two phials, containing a solid, reddish substance, said to be the dried blood of St. Januarius, Bishop of Benevento, in the latter part of the third century, who suffered martyrdom under Diocletian. The tradition runs, that when the saint was exposed to be devoured by lions in the amphitheatre at Pozzuoli, the animals became tame, and prostrated themselves before him. This miracle converted so many to Christianity that the Roman commander ordered him to be decapitated. After death the body was removed to Naples. At the time of the removal, a woman, who collected the blood of the saint, delivered it, in two bottles, to St. Severus, in whose hands it immediately melted. According to the belief of many Catholics, this miracle of liquefaction still takes place at least three times every year; and the occurrence of it is the occasion of the greatest religious festivals observed by the Neapolitans. The head of the martyr, and the phials containing his blood, are carried in solemn procession to the high altar; and, prayer having been offered, the head is brought into contact with the phials, the blood in which is thereupon believed to liquefy. The phenomenon, however, does not always take place immediately, and occasionally it fails altogether. The excitement of the congregation, when the pretended miracle takes place, is only surpassed by that caused by its non-occurrence, which is considered an omen of the worst possible import. "At the same moment [that of liquefaction], the stone (distant some miles) where the saint suffered martyr. dom becomes faintly red. It is said that the officiating priests turn faintly red also, sometimes, when these miracles occur." Dickens. "The first day the blood liquefies in forty-seven minutes: the church is crammed, then, and time must be allowed the collectors to get around; after that it liquefies a little quicker and a little quicker every day, as the houses grow smaller, till on the eighth --as I lay Watching Vesuvius from the bay, Bloody Brook. A locality in Deerfield, Mass., noted as the scene of a terrible battle with the Indians in the early days of New England. On the 18th of September, 1675, Capt. Lathrop, with a company of 84 men, was here attacked by 700 Indian warriors; and all perished with the exception of seven who escaped. In 1835 a marble monument was erected on this battle-field, and an address delivered by Edward Everett. Bloomsbury Square. A London square, built in 1665, and formerly called Southampton Square from Southampton House, which stood there until 1800. This square was once so fashionable that it was considered one of the wonders of England. On the northern side is a bronze statue of Charles James Fox by Westmacott. In Palace-yard, at nine, you'll find me there, At ten, for certain, sir, in Bloomsbury Square. Pope. Blue Boy. A celebrated portraitpicture by Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788). In the Grosvenor Gallery, London. "Reynolds had laid down the law that blue ought not to be employed in masses in a picture, when, more from a spirit of malice which led Gainsborough to show that such a law was not without an exception, than with the intention of expressing his grave dissent from the view, Gainsbor ough painted the son of Mr. Buttall in an entire suit of blue. The result was a triumph of Gainsborough's art in the treatment of a difficult subject, so as to produce an agreeable effect under dis "Gainsborough's Blue Boy already possesses the expressive and wholly modern physiognomy by which a work falling within the painter's province oversteps the limits of painting." Taine, Trans. Blue Coat School. See CHRIST'S HOSPITAL. Blue Grotto. [Ital. Grotta Azzura.] A celebrated cavern on the island of Capri, in the Bay of Naples. The walls and roof of the grotto, as well as the water within it, are of a beautiful ultramarine color, produced by the light from without entering the water, and being refracted upwards into the grotto. "Here, under a rough round bastion of masonry, was the entrance to the Blue Grotto. We were now trans-shipped to the little shell of a boat which had followed us. The swell rolled rather heavily into the mouth of the cave, and the adventure seemed a little perilous, had the boatmen been less experienced. We lay flat in the bottom, the oars were taken in, and we had just reached the entrance, when a high wave rolling up threatened to dash us against the iron portals. The young sailor held the boat back with his hands, while the wave rolled under us into the darkness beyond; then, seizing the moment, we shot in after it, and were safe under the expanding roof. At first, all was tolerably dark; I only saw that the water near the entrance was intensely and luminously blue. Gradually, as the eye grew accustomed to the obscurity, the irregular vault of the roof became visible, tinted by a faint reflection from the water. The effect increased, the longer we remained. The silvery, starry radiance of foam or bubbles on the shining blue ground was the loveliest phenomenon of the grotto. To dip one's hand in the sea, and scatter the water, was to create sprays of wonderful, phosphorescent blossoms, jewels of the sirens, flashing and vanishing garlands of the Undines." Bayard Taylor. "The Blue Grotto loses nothing of its beauty, but rather gains by contrast, when passing from dense fog you find yourselves transported to a world of wavering subaqueous sheen. only through the opening of the very topmost arch that a boat can glide into It is this cavern; the arch itself spreads downward through the water, so that all the light is transmitted from be. neath, and colored by the sea.... The flesh of a diver in this water showed like the faces of children playing at snapdragon; all around him the spray leapt up with a living fire; and, when the oars struck the surface, it was as though a phosphorescent sea had been smitten, and the drops ran from the blades in blue pearls." J. A. Symonds. Many an arched roof is bent Over the wave, Blue-Stocking Clubs. Boswell describes the origin of Blue-Stocking Clubs: "About this time [1781] it was much the fashion for several ladies to have evening assemblies, where the fair sex might participate in conversation with literary and ingenious men, animated by a desire to please. One of the most eminent members of these societies, when they first commenced, was Mr. Stillingfleet (grandson of the Bishop), whose dress was remarkably grave; and in particular it was observed that he wore blue stockings. Such was the excellence of his conversation, that his absence was felt so great a loss that it used to be said, 'We can do nothing without the blue stockings; and thus by degrees the title was established. Miss Hannah More has admirably described a Blue-Stocking Club in her Bas-Bleu, a poem in which many of the persons who were most conspicuous there are mentioned." The club which met at Mrs. Montagu's, in London, is described as having consisted originally of Mrs. Montagu, Mrs. Vesey, Mrs. Carter, Miss Boscawen, Lord Lyttelton, Mr. Pulteney, Horace Walpole, and Mr.. Stillingfleet, and, according to Forbes, derived its name from the fact that Mr. Stillingfleet, "being somewhat of an humorist in his habits and manners, and a little negligent in his dress, liter ally wore gray stockings; from which circumstance Admiral Boscawen used, by way of pleasantry, to call them The Blue-Stocking Society,' as if to intimate that when these brilliant friends met, it was not for the purpose of forming a dressed assembly. A foreigner of distinction, hearing the expression,, translated it literally, Bas-Bleu,' by which these meetings came to be afterwards distinguished." Mills (History of Chivalry) refers the use of the term Blue-Stocking, applied to a literary body, to the Society de la Calza, established at Venice in 1400, the members of which, "when they met in literary discussion, were distinguished by the color of their stockings. The colours were sometimes fantastically blended; and at other times one color, particularly blue, prevailed." The name was afterward applied in France to ladies of lit. erary tastes, as a derisive appellation to denote female pedantry. From France the title crossed over to England. Byron (1788-1824), in "The Blues: a Literary Eclogue," ridicules the blue-stockings of that period. Boar, Calydonian. See CHACE OF THE CALYDONIAN BOAR. Boar Hunt. See WILD-BOAR HUNT. Boar's Head. A celebrated tavern which formerly stood in Eastcheap, London, said to have been the oldest in the city. It was here that Shakespeare represents Prince Henry and his companions indulging their revels before A.D. 1413. The celebrated Boar's Head Tavern of Shake spearean fame was destroyed (afterwards rebuilt) by the great fire of 1666, a fact forgotten by Goldsmith, Boswell, and Washington Irving, in their references to the tavern as the identical structure frequented by Falstaff. "The earliest notice of this place occurs in the testament of Sir William Warden, who, in the reign of Richard II., gave all that his tenement, called the Boar's Head, Eastcheap,' to a college of priests or chaplains, founded by Sir William Walworth, Lord Mayor, in the adjoining church of St. Michael, Crooked-lane. Whether at that time it was a tavern or a cook's residence, does not appear; but very early in the next reign, if any confidence can be reposed in the locality of Shakespeare's scenes, it became the resort of old Jack Falstaff and Prince Hal; but subsequently it was converted into a residence for the priests, to whose college it had been devised." Brayley's Londiniana. "Falstaff absolutely requires the frame of an inn to make his portrait intelligible, with the buxom figure of Mrs. Quickly in the background; and it may be safely affirmed that no public house of entertainment has afforded such world-wide mirth as the Boar's Head, Eastcheap." H. T. Tuckerman. [See Goldsmith's essay entitled, A Reverie at the Boar's Head Tavern.] Boboli Gardens. Beautiful and well-known pleasure-grounds contiguous to the Pitti Palace, in Florence, Italy; so named from the Boboli family, who formerly possessed a mansion here; and affording fine views of the city with its domes and towers. "All is formal and regular. Trees are planted in rectangular rows, and their branches so trained and interlaced as to form long cathedral aisles of foliage, as if a lateral shaft had been cut in a solid mass of fresh green. In these very gardens Milton may have had suggested to him his image of the Indian herdsman, --that tends his pasturing herds At loop-holes cut through thickest shade.'" Hillard. "I went into the Boboli Gardens, which are contiguous to the Palace; but found them too sunny for enjoyment. They seem to consist partly of a wilderness; but the portion into which I strayed was laid out with straight walks, lined with high boxhedges, along which there was only a narrow margin of shade." Hawthorne. At Florence, too, what golden hours What drives about the fresh Cascine, Or walks in Boboli's ducal bowers. Tennyson. Восса della Verità. [Truth's Mouth.] A huge mask of white marble in the portico of the church of S. Maria in Cosmedin, Rome, which has given its name to the adjoining piazza. This mask is a slab of stone with holes for the eyes, nose, and mouth, and resembles the common representations of the face of the sun or moon. It had great fame among the vulgar of Rome, who believed in it as a sort of touchstone of truth, from which notion it derived its name. The belief was, that a witness of doubted veracity, having been required to place his hand in the mouth of the mask, would be unable to remove it in case he swore falsely. This truth-loving stone is thought to have been the opening to a drain. "This Bocca della Verita is a curious relic of the Middle Ages. It served the purpose of a divine ordeal. Imagine a windmill which resembles not a human countenance, but the face of the moon: we can distinguish in it eyes, a nose, and an open mouth into which the accused person placed his hand to take an oath. This mouth bit all liars, at least so the tradition goes. I put my right hand into it, saying the Ghetto was a delightful place, and have not been bitten." About, Trans. Bocca di Leone. See LION'S MOUTH. Bodleian Library. A famous library belonging to the University of Oxford, England, founded, or rather restored, by Sir Thomas Bodley, near the close of the sixteenth century. It is one of the most valuable collections of books and manuscripts in Europe. The founder expended large sums upon the building, which is magnificent, furnished it with a large quantity of books, and bequeathed a large sum to be devoted to its annual replenishment. It has been enriched, also, by many valuable gifts of books and manuscripts. "No candle or fire is ever lighted in the Bodleian. Its catalogue is the standard catalogue on the desk of every library in Oxford. In each sev eral college, they underscore in red ink on this catalogue the titles of books contained in the library of that college, the theory being that the Bodleian has all books." Emerson. The walls and roofs [of the Vatican library] are painted not with antiques and grotescs, like our Bodleian at Oxford, but emblems, figures, diagrams, and the like learned inventions. John Evelyn, 1644. Each college has been developed by itself, each age has built in its fashion close to the Bodleian Library, a mass of edifices, sculptured portals, lofty belltowers. Taine, Trans. Bohême, La. See BOHEMIA. Bohemia. A cant name (from the Fr. Bohémien, gypsy) given to certain quarters of London largely occupied by roving wits and people who have no fixed occupation. The appellation La Bohême is similarly used in Paris. Bois de Boulogne. A beautiful and extensive promenade in Paris, covering nearly 2,500 acres. Previous to 1852 it was a sort of forest, with walks and rides; but in that year Napoleon III. determined to improve it, and, together with the municipality, built new roads, dug out the lakes, made the waterfalls, and otherwise diversified the surface, converting it into a delightful promenade the Hyde Park of Paris. "The Bois de Boulogne is a level wood of small trees covering a mile or two square, and cut from corner to corner with straight roads for driving. The soil is sandy, and the grass only in tufts. Barring the equipages and the pleasure of a word in passing an acquaintance, I find a drive to this famous wood rather dull business. I want either one thing or the other, -cultivated grounds like the Tuileries or the wild wood." N. P. Willis. "In 1319 some pilgrims, having erected at Mem-lez-Saint-Cloud (a little hamlet situated in the midst of a clearing of woods) a church modelled after that of Boulogne-sur-Mer, the name of the hamlet was changed to that of Boulogne. The wood, too, following the fortunes of the first habitations erected upon its territory, took the name of Boulogne, which it has retained to this day." Alphaud, Trans. About four o'clock he takes a turn in the Bois. He has a fair horse. He rides well, and does not look badly. Taine, Trans. His [Béranger's) geography did not go far beyond the Tuileries, the Champs Elysées, and the Bois de Boulogne; and his true home was the circle in which the self-supporting citizen toiled for his daily bread and butter and his weekly holiday. Daily Advertiser. Come, Albert, said he, if you will take my advice, let us go out: a turn in the Bois in a carriage or on horseback will divert you. Dumas, Trans. Boisserée Gallery. A celebrated collection of paintings (often referred to in works upon art) begun at Cologne, Prussia, in 1804 by two brothers of that name, during the confiscation of property and the dispersion of works of art at the time of the Napoleonic wars. The best part of this collection is now in the Pinakothek at Munich, having been purchased in 1827 by King Lewis. Boisson. See GLACIER DE BOISSON. Bolingbroke House. A building at Battersea, about three miles from London. It was formerly the residence of Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, and was the frequent resort of Pope, Swift, Arbuthnot, Thomson, Mallet, and other men of genius. The greater part of the mansion was taken down in 1778. In the wing remaining is a parlor lined with cedar, in which Pope composed his Essay on Man." It is said to have been called "Pope's Parlor." Bolsena, Mass of. See MASS OF BOLSENA. Bolt Court. A street in London. Dr. Johnson lived here (at No. 8) from 1776 until his death in December, 1784. "When we read of Johnson's house in Bolt Court, although we do not think of the doctor as living in any state, we do not imagine a place like a flagged yard, reached through a dark, narrow alley, and in which we should expect to see clothes drying on the lines. Bolt Court is a representative placean example of those nooks and secluded recesses found in the towns all over England." R. G. White. The plate-licker and wine-bibber [Boswell] dives into Bolt Court, to sip muddy coffee with a cynical old man, and a sourtempered blind old woman (feeling the cups, whether they are full, with her finger:) and patiently endured contradictions without end; too happy so he may but be allowed to listen and live. Carlyle. There, in the Rue Taranne, for instance, the once noisy Denis Diderot has fallen silent enough. Here aiso, in Bolt Court, old Samuel Johnson, like an over-wearied giant, must lie down and slumber without dream. Carlyle. Can this be Sir Allan McLean? Ah, no! It is only the Rambler, Bolton Priory. The ruins of this celebrated priory are situated in one of the most beautiful spots in England, near Skipton on the banks of the Aire. From Bolton's old monastic tower Wordsworth. Entranced with varied loveliness, I gaze On Bolton's hallowed fane. Its hoary walls, More eloquent in ruin, than the halls Of princely pomp. Newman Hall. Bon Homme Richard. [Good Man Richard.] A noted ship in which Capt. John Paul Jones of the American navy sailed in 1779 to the coast of England, and engaging the much superior British frigate Serapis captured her after a desperate fight of two hours. The Bon Homme Richard was named after Benjamin Franklin's "Poor Richard." "In his earlier writings, he [Benjamin Franklin] often uttered wise sayings in this form: "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush," as Poor Richard says.' By these sayings in this form he came to be known at home and abroad as Poor Richard;' and when, in the summer of 1779, the French government and the American ambassador jointly fitted out an expe dition to be commanded by Jones, the flag-ship was named Bonhomme Rich ard, or Good Man Richard."" Lossing. Who, in the darkest days of our Revolution, carried your flag into the very chops of the British Channel, bearded the lion in his den, and wake the echoes of old Albion's hills by the thunders of his cannon, and the shouts of his triumph? It was the American sailor. And the |