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Santa Claus, bearing presents to | Bekaa. A valley in Syria, somethe children.

"On the eve of Twelfth-Day, the Crature (the children), with trem. bling mingled with hope, anticipate a midnight visit from a frightful old woman, called the Befana (an obvious corruption of Epifania, the Epiphany), for whom they always take care to leave some portion of their supper, lest she should eat them up; and when they go to bed, they suspend upon the back of a chair a stocking, to receive her expected gifts. This receptacle is always found in the morning to contain some sweet things, or other wel. come presents, which, I need scarcely say, are provided by the mother or the nurse." C. A. Eaton.

Beffroi [Ghent]. An ancient and celebrated belfry or watch-tower in the city of Ghent, Belgium. It was erected in 1183, and is a lofty square structure, containing a fine chime, and surmounted by a gilt dragon brought from Constantinople. One of the bells in the belfry weighs nearly five tons.

Beggar Boy. A picture by Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velasquez (1599-1660), the Spanish painter.

In the Louvre, Paris. There is another upon the same subject in the Pinakothek at Munich, Bavaria.

times called Hollow Syria. It is between the Antilibanus range and the higher Lebanon. It was by this way that the ancient armies used to march, the Syrians to Samaria, and the Egyptians against Damascus

Por

Belfort. An ancient and venerable fortress of unknown origin, situated on the summit of a bare rock in northern Palestine. tions of the castle are thought to have been built by the Crusaders, who, at different times, took refuge in it. In 1189 it was besieged by Saladin. In 1260 it was purchased by the Templars, who, however, were soon compelled to relinquish it. It is a stronghold of great size, with massive walls, and moats, and drawbridges, and the other means of defence common in the Middle Ages. The original building is believed to have been of Phoenician origin. The place is first mentioned under its European name by William of Tyre in the twelfth century The castle is now deserted. Belfry of Bruges. See HALLES, LES. For the BELFRY OF GHENT, see BEFFROI. See also CAMPA

NILE.

Belgrave Square. See BELGRAVIA.

Béguinage, The. A famous nun- Belgravia. Formerly a sobriquet nery in Ghent, Belgium.

Béguinage, Grand. A fine church

of the seventeenth century in Brussels, Belgium

Beheading of St. John. A picture by Michelangelo Amerighi, surnamed Caravaggio (1569-1609), and one of his principal works. In the Cathedral of Malta.

Beheading of St. John the Baptist. A picture by the Swiss painter, Nicolas Manuel, surnamed Deutsch (1484-1531). Now in the Museum at Basle, Switzerland.

Beheading of St. Paul. A picture by Niccolo dell' Abbate, called also Niccolo da Modena (15091571). In the Gallery of Dresden, Germany.

applied to Belgrave and Eaton Squares, Grosvenor Place, and the radiating streets, London, but now received as the legitimate name of this aristocratic quarter. Belgrave Square was so called from Belgrave, Lincolnshire

But the ordinary residences of fashionable life-the mansions of Belgravia, Tyburnia, and Mayfair- are mere shells of brick and stucco, which present such a dreary appearance outside that one is surprised sometimes to find them palaces of comfort within. CL Eastlake.

Cronched on the pavement close by Belgrave Square,

A tramp I saw, ill, moody, and tonguetied:

A babe was in her arms, and at her side
A girl; their clothes were rags, their feet
were bare.
Matthew Arnold.
That is a source of prospective pleasure
in which the inhabitants of Belgravia and
Tyburnia cannot indulge.
Eastlake.

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2. A noted old inn in Warwick Lane, London. The present building is modern.

And he [Archbishop Leighton] obtained what he desired; for he died at the Bell Inn, in Warwick Lane, Burnet.

The name has been a frequent designation of inns and public-houses in England, which were formerly distinguished by the various devices of their signs.

Bell Rock (or Inchcape Rock) Lighthouse. This important lighthouse - built upon the famous rock of the same name in the German Ocean, on the northern side of the entrance of the Firth of Forth, and about twelve miles from land-was begun in 1807, under the charge of the celebrated engineer Robert Stevenson. After much very difficult work and many discouraging hinderances the structure was finished in October, 1810. Its total height is 115 feet, and diameter at the base 42 feet. See INCHCAPE ROCK.

Far in the bosom of the deep,

O'er these wild shelves my watch I keep;
A ruddy gem of changeful light,
Bound on the dusky brow of night;
The seaman bids my lustre hail,
And scorns to strike his timorous sail,
Scott.

Bella di Tiziano. [Titian's Beauty.] A picture in the Sciarra Palace, Rome, now attributed to Jacopo Palma, called Palma Vecchio (1480-1528). There is another picture of the same name in the Pitti Palace, Florence, Italy. Bella Donna, La. A noted picture by Titian (1477-1576). In the Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy. Bellamy's Kitchen. An establishment which was situated near

the Old House of Commons, London, and is described as a plain apartment, with an immense fire, meat-screen, gridirons, and a small tub under the window for washing the glasses, -a place where the statesmen of England very often dine, and men, possessed of wealth untold, and with palaces of their own, in which luxury and splendor are visible in every part, are willing to leave their stately dining halls and powdered attendants, to be waited upon, while eating a chop in Bellamy's kitchen, by two unpretending old women.'

"But let us not omit to notice

Bellamy's kitchen, or, in other words, the refreshment-room, common to both Houses of Parliament, where Ministerialists and Oppositionists, Whigs and Tories, Radicals, Peers, and destructives, strangers from the gallery, and the more favored strangers from below the bar, are alike at liberty to resort." Dickens.

Belle Arti, Accademia delle. [Academy of Fine Arts.] A name applied in Italy to buildings in nearly all the principal cities, containing collections of art. Among the more celebrated are the Accademias of Florence, Venice, and Bologna.

Belle Ferronière. A celebrated portrait of Lucrezia Crivelli by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), the Italian painter. It is now in the Louvre, Paris, and is known by the title above given, from a tradition that it is the picture of a blacksmith's wife, mistress of Francis I. There is a fine copy of this portrait believed to be by Beltraffio.

Belle Jardinière. [The Fair Gardener.] A beautiful and wellknown picture of the Madonna by Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520), in which the Virgin is represented as sitting among flowering shrubs as in a garden (from which circumstance the picture may have derived its name). The infant Christ stands at her knee, while St. John kneels in childlike devotion. There is an early copy of this picture, probably by a

Flemish artist, sometimes taken
for the original, which latter is
now in the gallery of the Louvre,
Paris.

Belle Joconde. The name given
to the celebrated portrait of
Mona Lisa, wife of Francesco del
Giocondo, by Leonardo da Vinci
(1452-1519). It is regarded as one
of the most beautiful and highly-
finished works of art existing. It
is stated that the lady sat for her
portrait during a period of four
years. This picture is now in the
Louvre, Paris. The Duke d'Au-
male has a black chalk cartoon of
the same by Leonardo.

"As the countenance of the Sis. tine Madonna represents the purest maidenliness, so we see here the most beautiful woman-worldly, earthly, without sublimity, without enthusiasm, but with a calm, restful placidity, a smile, a mild pride about her, which makes us stand before her with endless delight." Grimm, Trans. Belle Sauvage. A noted old London tavern which formerly stood on Ludgate Hill.

"A few of these quaint old figures still remain in London town. You may still see there, and over its old hostel in Ludgate Hill, the Belle Sauvage,' to whom the Spectator so pleasantly alludes, and who was prob ably no other than the sweet American Pocahontas who rescued from death the daring Captain Smith."

Thackeray. Belle Tout. A celebrated lighthouse on the south coast of England near Beachy Head, built in

1831.

Bellerophon. An English line-ofbattle ship in which, on the 15th of July, 1815, while lying at anchor in the roadstead of Rochefort, France, the emperor_Napoleon I. took passage for England, having vainly endeavored to escape to America.

2. A formidable armor-plated ship of the British navy, launched April 26, 1865.

Bellevue Avenue. A broad road

at Newport, R. I., lined with country-seats, many of which are very magnificent. It is a fashionable drive, where may be seen

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From Tuscan Bellosguardo, wide awake,
When standing on the actual, blessed
sward

Where Galileo stood at nights to take
The vision of the stars, we find it hard,
Gazing upon the earth and heaven, to
make
Mrs. Browning.

A choice of beauty.
Belmont. A noted mansion in
what is now Fairmount Park,
Philadelphia, Penn. It was
erected in 1745, and was a favor-
ite resort of Washington, La-
fayette, Franklin, Jefferson, Tal-
leyrand, Louis Philippe, and other
distinguished men.

Belœil. A celebrated Gothic castle near Ath, in Belgium, built in 1146, and containing some valuable works of art.

Belail tout à la fois magnifique et champêtre. Delille. Belrespiro. See VILLA PAMFILIDORIA.

Belshazzar's Feast. A picture by Washington Allston (1779-1843), the American painter. It was left unfinished at his death. Now in the Athenæum, Boston, Mass.

"A mighty sovereign surrounded by his whole court, intoxicated with his own state, in the midst of his revelry, palsied in a moment under the spell of a preternatural hand suddenly tracing his doom on the wall before him; his powerless limbs, like a wounded spider's, shrunk up to his body, while his heart, compressed to a point, is only kept from vanishing by the terrific suspense that animates it, during the interpretation of his mys. terious sentence.' Allston.

Belus, Temple of. See BIRS NIM-
ROOD.

Belvedere Antinous. See ANTIN- Bema. [Gr. Byua.] A tribune or

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Belvidere Apollo. See APOLLO BELVIDERE.

Belvidere, or Cortile del Belvidere. [Court of the Beautiful View.] A famous octagonal court in the palace of the Vatican, Rome, built by Bramante, out of which open several cabinets containing some of the most precious remains of ancient art, as the Antinous, the Laocoon, and the Apollo.

4 The name Belvidere (Belvedere) is frequently applied to apartments in palaces and galleries of art.

"The view from the balcony in front of the windows is that which gave the name of Belvidere to this Museum, and in consequence to the Apollo, and some of its finest pieces of sculpture. It commands a prospect over the vale of the Tiber to the pinecovered height of Monte Mario, but the hues which the brilliant sky of Italy sheds over it must be seen before its beauty can be imagined." Eaton.

Belvidere Torso. See Torso BELVIDERE.

Belvoir Castle. An ancient and noble mansion, the seat of the Duke of Rutland, near Grantham, Leicestershire, England. It contains one of the best collections of pictures in England.

Till Belvoir's lordly terraces
The sign to Lincoln sent,
And Lincoln sped the message on
O'er the wide vale of Trent

Macaulay. The lord of Belvoir then his castle viewed, Strong without form, and dignified but rude. George Crabbe. Belzoni's Tomb. The common appellation, from its discoverer, of the tomb of Sethi I., in Thebes, Egypt. This tomb is regarded as the most noteworthy in Thebes for its sculpture and preservation.

raised platform in ancient Greek buildings, from which speeches were made before a court of law. Especially applied to a place of this kind in the Pnyx, at Athens. Bemerside. A mansion in Scotland, near the town of Dryburgh, memorable for the fact that it has been for 700 years the seat of the family of Haig, in verification of a prophecy of Thomas of Ercildoune, called Thomas the Rhym

er.

"Betide, betide, whate'er betide, Haig shall be Haig of Bemerside." Ben, Big. See BIG BEN. Bench. See KING'S BENCH AND QUEEN'S BENCH.

Bengal, Little. See LITTLE BEN

GAL.

Beni Hassan, Caves or Tombs of. These ancient tombs excavated in the rock on the shore of the Nile are the oldest known monuments in Egypt, excepting the Pyramids. They are numerous and spacious, and some of them are exceedingly interesting. The sculptures and paintings are of great variety, representing the Occupations and amusements of the people, and throwing much light on their modes of life. The paintings are of various and very brilliant coloring. [Written also Benee Hasan.]

"The character of the sculptures which adorn their walls approaches that found in the tombs surrounding the Pyramids, but the architecture dif fers widely. They are all cheerfullooking halls open to the light of day, many of them with pillared porches, and all possessing pretensions to architectural ornament, either internal or external." Fergusson. Benjamin West. A portrait by Washington Allston (1779-1843), the American painter. It was placed in the Boston Athenæum, but is now in the Museum of Fine Arts in that city.

Bentivoglio, Cardinal. A wellknown portrait by Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641). In the Pitti Palace, Florence, Italy.

Bergstrasse.

[Mountain Road.] | Bethesda, Pool of. See POOL OF BETHESDA.

A famous post-road from Darmstadt to Heidelberg, Germany, now superseded in great part by the railway, but formerly very celebrated for its beautiful views of mountains and of the river Rhine, and for the rich cultiva tion of the district it overlooks. Bergüner Stein. A deep and narrow ravine in Switzerland, in which is a carriage-road 600 feet above the Albula. This road is a triumph of engineering skill. Berkeley Castle. A noted Norman fortress and baronial mansion, the former residence of the Berkeley family, near the river Severn, in England, between Bristol and Gloucester. It was founded soon after the Conquest, and has been the scene of many historical events, including the murder of Edward II. It is regarded as one of the finest feudal structures in Great Britain.

"The room shown for the murder of Edward II., I verily believe to be genuine. It is a dismal chamber, almost at the top of the house, almost detached, and to be approached only by a kind of footbridge."

Horace Walpole.

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Bethlem (Bethlehem) Hospital. A lunatic hospital, founded in 1547, in the reign of Henry VIII., and popularly called Bedlam. It has been situated at the junction of Kensington and Lambeth Roads, London, since 1810-'15, but was formerly in Moorfields, near Bishopsgate. Until 1770 it was one of the sights of the city. The patients, before 1815, were kept chained to the walls; but now their treatment is all that could be wished. The entrancehall contains the famous statues of Melancholy and Madness by Caius Gabriel Cibber (father of Colley Cibber). See MELAN

CHOLY.

He [Fox] was then a youth of pure morals and grave deportment, with a perverse temper, with the education of a laboring man, and with an intellect in the most unhappy of all states, that is to say, too much disordered for liberty, and not sufficiently disordered for Bedlam.

Macaulay.

Why, there are passions still great enough to replenish Bedlam, for it never wants tenants: to suspend men from bedposts, from improved-drops at the west end of Newgate. Carlyle.

-The river proudly bridged; the dizzy

top

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Perpetually recumbent.

Wordsworth.

Bethnal Green. A district in London to the east of Spitalfields, celebrated in the old English ballad of Bednall-Green. Great numbers of silk-weavers reside in this quarter. It was made a parish in 1743.

"Numerous blind courts and alleys form a densely crowded district in Bethnal Green. Among its inhabitants may be found street venders of every kind of produce, travellers to fairs, tramps, dog-fanciers, dog-stealers, men and women sharpers, shoplifters, and pickpockets. It abounds with the young Arabs of the streets, and its outward moral degradation is at once apparent to any one who passes that way." Athenæum.

Dickens, in "Oliver Twist," places the home of Bill Sikes in one of a "maze of mean and dirty streets,

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