(L. F. V.-H.)
BRÉAL, MICHEL JULES ALFRED(1832- ), French philologist, was born on the 26th of March 1832, at Landau in Rhenish Bavaria, of French parents. After studying at Weissenburg, Metz and Paris, he entered the École Normale in 1852. In 1857 he went to Berlin, where he studied Sanskrit under Bopp and Weber. On his return to France he obtained an appointment in the department of oriental MSS. at the Bibliothèque Impériale. In 1864 he became professor of comparative grammar at the Collège de France, in 1875 member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, in 1879inspecteur-généralof public instruction for higher schools until the abolition of the office in 1888. In 1890 he was made commander of the Legion of Honour. Among his works, which deal mainly with mythological and philological subjects, may be mentioned:L’Étude des origines de la religion Zoroastrienne(1862), for which a prize was awarded him by the Académie des Inscriptions;Hercule et Cacus(1863), in which he disputes the principles of the symbolic school in the interpretation of myths;Le Mythe d’Oedipe(1864);Les Tables Eugubines(1875);Mélanges de mythologie et de linguistique(2nd. ed., 1882);Leçons de mots(1882,1886),Dictionnaire étymologique latin(1885) andGrammaire latine(1890). HisEssai de Sémantique(1897), on the signification of words, has been translated into English by Mrs H. Cust with preface by J.P. Postgate. His translation of Bopp’sComparative Grammar(1866-1874), with introductions, is highly valued. He has also written pamphlets on education in France, the teaching of ancient languages, and the reform of French orthography. In 1906 he publishedPour mieux connaître Homère.
BREAM(Abramis), a fish of the Cyprinid family, characterized by a deep, strongly compressed body, with short dorsal and long anal fins, the latter with more than sixteen branched rays, and the small inferior mouth. There are two species in the British Isles, the common bream,A. brama, reaching a length of 2 ft. and a weight of 12 ℔, and the white bream or bream flat,A. blicca, a smaller and, in most places, rarer species. Both occur in slow-running rivers, canals, ponds and reservoirs. Bream are usually despised for the table in England, but fish from large lakes, if well prepared, are by no means deserving of ostracism. In the days of medieval abbeys, when the provident Cistercian monks attached great importance to pond culture, they gave the first place to the tench and bream, the carp still being unknown in the greater part of Europe. At the present day, the poorer Jews in large English cities make a great consumptionof bream—and other Cyprinids, most of them being imported alive from Holland and sold in the Jewish fish markets. In America the name bream is commonly given to the golden shiner minnow (Abramis chrysoleucus), to the pumpkin-seed sunfish (Eupomotis gibbosus), and to some kinds of porgy (Sparidae).
BREAST(a word common to Teutonic languages, of the Ger.Brust, possibly connected with an O. Sax.brustian, to bud), the term properly confined to the external projecting parts of the thorax in females, which contain the mammary glands (for anatomy, and diseases, seeMammary Gland); more generally it is used of the external part of the thorax in animals, including man, lying between the neck and the abdomen.
BREAUTÉ, FALKES DE(d. 1226), one of the foreign mercenaries of King John of England, from whom he received in marriage the heiress of the earldom of Devon. On the outbreak of the Barons’ War (1215) the king gave him the sheriffdoms of six midland shires and the custody of many castles. He fulfilled his military duties with as much skill as cruelty. The royalists owed to his daring the decisive victory of Lincoln (1217). But after the death of William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, Falkes joined the feudal opposition in conspiring against Hubert de Burgh. Deprived in 1223 of most of his honours, he was drawn into a rebellion by the imprudence of his brother, who captured a royal justice and threw him into prison (1224). Falkes was allowed to go into exile after his submission, and endeavoured to obtain a pardon through the mediation of Pope Honorius III. But this was refused, and Falkes died at St Cyriac in 1226.
See Shirley,Royal Letters, vol. i.; thePatentandClose Rolls; Pauli,Geschichte von England, vol. i. pp. 540-545.
See Shirley,Royal Letters, vol. i.; thePatentandClose Rolls; Pauli,Geschichte von England, vol. i. pp. 540-545.
(H. W. C. D.)
BRECCIA,in petrology, the name given to rocks consisting of angular fragments embedded in a matrix. They may be composed of volcanic rocks, limestones, siliceous charts, sandstones, in fact of any kind of material, and the matrix, which usually corresponds to some extent to the fragments it encloses, may be siliceous, calcareous, argillaceous, &c. The distinctive character of the group is the sharp-edged and unworn shapes of the fragments; in conglomerates the pebbles are rounded and water-worn, having been transported by waves and currents from some distance. There are many ways in which breccias may originate. Some are formed by ordinary processes of atmospheric erosion; frost, rain and gravity break up exposed surfaces of rock and detach pieces of all sizes; in this way screes are formed at the bases of cliffs, and barren mountain-tops are covered with broken debris. If such accumulations gather and are changed into hard rock by pressure and other indurating agencies they make typical breccias. Conglomerates often pass into rocks of this type, the difference being merely that the fragments are of purely local origin, and are unworn because they have not been transported. In caves breccias of limestone are produced by the collapse of part of the roof, covering the floor with broken masses. Coral reefs often contain extensive areas of limestone breccia, formed of detached pieces of rock which have been dislodged from the surface and have been carried down the steep external slopes of the reef. Volcanic breccias are very common near active or extinct craters, as sudden outbursts of steam bear fragments from the older rocks and scatter them over the ground.
Another group of breccias is due to crushing; these are produced in fissures, faults and veins, below the surface, and maybe described as “crush-breccias” and “friction-breccias.” Very important and well-known examples of this class occur as veinstones, which may be metalliferous or not. A fissure is formed, probably by slight crustal movements, and is subsequently filled with material deposited from solution (quartz, calcite, barytes, &c.). Very often displacement of the walls again takes place, and the infilling or “veinstone” is torn apart and brecciated. It may then be cemented together by a further introduction of mineral matter, which may be the same as that first deposited or quite different. In important veins this process is often repeated several times: detached pieces of the country rock are mingled with the shattered veinstone, and generally experience alteration by the percolating mineral solutions. Other crush-breccias occurring on a much larger scale are due to the folding of strata which have unequal plasticities. If, for example, shales and sandstones are bent into a series of arches, the sandstones being harder and more resistant will tend to crack, while the shales, which are soft and flow under great pressures, are injected into the crevices and separate the broken pieces from one another. Continued movement will give the brecciated fragments of sandstone a rounded form by rubbing them against one another, and, in this way, a crush-conglomerate is produced. Great masses of limestone in the Alps, Scottish Highlands, and all regions of intense folding are thus converted into breccias. Cherts frequently also show this structure; igneous rocks less commonly do so; but it is perhaps most common where there have been thin bedded alternations of rocks of different character, such as limestone and dolerite, limestone and quartzite, shale or phyllite and sandstone. Fault-breccias closely resemble vein-breccias, except that usually their fragments consist principally of the rocks which adjoin the fault and not of mineral deposits introduced in solution; but many veins occupy faults, and hence no hard and fast line can be drawn between these types of breccia.
A third group of breccias is due to movement in a partly consolidated igneous rock, and may be called “fluxion-breccias.” Lava streams, especially when they consist of rhyolite, dacite and some kinds of andesite, may rapidly solidify, and then become exceedingly brittle. If any part of the mass is still liquid, it may break up the solid crust by pressure from within and the angular fragments are enveloped by the fluid lava. When the whole comes to rest and cools, it forms a typical “volcanic-fluxion-breccia.” The same phenomena are sometimes exemplified in intrusive sills and sheets. The fissures which are occupied by igneous dikes may be the seat of repeated injections following one another at longer or shorter intervals; and the latter may shatter the earlier dike rocks, catching up the fragments. Among the older formations, especially when decomposition has gone on extensively, these fluxion and injection-breccias are often very hard to distinguish from the commoner volcanic-breccias and ash-beds, which have been produced by weathering, or by the explosive power of superheated steam.
(J. S. F.)
BRECHIN,a royal, municipal and police burgh of Forfarshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 8941. It lies on the left bank of the South Esk, 7¾ m. west of Montrose, and has a station on the loop line of the Caledonian railway from Forfar to Bridge of Dun. Brechin is a prosperous town, of great antiquity, having been the site of a Culdee abbey. The Danes are said to have burned the town in 1012. David I. erected it into a bishopric in 1150, and it is still a see of the Episcopal Church of Scotland. In 1452 the earl of Huntly crushed the insurrection led by the earl of Crawford at the battle of Brechin Muir, and in 1645 the town and castle were harried by the marquis of Montrose. James VI. gave a grant for founding a hospital in the burgh, which yet supplies the council with funds for charity. No trace remains of the old walls and gates of the town, but the river is crossed by a two-arched stone bridge of very early date. The cathedral church of the Holy Trinity belongs to the 13th century. It is in the Pointed style, but suffered maltreatment in 1806 at the hands of restorers, whose work, however, disappeared during the restoration completed in 1902. The western gable with its flamboyant window and Gothic door and the massive square tower are all that is left of the original edifice. The modern stained glass in the chancel is reckoned amongst the finest in Scotland. Immediately adjoining the cathedral to the south-west stands the Round Tower, built about 1000. It is 86¾ ft. high, has at the base a circumference of 50 ft. and a diameter of 16 ft., and is capped with a hexagonal spire of 18 ft., which was added in the 15th century. This type of structure is somewhat common in Ireland, but the only Scottish examples are those at Brechin, Abernethy in Perthshire, and Egilshay in the Orkneys. Brechin Castle played a prominent part in the Scottish War of Independence. In 1303 it withstood for twenty days a siege inforce by the English under Edward I., surrendering only when its governor, Sir Thomas Maule, had been slain. From the Maule family it descended to the Dalhousies. Its library contains many important MSS., among them Burns’s correspondence with George Thomson, and several cartularies including those of St Andrews and Brechin. In the Vennel (alley or small street) some ruins remain of themaison dieu, orhospitium, founded in 1256 by William of Brechin. Besides these historical buildings the principal public structures include Smith’s school, the municipal buildings, the free library, the episcopal library (founded by Bishop Forbes, who, as well as Bishop Abernethy-Drummond, presented a large number of volumes). The principal industries include manufactures of linen and sailcloth, bleaching, rope-making, brewing, distilling, paper-making, in addition to nurseries and freestone quarries. Brechin—which is controlled by a provost, bailies and council—unites with Arbroath, Forfar, Inverbervie and Montrose to return one member to parliament.
Edzell (pronounced Edyell, and, locally, Aigle) lies about 6 m. north of Brechin, with which it is connected by rail. It is situated on the North Esk and near the West Water, which falls into the Esk 2 m. south-west. Edzell is on the threshold of romantic Highland scenery. The picturesque ruins of Edzell Castle lie a mile to the west of the town. Once the seat of the Lindsays the estate now belongs to the earl of Dalhousie. The church of the parish of Farnell, 3½ m. south-east of Brechin, was erected in 1806 after the model, so it is stated, of the famous Holy House (Casa Santa) of Loreto in Italy. It was here that the old sculptured stone giving a version of the Fall was found. Between Farnell and Brechin lies Kinnaird Castle, the seat of the earl of Southesk.
BRECKINRIDGE, JOHN CABELL(1821-1875), American soldier and political leader, was born near Lexington, Kentucky, on the 21st of January 1821. He was a member of a family prominent in the public life of Kentucky and the nation. His grandfather, John Breckinridge (1760-1806), who revised Jefferson’s draft of the “Kentucky Resolutions” of 1798, was a United States senator from Kentucky in 1801-1805 and attorney-general in President Jefferson’s cabinet in 1805-1806. His uncles, John Breckinridge (1797-1841), professor of pastoral theology in the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1836-1838 and for many years after secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, and Robert Jefferson Breckinridge (1800-1871), for several years superintendent of public instruction in Kentucky, an important factor in the organization of the public school system of the state, a professor from 1853 to 1871 in the Danville Presbyterian Theological Seminary at Danville, Kentucky, and the temporary chairman of the national Republican convention of 1864, were both prominent clergymen of the Presbyterian Church. His cousin, William Campbell Preston Breckinridge (1837-1904), was a Democratic representative in Congress from 1885 to 1893. Another cousin, Joseph Cabell Breckinridge (1842- ), served on the Union side in the Civil War, was a major-general of volunteers during the Spanish-American War (1898), became a major-general in the regular United States army in 1903, and was inspector-general of the United States army from 1899 until his retirement from active service in 1904.
John Cabell Breckinridge graduated in 1838 at Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, continued his studies at Princeton, and then studied law at Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky. He practised law in Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1840-1841 and in Burlington, Iowa, from 1841 to 1843, and then returned to Kentucky and followed his profession at Lexington. In 1847 he went to Mexico as major in a volunteer regiment, but arrived too late for service in the field. In 1849 he was elected a Democratic member of the Kentucky legislature, and in 1851-1855 he served in the national House of Representatives. President Pierce offered him the position of minister to Spain, but he declined it. In 1856 he was chosen vice-president of the United States on the Buchanan ticket, and although a strong pro-slavery and states rights man, he presided over the Senate with conspicuous fairness and impartiality during the trying years before the Civil War. In 1860 he was nominated for the presidency by the pro-slavery seceders from the Democratic national convention, and received a total of 72 electoral votes, including those of every Southern state except Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri. As vice-president and presiding officer of the Senate, it was his duty to make the official announcement of the election of his opponent, Lincoln. He succeeded John J. Crittenden as United States senator from Kentucky in March 1861, but having subsequently entered the Confederate service he was expelled from the Senate in December 1861. As brigadier-general he commanded the Confederate reserve at Shiloh, and in August 1862 he became major-general. On the 5th of this month he was repulsed in his attack on Baton Rouge, but he won distinction at Stone River (December 31, 1862-January 2, 1863), where his division lost nearly a third of its number. He took part in the battle of Chickamauga, defeated General Franz Sigel at Newmarket, Virginia, on the 15th of May 1864, and then, joined Lee and took part in the battles of Cold Harbor on the 1st and on the 3rd of June. In the autumn he operated in the Shenandoah Valley, and with Early was defeated by Sheridan at Winchester on the 19th of September. Being transferred to the department of South-west Virginia, he fought a number of minor engagements in eastern Tennessee, and in January 1865 became secretary of war for the Confederate States. At the close of the war he escaped to Cuba, and from there went to Europe. In 1868 he returned to the United States and resumed the practice of law at Lexington, Kentucky, where he died on the 17th of May 1875.
BRECON,orBrecknock, a market town and municipal borough, the capital of Breconshire, Wales, 183 m. from London by rail, picturesquely situated nearly in the centre of the county, at the confluence of the Honddu with the Usk. Half a mile higher up the Tarell also falls into the Usk from the south. The ecclesiastical parish of Brecon consists of the two civil parishes of St John the Evangelist and St Mary, both on the left bank of the Usk, while St David’s in Llanfaes is on the other side of the river, and was wholly outside the town walls. Pop. (1901) 5875. There is only one line of railway, over which several companies, however, have running powers, so that the town may be reached by the Brecon & Merthyr railway from Merthyr, Cardiff and Newport, by the Cambrian from Builth Wells, or by the Midland from Hereford and Swansea respectively. The Great Western railway has also a service of road motors between Abergavenny and Brecon. A canal running past Abergavenny connects Brecon with Merthyr.
The Priory church of St John, a massive cruciform building, originally Norman with Early English and Decorated additions, is the finest parish church in Wales, and even taking into account the cathedrals it is according to E.A. Freeman “indisputably the third church not in a state of ruin in the principality,” its choir furnishing “one of the choicest examples of the Early English style.” Previous to the dissolution, a rood-screen bearing a gigantic rood, the object of many pilgrimages, stood to the west of the tower. The church was restored under Sir Gilbert Scott between 1861 and 1875. St Mary’s, in the centre of the town, and St David’s, beyond the Usk, are now mainly modern, though the former has some of the Norman arches of the original church. There is also a Roman Catholic church (St Michael’s) opened in 1851, and chapels belonging to the Baptists, Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists, and to the Congregationalists. In Llanfaes there was formerly a Dominican priory, but in 1542 Henry VIII. granted it with all its possessions to a collegiate church, which was transferred thither from Abergwili, and was given the name of Christ College. Many of the bishops of St David’s during the 17th century occasionally resided here, and several are also buried here. A small part of the revenues went to the maintenance of a grammar-school, but in 1841 the collegiate body was dissolved, and its revenues, then amounting to about £8000 a year, were transferred to the ecclesiastical commissioners. In 1853 Henry VIII.’s charter was repealed, and under a chancery scheme adopted two years later, £1200 a year was appropriated for the school. New schoolbuildings were erected at a cost of about £10,000 in 1862, and these were enlarged at a cost of about £5000 in 1880. The chancel of the old Dominican chapel, dating from the 13th century, was restored in 1864, and is now the school chapel. There is also a Congregationalist theological college, built in 1869 at a cost of £12,000, and now affiliated with the university of Wales. The other chief buildings of the town are the shire hall built in 1842 in the Doric style from designs by T.H. Wyatt; the Guildhall; the barracks, which are the headquarters of two battalions of the South Wales Borderers; the county infirmary founded in 1832; and the prison (in Llanfaes) for the counties of Brecon and Radnor. There is a bronze statue of the duke of Wellington (erected in 1854) by John Evan Thomas, a native of the town. The town commands a magnificent view of the Brecknock Beacons, and is noted for its promenades on the banks of the Usk, and in the priory groves. Brecon is favourably known as a fishing centre, and there is also boating on the Usk and the canal. There are several houses of interest, notably the Priory and Dr Awbrey’s residence (now called Buckingham House), both built about the middle of the 16th century, but the finest specimen is Newton (about a mile out, near Llanfaes) built in 1582 by Sir John Games (a descendant of Sir David Gam), but now a farmhouse. The “Shoulder of Mutton” Inn, now known as the “Siddons Wine Vaults,” was the birthplace in 1755 of Mrs Siddons.
The name Brecknock is an anglicized form of Brycheiniog, the Welsh name of the territory of Brychan (whence the alternative form of Brecon), a Goidelic chieftain, who gained possession of the Usk valley in the 5th century. The Welsh name of the town, on the other hand, has always been Aber-Honddu (the estuary of the Honddu). There is no evidence of any settlement on the site of the present town prior to about 1092, when Bernard Newmarch, after defeating Bleddin ab Maenarch, built here a castle which he made his residence and the chief stronghold of his new lordship. For this purpose he utilized what remained of the materials of the Roman fort, 3 m. to the west, at Y Gaer, which some identify as Bannium. He subsequently founded, near the castle, the Benedictine priory of St John, which he endowed and constituted a cell of Battle Abbey. In time a town grew up outside the castle, and its inhabitants received a series of charters from the de Bohuns, into which family the castle and lordship passed, the earliest recorded charter being granted by Humphrey, 3rd earl of Hereford. Under the patronage of his great-grandson, the last earl of Hereford (who lived in great splendour at the castle), the town became one of the chief centres of trade in South Wales, and a sixteen days’ fair, which he granted, still survives as a hiring fair held in November. Further charters were granted by Henry IV. (who married Hereford’s co-heiress), by Henry V., who gave the town two more fairs, and by the Stafford family, to which the castle and lordship were allotted on the partition of the Bohun estates in 1421. Henry Stafford, 2nd duke of Buckingham, resided a good deal at the castle, and Morton, bishop of Ely, whose custody as a prisoner was entrusted to him, plotted with him there for the dethronement of Richard III., for which Stafford was executed in 1483. His son, Edward, the 3rd duke, who was born in the castle in 1478, had the estates restored to him, but, in 1521, suffered a like fate with his father, and the lordship and castle then vested in the crown. Both were acquired in the next century by the ancestors of Viscount Tredegar, to whom they now belong. By a statute of 1535 Brecon was made the county town of the new shire of Brecknock, and was granted the right of electing one burgess to represent it in parliament, a right which it retained till it was merged in the county representation in 1885. A chancery and exchequer for the counties of Brecknock and Radnor were also established at Brecon Castle, and from 1542 till 1830 the great sessions, and since then the assizes, and at all times the quarter sessions for the county, have been held at Brecon. The borough had also a separate court of quarter sessions till 1835. The town was incorporated by a charter granted by Philip and Mary in 1556 and confirmed by Elizabeth in the nineteenth year of her reign. A charter granted by James II. was never acted upon. The borough was placed under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, and until then the town of Llywel, which is 10 m. off, formed a ward of the borough. There were formerly five trade gilds in the town, the chief industries being cloth and leather manufactures. There are five ancient fairs for stock, and formerly each of them was preceded by a leather fair. The fairs held in May and November were also for hiring, much of the hiring being now done at the Guildhall, and not in the streets as used to be the case.
During the Civil War the greater part of the castle and of the town walls (which with their four gates were until then well preserved) were demolished by the inhabitants in order to prevent the town being either garrisoned or besieged. Charles I., however, stayed a night at the priory house shortly after the battle of Naseby. The chief ruins of the castle are now enclosed in the grounds of the Castle Hotel, the principal object being Ely tower, where Bishop Morton was imprisoned.
Besides those already mentioned the persons of note born in the town include Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham; Dr Hugh Price, founder of Jesus College, Oxford; Dr Thomas Coke, the first Wesleyan missionary bishop in America; and Theophilus Jones, the historian of the county. Henry Vaughan, the Silurist, at one time practised here as a doctor of medicine.
(D. Ll. T.)
BRECONSHIRE,orBrecknockshire, an inland county in South Wales, and the fourth largest in all Wales, bounded N.W. by Cardigan, N. and N.E. by Radnor, E. and S.E. by Monmouth, S. by Glamorgan and W. by Carmarthen. The general aspect of the county is mountainous, and the scenery is marked by beauty and grandeur. The climate is moist but temperate and healthy, and the soil of the valleys, often consisting of rich alluvial deposits, is very fertile. The loftiest mountains in South Wales, extending from Herefordshire and Monmouthshire (where their eastern spurs form the Hatteral Hills) in a south-easterly direction into Carmarthenshire, completely encircle the county on the east and south except for the break formed by the Vale of Usk at Crickhowell. Their highest summit north of the Usk, on the eastern side, where they are known as the Black Mountains, or sometimes the Black Forest Mountains, is Pen y Gader (2624 ft.) between Talgarth and Llanthony, and on the south-west the twin peaks of the Mynydd Du (“Black Mountain”) or the so-called Carmarthenshire Vans or Beacons, only the higher of which, Fan Brycheiniog (2632 ft.), is, however, in Breconshire; while the centre of the crescent is occupied by the masses of the Brecknockshire Beacons or Vans (often called the Beacons simply), the highest point of which, Pen y Fan, formerly also known as Cadair Arthur, or Arthur’s Chair, attains an altitude of 2910 ft. In the north, a range of barren hills, which goes by the general designation of Mynydd Eppynt (a name more properly limited to its central portion), stretches right across the county in a north-easterly direction, beginning with Mynydd Bwlch-y-Groes on the boundary to the east of Llandovery, and terminating near Builth. In the dreary country still farther north there is a series of rounded hills covered with peat and mosses, the chief feature being Drygarn Fawr (2115 ft.) on the confines of Cardiganshire.
Of the valleys, the most distinguished for beauty is that of the Usk, stretching from east to west and dividing the county into two nearly equal portions. The Wye is the chief river, and forms the boundary between the county and Radnorshire on the north and north-east, from Rhayader to Hay, a distance of upwards of 20 m.; its tributary, the Elan, till it receives the Claerwen, and then the latter river, continue the boundary between the two counties on the north, while the Towy separates the county from Cardigan on the north-west. The hilly country to the north of the Eppynt is mainly drained by the Irfon, which falls into the Wye near Builth. The Usk rises in the Carmarthenshire Van on the west, and flowing in a direction nearly due east through the centre of the county, collects the water from the range of the Beacons in the south, and from the Eppynt range in the north by means of numerous smaller streams, of which the Tarell and the Honddu (which join it at Brecon) are the most important, and it enters Monmouthshire near Abergavenny.The Taff, the Nêdd (with its tributaries the Hepste and the Mellte) and the Tawe, all rise on the south of the Beacon range and passing through Glamorganshire, flow into the Bristol Channel, the upper reaches of the Nêdd and its tributaries in the Vale of Neath being deservedly famous for its scenery. The mountains of the county constitute one of the best water-producing areas in Wales. Recognizing this, the corporation of Birmingham, under an act of 1892, acquired the watershed of the Elan and Claerwen, and constructed on the Elan three impounding reservoirs whence the water is conducted through an aqueduct to Birmingham (q.v.). Swansea obtains its chief supply from a reservoir of one thousand million gallons constructed in 1898-1906 on the Cray, a tributary of the Usk. A large industrial area around Neath is supplied from Ystradfellte. Merthyr Tydfil draws its supply from the lesser Taff, while Cardiff’s main supply comes from the Great Taff valley, where, under acts of 1884 and 1894, two reservoirs with a capacity of 668 million gallons have been constructed and a third authorized.
In the east of the county, at the foot of the Black Forest Mountains, is Llyn Safaddan, or Brecknock Mere, now more generally known as Llangorse Lake (from being partly situated in the parish of that name). It is about 3 m. long by 1 m. broad, being the largest lake in South Wales. Upon an artificial island in the lake traces of lake-dwellings were discovered in 1869, together with the bones of red deer, wild boar andBos longifrons.
Geology.—The oldest rocks in Brecknockshire are the Llandeilo shales and intrusive diabases of pre-Llandovery age which near Builth extend across the Wye from Radnorshire; another patch with volcanic outflows comes up at Llanwrtyd, and at both places they give rise to mineral springs. Next follow the Bala Beds, which, with the succeeding Lower and Upper Llandovery shales, sandstones and conglomerates, form the sparsely populated sheepwalks and valleys which occupy most of the north-western part of the county. These rocks are much folded and the shales are locally cleaved into slates, while the sandstones and conglomerates form scarps and ridges. To the south-east of this region a narrow outcrop of Upper Llandovery, Wenlock and Ludlow sandstones and mudstones follows, uncomformably overlying the Llandeilo and Bala rocks, and dipping conformably under the Old Red Sandstone; they extend from Newbridge-on-Wye and Builth through Llangammarch (where there are mineral springs) towards Llandovery, while a tongue of Ludlow rocks brought up by faulting extends from Erwood on the Wye for 8 m. south-westwards into the Old Red Sandstone. The remainder and greater part of the county is occupied chiefly by the gently inclined Old Red Sandstone; in the dissected plateau of the Black Mountains north of Crickhowell the lower marls and cornstones are laid open, while south of Brecon the conglomeratic upper beds form the escarpment and plateaus of the Beacons. The southern edge of the county is formed by the scarps and moorlands of the Carboniferous Limestone and Millstone Grit (both of which form also the outlier of Pen-ceryg-calch north of Crickhowell), while the lowest beds of the Coal Measures of the South Wales coalfield are reached in the Tawe and Neath valleys (where the beds are much folded) and near Tredegar and Brynmawr. Glacial deposits spread over the lower grounds and striae occur at great heights on the Black Mountains.
Geology.—The oldest rocks in Brecknockshire are the Llandeilo shales and intrusive diabases of pre-Llandovery age which near Builth extend across the Wye from Radnorshire; another patch with volcanic outflows comes up at Llanwrtyd, and at both places they give rise to mineral springs. Next follow the Bala Beds, which, with the succeeding Lower and Upper Llandovery shales, sandstones and conglomerates, form the sparsely populated sheepwalks and valleys which occupy most of the north-western part of the county. These rocks are much folded and the shales are locally cleaved into slates, while the sandstones and conglomerates form scarps and ridges. To the south-east of this region a narrow outcrop of Upper Llandovery, Wenlock and Ludlow sandstones and mudstones follows, uncomformably overlying the Llandeilo and Bala rocks, and dipping conformably under the Old Red Sandstone; they extend from Newbridge-on-Wye and Builth through Llangammarch (where there are mineral springs) towards Llandovery, while a tongue of Ludlow rocks brought up by faulting extends from Erwood on the Wye for 8 m. south-westwards into the Old Red Sandstone. The remainder and greater part of the county is occupied chiefly by the gently inclined Old Red Sandstone; in the dissected plateau of the Black Mountains north of Crickhowell the lower marls and cornstones are laid open, while south of Brecon the conglomeratic upper beds form the escarpment and plateaus of the Beacons. The southern edge of the county is formed by the scarps and moorlands of the Carboniferous Limestone and Millstone Grit (both of which form also the outlier of Pen-ceryg-calch north of Crickhowell), while the lowest beds of the Coal Measures of the South Wales coalfield are reached in the Tawe and Neath valleys (where the beds are much folded) and near Tredegar and Brynmawr. Glacial deposits spread over the lower grounds and striae occur at great heights on the Black Mountains.
Industries.—Agriculture is the chief industry, and the Agricultural Society of the county, dating from 1755, is the oldest in Wales. About one-fourth only of the area of the county is under cultivation, and the chief crops grown are wheat and barley, but above all, turnips and oats. The acreage devoted to any other crop is practically infinitesimal, though in the eastern part more attention is paid to fruit-growing than perhaps in any other part of South Wales. The farming is, however, chiefly pastoral, nearly one-third of the county is common or waste land, and its number of sheep (mainly of the Radnor Forest breed) far exceeds that of any other county in Wales. The breeding of cobs and ponies comes next in importance, and thirdly that of cattle, now mostly Herefords, though Speed mentions a native breed, long since extinct, all white with red ears. These, together with pigs, wool, butter, and (in small quantities) cheese, form the staple of a considerable trade with the Midlands and the industrial districts to the south and southwest. The farms are of comparatively small size, the average cultivated area of the holdings in 1894 being 63 acres, and the hired labour averages about two men for each farm. A large share of the work, especially on the highland farms, is done by the occupiers and members of their own families, with the aid, where required, of an indoor servant or two. Few hands are employed in manufactures, but the mining industry is more important, coal being extensively worked—chiefly anthracite in the upper reaches of the Swansea and Neath valleys, and bituminous in the south-eastern corner of the county. There are also limestone and fireclay, firebrick and cement works, chiefly on the northern outcrop of the carboniferous limestone, as at Abernant in the Vale of Neath and at Penwyllt.
The Central Wales section of the London & North-Western railway from Craven Arms to Swansea crosses the north-west corner of the county, and is intersected at Builth Road by a branch of the Cambrian, which, running for the most part on the Radnorshire side of the Wye, follows that river from Rhayader to Three Cocks; the Midland railway from Hereford to Swansea runs through the centre of the county, effecting junctions at Three Cocks with the Cambrian, at Talyllyn with the Brecon & Merthyr railway (which connects the county with the industrial areas of East Glamorgan and West Monmouthshire), and at Capel Colbren with the Neath and Brecon line. The North-Western and Rhymney joint line skirts the south-eastern boundary of the county. Brecon is also connected with Newport by means of the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal, which was completed in 1801 and is 35 m. in length. The Swansea Canal and that of the Vale of Neath have also their northern terminal within the county, at Ystradgynlais and Abernant respectively. The main roads of the county are probably the best in South Wales.
Population and Administration.—The area of the ancient county is 475,224 acres, with a population in 1891 of 57,031 and in 1901 of 59,907. The area of the administrative county is 469,301 acres. The only municipal borough is Brecon, which is the county town, and had in 1901 a population of 5741. The other urban districts are Brynmawr, Builth Wells and Hay, with populations of 6833, of 1805 and of 1680 respectively in 1901. Crickhowell and Talgarth are market towns, while Llanwrtyd Wells is a rapidly developing health resort. The county forms part of the South Wales circuit, and the assizes are held at Brecon. It had one court of quarter sessions, and is divided into ten petty sessional divisions. The borough of Brecon has a separate commission of the peace, but no separate court of quarter sessions. There are 94 civil parishes, while the ecclesiastical parishes or districts wholly or in part within the county number 70, of which 67 are in the diocese of St David’s and the archdeaconry of Brecon, the remaining 3 being in the diocese of Llandaff. The county is not divided for parliamentary purposes, and returns one member to parliament. It contains a small part of the parliamentary borough of Merthyr Tydfil.
In the eastern parts and along the Wye valley, English has become the predominant language, but in the rest of the county, especially north of the Eppynt range, Welsh occupies that position. In 1901 about 51% of the population above three years could speak both English and Welsh, 38% could speak English only and 11% Welsh only. The majority of the population is Nonconformist in religion, the chief denominations being the Baptists, Calvinistic Methodists and Congregationalists. Besides an endowed grammar-school (Christ College) at Brecon, there are in the county four secondary schools, established under the Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1899, viz. separate schools for boys and girls at Brecon, and dual schools at Builth and Brynmawr. Most of the county institutions are in the town of Brecon, but the joint asylum for the counties of Brecon and Radnor is at Talgarth. It was opened in February 1903. At Trevecca, near the same town, was a theological college for ministerial students attached to the Calvinistic Methodist body, but in October 1906 the institution was removed to Aberystwyth, and the buildings have since been utilized for a preparatory school belonging to the same body.
History.—There are no traces or record of Breconshire being inhabited before the Neolithic period, but to that period may be ascribed a number of cairns, menhirs and one cromlech (near Glanusk). In Roman times the eastern half of the county formed part of the territory of the Silures, a pre-Celtic race, whose governing class at that time probably consisted of BrythonicCelts. But an earlier wave of Celtic invasion represented by the Goidels had passed westwards along the valleys of the Usk and Wye, leaving traces in place-names (e.g. llwch, lake), and in the Ogham inscribed stones found at Glanusk, Trallwng and Trecastle, and probably surviving into historic times around the Beacon range and farther south even to Gower and Kidwelly. The conquest of the district by the Romans was effected between aboutA.D.75 and 80, and they established a frontier fort (which some have called Caer Bannau, identifying it as Bannium) some 3 m. out of the present town of Brecon, with smaller stations on roads leading thereto at Y Gaer near Crickhowell, and at Capel Colbren in the direction of Neath. On the departure of the Romans, the Goidelic hill-tribes, probably with help from Gower and Ireland, seem to have regained possession of the Usk valley under the leadership of a chieftain of their own race, Brychan, who became the ancestor of one of the three chief tribes of hereditary Welsh saints. His territory (named after him Brycheiniog, whence Brecknock) lay wholly east of the Eppynt range, for the lordship of Buallt, corresponding to the modern hundred of Builth, to the west, remained independent, probably till the Norman invasion. Most of the older churches of central Brecknockshire and east Carmarthenshire were founded by or dedicated to members of Brychan’s family.
From the middle of the 8th century to the 10th, Brycheiniog proper often bore the brunt of Mercian attacks, and many of the castles on its eastern border had their origin in that period. Subsequently, when Bernard de Newmarch and his Norman followers obtained possession of the country in the last quarter of the 11th century, these were converted into regular fortresses. Bernard himself initiated this policy by building a castle at Talgarth on the Upper Wye, but in 1091 he moved southwards, defeated the regulus of Brycheiniog, Bleddyn ab Maenarch, and his brother-in-law Rhys ap Tewdwr, the prince of south-west Wales, and with materials obtained from the Roman fort of Caer Bannau, built a castle at Brecon, which he made hiscaput baroniae. Brycheiniog was then converted into a lordship marcher and passed to the Fitzwalter, de Breos, the Bohun and the Stafford families in succession, remaining unaffected by the Statute of Rhuddlan (1282), as it formed part of the marches, and not of the principality of Wales.
The Irfon valley, near Builth, was, however, the scene of the last struggle between the English and Llewelyn, who in 1282 fell in a petty skirmish in that district. The old spirit of independence flickered once again when Owen Glendower marched to Brecon in 1403. Upon the attainder of Edward, duke of Buckingham, in 1521, the lordship of Brecon with its dependencies became vested in the crown. In 1536 it was grouped with a whole series of petty lordships marcher and the lordship of Builth to form the county of Brecknock with Brecon as the county town, and the place for holding the county court. The county returns one member to parliament, and has done so since 1536; the borough of Brecon, with the town of Llywel, had also a separate representative from the same date till 1885, when it became merged in the county.
BREDA,a fortified town in the province of North Brabant, Holland, at the confluence of the canalized rivers Merk and Aa, 15 m. by rail E.N.E. of Roozendaal. Pop. (1900) 26,296. It is connected by steam tramway with Antwerp (30 m. S.S.W.), and with Geertruidenberg in the north, and the island of Duiveland on the west. The fortress of Breda, which was once considered impregnable, has been dismantled, but the town is still protected by extensive lines of fortification and lies in the midst of a district which can be readily laid under water. It has a fine quay, town-hall and park. There are several Roman Catholic and Protestant churches. The principal Protestant church is a Gothic building dating from the end of the 13th century, with a fine tower, and a choir of later date (1410). Among the many interesting monuments is the imposing tomb of the stadtholder Count Engelbert II. of Nassau and his wife. This is the work of Tomasino Vincenz of Bologna, who, though a pupil of Raphael in painting, in sculpture followed Michelangelo, to whom the work is sometimes ascribed. Since 1828 Breda has been the seat of a royal military academy for all arms of the service. It also possesses a Latin school, an arsenal, and a modern prison built on the isolated-cell principle. The prison is in the form of a rotunda, 58 yds. in diameter, and covered by a high dome. In the middle is the office of the administration, and on the top of this a small watch-tower. Round the walls of the rotunda are the cells, 208 in number, and arranged in four tiers with balconies reached by iron staircases. Each cell measures 35 cub. yds., is provided with an electric bell communicating with the warder in the tower, heated by hot-air pipes, and lighted by day through a window on the outer wall of the rotunda, and from sunset till ten o’clock by electric light. The industries of Breda comprise the manufacture of linen and woollen goods, carpets, hats, beer and musical instruments. In the neighbourhood of the town are the villages of Ginneken and Prinsenhage, situated in the midst of pretty pine woods. They form favourite places of excursion, and in the woods at Ginneken is a Kneipp sanatorium.
History.—Breda was in the 11th century a direct fief of the Holy Roman Empire, its earliest known lord being Henry I. (1098-1125), in whose family it continued, though, from the latter part of the 13th century, in the female line, until Alix, heiress of Philip (d. 1323), sold it to Brabant. In 1350 the fief was resold to John (Jan) of Polanen (d. 1377), the heiress of whose line, Joanna (d. 1445), married Engelbert of Nassau-Dillenburg (d. 1442). Henceforth it remained in the house of Nassau, passing ultimately to William I. (1533-1584), the first stadtholder of the Netherlands. Breda obtained municipal rights in 1252, but was first surrounded with walls in 1534 by Count Henry of Nassau, who also restored the old castle, originally built by John of Polanen in 1350. From this period until late in the 19th century it remained the most important of the line of fortresses along the Meuse. Breda was captured by surprise by the Spaniards in 1581; but in 1590 it fell again into the hands of Maurice of Nassau, 68 picked men contriving to get into the town concealed under the turf in a peat-boat. The so-called “Spaniard’s Hole” still marks the spot where the peat-boat lay. Its surrender in 1625, after a ten months’ siege, to the Spaniards under Spinola is the subject of the famous picture by Velasquez in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. In 1637 Breda was recaptured by Frederick Henry of Orange after a four months’ siege, and in 1648 it was finally ceded to Holland by the treaty of Westphalia. During the wars of the French Revolution, it was taken by Dumouriez in 1793, evacuated soon after and retaken by Pichegru in 1795, after the whole of Holland had already succumbed to the French. In 1813, a sally being made by the French garrison on an advance-guard of the Russians under Benckendorff, the citizens of Breda again made themselves masters of the town.
Breda was the residence, during his exile, of Charles II., who, by the declaration of Breda (1660), made known the conditions of his acceptance of the crown of England. In 1696 William, prince of Orange and king of England, built the new castle, one of the finest buildings of the period, which now serves as the military academy. Breda also derives some celebrity from the various political congresses of which it has been the scene. In 1575 a conference was held here between the ambassadors of Spain and those of the United Provinces; in 1667 a peace was signed between England, Holland, France and Denmark; and in 1746-1747 the representatives of the same powers met in the town to discuss the terms of another treaty.
BREDAEL, JAN FRANS VAN(1683-1750), Flemish painter, son of Alexander van Bredael (d. 1720), who was also an artist, was born in Antwerp. He imitated the style of Wouverman and Breughel with such dexterity that even connoisseurs are often unable to distinguish his copies of their pictures from the originals. He visited England, where he was so well employed that in a few years he was able to retire to his native country with a competency. The earl of Derwentwater was one of his chief patrons. There were several other van Bredaels, who won honour as artists—notablyPieter(1622-1719), Alexander’s father, andJozef(1688-1739). They were formerly known as “Breda,” but this apparently is incorrect, though it occurs as a signature on a picture by Jan Frans in the Amsterdam gallery.
BREDERODE, HENRY,Count of(1531-1568), was born at Brussels in 1531. He was the descendant of an ancient race, which had for some centuries been settled in Holland, and had taken an active part in the affairs of war and peace. Count Henry became a convert to the Reformed faith and placed himself at the side of the prince of Orange and Count Egmont in resisting the introduction of the Spanish Inquisition and Spanish despotism into the Netherlands. In 1566 he was one of the founders of the confederacy of nobles who bound themselves to maintain the rights and liberties of the country by signing a document known as “the Compromise.” On the 5th of April of that year Brederode accompanied to the palace a body of 250 confederates, of whom he acted as the spokesman, to present to the regent, Margaret of Parma, a petition setting forth their grievances, called “the Request.” It was at a banquet at the Hotel Culemburg on the 8th of April, presided over by Brederode, that the sobriquet ofles Gueux, or “the Beggars,” was first given to the opponents of Spanish rule. Brederode was banished from the Netherlands by Alva, and died in exile shortly afterwards at the early age of thirty-six.
BREDOW, GOTTFRIED GABRIEL(1773-1814), German historian, was born at Berlin on the 14th of December 1773, and became successively professor at the universities of Helmstadt, Frankfort-on-Oder and Breslau. He died at Breslau on the 5th of September 1814. Bredow’s principal works areHandbuch der alien Geschichte, Geographic und Chronologie(Eutin, 1799; English trans., London, 1827);Chronik des 19. Jahrhunderts(Altona, 1801);Entwurf der Weltkunde der Alten(Altona, 1816);Weltgeschichte in Tabellen(Altona, 1801; English trans, by J. Bell, London, 1820);Grundriss einer Geschichte der merkwürdigsten Welthändel von 1796-1810(Hamburg, 1810).