7i 6 BAR 
management of his land, is a mod iiTefu! and worthy cha¬ 
racter in his country: he has been long a peripatetic ob. 
lerver of the different modes of agriculture in all parts of 
Great Britain, his journies being on foot, followed by a 
fei vant, with his baggage, on horfeback. lie has more 
than once walked to London; and, by way of experiment, 
lias gone eighty miles in a day. He has reduced his re¬ 
marks'to practice, much to his honour and emolument: 
the barren heaths, which once furrounded him, are now 
converted into rich fields of wheat, beans, or oats. He 
was like wife a great planter. The land thus improved 
was originally heath; and even that which was arable 
produced mod milerable crops of poor and degenerate 
oats, and was, upon the whole, not worth two (hillings 
an acre: but, in its prefent improved date is worth twen¬ 
ty ; and the tenants live on it twice as well as before the 
improvement. The rird turnips for feeding cattle were 
t ailed by this gentleman; and the markets are now plen¬ 
tifully (applied with fredi beef. Before that period, fredi 
meat was hardly known in thefe parts during the winter 
and fpring months, &;c.” Mr. .Barclay may be confidered 
as one of the greated benefactors of his country, having 
by his exertions, and his example, awakened in Scotland 
alpirit of improvement in agriculture, which giving a new, 
an honourable, and ufeful, direction, to the purfuits and 
character of his cotempOraries, .has been productive of 
thole rapid improvements, which -have enriched the inha-, 
bitants, and changed the lace of that country. Such was 
the extent of his information, the energy of his character, 
and the fuperiority of his powers, and fo ufeful the direc¬ 
tion in which they were employed, that lie was looked up 
to with refpeCt by men of the fird rank.and abilities ; and 
his death was regretted as a public misfortune. He died 
on the 8th of April, 1797, at his feat at Ury, in Scotland. 
BARCOCH'BAH, [Syr. of bar , a (bn., and cochbah , a 
liar.] The name of a Jevvilh impodor in the fecond cen¬ 
tury, who applied to him fel'f that prophecy of Balaam, 
Numb. xxiv. 17. ThereJhalL come a Jiar out of Jacob ; and 
drew (as.was foretold by the true Mefliah) great numbers 
after him. The emperor Adrian, the better to reprefs the 
(editions fpirit of the Jews, (which dill fublided, notwith- 
llanding the deftruCtion of their city and temple by Titus, 
A.D. 70.) rebuilt Jerufalem, A. D. 132, which he called 
JEYvd Capitolina, and placed there a colony, and built alfo a 
temple to Jupiter Capitolinus, on the very place where 
the temple of God had dood. Upon which the Jews, un¬ 
der the conduct of Barcochbah, rofe up in arms againft 
the Romans; and in that war had fifty cities demolilhed ; 
985 of their bed towns dedroyed ; and 580,000 men Haiti 
by the fword, and, in the end of the war, A. D. 136, were 
baniflied Judea on pain of death ; and thenceforward the 
land remained delolate of its old inhabitants. Newton and 
Prtavius . A branch of hidory, the more wot thy of our 
notice, as it contains a molt exaCt fulfilment of our Sa¬ 
viour^ prediction. Matt. xxiv. 15-28. 
BAR'CONE, f. a Ihort broad velfel, of a middle fize, 
ufed in the Mediterranean fea for the carriage of corn, 
wood, fait, and other provifions, from one place to another. 
BARD ,J.fbardd, C. Brit, fo called of Bardus, the Ion 
of Duns, who reigned over the Gauls. ] A word denoting 
one who was a poet by profeffion ; and “ who fung of the 
battles of heroes, or the heaving breads of love.” OJfian's 
Poems, i. 37. The curiofity of man is great with relpeCt 
to the tranfaCtions of his own fpecies : and when fitch 
tranfaCtions are deferibed in verfe, accompanied with nuilic, 
the performance is captivating. An ear, a voice, (kill in 
jnftrumental njtilic, and, above all, a poetical genius, are 
requilite to excel in that complicated art. As (itch talents 
are rare, thofe who polfelfed them were highly edeemed; 
and hence the profeffion of a bard, which, befides natural 
talents, required more culture and exercife than any other 
known art. Bards were capital perfons at every fedival 
and at every folemnity. Their longs, which, by record¬ 
ing the atchievements of kings and heroes, animated every 
Jiearer, mud have been t|ie entertainment of every warlike 
BAR 
nation. Detnodocus is mentioned by Horner as a celebra¬ 
ted bard ; and Phemius, another bard, is introduced by 
him deprecating tIre wrath of Ulyffes as follows: 
O king! to mercy be thy foul inclin’d. 
And (pare the poet’s ever-gentle kind : 
A deed like this thy future fame would.wrong, 
For dear to gods and men is (acred long. 
Self-taught 1 ling; by heav’n, and heav’n alone, 
1 he genuine feeds of poetry are (own; 
And (what the gods bedow) the lofty lay., 
To gods alone, and godlike worth, we pay. 
Save then the poet, and thyfelf reward; 
’Tis thine to merit, mint is to record. Odyjfey, viii, 
Cicero reports, that at Roman fedivals, anciently, the vir¬ 
tues and exploits of their great men were lung. The fame 
cudom prevailed in Peru and Mexico, as we learn from 
Garcilalfo and other authors. Even the inhabitants of 
the Marian i(land's have bards, who arc greatly admired, 
•becaufe in their fongs are celebrated the feats of their an- 
teflors. But in no part of the world did the profeffion of 
bard appear with greater ludre than in Gaul, in Britain, 
in Wales, and in Ireland. Wherever the Celts? or Gauls 
are mentioned by ancient writers, we feldom fail to hear 
of their druids and their bards; the inditution of which 
two orders, was the capital diflinCtion of their manners 
and policy. The druids were their philofophers and priefts ; 
the bards, their poets and recorders of heroic aCtions : and 
both thefe orders of men feem to have fublided among 
them, as chief members of the date from time immemo¬ 
rial. The Celtnc polfelfed, from very remote ages, a form¬ 
ed fydem of difeipline and manners, which appears to have 
had a deep and lading influence. Ammianus Marcellinhs 
gives them this exprefs tedimony, that there flouriflied 
among them the dudy of the molt laudable arts ; introdu¬ 
ced by the bards, whole office it was to ling in heroic verfe 
the gallant aCtions of illudrious men; and by the druids, 
who lived together in colleges or focieties, after the Py¬ 
thagorean manner, and philofophizing upon the higheft 
fubjeCts, aderted the immortality of the human foul. 
Sp ftrong was the attachment of the Celtic nations to 
their poetry and their bards, that amidd all the changes 
of their government and manners, even long after the or¬ 
der of the druids was extinCt, and the national religion al¬ 
tered, the bards continued to flourilh. We find them, ac¬ 
cording to the tedimonies of Strabo and Diodorus, before 
tine age of Augudus Caefar; and we find them remaining 
under the fame name, and exercifing the fame functions 
as of old, in Wales, in Ireland, and in the north of Scot¬ 
land, almod down to our own times. It is well known, 
that, in thefe countries, every regulus or chief had his own 
bard, who was confidered as an officer of rank in his court. 
Wales had certainly pre-eminence in the dyle and per¬ 
formances of its bards. The Welfh harp, being an indru. 
rnent of great dignity and power, gave wonderful energy 
to their poems and fongs. This union of mufic and poe¬ 
try, clothed in fimplicity, and addrelfed to the pallions, 
feents to have influenced the ancient Welfh with an enthu- 
fiafm for native independence and liberty; which is the 
realon, it is faid, Edward I. made a general maffacre of 
the Welffi bards. Their fonnets and poetics not only ce¬ 
lebrated to the heroic deeds of their princes and warriors, 
but ferved to record the mod Ample occurrences in com¬ 
mon life. The following is an example, of an untransla¬ 
ted Englyniou: 
“ Yn Ffrainc y mae gw in yn ffraeth ; yn Llundain , 
Mae llawnder cynnaliaeth; 
Yn Poland ’menyn helaeth ; 
Y’ Nghymru , Llyrnru a Llaeth.” Hugh Llwyn Cynvad. 
“ The origin of this Englyn is as follows : Hugh Llwyd 
Cynvael was a poet, and lived at Cynvael, in Ardudwy, 
Merionethfiiire, about the year 1620. When a young man, 
he made a done-bench to put at his door ; his fider-in-law, 
or wife’s filler, was the fil'd that fat on it. Molly, faid he, 
JPU 
