years old, Badham was sent to Switzerland, where he became a pupil of Pestalozzi. He was afterwards transferred to Eton, and in 1830 was elected to a scholarship at Wadham College, Oxford, but only obtained a third class in classics (1836), a failure which may have been due to his dislike of the methods of study then in fashion at Oxford, at a time when classical scholarship was in a very unsatisfactory condition. Shortly after taking his degree in 1837 Badham went to Italy, where he occupied himself in the study of ancient MSS., in particular those of the Vatican library. It was here that he began a life-long friendship with G. C. Cobet. He afterwards spent some time in Germany, and on his return to England was incorporated M.A. at Peterhouse, Cambridge, in 1847. Having taken holy orders, he was appointed headmaster of Louth grammar school, Lincolnshire (1851–1854), and subsequently headmaster of Edgbaston proprietary school, near Birmingham. In the interval he had taken the degree of D.D. at Cambridge (1852). In 1860 he received the honorary degree of doctor of letters at the university of Leiden. In 1866 he left England to take up the professorship of classics and logic in Sydney University, which he held until his death on the 26th of February 1884. He was twice married. Dr Badham’s classical attainments were recognized by the most famous European critics, such as G. C. Cobet, Ludwig Preller, W. Dindorf, F. W. Schneidewin, J. A. F. Meineke, A. Ritschl and Tischendorf. Like many schoolmasters who are good scholars and even good teachers, he was not a professional success; and his hasty temper and dislike of anything approaching disingenuousness may have stood in the way of his advancement. But it is strange that a scholar and textual critic of his eminence and of European reputation should have made comparatively little mark in his native country. He published editions of Euripides, Helena and Iphigenia in Tauris (1851), Ion (1851); Plato’s Philebus (1855, 1878); Laches and Euthydemus (1865), Phaedrus (1851), Symposium (1866) and De Platonis Epistolis (1866). He also contributed to Mnemosyne (Cobet’s journal) and other classical periodicals. His Adhortatio ad Discipulos Academiae Sydniensis (1869) contains a number of emendations of Thucydides and other classical authors. He also published an article on “The Text of Shakespere” in Cambridge Essays (1856); Criticism applied to Shakespere (1846); Thoughts on Classical and Commercial Education (1864).
A collected edition of his Speeches and Lectures delivered in Australia (Sydney, 1890) contains a memoir by Thomas Butler.
BADIUS, JODOCUS or JOSSE (1462–1535), sometimes called Badius Ascensius from the village of Asche, near Brussels, where he was born, an eminent printer at Paris, whose establishment was celebrated under the name of Prelum Ascensianum. He was himself a scholar of considerable repute, had studied at Brussels and Ferrara, and before settling in Paris, had taught Greek for several years at Lyons. He illustrated with notes several of the classics which he printed, and was the author of numerous pieces, amongst which are a life of Thomas à Kempis, and a satire on the follies of women, entitled Navicula Stultarum Mulierum.
BADLESMERE, BARTHOLOMEW, Baron (1275–1322), English nobleman, was the son and heir of Gunselm de Badlesmere (d. 1301), and fought in the English army both in France and Scotland during the later years of the reign of Edward I. In 1307 he became governor of Bristol Castle, and afterwards Edward II. appointed him steward of his household; but these marks of favour did not prevent him from making a compact with some other noblemen to gain supreme influence in the royal council. Although very hostile to Earl Thomas of Lancaster, Badlesmere helped to make peace between the king and the earl in 1318, and was a member of the middle party which detested alike Edward’s minions, like the Despensers, and his violent enemies like Lancaster. The king’s conduct, however, drew him to the side of the earl, and he had already joined Edward’s enemies when, in October 1321, his wife, Margaret de Clare, refused to admit Queen Isabella to her husband’s castle at Leeds in Kent. The king captured the castle, seized and imprisoned Lady Badlesmere, and civil war began. After the defeat of Lancaster at Boroughbridge, Badlesmere was taken and hanged at Canterbury on the 14th of April 1322. His son and heir, Giles, died without children in 1338.
BADMINTON, or Great Badminton, a village in the southern parliamentary division of Gloucestershire, England, 100 m. W. of London by the Great Western railway (direct line to south Wales). Here is Badminton House, the seat of the dukes of Beaufort, standing in a park some 10 m. in circumference. The manor of Badminton was acquired in 1608 from Nicolas Boteler (to whose family it had belonged for several centuries) by Thomas, Viscount Somerset (d. 1650 or 1651), third son of Edward, 4th earl of Worcester, and was given by his daughter and heiress Elizabeth to Henry Somerset, 3rd marquess of Worcester and 1st duke of Beaufort (1629–1699), who built the present mansion (1682) on the site of the old manor house. It is a stone building in Palladian style, and contains a number of splendid paintings and much fine wood-carving. The parish church of St. Michael stands close to it. This is a Grecian building (1785), with a richly ornamented ceiling and inlaid altar-pavement; it also contains much fine sculpture in the memorials to former dukes, and is the burial-place of Field Marshal Lord Raglan, who was the youngest son of the 5th duke of Beaufort. Raglan Castle, near Monmouth, now a beautiful ruin, was the seat of the earls and the 1st marquess of Worcester, until it was besieged by the Parliamentarians in 1646, and after its capitulation was dismantled.
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BADMINTON, a game played with rackets and shuttlecocks, its name being taken from the duke of Beaufort’s seat in Gloucestershire. The game appears to have been first played in England about 1873, but before that time it was played in India, where it is still very popular. The Badminton Association in England was founded in 1895, and its laws were framed from a code of rules drawn up in 1887 for the Bath Badminton Club and based on the original Poona (1876) rules. In England the game is almost always played in a covered court. The All England championships for gentlemen’s doubles, ladies’ doubles, and mixed doubles were instituted in 1899, and for gentlemen’s singles and ladies’ singles in 1900; and the first championship between England and Ireland was played in 1904. Badminton may be played by daylight or by artificial light, either with two players on each side (the four-handed or double game) or with one player on each side (the two-handed or single game). The game consists entirely of volleying and is extremely fast, a single at Badminton being admitted to require more staying power than a single at lawn tennis. There is much scope for judgment and skill, e.g. in “dropping” (hitting the shuttle gently just over the net) and in “smashing” (hitting the shuttle with a hard downward stroke). The measurements of the court are shown on the accompanying plan.
- Diagram of Court.—In the two-handed game, the width of the court is reduced to 17 ft. and the long service lines are dispensed with, the back boundary lines being used as the long service lines, and the lines dividing the half courts being produced to meet the back boundary lines. The net posts are placed either on the side boundary lines or at any distance not exceeding 2 ft. outside the said lines; thus in the four-handed game, the distance between the posts is from 20 to 24 ft., and in the two-handed fame, from 17 to 21 ft. N.B.—With the exception of the net line, the dotted lines on the court apply only to the court for the two-handed game.
The Badminton hall should be not less than 18 ft. high. Along the net line is stretched a net 30 in. deep, from 17 to 24 ft. long according to the position of the posts, and edged on the top with white tape 3 in. wide. The top of the net should be 5 ft. from
