B I L 
curus- and Zeno had lived in his time, he would have 
brought them to drink together. He (luck to his medi¬ 
ocrity in order to preferve his happinefs. The poets his 
cotemporaries were his friends, and not envious of his 
fame. Mainard fays, that the mnfes ought never to be 
feated but on tabourets made by the hand of this poetical 
joiner. St. Amand proved that he underdood the art of 
poetry as well as that of making boxes. The duke de 
St. Aignan tells him, in fome very agreeable lines, that, 
by his verfes and his name, he is the fird of men. 
BILLE', a town of France, in the department of the 
Ille and Vilaine, and chief place of a canton, in the dif- 
tri«Eb of Fougeres : one league and a quarter fouth of Fou- 
geres, and three and a quarter north of Vitre. 
BILLE'KA, a town of Poland, in the palatinate of 
Lemberg : ten miles ead of Lemberg. 
BIL'LERBEECK', a town in Germany, in the circle 
of Weftphalia, and bifhopric of Munder: five miles north- 
north-ead of Coesfeld. 
B ILLE'R IC’AY, a market town in ElTex, fix miles ead 
of Brentwood, nine from Chelmsford, and twenty-four 
from London. It has two fairs in a year, on July 22 and 
Oftobcr 7. Market-day on Tiiefdays. Billericay is feated 
on a fine eminence, on the road from Chelmsford to Til¬ 
bury-fort, commanding a mofi beautiful profpeft over a 
rich valley to the Thames, with a full view of the iliip- 
ping, and the profpetf is bounded by the hills of Kent. 
A late writer fpeaks of this view in the following raptur¬ 
ous drain of panegyric :—“ Nothing can exceed this amaz¬ 
ing profpetf, unlefs it be that which Hannibal exhibited 
to his difconfolate troops, when he bade them behold the 
glory of the Italian plains !” 
BIL'LESDON, or Bilsdon, a fmall town in the coun¬ 
ty of Leiceder : eight miles and a half eud of Leicelter, 
and ninety-fix north-north-wed of London. 
BIL'LET,/ [billet, Fr. ] a fmall paper; a note.—When 
he found this little billet, in which was only written ‘ Re¬ 
member Caefar,’ he was exceedingly confounded. Clarendon. 
'.—A ticket directing foldiers at what houfe to lodge. 
BILLET, /. in heraldry, a bearing in form of a long 
fquare. They are fuppoled to reprefent pieces of cloth 
of gold or filver; but Guillem thinks they reprefent a let¬ 
ter fealed up, and other authors take them for bricks. 
Billele dignifies that the efcutcheon is all over drewed with 
billets, the number not afeertained. 
To BIL'LET, v. a. To diredl a foldier, by ticket or 
note, where he is to lodge.—Retire thee, go where thou 
art billeted. Shahefpeare. —To quarter foldiers.—The coun¬ 
ties throughout the kingdom were fo incenfed, and their 
affections poifoned, that they refilled to fuffer the foldiers 
to be billeted upon them. Clarendon. 
BILLET-DOUX, or a foft billet ; a love letter : 
’Twas then, Belinda! if report fay true, 
Thy eyes fird open’d on a billet-doux. Pope. 
BILLETS of GOLD,/. [ billet , Fr.] are wedges or in¬ 
gots of gold, mentioned in the datute 27 Edw. III. c. 27. 
BILLET WOOD, / Is fmall wood for fuel, which 
mud be three feet and four inches long, and feven inches 
and a half in compafs, &c. Judices of peace fliall inquire 
by the oaths of fix men of the aifize of billet ; and, being 
under fize, it is to be forfeited to the poor. Stat. 43 Eliz. 
c. 14. 9 Anne, c. 15. 10 Anne, c. 6. 
BIL'LI (Jacques de), born at Guile in Picardy, of 
which place his father was governor, died at Paris, the 25th 
of December 1581, at the age of forty-feven. He prefided 
over the abbey of St. Michel en lTIerm, which John his 
brother had ceded to him in order to become a cartlnifian 
monk. There are feveral pieces of his both in verfe and 
profe ; and efpecially tranllations of the Greek fathers into 
Latin. The mod edeemed of them are, thofe of St. Gregory 
of Nazianzen, of St. Ifidore of Pelufium, and of St. John 
Damafcenus. Few of the learned have been better mailers 
of the Greek tongue. He compofed feveral pieces of French 
poetry, 1576, in 8vo. and gave learned Obfervations 
B I L 39 
facia;, 1585, in folio. His life was written by Chatard, 
Paris, 1582, in 4to. It is alfo found at the end of the 
works of St. Gregory Nazianzenus, of the edition of 1583. 
BILLI (Jacques de), a Jeluit, born at Compiegne in 
1602, died at Dijon in 1679, aged feventy-feven ; pub- 
lilhed a great number of mathematical works, of which the 
Opus AJlronomicon, Paris, 1661, in 4to. is the mod known. 
BIL'LI ARDS, f. without a fngular. [billard , Fr. of 
which that language has no etymology; and therefore they 
probably derived from England both the play and the 
name, which is corrupted from halyards, yards or dicks 
with which a ball is driven along a table : 
Balyards much unfit. 
And diuttlecocks miireeming manly wit. Spcn/er.'] 
A game at which a ball is forced againd another on a table. 
—When the ball obeys the Broke of a billiard dick, it is 
not any aCtion of the ball, but bare palTion. Locke. —The 
table on which this game is played is generally about 
twelve feet long and fix feet wide, or rather in the 
exact form of an oblong; it is covered with fine green 
cloth, and furrounded with cufhions to prevent the balls 
rolling off, and to make them rebound. There are fix 
holes, nets, or pockets: thefe are fixed at the four cor¬ 
ners, and in the middle, oppolite to each other, to receive 
the balls, which when put into thefe holes or pockets are 
called hazards. The game is played with dicks, called 
maces, or with cues-, the fird confid of a long draight dick, 
with a head at the end, and are the mod powerful infiru- 
ments ol the two: the cue is a thick dick diminifhing gra¬ 
dually to a point of about half aw inch diameter ; this in- 
drument is played over the left hand, and fupported by 
the fore-finger and thumb. It is the only infirument in 
vogue abroad, and is played with amazing addrefs by the 
Italians and fome of the Dutch; but in England the mace 
is the prevailing infirument, which the foreigners hold in 
contempt, as it requires not fo much addrefs to play the 
game with, as when the cue is made ufe of; but the mace 
is preferred for its peculiar advantage, which fome pro- 
felled players have artfully introduced, under the name of 
trailing, that is, following the ball with the mace to fuch 
a convenient didance from the other ball as to make it an 
ea(y hazard. The degrees of trailing are various, and 
undergo different denominations amongd the connoiffeurs 
at this game; namely, the diove, the fweep, the long 
Broke, the trail, and the dead trail or turn-up, all which 
fecure an advantage to a good player according to their 
various gradations : even the butt end of the cue becomes 
very powerful, when it is made ufe of by a good frailer. 
The game mod commonly played is the white winning 
game; but befides this, there are feveral other kinds of 
games, viz. the lofing-game, the winning and lofing, 
choice of balls, bricole, carambole, Ruffian carambole, 
the bar-hole, the one-hole, the four-game, and hazards. 
The lofing game, is the common game nearly reverfed; 
that is to fay, except hitting the balls, which is abfolutely 
neceffary, the player gains by lofing. The winning and 
lofing game, is a combination of both games ; that is to 
fay, all balls that are put in by driking fird the adver- 
fary’s ball, reckon towards game; and holing both balls 
reckons four. Choice of balls, is choofing each time which 
ball the player pleafes, which is doubtlefs a great advan¬ 
tage, and is generally played againd lofing and winning. 
Bricole, is being obliged to hit a culhion, and make the 
ball rebound or return to hit the adverfarv’s ball, other- 
wife the player lofes a point. This is a great difadvan- 
tage, and is reckoned between even players to be equal to 
receiving about eight or nine points. Carambole, or the 
red game, is played with three balls, one being red, which 
is neutral, and is placed upon a fpot on a line with the 
Bringing nail (i. e. that part of the table from whence the 
player fitrikes his ball at fird fetting off, and which is ge¬ 
nerally marked with two brafs nails). Each antagonid, at 
the fird Broke of a hazard, plays from a mark which is up¬ 
on a line with it at the other end of the table. The chief 
objs-ci. 
