BOO 
gives the leg this appearance. The Chinefe have a kind 
of boots made of (ilk. or fluff lined with cotton, an inch 
thick, which they generally wear at home. This people 
are always booted ; and when a vifit is made them, if they 
happen to be without their boots, their gueh mud wait 
till they put them on. The boot was much ufed in the 
ancient armies, by the foot as well as by the horfemen. 
It was called by the ancient Romans ocrca in middle-age 
writers, grevia, gamberia, bainberga, bembargo, or benbarga. 
The boot is faid to have been the invention of the Carians. 
It was at firfl made of leather, afterwards of brafs or iron, 
and was proof both againft cuts and thrufis. It was from 
this that Homer calls the Greeks brazen-booted. . The 
boot only covered half the leg; home fay the right leg, 
which was more advanced than the left, it being advanced 
forwards in an attack with the fword ; but in reality it ap- 
ears to have been ufed on either leg, and fometimes on 
oth. Thofe who fought with darts or other miffile wea¬ 
pons, advanced the left leg foremoft, fo that this only 
was booted. 
BOOT, a kind of torture for criminals ; to extort a 
confeflion by means of a boot, or bufkin of parchment ; 
which being put on the leg moift, and brought near the 
fire, in fhrinking fqueezes the leg violently, and occafions 
intolerable pain. There is another kind, confiding of four 
thick drong boards bound round with cords: two of thefe 
are put between the criminal’s legs, and the two others 
placed one on the outfide of one leg and the other on the 
other; then fqueezing the legs againd the boards by the 
cords, the criminal’s bones are feverely pinched, or even 
broken. This has long been difufed in England, but it 
dill fubfids in fome countries. 
BOOT of a Coach. The fpace between the coach¬ 
man and the coach. 
To BOOT, v. a. To put on boots.— Boot, boot , matter 
Shallow ; I know the young king is fick for me : let us 
take any man’s horfes. Skakefpeare. 
BOO'TAN, a country in Ada, on the fouth fide of Ben¬ 
gal, and adjoining to the kingdom of Thibet. The na¬ 
tives are uncouth in their appearance, being clothed with 
furs, and armed with bows and arrows. They are a fa- 
vage race, hardy and warlike, who ufed often to attack 
and plunder the Hindoos, until they were defeated and 
driven back by the troops of the Ead-India company. 
BOOT-CATCHER, f. The perfon whole bufinefs at 
an inn is to pull od' the boots of gueds.—The odler and 
the boot catcher ought to partake. Swift. 
BOOT-HOSE, f. Stockings to ferve for boots; fpatter- 
daflres.-—His lacquey with a linen dock on one leg, and a 
boot-hofe on the other, gartered with a .red and blue lid. 
Skakefpeare. 
BOOT-TOPPING, J. in fea-language, the aft of clean¬ 
ing the upper part of a blip’s bottom, or that part which 
lies immediately under the furtace of the water, and daub¬ 
ing it over with tallow, or with a coat or mixture of tal¬ 
low, fulphur, refill, &c. 
BOOT-TREE, J. Two pieces of wood, diaped like a leg, 
to be driven into boots, for dretching and widening them. 
BOO'TED, adj. In boots; in a horfeman’s habit: 
A booted judge fhall (it to try his caufe, 
Not by the datute, but by martial laws. Dry den. 
BOO'TES, a condellation of the northern hemifphere, 
and one of the forty-eight old ones ; having twenty-three 
dars in Ptolemy’s catalogue, twenty-eight in Tycho’s, 
thirty-four in Bayer’s, fifty-two in Hevilius’s, and fifty- 
four in Flamdeed’s ; of which one, in the fkirt of his coat, 
is of the fird magnitude, and called ArBurus. Bootes is 
reprefented as a man in the podure of walking ; his right 
hand grafping a club, and his left extended upwards, and 
holding the cord of the two dogs which feem barking at 
the Great Bear. The Greeks, contrary to their ufual 
cudom, do not give any certain account of the origin of 
this condellation. Thofe who in very early days made 
the dars which were afterwards formed into the great bear 
BOO 207 
reprefent a waggon drawn by oxen, made this Bootes the 
driver of them, from whence he was cailed the waggoner: 
others continued the office when the waggon was dedfey- 
ed, and made a celedial bearward of Bootes, making it 
his office to drive the two bears round about the'pole ; 
and fome, when the greater waggon was turned into the 
greater bear, were dill for prelerving the form of that 
machine in tiiofe dars which conditute Bootes. This con¬ 
dellation is called by various other names ; as Areas, Arc- 
tophyiax, ArElurus-Minor, Babulcus, Bubulus, Canis-Latrans , 
CUmator, Icarus, I.ycaon, Philometus, PlauJlri.CuJlos, P/orans, 
Tkegnis, and Vociferator ; by Helychius it is called Orion ; 
and by the Arabs Arameck, or Archamech. Schiller, indead 
of Bootes, makes the figure of St. Sylveder ; Schickhard, 
that of Nimrod ; and Weigelius, the three Swedidi crowns. 
See Wolf. Lex Math. p. 266. 
BOOTH (Barton), a famous Englifh a£tor, born in 
Lancadiire in 1681, and educated in Wedminder-fchool 
under the celebrated Dr. Bulby, where his fuccefs in the 
Latin plays ufually performed by the fcholars, gave him 
an inclination for the dage. He was intended for.the 
church; but, running away from (chool to Dublin, he 
there commenced adlor. His fird appearance was in the 
part of Oroonoko, in which he experienced the greated 
approbation from the audience. From this time he con¬ 
tinued condantly improving; and, after two fuccefsful 
feafonif. in that kingdom, returned to his native country, 
to make trial of his abilities on the Englifh dage. To this 
end, he fird reconciled hinifelf to his friends ; and then 
obtained a recommendation from lord Fitzharding to Mr. 
Betterton, who with great good nature took him under his 
care, and gave him all the abidance in his power. The 
fird part Mr. Booth appeared in at London was that of 
Maximus, in the tragedy of Valentinian, his reception in 
which exceeded his mod fanguine expectations; and very 
foon, after his performance of Artaban, in Rowe’s Ambi¬ 
tious Stepmother, edabiidied his reputation as fecond at 
lead to his eminent indruftor. Pyrrhus, in the Didreded 
Mother, was another part in which he (hone without a ri¬ 
val. But he was indebted to a happy coincidence of merit 
and chance, for that height of fame which he at length 
attained in the character of Cato, as drawn by Mr. Ad- 
difon, in 1712. This play being confidered as a fatire on 
parties, the wdiigs, whofe principles it was defigned to fa¬ 
vour, thought it their duty drongly to fupport it; while 
the tories, who had too much fen lie to appear to confider 
it as a refieftion on their admi'nidration, were fo vehement 
in their approbation of it, that they made a cohesion of 
fifty guineas in the boxes during the performance, and pre- 
fented them to Mr. Booth, “ as a dight acknowledgment 
for his honed oppofition to a perpetual dictator, and his 
dying fo bravely in the caufe of liberty.” Befides this, 
he had a prefent of an equal (urn from the managers, in 
confideration of the great fuccefs of the play, which they 
attributed to his extraordinary merit in the performance. 
But thefe were not the only advantages which were to ac¬ 
crue to Mr. Booth from his fuccefs in this part; for lord 
Bolingbroke, then one of the fecretaries of date, procured 
a fpecial licence from quee,n Anne, recalling all the for¬ 
mer ones, and nominating Mr. Booth as joint manager 
with Meflrs. Wilks, Cibber, and Dogget. In 1704, Mr. 
Booth rharried a daughter of Sir William Barkham, Bart, 
who died in 1710, without iffue. Being edablifhed in the 
management, lie again turned his thoughts towards matri¬ 
mony; and in 1719' united himfelf to tire celebrated Mifs 
Hefter Santlow, whofe great merit as an aftrefs, added to 
the utmod diferetion and prudential economy, had enabled 
her to fave a confiderable fortune. During the twenty 
years in which Mr. Booth continued a manager, the thea¬ 
tre was in the greated credit; and his illnels and death, 
which happened on tire ioth of May, 1733, contributed 
not a little to its decline. 
Mr. Booth wrote a dramatic entertainment called Dido 
and .Tineas ; but his matter-piece was a Latin infcription 
to the memory of Mr. William Smith, a celebrated aclor, 
tvh« 
