BER 



48G 



BER 



lities, the l'i icn dsliip of Bernoulli was courted by the 

 wisest and the most virtuous of his fellow citizens ; his 

 adi iceeven upon public affairs was implicitly followed ; 

 persons of all rinks in Basle bowed to him as they 

 passed, and the lust lesson which a father taught his 

 child, was to pay the usual respect to the aged phi- 

 losopher. The regard which he showed for religion, 

 both in his writings and his conduct, might have 

 saved his name from the unjust suspicion of infidelity ; 

 but it is the lot of genius and virtue to suffer this un- 

 merited odium, and though Bernoulli knew that the 

 orthodox ministers of Basle accused him of thinking 

 too freely, he never attempted either to confirm or to 

 repel their charges. 



Although Bernoulli was not insensible to the high 

 fame which he enjoyed, he often related to his friends 

 two adventures, which he remembered with more 



fdeasure than all the honours with which he had been 

 oaded. When travelling with a learned stranger, 

 who was much pleased with his conversation, his com- 

 panion took the liberty of asking him his name. " I 

 am Daniel Bernoulli," feplied the philosopher. " And 

 I am Isaac Newton," returned the stranger ; who 

 felt indignant that a man so young and so simple in 

 his manners, should counterfeit the name of one of 

 the greatest philosophers in Europe. On another oc- 

 casion, when the celebrated Koenig was dining at his 

 house, Koenig spoke to him with much self-satisfac- 

 tion about a problem, which, after great labour, he 

 had succeeded in resolving. Bernoulli continued to 

 do the honours of the table, and before they rose from 

 it, he presented Koenig with a solution more elegant 

 than his own. 



A more detailed account of the life and writings 

 of Daniel Bernoulli, will be found in his eloge by the 

 Marquis de Condorcet, and in the history or the dif- 

 ferent sciences which his genius has illustrated. (/3) 

 BERRY, the name of a province of France before 

 the revolution, which is now comprehended in the 

 two departments of Cher and Indre ; the former con- 

 taining what was called Higher Berry, and the lat- 

 ter what was called Lower Berry. See Cher and 

 Txdre. (j) 



BERTIERA, a genus of plants of the class Pen- 

 tandria, and order Monogynia. See Botany. (tu) 

 BERWICK-L'i'ON-TvvEED, so called to distin- 

 guish it from North Berwick in East Lothian, is 

 an English town of some importance, situated on the 

 north side of the river Tweed, and within one mile 

 of the sea ; in N. Lat. 55 16' 40", W. Long. 2 3' 

 from Greenwich. 



In Domesday-book, Bertvica \i used to denote a 

 grange or farm village belonging to some town or 

 manor ; and is equivalent to Bere-tun or Bar4on, 

 still having that signification in Devonshire, and other 

 parts of England. Chalmers, the learned investiga- 

 tor of Scots antiquities, hesitates between the former 

 etymology and the Anglo-Saxon Bur, nudus, bare ; 

 and JVic, vicus, castellum, sinus; a village, castle, or 

 curving reach of a river. See Chalmers' Caledonia, 

 ii. 198, 199. 



The river Tweed is navigable to this place, and al- 

 though there is good depth of water close to an ex- 

 cellent quay, even at the lowest ebb, yet, from a bar 

 at the mouth of the river, and a shallow called the 



ford at some distance below the quay, the port can 

 only be entered by vessels of small draught. From 

 the convenience of its harbour, Berwick enjoys a con- 

 siderable coasting trade, and used to import timber, 

 iron, and flax from Norway and the Baltic. But its 

 principal dependence is upon the export, coastways, of 

 large quantities of excellent salmon to London, sent 

 fresh in boxes stratified with ice, and the distribution 

 of the surplus farm produce of Berwickshire, Tiviot- 

 dale, North Durham, and the northern part of North- 

 umberland, to other parts of the kingdom; having 

 sometimes snipped in one year 60,000 quarters of 

 grain, near 2000 packs of wool, eggs to the value of 

 <C20,000, and great quantities of salmon, the fisheries 

 of which let for more than iS10,000 yearly. 



Berwick formerly belonged to Scotland, and wit 

 one of its Jour principal boroughs, the representa- 

 tives of which, with the chamberlain of Scotland, 

 formed a court for determining commercial questions. 

 But it has been long annexed to England, along with 

 a triangular territory reaching about four miles up the 

 river Tweed, and nearly as much along the sea, con- 

 taining from four to five thousand acres of useful 

 farm land. 



This place is governed by a mayor and four bailiffs, 

 who constitute the sheriff. The mayor, recorder, 

 and justices, or all who have been mayors, hold ge- 

 neral and quarter sessions, and a court of gaol-de- 

 livery at one or other of the quarter-sessions, when 

 necessary. The guild or corporation consists of the 

 mayor and all the burgesses, nearly a thousand, in 

 whom are all elections, and the entire management of 

 a very valuable landed property within the bounds, 

 the far greater part of which they divide among them- 

 selves, instead of applying to great and useful public 

 purposes. In 1796, the population was estimated at 

 7930, and had probably doubled in the preceding 50 

 years ; it is now somewhat above 8000, including a 

 very small number of agricultural inhabitants in the 

 liberties. 



Berwick was regularly fortified on the old Spanish 

 or Italian system, in the reign of Mary, Queen of 

 England, and.has five demi-revetted bastions, with 

 double retired flanks, casemates, and cavaliers ; but 

 the ditch is very shallow, and has either never been 

 revetted, or the counter-fort is now ruined and obli- 

 terated. The ruins of the ancient Scots fortifications, 

 and of a very extensive castle, are still obvious. But 

 in the present art of war, no fortifications around this 

 place could ever be important, as it is every where 

 closely surrounded by commanding eminences, and 

 hollow ways reach almost up to the walls, forming 

 natural approaches. 



About the year 1770, in excavating a foundation 

 in one of the streets of Berwick, called Hide-hill, 

 considerable quantities of clay were dug out, which 

 was intimately mixed with quicksilver in small glo- 

 bules, insomuch, that from one piece about the size 

 of an egg, nearly a tea spoonful of pure quicksilver 

 was collected. But before this discovery was made, 

 most of the clay had been thrown away ; and the mi- 

 neral spot being situated in the middle of the town, 

 it was not advisable to prosecute the search, (k) 



BERWICKSHIRE. This county is situated at 

 the south-east extremity of Scotland, on the shore wf 



Berwick, 



Berwick- 

 shire. 



