B L A 
fwer to Dr. Price, Svo. He died at Edinburgh, aged Se¬ 
venty, in July 1791. 
BLACK-MAIL, f. [ mail/e , Fr. a link of mail, or 
fmall piece of metal or money.] Signifies in the North ot 
England, in the counties of Cumberland, Northumber¬ 
land, &c. a certain rent of money, corn, or other thing, 
anciently paid to perfons inhabiting upon or near the hol ¬ 
ders, being men of name and power, allied with certain 
robbers within the'faid counties, to be freed and protected 
from the devaluations of thole robbers. But by hat. 43 
Eliz. cap. 13. to take any Inch money or contribution, 
called hlack-mail , to fecure goods from rapine, is made a 
capital felony, as well as the offences fitch contribution 
was meant to guard again!!. It is alfo tiled for rents re- 
ferved in work, grain, or bafer money ; which were called 
reditus nigri, in contradistinction to the blanch farms , re¬ 
ditu s albi. 
BLACK-MONKS, f. a denomination given to the Be¬ 
nedictines, called in Latin nigri monachi, or nigro monachi ; 
i'ometimes ordo nigrorum, “ the order of blacks.” 
BLACK'MORE (Sir Richard), a phyfician and an in¬ 
defatigable writer, has left a great number of works, theo¬ 
logical, poetical, and phyfical. He received his education 
at Weftminlter and Oxford. When he had finiflied his 
academical (Indies, lie travelled to Italy, and took his de¬ 
grees in pliyfic at Padua. He vifited France, Germany, 
andthe'Low Countries; and, after a year and a half’s 
abfence, returned to England, where lie praflifed pliyfic, 
and was chofen fellow of the college of phyficians. He 
had early declared himfelf a favourer of the revolution, fo 
that king William, in 1697, cliofe him one of his phy¬ 
ficians, and lbme time after conferred upon him the ho¬ 
nour of knighthood. Upon queen Anne’s accelfion to the 
throne, he was alfo appointed one of her phyficians, and 
continued fo for fome time. Dryden and Pope have treated 
the poetical performances of Sir Richard with great con¬ 
tempt. Pope thus charaCterifes him in his Dunciad: 
But far o’er all, fonorous Blackmore’s drain ; 
Walls, fteeples, Ikies, bray back to him again. 
In Tot’nam fields, the brethren, with amaze, 
Prick all their ears up, and forget to graze ; 
’Long Chanc’ry-lane retentive rolls the found, 
And courts to courts return it round and round ; 
Thames wafts it thence to Rufus’ roaring hall, 
And Hungerford re-echoes bawl for bawl. 
All hail him vidlor in both gifts of fong, 
Who fings fo loudly, and who lings fo long.” 
“ A juft character,” fays the annotator upon Pope, “of 
Sir Richard Blackmore, knight, whofe indefatigable mule 
produced no lefs than fix epic poems : Prince and King Ar¬ 
thur, twenty books ; Eliza, ten; Alfred, twelve ; the Re¬ 
deemer, fix ; befides Job, in folio ; the whole book of 
Pfalms ; the Creation, feven books ; Nature of Man, three 
books; and many more.” But, notvvithdanding Sir Richard 
has been fo much fo much depreciated by thefe wits, yet 
much merit he certainly had. His poem on the Creation is 
his mod celebrated performance ; and, on the recommen¬ 
dation of Dr. Jolmfon, has lately been inferted in the col- 
ledlion of the Englifh Poets. It mud be mentioned too, 
in honour of Sir Richard, that he was a chafte writer, and 
a warm advocate for virtue, at a time when an almod ttni- 
verfal degeneracy prevailed. He had been very free in 
his cenfitres on the libertine writers of his age ; and it 
was fome liberty he had taken of this kind, which drew 
upon him the refentment of Dryden. He had likevvife 
given offence to Pope ; for, having been informed by Curll 
that he was the author of a travedie on the fird pfalm, 
he took occafion to reprehend him for it in his Effay on 
Polite Learning. Befides what are mentioned above, Sir 
Richard wrote fome theological trafts; feveral treatifes 
on the plague, fmall-pox, conl'umptions, the fpleen, gout, 
dropfy, &c. and many fmall poetical pieces. He died 
October 1729. 
BLACK'NESS, f. the quality of a black body, as to 
B L A 79 
colour; nrifing from its dating or abforbing the rays of 
light, and reflecting little or none. In which fenle it 
(lands oppofed to whitends ; which confids in fuch a tex¬ 
ture of parts, as indifferently reflects all the rays thrown 
upon it, of whatever colour they may be'. Defcartes, it 
feems, fird rightly didinguilhed thefe catifes of black and 
white, though he might be mi (taken with refpeCt to the 
general nature of light and colours. Sir llaac New'ton 
(hews, in his Optics, that to produce black colours, the 
corpufclcs mud be Injaller than for exhibiting the other 
colours ; becaufe, where the fizes of the component par¬ 
ticles of a body are greater, the light reflected is too 
much for conftituting this colour: but, when they are a 
little fmaller than is requifite to refleft the white and very 
faint blue of the firfl order, they will refieCt lo little light, 
as to appear intenfely black ; and yet they may perhaps 
refleCt it varioufly to and fro within them fo long, till it 
be Itifled and lofl. And hence, it appears, why tire, or 
piitrefaCtion, by dividing the particles of fubdances, turns 
them black : why fmall quantities of black fubitances im¬ 
part their colours very freely, and intenfely, to other fub¬ 
dances, to which they are applied ; the minute particles 
of thefe, on account of their very great number, eaffly 
overfpreading the grofs particles of others. Hence it 
alfo appears, why glafs ground very elaborately on a cop¬ 
per-plate, with fand, till it be well polidied, makes the 
land, with what is rubbed off from the copper and glafs, 
become very black : alfo why blacks commonly incline a 
little towards a blueidi colour ; as may be feen by illumi¬ 
nating white paper with light reflected from black fub¬ 
dances, when the paper ufually appears of a blueilh white; 
the reafon of which is, that black borders on the obfeure 
blue of the fird order of colours, and therefore reflects 
more rays of that colour than of any other ; and ladly, 
why black fubitances do fooner than others become hot 
in the fun’s light, and burn ; an effeCt which may pro¬ 
ceed partly from the multitude of refractions in a little 
fpace, and partly from the eafy commotion among fuch. 
minute particles. 
BLACK NIB, a cape of Ireland, on the ead coad of 
the county of Down, in the Irifli Sea. Lat 54. 21. N. 
Ion. 5. 24. W. Greenwich. 
BLACK-PROCESSION, f. in eccefiadical writers, 
that which is made in black habits, and with black en- 
figns and ornaments. Anciently at Malta there was a- 
black proceflion every Friday, where the whole clergy 
walked with their faces covered with a black veil. 
BLACK-PUDDING, f. [from black and pudding.] A 
kind of food made of blood and grain : 
Through they were lin’d with many a piece 
Of ammunition bread and clieefe, 
And fat black-puddings, proper food 
For vvarriours that delight in blood. IJudibras. 
BLACK-RENTS, f. The fame with Black-Mail. 
BLACK RIVER, a river of America, which runs into 
the river Connecticut, fifteen miles fouth of Windlor, in 
the date of Vermont. 
BLACK RIVER, a river of-the United States of A-- 
mcrica, which runs into the great Pedee river, near George 
Town, South Carolina. 
BLACK RIVER, a river of Ireland, whiclEruns into 
Lough Corrib, eight miles fouth of Ballinrobe. 
BLACK-ROCK, a fmall illand, near the fouth-eafe 
coad of Ireland, in St. George’s Channel r four miles fouth-- 
wed from Cranfore Point, in the county of Wexford. 
BLACK-ROCK, a rock near the wed coad of Ireland,, 
in Sligo bay. 
BLACK-ROCKS, rocks in the Atlantic, near the well 
coad of Ireland : fix miles north-wed from Saddle Head, 
on the north coad of the ifland of Achil. 
BLACK-ROD, f. [from black and. rod.~\ The gentle¬ 
man tidier of the black rod is chief gentleman uffier to the 
king; he belongs to the garter, and hath his name from 
the black rod, on the top whereof fits a lion in gold,, which. 
he 
