90 6 B E R 
part he entrufted to John de Glimes, the vice-admiral, 
and Julien Romero; the other to don Sanchez Avila. 
The two fijrft were defeated by the Zealanders, under the 
command of Louis Boilfot, admiral of Zealand, .who loft 
an eye in the engagement. The conquerors took nine 
(hips, and biirnt the Spanifh admiral ; Glimes was (lain : 
Romero fwam to fhore. The commander being on the 
bank was witnefs of the unfortunate fuccefs of the enter- 
pril'e, of the whole of which he was informed by Airla, 
who retired to Antwerp. 
Tire prince of Parma attempted to take it in 1588, with¬ 
out fuccefs ; and in 1622, the marquis of Spinola laid 
iiege to it again, but thebefieged defended themfelves fo 
valiantly, and the prince of Orange took fuch meafures to 
throw (uccours into the place, that the marquis was oblig¬ 
ed to rajjte the iiege on the 2d of Otfdber, after having 
loft more than ten thoufand men, from the 18th of July, 
when he began his approach. In the year 1746, the mare- 
chal Saxe, having amufed the allies with mkrches and 
counter-marches, at length detaclied count Lowendahl, 
with ftx and thirty thoufand men to beliege Bferg-op-Zoom. 
It was fecured with a garrifon of three thoufand men, and 
well provided with artillery, ammunition, and magazines. 
The enemy appeared before it on the 12 th of July, and fum- 
moned the governor to furrender. The prince of Saxe- 
Hildburghaufen was lent to its relief, with twenty batta¬ 
lions and-fourteen fquadrons of the troops that could be 
mod conveniently alfembled : he entered the lines of Berg. 
op-Zoom, where he remained in expedition of a ft rung 
reinforcement from the confederate army ; and the old 
baron Cronftrom, whom the ftadtholder had appointed 
governor of Brabant, aftumed the command of the gar¬ 
rifon. The befiegers carried on their operations with 
great vivacity, and the troops in the town defended it with 
equal valour. The eyes of all Europe were turned upon 
this important fiege : comte Lowendahl received divers 
reinforcements, and a confiderable body of troops was de¬ 
tached from the allied army, under the command of baron 
Schwartzemburgh, to co-operate with the prince of Saxe- 
Hildburghaufen. The French general loft a confiderable 
number of men by the dole and continual fire of the be- 
fieged : while he, in his turn, opened fuch a number of 
batteries, and played them fo warmly, that the defences 
began to give way. From the 16th of July to the 15th of 
September, the (iege produced an unintermitting feene of 
horror and deftnuftion ; defperate fallies were made, and 
mines fprung with the moll dreadful effects ; the works 
began to be fhattered, the town was laid in allies, the 
trenches were filled with carnage ; nothing was feen but 
fire and fmoke, nothing heard but one continued roar of 
bombs and cannon. But (till the damage fell chiefly up¬ 
on the befiegers, who were (lain in heaps, while the gar¬ 
rifon fuffered very little, and could be occafionally re¬ 
lieved or reinforced from the lines. In a word, it was 
generally believed that comte Lowendahl would be baf¬ 
fled in his endeavours ; and by this belief the governor 
of Berg-op-Zoom feerns to have been lulled into a blind 
fecurity. At length fome inconfiderable breaches were 
made in one ravelin and two baftions, and thefe the French 
general refolved to ftorm, though Cronftrom believed they 
were impracticable; and on that fuppofition prefumed that 
the enemy would not attempt an aftault. For this reafon 
comte Lowendahl refolved to hazard the attack, before 
the preparations fiiould be made for his reception, lie ac¬ 
cordingly regulated his difpolitions, and at four o’clock in 
the morning, on the 16th of September, the fignal was 
made for the aftault. A prodigious quantity of bombs 
being thrown into the ravelin, his troops threw them- 
1’elves into the folfe, mounted the breaches, forced open 
a {ally-port, and entered the place alnioft without refilt- 
ance. In a v.ord, they had time to extend themfelves 
along the curtains, and form in order of battle, before the 
gairifon could be aflembled. Cronftrom was afleep, and 
ti.e foldiers upon duty had been furprifed by the fudden- 
tufts and impetuosity of the attack.- Though the French 
B E R 
had taken poftefiion of the ramparts, they did not gain the 
town w ithout oppofition. Two battalions of the Scottifh 
troops, in the pay of the States General, were aflembled 
in the market-place, and attacked them with fuch fury- 
that they were driven from ftreet to ftreet, until frefh re¬ 
inforcements arriving compelled the Scots to retreat in 
their turn, yet they difputed every inch of ground, and 
fought until two-thirds of them were killed upon the fpot. 
Then they brought off the old governor, abandoning the 
town to tiie enemy ; the troops that were encamped in the 
lines retreating with great precipitation ; all the forts in 
the neighbourhood immediately furrendered to the victors, 
who now became nt,afters of the whole navigation of the 
Scheldt. Berg-op-Zoom was re (to red to the Dutch at the 
peace of Aix-ia-Chapelle ; and was taken by the French 
revolutionary troops in 1793 : eighteen miles north-north- 
weft cf Antwerp. Lat. 51. 29. N. Ion. 21 . 46. E. Ferro. 
BERG'S! ADT, a town of Moravia, in the circle of 
Olmutz : eighteen miles north of Olmutz. 
BKRGSTRAS'SE, a iong trail or tongue of land, on 
the fide of the Rhine, between Heidelberg and Darm- 
ftadt; it contains a few final) places, as Benlheim, Oppen- 
heitn, and Wenheim. 
BFR'GUES, or Berg, or Bergues St. Vinox;, a 
to>vn of France, and principal place of a diftridt, in the 
department of the north : fo called from St. Vinox, a 
Flemifh lord, who lived in that place ; it is fituated on 
the river Colne, at the union of feveral canals, which 
conduit to Dunkirk, Gravelines, St. Omer, Fumes, &c. 
It contains two parifhes. Berg was the iaft town of Welt 
Flanders which held out for the Dutch in the war in the 
16th century. The prince of Parma befieged it in 1583, 
but found fo much refifiance, that the liege was changed 
into a blockade, and M. de Villeneuve furrendered the 
place on honourable terms. It was taken by the French 
in 165S, and confirmed to that country by the peace of 
the Pyrenees the year following. Since that time feveral 
new works have been added to the fortifications, and-by 
means of fluices the country round can be laid under wa¬ 
ter: one league and a half louth of Dunkirk, and eleven 
north-weft of Lille. 
BERGWER'HEN, a town of Germany, in the circle 
of Upper Saxony : two miles north of Weilfenfels. • 
BERG'WERK, a town of Hungary: thirteen miles 
weft of Steinam. 
BERGZA'BERN, a town of Germany, in the circle 
of the Upper Rhine, and duchy of Deux Ponts, fituated 
on the Erlbach, with two churches, one for Catholics, 
and the other for Lutherans; and a chateau, the ordinary 
relidence of the dowager duchefs : thirty miles fouth-eafl 
of Deux Ponts, and fix fouth-fouth-w eft of Landau. Lat. 
49. 4. N. Ion. 25. 40. E. Ferro. 
To BERHY'ME, d. a. [from rhyme. To mention in 
rhyme, or verfes : a word of contempt : 
I fought no homage from the race that write ; 
I kept, like Afian monurchs, from their fight : 
Poems I heeded, now berhym'd fo long, 
No more than thou, great George! a birthday fong. Pope . 
BE'RIA, Berie, Berry, fignifies a large open field ; 
.and thofe cities and towns in England which end with that 
word are built on plain and open places, and do not derive 
their names from boroughs as Sir Henry Spelman ima¬ 
gines. Mod of our glofTographers in the names of places 
have confounded the word berie with that of bury and bo¬ 
rough, as the appellatives of ancient towns: whereas the 
true fenfe of the word berie, is a flat wide campaign, as is 
proved from fufficient authorities by the learned Du Frefne, 
who obferves that Beria Sanfli Edmundi, mentioned by 
Mat. Parif. fub. ann. 1174, is not to be taken for the town, 
but for the adjoining plain. To this may be added, that 
many flat and wide meads, and other open grounds, are 
called by the name of beries and bery-fields ; the fpacious 
meadow between Oxford and Ifley, was in the reign of 
king Athelflan called Bery ; as is-now the large!! pafiure- 
ground 
