FOOTNOTE:

[1] Stanhope, _Life of Pitt_, ii, 301.

BERESFORD, WILLIAM CARR BERESFORD, VISCOUNT (1768-1854), British general

and Portuguese marshal, illegitimate son of the first marquess of

Waterford, was born on the 2nd of October 1768. He entered the British

army in 1785, and while in Nova Scotia with his regiment in the

following year lost the sight of one eye by a shooting accident. He

first distinguished himself at Toulon in 1793, receiving two years later

the command of the 88th regiment (Connaught Rangers). In 1799 his

regiment was ordered to India, and a few months later Beresford left

with Sir David Baird's expedition for Egypt, and was placed in command

of the first brigade which led the march from Kosseir across the desert.

When, on the evacuation of Egypt in 1803, he returned home, his

reputation was established. In 1805 he accompanied Sir David Baird to

South Africa, and was present at the capture of Cape Town and the

surrender of the colony. From South Africa he was despatched to South

America. He had little difficulty in capturing Buenos Aires with only a

couple of regiments. But this force was wholly insufficient to hold the

colony. Under the leadership of a French _emigre_, the chevalier de

Timers, the colonists attacked Beresford, and at the end of three days'

hard fighting he was compelled to capitulate. After six months'

imprisonment he escaped, and reached England in 1807, and at the end of

that year he was sent to Madeira, occupying the island in the name of

the king of Portugal. After six months in Madeira as governor and

commander-in-chief, during which he learnt Portuguese and obtained an

insight into the Portuguese character, he was ordered to join Sir Arthur

Wellesley's army in Portugal. He was first employed as commandant in

Lisbon, but accompanied Sir John Moore on the advance into Spain, and

took a conspicuous part in the battle of Corunna (see PENINSULAR WAR).

In February 1809 Beresford was given the task of reorganizing the

Portuguese army. In this task, by systematic weeding-out of inefficient

officers and men, he succeeded beyond expectation. By the summer of 1810

he had so far improved the _moral_ and discipline of the force that

Wellington brigaded some of the Portuguese regiments with English ones,

and at Busaco Portuguese and English fought side by side. Beresford's

services in this battle were rewarded by the British government with a

knighthood of the Bath and by the Portuguese with a peerage.

In the spring of 1811 Wellington was compelled to detach Beresford from

the Portuguese service. The latter was next in seniority to General

(Lord) Hill who had gone home on sick leave, and on him, therefore, the

command of Hill's corps now devolved. Unfortunately Beresford never

really gained the confidence of his new troops. At Campo Mayor his light

cavalry brigade got out of hand, and a regiment of dragoons was

practically annihilated. He invested Badajoz with insufficient forces,

and on the advance of Soult he was compelled to raise the siege and

offer battle at Albuera. His personal courage was even more than usually

conspicuous, but to the initiative of a junior staff officer, Colonel

(afterwards Viscount) Hardinge, rather than to Beresford's own

generalship, was the hardly-won victory to be attributed. Beresford then

went back to his work of reorganizing the Portuguese army. He was

present at the siege of Badajoz and at the battle of Salamanca, where he

was severely wounded (1812). In 1813 he was present at the battle of

Vittoria, and at the battles of the Pyrenees, while at the battle of the

Nivelle, the Nive and Orthez he commanded the British centre, and later

he led a corps at the battle of Toulouse. At the close of the Peninsular

War he was created Baron Beresford of Albuera and Cappoquin, with a

pension of L2000 a year, to be continued to his two successors.

In 1819 the revolution in Portugal led to the dismissal of the British

officers in the Portuguese service. Beresford therefore left Portugal

and placed the question of the arrears of pay of his army before the

king at Rio Janeiro. On his return the new Portuguese government refused

to allow him to land, and he accordingly left for home. On arriving in

England he turned his attention to politics, and strongly supported the

duke of Wellington in the House of Lords. In 1823 his barony was made a

viscounty, and when the duke of Wellington formed his first cabinet in

1828 he gave Beresford the office of master-general of the ordnance. In

1830 Beresford retired from politics, and for some time subsequently he

was occupied in a heated controversy with William Napier, the historian

of the Peninsular War, who had severely criticised his tactics at

Albuera. On this subject Wellington's opinion of Beresford is to the

point. The duke had no illusions as to his being a great general, but he

thought very highly of his powers of organization, and he went so far as

to declare, during the Peninsular War, that, in the event of his own

death, he would on this ground recommend Beresford to succeed him. The

last years of Beresford's life were spent at Bedgebury, Kent, where he

had purchased a country estate. He died on the 8th of January 1854.

BEREZINA, a river of Russia, in the government of Minsk, forming a

tributary of the Dnieper. It rises in the marshes of Borizov and flows

south, inclining to east, for 350 m. (250 m. navigable), for the most

part through low-lying but well-wooded country. As a navigable river,

and forming a portion of the canal system which unites the Black Sea

with the Baltic, it is of importance for commerce, but is subject to

severe floods. It was just above Borizov that Napoleon's army forced the

passage of the Berezina, with enormous losses, on the 26th-28th of

November 1812, during the retreat from Moscow.

BEREZOV. a town of Asiatic Russia, in the government of Tobolsk, 700 m.

N. of the city of that name, situated on three hills on the left bank of

the Sosva, 26 m. above its mouth in the Ob, in 63 deg. 55' N. lat. and

65 deg. 7' E. long. It has more than once suffered from

conflagrations--for example, in 1710 and 1808. Prince Menshikov, the

favourite of Peter the Great and Catherine I., died here an exile, in

1729. In 1730 his enemy and rival, Prince Dolgoruki, was interned here

with his family; and in 1742 General Ostermann was sent to Berezov with

his wife and died there in 1747. The yearly mean temperature is 25 deg.

Fahr., the maximum cold being 4.7 deg. It has a cathedral, near which

lie buried Mary Menshikov, once betrothed to the tsar Peter II., and

some of the Dolgorukis. There is some trade in furs, mammoth bones,

dried and salted fish. Pop. (1897) 1073.

BEREZOVSK, a village of east Russia, in the government of Perm, on the

eastern slope of the Urals, 8 m. N.E. of Ekaterinburg. It is the centre

of an important gold-mining region (5 m. by 2-1/2) of the same name. The

mines have been known since 1747. The inhabitants also manufacture

boots, cut stone and carry on cabinet-making.

BERG (_Ducatus Montensis_), a former duchy of Germany, on the right bank

of the Rhine, bounded N. by the duchy of Cleves, E. by the countship of

La Marck and the duchy of Westphalia, and S. and W. by the bishopric of

Cologne. Its area was about 1120 sq. m. The district was raised in 1108

to the rank of a countship, but did not become a duchy till 1380, after

it had passed into the possession of the Julich family. In 1423 the

duchy of Julich fell to Adolf of Berg, and in 1437 the countship of

Ravensberg was united to the duchies. The male line of the dukes of

Julich-Berg-Ravensberg became extinct in 1511, and the duchy passed by

marriage to John III. (d. 1539), duke of Cleves and count of La Marck,

whose male line became extinct with the death of John William, bishop of

Munster, in 1609. Of the latter's four sisters, the eldest (Marie

Eleonore) was married to Albert Frederick, duke of Prussia, the second

(Anna) to Philip Louis, count palatine of Neuburg, the third (Magdalena)

to John, count palatine of Zweibrucken, and the fourth (Sybille) to

Charles of Habsburg, margrave of Burgau. The question of the succession

led to a prolonged contest, which was one of the causes of the Thirty

Years' War. It was settled in 1614 by a partition, under which Berg,

with Julich, was assigned to the count palatine of Neuburg, in whose

line it remained till 1742, when it passed to the Sultzbach branch of

the house of Wittelsbach. On the death of Charles Theodore, the last of

this line, in 1799, Julich and Berg fell to Maximilian Joseph of

Zweibrucken (Maximilian I. of Bavaria), who ceded the duchies in 1806 to

Napoleon. Berg was bestowed by Napoleon, along with the duchy of Cleves

and other possessions, on Joachim Murat, who bore the title of

grand-duke of Berg; and after Murat's elevation to the throne of Naples,

it was transferred to Louis, the son of the king of Holland. By the

congress of Vienna in 1815 it was made over to Prussia.

See B. Schonneshofer, _Geschichte des Bergischen Landes_ (Elberfeld,

1895); Stokvis, _Manuel d'histoire, &c._ vol. iii. (Leiden,

1890-1893); and R. Gocke, _Das Grossherzogtum Berg unter Joachim

Murat, Napoleon I^er und Louis Napoleon, 1806-1813_ (Cologne, 1877).

BERGAMASK, or BERGOMASK (from the town of Bergamo in North Italy), a

clumsy rustic dance (cf. Shakespeare, _Midsummer Night's Dream_, v. 360)

copied from the natives of Bergamo, reputed to be very awkward in their

manners.

BERGAMO (anc. _Bergomum_), a city and episcopal see of Lombardy, Italy,

capital of the province of Bergamo, situated at the foot of the Alps, at

the junction of the Brembo and Serio, 33-1/2 m. N.E. of Milan by rail,

and 26 m. direct. Pop. (1901) town, 25,425; commune, 46,861. The town

consists of two distinct parts, the older Citta Alta, upon a hill 1200

ft. above sea-level, strongly fortified by the Venetians, and the new

town (Citta Bassa) below, the two being connected by a funicular

railway. The most interesting building of the former is the fine

Romanesque church of S. Maria Maggiore, founded in 1137 and completed in

1355, with a baroque interior and some interesting works of art.

Adjoining it to the north is the Cappella Colleoni, with a richly

sculptured polychrome facade, and a modernized interior, containing the

fine tombs of Bartolommeo Colleoni (c. 1400-1475), a native of Bergamo,

and his daughter Medea. The work was executed in 1470-1476 by Giovanni

Antonio Amadeo, who was also employed at the Certosa di Pavia. The

market-place (now Piazza Garibaldi) contains the Gothic Palazzo Vecchio

or Broletto; close by are the cathedral (1614) and a small baptistery of

1340, rebuilt in 1898. The lower town contains an important

picture-gallery, consisting of three collections of works of north

Italian masters, one of which was bequeathed in 1891 by the art critic

Giovanni Morelli. Bergamo has fine modern buildings and numerous silk

and cotton factories. It also has a considerable cattle market, though

its yearly Fiera di S. Alessandro (the patron saint) has lost some of

its importance. Railways radiate from it to Lecco, Ponte della Selva,

Usmate (for Monza or Seregno), Treviglio (on the main line from Milan to

Verona and Venice) and (via Rovato) to Brescia, and steam tramways to

Treviglio, Sarnico and Soncino.

The ancient Bergomum was the centre of the tribe of the Orobii; it

became, after their subjection to Rome, a Roman municipality with a

considerable territory, and after its destruction by Attila, became the

capital of a Lombard duchy. From 1264 to 1428 it was under Milan, but

then became Venetian, and remained so until 1797. Remains of the Roman

city are not visible above ground, but various discoveries made are

recorded by G. Mantovani in _Not. Scav_., 1890, 25. (T. As.)

BERGAMOT, OIL OF, an essential oil obtained from the rind of the fruit

of the Citrus bergamia. The bergamot is a small tree with leaves and

flowers like the bitter orange, and a round fruit nearly 3 in. in

diameter, having a thin lemon-yellow smooth rind. The tree is cultivated

in southern Calabria, whence the entire supply of bergamot oil is drawn.

Machinery is mostly used to express the oil from the fruit, which is

gathered in November and December. The oil, which on standing deposits a

stearoptene, bergamot camphor or bergaptene, is a limpid greenish-yellow

fluid of a specific gravity of 0.882 to 0.886, and its powerful but

pleasant odour is mainly due to the presence of linalyl acetate, or

_bergamiol_, which can be artificially prepared by heating linalol with

acetic anhydride. The chief use of bergamot oil is in perfumery. The

word apparently is derived from the Italian town Bergamo. The name

Bergamot, for a variety of pear, is an entirely different word, supposed

to be a corruption of the Turkish _beg-armudi_ ( = prince's pear; cf.

Ger. _Furstenbirn_).

BERGEDORF, a town of Germany, in the territory of Hamburg, on the river

Bille, 10 m. by rail E. by S. from the city. Pop. (1900) 23,728. It

produces vegetables and fruit for the Hamburg markets, and carries on

tanning, glass manufacture, brewing and brick-making. It received civic

rights in 1275, belonged to Lubeck and Hamburg conjointly from 1420 to

1868, and in the latter year was purchased by Hamburg. The surrounding

district, exceptionally fertile marshland, is known as Die Vierlande,

being divided into four parishes, whence the name is derived.

BERGEN, a city and seaport of Norway, forming a separate county (_amt_),

on the west coast, in lat. 60 deg. 23' N. (about that of the Shetland

Islands). Pop. (1900) 72,179. It lies at the head of the broad Byfjord,

and partly on a rocky promontory (Nordnaes) between the fine harbour

(Vaagen) and the Puddefjord. Its situation is very beautiful, the moist

climate (mean annual rainfall, 74 in.) fostering on the steep

surrounding hills a vegetation unusually luxuriant for the latitude.

Behind the town lie the greater and lesser Lungegaard Lakes, so that the

site is in effect a peninsula. The harbour is crowded with picturesque

timber-ships and fishing-smacks, and is bordered by quays. The principal

street is Strandgaden, on the Nordnaes, parallel with the harbour,

communicating inland with the _torv_ or marketplace, which fronts the

harbour and contains the fish and fruit market. The portion of the city

on the mainland rises in an amphitheatre. The houses, of wood or stucco,

are painted in warm reds and yellows. On the banks of the lesser

Lungegaard Lake is the small town park, and above the greater lake the

pleasant Nygaards park, with an aquarium adjoining. Among the principal

buildings are the cathedral (rebuilt in the 16th century), and several

other churches, among which the Mariae Kirke with its Romanesque nave is

the earliest; a hospital, diocesan college, naval academy, school of

design and a theatre. An observatory and biological station are

maintained. The museums are of great interest. The Vestlandske fishery

and industrial museum also contains a picture gallery, and exhibition of

the Bergen Art Union (_Kunstforening_). The Bergen museum contains

antiquities and a natural history collection. The Hanseatic museum is

housed in a carefully-preserved _gaard_, or store-house and offices of

the Hanseatic League of German merchants, who inhabited the German

quarter (Tydskenbryggen) and were established here in great strength

from 1445 to 1558 (when the Norwegians began to find their presence

irksome), and brought much prosperity to the city in that period. The

Bergenhus and Fredriksberg forts defend the north and south entries of

the harbour respectively. The first was originally built in the 13th

century by King Haakon Haakonsson, and subsequently enlarged; and still

bears marks of an English attack when a Dutch fleet was driven to

shelter here in 1665. Near it are remains of another old fort, the

Sverresborg. Electric trams ply in the principal streets.

Bergen is the birthplace of the poets Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754) and

Johan Welhaven (1807-1873), of Johan Dahl the painter (1788-1857), of

Ole Bull (1810-1880) and Edvard Grieg the musicians. There are statues

to Holberg and Bull, and also to Christie, president of the Storthing

(parliament) in 1815 and 1818.

Bergen ranks first of the Norwegian ship-owning centres, having risen to

this position from fifth in 1879. The trade, however, is exceeded by

that of Christiania. The staple export trade is in fish and their

products: other exports are butter, copper ore and hides. The principal

imports are coal, machinery, salt, grain and provisions. The

manufactures are not extensive, but the preparation of fish products,

shipbuilding, weaving and distillery, with manufactures of paper,

pottery, tobacco and ropes are carried on. Bergen is an important centre

of the extensive tourist traffic of Norway. Regular steamers serve the

port from Hull and Newcastle (about 40 hours), from Hamburg, and from

all the Norwegian coast towns. Many local steamers penetrate the fjords,

touching at every village and _gaard_. Bergen is the nearest port to the

famous Hardanger Fjord, and is the starting-point of a remarkable

railway which runs through many tunnels and fine scenery towards

Vossevangen or Voss. In 1896 a beginning was made with the continuation

of this line through the mountains to connect with Christiania. In the

first 50 m. from Voss the line ascends 4080 ft., passing through a

tunnel 5796 yds. long.

Bergen (formerly Bjorgvin) was founded by King Olaf Kyrre in 1070-1075,

and rapidly grew to importance, the Byfjord becoming the scene of

several important engagements in the civil wars of subsequent centuries.

The famous Hansa merchants maintained a failing position here till 1764.

The town suffered frequently from fire, as in 1702 and 1855, and the

broad open spaces (_Almenninge_) which interrupt the streets are

intended as a safeguard against the spread of flames.

See Y. Nielsen, _Bergen fra die aldste tider indtil nutiden_

(Christiania, 1877); H. Jager, _Bergen og Bergenserne_ (Bergen, 1889).

BERGEN-OP-ZOOM, a town in the province of North Brabant, Holland,

situated on both sides of the small river Zoom, near its confluence with

the East Scheldt, 38-1/2 m. by rail E. by N. of Flushing. It is

connected by steam tramway with Antwerp (20 m. S.) and with the islands

of Tholen and Duiveland to the north-west. Pop. (1900) 13,663. The

houses are well built, the market-places and squares handsome and

spacious. It possesses a port and an arsenal, and contains a fine town

hall, with portraits of the ancient margraves of Bergen-op-Zoom, a Latin

school, and an academy of design and architecture. The remains of the

old castle of the margraves have been converted into barracks. The tower

is still standing and is remarkable for its increase in size as it

rises, which causes it to rock in a strong wind. The church contains a

monument to Lord Edward Bruce, killed in a duel with Sir Edward

Sackville, afterwards earl of Dorset, in 1613. There are numerous

tile-works and potteries of fine ware; and a considerable trade is

carried on in anchovies and oysters caught in the Scheldt. A large

sugar-beet industry has also sprung up here in modern times.

Bergen-op-Zoom is a very old town, but little is known of its early

history beyond the fact that it was taken by the Normans in 880. In the

13th century it became the seat of Count Gerhard of Wesemael, who

surrounded it with walls and built a castle. By the end of the 15th

century it had become one of the most prosperous towns of Holland, on

account of its fisheries and its cloth-trade. In 1576 the town joined

the United Netherlands, and was shortly afterwards fortified. In 1588 it

was successfully defended against the duke of Parma by an English and

Dutch garrison commanded by Colonel Morgan, and in 1605 it was suddenly

attacked by Du Terail. In 1622 the Spaniards, under Spinola, made

another attempt to take the town, but were forced to abandon the

enterprise after a siege of ten weeks and the loss of 1200 men. Towards

the end of the 17th century the fortifications were greatly strengthened

by Coehoorn, and in 1725 they were further extended. In 1747, however,

the town was taken by the French, under Marshal Lowendahl, who surprised

it by means of a subterranean passage. Restored at the end of the war,

it was again taken by the French under Pichegru in 1795. The English,

under Sir Thomas Graham, afterwards Lord Lynedoch, in March 1814 made an

attempt to take it by a _coup de main_, but were driven back with great

loss by the French, who surrendered the place, however, by the treaty of

peace in the following May.

The lordship of Bergen-op-Zoom appears, after the definite union of the

Low Countries with the Empire in 924, as an hereditary fief of the

Empire, and the succession of its lords may be traced from Henry

(1098-1125), who also held Breda. In 1533 it was raised to a margraviate

by the emperor Charles V., and was held by various families until in

1799 it passed, through the Sultzbach branch of the Wittelsbachs, to the

royal house of Bavaria, by whom it was renounced in favour of the

Batavian republic in 1801.

BERGERAC, a town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement

in the department of Dordogne, on the right bank of the Dordogne, 60 m.

E. of Bordeaux on the railway to Cahors. Pop. (1906) town, 10,545;

commune, 15,623. The river is rendered navigable by a large dam and

crossed by a fine bridge which leads to the suburb of La Madeleine.

Apart from a few old houses in the older quarter by the river, the town

contains no monuments of antiquarian interest. There is a handsome

modern church built in the middle of the 19th century. Bergerac is the

seat of a sub-prefect and has tribunals of first instance and of

commerce and a communal college. Wine of fine quality is grown in the

district and is the chief source of the commerce of the town, which is

mainly carried on with Libourne and Bordeaux. There is trade in grain,

truffles, chestnuts, brandy and in the salmon of the Dordogne. The town

has flour-mills, iron-works, tanneries, distilleries and

nursery-gardens, and it has manufactures of casks and of vinegar. There

are quarries of millstone in the vicinity. In the 16th century Bergerac

was a very flourishing and populous place, but most of its inhabitants

having embraced Calvinism it suffered greatly during the religious wars

and by the revocation of the edict of Nantes (1685). It was in 1577 the

scene of the signing of the sixth peace between the Catholics and

Protestants. Its fortifications and citadel were demolished by Louis

XIII. in 1621.

BERGHAUS, HEINRICH (1797-1884), German geographer, was born at Kleve on

the 3rd of May 1797. He was trained as a surveyor, and after

volunteering for active service under General Tauenzien in 1813, joined

the staff of the Prussian trigonometrical survey in 1816. He carried on

a geographical school at Potsdam in company with Heinrich Lange, August

Petermann, and others, and long held the professorship of applied

mathematics at the Bauakademie. But he is most famous in connexion with

his cartographical work. His greatest achievement was the

_Physikalischer Atlas_ (Gotha, 1838-1848), in which work, as in others,

his nephew HERMANN BERGHAUS (1828-1890) was associated with him. He had

also a share in the re-issue of the great _Stieler Handatlas_

(originally produced by Adolf Stieler in 1817-1823). and in the

production of other atlases. His written works were numerous and

important, including _Allgemeine Lander- und Volkerkunde_ (Stuttgart,

1837-1840), _Grundriss der Geographie in funf Buckern_ (Berlin, 1842),

_Die Volker des Erdballs_ (Leipzig, 1845-1847), _Was man van der Erde

weiss_ (Berlin, 1856-1860), and various large works on Germany. In 1863

he published _Briefwechsel mit Alexander van Humboldt_ (Leipzig). He

died at Stettin on the 17th of February 1884.

BERGK, THEODOR (1812-1881), German philologist, was born at Leipzig on

the 22nd of May 1812. After studying at the university of his native

town, where he profited by the instruction of G. Hermann, he was

appointed in 1835 to the lectureship in Latin at the orphan school at

Halle. After holding posts at Neustrelitz, Berlin and Cassel, he

succeeded (1842) K.F. Hermann as professor of classical literature at

Marburg. In 1852 he went to Freiburg, and in 1857 returned to Halle. In

1868 he resigned his professorship, and settled down to study and

literary work in Bonn. He died on the 20th of July 1881, at Ragatz in

Switzerland, where he had gone for the benefit of his health. Bergk's

literary activity was very great, but his reputation mainly rests upon

his work in connexion with Greek literature and the Greek lyric poets.

His _Poetae Lyrici Graeci_ (1843. 5th ed. 1900, &c.), and _Griechische

Litteraturgeschichte_ (1872-1887, completed by G. Hinrichs and R.

Peppmuller) are standard works. He also edited Anacreon (1834), the

fragments of Aristophanes (1840), Aristophanes (3rd ed., 1872),

Sophocles (and ed., 1868), a lyric anthology (4th ed., 1890). Among his

other works may be mentioned: _Augusti Rerum a se gestarum Index_

(1873); _Inschriften romischer Schleudergeschosse_ (1876); _Zur

Geschichte und Topographie der Rheinlande in romischer Zeit_ (1882);

_Beitrage zur romischen Chronologie_ (1884).

His _Kleine philologische Schriften_ have been edited by Peppmuller

(1884-1886), and contain, in addition to a complete list of his

writings, a sketch of his life. See Sandys, _Hist. of Class. Schol_

iii. 146 (1908).

BERGLER, STEPHAN, German classical scholar, was born about 1680 at

Kronstadt in Transylvania. The date of his death is uncertain. After

studying at Leipzig, he went to Amsterdam, where he edited Homer and the

_Onomasticon_ of Julius Pollux for Wetzstein the publisher.

Subsequently, at Hamburg, he assisted the great bibliographer J.A.

Fabricius in the production of his _Bibliotheca Graeca_ and his edition

of Sextus Empiricus. He finally found a permanent post in Bucharest as

secretary to the prince of Walachia, Alexander Mavrocordato, whose work

[Greek: Peri ton kathaekonton] (_De Officiis_) he had previously

translated for Fritzsch, the Leipzig bookseller, by whom he had been

employed as proof-reader and literary hack. In the prince's library

Bergler discovered the introduction and the first three chapters of

Eusebius's _Demonstratio Evangelica_. He died in Bucharest, and was

buried at his patron's expense. According to another account, Bergler,

finding himself without means, drifted to Constantinople, where he came

to an untoward end (c. 1740). He is said to have become a convert to

Islam; this report was probably a mistake for the undisputed fact that

he embraced Roman Catholicism. Bergler led a wild and irregular life,

and offended his friends and made many enemies by his dissipated habits

and cynical disposition. In addition to writing numerous articles for

the Leipzig _Acta Eruditorum_, Bergler edited the editio princeps of the

Byzantine historiographer Genesius (1733), and the letters of Alciphron

(1715), in which seventy-five hitherto unpublished letters were for the

first time included.

BERGMAN, TORBERN OLOF (1735-1784), Swedish chemist and naturalist, was

born at Katrineberg, Vestergotland, Sweden, on the 20th of March 1735.

At the age of seventeen he entered the university of Upsala. His father

wished him to read either law or divinity, while he himself was anxious

to study mathematics and natural science; in the effort to please both

himself and his father he overworked himself and injured his health.

During a period of enforced abstinence from study, he amused himself

with field botany and entomology, to such good purpose that he was able

to send Linnaeus specimens of several new kinds of insects, and in 1756

he succeeded in proving that, contrary to the opinion of that

naturalist, _Coccus aquaticus_ was really the ovum of a kind of leech.

In 1758, having returned to Upsala, he graduated there, and soon

afterwards began to teach mathematics and physics at the university,

publishing papers on the rainbow, the aurora, the pyroelectric phenomena

of tourmaline, &c. In 1767 Johann Gottschalck Wallerius (1709-1785)

having resigned the chair of chemistry and mineralogy, Bergman

determined to become a candidate, though he had paid no particular

attention to chemistry. As evidence of his attainments he produced a

memoir on the manufacture of alum, but his pretensions were strongly

opposed, and it was only through the influence of Gustavus III., then

crown prince and chancellor of the university, that he gained the

appointment, which he held till the end of his life. He died at Medevi

on Lake Vetter on the 8th of July 1784. Bergman's most important

chemical paper is his _Essay on Elective Attractions_ (1775), a study of

chemical affinity. In methods of chemical analysis, both by the blowpipe

and in the wet way, he effected many improvements, and he made

considerable contributions to mineralogical and geological chemistry,

and to crystallography. He also made observations of the transit of

Venus in 1761, and published a _Physical Description of the Earth_ in

1766.

His works were collected and printed in 6 vols. as _Opuscula Physica

et Chemica_ in 1779-1790, and were translated into French, German and

English.

BERGSCHRUND (Ger. _Berg_, mountain; _Schrund_, cleft or crevice), a

gaping crack in the upper part of a snowfield or glacier, near the rock

wall, caused by the glacier moving bodily away from the mountain-side as

the mass settles downwards. The crack is roughly parallel to the

rock-face of the upper edge of the glacier basin, and extends downwards

to the solid rock beneath the glacier where at the bottom of this huge

crevasse there are blocks of ice, and large pieces of rock torn off by

the lower portion of the glacier from the rock wall and floor.

BERGUES, a town of northern France, in the department of Nord, at the

junction of the canal of the Colme with canals to Dunkirk and Furnes (in

Belgium), 5 m. S.S.E. of Dunkirk by rail. Pop. (1906) 4499. The town has

a belfry, the finest in French Flanders, dating from the middle of the

16th century and restored in the 19th century. The church of St Martin

is a brick building of the 17th century in the Gothic style with a

modern facade. The town hall, dating from the latter half of the 19th

century, contains a municipal library and an interesting collection of

pictures. The industries of the town include brewing and malting, and

the manufacture of brushes and oil.

BERHAMPUR, a town of British India, the headquarters of Murshidabad

district, in Bengal, situated on the left bank of the river Bhagirathi,

5 m. below Murshidabad city. Pop. (1901) 24,397. Berhampur was fixed

upon after the battle of Plassey as the site of the chief military

station for Bengal; and a huge square of brick barracks was erected in

1767, at a cost of L300,000. Here was committed the first overt act of

the mutiny, on the 25th of February 1857. No troops are now stationed

here, and the barracks have been utilized for a jail, a lunatic asylum

and other civic buildings. A college, founded by government in 1853, was

made over in 1888 to a local committee, being mainly supported by the

munificence of the rani Svarnamayi. In the municipality of Berhampur is

included the remnant of the once important, but now utterly decayed city

of Cossimbazar (q.v.).

BERHAMPUR, a town of British India, in the presidency of Madras. Pop.

(1901) 25,729. It is the headquarters of Ganjam district, and is

situated about 9 m. from the sea. It is a station on the East Coast

railway, which connects Calcutta with Madras. Berhampur had a military

cantonment, sometimes distinguished as Baupur, containing a wing of a

native regiment; but the troops have been transferred elsewhere. There

is some weaving of silk cloth, and export trade in sugar. The college,

originally founded by government, is now maintained by the raja of

Kallikota. Silk-weaving and sugar-manufacture are carried on.

BERI-BERI, a tropical disease of the greatest antiquity, and known to

the Chinese from an extremely remote period. It gradually dropped out of

sight of European practice, until an epidemic in Brazil in 1863, and the

opening up of Japan, where it prevailed extensively, and the

investigations into the disease in Borneo, brought it again into notice.

The researches of Scheube and Balz in Japan, and of Pekelharing and

Winkler in the Dutch Indies, led to its description as a form of

peripheral neuritis (see also NEUROPATHOLOGY). The geographical

distribution of beri-beri is between 45 deg. N. and 35 deg. S. It occurs

in Japan, Korea and on the Chinese coast south of Shanghai; in Manila,

Tongking, Cochin China, Burma, Singapore, Malacca, Java and the

neighbouring islands; also in Ceylon, Mauritius, Madagascar and the east

coast of Africa. In the Western hemisphere it is found in Cuba, Panama,

Venezuela and South America. It has been carried in ships to Australia

and to England. Sir P. Manson has "known it originate in the port of

London in the crews of ships which had been in harbour for several

months," and he suggests that when peripheral neuritis occurs in

epidemic form it is probably beri-beric.

The cause is believed by many authorities to be an infective agent of a

parasitic nature, but attempts to identify it have not been entirely

successful. It is "not obviously communicable from person to person"

(Manson), but may be carried from place to place. It clings to

particular localities, buildings and ships, in which it has a great

tendency to occur; for instance, it is apt to break out again and again

on certain vessels trading to the East. It haunts low-lying districts

along the coast, and the banks of rivers. Moisture and high temperature

are required to develop its activity, which is further favoured by bad

ventilation, overcrowding and underfeeding. Another strongly supported

hypothesis is that it is caused by unwholesome diet. The experience of

the Japanese navy points strongly in this direction. Beri-beri was

constantly prevalent among the sailors until 1884, when the dietary was

changed. A striking and progressive diminution at once set in, and

continued until the disease wholly disappeared. Major Ronald Ross

suggested that beri-beri was really arsenical poisoning. A natural

surmise is that it is due to some fungoid growth affecting grain, such

as rice, maize or some other food stuff commonly used in the localities

where beri-beri is prevalent, and among sailors. The conditions under

which their food is kept on board certain ships might explain the

tendency of the disease to haunt particular vessels. Dr Charles Hose is

the principal advocate of this theory. Having had much experience of

beri-beri in Sarawak, he associates it with the eating of mouldy rice, a

germ in the fungus constituting the poison. But Dr Hose's views as to

rice have been strongly opposed by Dr Hamilton Wright and others.

The most susceptible age is from 15 to 40. Children under 15 and persons

over 50 or 60 are rarely attacked. Men are more liable than women. Race

has no influence. Previous attacks powerfully predispose.

The symptoms are mainly those of peripheral neuritis with special

implication of the phrenic and the pneumogastric nerves. There is

usually a premonitory stage, in which the patient is languid, easily

tired, depressed, and complains of numbness, stiffness and cramps in the

legs; the ankles are oedematous and the face is puffy. After this,

pronounced symptoms set in rapidly, the patient suddenly loses power in

the legs and is hardly able to walk or stand; this paresis is

accompanied by partial anaesthesia, and by burning or tingling

sensations in the feet, legs and arms; the finger-tips are numb, the

calf muscles tender. These symptoms increase, the oedema becomes

general, the paralysis more marked; breathlessness and palpitation come

on in paroxysms; the urine is greatly diminished. There is no fever,

unless it is of an incidental character, and no brain symptoms arise.

The patient may remain in this condition for several days or weeks, when

the symptoms begin to subside. On the disappearance of the oedema the

muscles of the leg are found to be atrophied. Recovery is very slow, but

appears to be certain when once begun. When death occurs it is usually

from syncope through over-distension of the heart. The mortality varies

greatly, from 2 to 50% of the cases. The disease is said to be extremely

fatal among the Malays. After death there is found to be serious

infiltration into all the tissues, and often haemorrhages into the

muscles and nerves, but the most important lesion is degeneration of the

peripheral nerves. The cerebrospinal centres are not affected, and the

degeneration of the nerve-fibres is more marked the farther they are

from the point of origin. The implication of the phrenic and

pneumogastric nerves, and of the cardiac plexus, accounts for the

breathlessness, palpitation and heart failure; that of the vaso-motor

system for the oedema and diminution of urine, and that of the spinal

nerves for the loss of power, the impairment and perversion of

sensation. According as these nerves are variously affected the symptoms

will be modified, some being more prominent in one case and some in

another.

AUTHORITIES.--See Sir Patrick Manson, _Tropical Diseases_ (new ed.,

1907), for a critical discussion of the subject, see _The Times_ of

28th October 1905; a full bibliography is given by Manson in Allbutt

and Rolleston's _System of Medicine_ (1907).

BERING (BEHRING), VITUS (1680-1741), Danish navigator, was born in 1680

at Horsens. In 1703 he entered the Russian navy, and served in the

Swedish war. A series of explorations of the north coast of Asia, the

outcome of a far-reaching plan devised by Peter the Great, led up to

Bering's first voyage to Kamchatka. In 1725, under the auspices of the

Russian government, he went overland to Okhotsk, crossed to Kamchatka,

and built the ship "Gabriel." In her he pushed northward in 1728, until

he could no longer observe any extension of the land to the north, or

its appearance to the east. In the following year he made an abortive

search for land eastward, and in 1730 returned to St Petersburg. He was

subsequently commissioned to a further expedition, and in 1740

established the settlement of Petropavlosk in Kamchatka; and built two

vessels, the "St Peter" and "St Paul," in which in 1741 he led an

expedition towards America. A storm separated the ships, but Bering

sighted the southern coast of Alaska, and a landing was made at Kayak

Island or in the vicinity. Bering was forced by adverse conditions to

return quickly, and discovered some of the Aleutian Islands on his way

back. He was afflicted with scurvy, and became too ill to command his

ships, which were at last driven to refuge on an uninhabited island in

the south-west of Bering Sea, where Bering himself and many of his

company died. This island bears his name. Bering died on the 19th of

December 1741. It was long before the value of his work was recognized;

but Captain Cook was able to prove his accuracy as an observer.

See G.F. Muller, _Sammlung russischer Geschichten_, vol. iii. (St

Petersburg, 1758); P. Lauridsen, _Bering og de Russishe

Opdagelsesrejser_ (Copenhagen, 1885).

BERING ISLAND, SEA and STRAIT. These take their name from the explorer

Vitus Bering. The island (also called Avatcha), which was the scene of

his death, lies in the south-western part of the sea, off the coast of

Kamchatka, being one of the Commander or Komandor group, belonging to

Russia. It is 69 m. long and 28 m. in extreme breadth; the area is 615

sq. m. The extreme elevation is about 300 ft. The smaller Copper Island

lies near. The islands are treeless, and the climate is severe, but

there is a population of about 650. Bering Sea is the northward

continuation of the Pacific Ocean, from which it is demarcated by the

long chain of the Aleutian Islands. It is bounded on the east by Alaska,

and on the west by the Siberian and Kamchatkan coast. Its area is

estimated at 870,000 sq. m. In the north and east it has numerous

islands (St Lawrence, St Matthew, Nunivak and the Pribiloff group) and

is shallow; in the south-west it reaches depths over 2000 fathoms. The

seal-fisheries are important (see BERING SEA ARBITRATION). The sea is

connected with the Arctic Ocean northward by Bering Strait, at the

narrowest part of which East Cape (Deshnev) in Asia approaches within

about 56 m. of Cape Prince of Wales on the American shore. North and

south of these points the coasts on both sides rapidly diverge. They are

steep and rocky, and considerably indented. The extreme depth of the

strait approaches 50 fathoms, and it contains two small islands known as

the Diomede Islands. These granite domes, lacking a harbour, lie about a

mile apart, and the boundary line between the possessions of Russia and

the United States passes between them. They are occupied by a small

tribe of about 80 Eskimo, who have from early times plied the trade of

middlemen between Asia and America. They call the western island

Nunarbook and the eastern Ignalook. Haze and fogs greatly prevail in the

strait, which is never free of ice.

[Illustration: Map of Bering Sea.]

The earliest names associated with the exploration of Bering Strait are

those of Russians seeking to extend their trading facilities. Isai

Ignatiev made a voyage eastward from the Kolyma river in 1646, and Simon

Dezhnev in 1648 followed his route and prolonged it, rounding the East

or Dezhnev Cape, and entering the strait. The post of Anadyrsk was

founded on the river Anadyr, and overland communications were gradually

opened up. A Russian named Popov first learnt a rumour of the existence

of islands east of Cape Dezhnev, and of the proximity of America, and

presently there followed the explorations of Vitus Bering. In 1731 the

navigator Michael Gvosdev was driven by storm from a point north of Cape

Dezhnev to within sight of the Alaskan coast, which he followed for two

days. Under Bering on his last voyage (1741) was Commander Chirikov of

the "St Paul," and after being separated from his leader during foggy

weather this officer reached the Alaskan coast and explored a

considerable stretch of it. Lieutenant Waxel and William Steller, a

naturalist, left at the head of Bering's party after his death, by their

researches laid the foundation of the important fur trade of these

waters. The Aleutian Islands gradually became known in the pursuit of

this trade, through Michael Novidiskov (1745) and his successors, and it

was not until Captain James Cook, working from the south, explored the

sea and strait in 1778 that the tide of discovery set farther northward.

BERING SEA ARBITRATION. The important fishery dispute between Great

Britain and the United States, which was closed by this arbitration,

arose in the following circumstances.

In the year 1867 the United States government had purchased from Russia

all her territorial rights in Alaska and the adjacent islands. The

boundary between the two powers, as laid down by the treaty for

purchase, was a line drawn from the middle of Bering Strait south-west

to a point midway between the Aleutian and Komandorski Islands dividing

Bering Sea into two parts, of which the larger was on the American side

of this line. This portion included the Pribiloff Islands, which are the

principal breeding-grounds of the seals frequenting those seas. By

certain acts of congress, passed between 1868 and 1873, the killing of

seals was prohibited upon the islands of the Pribiloff group and in "the

waters adjacent thereto" except upon certain specified conditions. No

definition of the meaning of the words "adjacent waters" was given in

the act. In 1870 the exclusive rights of killing seals upon these

islands was leased by the United States to the Alaska Commercial

Company, upon conditions limiting the numbers to be taken annually, and

otherwise providing for their protection. As early as 1872 the

operations of foreign sealers attracted the attention of the United

States government, but any precautions then taken seem to have been

directed against the capture of seals on their way through the passages

between the Aleutian Islands, and no claim to jurisdiction beyond the

three-mile limit appears to have been put forward. On the 12th of March

1881, however, the acting secretary of the United States treasury, in

answer to a letter asking for an interpretation of the words "waters

adjacent thereto" in the acts of 1868 and 1873, stated that all the

waters east of the boundary line were considered to be within the waters

of Alaska territory. In March 1886 this letter was communicated to the

San Francisco customs by Mr Daniel Manning, secretary of the treasury,

for publication. In the same summer three British sealers, the

"Carolena," "Onward" and "Thornton," were captured by an American

revenue cutter 60 m. from land. They were condemned by the district

judge on the express ground that they had been sealing within the limits

of Alaska territory. Diplomatic representations followed, and an order

for release was issued, but in 1887 further captures were made and were

judicially supported upon the same grounds. The respective positions

taken up by the two governments in the controversy which ensued may be

thus indicated. The United States claimed as a matter of right an

exclusive jurisdiction over the sealing industry in Bering Sea; they

also contended that the protection of the fur seal was, upon grounds

both of morality and interest, an international duty, and should be

secured by international arrangement. The British government repudiated

the claim of right, but were willing to negotiate upon the question of

international regulation. Between 1887 and 1890 negotiations were

carried on between Russia, Great Britain and the United States with a

view to a joint convention. Unfortunately the parties were unable to

agree as to the principles upon which regulation should be based. The

negotiations were wrecked upon the question of pelagic sealing. The only

seal nurseries were upon the Pribiloff Islands, which belonged to the

United States, and the Komandorski group, which belonged to Russia.

Consequently to prohibit pelagic sealing would have been to exclude

Canada from the industry. The United States, nevertheless, insisted that

such prohibition was indispensable on the grounds--(1) that pelagic

sealing involved the destruction of breeding stock, because it was

practically impossible to distinguish between the male and female seal

when in the water; (2) that it was unnecessarily wasteful, inasmuch as a

large proportion of the seals so killed were lost. On the other hand, it

was contended by Great Britain that in all known cases the extermination

of seals had been the result of operations upon land, and had never been

caused by sealing exclusively pelagic. The negotiations came to nothing,

and the United States fell back upon their claim of right. In June 1890

it was reported that certain American revenue cutters had been ordered

to proceed to Bering Sea. Sir Julian Pauncefote, the British ambassador

at Washington, having failed to obtain an assurance that British vessels

would not be interfered with, laid a formal protest before the United

States government.

Thereupon followed a diplomatic controversy, in the course of which the

United States developed the contentions which were afterwards laid

before the tribunal of arbitration. The claim that Bering Sea was _mare

clausum_ was abandoned, but it was asserted that Russia had formerly

exercised therein rights of exclusive jurisdiction which had passed to

the United States, and they relied _inter alia_ upon the ukase of 1821,

by which foreign vessels had been forbidden to approach within 100

Italian miles of the coasts of Russian America. It was pointed out by

Great Britain that this ukase had been the subject of protest both by

Great Britain and the United States, and that by treaties similar in

their terms, made between Russia and each of the protesting powers,

Russia had agreed that their subjects should not be troubled or molested

in navigating or fishing in any part of the Pacific Ocean. The American

answer was that the Pacific Ocean did not include Bering Sea. They also

claimed an interest in the fur seals, involving the right to protect

them outside the three-mile limit. In August 1890 Lord Salisbury

proposed that the question at issue should be submitted to arbitration.

This was ultimately assented to by the secretary of state, James

Gillespie Blaine, on the understanding that certain specific points,

which he indicated, should be laid before the arbitrators. On the 29th

of February 1892 a definitive treaty was signed at Washington. Each

power was to name two arbitrators, and the president of the French

Republic, the king of Italy, the king of Norway and Sweden were each to

name one. The points submitted were as follows:--(1) What exclusive

jurisdiction in the sea now known as Bering Sea, and what exclusive

rights in the seal fisheries therein, did Russia assert and exercise

prior to and up to the time of the cession of Alaska to the United

States? (2) How far were her claims of jurisdiction as to the seal

fisheries recognized and conceded by Great Britain? (3) Was the body of

water now known as Bering Sea included in the phrase "Pacific Ocean," as

used in the treaty of 1825 between Great Britain and Russia, and what

rights, if any, in Bering Sea were held exclusively exercised by Russia

after the said treaty? (4) Did not all the rights of Russia as to

jurisdiction and as to the seal fisheries in Bering Sea east of the

water boundary, in the treaty between the United States and Russia of

the 30th of March 1867, pass unimpaired to the United States under that

treaty? (5) Had the United States any and what right of protection over,

or property in, the fur seals frequenting the islands of Bering Sea when

such seals are found outside the three-mile limit? In the event of a

determination in favour of Great Britain the arbitrators were to

determine what concurrent regulations were necessary for the

preservation of the seals, and a joint commission was to be appointed by

the two powers to assist them in the investigation of the facts of seal

life. The question of damages was reserved for further discussion, but

either party was to be at liberty to submit any question of fact to the

arbitrators, and to ask for a finding thereon. The tribunal was to sit

at Paris. The treaty was approved by the Senate on the 29th of March

1892, and ratified by the president on the 22nd of April.

The United States appointed as arbitrator Mr John M. Harlan, a justice

of the Supreme Court, and Mr John T. Morgan, a member of the Senate. The

British arbitrators were Lord Hannen and Sir John Thompson. The neutral

arbitrators were the baron de Courcel, the marquis Visconti Venosta, and

Mr Gregers Gram, appointed respectively by the president of the French

Republic, the king of Italy, and the king of Norway and Sweden. The

sittings of the tribunal began in February and ended in August 1893. The

main interest of the proceedings lies in the second of the two claims

put forward on behalf of the United States. This claim cannot easily be

stated in language of precision; it is indicated rather than formulated

in the last of the five points specially submitted by the treaty. But

its general character may be gathered from the arguments addressed to

the tribunal. It was suggested that the seals had some of the

characteristics of the domestic animals, and could therefore be the

subject of something in the nature of a right of property. They were so

far amenable to human control that it was possible to take their

increase without destroying the stock. Sealing upon land was legitimate

sealing; the United States being the owners of the land, the industry

was a trust vested in them for the benefit of mankind. On the other

hand, pelagic sealing, being a method of promiscuous slaughter, was

illegitimate; it was _contra bonos mores_ and analogous to piracy.

Consequently the United States claimed a right to restrain such

practices, both as proprietors of the seals and as proprietors and

trustees of the legitimate industry. It is obvious that such a right was

a novelty hitherto unrecognized by any system of law. Mr J.C. Carter,

therefore, as counsel for the United States, submitted a theory of

international jurisprudence which was equally novel. He argued that the

determination of the tribunal must be grounded upon "the principles of

right," that "by the rule or principle of right was meant a moral rule

dictated by the general standard of justice upon which civilized nations

are agreed, that this international standard of justice is but another

name for international law, that the particular recognized rules were

but cases of the application of a more general rule, and that where the

particular rules were silent the general rule applied." The practical

result of giving effect to this contention would be that an

international tribunal could make new law and apply it retrospectively.

Mr Carter's contention was successfully combated by Sir Charles Russell,

the leading counsel for Great Britain.

The award, which was signed and published on the 15th of August 1893,

was in favour of Great Britain on all points. The question of damages,

which had been reserved, was ultimately settled by a mixed commission

appointed by the two powers in February 1896, the total amount awarded

to the British sealers being $473,151.26. (M. H. C.)

BERIOT, CHARLES AUGUSTE DE (1802-1870), Belgian violinist and composer.

Although not definitely a pupil of Viotti or Baillot he was much

influenced by both. He was very successful in his concert tours, and

held appointments at the courts of Belgium and France. From 1843 to 1852

he was violin professor at the Brussels conservatoire. Then his eyesight

began to fail, and in 1858 he became blind. His compositions are still

often played, and are good, clean displays of technique.

BERJA, a town of southern Spain, in the province of Almeria; on the

south-eastern slope of the Sierra de Gador, 10 m. N.E. of Adra by road.

Pop. (1900) 13,224. Despite the lack of a railway Berja has a

considerable trade. Lead is obtained among the mountains, and the more

sheltered valleys produce grain, wine, oil, fruit and esparto grass.

These, with the paper, linen and cotton goods manufactured locally in

small quantities, are exported from Adra.

BERKA, a town and watering-place of Germany, in the grand-duchy of

Saxe-Weimar, on the Ilm and the Weimar-Kranichfeld railway, 8 m. S. of

Weimar. Pop. 2300. It has sulphur baths, which are largely frequented in

the summer. Berka was once celebrated for its Cistercian nunnery,

founded in 1251. Two m. down the Ilm is the curious castle of Burgfarth,

partly hewn out of the solid rock.

BERKELEY, the name of an ancient English family remarkable for its long

tenure of the feudal castle built by the water of Severn upon the lands

from which the family takes its name. It traces an undoubted descent

from Robert (d. 1170) son of Harding. Old pedigree-makers from the 14th

century onward have made of Harding a younger son of a king of Denmark

and a companion of the Conqueror, while modern historians assert his

identity with one Harding who, although an English thane, is recorded by

Domesday Book in 1086 as a great landowner in Somerset. This Harding the

thane was son of Elnod or Alnod, who is recognized as Eadnoth the

Staller, slain in beating off the sons of Harold when they attacked his

county. But if Harding the Berkeley ancestor be the Harding who, as the

queen's butler, witnesses King Edward's Waltham charter of 1062, his

dates seem strangely apart from those of Robert his son, dead a hundred

and eight years later. Of Robert fitz Harding we know that he was a

Bristol man whose wealth and importance were probably increased by the

trade of the port. A partisan of Henry, son of the empress, that prince

before his accession to the throne granted him, by his charter at

Bristol in the earlier half of 1153, the Gloucestershire manor of

Bitton, and a hundred librates of land in the manor of Berkeley, Henry

agreeing to strengthen the castle of Berkeley, which was evidently

already in Robert's hands. In his rhymed chronicle Robert of Gloucester

tells how--

"A bourgois at Bristowe--Robert Harding

Vor gret tresour and richesse--so wel was mid the king

That he gat him and is eirs--the noble baronie

That so riche is of Berkele--mid al the seignorie."

Later in the same year the duke of Normandy granted to Robert fitz

Harding Berkeley manor and the appurtenant district called

"Berkelaihernesse," to hold in fee by the service of one knight or at a

rent of 100 s. Being at Berkeley, the duke confirmed to Robert a grant

of Bedminster made by Robert, earl of Gloucester, and in the first year

of his reign as king of England he confirmed his own earlier grant of

the Berkeley manor. About this time Robert, who had founded St

Augustine's Priory in Bristol, gave to the Black Canons there the five

churches in Berkeley and Berkeley Herness. In their priory church he was

buried in 1170, Berkeley descending to his son and heir Maurice.

Berkeley had already given a surname to an earlier family sprung from

Roger, its Domesday tenant, whose descendants seem to have been ousted

by the partisan of the Angevin. But if there had been a feud between the

families it was ended by a double alliance, a covenant having been made

at Bristol about November 1153 in the presence of Henry, duke of

Normandy, whereby Maurice, son of Robert fitz Harding, was to marry the

daughter of Roger of Berkeley, Roger's own son Roger marrying the

daughter of Robert. In his certificate of 1166 Robert tells the king

that, although he owes the service of five knights for Berkeley, Roger

of Berkeley still holds certain lands of the honour for which he does no

service to Robert. This elder line of Berkeley survived for more than

two centuries on their lands of Dursley and Cubberley, but after his

father's death Maurice, son of Robert, is styled Maurice of Berkeley.

Robert of Berkeley, the eldest son of Maurice, paid in 1190 the vast sum

of L1000 for livery of his great inheritance, but, rising with the

rebellious barons against King John, his castle was taken into the

king's hands. Seizin, however, was granted in 1220 to Thomas his brother

and heir, but the estate was again forfeit in the next generation for a

new defection, although the wind of the royal displeasure was tempered

by the fact that Isabel de Creoun, wife of Maurice, lord of Berkeley,

was the king's near kinswoman. Thomas, son of Maurice, was allowed to

succeed his father in the lands, and, having a writ of summons to

parliament in 1295, he is reckoned the first hereditary baron of the

line.

Even in the age of chivalry the lords of Berkeley were notable warriors.

Thomas, who as a lad had ridden on the barons' side at Evesham, followed

the king's wars for half a century of his long life, flying his banner

at Falkirk and at Bannockburn, in which fight he was taken by the Scots.

His seal of arms is among those attached to the famous letter of

remonstrance addressed by the barons of England to Pope Boniface VIII.

Maurice, his son, joined the confederation against the two Despensers,

and lay in prison at Wallingford until his death in 1326, the queen's

party gaining the upper hand too late to release him. But as the queen

passed by Berkeley on her way to seize Bristol, she gave back the

castle, which had been kept by the younger Despenser, to Thomas, the

prisoner's heir, who, with Sir John Mautravers, soon received in his

hold the deposed king brought thither secretly. The chroniclers agree

that Thomas of Berkeley had no part in the murder of the king, whom he

treated kindly. It was when Thomas was away from the castle that

Mautravers and Gournay made an end of their charge. Through the

providence of this Thomas the Berkeley estates were saved to the male

line of his house, a fine levied in the twenty-third year of Edward III.

so settling them. Thomas of Berkeley fought at Crecy and Calais,

bringing six knights and thirty-two squires to the siege in his train,

with thirty mounted archers and two hundred men on foot. His son and

heir-apparent, Maurice of Berkeley, was the hero of a misadventure

recorded by Froissart, who tells how a young English knight, displaying

his banner for the first time on the day of Poitiers, rode after a

flying Picard squire, by whom he was grievously wounded and held to

ransom. Froissart errs in describing this knight as Thomas lord of

Berkeley, for the covenant made in 1360 for the release of Maurice is

still among the Berkeley muniments, the ransom being stated at L1080.

Being by his mother a nephew of Roger Mortimer, earl of March, the

paramour of Queen Isabel, Maurice Berkeley married Elizabeth, daughter

of Hugh Despenser, the younger of Edward II.'s favourites and the

intruder in Berkeley Castle. With his son and heir Thomas of Berkeley,

one of the commissioners of parliament for the deposing of Richard II.

and a warden of the Welsh marches who harried Owen of Glendower, the

direct male line of Robert fitz Harding failed, and but for the

settlement of the estates Berkeley would have passed from the family. On

this Thomas's death in 1417 Elizabeth, his daughter and heir, and her

husband, Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, the famous traveller,

statesman and jouster, seized Berkeley Castle. Earl and countess only

withdrew after James Berkeley, the nephew and heir male, had livery of

his lands by the purchased aid of Humphrey of Gloucester. But the

Beauchamps returned more than once to vain attacks on the stout walls of

Berkeley, and a quarrel of two generations ended with the pitched battle

of Nibley Green. Fought between the retainers of William, Lord Berkeley,

son of James, and those who followed Thomas Talbot, Viscount Lisle,

grandson of the illustrious Talbot and great-grandson of the countess of

Warwick, this was the last private battle on English ground between two

feudal lords. Young Lisle was shot under the beaver by an arrow, and the

feud ended with his death, all claims of his widow being settled with an

annuity of L100. Bitter as was the long quarrel, it kept the Berkeleys

from casting their interest into the Wars of the Roses, in which most of

their fellows of the ancient baronage sank and disappeared.

The victorious Lord Berkeley, whose children died young, was on ill

terms with his next brother, and made havoc of the great Berkeley

estates by grants to the Crown and the royal house, for which he was

rewarded with certain empty titles. Edward IV. gave him a viscount's

patent in 1481, and Richard III. created him earl of Nottingham in 1483.

His complacence extending to the new dynasty, Henry VII. made him earl

marshal in 1485 and marquess of Berkeley in 1487. For this last patent

he, by a settlement following a recovery suffered, gave the king and his

heirs male Berkeley Castle and all that remained to him of his

ancestors' lands, enjoying for his two remaining years a bare life

interest. At his death in 1491 the king took possession, bringing his

queen with him on a visit to Berkeley.

Here follows a curious chapter of the history of the Berkeley peerage.

When Thomas, Lord Berkeley, died in 1417, it might have been presumed

that his dignity would descend to his heir, the countess of Warwick.

Nevertheless, his nephew and heir male was summoned as a baron from

1421, apparently by reason of his tenure of the castle and its lands.

When the marquess of Berkeley was dead without surviving issue, the

castle having passed to the crown, Maurice, the brother and heir, had no

summons. Yet this Maurice's son, another Maurice, had a summons as a

baron, although not "with the room in the parliament chamber that the

lords of Berkeley had of old time." The old precedence was restored when

Thomas, brother and heir of this baron, was summoned. This Thomas, who

had a command at Flodden, held his ancestors' castle as constable for

the king. A final remainder under the marquess's settlement brought back

castle and lands on the failure in 1553 of the heirs male of the body of

Henry VII., and Henry, Lord Berkeley, had special livery of them in his

minority. Yet although seized of the castle he took a lower seat in the

parliament house than did his grandfather who was not so seized, being

given place after Abergavenny, Audley and Strange.

By these things we may see that peerage law in old time rested upon the

pleasure of the sovereign and upon no ascertained and unvarying custom.

Of the power behind that pleasure this Henry, Lord Berkeley, had one

sharp reminder. He was, like most of his line, a keen sportsman, and,

returning to Berkeley to find that a royal visit had made great

slaughter among his deer, he showed his resentment by disparking

Berkeley Park. Thereat Queen Elizabeth sent him a warning in round Tudor

fashion. Let him beware, she wrote, for the earl of Leicester coveted

the castle by the Severn.

At the Restoration, George, Lord Berkeley, who had been one of the

commissioners to invite Charles II.'s return from the Hague, petitioned

for a higher place in parliament, claiming a barony by right of tenure

before 1295, but his claim was silenced by his advancement on September

11, 1679, to be viscount of Dursley and earl of Berkeley. James, the 3rd

earl, an active sea captain who was all but lost in company with Sir

Cloudesley Shovel, became knight of the Garter and lord high admiral and

commander-in-chief in the Channel, he and his house being loyal

supporters of the Hanoverian dynasty.

The last and most curious chapter of the history of the Berkeley honours

was opened by Frederick Augustus, the 5th earl of Berkeley (1745-1810).

This peer married at Lambeth, on the 16th of May 1796, one Mary Cole,

the daughter of a small tradesman at Wotton-under-Edge, with whom he had

already lived for several years, several children having been born to

them. In order to legitimatize the issue born before the marriage, the

earl in 1801 made declaration of an earlier marriage contracted

privately at Berkeley in 1785. On his death in 1811 the validity of this

alleged marriage was tested by the committee of privileges of the House

of Lords, and it was shown without doubt that the evidence for it, a

parish register entry, was a forgery.

Under the will of his father, Colonel William Berkeley, the eldest

illegitimate son, had the castle and estates, and on the failure of his

claim to the earldom he demanded a writ of summons as a baron by reason

of his tenure of the castle. No judgment was given in the matter, the

king in council having declared in 1669 that baronies by tenure were

"not in being and so not fit to be revived." But Colonel Berkeley's

political influence afterwards procured him (1831) a peerage as Lord

Segrave of Berkeley, and ten years later an earldom with the title of

Fitzhardinge. He died without issue in 1857. His brother, Sir Maurice

Fitzhardinge Berkeley, who succeeded to Berkeley under the terms of the

5th earl's will, revived the claims, and was likewise given a new barony

(1861) as Lord Fitzhardinge, a title in which he was succeeded by two of

his sons, the 3rd baron (b. 1830) being in 1909 owner of the Berkeley

and Cranford estates. The earldom of Berkeley was never assumed by the

eldest legitimate son of the 5th earl, and was in 1909 enjoyed by Randal

Thomas Mowbray Berkeley, 8th earl, grandson of admiral Sir George

Cranfield Berkeley, second son of the 4th earl. In 1893 Mrs Milman (d.

1899), daughter and heir of Thomas Moreton Fitzhardinge Berkeley, 6th

earl _de jure_, was declared by letters patent under the great seal to

have succeeded to the ancient barony of Berkeley created by the writ of

1421; and she was succeeded by her daughter.

Many branches have been thrown out by this family during its many

centuries of existence. Of these the most important descended from

Maurice of Berkeley, the baron who died in Wallingford hold in 1326. His

second son Maurice was ancestor of the Berkeleys of Stoke Giffard, whose

descendant, Norborne Berkeley, claimed the barony of Botetourt and had a

summons in 1764, dying without issue in 1770. Sir Maurice Berkeley of

Bruton, a cadet of Stoke Giffard, was forefather of the Viscounts

Fitzhardinge, the Lords Berkeley of Stratton (1658-1773) and the earls

of Falmouth, all extinct, the Berkeleys of Stratton bequeathing their

great London estate, including Berkeley Square and Stratton Street, to

the main line. Edward Berkeley of Pylle in Somerset, head of a cadet

line of the Bruton family, married Philippa Speke, whose mother was

Joan, daughter of Sir John Portman of Orchard Portman, baronet. His

grandson William, on succeeding to the Orchard Portman and Bryanston

estates, took the additional name of Portman, and from him come the

Viscounts Portman of Bryanston (1873). From James, Lord Berkeley, who

died in 1463, descended Rowland Berkeley, a clothier of Worcester, who

bought the estates of Spetchley. Rowland's second son, Sir Robert

Berkeley, the king's bench justice who supported the imposition of

ship-money, was ancestor of the Berkeleys of Spetchley, now the only

branch of the house among untitled squires.

See John Smyth's _Lives of the Berkeleys_, compiled c. 1618, edited by

Sir John Maclean (1883-1885); J.H. Round's introduction to the

Somerset Domesday, V.C.H. series; G.E. C(okayne)'s _Complete Peerage_;

Jeayes's _Descriptive Catalogue of the Charters and Muniments at

Berkeley Castle_ (1892); _Dictionary of National Biography_;

_Transactions of Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society_,

3 vols., viii., xlv., _et passim_; _The Red Book of the Exchequer_,

Chronicles of Roger of Wendover, Matthew Paris, Adam of Murimuth,

Robert of Gloucester, Henry of Huntingdon, &c. (Rolls Series); British

Museum Charters, &c. (O. Ba.)

BERKELEY, GEORGE (1685-1753), Irish bishop and philosopher, the eldest

son of William Berkeley (an officer of customs who had, it seems, come

to Ireland in the suite of Lord Berkeley of Stratton, lord lieutenant,

1670-1672, to whom he was related), was born on the 12th of March 1685,

in a cottage near Dysert Castle, Thomastown, Ireland. He passed from the

school at Kilkenny to Trinity College, Dublin (1700), where, owing to

the peculiar subtlety of his mind and his determination to accept no

doctrine on the evidence of authority or convention, he left the beaten

track of study and was regarded by some as a dunce, by others as a

genius. During his career at Dublin the works of Descartes and Newton

were superseding the older text-books, and the doctrines of Locke's

_Essay_ were eagerly discussed. Thus he "entered on an atmosphere which

was beginning to be charged with the elements of reaction against

traditional scholasticism in physics and in metaphysics" (A.C. Fraser).

He became a fellow in 1707. His interest in philosophy led him to take a

prominent share in the foundation of a society for discussing the new

doctrines, and is further shown by his _Common Place Book_, one of the

most valuable autobiographical records in existence, which throws much

light on the growth of his ideas, and enables us to understand the

significance of his early writings. We find here the consciousness of

creative thought focused in a new principle which is to revolutionize

speculative science. There is no sign of any intimate knowledge of

ancient or scholastic thought; to the doctrines of Spinoza, Leibnitz,

Malebranche, Norris, the attitude is one of indifference or lack of

appreciation, but the influence of Descartes and specially of Locke is

evident throughout. The new principle (nowhere in the _Common Place

Book_ explicitly stated) may be expressed in the proposition that no

existence is conceivable--and therefore possible--which is not either

conscious spirit or the ideas (i.e. objects) of which such spirit is

conscious. In the language of a later period this principle may be

expressed as the absolute synthesis of subject and object; no object

exists apart from Mind. Mind is, therefore, prior both in thought and in

existence, if for the moment we assume the popular distinction. Berkeley

thus diverted philosophy from its beaten track of discussion as to the

meaning of matter, substance, cause, and preferred to ask first whether

these have any significance apart from the conscious spirit. In the

pursuit of this inquiry he rashly invaded other departments of science,

and much of the _Common Place Book_ is occupied with a polemic, as

vigorous as it is ignorant, against the fundamental conceptions of the

infinitesimal calculus.

In 1707 Berkeley published two short mathematical tracts; in 1709, in

his _New Theory of Vision_, he applied his new principle for the first

time, and in the following year stated it fully in the _Principles of

Human Knowledge_. In these works he attacked the existing theories of

externality which to the unphilosophical mind is proved by visual

evidence. He maintained that visual consciousness is merely a system of

arbitrary signs which symbolize for us certain actual or possible

tactual experience--in other words a purely conventional language.

The contents of the visual and the tactual consciousness have no element

in common. The visible and visual signs are definitely connected with

tactual experiences, and the association between them, which has grown

up in our minds through custom or habit, rests upon, or is guaranteed

by, the constant conjunction of the two by the will of the Universal

Mind. But this synthesis is not brought forward prominently by Berkeley.

It was evident that a similar analysis might have been applied to

tactual consciousness which does not give externality in its deepest

significance any more than the visual; but with deliberate purpose

Berkeley at first drew out only one side of his argument. In the

_Principles of Human Knowledge_, externality in its ultimate sense as

independence of all mind is considered. Matter, as an abstract,

unperceived substance or cause, is shown to be impossible, an unreal

conception; true substance is affirmed to be conscious spirit, true

causality the free activity of such a spirit, while physical

substantiality and causality are held to be merely arbitrary, though

constant, relations among phenomena connected subjectively by suggestion

or association, objectively in the Universal Mind. In ultimate analysis,

then, nature is conscious experience, and forms the sign or symbol of a

divine, universal intelligence and will.

In 1711 Berkeley delivered his _Discourse on Passive Obedience_, in

which he deduces moral rules from the intention of God to promote the

general happiness, thus working out a theological utilitarianism, which

may be compared with the later expositions of Austin and J.S. Mill. From

1707 he had been engaged as college tutor; in 1712 he paid a short visit

to England, and in April 1713 he was presented by Swift at court. His

abilities, his courtesy and his upright character made him a universal

favourite. While in London he published his _Dialogues_ (1713), a more

popular exposition of his new theory; for exquisite facility of style

these are among the finest philosophical writings in the English

language. In November he became chaplain to Lord Peterborough, whom he

accompanied on the continent, returning in August 1714. He travelled

again in 1715-1720 as tutor to the only son of Dr St George Ashe

(?1658-1718, bishop successively of Cloyne, Clogher and Derry). In 1721,

during the disturbed state of social relations consequent on the

bursting of the South Sea bubble he published an _Essay towards

preventing the Ruin of Great Britain_, which shows the intense interest

he took in practical affairs. In the same year he returned to Ireland as

chaplain to the duke of Grafton, and was made divinity lecturer and

university preacher. In 1722 he was appointed to the deanery of Dromore,

a post which seems to have entailed no duties, as we find him holding

the offices of Hebrew lecturer and senior proctor at the university. The

following year Miss Vanhomrigh, Swift's Vanessa, left him half her

property. It would appear that he had only met her once at dinner. In

1724 he was nominated to the rich deanery of Derry, but had hardly been

appointed before he was using every effort to resign it in order to

devote himself to his scheme of founding a college in the Bermudas, and

extending its benefits to the Americans. With infinite exertion he

succeeded in obtaining from government a promise of L20,000, and after

four years spent in preparation, sailed in September 1728, accompanied

by some friends and by his wife, daughter of Judge Forster, whom he had

married in the preceding month. Three years of quiet retirement and

study were spent in Rhode Island, but it gradually became apparent that

government would never hand over the promised grant, and Berkeley was

compelled to give up his cherished plan. Soon after his return he

published the fruits of his studies in _Alciphron, or the Minute

Philosopher_ (1733), a finely written work in the form of dialogue,

critically examining the various forms of free-thinking in the age, and

bringing forward in antithesis to them his own theory, which shows all

nature to be the language of God. In 1734 he was raised to the bishopric

of Cloyne. The same year, in his _Analyst_, he attacked the higher

mathematics as leading to freethinking; this involved him in a hot

controversy. The _Querist_, a practical work in the form of questions on

what would now be called social or economical philosophy, appeared in

three parts, 1735, 1736, 1737. In 1744 was published the _Siris_, partly

occasioned by the controversy as to the efficacy of tar-water in cases

of small-pox, but rising far above the circumstance from which it took

its rise, and revealing hidden depths in the Berkeleian metaphysics. In

1751 his eldest son died, and in 1752 he removed with his family to

Oxford for the sake of his son George, who was studying there. He died

suddenly in the midst of his family on the 14th of January 1753, and was

buried in Christ Church, Oxford.

In the philosophies of Descartes and Locke a large share of attention

had been directed to the idea of matter, which was held to be the

abstract, unperceived background of real experience, and was supposed

to give rise to our ideas of external things through its action on the

sentient mind. Knowledge being limited to the ideas produced could

never extend to the unperceived matter, or substance, or cause which

produced them, and it became a problem for speculative science to

determine the grounds for the very belief in its existence. Philosophy

seemed about to end in scepticism or in materialism. Now Berkeley put

this whole problem in a new light by pointing out a preliminary

question. Before we deduce results from such abstract ideas as cause,

substance, matter, we must ask what in reality do these mean--what is

the actual content of consciousness which corresponds to these words?

Do not all these ideas, when held to represent something which exists

absolutely apart from all knowledge of it, involve a contradiction? In

putting this question, not less than in answering it, consists

Berkeley's originality as a philosopher. The essence of the answer is

that the universe is inconceivable apart from mind--that existence, as

such, denotes conscious spirits and the objects of consciousness.

Matter and external things, in so far as they are thought to have an

existence beyond the circle of consciousness, are impossible,

inconceivable. External things are things known to us in immediate

perception. To this conclusion Berkeley seems, in the first place, to

have been led by the train of reflection that naturally conducts to

subjective or egoistic idealism. It is impossible to overstep the

limits of self-consciousness; whatever words I use, whatever notions I

have, must refer to and find their meaning in facts of consciousness.

But this is by no means the whole or even the principal part of

Berkeley's philosophy; it is essentially a theory of causality, and

this is brought out gradually under the pressure of difficulties in

the first solution of the early problem. To merely subjective

idealism, sense percepts differ from ideas of imagination in degree,

not in kind; both belong to the individual mind. To Berkeley, however,

the difference is fundamental; sense ideas are not due to our own

activity; they must therefore be produced by some other will-by the

divine intelligence. Sense experience is thus the constant action upon

our minds of supreme active intellect, and is not the consequence of

dead inert matter. It might appear, therefore, that sensible things

had an objective existence in the mind of God; that an idea so soon as

it passes out of our consciousness passes into that of God. This is an

interpretation, frequently and not without some justice, put upon

Berkeley's own expression. But it is not a satisfactory account of his

theory. Berkeley is compelled to see that an immediate perception is

not a _thing_, and that what we consider permanent or substantial is

not a sensation but a group of qualities, which in ultimate analysis

means sensations either immediately felt or such as our experience has

taught us would be felt in conjunction with these. Our belief in the

reality of a thing may therefore be said to mean assurance that this

association in our minds between actual and possible sensations is

somehow guaranteed. Further, Berkeley's own theory would never permit

him to speak of possible sensations, meaning by that the ideas of

sensations called up to our minds by present experience. He could

never have held that these afforded any explanation of the permanent

existence of real objects. His theory is quite distinct from this,

which really amounts to nothing more than subjective idealism.

External things are produced by the will of the divine intelligence;

they are caused, and caused in a regular order; there exists in the

divine mind archetypes, of which sense experience may be said to be

the realization in our finite minds. Our belief in the permanence of

something which corresponds to the association in our minds of actual

and possible sensations means belief in the orderliness of nature; and

_that_ is merely assurance that the universe is pervaded and regulated

by mind. Physical science is occupied in endeavouring to decipher the

divine ideas which find realization in our limited experience, in

trying to interpret the divine language of which natural things are

the words and letters, and in striving to bring human conceptions into

harmony with the divine thoughts. Instead, therefore, of fate or

necessity, or matter, or the unknown, a living, active mind is looked

upon as the centre and spring of the universe, and this is the essence

of the Berkeleian metaphysics.

The deeper aspects of Berkeley's new thought have been almost

universally neglected or misunderstood. Of his spiritual empiricism

one side only has been accepted by later thinkers, and looked upon as

the whole. The subjective mechanism of association which with Berkeley

is but part of the true explanation, and is dependent on the objective

realization in the divine mind, has been received as in itself a

satisfactory theory. _Suni Cogitationes_ has been regarded by thinkers

who profess themselves Berkeleians as the one proposition warranted by

consciousness; the empiricism of his philosophy has been eagerly

welcomed, while the spiritual intuition, without which the whole is to

Berkeley meaningless, has been cast aside. For this he is himself in

no small measure to blame. The deeper spiritual intuition, present

from the first, was only brought into clear relief in order to meet

difficulties in the earlier statements, and the extension of the

intuition itself beyond the limits of our own consciousness, which

completely removes his position from mere subjectivism, rests on

foundations uncritically assumed, and at first sight irreconcilable

with certain positions of his system. The necessity and universality

of the judgments of causality and substantiality are taken for

granted; and there is no investigation of the place held by these

notions in the mental constitution. The relation between the divine

mind and finite intelligence, at first thought as that of agent and

recipient, is complicated and obscure when the necessity for

explaining the permanence of real things comes forward. The divine

archetypes, according to which sensible experience is regulated and in

which it finds its real objectivity, are different in kind from mere

sense ideas, and the question then arises whether in these we have not

again the "things as they are," which Berkeley at first so

contemptuously dismissed. He leaves it undetermined whether or not our

knowledge of sense things, which is never entirely presentative,

involves some reference to this objective course of nature or thought

of the divine mind. And if so, what is the nature of the notions

necessarily implied in the simplest knowledge of a _thing_, as

distinct from mere sense feeling? That in knowing objects certain

thoughts are implied which are not presentations or their copies is at

times dimly seen by Berkeley himself; but he was content to propound a

question with regard to those notions, and to look upon them as merely

Locke's ideas of relation. Such ideas of relation are in truth the

stumbling-block in Locke's philosophy, and Berkeley's empiricism is

equally far from accounting for them.

With all these defects, however, Berkeley's new conception marks a

distinct stage of progress in human thought. His true place in the

history of speculation may be seen from the simple observation that

the difficulties or obscurities in his scheme are really the points on

which later philosophy has turned. He once for all lifted the problem

of metaphysics to a higher level, and, in conjunction with his

successor, Hume, determined the form into which later metaphysical

questions have been thrown.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The standard edition of Berkeley's works is that of A.

Campbell Eraser in 4 vols. (i.-iii. _Works_; iv. _Life_, _Letters and

Dissertation_) published by the Clarendon Press (1871); this edition,

revised throughout and largely re-written, was re-published by the

same author (1901). Another complete edition edited by G. Sampson,

with a biographical sketch by A.J. Balfour, and a useful

bibliographical summary, appeared in 1897-1898. Prof. Fraser also

published an excellent volume of selections (5th ed., 1899), and a

short general account in a volume on Berkeley in the _Blackwood

Philos. Class._ For Berkeley's theory of vision see manuals of

psychology (e.g. G.F. Stout, Wm. James); for his ethical views H.

Sidgwick, _Hist, of Ethics_ (5th ed., 1902); A. Bain, _Mental and

Moral Science_ (1872). See also Sir L. Stephen, _English Thought in

the 18th Century_ (3rd ed., 1902); J.S. Mill's _Dissertations_, vols.

ii. and iv.; T. Huxley, _Critiques and Addresses_, pp. 320 seq.; G.S.

Fullerton, _System of Metaphysics_ (New York, 1904); John Watson,

_Outline of Philos._ (New York, 1898); J. McCosh, _Locke's Theory of

Knowledge_ (1884); T. Lorenz, _Ein Beitrag zur Lebensgeschichte G.

Berkeleys_ (1900) and _Weitere Beitrage z. Leb. G.B.'s_ (1901);

histories of modern philosophy generally. (R. Ad.; J. M. M.)

BERKELEY, MILES JOSEPH (1803-1889), English botanist, was born on the

1st of April 1803, at Biggin Hall, Northamptonshire, and educated at

Rugby and Christ's College, Cambridge, of which he became an honorary

fellow. Taking holy orders, he became incumbent of Apethorpe in 1837,

and vicar of Sibbertoft, near Market Harborough, in 1868. He acquired an

enthusiastic love of cryptogamic botany in his early years, and soon was

recognized as the leading British authority on fungi and plant

pathology. He was especially famous as a systematist in mycology, some

6000 species of fungi being credited to him, but his _Introduction to

Cryptogamic Botany_, published in 1857, and his papers on "Vegetable

Pathology" in the _Gardener's Chronicle_ in 1854 and onwards, show that

he had a very broad grasp of the whole domain of physiology and

morphology as understood in those days. Moreover, it should be pointed

out that Berkeley began his work as a field naturalist and collector,

his earliest objects of study having been the mollusca and other

branches of zoology, as testified by his papers in the _Zoological

Journal_ and the _Magazine of Natural History_, between 1828 and 1836.

As a microscopist he was an assiduous and accurate worker, as is shown

by his numerous drawings of the smaller algae and fungi, and his

admirable dissections of mosses and hepaticae. His investigations on the

potato murrain, caused by _Phytophthora infestans_, on the grape mildew,

to which he gave the name _Oidium Tuckeri_, and on the pathogenic fungi

of wheat rust, hop mildew, and various diseases of cabbage, pears,

coffee, onions, tomatoes, &c., were important in results bearing on the

life-history of these pests, at a time when very little was known of

such matters, and must always be considered in any historical account of

the remarkable advances in the biology of these organisms which were

made between 1850 and 1880; and when it is remembered that this work was

done without any of the modern appliances or training of a properly

equipped laboratory, the real significance of Berkeley's pioneer work

becomes apparent. It is as the founder of British mycology, however,

that his name will live in the history of botany, and his most important

work is contained in the account of native British fungi in Sir W.

Hooker's _British Flora_ (1836), in his _Introduction to Cryptogamic

Botany_ (1857), and in his _Outlines of British Fungology_ (1860). His

magnificent herbarium at Kew, which contains over 9000 specimens, and is

enriched by numerous notes and sketches, forms one of the most important

type series in the world. Berkeley died at Sibbertoft on the 30th of

July 1889. He was a man of refined and courteous bearing, an

accomplished classical student, with the simple and modest habits that

befit a man of true learning.

A list of his publications will be found in the _Catalogue of

Scientific Papers_ of the Royal Society, and sketches of his life in

_Proc. Roy. Soc._, 1890, 47, 9, by Sir Joseph Hooker, and _Annals of

Botany_, 1897, 11, by Sir W.T. Thiselton-Dyer. (H. M. W.)

BERKELEY, SIR WILLIAM (c. 1608-1677), British colonial governor in

America, was born in or near London, England, about 1608, the youngest

son of Sir Maurice Berkeley, an original member of the London Company of

1606, and brother of John, first Lord Berkeley of Stratton, one of the

proprietors of the Carolinas. He graduated at Oxford in 1629, and in

1632 was appointed one of the royal commissioners for Canada, in which

office he won the personal favour of Charles I., who appointed him a

gentleman of the privy chamber. During this period he tried his hand at

literary work, producing among other things a tragi-comedy entitled _The

Lost Lady_ (1638). In August 1641 he was appointed governor of Virginia,

but did not take up his duties until the following year. His first term

as governor, during which he seems to have been extremely popular with

the majority of the colonists, was notable principally for his religious

intolerance and his expulsion of the Puritans, who were in a great

minority. During the Civil War in England he remained loyal to the king,

and offered an asylum in Virginia to Charles II. and the loyalists. On

the arrival of a parliamentary fleet in 1652, however, he retired from

office and spent the following years quietly on his plantation. On the

death, in 1660, of Samuel Matthews, the last parliamentary governor, he

was chosen governor by the Virginia assembly, and was soon

recommissioned by Charles II. His natural arrogance and tyranny seems to

have increased with years, and the second period of his governorship was

a stormy one. Serious frontier warfare with the Indians was followed

(1676) by Bacon's Rebellion (see VIRGINIA), brought on by Berkeley's

misrule, and during its course all his worst traits became evident. His

cruelty and barbarity in punishing the rebels did not meet with the

approval of Charles II., who is said to have remarked that "the old fool

has put to death more people in that naked country than I did here for

the murder of my father." Berkeley was called to England in 1677

ostensibly to report on the condition of affairs in the colony, and a

lieutenant-governor (Herbert Jeffreys) was put in his place. Berkeley

sailed in May, but died soon after his arrival, at Twickenham, and was

buried there on the 13th of July 1677. In addition to the play mentioned

he wrote _A Discourse and View of Virginia_ (London, 1663).

BERKELEY, a city of Alameda county, California, U.S.A., on the E. shore

of San Francisco Bay, named after Bishop Berkeley on account of his line

"Westward the course of empire takes its way." Pop. (1890) 5101; (1900)

13,214, of whom 3216 were foreign-born; (1910) 40,434. It is served by

the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe railway systems, both

transcontinental; and is connected by electric lines (and ferry) with

San Francisco, and by five electric lines with Oakland. Its attractive

situation and pleasant outlooks have made it a favourite residential

suburb of San Francisco, which lies at a distance of 7 m. across the

bay. Berkeley is the seat of the California state university (see

CALIFORNIA, UNIVERSITY OF), opened in 1873; the inter-related Berkeley

Bible Seminary (1896, Disciples of Christ); Pacific Theological Seminary

(established in 1866 at Oakland, in 1901 at Berkeley, Congregational);

Seminary of the Pacific Coast Baptist Theological Union, and Unitarian

Theological School--all associated with the University of California;

and the state institution for the deaf, dumb and blind. The site of

Berkeley was a farming region until its selection for the home of the

university. Berkeley was incorporated as a town in 1878.

BERKELEY, a market town of Gloucestershire, England, near the river

Severn, in that portion of its valley known as the Vale of Berkeley, on

a branch from the Midland railway. Pop. (1901) 774. It is pleasantly

situated on a gentle eminence, in a rich pastoral vale to which it gives

name, celebrated for its dairies, producing the famous cheese known as

"double Gloucester." The town has a handsome church (Early English and

Decorated), a grammar school, and some trade in coal, timber, malt and

cheese. Berkeley was the birthplace of Dr Edward Jenner (1749), who is

buried in the church. Berkeley Castle, on an eminence south-east of the

town, is one of the noblest baronial castles existing in England, and

one of the few inhabited. The Berkeley Ship Canal connects Gloucester

with docks at Sharpness, avoiding the difficult navigation of the upper

part of the Severn estuary.

The manor of Berkeley gives its name to the noble family of Berkeley

(q.v.). According to tradition, a nunnery to which the manor belonged

existed here before the Conquest, and Earl Godwin, by bringing about its

dissolution, obtained the manor. All that is certainly known, however,

is that in Domesday the manor is assigned to one Roger, who took his

surname from it. His descendants seem to have been ousted from their

possessions during the 12th century by Robert fitz Harding, an Angevin

partisan, who already held the castle when, in 1153, Henry, duke of

Normandy (who became King Henry II. in the following year), granted him

the manor. Under an agreement made in the same year, Maurice, son of

Robert fitz Harding, married a daughter of Roger of Berkeley. Their

descendants styled themselves of Berkeley, and in 1200 the town was

confirmed to Robert of Berkeley with toll, soc, sac, &c., and a market

on whatever day of the week he chose to hold it. This charter was

confirmed to Thomas, Lord Berkeley, in 1330, and in 1395-1396 Lord

Berkeley received a grant of another fair on the vigil and day of

Holyrood. The descendants of the Berkeley family still hold the manor

and town. Berkeley Castle was the scene of the death of Edward II. The

king was at first entrusted to the care of Lord Berkeley, who, being

considered too lenient, was obliged to give up his prisoner and castle

to Sir John Mautravers and Thomas Gournay. The town has no charter, but

is mentioned as a borough in 1284-1285. It was governed by a mayor and

twelve aldermen, but by 1864 their privileges had become merely nominal,

and the corporation was dissolved in 1885 under the Municipal

Corporations Act. Berkeley was formerly noted for the manufacture of

clothing, but the trade had decreased by the 16th century, for Leland,

writing about 1520, says "the town of Berkeley is no great thing.... It

hath very much occupied and yet somewhat doth clothing."

See John Fisher, _History of Berkeley_ (1864).

BERKHAMPSTEAD (GREAT BERKHAMPSTEAD), a market town in the Watford

parliamentary division of Hertfordshire, England, 28 m. N.W. from London

by the London & North-Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901)

5140. It lies pleasantly in the narrow well-wooded valley of the

Bulbourne, and is close to the Grand Junction canal. The church of St

Peter, a large cruciform structure, exhibits all the Gothic styles, and

earlier fragments are traceable. There are several brasses of interest.

The poet William Cowper was born in the rectory in 1731. The large

grammar school is a foundation of 1541. Straw-plaiting and the

manufacture of small wooden wares are the principal industries, and

there are large chemical works. Of the castle earthworks and fragments

of walls remain. The name of the town is Great Berkhampstead (or

Berkhamsted), in distinction from Little Berkhampstead near Hatfield in

this county.

Berkhampstead (Beorhhamstede, Berchehamstede) was undoubtedly of some

importance in Saxon times since there were fifty-two burgesses there at

the time of the Conquest. In 1156 Henry II. granted the men and

merchants of the town the same laws and customs as they had in the time

of Edward the Confessor, and that they should be quit of toll throughout

England, Normandy, Aquitaine and Anjou. Berkhampstead rose to importance

with its castle, which is said to have been built by Robert, count of

Mortain, and when the castle fell into ruin after 1496 the town also

began to decay. In 1618, however, the burgesses received an

incorporation charter; but after the civil wars the corporate body began

to fail through poverty, and in the 18th century had ceased to exist.

The burgesses returned two members to parliament in 1320 and again in

1338 and 1341, but were never represented again. Before the 13th century

the burgesses held a weekly market on Sunday and a yearly fair on St

James's day, but in 1218 Henry III. altered the market day to Monday.

Roofing tiles were manufactured in Berkhampstead as early as the 13th

century, and in Elizabeth's reign the making of malt was the chief

industry.

BERKSHIRE, THOMAS HOWARD, 1ST EARL OF (1587-1669), 2nd son of Thomas

Howard, 1st earl of Suffolk and of Catherine, daughter of Sir Henry

Knevet, Kt., widow of Richard Rich, was baptized on the 8th of October

1587. He succeeded to his mother's estate of Charlton in Wiltshire, was

created K.B. in 1605, became master of the horse to Prince Charles, and

was created Lord Howard of Charlton and Viscount Andover in 1622, K.G.

in 1625, and earl of Berkshire in 1626. In 1634 he was chosen high

steward of the university of Oxford. He was a commissioner for

negotiating the treaty of Ripon in 1640, and accompanied the king to

York in 1642. While attempting to execute the king's commission of array

in Oxfordshire in August he was taken prisoner by Hampden at Watlington

and imprisoned in the Tower, but after being censured by the Lords was

liberated in September. In 1643 he was made governor of the prince of

Wales, a post for which he was in no way fitted, and in which he showed

himself factious and obstructive. He accompanied the prince to Scilly

and to Jersey, but on the latter's departure for France went to Holland.

At the Restoration he was made a privy councillor and received rewards.

He died on the 16th of July 1669, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

According to Clarendon "his affection for the crown was good; his

interest and reputation less than anything but his understanding." He

married Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of William, earl of Exeter, by

whom he had nine sons and four daughters. Of these Charles succeeded him

as 2nd earl of Berkshire; Thomas succeeded the latter; and Philip was

ancestor of John, 15th earl of Suffolk and 8th earl of Berkshire, and so

of the later earls of Suffolk and Berkshire.

BERKSHIRE [abbreviated _Berks_, pronounced _Barkshire_], a southern

county of England, bounded N. by Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, E. by

Surrey, S. by Hampshire, W. by Wiltshire, and N.W. for a short distance

by Gloucestershire. Its area is 721.9 sq. m. Its entire northern

boundary is formed by the river Thames, in the basin of which

practically the whole county is included. In the north-west a narrow and

broken line of hills, pierced in the west by the Cole stream, which here

forms the county boundary, extends past Faringdon and culminates in a

height over 500 ft. at Cumnor Hurst, which, with Wytham Hill, fills a

deep northward bend of the Thames, and overlooks the city of Oxford from

the west. The range separates the Thames valley from the Vale of White

Horse which is traversed by the small river Ock, and bounded on the

south by a line of hills known as the White Horse Hills or Berkshire

Downs, richly wooded along their base, and rising sharply to bare

rounded summits. In White Horse Hill on the western confines of the

county a height of 856 ft. is reached. The line of these hills is

continued north-eastward by the Chiltern Hills in Oxfordshire, but a

division between the two is made by the Thames in a narrow valley or gap

at Goring. Southward the Downs are scored with deep narrow valleys, the

chief of which are those of the Lambourn and the Pang. The last stream

runs eastward directly to the Thames; but the Lambourn and others join

the Kennet, which drains a beautiful sylvan valley to the Thames at

Reading. Another line of downs closely confines the vale of Kennet on

the south from Newbury upwards, and although the greater part of these

does not fall within the county, their highest point, Inkpen Beacon

(1011 ft.), does so. The Enborne stream, rising here, and flowing

parallel to the Kennet until turning north to join it, is for a

considerable distance the county boundary. Between Reading and Windsor

the Thames makes a northward bend, past Henley and Marlow, in the form

of three sides of a square. Within the bend slight hills border the

river, but south of these, and in the Loddon valley south of Reading,

the county is low and flat. In the south-east of the county, however,

there is a high sandy plateau, forming part of Bagshot Heath, over 400

ft. in elevation, and extending into Surrey. Fir-woods are

characteristic of this district, and northward towards the Thames

extends the royal park of Windsor, which is magnificently timbered. The

proportion to the total area of the county which is under woods is,

however, by no means so great as in the adjacent counties of Surrey and

Hampshire. There is fine trout-fishing in the Kennet and some of its

feeders.

_Geology._--The dominant feature of the county, the Chiltern and White

Horse Hills, owes its form to the Chalk, which spreads from Ashbury and

Hungerford on the west to Henley and Maidenhead on the east. In the

northern face of the escarpment we find the Lower Chalk with a hard bed,

the Totternhoe Stone; on the southern slope lies the Chalk-with-Flints.

At Kintbury it is quarried for the manufacture of whiting. At the foot

of the Chalk escarpment is the Upper Greensand with a narrow crop

towards the west which is broken up into patches eastwards. Looking

northward from the Chalk hills, the low-lying ground is occupied

successively by the Gault Clay, the Kimmeridge Clay, and finally by the

Oxford Clay, which extends beyond the Thames into Oxfordshire. This

low-lying tract is relieved by an elevated ridge of Corallian beds,

between the Kimmeridge Clay and the Gault. It extends from near

Faringdon past Abingdon to Cumnor and Wytham Hill. At Faringdon there

are some interesting gravels of Lower Greensand age, full of the fossil

remains of sponges. South of the Chalk, the county is occupied by Eocene

rocks, mottled clays, well exposed in the brickfields about Reading, and

hence called the Reading beds. At Finchampstead, Sunninghill and Ascot,

these deposits are overlaid by the more sandy beds of the Bagshot

series. Between the two last named formations is a broad outcrop of

London Clay. Numerous outliers of Eocene rest on the Chalk beyond the

main line of boundary. The Chalk of Inkpen Beacon is brought up to the

south side of the Tertiary rocks by a synclinal fold; similarly, an

anticline has brought up the small patch of Chalk in Windsor Park.

Clay-with-Flints lies in patches and holes on the chalk, and flint

gravels occur high up on either side of the Thames. Fairly thick beds of

peat are found in the alluvium of the Kennet at Newbury.

_Industries._--About seven-ninths of the total area is under

cultivation; a large proportion of this being in permanent pasture, as

much attention is paid to dairy-farming. Butter and cheese are largely

produced, and the making of condensed milk is a branch of the industry.

Many sheep are pastured on the Downs, important sheep-markets being held

at the small town of East or Market Ilsley; and an excellent breed of

pigs is named after the county. The parts about Faringdon are specially

noted for them. Oats are the principal grain crop; although a

considerable acreage is under wheat. Turnips and swedes are largely

cultivated, and apples and cherries are grown. Besides the royal castle

of Windsor, fine county seats are especially numerous.

The only manufacturing centre of first importance is Reading, which is

principally famous for its biscuit factories. The manufacture of

clothing and carpets is carried on at Abingdon; but a woollen industry

introduced into the county as early as the Tudor period is long extinct.

Engineering works and paper mills are established at various places; and

boat-building is carried on at Reading and other riverside stations.

There are extensive seed warehouses and testing grounds near Reading;

and the Kennet and Windsor ales are in high repute. Whiting is

manufactured from chalk at Kintbury on the Kennet.

_Communications._--Communications are provided principally by the Great

Western railway, the main line of which crosses the county from east to

west by Maidenhead, Reading and Didcot. A branch line serves the Kennet

valley from Reading; and the northern line of the company leaves the

main line at Didcot, a branch from it serving Abingdon. The Basingstoke

branch runs south from Reading, and lines serve Wallingford from

Cholsey, and Faringdon from Uffington. Communication with the south of

England is maintained by a joint line of the South Western and South

Eastern & Chatham companies terminating at Reading, and there are

branches of the Great Western and South Western systems to Windsor. The

Lambourn valley light railway runs north-west to Lambourn from Newbury.

Wide water-communications are afforded by the Thames, and the Kennet is

in part canalized, to form the eastern portion of the Kennet and Avon

canal system, connecting with the Bristol Avon above Bath.

_Population and Administration._--The area of the ancient county is

462,208 acres; with a population in 1891 of 239,138, and in 1901 of

256,509. The area of the administrative county is 462,367 acres. The

county contains twenty hundreds. The municipal boroughs are Abingdon

(pop. 6480), Maidenhead (12,980), Newbury (11,061), Reading, the county

town and a county borough (72,217), Wallingford (2808), Windsor or New

Windsor (14,130), Wokingham (3551). Wantage (3766) is an urban district.

Among lesser towns may be mentioned Faringdon in the north-west (2900),

Hungerford on the Kennet (2906), and Lambourn in the valley of that name

(2071), the villages of Bray (2978), Cookham (3874) and Tilehurst

(2545), which, like others on the banks of the Thames, have grown into

residential towns; and Sandhurst (2386). The county is in the Oxford

circuit, and assizes are held at Reading. It has one court of quarter

sessions, and is divided into twelve petty sessional divisions. The

boroughs of Abingdon, Newbury, Maidenhead, Reading, Wallingford and

Windsor have separate commissions of the peace, and Abingdon, Newbury,

Reading and Windsor have separate courts of quarter sessions. There are

198 civil parishes. Berkshire forms an archdeaconry in the diocese of

Oxford; a small portion, however, falls within the diocese of Salisbury.

There are 202 ecclesiastical parishes or districts, wholly or in part

within the county. There are three parliamentary divisions, Northern or

Abingdon, Southern or Newbury, and Eastern or Wokingham, each returning

one member; while the parliamentary borough of Reading returns one

member, and parts of the borough of Oxford and Windsor are included in

the county. There are several important educational establishments in

the county. Radley College near Abingdon, Wellington College near

Sandhurst, and Bradfield College, at the village of that name, 8 m. west

of Reading, are among the more important modern public schools for boys.

Bradfield College was founded in 1850, and is well known for the

realistic performances of classical Greek plays presented by the

scholars in an open theatre designed for the purpose. Abingdon and

Reading schools rank among the lesser public schools. At Reading is a

university extension college, and in the south-east of the county is the

Sandhurst Royal Military College.

_History._--During the Heptarchy Berkshire formed part of the kingdom of

Wessex, and interesting relics of Saxon occupation have been discovered

in various parts of the county. Of these the most remarkable are the

burial grounds at Long Wittenham and Frilford, and there is evidence

that the Lambourn valley was occupied in early Saxon times. The cinerary

urns found in Berkshire undoubtedly contain the ashes of the Anglians

who came south under Penda in the 7th century. The fortification called

Cherbury Castle, not far from Denchworth, is said to have been first

made up by Canute.

At the time of the Norman invasion Berkshire formed part of the earldom

of Harold, and supported him stanchly at the battle of Hastings. This

loyalty was punished by very sweeping confiscations, and at the time of

the Domesday survey no estates of any importance were in the hands of

Englishmen. When Alfred divided the country into shires, this county

received the name of Berrocscir, as Asser says, "from the wood of

Berroc, where the box-tree grows most plentifully."[1] At the time of

the survey it comprised twenty-two hundreds; at the present day there

are only twenty, of which eleven retain their ancient names. Many

parishes have been transferred from one hundred to another, but the

actual boundary of the county is practically unchanged. Part of the

parishes of Shilton and Langford formed detached portions of the shire,

until included in Oxfordshire in the reign of William IV. Portions of

Combe and Shalbourne parishes have also been restored to Hampshire and

Wiltshire respectively, while the Wiltshire portion of Hungerford has

been transferred to Berkshire. The county was originally included in the

see of Winchester, but in A.D. 909 it was removed to the newly-formed

see of "Wiltshire," afterwards united with Sherborne. In 1075 the seat

of the bishopric was removed to Salisbury, and in 1836 by an order in

council Berkshire was transferred to the diocese of Oxford. The

archdeaconry is of very early origin and is co-extensive with the

county. Formerly it comprised four rural deaneries, but the number has

lately been increased to nine. Much of the early history of the county

is recorded in the _Chronicles_ of the abbey of Abingdon, which at the

time of the survey was second only to the crown in the extent and number

of its possessions. The abbot also exercised considerable judicial and

administrative powers, and his court was endowed with the privileges of

the hundred court and was freed from liability to interference by the

sheriff. Berkshire and Oxfordshire had a common sheriff until the reign

of Elizabeth, and the shire court was held at Grauntpont. The assizes

were formerly held at Reading, Abingdon and Newbury, but are now held

entirely at Reading.

At the time of the Domesday survey the chief lay-proprietor was Henry de

Ferrers, ancestor of the earls of Derby, but it is remarkable that none

of the great Berkshire estates has remained with the same family long.

Thomas Fuller quaintly observes that "the lands of Berkshire are very

skittish and apt to cast their owners." The De la Poles succeeded to

large estates by a marriage with the heiress of Thomas Chaucer, son of

the poet, but the family became extinct in the male line, and the

estates were alienated. The same fate befell the estates of the Achards,

the Fitzwarrens and later the families of Norris and Befils.

The natural advantages of this county have always encouraged

agricultural rather than commercial pursuits. The soil is especially

adapted for sheep-farming, and numerous documents testify to the

importance and prosperity of the wool-trade in the 12th century. At

first this trade was confined to the export of the raw material, but the

reign of Edward III. saw the introduction of the clothing industry, for

which the county afterwards became famous. This trade began to decline

in the 17th century, and in 1641 the Berkshire clothiers complained of

the deadness of their trade and the difficulty of getting ready money,

attributing the same to delay in the execution of justice. The malting

industry and the timber trade also flourished in the county until the

19th century. Agriculturally considered, the Vale of the White Horse is

especially productive, and Camden speaks of the great crops of barley

grown in the district.

Owing to its proximity to London, Berkshire has from early times been

the scene of frequent military operations. The earliest recorded

historical fact relating to the county is the occupation of the district

between Wallingford and Ashbury by Offa in 758. In the 9th and 10th

centuries the county was greatly impoverished by the ravages of the

Danes, and in 871 the invaders were defeated by Aethelwulf at Englefield

and again at Reading. During the disorders of Stephen's reign

Wallingford was garrisoned for Matilda and was the scene of the final

treaty in 1153. Meetings took place between John and his barons in 1213

at Wallingford and at Reading, and in 1216 Windsor was besieged by the

barons. At the opening of the civil war of the 17th century, the

sheriff, on behalf of the inhabitants of Berkshire, petitioned that the

county might be put in a posture of defence, and here the royalists had

some of their strongest garrisons. Reading endured a ten days' siege by

the parliamentary forces in 1643, and Wallingford did not surrender

until 1646. Newbury was the site of two battles in 1643 and 1644.

In 1295, Berkshire returned two members to parliament for the county and

two for the borough of Reading. Later the boroughs of Newbury,

Wallingford, Windsor and Abingdon secured representation, and from 1557

until the Reform Act of 1832 the county was represented by a total of

ten members. By this act Abingdon and Wallingford were each deprived of

a member, but the county returned three members instead of two. Since

the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 the county has returned three

members for three divisions, and Windsor and Reading return one member

each, the remaining boroughs having lost representation.

_Antiquities._--The remains of two great Benedictine monasteries at

Abingdon and Reading are scanty. The ecclesiastical architecture of the

county is not remarkable, excepting a few individual churches. Thus for

Norman work the churches of Shellingford and Cholsey may be noted,

together with the very small chapel, of early date, at Upton near

Didcot. The church of Blewbury in the same locality is in the main

transitional Norman, and retains some of its original vaulting. Of Early

English churches there are several good examples, notably at Uffington,

with its unusual angular-headed windows, Buckland near Faringdon, and

Wantage. The tower of St Helen's, Abingdon, well illustrates this

period. The cruciform church of Shottesbrooke, with its central spire,

is a beautiful and almost unaltered Decorated building; and St George's

chapel in Windsor Castle is a superb specimen of Perpendicular work.

Apart from Windsor, Berkshire retains no remarkable medieval castles or

mansions.

AUTHORITIES.--Chief of the older works are: Elias Ashmole.

_Antiquities of Berkshire_ (3 vols., 1719, 2nd ed., London, 1723; 3rd

ed., Reading, 1736); D. and S. Lysons, _Magna Britannia_, vol. i.

Other works are: Marshall, _Topographical and Statistical Details of

the County of Berkshire_ (London, 1830); Earl of Carnarvon,

_Archaeology of Berkshire_ (London, 1859); C. King, _History of

Berkshire_ (London, 1887); Lowsley, _Glossary of Berkshire Words_

(London, 1888), and _Index to Wills in the Court of the Archdeacon of

Berkshire, 1508-1652_ (Oxford, 1893); _Victoria County History,

Berkshire_. See also _The Berks Archaeological Society's Quarterly

Journal_, and _Berkshire Notes and Queries_.