BAS 
bafis of vegetable alkali, marine fait with bafis of iron, 
and other fimilar expreftions, are ufed to advantage by 
chemical writers who with to defcribe combinations, and 
at the fame time to avoid the ufual names which in many 
indances refer to theories either exploded or doubtful. 
7 b BASK, v.a. [backeren , Dut. Skinner.] To warm by 
laying out in the heat-: ufed almoft always of animals: 
’Tis all thy bufinefs, bufinefs how to flntn, 
To bajk thy naked body in the fun. Dry den. 
To Basic, v. n. To lie in the warmth: 
Some in the fields of pureft ether play, 
And bajk and whiten in the blaze of day. Pope. 
BAS'KERVILLE (John), eminent in letter-founding 
and printing. He was born in 1706 at Woverly in Wor- 
• cefterfhire, and was heir to an eftate of 60I. a-yearj the 
whole of which he allowed to his parents till their death. 
In his early years he conceived a love for fine writing, and 
.commenced writing-mafier, in Birmingham, when about 
twenty years of age. The improvements in different ma¬ 
nufactures foon drew his attention, and he applied to the 
japan bufinefs, which he carried on with fuccefs. In 
1750 he began letter-founding, the bringing of which to 
perfection coft him much labour and expence. In a few 
years he proceeded to printing; and his firft work was an 
edition of Virgil, royal quarto, which now fells at a high 
price. In a fiiort time he obtained leave from the univer- 
fity of Cambridge to print a Bible in royal folio, and edi¬ 
tions of the Common Prayer in three fizes; for which he 
paid a large fum to that univerfity. He afterwards print¬ 
ed Horace, Terence, Catullus, Lucretius,,Juvenal,iSalluft, 
and Florus, in royal quarto; Virgil in oftavo ; and like- 
wife fome of the Englilh dailies. The merit of thefe per¬ 
formances is obvious fjrom the efiimation in which they 
are held ; and Mr. Baikerville’s name is defervedly rank¬ 
ed among thofe who, in modern times, have brought the 
art of printing to its greateft perfection. He died in July, 
in the year 1775. 
BAS'KET,/. [bafged, Welfli;. bafeauda, Lat.] A vef- 
fel made of twigs, ruihes, or fplinters, or fome other ilen- 
der bodies interwoven : 
Thus, while 1 fung, my for rows I deceiv’d, 
And bending ofiers \n\o bajkets weav’d. Dryden. 
As a meafure, it denotes an uncertain quantity; as, a 
baiket of medlars is two bulhels, of afafeetida from twen¬ 
ty to fifty pounds weight, See. The ancient Britons were 
noted for their ingenuity in weaving balkets, .which they 
exported in large quantities. Thele balkets were of very 
elegant workmanfliip, and bore a high price ; and are 
mentioned by Juvenal among the extravagant expenlive 
furniture'of the Roman tables in his time : 
Adde et bafeaudas et millc efcaria. 
Add balkets, and a thou fund other dilhes. 
That thefe balkets were manufactured in Britain, we learn 
from the following epigram of Martial : 
Barbara de piblis veni bafeauda Britannis, 
Sed me jam mavu.lt dicere Roma fuam. 
A baiket I, by painted Britons wrought, 
An,d now to Rome’s imperial city brought. 
Baskets of Earth, in the military art, called by the 
French corbeilles, are fmall balkets ufed in fieges, on the 
parapet of a trench, being filled with earth. They are 
about a foot and a half high, about a foot and a Half in 
diameter at the top, and eight or ten inches at bottom ; 
fo that, being fet together, there is a fort of embrafures 
left at their bottoms, through which the foldiers fire, with¬ 
out expofing themfelves to the enemy. 
Basket-Fish, a name given by the fifhei’men of North 
America, to the caput Medufas. See Asterias, p.3.01 
of this volume. 
Basket-Hilt, J. [from b’afket and hilt .] A hilt of a 
weapon fo made as to contain the whole hand, and defend 
it from being wounded ; 
BAS 770 
I-Iis puiffant fword unto his fide, 
Near his undaunted heart, was ty’d : 
With bajket-hilt that would hold broth, 
And ferve for fight and dinner both. Hudibras. 
Basket-Salt, that made from falt-fprings, being 
purer, whiter, and compofed of finer grains, than the com¬ 
mon brine-falt. See Salt. 
Basket-Woman, [from bafket and woman.] A woman 
that plies at markets with a baiket, ready to carry home 
any thing that is bought. 
BASKING SHARK. See Sqjjalus. 
BASNA'GE (James), the learned pallor of the Wal¬ 
loon church at the Hague, was born at Rouen in Normandy 
Augu 11 8, 1653. He went to Geneva, where lie began his 
divinity ftudies'under Meftrezat, Turretin, and Tronchin ; 
and finifhed them at Sedan, under the profelfors Jurieu 
and le Blanc de Beaulieu. He then returned to Rouen, 
where was received as minifter, September 1676 ; and re¬ 
mained till the year 16S5. The exercife of the Protellanf 
religion being fupprelled at Rouen, he obtained leave of 
the king to retire to Holland, where Heinlius got him 
chofen one of the pallors of the Walloon church at the 
Hague, intending not only to employ him in religious but 
in Hate affairs. He w as employed in a fecret negociation 
at the congrefs of Utrecht; and he executed it with fo 
much fuccefs, that he was afterwards entrulted with feve- 
rul important comrni(lions. The abbe du Bos, who was 
at the Hague in 1716, to negociate a defendve alliance be¬ 
tween France, England, and the States General, was on-' 
dered by the duke of Orleans, regent of France, to apply 
himfelf to M. Bafrwge, and.to- follow his advice : they 
accordingly acted in concert, and the alliance was con¬ 
cluded in 1717. He wrote, 1. The Hiftory of the Reli- 
gion of the Reformed Churches. 2. Jewilh Antiquities, 
3. Hiftory of the- Old and- New Teftament; and many 
others. He died in 1723. 
Basnage (Henry), Sieur de Beauval, fecond fon to 
Henry Bafnage, and brother to James mentioned in the 
preceding article. He applied himfelf to the (ludy of the 
law, and was admitted advocate in the parliament of Rouen 
in 1679. He praclifed with great reputation til! the year 
1687, when the revocation of the edi£t of Nantz obliged 
him to fly to Holland, where he compofed the greateft part 
of his works, and died there in March 1710. His chief 
work is Hijloire des Ouvrages des Scavans. Rotterd. 24V0IS, 
in duodecimo. 
BA'SON. See Basin. 
B ASO'V A, a town of Siberia, on the river Lena ; twen¬ 
ty miles Couth of Orfenga, 
B AS'QUES ‘(Les), a country of France, before the re¬ 
volution, lituated between the fea, Spain, the river Adour, 
and Bearn. 
BASQUE'VILLE, a town of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of the Lower. Seine, and chief place of a canton, in 
the diftrift of Dieppe : three leagues fouth-fouth-weft of 
Dieppe,, and feven and a half north-north-weft of Rouen. 
BAS'RAH. See Bassora. 
BASROU'CHE, a town of Perfia, in the province of 
Taberiftan : twenty-(even miles weft of Furabat. 
BASS,/. [Suppofed by Junius to be derived, like baj'-< 
ket, from fome Britifh word fignifyiiig a rufii: but per¬ 
haps more properly written bos, from the French boje.j 
A mat ufed in churches. 
Bass,/ [Of uncertain etymology; whether from the 
Greek word /-Wi?, ‘ a foundation ;’ or from the Italian 
adjetfive baffo, Signifying ‘low.’] The lowed in the four 
parts of mulic. Of all the parts it is the moll important, 
and it is upon this that the chords proper to conftiture a 
particular harmony are determined. Hence the'maxim 
among nuificians, that, when the bafs is properly formed, 
the harmony can fcarcely be bad. 
Thorough-P, ass- is the harmony made by the bafs-viols, 
or theorbos, continuing to play both while the voices fing 
and the other inllruments perform their parts, and alio 
filling up the intervals when any of the other Darts Hop. 
U 
