B L A 



In Camden's time it was moftly burnt by accident, but was 

 foon rebuilt in an improved manner. The years ;676, 1713, 

 and I 73 I are recorded as peculiarly calamitous to this town, 

 and in the latter year, nearly the whole of it was deftroyed. 

 The church, tcnvn-hall, alms houfe, free-fchool, and ail the 

 houfes, but forty, were confumed. Many lives were loll, 

 and the diftn fling calamity was greatly augmented by the 

 fmall-pox, which raged in above lixty families. The com- 

 puted damage was valued at loo,ocol. but the diftrefs, ter- 

 ror, and miier)' that prevailed at the time, and rcfulted from 

 the direful cataftrophe, far exceed all calculation, and defy 

 the powers of verbal dclcription. The town has iince 

 been rebuilt, and its appearance much improved by fome 

 refpeiilaole houfes, a new church, town-hall, &c. The 

 latter is a neat building compofed with Portland (lone, and 

 conftrufted on columns of the Doric order. Within the 

 building is a pump which was erefted by John Ballard, who 

 having been a confid-.rable fafferer by the lafl fire, had this 

 pump conftruAed to fupply the town with water, and 

 thereby to prevent another fimihr difailtr. The new church, 

 built in the Grecian ftyle of architecture, cor.fills of a body, 

 t«o ailes, a chancel, and a tower. Its interior is very 

 neatly ornamented, and contains feveral handlome marble 

 monuments. 



The charitable donations to Blandforii are numerous and 

 valuable, and are appropriated to endow an alms-houfe, to 

 apprentice and clothe poor boys, to ereft and fupport a 

 charity-fchool, two free-fchools, and for other benevolent 

 purpofes. Blandford is 134 miles W. S. W. from London, 

 and contains 408 houfes, with 2326 inhabitants : at the eaft 

 end of the town are the remains of a handlome old building, 

 called " Damory court," which has been pofleffcd by many 

 noble and diftinguillied perfonages. 



Blandford is the birth-place of many celebrated charafters: 

 among whom the following are the moft dillinguifhed : 

 George Ryves, who was vvarden of New College, Oxford, in 

 1599, and Vice-chancellor, in 1601 ; Bruno Ryves, author 

 of the Mercurius Rullicus, a fingular book, recording many 

 of the events of the civil wars. He alfo affiiled in publifhing 

 the Polyglot Bible, was dean of Chicheller and Windfor, and 

 died at the latter place in 1677, aged 81 years; IVil/iam 

 Wdle, archbiihop of Canterbury, &c. was born ht-.-e in the 

 year 1657, and died at Lambeth in 1736; TIjoiiuu Creech, 

 the tranflator of Lucretius, and other ancient clafllc au- 

 thors, was born here in 1659 ; Chriflopher Pitt, another tranf- 

 lator, dates his birth at Blandtord, where he was buried in 

 1748. 



About one mile fouth of Blandford-forum is Blandford St. 

 Mary, a village noted in the annals of literature as the biiih-place 

 of Browne Willis, the celebrated antiquary and topographer 

 (fee Willis). At the diftanceof one mile weft of this town 

 is Brianftone-houfe, the elegant and commodious manfion of 

 Edward Berkeley Porlman, efq. This houfe was eredted 

 from the defigas of Jamts Wyatt, who has difplayed much 

 judgment and tatle in the difpoiition of the apartments, the 

 arrangement of the ofBces, and in the two principal facades. 

 The river Stour winding in a broad fhect through the 

 grounds, with the plantations, and diftaiit icenes, combine 

 to render this a chaiTning and delightful refidencc. Hut- 

 chins's Hiliory of Dorfetlhire, fecond edition, fol. 1796. 



Blandford, a townfhip of America, in Lur.enburgh 

 county in Mahon bay. Nova Scotia, fettled by a few fami- 

 lies. — Alfo, a townlhip in Hamplhire county, Maflachufets, 

 well of Connefticnt river; about 2J miles, S. W. of Nor- 

 thampton, and 116 W. of Bollon ; containing 235 houfes, 

 and 1416 inhabitants. — Alfo, a town in Prince George 

 county, Virginia, about 4 miles N. E. from Peterfburgh, 

 and within its jurifdittion. It contains 200 houfes, and 



B L A 



1200 inhabitants, and is pleafantly Htuatcd on a plain, on 

 the eaftern branch of Appamattox river. Here are many 

 large (lores, and three tobacco warchrnfes, which receive 

 annually 6 or 7000 hoglhcads. It is a thriving place ; and 

 as the marlhes in its vicinity arc drained, the air of this town, 

 and alfo that of Pcterflr.irgh, ?.re much meliorated. 



BLANDINA, in Entomology, one of the Fabrician fpe- 

 cies of Papilio, in the Nymphales feiSion ; the wings of 

 which are dcntated, black, and marked with white fpots ; 

 at the bafe of the anterior pair a blue ftreak, and another 

 along the margin of the pollerior ones. This rare infeft in- 

 habits India. Vide Donov. Inf. Ind. Obf. There is ano- 

 ther fpccies of the Papilio genus, that bears the fame name, 

 that ought by no means to be confounded with the above 

 mentioned infed. This is alfo dcfcribed by Fabricius in his 

 " Entomologia Syftematica," in the ftftion '■ Satyri ;" the 

 wings of this kind are dentated, the colour brown, with a 

 rufous ocellated band ; pofterior pair beneath fufcous with a 

 cinereous flripe. This is paphio I'tgea of Scopoli, athiops of 

 Elper, and ir.eilea of- the Vienna Catalogue. It inhabits 

 feveral parts of Europe, but has not been hitherto difcovered 

 in Great Britain. The fame fpecific name again occurs in 

 Cramer's Papdiones, a ftrong variety of the Gmelinian/a- 

 pdio melietrla, being fo named by that author. 



BLANDRATA, George, in Biography, a phyfician 

 and divine of the l6th centur)-, was born in the marquifate 

 of SalufTcrs in Italy, and praftifed phyfic in Poland and Tran- 

 fylvania; but upon his return to Italy, he was obliged by the 

 inquifition to fly, on account of his religious opinions, from 

 Pavia to Geneva, where he declared hinifclf a Catholic. Here, 

 however, his fcntiments, which then inclined to Arianifm, ex- 

 cited the fufpicions of Calvin, which obliged him firil to return 

 to Poland, and afterwards, in 1563, to remove to Tranfvl- 

 vania, where Sigifmund, at that time fovereign of the 

 country, appointed him his phyfician. After the death of 

 Sigifmund he fuftained the fame office to Stephen and 

 Chriftophcr Battori, and to the former when he obtained the 

 crown of Poland. By his credit and influence the doftrine 

 of Socinus, which Blandrata ftems to have now adopted, 

 made its way from Poland to Tranfylvania ; and it was by 

 his means that Faullus Socinus was brought thither from 

 Bafil in 1578, to fecond his arguments and efforts in coun- 

 teracling Francis Davides, who zcaloufly oppofed the cuf- 

 tom of offering up prayers and divine worfhip to Jefus 

 Chrifl. It is faid, that Blandrata, either through natural 

 levity, or under the' influence of an avaricious difpoiition, 

 abandoned the intereils of the Unitarians, and he is accufed 

 by Socinus with inclining towards the Jefults, who had 

 obtained credit and inlluence at the court of king Stephen. 

 His wealth, however, tempted his nephew to ftrangle him 

 in his bed, at lome period, not afcertained, between the 

 years 1585 and 1552; and this unfoitunate termination of 

 his life has been charitably interpreted, both by the ortho- 

 dox and heterodox, as a divine judgment. Of his charafter 

 as a writer the theologiih of Geneva exprefs a contemptuous 

 opinion ; and his condiift fcems to have been chargeable 

 with a degree of unlleadinefs and duplicity, which has been 

 partly attributed to the perfecuting fpirit of the times in 

 which he lived. Gen. Ditl. Molh. Eccl. Hill. vol. iv, 

 p. 513, 525. Toulmin's Life of Socinus, p. 6, &c. 



BLANES, or Blanda, in G.'ography, a fea-port town 

 of Spain, in Catalonia, on the Mediterranean, 34 miles N. E. 

 of Barcelona. N. lat. 41° 42'. E. long. 2° 45'. 



BLANGIS, or Blangv, a town of France, in the de- 

 partment of the Lower Seine, and chief place of a canton, 

 in the diftrift of Neufchatel. The population of the town 

 includes 1749 perfons, and that of the canton 12,879. The 

 territory comprehends 2473 kiliometers, and 31 communes: 

 I i 4 miles 



