under 

 Cornwallis, and abandoned to plunder. It is dis- 

 tant from Seringapatam seventy-four miles, and 

 from Madras 215. 



BANGKOK; the capital of the kingdom of Siam, 

 is situated on the river Menam, twenty miles from 

 the sea, in lat, 13 40' N., long. 101 10' E. The 

 Menam flows into the Gulf of Siam, and there is a 

 bar at its mouth where the highest water does not 

 exceed fourteen feet : in other respects the river is 

 navigable for vessels of heavy burthen. The city 

 extends along the banks of the Menam about two 

 and a half miles, and the river itself is peopled by 

 numbers of floating houses or stores. The sur- 

 rounding country is intersected with tributary 

 streams and canals, so that almost all intercourse 

 with Bangkok is by water. The commerce here 

 is chiefly with China and the countries of the Malay 

 archipelago. It consists in an interchange of all 

 sorts of commodities. The population of Bangkok 

 is estimated at 50 or 60,000 inhabitants, half of 

 whom are Chinese settlers. 



BANGOR, a town of Ireland, in the county of 

 Down, situated on the southside of Carrickfergus 

 bay, eleven and a half miles N. E. by E. from Bel- 

 fast, and ninety-one and a half N. by E. from Dub- 

 lin. The place seems to have been granted by 

 James the First to Sir James Hamilton, who esta- 

 blished a colony from Ayrshire here. The cotton 

 manufacture is carried on to a considerable extent 

 both in the town and neighbourhood ; a little also 

 is done in the linen trade and in the export of pro- 

 visions. Population in 1841; of town, 3116; of 

 parish of Bangor, including town, 10,060. Close to 

 the town is Bangor Castle, the seat of Viscount 

 Bangor, the proprietor of the town. 



BANKES, HENRY, Esq., of Kingston Hall, 

 Dorsetshire; a trustee of the British Museum; 

 was educated at Westminster, and Trinity College, 

 Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. 1778; M.A. 

 1781. He entered parliament in 1780 as one of 

 the representatives of the borough of Corfe Castle ; 

 and was for many years an active member, generally 

 supporting Mr Pitt. He continued to sit in the 

 house- by virtue of his family borough, until, in 

 1826, he was elected for the county of Dorset. 

 At the general election of the same year, he was 



re-chosen ; but at that of 1830, ufter a severe strug- 

 gle, he was defeated. ISIr Ksinkes was an accom- 

 plished scholar, intimately acquainted with ancient 

 and modern literature, and of u refined and acknow- 

 ledged taste in the arts ; accomplishments that en- 

 abled him peculiarly to grace his duties as one of the 

 most active and zealous trustees of the British 

 Museum, of which ho was generally regarded as the 

 organ and advocate in the House of Commons. 

 His public life was marked by lirmness in principle, 

 a peculiar disinterestedness, and undeviating adher- 

 ence to conscientiously formed opinions. He was 

 the author of " The Civil and Constitutional His- 

 tory of Rome, from the Foundation to the Age of 

 Augustus," published in 1818, in two volumes 8vo. 



Mr Bankes married, in 1784, Frances, daughter 

 of William Woodley, Esq., Governor of the Lee- 

 ward Islands, by whom he had four sons and two 

 daughters. He died Dec. 17, 1834. 



BANNATYNE, SIR WILLIAM MACLEOD, one 

 of the senators of the college of justice in Scor- 

 larid, was descended from an ancient and honour- 

 able family, and born Jan. 26, 1743, O. S. Having 

 enjoyed and profited by the advantage of a liberal 

 education, he gave early indications of future emi- 

 nence. He was admitted advocate Jan. 22, 1765, 

 and at the bar he deservedly acquired the character 

 of a sound and able lawyer. He was the intimate 

 friend and companion of Blair, Mackenzie, Cullen, 

 Erskine, Abercromby, and Craig; and one of the 

 contributors to the Mirror and Lounger. His ac- 

 complishments as a gentleman, and his attainments 

 in general knowledge and belles lettres, were such 

 as to excite an opinion that, had he devoted his 

 talents exclusively to literary pursuits, he would 

 have arrived at no ordinary degree of eminence. 

 He was the last survivor of that phalanx of genius 

 which shed so brilliant a lustre on the periodical 

 literature of Scotland half a Qentury ago. He was 

 also one of the original founders and promoters of 

 the Highland Society of Scotland, a national insti- 

 tution which has eminently and essentially contri- 

 buted to the internal improvement of the country. 



He was promoted to the bench on the death of 

 Lord Swinton, and took his seat as Lord Banna- 

 tyne, May 16, 1799; and his judicial career for 

 twenty-four years reflects high honour on his 

 memory. He resigned in the year 1823, and was 

 succeeded by the late Lord Eldin. His death took 

 place at Whiteford-House in the county of Ayr, 

 Nov. 30, 1833. 



BANNISTER, JOHN, an eminent comedian, 

 was the son of Charles Bannister, who was cele- 

 brated as a vocalist, actor, and wit, and was born 

 in the year 1758. Early in life, he studied paint- 

 ing, with the wish to follow it as a profession, but 

 he soon abandoned it for the stage, where he dis- 

 tinguished himself for many years in a variety of 

 characters chiefly belonging to the comedy and 

 tragedy of ordinary life. His acting combined 

 much eccentricity, with exceedingjollity and with 

 the greatest humour be could blend the deepest 

 pathos. " He was," says a critic, " the last actor 

 who we remember enjoying a kind of personal 

 feeling with his auditors without resorting to buf- 

 foonery. It has been said of some comic actor, 

 that immediately on his entree he shook hands with 

 every spectator from the first seat in the pit to the 

 last of the gallery. But Bannister created a dif- 

 ferent feeling ; that sort of feeling that is created 

 when a gentleman of approved worth comes into 

 a circle of society. When he had to deliver a good 



