B E C 
BflC'CA,/. in the materia medica or the ancients, a 
name given to a fine kind of refin collected from the tur¬ 
pentine and maftich-trees of Greece and Syria, and mixed 
■together for ufe. It was much edeemed formerly, and 
not only ufed in the country where it was produced, but 
carried in great quantities to Mecca, and other parts of 
the TurkiOi dominions, where it was valued at a very 
great rate. 
BEOCLES, a market-town in Suffolk, fifteen miles 
from Yarmouth, fix from Bungay, ten from Loweftoffe, 
and 108 from London. This town, which is the third in 
the county, has an elegant large church, and is remark¬ 
able for a noble tower unconnected with it, in which is a 
fine ring of ten.bells. Here are alfo two diffenting meet- 
ing-honfes. The ruins of another church, called Ingate 
church, are to be feen here, which was formerly the pa- 
rifli-church to the town. This town confifts of feveral 
fireets, which centre in a fpacioiis area, were the market 
is kept. The church-yard affords one of the fined prof- 
pedts in Europe, fituate on the banks of the river YVave- 
ney, commanding the moft picturefque and expanfive 
views : the meanderings of the water have a charming ef¬ 
fect. It is a town corporate, (but fends no member to 
parliament,) confiding.of a portreeve and thirty-fix others, 
who arc didinguifiied by the name of the twelves and the 
twenty-fours. The office of portreeve is iiolden in rotation 
by the twelves. This town received 20,cool, damage by 
fire on the 29th of November 1586, more than eighty 
liottfes being defiroyed. Here is a good gramiiw-fchool, 
(nominally a free one,) founded in 1712, by Dr. Faucon- 
berg, who by his will left certain lands, lying in Gorton 
and the towns adjoining, near LotvedofFe, for a clergy¬ 
man nominated by the trudees to qualify youth for the 
univerfity. Alfo a free Knglifh fchool, founded in 1631, 
by Sir John Leman, Knt. and alderman of the city of 
London : the number of boys forty-eight ; the maderand 
11 flier are elected by a part of the corporation who are the 
trudees. The market-day is Saturday, and is Well fttp- 
plied with every necelfarv. Here are three fairs annually, 
viz. on Holy Thuriday, May 2, and OGiober 2. 
BECE'DE (La), a town of France, on the Aude, and 
chief place of a canton, in the didridt of Cadelnaudary : 
one league and a half north of Cadelnaudary, and one and 
a quarter north-north-wed St. Papoul. 
BECHAN', a river of North Wales, which runs into 
the Severn .: three miles wed-fouth-wed Montgomery. 
To BECHAN'CE, v. n. [from be and chance.'] To be- 
fal; to happen to : a word proper, but now in little ufe .— 
My fons, God knows what lias bechanced them. Shakcfpearc. 
BE'CHER (John Joachim), a celebrated chemid, was 
born at Spires, in 1645. He was connefled with the mod 
learned men in Europe ; and the emperor, the electors of 
Mentz and Bavaria, and other perfons of high rank, fur- 
niflied him with the means of making experiments in ma¬ 
thematics, natural philofophy, medicine, and chemidry. 
He was invited to Vienna, where he contributed greatly to 
the edabliflunent of feveral manufactures, a chamber of 
commerce, and an India company; but the jealoufy of 
feme of the miniders occafioned his difgrace and ruin. He 
was not lefs unhappy at Mentz, Munich, and Wurtzburg; 
which determined him toga to Haerlem, where he invent¬ 
ed a machine for working a great quantity of filk in a lit¬ 
tle time, and with few hands : but new misfortunes made 
him come o England, and he died at London in 1685. He 
wrote, 1. Phylica Subterranea, which was reprinted at 
Leipiic in 1703, and in 1739, in 8vo. with a fmall treatife, 
by E. Stahl, intitled Specimen Becherianum. 1. Experi- 
mentum chymicum novum, 8vo. 3. Character pro Noti- 
tia Linguarum univerfali. 4. Inditutiones Chymica;, feu 
ManuduCtia ad Pliilofopliiam Hermeticam, 4to. 5. In- 
ditutrones Chymica prodromre, 121110. 6. Experimentum 
novum ac curiofuin ile Minefa arenaria perpetua, &c. 
BECHE'RE GOL, a lake of Afiatic Turkey, in the 
province of Caramania : forty miles wed of Cogni. 
BE'CFIEREL, a town of France, in the department of 
Vql. II. No. 106. 
B E C 8 4 r 
the Ille and Villaine, and chief place of a canton, in the 
didriCt of Montfort: three leagues north of Montfort, an t 
four and three quarters north-weft of Rennes. 
BE'CHl’N, a city of Bohemia, and capital of a circle to 
which it gives name. It was taken and burned by general 
Buquoi, in 1619. In this circle there are feveral medici¬ 
nal lprings, and mines of fait, and foine gold is found in 
the river Lufchnitz ; it was dreadfully ravaged in the 
thirty years’ war. Bechin, the capital, is fituated on the 
Lufchnitz: fifty miles foilth of Prague., and forty-eight, 
fouth-ead of Pilfen. Lat.49. 11. N. lo'i. 32. to. E. Ferro. 
BE'CHICS,y. [1 Ss^y.a, of a cough.] Medicines 
proper for relieving coughs. 
To BECK, v. n. [beacn , Sax. bee, Fr. head.] To make 
a fign with the head. 
To Beck, v. a. Td call or guide, as by a motion of the 
head : 
Bell, book, and candle, (hall not drive me back, 
When gold and filver beck me to come on. Shakfpeare. 
Beck ,/. A fign with the head ; a nod of command : 
The menial fair, that round her wait, 
At Helen’s beck prepare the room of date. Pope. 
Beck, or Beke, is a word which imports a fmall dream 
of water ilfuing from fome burn or fprihg. Hence Hcll- 
beeks, little brooks in the rough and wild mountains about 
Richmond near Lancaflfire, fo called on account of their 
ghadlinefs and depth. Beck is alfo ufeci among us in the 
compofition of names originally fituated on rivulets : hence 
Walbeck, Bournbeck, &.c. The Germans ufe beck in the 
fame fenfe. 
Beck (David), an eminent portrait-painter, was born 
at Arnheim in Guelderland in 1621, and became a d-ifei- 
ple of Vandyck; from whom lie acquired a fine manner 
of penciling, and that fweet dyle of colouring which was 
peculiar to that great mader. He was portrait-painter 
and chamberlain to Chridina queen of Sweden ; and, by 
her recommendation, mod of the illudrious perfons in 
Europe fat to him for their pictures. He was agreeable, 
handfome, and polite, and lived in the highed favour 
with his royal midrefs : but, having an earned defire to 
vifit his friends in Holland, and leaving the court of Swe¬ 
den much againd the queen’s inclination, flie apprehended 
that he intended never to return; and, as he died foon 
after at the Hague, it was fufpedted that he was poifoned. 
This happened in 1636, when he was only thirty-five years 
of age. 
BEC'KEM, or Beckum, a town of Germany, in the 
circle of Wedphalia, and bifliopric of Munder, fituated 
on the Werfe : feventeen miles S. S. E. of Munder. 
BEC'KET (Thomas), lord chancellor of England, and 
archbifliop of Canterbury, in the 12th century. The dory 
of his birth is as extraordinary as that of his life. It is re¬ 
lated, that his father Gilbert Becket, fome time flieriff of 
London, went on a pilgrimage to Jerufalem, where being 
taken and made a flave, by the Saracens,his loader’s daughter 
fell in love with him ; and, when he made his efcape, fbe 
followed him to London. So fingular an indance of heroic 
affeftion druck him ; and after confiilting with fome bi- 
Ihops, he baptized her by the name of Matilda , and mar¬ 
ried her; from which marriage proceeded the haughty 
Thomas Becket. Being raifed to the archbifhopric, he 
began the great difpute between the crown and the mitre, 
and fided with the pope : at which Henry II.* was greatly 
offended ; and, calling an affembly of the bilhops at YVed- 
minder, offered fix articles againd papal encroachments, 
which he urged Becket to affent to. Becket, at the im¬ 
portunities of feveral lords, figned them ; but relapfing, 
he was ordered to be tried as a traitor; upon which he 
fled into Flanders. The king baniflied all his relations, 
and Becket, in return, excommunicated all his oppofers. 
At lad, after (even years, by the interceflion of the 
French king and the pope, he returned ; but refilled to 
abfolve thole he had excommunicated ; whereupon the 
jo E king 
