BURTON, ROBERT, an English clergyman, born in Leicestershire; Scholar of Christ Church, Oxford; lived chiefly in Oxford, spending his time in it for some 50 years in study; author of “The Anatomy of Melancholy,” which he wrote to alleviate his own depression of mind, a book which is a perfect mosaic of quotations on every conceivable topic, familiar and unfamiliar, from every manner of source (1576-1640). See ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY.
BURTON-ON-TRENT (46), a town in Staffordshire; brews and exports large quantities of ale, the water of the place being peculiarly suitable for brewing purposes.
BURY (56), a manufacturing town in Lancashire, 10 m. NW. of Manchester; originally but a small place engaged in woollen manufacture, but cotton is now the staple manufacture in addition to paper-works, dye-works, &c.
BURY ST. EDMUNDS, or ST. EDMUNDSBURY (16), a market-town in Suffolk, 26 m. NW. of Ipswich, named from Edmund, king of East Anglia, martyred by the Danes in 870, in whose honour it was built; famous for its abbey, of the interior life of which in the 12th century there is a matchlessly graphic account in CARLYLE’S “PAST AND PRESENT.”
BUSA`CO, a mountain ridge in the prov. of Beira, Portugal, where Wellington with 40,000 troops beat Massena with 65,000.
BUSBY, RICHARD, distinguished English schoolmaster, born at Lutton, Lincolnshire; was head-master of Winchester School; had a number of eminent men for his pupils, among others Dryden, Locke, and South (1606-1695).
BUeSCHING, ANTON FRIEDRICH, a celebrated German geographer; his “Erdbeschreibung,” the first geographical work of any scientific merit; gives only the geography of Europe (1724-1793).
BUSHIRE (27), the chief port of Persia on the Persian Gulf, and a great trading centre.
BUSHMEN, or BOSJESMANS, aborigines of South-west Africa; a rude, nomadic race, at one time numerous, but now fast becoming extinct.
BUSHRANGERS, in Australia a gang made up of convicts who escaped to the “bush,” and there associated with other desperadoes; at one time caused a great deal of trouble in the colony by their maraudings.
BUSIRIS, a king of Egypt who used to offer human beings in sacrifice; seized Hercules and bound him to the altar, but Hercules snapped the bonds he was bound with, and sacrificed him.
BUSK, HANS, one of the originators of the Volunteer movement, born in Wales; author of “The Rifle, and How to Use it” (1815-1882).
BUSKIN, a kind of half-boot worn after the custom of hunters as part of the costume of actors in tragedy on the ancient Roman stage, and a synonym for tragedy.
BUTE, an island in the Firth of Clyde, about 16 m. long and from 3 to 5 broad, N. of Arran, nearly all the Marquis of Bute’s property, with his seat at Mount Stuart, and separated from the mainland on the N. by a winding romantic arm of the sea called the “Kyles of Bute.”