Chapter 10

Brant’sNarrenschiffhas been edited by F. Zarncke (1854); by K. Goedeke (1872); and by F. Bobertag (Kürschner’sDeutsche Nationalliteratur, vol. xvi., 1889). A modern German translation was published by K. Simrock in 1872. On the influence of Brant in England see especially C.H. Herford,The Literary Relations of England and Germany in the 16th Century(1886).

BRANTFORD,a city and port of entry of Ontario, Canada, on the Grand river, and on the Grand Trunk, and Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo railways. The river is navigable to within 2½ m. of the town; for the remaining distance a canal has been constructed. Agricultural implements, plough, engine, bicycle and stove works, potteries and large railway shops constitute the important industrial establishments. It contains an institute for the education of the blind, maintained by the provincial government, and a women’s college. The city is named in honour of the Mohawk Indian chief, Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea), who settled in the neighbourhood after the American War of Independence, in which he had led the Six Nations (Iroquois) on the British side. The amalgamated tribes of the Six Nations still make it their headquarters, and a monument to Brant has been erected in Victoria Square. Brantford is one of the most flourishing industrial towns of the province, and its population rose from 9616 in 1881 to 20,713 in 1907.

BRANTINGHAM, THOMAS DE(d. 1394), English lord treasurer and bishop of Exeter, came of a Durham family. An older relative, Ralph de Brantingham, had served Edward II. and Edward III., and Thomas was made a clerk in the treasury. Edward III. obtained preferment for him in the church, and from 1361 to 1368 he was employed in France in responsible positions. He was closely associated with William of Wykeham, and while the latter was in power as chancellor, Brantingham was lord treasurer (1369-1371, and 1377-1381), being made bishop of Exeter in 1370. He continued to play a prominent part in public affairs under Richard II., and in 1389 was again lord treasurer for a few months. He died in 1394 and was buried in Exeter cathedral.

BRANTÔME, PIERRE DE BOURDEILLE,Seigneur and Abbé de(c.1540-1614), French historian and biographer, was born in Périgord about 1540. He was the third son of the baron de Bourdeille. His mother and his maternal grandmother were both attached to the court of Marguerite of Valois, and at her death in 1549 he went to Paris, and later (1555) to Poitiers, to finish his education. He was given several benefices, the most important of which was the abbey of Brantôme (see below), but he had no inclination for an ecclesiastical career. At an early age he entered the profession of arms. He showed himself a brave soldier, and was brought into contact with most of the great leaders who were seeking fame or fortune in the wars that distracted the continent. He travelled much in Italy; in Scotland, where he accompanied Mary Stuart (then the widow of Francis I.); in England, where he saw Queen Elizabeth (1561, 1579); in Morocco (1564); and in Spain and Portugal. He fought on the galleys of the order of Malta, and accompanied his great friend, the French commander Philippe Strozzi (grandson of Filippo Strozzi, the Italian general, and nephew of Piero), in his expedition against Terceira, in which Strozzi was killed (1582). During the wars of religion under Charles IX. he fought in the ranks of the Catholics, but he allowed himself to be won over temporarily by the ideas of thereformers, and though he publicly separated himself from Protestantism it had a marked effect on his mind. A fall from his horse compelled him to retire into private life about 1589, and he spent his last years in writing hisMemoirsof the illustrious men and women whom he had known. He died on the 15th of July 1614.

Brantôme left distinct orders that his manuscript should be printed; a first edition appeared, however, late (1665-1666) and not very complete. Of the later editions the most valuable are: one in 15 volumes (1740); another by Louis Jean Nicolas Monmerqué (1780-1860) in 8 volumes (1821-1824), reproduced in Buchan’sPanthéon littéraire; that of the Bibliothèque elzévirienne, begun (1858) by P. Mérimée and L. Lacour, and finished, with vol. xiii., only in 1893; and Lalanne’s edition for the Société de l’Histoire de France (12 vols., 1864-1896). Brantôme can hardly be regarded as a historian proper, and hisMemoirscannot be accepted as a very trustworthy source of information. But he writes in a quaint conversational way, pouring forth his thoughts, observations or facts without order or system, and with the greatest frankness and naïveté. His works certainly gave an admirable picture of the general court-life of the time, with its unblushing and undisguised profligacy. There is not ahomme illustreor adame galantein all his gallery of portraits who is not stained with vice; and yet the whole is narrated with the most complete unconsciousness that there is anything objectionable in their conduct.

The edition of L. Lalanne has great merit, being the first to indicate the Spanish, Italian and French sources on which Brantôme drew, but it did not utilize all the existing MSS. It was only after Lalanne’s death that the earliest were obtained for the Bibliothèque Nationale. At Paris and at Chantilly (Musée Condé) all Brantôme’s original MSS., as revised by him several times, are now collected (see theBibliothèque de l’école des Chartes, 1904), and a new and definitive edition has therefore become possible. Brantôme’s poems (which amount to more than 2200 verses) were first published in 1881; see Lalanne’s edition.

BRANTÔME,a town of south-western France, in the department of Dordogne, 20 m. N. by W. of Périgueux by steam-tramway. Pop. (1906) 1230. The town is built, in great part, on an island in the river Dronne. It is well known for the remains of an abbey founded by Charlemagne about 770 and afterwards destroyed by the Normans. The oldest existing portion is a square tower dating from the 11th century, built upon a rock beside the church which it overlooks. It communicates by a staircase with the church, a rectangular building partly Romanesque, partly Gothic, to the west of which are the remains of a cloister. The abbey buildings date from the 18th century, and now serve as hôtel-de-ville, magistrature and schools. Caves in the neighbouring rocks were inhabited by the monks before the building of the abbey; one of them, used as an oratory, contains curious carvings, representing the Last Judgment and the Crucifixion. In the middle of the 16th century Pierre de Bourdeille came into possession of the abbey, from which he took the name of Brantôme.

Brantôme has some old houses and a church of the 15th century, which was once fortified and is now used as a market. Truffles are the chief article of commerce; and there are quarries of freestone in the neighbourhood. The dolmen which is known as Pierre-Levée, to the east of the town, is the most remarkable in Périgord.

BRANXHOLM,orBranksome, a feudal castle, now modernized, and an ancient seat of the Buccleuchs, on the Teviot, 3 m. S.W. of Hawick, Roxburgh, Scotland. It was at Branksome Hall that Sir Walter Scott laid the scene ofThe Lay of the Last Minstrel.

BRANXTON,orBrankston, a village of Northumberland, England, 10½ m. E. by N. of Kelso, and 2 m. E.S.E. of Coldstream, and 10 m. N.W. of Wooler. It was on Branxton Hill, immediately south of the village, that the battle of Flodden (q.v.) was fought between the English and the Scots on the 9th of September 1513. During the fight the Scots centre pushed as far as Branxton church, but “the King’s Stone,” which lies N.W. of the church and is popularly supposed to mark the spot where James IV. fell, is some three-quarters of a mile from the scene of the battle; it is believed in reality to mark the sepulchre of a chieftain, whose name had already perished in the 16th century. Branxton church, dedicated to St Paul, was rebuilt in 1849 in Norman style. Of the older building nothing remains save the chancel arch.

BRAOSE, WILLIAM DE(d. 1211), lord of Brecknock, Radnor and Limerick, spent the early part of his life fighting the Welsh in Radnorshire. He was high in King John’s favour, received a large number of honours, and was even given the custody of Prince Arthur. But John and he quarrelled, probably over money (1207). In 1208 John began to suspect the fidelity of the whole family, and William had to fly to Ireland. After a number of attempted reconciliations, he was outlawed (1210) and died at Corbeil (1211). It is said that his wife and son were starved to death by John.

SeeFoedera, i. 107;Histoire des ducs(ed. Michel), Wendover; Kate Norgate’sJohn Lackland.

A descendant, William de Braose (d. 1326), lord of Gower, was a devoted follower of Edward I., and in 1299 was summoned to parliament as baron de Braose; and his nephew Thomas de Braose (d. 1361) also distinguished himself in the wars and was summoned as baron de Braose in 1342. This latter barony became extinct in 1399; but a claim to the barony of William de Braose, which, as he had no son, fell into abeyance between his two daughters and co-heirs, Alina (wife of Lord Mowbray) and Joan (wife of John de Bohun), or their descendants, may still be traced by careful genealogists in various noble English families.

BRASCASSAT, JACQUES RAYMOND(1804-1867), French painter, was born at Bordeaux, and studied art in Paris, where in 1825 he won aprix de Romewith a picture (“Chasse de Méléagre”) now in the Bordeaux gallery. He went to Italy and painted a number of landscapes which were exhibited between 1827 and 1835; but subsequently he devoted himself mainly to animal-painting, in which his reputation as an artist was made. His “Lutte de taureaux” (1837), in themuséeat Nantes, and his “Vache attaquée par des loups” (1845), in the Leipzig museum, were perhaps the best of his pictures; but he was remarkable for his accuracy of observation and correct drawing. He was elected a member of the Institute in 1846. He died at Paris on the 28th of February 1867.

BRAS D’OR,a landlocked and tideless gulf or lake of high irregular outline, 50 m. long by 20 m. broad, almost separating Cape Breton Island (province of Nova Scotia, Canada) into two parts. A ship canal across the isthmus (about 1 m. wide) completes the severance of the island. The entrance to the gulf is on the N.E. coast of the island, and it is connected with the Atlantic by the Great and Little Bras d’Or channels, which are divided by Boulardeire Island. One channel is 25 m. long and from ¼ m. to 3 m. broad, but is of little depth, the other (used by shipping) is 22 m. long, 1 to 1½ m. wide, and has a depth of 60 fathoms. The gulf or lake is itself divided into two basins, the inner waters being known as the Great Bras d’Or Lake. The waters are generally from 12 to 60 fathoms deep, but in the outer basin (known as the Little Bras d’Or Lake) are soundings said to reach nearly 700 ft. The shores of the gulf are very picturesque and well wooded and have attracted many tourists. Sea fishing (cod, mackerel, &c.) is the chief industry. The name is said to be a corruption of an Indian word, but it assumed its present form during the French occupation of Cape Breton Island.

BRASDOR, PIERRE(1721-1799), French surgeon, was born in the province of Maine. He took his degree in Paris as master of surgery in 1752, and was appointed regius professor of anatomy and director of the Academy of Surgery. He was a skilful operator, whose name was long attached to a ligature of his invention; and he was an ardent advocate of inoculation. He died in Paris on the 28th of September 1799.

BRASIDAS(d. 422B.C.), a Spartan officer during the first decade of the Peloponnesian War. He was the son of Tellis and Argileonis, and won his first laurels by the relief of Methone, which was besieged by the Athenians (431B.C.). During thefollowing year he seems to have been eponymous ephor (Xen.Hell. ii. 3, 10), and in 429 he was sent out as one of the three commissioners (σύμβουλοι) to advise the admiral Cnemus. As trierarch he distinguished himself in the assault on the Athenian position at Pylos, during which he was severely wounded (Thuc. iv. n. 12).

In the next year, while Brasidas mustered a force at Corinth for a campaign in Thrace, he frustrated an Athenian attack on Megara (Thuc. iv. 70-73), and immediately afterwards marched through Thessaly at the head of 700 helots and 1000 Peloponnesian mercenaries to join the Macedonian king Perdiccas. Refusing to be made a tool for the furtherance of Perdiccas’s ambitions, Brasidas set about the accomplishment of his main object, and, partly by the rapidity and boldness of his movements, partly by his personal charm and the moderation of his demands, succeeded during the course of the winter in winning over the important cities of Acanthus, Stagirus, Amphipolis and Torone as well as a number of minor towns. An attack on Eion was foiled by the arrival of Thucydides, the historian, at the head of an Athenian squadron. In the spring of 423 a truce was concluded between Athens and Sparta, but its operation was at once imperilled by Brasidas’s refusal to give up Scione, which, the Athenian partisans declared, revolted two days after the truce began, and by his occupation of Mende shortly afterwards. An Athenian fleet under Nicias and Nicostratus recovered Mende and blockaded Scione, which fell two years later (421B.C.). Meanwhile Brasidas joined Perdiccas in a campaign against Arrhabaeus, king of the Lyncesti, who was severely defeated. On the approach of a body of Illyrians, who, though summoned by Perdiccas, unexpectedly declared for Arrhabaeus, the Macedonians fled, and Brasidas’s force was rescued from a critical position only by his coolness and ability. This brought to a head the quarrel between Brasidas and Perdiccas, who promptly concluded a treaty with Athens, of which some fragments have survived (I.G.i. 42).

In April 422 the truce with Sparta expired, and in the same summer Cleon was despatched to Thrace, where he stormed Torone and Galepsus and prepared for an attack on Amphipolis. But a carelessly conducted reconnaissance gave Brasidas the opportunity for a vigorous and successful sally. The Athenian army was routed with a loss of 600 men and Cleon was slain. On the Spartan side only seven men are said to have fallen, but amongst them was Brasidas. He was buried at Amphipolis with impressive pomp, and for the future was regarded as the founder (οἰκιστής) of the city and honoured with yearly games and sacrifices (Thuc. iv. 78-v. 11). At Sparta a cenotaph was erected in his memory near the tombs of Pausanias and Leonidas, and yearly speeches were made and games celebrated in their honour, in which only Spartiates could compete (Paus. in. 14).

Brasidas united in himself the personal courage characteristic of Sparta with those virtues in which the typical Spartan was most signally lacking. He was quick in forming his plans and carried them out without delay or hesitation. With an oratorical power rare amongst the Lacedaemonians he combined a conciliatory manner which everywhere won friends for himself and for Sparta (Thuc. iv. 81).

See in particular Thucydides, ii.-v.; what Diodorus xii. adds is mainly oratorical elaboration or pure invention. A fuller account will be found in the histories of Greece (e.g.those of Grote, Beloch, Busolt, Meyer) and in G. Schimmelpfeng,De Brasidae Spartani rebus gestis atque ingenio(Marburg, 1857).

BRASS,a river, town and district of southern Nigeria, British West Africa. The Brass river is one of the deltaic branches of the Niger, lying east of the Rio Nun or main channel of the river. From the point of divergence from the main stream to the sea the Brass has a course of about 100 m., its mouth being in 6° 20′ E., 4° 35′ N. Brass town is a flourishing trading settlement at the mouth of the river. It is the headquarters of a district commissioner and the seat of a native court. Its most conspicuous building is a fine church, the gift of a native chief. The capital of the Brass tribes is Nimbé, 30 m. up river.

The Brass river, called by its Portuguese discoverers the Rio Bento, is said to have received its English name from the brass rods and other brass utensils imported by the early traders in exchange for palm-oil and slaves. The Brass natives, of the pure negro type, were noted for their savage character. In 1856 their chiefs concluded a treaty with Great Britain agreeing to give up the slave-trade in exchange for a duty on the palm-oil exported. Finding their profitable business as middlemen between the up-river producer and the exporter threatened by the appearance of European traders, they made ineffective complaints to the British authorities. The establishment of the Royal Niger Company led to further loss of trade, and on the 29th of January 1895 the natives attacked and sacked the company’s station at Akassa on the Rio Nun, over forty prisoners being killed and eaten as a sacrifice to the fetish gods. In the following month a punitive expedition partially destroyed Nimbé, and a heavy fine was paid by the Brass chiefs. Since then the country has settled down under British administration. The trade regulations of which complaint had been made were removed in 1900 on the establishment of the protectorate of Southern Nigeria (seeNigeria).

Valuable information concerning the country and people will be found in theReport by Sir John Kirk on the Disturbances at Brass (Africa, No. 3, 1896).

BRASS(O. Eng.braes), an alloy consisting mainly if not exclusively of copper and zinc; in its older use the term was applied rather to alloys of copper and tin, now known as bronze (q.v.)Thus the brass of the Bible was probably bronze, and so also was much of the brass of later times, until the distinction between zinc and tin became clearly recognized. The Latin wordaessignifies either pure copper or bronze, not brass, but the Romans comprehended a brass compound of copper and zinc under the termorichalcumoraurichalcum, into which Pliny states that copper was converted by the aid of cadmia (a mineral of zinc).

In England there is good evidence of the manufacture of brass with zinc at the end of the 16th century, for Queen Elizabeth by patent granted to William Humfrey and Christopher Schutz the exclusive right of working calamine and making brass. This right subsequently devolved upon a body called the “Governors, Assistants and Societies of the City of London of and for the Mineral and Battery Works,” which continued to exercise its functions down to the year 1710.

When a small percentage of zinc is present, the colour of brass is reddish, as intombacor red brass, which contains about 10%. With about 20% the colour becomes more yellow, and a series of metals is obtained which simulate gold more or less closely; such areDutch metal, Mannheim gold, similarandpinchbeck, the last deriving its name from a London clockmaker, Christopher Pinchbeck, who invented it in 1732. Ordinary brass contains about 30% of zinc, and when 40% is present, as inMuntz, yelloworpatentmetal (invented by G.F. Muntz in 1832), the colour becomes a full yellow. When the proportion of zinc is largely increased the colour becomes silver-white and finally grey. The limit of elasticity increases with the percentage of zinc, as also does the amount of elongation before fracture, the maximum occurring with 30%. The tenacity increases with the proportion of zinc up to a maximum with 45%; then it decreases rapidly, and with 50% the metals are fragile. By varying the proportion between 30 and 43% a series of alloys may be prepared presenting very varied properties. The most malleable of the series has an elongation of about 60%, with a tensile strength of 17.5 tons per sq. in. Increase in the proportion of zinc gives higher tensile strength, accompanied, however, by a smaller percentage of elongation and a materially increased tendency to produce unsound castings. The quality of copper-zinc alloys is improved by the addition of a small quantity of iron, a fact of which advantage is taken in the production of Aich’s metal and delta metal. Of the latter there are several varieties, modified in composition to suit different purposes. Some of them possess high tensile strength and ductility. They are remarkably resistant to corrosion by sea-water, and are well suited for screw-propellers as well as for pump-plungers, pistons and glands. Heated to a dull red delta metal becomes malleableand can be worked under the hammer, press or stamps. By such treatment an ultimate tensile strength of 30 tons per sq. in. may be obtained, with an elongation of 32% in 2 in. and a contraction of area of 30%.

In the arts brass is a most important and widely used alloy. As compared with copper its superior hardness makes it wear better, while being more fusible it can be cast with greater facility. It is readily drawn into fine wire, and formed into rolled sheets and rods which are machined into a huge number of useful and ornamental articles. It is susceptible of a fine polish, but tarnishes with exposure to the air; the brilliancy of the surface can, however, be preserved if the metal is thoroughly cleansed by “dipping” in nitric acid and “lacquered” with a coating of varnish consisting of seed-lac dissolved in spirit.

BRASSES, MONUMENTAL,a species of engraved sepulchral memorials which in the early part of the 13th century began to take the place of tombs and effigies carved in stone. Made of hardlattenor sheet brass, let into the pavement, and thus forming no obstruction in the space required for the services of the church, they speedily came into general use, and continued to be a favourite style of sepulchral memorial for three centuries. Besides their great value as historical monuments, they are interesting as authentic contemporary evidence of the varieties of armour and costume, or the peculiarities of palaeography and heraldic designs, and they are often the only authoritative records of the intricate details of family history. Although the intrinsic value of the metal has unfortunately contributed to the wholesale spoliation of these interesting monuments, they are still found in remarkable profusion in England, and they were at one time equally common in France, Germany and the Low Countries. In France, however, those that survived the troubles of the 16th century were totally swept away during the reign of terror, and almost the only evidence of their existence is now supplied by the collection of drawings bequeathed by Gough to the Bodleian library. The fine memorials of the royal house of Saxony in the cathedrals of Meissen and Freiberg are the most artistic and striking brasses in Germany. Among the 13th-century examples existing in German churches are the full-length memorials of Yso von Welpe, bishop of Verden (1231), and of Bernard, bishop of Paderborn (1340). Many fine Flemish specimens exist in Belgium, especially at Bruges. Only two or three examples, and these of late date, are known in Scotland, among which are the memorials of Alexander Cockburn (1564) at Ormiston; of the regent Murray (1569) in the collegiate church of St Giles, Edinburgh; and of the Minto family (1605) in the south aisle of the nave of Glasgow cathedral. England is the only country which now possesses an extensive series of these interesting memorials, of which it is calculated that there may be about 4000 still remaining in the various churches. They are most abundant in the eastern counties, and this fact has been frequently adduced in support of the opinion that they were of Flemish manufacture. But in the days when sepulchral brasses were most in fashion the eastern counties of England were full of commercial activity and wealth, and nowhere do the engraved memorials of civilians and prosperous merchants more abound than in the churches of Ipswich, Norwich, Lynn and Lincoln. Flemish brasses do occur in England, but they were never numerous, and they are readily distinguished from those of native workmanship. The Flemish examples have the figures engraved in the centre of a large plate, the background filled in with diapered or scroll work, and the inscription placed round the edge of the plate. The English examples have the figures cut out to the outline and inserted in corresponding cavities in the slab, the darker colour of the stone serving as a background. This is not an invariable distinction, however, as “figure-brasses” of Flemish origin are found both at Bruges and in England. But the character of the engraving is constant, the Flemish work being more florid in design, the lines shallower, and the broad lines cut with a chisel-pointed tool instead of the lozenge-shaped burin. The brass of Robert Hallum, bishop of Salisbury, the envoy of Henry V. to the council of Constance, who died and was interred there in 1416, precisely resembles the brasses of England in the peculiarities which distinguish them from continental specimens. Scarcely any of the brasses which now exist in England can be confidently referred to the first half of the 13th century, though several undoubted examples of this period are on record. The full-sized brass of Sir John d’Aubernon at Stoke d’Abernon in Surrey (c. 1277) has the decorations of the shield filled in with a species of enamel. Other examples of this occur, and the probability is, that, in most cases, the lines of the engraving were filled with colouring-matter, though brass would scarcely bear the heat requisite to fuse the ordinary enamels. A well-known 13th-century example is that of Sir Roger de Trumpington (c. 1290), who accompanied Prince Edward in his expedition to Palestine and is represented cross-legged. About half a dozen instances of this peculiarity are known. The 14th-century brasses are much more numerous, and present a remarkable variety in their details. The finest specimen is that of Nicholas Lord Burnell (1315) in the church of Acton Burnell, Shropshire. In the 15th century the design and execution of monumental brasses had attained their highest excellence. The beautiful brass of Thomas Beauchamp, earl of Warwick (d. 1401), and his wife Margaret, which formerly covered the tomb in St Mary’s church, Warwick, is a striking example. One of the best specimens of plate armour is that of Sir Robert Stantoun (1458) in Castle Donnington church, Leicestershire, and one of the finest existing brasses of ecclesiastics is that of Abbot de la Mare of St Albans. It is only in the 16th century that the engraved representations become portraits. Previous to that period the features were invariably represented conventionally, though sometimes personal peculiarities were given. A large number of brasses in England arepalimpsests, the back of an ancient brass having been engraved for the more recent memorial. Thus a brass commemorative of Margaret Bulstrode (1540) at Hedgerley, on being removed from its position, was discovered to have been previously the memorial of Thomas Totyngton, abbot of St Edmunds, Bury (1312). The abbey was only surrendered to Henry VIII. in 1539, so that before the year was out the work of spoliation had begun, and the abbot’s brass had been removed and re-engraved to Margaret Bulstrode. In explanation of the frequency with which ancient brasses have thus been stolen and re-erected after being engraved on the reverse, as at Berkhampstead, it may be remarked that all the sheet brass used in England previous to the establishment of a manufactory at Esher by a German in 1649, had to be imported from the continent.

Plate I.

Plate II.

Authorities.—(1) General:Manual for the Study of Monumental Brasses(Oxford, 1848); Boutell’sMonumental Brasses of England, engravings on wood, folio (London, 1849);Manual of Monumental Brasses, by H. Haines (2 vols. 8vo, 1861); Waller’sSeries of Monumental Brasses in England(London and Oxford, Parkers, 1863);Monumental Brasses, by H.W. Macklin (8vo, 1890);The Brasses of England, by H.W. Macklin (8vo, London, 1907). (2) English Counties: Cotman’sEngravings of the most Remarkable of the Sepulchral Brasses of Norfolk(4to, London, 1813-1816); and second edition, with plates and notes by Meyrick, Albert Way and Sir Harris Nicholas (2 vols. folio, London, 1839);Illustrations of Monumental Brasses in Cambridge(4to, Camden Society, 1846);Monumental Brasses of Northamptonshire, by F. Hudson (folio, 1853);The Monumental Brasses of Wiltshire, by G. Kite (8vo, London, 1860);Architectural and Historical Notes of the Churches of Cambridgeshire, by A.C. Hill (8vo, 1880);Monumental Brasses of Cornwall, by E.H.W. Dunken (4to, London, 1882);Monumental Brasses of Worcestershire and Herefordshire, ed. by C.T. Davis (1884);Kentish Brasses, by W.D. Belcher (4to, London, 1888);List of Monumental Brasses in the County of Norfolk, by the Rev. E. Farrer (Norwich, 1890);The Monumental Brasses of Lancashire and Cheshire, by James Thornby (8vo, Hull, 1893);Monumental Brasses in the Bedfordshire Churches, by Grace Isherwood (8vo, London, 1906), a large collection of rubbings of special interest and value. (3) Foreign:Monumental Brasses and Incised Slabs in Belgium(8vo, 1849);Books of Facsimiles of Monumental Brasses of the Continent of Europe, folio (1884), by the Rev. W.F. Greeny.

BRASSEUR DE BOURBOURG, CHARLES ÉTIENNE(1814-1874), Belgian ethnographer, was born at Bourbourg, near Dunkirk, on the 8th of September 1814. He entered the Roman Catholic priesthood, was professor of ecclesiastical history in the Quebec seminary in 1845, vicar-general at Boston in 1846, and from 1848 to 1863 travelled as a missionary, chiefly in Mexicoand Central America. He gave great attention to Mexican antiquities, published in 1857-1859 a history of Aztec civilization, and from 1861 to 1864 edited a collection of documents in the indigenous languages. In 1863 he announced the discovery of a key to Mexican hieroglyphic writing, but its value is very questionable. In 1864 he was archaeologist to the French military expedition in Mexico, and hisMonuments anciens du Mexiquewas published by the French Government in 1866. Perhaps his greatest service was the publication in 1861 of a French translation of thePopol Vuh, a sacred book of the Quiché Indians, together with a Quiché grammar, and an essay on Central American mythology. In 1871 he brought out hisBibliothèque Mexico-Guatemalienne, and in 1869-1870 gave the principles of his decipherment of Indian picture-writing in hisManuscrit Troano, études sur le système graphique et la langue des Mayas.He died at Nice on the 8th of January 1874. His chief merit is his diligent collection of materials; his interpretations are generally fanciful.

BRASSEY, THOMAS(1805-1870), English railway contractor, was born at Buerton, near Chester, on the 7th of November 1805. His father, besides cultivating land of his own, held a large farm of the marquess of Westminster; his ancestors, according to family tradition, having been settled for several centuries at Bulkeley, near Malpas, Cheshire, before they went to Buerton in 1663. Thomas Brassey received an ordinary commercial education at a Chester school. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to a surveyor, and on the completion of his term became the partner of his master, eventually assuming the sole management of the business. In the local surveys to which he devoted his attention during his early years he acquired the knowledge and practical experience which were the necessary foundation of his great reputation. His first engagement as railway contractor was entered upon in 1835, when he undertook the execution of a portion of the Grand Junction railway, on the invitation of the distinguished engineer Joseph Locke, who soon afterwards entrusted him with the completion of the London and Southampton railway, a task which involved contracts to the amount of £4,000,000 sterling and the employment of a body of 3000 men. At the same time he was engaged on portions of several other lines in the north of England and in Scotland. In conjunction with his partner, W. Mackenzie, Brassey undertook, in 1840, the construction of the railway from Paris to Rouen, of which Locke was engineer. He subsequently carried out the extension of the same line. A few years later he was engaged with his partner on five other French lines, and on his own account on the same number of lines in England, Wales and Scotland. Brassey was now in control of an industrial army of 75,000 men, and the capital involved in his various contracts amounted to some £36,000,000. But his energy and capacity were equal to still larger tasks. He undertook in 1851 other works in England and Scotland; and in the following year he engaged in the construction of railways in Holland, Prussia, Spain and Italy. One of his largest undertakings was the Grand Trunk railway of Canada, 1100 m. in length, with its fine bridge over the St Lawrence. In this work he was associated with Sir M. Peto and E.L. Betts. In the following years divisions of his industrial army were found in almost every country in Europe, in India, in Australia and in South America. Besides actual railway works, he originated and maintained a great number of subordinate assistant establishments, coal and iron works, dockyards, &c., the direction of which alone would be sufficient to strain the energies of an ordinary mind. His profits were, of course, enormous, but prosperity did not intoxicate him; and when heavy losses came, as sometimes they did, he took them bravely and quietly. Among the greatest of his pecuniary disasters were those caused by the fall of the great Barentin viaduct on the Rouen and Havre railway, and by the failure of Peto and Betts. Brassey was one of the first to aim at improving the relations between engineers and contractors, by setting himself against the corrupt practices which were common. He resolutely resisted the “scamping” of work and the bribery of inspectors, and what he called the “smothering of the engineer”; and he did much in this way to bring about a better state of things. Large-hearted and generous to a rare degree, modest and simple in his taste and manners, he was conscious of his power as a leader in his calling, and knew how to use it wisely and for noble ends. Honours came to him unsought. The cross of the Legion of Honour was conferred on him. From Victor Emmanuel he received the cross of the Order of St Maurice and St Lazarus; and from the emperor of Austria the decoration of the Iron Crown, which it is said had not before been given to a foreigner. He died at St Leonards on the 8th of December 1870. His life and labours are commemorated in a volume by Sir Arthur Helps (1872).

He left three sons, of whom the eldest,Thomas(b. 1836), was knighted and afterwards (1886) createdBaron Brassey. Lord Brassey, who was educated at Rugby and Oxford, entered parliament as a liberal in 1865, and devoted himself largely to naval affairs. He was civil lord of the admiralty (1880-1883), and secretary to the admiralty (1883-1885); and both before and after his elevation to the peerage did important work on naval and statistical inquiries for the government. In 1893-1805 he was president of the Institution of Naval Architects. In 1894 he was a lord-in-waiting, and from 1895 to 1900 was governor of Victoria. In 1908 he was appointed lord warden of the Cinque Ports. His voyages in his yacht “Sunbeam” from 1876 onwards, with his first wife (d. 1887), who published an interesting book on the subject, took him all over the world. Lord Brassey married a second time in 1890. Among other publications, his inauguration of theNaval Annual(1886 onwards), and his volumes onThe British Navy, are the most important. His eldest son Thomas, who edited theNaval Annual(1890-1904), and unsuccessfully contested several parliamentary constituencies, was born in 1862.

BRASSÓ(Ger.Kronstadt; Rumanian,Braşov), a town of Hungary, in Transylvania, 206 m. S.E. of Kolozsvár by rail. Pop. (1900) 34,511. It is the capital of the comitat (county) of the same name, also known as Burzenland, a fertile country inhabited by an industrious population of Germans, Magyars and Rumanians. Brassó is beautifully situated on the slopes of the Transylvanian Alps, in a narrow valley, shut in by mountains, and presenting only one opening on the north-west towards the Burzen plain. The town is entirely dominated by the Zinne of Kapellenberg, a mountain rising 1276 ft. above the town (total altitude 3153 ft.), from which a beautiful view is obtained of the lofty mountains around and of the carefully cultivated plain of the Burzenland, dotted with tastefully built and well-kept villages. On the summit of the mountain is one of the numerous monuments erected in 1896 in different parts of the country to commemorate the thousandth anniversary of the foundation of the Hungarian state. It is known as Árpád’s Monument, and consists of a Doric column erected on a circular pedestal, which supports the bronze figure of a warrior from the time of Árpád.

Brassó consists of the inner town, which is the commercial centre, and the suburbs of Blumenau, Altstadt and Obere Vorstadt or Bolgárszeg, inhabited respectively by Germans, Magyars and Rumanians. To the east of the inner town rises the Schlossberg, crowned by the citadel, which was erected in 1553, and constitutes the principal remaining fragment of the old fortifications with which Brassó was encircled. The most interesting building in the town is the Protestant church, popularly called the Black Church, owing to its smoke-stained walls, caused by the great fire of 1689. This church, the finest in Transylvania, is a Gothic edifice with traces of Romanesque influence, and was built in 1385-1425. In the square in front of it is the statue of Johannes Honterus (1498-1549), “the apostle of Transylvania,” who was born in Brassó, and established here the first printing-press in Transylvania. In the principal square of the inner town stands the town hall, built in 1420 and restored in the 18th century, with a tower 190 ft. high. Brassó is the most important commercial and manufacturing town of Transylvania. Lying near the frontier of Rumania, with easy access through the Tömös pass, it developed from the earliest time anactive trade with that country and with the whole of the Balkan states. Its chief industries are iron and copper works, wool-spinning, turkey-red dyeing, leather goods, paper, cement and petroleum refineries. The timber industry in all its branches, with a speciality for the manufacture of the wooden bottles largely used by the peasantry in Hungary and in the Balkan states, as well as the dairy industry, and ham-curing are also fully developed. A peculiarity of Brassó, which constitutes a survival of the old methods of trade with the Balkan states, is the number of money-changers who ply their trade at small movable tables in the market-place and in the open street. Brassó is the most populous town of Transylvania, and its population is composed in about equal numbers of Germans, Magyars and Rumanians. The town, especially on market days, presents an animated and picturesque aspect. Here are seen Germans, Szeklers, Magyars, Rumanians, Armenians and Gipsies, each of them wearing their distinctive national costume, and talking and bargaining in their own special idiom.

Amongst the places of interest round Brassó is the watering-place Zaizon, 15 m. to the east, with ferruginous and iodine waters; while about 17 m. to the south-west lies the pretty Rumanian village of Zernest, where in 1690 the Austrian general Heussler was defeated and taken prisoner by Imre (Emerich) Tököly, the usurper of the Transylvanian throne.

Brassó was founded by the Teutonic Order in 1211, and soon became a flourishing town. Through the activity of Honterus it played a leading part in the introduction of the Reformation in Transylvania in the 16th century. The town was almost completely destroyed by the big fire of 1689. During the revolution of 1848-1849 it was besieged by the Hungarians under General Bern from March to July 1849, and several engagements between the Austrian and the Hungarian troops took place in its neighbourhood.

BRATHWAIT, RICHARD(1588-1673), English poet, son of Thomas Brathwait, was born in 1588 at his father’s manor of Burneshead, near Kendal, Westmorland. He entered Oriel College, Oxford, in 1604, and remained there for some years, pursuing the study of poetry and Roman history. He removed to Cambridge to study law and afterwards to London to the Inns of Court. Thomas Brathwait died in 1610, and the son went down to live on the estate he inherited from his father. In 1617 he married Frances Lawson of Nesham, near Darlington. On the death of his elder brother, Sir Thomas Brathwait, in 1618, Richard became the head of the family, and an important personage in the county, being deputy-lieutenant and justice of the peace. In 1633 his wife died, and in 1639 he married again. His only son by this second marriage, Sir Stafford Brathwait, was killed in a sea-fight against the Algerian pirates. Richard Brathwait’s most famous work isBarnabae Itinerarium or Barnabees Journall[1638], by “Corymbaeus,” written in English and Latin rhyme. The title-page says it is written for the “travellers’ solace” and is to be chanted to the old tune of “Barnabe.” The story of “drunken Barnabee’s” four journeys to the north of England contains much amusing topographical information, and its gaiety is unflagging. Barnabee rarely visits a town or village without some notice of an excellent inn or a charming hostess, but he hardly deserves the epithet “drunken.” At Banbury he saw the Puritan who has become proverbial,

“Hanging of his cat on MondayFor killing of a Mouse on Sunday.”

“Hanging of his cat on Monday

For killing of a Mouse on Sunday.”

Brathwait’s identity with “Corymbaeus” was first established by Joseph Haslewood. In his later years he removed to Catterick, where he died on the 4th of May 1673. Among his other works are:The Golden Fleece(1611), with a second title-page announcing “sonnets and madrigals,” and a treatise on theArt of Poesy, which is not preserved;The Poets Willow; or the Passionate Shepheard(1614);The Prodigals Teares(1614);The Schollers Medley, or an intermixt Discourse upon Historicall and Poeticall relations(1614), known in later editions as aSurvey of History(1638, &c.); a collection of epigrams and satires entitledA Strappado for the Divell(1615), with which was published incongruouslyLoves Labyrinth(edited, 1878, by J.W. Ebsworth);Natures Embassie; or, the wildemans measures; danced naked by twelve satyres(1621), thirty satires finding antique parallels for modern vices; with these are bound upThe Shepheards Tales(1621), a collection of pastorals, one section of which was reprinted by Sir Egerton Brydges in 1815; two treatises on manners,The English Gentleman(1630) andThe English Gentlewoman(1631);Anniversaries upon his Panarete(1634), a poem in memory of his wife;Essaies upon the Five Senses(1620);The Psalmes of David ... and other holy Prophets, paraphras’d in English(1638);A Comment upon Two Tales of ... Jeffray Chaucer(1665; edited for the Chaucer Soc. by C. Spurgeon, 1901). Thomas Hearne, on whose testimony (MS. collections for the year 1713, vol. 47, p. 127) the authorship of theItinerariumchiefly rests, not inappropriately called him “the scribler of those times,” and the list just given of his works, published under various pseudonyms, is by no means complete.

Back to Index Next