Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 05.djvu/207

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Bland
199
Bland

place at Drury Lane. On 21 Oct. 1790 she was married to Bland, a brother of Mrs. Jordan of Drury Lane Theatre, and an act or of no great distinction. Mrs. Bland remained attached to the Drury Lane company for the greater part of her life, but she also sang at the Haymarket under Colman's management, where her first appearance took place in 1791, as Wowski in Arnold's 'Inkle and Yarico.' She also sang for several seasons at Vauxhall. In 1824 she began to exhibit symptoms of imbecility, which developed into a kind of melancholy madness. On 5 July 1824 a performance was given for her benefit at Drury Lane, which produced (together with a public subscription) about 800l. The money was handed over to Lord Egremont, who allowed her an annuity of 80l. She lived for the rest of her life with a family named Western, at the Broadway, Westminster, where she died of a fit of apoplexy on 15 Jan. 1838. She was buried at St. Margaret's, Westminster, on 25 Jan. Her husband, whom it was said that she had treated badly, left her some years earlier and went to America, where he died. Mrs. Bland s voice was a mezzo-soprano of very sweet quality. Her powers were limited, but as a singer of English ballads she was singularly perfect and free from any blemish of style or taste. In person she was short and dark, but her acting was very bright and vivacious. The following is a list of the principal engraved portraits of her: 1, in the 'Thespian Magazine,' vol. i., by J. Condé (publisher 23 June 1795); 2, as Miss Notable in the 'Lady's Last Stake,' by De Wilde (published 23 June 1795); 3, as Nina in the 'Prisoner' (published 1 Feb. 1796); 4 and 5, as Mary Ann in the 'School for Guardians,' by Graham (published 21 Jan. 1796); 6, 'The Bland Melodist' (coloured) (published 12 MArch 1805); 7, as Madelon in the 'Surrender of Calais' (n.d.) Mrs. Bland had had two sons: Charles, a tenor singer, who was the original Oberon in Weber's opera, and James, a bass, who began life as an opera singer but was afterwards better known as an actor of burlesque, and who died at the Strand Theatre on 17 July 1861.

[Ann. Register, lxxx. 197; Georgian Era, iv. 297; Genet's Hist. of the Stage vi. 424 ix. 240; Musical World. 19 and 26 Jan. 1838; Thespian Magazine, 1. 298; (Gent. Mag. 1790, 956; Kelly's Reminiscences, ii. 80; information from Mr. W. H. Husk.]

W. B. S.


BLAND, MILES (1786–1868), mathematician, born in 1786, was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1808, as second wrangler and Smith's prizeman. He was afterwards elected fellow (5 April 1808) and tutor of his college, and acted as moderator (1814, 1815, 1816) and public examiner (1817–1818) in mathematics. He became rector of Lilley, Hertfordshire, in 1823, and a prebendary of Wells Cathedral in 1826, when he proceeded D.D. Bland was a fellow of the Royal Society, of the Society of Antiquaries, and of the Astronomical Society. He died in 1868. His chief works are: 1. 'Geometrical Problems . . . from the first six books of Euclid . . . with the elements of Plane Trigonometry,' Cambridge, 1819, 2nd edit. 1821, 3rd edit. 1827. 2. 'Algebraical Problems,' a very popular schoolbook, first published in 1812, 9th edit. 1849. 3. 'The Elements of Hydrostatics,' 1824, 1827. 4. 'Annotations on the Historical Books of the New Testament;' vol. i. St. Matthew's Gospel (1828), vol. ii. St. Mark's Gospel (1828), Mechanical and Philosophical Problems,' 1830.

Men of the Time, 7th edit.; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Bauer's Register of St. John's College, ed. Mayor, i. 312, 314; Notes and Queries, 6th ser. ix, 218.]


BLAND, ROBERT (1730–1816), the elder, physician, was the son of an attorney at King's Lynn, and was educated at the London hospitals. He received the degree of M.D. from the university of St. Andrews in 1778, and was admitted licentiate of the College of Physicians on 30 Sept. 1786. He obtained an extensive practice as an accoucheur in London, and in this department acquired so high a reputation that he was engaged to write all the articles on midwifery for Rees' 'Cyclopædia.' To the 'Philosophical Transactions' he contributed in 1781 a paper on 'Some Calculations of the number of Accidents or Deaths which happen from Parturation; Proportion of Male and Female Children born; of Twins, Monstrosities, &c.;' and in the same year a 'Table of the Chances of Life from Infancy to Twenty-six years of age.' He published in 1794 'Observations on Human and Comparative Parturition,' and he was also the author of 'Proverbs chiefly taken from the Adagia of Erasmus, with Explanations ; and illustrated by Examples from the Spanish, Italian, French, and English Languages,' 2 vols., 1814. He died at Leicester Square on 29 June 1816.

Gent. Mag. lxxxvi. part ii. 186; Munk's Roll. Coll. of Phys. (1878), 11. 365; Watt's Bibl. Brit. i. 120.]


BLAND, ROBERT (1779?–1825), the younger, classical scholar, son of Robert Bland [q. v.], was born about 1779. He was educated