BLENHEIM 7f.* 



and it lifted in the fall and potted will grow 

 very successfully with gentle heat. 



BLENHEIM, bltn'im, a village in Bavaria, 

 on the Diinulx-. twenty-three miles northwest 

 of Augsburg, which gave its name to a cele- 

 brated Untie of the War of the Spanish Suc- 

 cewion. fought near the place on August 13, 

 1704. In this battle the allied forces of Eng- 

 land and Germany, under the Duke of Marl- 

 borough and Prince Eugene, gained a decisive 

 vu-tory over the French and Bavarians. The 

 residence of the dukes of Marlborough at 

 Woodstock, Oxfordshire, known as Blenheim 

 Homo wan erected at public expense as a token 

 of gratitude to the English hero of Blenheim. 



In Robert Southey's poem, The Battle of 

 Blenheim, three stanzas of which are here 

 given, an old man is supposed to be telling his 

 two grandchildren the story of the battle : 



"They nay It was a shocking sight, 



After the field was won, 

 For many thousand bodies here 



Lay rotting in the sun ; 

 But tilings like that, you know, must be, 

 After a famous victory. 



"Great praise the Duke of Marlbro' won, 



And our good Prince Eugene." 

 "Why, 'twas a very wicked thing !" 



Said little Wilhelmine. 

 "Nay. nay, my little girl," quoth he, 

 "It was a famous victory. 



"And everybody praised the Duke, 



Who such a fight did win." 

 "But what good came of it, at last?" 



Quoth little Peterkin. 

 "Why. that I cannot tell," said he, 

 "But 'twas a famous victory." 



BLENNERHASSETT, blen' er hass et, HAR- 

 MAN (1764-1831), an English emigrant to the 

 United States who gave aid and encouragement 

 to Aaron Burr (which see) in the latter's plan 

 to establish an empire in the Southwest. He 



BLINDNESS 



was born in Hampshire, England, and was edu- 

 cated in London and Dublin. In 1797 he emi- 

 grated to America, settling on an island in the 

 Ohio River below the present city of Parkers- 

 burg, W. Va. It was there that Aaron Burr 

 visited him and persuaded him to become a 

 fellow-conspirator. When the plan failed Blen- 

 nerhassett was arrested on the charge of trea- 

 son. Though not convicted of this crime he 

 lost the greater part of an ample fortune. He 

 died on the island of Guernsey, in the English 

 Channel. 



The experiences of Blennerhassett form the 

 basis of a novel by Charles Felton Pidgin, en- 

 titled Blennerhassett, or Decrees of Fate. 



BLEWETT, blew' et, JEAN McKisHNEY 

 (1862- ), a Canadian poet, sometimes called 

 the sweetest of Canada's poets. She was born 

 at Scotia, Ont., and was educated at the Saint 

 Thomas Collegiate Institute. At seventeen she 

 wrote Out of the Depths, a book of some merit 

 but inferior to her later works. Her success 

 in literature began with the publication of 

 Cabinet Articles, a series of pen pictures which 

 appeared in various magazines and newspapers. 

 These sketches were unique and attracted wide 

 attention. Among Mrs. Blewett's poems, which 

 are her chief claim to distinction, are Margaret, 

 Spring and She Just Keeps House for Me. 



BLIGHT, blite, a term commonly given to 

 the effects of disease upon plants, or. the effect 

 of any other conditions which cause them to 

 wither or decay. Rust and smut are frequently 

 known as blight among farmers. Sometimes 

 the term is applied to the effects produced by 

 insects, but its use by botanists is restricted 

 to effects produced by fungi and germ diseases 

 within the plant. Remedies and preventive 

 measures are given in the article INSECTICIDES 

 AND FUNGICIDES. See, also, FUNGI; RUST; 

 SMUT, and references there suggested. 



ALPHABET FOR THE BLIND 

 d e g h i j 



m 



B 



P q 



:: 



V 







w 



y 



LINDNESS, partial or total loss of 

 the sense of sight, may be due to a wide variety 

 of causes. In some cases it is brought about 

 by imperfect development of the visual appa- 

 ratus or defects of certain parts of the delicate 



mechanism of the eye. Such cases are said 

 to be' examples of congenital blindness. Ac- 

 quired blindness is caused principally by acci- 

 dents, operations, various eye diseases, certain 

 diseases of the body, poor lighting, protracted 



