3 z6 BOW 
ftt’Qng, or holds too much ; finely bowled, is wlien the 
ground is well chofen, and the bow! paii'es near the jack, 
even though it goes much beyond it; a bowling through , 
or a. yard over, is done in order to move the jack; an 
over-bowl, that which goes beyond it; a bowl laid at hand, 
is that put down within the gamefter’s reach, to be in the 
way of the next bowler, and hinder his having the advan¬ 
tage of the bed ground; bowling at length, neither bowl¬ 
ing through nor Ihort; a dead length, a juft or exaCt. one ; 
throwing or fiinging, is difeharging a bowl with a ftrength 
purpofely too great for a length, in order to carry oft' ei¬ 
ther the jack or fome near bowl; bowl-room or mifiing- 
wood, is when a bowl has free paftage, without (h iking 
on any other; get off', is when a bowl, being narrow, is 
wanted to be wider; bowl bifi at jack, that neareft the jack; 
drawing a cafi or bowl, is to win it by bowling nearer, with¬ 
out ftirring either the bowl or jack; a bowl is (aid to rub y 
when it meets with fome obftacle in the ground, which 
retards its motion, and weakens its force ; it is gone, when 
far beyond the jack. Jack fignifies a little bowl laid for 
a mark, alfo called a block. Mark , is a proper bowling 
diftance, not under fo many yards ; and being at leaft a 
yard and a half from the edge of the green. Ground, a 
bag or handkerchief laid down to mark where a bowl is to 
go. Lead, the advantage of throwing the jack, and bowl¬ 
ing firft. Cafi, is one beft bowl at an end. End, a hit, or 
when all the bowls are out. The game, or up, is five cafts 
or beft bowls. 
BOWL'ING-BRIDLES, fi. among feanien, are the 
ropes by which the bow-line is fattened to the leech of 
the fail. 
BOWL'ING-GREEN,/ A kind of parterre, laid with 
fine turf, requiring to be frequently rolled and mowed. 
Bowling-greens are of Englifh origin, but have been adopt¬ 
ed by the French and Italians, who have them only for or¬ 
nament; being ftrangers to, or not liking, the exercife of 
Bowling. 
BOW'MAN,/. An archer; he that (hoots with a bow. 
.—The whole city (hall flee, for the noile of the horfemen 
and bowmen. Jeremiah,\v. 29. 
BOWNES, a town in the county of Weftmoreland, on 
the eaft fide of the Winander Mere : eight miles north- 
weft of Kendal, and 265 north of London. 
BOW-NET, or Bow-Wheel, fi. An engine for catch¬ 
ing fifh, chiefly lobfters and craw-fifh, made of two round 
wicker bafkets, pointed at the end, one of which is thruft 
into the other ; at the mouth is a little rim, four or five 
inches broad, fomewhat bent inwards. It is alfo ufed for 
catching fparrows. 
BOW-PIECES, fi. The pieces of ordnance in the bow 
of a (hip ; and the anchors that hang there are called her 
great and little bowers. 
BOW-SHOT, fi. The fpace which an arrow may pafs in 
its flight from the bow.—Though he were not then a bow- 
Jhot off, and made hafte ; yet, by that time he was come, 
the thing was no longer to be feen. Boyle. 
BOWSPRIT. See Boltsprit. 
To BOWS'SEN, v. a. [probably of the fame original 
with boufie, but found in no other paftage.] To drench ; to 
foak.—The water fell into a clofe walled plot ; upon this 
wall was the frantic perfon fet, and from thence tumbled 
headlong into the pond ; where a ftrong fellow tolled him 
up and down, until the patient, by foregoing his ftrength, 
had fomewhat forgot his fury : but, if there appeared (mail 
amendment, he was bowjened again and again, while there 
remained in him any hope of life, for recovery. Carew. 
BOWSTRING,/. The firing by which the bow is kept 
bent.—He hath twice or thrice cut Cupid’s bowfiring, and 
the little hangman dare not (hoot at him. Shakcfipcare. 
BOW'YER (William), a very learned Englifh printer, 
born in London, December 17, 1699. His father was a 
printer of eminence ; and his maternal grandfather, Icabod 
Dawks, was employed in printing the Polyglott Bible by 
Walton, from 1652 to 1657. He was placed for gram¬ 
matical education under Mr, Ambrofe Bonwicke, who 
BOW 
had been defied mafter of Merchant Taylors fchool. Junf : 
1716, he was admitted of St. John’s college, Cambridge ; 
where he continued till June 1722. Here he formed an 
intimacy with Mr. Markland and Mr. Clarke of Chichefi- 
ter, and maintained a correfpondence with them as long as 
he lived. Soon after leaving college, he entered into the 
printing bulinefs with his father; and one of the firft books 
which came out under his correction, was the edition of 
Selden’s works by Wilkins, in 3 vols. folio. This was be¬ 
gun in 1722, and finifhed in 1726 ; and his great attention 
to it appeared in his drawing up an epitome of the piece 
De Synedriis, as he read the proof fheets. In 1727, the- 
learned world were indebted to him for an admirable (ketch 
of William Baxter’s gloftary of the Roman antiquities.' 
The (ketch was called A View of a Book intituled Reli- 
quite Baxterianae, in a letter to a friend: and it recom¬ 
mended him highly to Dr. William VVotton and the anti¬ 
quaries. This, and the little piece juft mentioned, with 
many other fugitive traCls, were publiftied in a volume of 
his Mifcellaneous Trails, 1784, 4to. In October 1728,- 
he married; but loft his wife in 1731 : he had two fons by 
her, one of whom died an infant, the other furvived him. 
In 1729, through the friendfliip of the fpeaker Onflow, he 
was appointed printer of the votes of the houfe of com¬ 
mons ; an office which he held through three fucceflive 
fpeakers, for nearly fifty years. In 1736, he was admitted 
into the fociety of antiquaries; whole meetings he regu¬ 
larly attended, and to which he was a great benefactor in 
the double capacity of a printer and a. member: in the lat¬ 
her by communicating to them matters of utility and curi- 
ofity. In 1742, he printed the additional book of Pope’s 
Dunciad; and received, on this occafion, teftimonies of 
regard both from the poet and his commentator Warbur- 
ton. He had a long apparent friendfliip with the latter ; 
but this, like many other long friendlhips, ended at length 
with jealous furmifes, fplenetic bickerings, and with that 
cold efteem, which people, who are grown mutually dif- 
agreeable, content themfelves with exprefling towards each 
other. In 1750 he publifhed Kufter’s treatife De vero Ufa 
Verborum Mediorum, with a prefatory differtation and 
notes; a new edition of which, with additions, appeared 
in 1773, in umo. In 1751, Montefquieu’s Reflections 
on the Rife and Fall of the Roman Empire, with a long 
preface and notes ; a new edition of which appeared in 
1759. Likewife, in 1751, the firft tranflation of Rouf- 
feau’s paradoxical oration upon the inequality of mankind, 
which gained the prize at the academy of Dijon, and 
which firft announced that wild and lingular genius to the 
public. In 1761 he was appointed printer to the Royal 
Society. In 1763, came out what may be called his ca¬ 
pital work : Novum Teftamentum Graecum, ad fidem grae¬ 
corum folum codicum MS. nunc priinum impreffum, ad- 
ftipulante Joanne Jadobo Wetftenio, juxta feCtiones Jo. 
Alberti Bengelii divifum, et nova interpretatio nefaepius il- 
luftratum. Accettere in altero volumine emendationes con- 
jeCturales virorum doctorum undecunque colleCtae, 2 vol. 
i2ino. This fold with great rapidity, which fome imput¬ 
ed to the notes being in Englilh. They have been deem¬ 
ed, however, a very valuable addition to the New Tefta- 
ment ; and were republifhed in a feparate volume 8vo. in 
1772 ; and we can with pleafure add, that a new and cor¬ 
rect edition of this Greek Teftament, with the Conjectures 
(confiderably improved from the margin of Mr. Markland’s 
Teftament, and by new communications from bifhop Bar¬ 
rington, profeflor Michaelis, Mr. Stephen Wefton, Dr. 
GolTet, and other literari}, has been publiftied by Mr. 
Nichols, in 1782 and 1783, under the infpeCtion of the 
learned Dr. Owen, whofe own notes form na inconftder- 
able part of the publication. 
In 1766 he engaged in a partnerfliip with Mr. Nichols, 
who had been trained by him to the profeflion, and had 
affifted him many years in the management of his bufinefs. 
'I bis enabled Mr. Bowyer, who was growing an invalid, 
to withdraw in fome degree from too clofe an application ; 
and did no inconfiderable fervice to the public, by bring- 
3 ing 
