$34 B E A 
department of Vendee, and chief place of a canton, in the 
difiridt of Sables d’OIonne : two leagues and a half weft 
of Roche-fur-Yonne, and four and a quarter north-north- 
eaft of Sables d’OIonne. 
Beaulieu, a town of France, in the department of the 
Indre and Loire, fituated on the Indre, oppofite Loches. 
It contains about 1500 inhabitants. 
BEAULON', a town of France, in the department of 
the Ill and Viiaine, and chief place of a canton, in the 
diflridt of Redon, four leagues fouth-weft of Rennes. 
BEAUMARCHE'Z, a town of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of the Gers, feven leagues weft of Auch, and 4L 
weft of Mirande. Lat.43.35.ISI. Ion. 17.45. E. Ferro. 
BEAUMA'RIS, or BeaumaRsh, the county-town of 
Anglefea, in North Wales, a mod beautiful and healthy 
lituation, very near the. fea, with a fafe and extenfive har¬ 
bour, and good anchorage. There is a fine green lawn 
before the town, whence there is a charming profpect of 
the Caernarvonfhire mountains, with a haven of the fea, 
which renders this place delightful. Before Liverpool be¬ 
came fo great a mart, this place carried on confiderable 
trade, which it has now nearly loft. It is 242 miles north- 
weft of London, five from the great road from London to 
Holyhead, twenty-feven from Holyhead, (ix from Bangor, 
twelve from Conway,- twelve from Caernarvon, and fif¬ 
teen from Amlwch, the place where the great copper- 
works are carried on. Beaumaris is a town-corporate, and 
fends one member to parliament; it is governed by a 
mayor, recorder, two bailiff's, twenty-four capital burgef- 
fes; the number of common burgeffes is indefinite; two 
ferjeants-at-mace, town-clerk, four conftables, &c. and a 
water-bailiff. This is the only place in Wales where the 
right of election is confined to the corporation only, which 
conlifts of twenty-four members, the common burgeffes 
having no vote. Here is a weekly market on Saturdays, 
and four fairs in a year, viz. on February 13, Afcenfion- 
day, September 19, and December 19. 
This tovyn was built by Edward I. in order to fecure his 
conquefts here, for which purpofe he erected aftrongcaf- 
tle. The town, in its prefent ftate, is both handfome and 
populous. The lands all around are level, and very plea- 
fant, from whence it received its name ; the term Beau- 
mar fk denoting a fine plain. Here is a good free gram¬ 
mar fchool, well endowed, where a matter, ufher, and wri¬ 
ting-matter, have each confiderable fafaries; the number 
of boys is indefinite. And near the town are fome alms- 
houfes, where eight old men are handfomely fupported ; 
both founded by Mr. David Hughes, in the year 1613. 
Thefe are governed by twelve gentlemen feoffees, an agent, 
and clerk. The principal feoffee is always the bifiiop of 
Bangor for the time being. It is a port of fome confe¬ 
rence, having five creeks under its management, viz. 
Conway, Caernarvon, Pwllhely, Barmouth, and Holyhead ; 
and the number of veffels which trade to and from the 
great copper-works at Amlwch, and a very confiderable 
flute-quarry, belonging to lord Penrhyn, brought down 
from a mountain near Bangor, make the coafting bulinefs 
very confiderable. 
Near this town is Baron-hill, the feat of lord Bulkeley, 
fituated on an elevation that gives great dignity to its ap¬ 
pearance ; the prolpedts and views from this place are fup- 
pofed to be the fineft in the kingdom Here is an extenfive 
lawn, running down to the fea-fhore, from whence you 
have a view of the caftle, part of the town, the fea, the 
fands, and a fine range of hills ; the greater part of which 
is the property of his lordfhip. 
BEAUMENIL', a town of France, in the department 
of the Eure, and chief place of a canton, in the diftridt of 
Bernay, two leagues fouth-fouth-eaft of Bernay. 
BEAUMETZ-LES-LO'GES, a town of France, in the 
department of the Straits of Calais, and chief place of a 
canton, in the diftrict of Arras, two leagues S.W. of Arras. 
BEAU'MONT (Sir John), the elder brother of Mr. 
Francis Beaumont the famous dramatic poet, was born in 
the year 1582, and in i(>zd had the dignity of a baronet 
B E A 
conferred upon him by Charles I. In his youth he ap« 
plied himfelf to the Mufeswith good fuccefs ; and wrote. 
The Crown of Thorns, a poem, in eight books; a mif- 
cellany, intitled, Bofworth Field ; Tranflations from the 
Latin Poets ; and feveral poems on religious and'political 
fubjedls; as, On the Feftivals; On the Bleffed Trinity ; A 
Dialogue between the World, a Pilgrim, and Virtue, &c. 
He died in 162S. 
Beaumont and Fletcher, two celebrated Englifh 
dramatic writers, who flourilhed in the reign of James I. 
and fo clofely connected both as authors and as friends, 
that it has been tifual with biographers to give them un¬ 
der one article. 
Mr. Francis Beaumont was defeended from an ancient fa¬ 
mily at Grace-dieu in Leicefterfhire, where he was born 
about the year 1586, in the rqign of queen Elizabeth. His 
grandfather, John Beaumont, was mafter of the rolls, arid 
his .father, Francis Beaumont, one of the judges of the 
Common Pleas. He was educated at Cambridge, and af¬ 
terwards admitted of the Inner Temple.' It is not, how¬ 
ever, apparent that he made any great proficiency in the 
law, that being a ftudy probably too dry for his fertile and 
fprightly genius. And indeed we ftiould fcarcely be fur- 
prifed to find'that lie had given no application to any ftudy 
but poetry, nor attended on any court but that of the Mu. 
fes: but, on the contrary, our admiration might fix itfelf 
in the oppofite extreme, and fill us with aftonifhment at 
the extreme afiiduity of his genius and rapidity of his pen, 
when we look back on the voluminoufnefs of his works, 
and then inquire into the time allowed him for them; 
works that might well have taken up a long life to have 
executed. For although, out of fifty-three plays which are 
collected together as the labours of thefe united authors, 
Mr. Beaumont was concerned in much the greateft part of 
them, yet lie did not live to complete his thirtieth year. 
He died in the beginningof March 1615, on the ninth day 
of which he was interred in the entrance of St. Benedict’s 
chapel in Weftminfter-abbey. He left a daughter, Fran¬ 
ces Beaumont, who died in Leicefterfhire fince the year 
1700. She had in her poffeflion feveral poems of her fa¬ 
ther’s writing'; but they were loft at fea - in her voyage 
from Ireland, where ftie had lived for fome time in the 
duke of Ormond’s family. 
Mr. John Fletcher was not more meanly defeended than 
his poetical colleague; his father, the Rev. Dr. Fletcher, 
having been firft made bifttop of Briftol by queen Eliza¬ 
beth, and afterwards tranflated to the fee of London. Our 
poet was born in 1576 ; and was, as well as his friend, edu¬ 
cated at Cambridge, where lie made a great proficiency 
in his ftudies. His natural vivacity of wit, for which he 
was remarkable, foon rendered him a devotee to the Mu- 
fes; and his clofe attention foon railed him to one of the 
higheft places in the temple of poetical fame. As he was 
born near ten years before Mr. Beaumont, fo did he alfo 
furvive him by an equal number of years ; the general ca¬ 
lamity of a plague, which happened in 1625, involving 
him in its deftrudftion, he died of it at forty-nine years of 
age. 
During the joint lives of thefe two great poets, it ap¬ 
pears that they wrote nothing feparately, excepting one 
little piece by each, which feemed of too trivial a nature 
for either to require aftiftance in, viz. The Faithful Shep¬ 
herd, a paftoral, by Fletcher ; and The Mafque of Gray’s- 
Inn Gentlemen, by Beaumont. Yet what lhare each had 
in the writing or deiigning of the pieces thus compofed by 
them jointly, there is no poffibility of determining. It 
is however generally allowed, that Fletcher’s peculiar ta¬ 
lent was wit, and Beaumont’s, though much the younger 
man, judgment. It is probable, therefore, that the form¬ 
ing the plots andcontriving the conduct of the fable, the 
writing of the more ferious and pathetic parts, and lopping 
the redundant branches of Fletcher’s wit, whofe luxuri¬ 
ance, we are told, frequently ftood in need of caftigatio’n, 
might be in general Beaumont’s portion in the work ; while 
Fletcher, whofe converfation with-the beau monde (which 
indeed 
