Page:EB1911 - Volume 03.djvu/414

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
  
BARÈGES—BARÈRE DE VIEUZAC
397

hill, S. Carnarvonshire, on which Pistyll farm still gives food gratis to all pilgrims or travellers. A part of the isle is one great cemetery of about 3 to 4 acres, with rude, rough graves as close to each other as possible, with slabs upon them. Though Aberdaron rectory does not belong to the isle, the farm “Cwrt” (Court), where the abbot held his court, still goes with Bardsey, which was granted to John Wynn of Bodvel, Carnarvonshire, after the battle and partial sack of Norwich by the Puritans in the Civil War; passing through Mary Bodvel to her husband, the earl of Radnor, who sold it to Dr Wilson of York. The doctor, in turn, sold it to Sir John Wynn, of Glynllifon and Bodfean Hall, Carnarvonshire. One of the Wynns, the 3rd Baron Newborough, was, at his wish, buried here. The archaeology and history of the isle are voluminous. Lady Guest’s Mabinogion translation (i. p. 115, ed. of 1838) gives an account of the (legendary) Bardsey House of Glass, into which Merlin (Myrddin) took a magic ring, originally kept at Caerleon-on-Usk.


BARÈGES, a town of south-western France, in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées, in the valley of the Bastan, 25 m. S.S.W. of Bagnères-de-Bigorre by road. The town, which is situated at an altitude of 4040 ft., is hardly inhabited in the winter. It is celebrated for its warm sulphurous springs (75° to 111° F.), which first became generally known in 1675 when they were visited by Madame de Maintenon and the duke of Maine, son of Louis XIV. The waters, which are used for drinking and in baths, are efficacious in the treatment of wounds and ulcers and in cases of scrofula, gout, skin diseases, &c. There is a military hospital, founded in 1760. The town was formerly much exposed to avalanches and floods, which are now less frequent owing to the construction of embankments and replanting of the hillsides. It is a centre for mountain excursions. The light silk and wool fabric called barège takes its name from the place, where it was first made.


BAREILLY, or Bareli, a city and district of British India in the Bareilly or Rohilkhand division of the United Provinces. The city is situated on the Ramganga river, 812 m. N.W. from Calcutta by rail. Pop. (1901) 131,208. The principal buildings are two mosques built in the 17th century; a modern fort overlooking the cantonments; the railway station, which is an important junction on the Oudh and Rohilkhand line; the palace of the nawab of Rampur, and the government college. Bareilly is the headquarters of a brigade in the 7th division of the eastern army corps. The chief manufactures are furniture and upholstery. Bareilly college is a seat of upper class learning for the surrounding districts. It is conducted by an English staff, and its course includes the subjects for degrees in the Calcutta University.

The district of Bareilly has an area of 1580 sq. m. It is a level country, watered by many streams, the general slope being towards the south. The soil is fertile and highly cultivated, groves of noble trees abound, and the villages have a neat, prosperous look. A tract of forest jungle, called the tarai, stretches along the extreme north of the district, and teems with large game, such as tigers, bears, deer, wild pigs, &c. The river Sarda or Gogra forms the eastern boundary of the district and is the principal stream. Next in importance is the Ramganga, which receives as its tributaries most of the hill torrents of the Kumaon mountains. The Deoha is another great drainage artery and receives many minor streams. The Gomati or Gumti also passes through the district. The population in 1901 was 1,090,117. The Mahommedans are chiefly the descendants of Yusafzai Afghans, called the Rohilla Pathans, who settled in the country about the year 1720. The Rohillas were formerly the ruling race of the tract of country called Rohilkhand, and are men of a taller stature, a fairer complexion and a more arrogant air than the general inhabitants of the district. Bishop Heber described them as follows:—“The country is burdened with a crowd of lazy, profligate, self-called sawars (cavaliers), who, though many of them are not worth a rupee, conceive it derogatory to their gentility and Pathan blood to apply themselves to any honest industry, and obtain for the most part a precarious livelihood by sponging on the industrious tradesmen and farmers, on whom they levy a sort of blackmail, or as hangers-on to the wealthy and noble families yet remaining in the province. These men have no visible means of maintenance, and no visible occupation except that of lounging up and down with their swords and shields, like the ancient Highlanders, whom in many respects they much resemble.” The Rohillas, after fifty years’ precarious independence, were subjugated in 1774 by the confederacy of British troops with the nawab of Oudh’s army, which formed so serious a charge against Warren Hastings. Their territory was in that year annexed to Oudh. In 1801 the nawab of Oudh ceded it to the Company in commutation of the subsidy money. During the Mutiny of 1857 the Rohillas took a very active part against the English, but since then they have been disarmed. Both before and after that year, however, the Bareilly Mahommedans have distinguished themselves by fanatical tumults against the Hindus. The district is irrigated from the Rohilkhand system of government canals. There are no manufactures except for domestic use and little external trade. Several lines of the Oudh and Rohilkhand railway pass through the district.


BARENTIN, a town of northern France, in the department of Seine-Inférieure, 11 m. N.N.W. of Rouen by rail. Pop. (1906) 5245. The town is situated in the valley of the Austreberthe, a small affluent of the Seine, here crossed at a height of 100 ft. by a fine railway viaduct 540 yds. long. The manufacture of cotton fabrics is the principal industry.


BARENTS, WILLEM (d. 1597), Dutch navigator, was born about the middle of the 16th century. In 1594 he left Amsterdam with two ships to search for a north-east passage to eastern Asia. He reached the west coast of Novaya Zemlya, and followed it northward, being finally forced to turn back when near its northern extremity. In the following year he commanded another expedition of seven ships, which made for the strait between the Asiatic coast and Vaygach Island, but was too late to find open water; while his third journey equally failed of its object and resulted in his death. On this occasion he had two ships, and on the outward journey sighted Bear Island and Spitsbergen, where the ships separated. Barents’ vessel, after rounding the north of Novaya Zemlya, was beset by ice and he was compelled to winter in the north; and as his ship was not released early in 1597, his party left her in two open boats on the 13th of June and most of its members escaped. Barents himself, however, died on the 30th of June 1597. In 1871 the house in which he wintered was discovered, with many relics, which are preserved at the Hague, and in 1875 part of his journal was found.

See The Three Voyages of Barents, by Gerrit de Veer, translated by the Hakluyt Society (1876) from de Veer’s text (Amsterdam, 1598).


BARENTS SEA, that part of the Arctic Ocean which is demarcated by the north coast of Europe, the islands of Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land and Spitsbergen, and smaller intervening islands; it was named after the Dutch navigator. Omitting the great inlet of the White Sea in the south, it extends from about 67° to 80° N., and from 20° to 60° E. The southern part, off the Murman coast of the Kola peninsula, is sometimes called the Murman Sea.


BARÈRE DE VIEUZAC, BERTRAND (1755–1841), one of the most notorious members of the French National Convention, was born at Tarbes in Gascony on the 10th of September 1755. The name of Barère de Vieuzac, by which he continued to call himself long after the renunciation of feudal rights on the famous 4th of August, was assumed from a small fief belonging to his father, a lawyer at Vieuzac. He began to practise as an advocate at the parlement of Toulouse in 1770, and soon earned a considerable reputation as an orator; while his brilliant and flowing style as a writer of essays led to his election as a member of the Academy of Floral Games of Toulouse in 1788. At the age of thirty he married. Four years later, in 1789, he was elected deputy by the estates of Bigorre to the states-general, which met in May. He had made his first visit to Paris in the preceding year. His personal appearance, his manners, social qualities and liberal opinions, gave him a good standing among the multitude of provincial deputies then thronging into Paris. He