Part 82 (2/2)

BOSWELL, SIR ALEXANDER, son and heir of the preceding, an antiquary; mortally wounded in a duel with James Stuart of Dunearn, who had impugned his character, for which the latter was tried, but acquitted (1775-1822).

BOSWORTH, a town in Leicesters.h.i.+re, near which Richard III. lost both crown and life in 1485, an event which terminated the Wars of the Roses and led to the accession of the Tudor dynasty to the throne of England in the person of Henry VII.

BOSWORTH, JOSEPH, an Anglo-Saxon scholar, born in Derbys.h.i.+re; became professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford; was the author of an Anglo-Saxon Grammar and Dictionary (1789-1876).

BOTANY BAY, an inlet in New South Wales, 5 m. S. of Sydney; discovered by Captain Cook in 1770; so called, by Sir Joseph Banks, from the variety and beauty of its flora; was once an English convict settlement.

BOTH, JOHN AND ANDREW, Flemish painters of the 17th century, the former a landscape and the latter a figure painter; worked frequently on the same canvas.

BOTHNIA, a prov. of Sweden, divided into E. and W. by a gulf of the name.

BOTHWELL, a village in Lanarks.h.i.+re, on the Clyde, 8 m. SE. of Glasgow; scene of a battle between Monmouth and the Covenanters in 1679.

BOTHWELL, JAMES HEPBURN, Earl of, one of the envoys sent in 1560 to convey Mary, Queen of Scots, from France home; was made Privy Councillor the year after; had to flee to France for an act of conspiracy; was recalled by Mary on her marriage with Darnley; was a great favourite with the queen; was believed to have murdered Darnley, though when tried, was acquitted; carried off Mary to Dunbar Castle; pardoned; was made Duke of Orkney, and married to her at Holyrood; parted with her at Carberry Hill; fled to Norway, and was kept captive there at Malmoe; after ten years of misery he died, insane, as is believed (1525-1577).

BOTOCUDOS, a wandering wild tribe in the forests of Brazil, near the coast; a very low type of men, and at a very low stage of civilisation; are demon-wors.h.i.+ppers, and are said to have no numerals beyond _one_.

BO-TREE, a species of Ficus, sacred to the Buddhists as the tree under which Buddha sat when the light of life first dawned on him. See BUDDHA.

BOTTA, CARLO GIUSEPPE, an Italian political historian, born in Piedmont; his most important work is his ”History of Italy from 1789 to 1814”; was the author of some poems (1766-1837).

BOTTA, PAUL eMILE, a.s.syriologist, born at Turin, son of the preceding; when consul at Mosul, in 1843, discovered the ruins of Nineveh; made further explorations, published in the ”Memoire de l'Ecriture Cuneiform a.s.syrienne” and ”Monuments de Ninive” (1802-1870).

BoTTGER, an alchemist who, in his experiments on porcelain, invented the celebrated Meissen porcelain (1682-1719).

BOTTICELLI, SANDRO, or ALESSANDRO, a celebrated painter of the Florentine school; began as a goldsmith's apprentice; a pupil of Fra Lippo Lippi; the best-known examples of his art are on religious subjects, though he was no less fascinated with cla.s.sical--mythological conceptions; is distinguished for his attention to details and for delicacy, particularly in the drawing of flowers; and it is a rose on the petticoat of one of his figures, the figure of Spring, which Ruskin has reproduced on the t.i.tle-page of his recent books, remarking that ”no one has ever yet drawn, or is likely to draw, roses as he has done;... he understood,” he adds, ”the thoughts of heathens and Christians equally, and could in a measure paint both Aphrodite and the Madonna” (1447-1515).

BoTTIGER, KARL AUGUSTE, German archaeologist, was a voluminous writer on antiquities, especially cla.s.sical (1760-1835).

BOTTOM, a weaver in the interlude in ”Midsummer-Night's Dream,”

whom, with his a.s.s's head, t.i.tania falls in love with under the influence of a love-potion.

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