BRILLIANT, in the menage, is applied to a brisk, high mettled, stately horse, having a raised neck, a fine motion, and excellent haunches, upon which he rises, though ever so little put on BRIM, v, n. & adj. BRIM'FILL, BRIM'FULL, BRIM'LESS, BRIM'MER, BRIM'MING. Goth.brim, brin; Germ. The feet of the priests, that bare the ark, were Chaucer. Cant. Tales. Id. The Knightes Tale. Was ful of shypmen, and pilgrimes; Id. House of Fame. His hat being in the form of a turban, daintily made, the locks of his hair came down about the brims of it. Measure my case, how by thy beauty's filling With seed of woes my heart brimful is charged. Bacon. Sidney, We have try'd the utmost of our friends; The Scot on his unfurnished kingdom It told me it was Cynthia's own, Within whose cheerful brims That curious nymph had oft been known To bathe her snowy limbs. May thy brimmed waves, Their full tribute never miss, From a thousand rills. How my head in ointment swims! How my cup o'erlooks her brims. Drayton. From his infernal furnace forth he threw To drive him to despair, and quite to quail, And so we may arrive by Talmud skill Ben Jonson. The vapour of the grotto del Cano is generally supposed to be sulphureous, though I can see no reason for such a supposition: I put a whole bundle of lighted brimstone matches to the smoke, they all went out in an instant. Addison on Italy. BRIN, or BRINN, a strong town of Bohemia, Id. Henry V. in Moravia. It is large and well built; the Assembly of the States was held alternately here and at Olmutz. The castle of Spilberg is on an eminence out of the town. It was invested by the king of Prussia in 1742, but he was obliged to raise the siege. It is near the Swart. BRIN'DED, adj. BRIN'DLE, V. BRIN'DLED. of singed color. tabby, marked with streaks. Milton. Crashaw. And twice besides her beestings never fail Frequentative of brand. To variegate by fire; to produce different shades Used in the sense of streaky, S Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed. Shakspeare's Macbeth. She tamed the brinded lioness Id. BRINDISI, anciently Brundusium, a celebrated town of Naples, in the Terra d'Otranto, with an archbishop's see. Its walls are still of great extent, but the inhabited houses do not fill above half the enclosure. The streets are crooked and rough; and the buildings poor and ruinous; without any remarkable church or edifice. The cathedral, dedicated to St. Theodore, is a work of king Roger's, but not equal in point of architecture to many churches founded by that monarch. Little remains of ancient Brundusium, except innumerable broken pillars fixed at the corners of streets to defend the houses from carts; the column of the lighthouse; a large marble basin, into which the water runs from brazen heads of deer; some inscriptions, ruins of aqueducts, coins, and other small furniture for an antiquary's cabinet. Its castle, built by the emperor Frederick II. and repaired by Charles V. to protect the northern branches of the harbour, is large and stately. The port is double, and the finest in the Adriatic; the outer part being formed by two promontories, which stretch off gradually from each other as they advance into the sea, leaving a very narrow channel at the base of the angle. The island of St. Andrew, on which Alphonsus I. built a fortress, lies between the capes, and secures the whole road from the fury of the waves. In this triangular space large ships may ride at anchor. At the bottom of the bay the hills recede in a semi-circular shape, to leave room for the inner haven ; which as it were clasps the city in its arms, or rather encircles it in the figure of a stag's head and horns. This form is said to have given rise to the name of Brundusium, which in the old Messapian language signified the head of a deer. In ancient days the communication between the two havens was marked by lights, placed upon columns of the Corinthian order, standing on a rising ground in a direct line with the channel. Of these one remains entire upon its pedestal. From the obstructions in the channel, which communicates with the two havens, arise the evils that afflict and desolate this unhappy town. The low grounds at each end of the harbour are overflowed and converted into marshes, the vapors of which created every summer a real pestilence; and in the course of very few years swept off, or drove away, the largest portion of the inhabitants. From the number of 18,000 they were reduced in 1766 to that of 5000 livid wretches, tormented with agues and malignant fevers, and in 1755 above 1500 persons died during the autumn. This state of misery and destruction induced the remaining citizens to apply for relief to the king's ministers. The channel has been partly cleared, and has now two fathoms of water. It will admit large boats, a great step towards the revival of trade; but what is of more immediate importance, it gives a free passage to the sea, which now rushes in with impetuosity, and runs out again at each tide; so that the water of the inner port is set in motion, and once more rendered wholesome. The workmen, in cleaning the channel, found some medals and seals, and drew up many of the piles that were driven in by Cæsar. They are small oak stripped of their bark, and still as fresh as if they had been cut only a month, though buried above eighteen centuries, seven feet under the sand. The soil about the town is light and good. It produces excellent cotton, with which the Brindisians manufacture gloves and stockings. In the year of Rome 509 the Romans first sent a colony hither. Pompey took refuge here; but finding his post untenable, made a precipitate retreat to Greece. In this city Octavianus first assumed the name of Cæsar, and here he concluded a short-lived peace with Antony. Brundusium had been already celebrated for giving birth to the tragic poet Pacuvius, and about this time became remarkable for the death of Virgil. The barbarians, who ravaged every corner of Italy, did not spare so rich a town; and in 836 the Saracens at last gave a finishing blow to its fortunes. The Greek emperors, sensible of the necessity of having such a port as this in Italy, would have restored it to its ancient strength and splendor, had the Normans allowed them time and leisure. The Greeks struggled manfully to keep their ground; but, after many varieties of success, were finally driven out of Brindisi by William I. The frenzy for expeditions to Palestine, though it drained other kingdoms of their wealth and subjects, contributed powerfully to the re-establishment of this city, one of the ports where pilgrims and warriors took shipping. It also benefitted by the residence of the emperor Frederick, whose frequent armaments for the Holy Land required his presence at this place of rendezvous. The loss of Jerusalem, the fall of the Grecian empire, and the ruin of all the Levant trade after the Turks had conquered the East, reduced Brindisi to a state of inactivity and desolation, from which it has never been able to emerge. Long. 17° 45′ E., lat. 40° 25′ N. BRINDLEY (James), celebrated for his mechanical invention, was born in 1716, at Tunstead, in Derbyshire. Through the mismanagement of his father, who possessed some little property, his education was totally neglected; and at seventeen he bound himself apprentice to a millwright, near Macclesfield, in Cheshire. He served his apprenticeship; and, afterwards setting up for himself, effected various improvements in the millwright business. His fame as an ingenious mechanic spreading widely, he was employed in 1752 to erect a water-engine, at Clifton, in Lancashire, for the purpose of draining coal-mines; and in 1755 to execute the larger wheels for a new silk-mill at Congleton, in Cheshire. The potteries of Staffordshire were also, about this time, indebted to him for several valuable additions in the mills used by them for grinding flint stones. In 1756 he undertook to erect a steam-engine near Newcastle-under-Line, upon a new plan; and it is believed would have brought this machine to a great degree of perfection, if some interested engineers had not opposed him. His attention, however, was soon afterwards called off to another object, which, in its consequences, has proved of still higher importance to the trade of his country, namely, inland navigation. The duke of Bridgewater had, at Worsley, about seven miles from Manchester, a large estate abounding with coal, which was hitherto useless, because the expense of landcarriage was too great to find a market for its consumption. The duke, wishing to work these mines, perceived the necessity of a canal from Worsley to Manchester; upon which occasion Brindley, now become famous, was consulted; and declaring the scheme practicable, an act for this purpose was obtained in 1758 and 1759. It being, however, afterwards discovered that the navigation would be more beneficial if carried over the river Irwell to Manchester, another act was obtained to vary the course of the canal agreeable to the new plan, and to extend a side branch to Longford bridge in Stretford. Brindley, in the meantime, had begun these great works, being the first of the kind ever attempted in England with navigable subterraneous tunnels and elevated aqueducts; and as, in order to preserve the level of the water, it was necessary for it to be free from the usual obstructions of locks, he carried the canal over rivers, and many large and deep valleys. When it was completed as far as Barton, where the Irwell is navigable for large vessels, he proposed to carry it over that river by an aqueduct of thirty-nine feet above the surface of the water; and though this was treated as a wild and chimerical project, yet, supported by his noble patron, he began the works in September, 1760, and the first boat sailed over in July, the following year. The duke afterwards extended his ideas to Liverpool, and obtained, in 1762, an act for branching his canal to the tideway in the Mersey: this part of the canal is carried over the rivers Mersey and Bolland, and many wide and deep valleys. The success of the duke of Bridgewater's undertakings now encouraged a number of gentlemen and manufacturers in Staffordshire to revive the idea of a canal navigation through that country; and Brindley was engaged to make a survey from the Trent to the Mersey. In 1766 this canal was begun, and conducted under his direction as long as he lived. The proprietors called it, the canal from the Trent to the Mersey; but the engineer, more emphatically, the Grand Trunk Navigation,' on account of the numerous branches, which, as he justly supposed, would be extended every way from it. It is ninetythree miles in length; and, besides a great number of bridges over it, has seventy-six locks and five tunnels. The most remarkable of the latter is the subterraneous passage of Harecastle, being 2880 yards in length, and more than seventy yards below the surface of the earth. The scheme of this navigation had employed the thoughts of several ingenious men for upwards of twenty years before, and some surveys had been made; but Harecastle hill, through which the tunnel is constructed, could neither be avoided nor overcome by any expedient the most able engineers could devise. It was for Brindley alone to surmount this difficulty and similar ones. Mr. Brindley was engaged in many other undertakings; and died in possession of well-earned fame, and a considerable fortune, at Turnhurst, in Staffordshire, September the 27th, 1772, in his fifty-sixth year. He is supposed to have shortened his days by too intense application to his profession. His habits were very peculiar: he never indulged or relaxed himself with the common diversions of life, not having the least relish for them: when once prevailed on to see a play in London, he declared he would on no account be present at another, for it so disturbed his ideas for several days as to render him unfit for business. With a most imperfect education, he never seems to have had the common recourse to pen and paper for his plans. If any extraordinary difficulty occurred in the execution of his works, he would retire to bed, and has been known to lie there one, two, or three days, in meditation, till he had surmounted it. He would then rise, and execute his design without any drawing or model. He could read and write, it is said, but very indif ferently; and was, perhaps, as abnormis sapiens— as wise without the schools,' as any man that ever lived. 'As plain a looking man as one of the boors in the Peak, or one of his own carters,' says a contemporary writer; when he speaks, all ears listen, and every mind is filled with wonder at the things he pronounces to be practicable. Great in himself, he harbors no contracted notions, no jealousy of rivals; he conceals not his methods of proceeding, nor asks patents to secure the sole use of the machines which he invents and exposes to public view; and, sensible that he must one day cease to live, he selects men of genius, teaches them the power of mechanics, and employs them in carrying on the various undertakings in which he is engaged. His powers shine most in the midst of difficulties; when rivers and mountains seem to thwart his designs then appears his vast capacity, by which he makes them subservient to his will.' Darwin thus beautifully characterises the works of this kindred genius:— So with strong arm immortal Brindley leads His long canals, and parts the velvet meads; Winding, in lucid lines, the watery mass, Mines the firm rock, or loads the deep morass; With rising locks a thousand hills alarms, Flings o'er a thousand streams its silver arms, Feeds the long vale, the nodding woodland laves, And plenty, arts, and commerce freight the waves. Botanic Garden, Canto iii. With thee my bark I'll swiftly go Athwart the foaming brine. Byron. BRINE, is either native, as the sea-water, which by coction turns to salt; or factitious, formed by dissolving salt in water. For a description of the process of obtaining salt from brine, see SALT-WORKS. BRINE, taken out of brine-pits, or brinepans, used by some for curing or pickling of fish without boiling it into salt; and rock-salt, without refining it into white salt, are prohibited by 1 Ann. cap. 21. BRINE-PANS, the pits wherein the salt water is retained and suffered to stand to bear the action of the sun. There are divers sorts of salt-pans, as the water-pans, second-pans, sunpans; the water being transferred only from one to another. BRINE-PIT, in salt making, is the salt-spring whence the water to be boiled into salt is taken. There are of these springs in many places; that at Namptwich, in Cheshire, is alone sufficient, according to the account of the people of the place, to yield salt for the whole kingdom; but it is under the government of certain regulators, who, that the market may not be overstocked, will not suffer more than a certain quantity of the salt to be made yearly. BRINE-SPRINGS are fountains which flow with salt water instead of fresh. Of these there are a good number in South Britain, but, though not peculiar to this island, they are far from being common on the continent. There is a remarkable one at East Chennock, in Somersetshire, about twenty miles from the sea. There is another at Leamington, in Warwickshire, very near the river Leam; which, however, is but weak. A third runs into the river Cherwell, in Oxfordshire; and there are several more in Westmoreland and Yorkshire: but as they are weak, and the fuel in most of those counties is scarce and dear, no salt is prepared from them. At Barrow-deal, near Grange, three miles from Keswick in Cumberland, a pretty strong spring rises in a level, near a moss, sixteen gallons of the water of which yield one of pure salt, which is remarkable, as the same quantity of salt cannot be obtained from less than twenty-two gallons of the water of the German ocean. At Salt-water Haugh, near Butterby, in Durham, there are a multitude of salt springs, which rise in the middle of the river Weare, for the space of about forty yards in length and ten in breadth; but particularly one out of a rock, which is so strong that in a hot summer's day the surface is covered with a pure white salt. At Weston, in Staffordshire, there are brine-springs which afford about a ninth part of very fine white salt, There are others at Enson St. Thomas, and in the parish of Ingestre, but so weak that they are not wrought; though it is believed that by boring stronger springs might be found in the neighbourhood. In Lancashire there are several salt springs, but (if we except those at Barton, which are as rich as the spring at Northwich,) by no means so famous as those of Cheshire, called in general by the name of the Wiches. Namptwich, on the river Weever, has a noble spring not far from the river, which is so rich as to yield one-sixth part of pure white salt. At Northwich, six miles distant, at the confluence of the Weever and the Dan, the brine is still richer; for six ounces of salt are obtained from sixteen of water. The inhabitants of Wales, who, before that country was incorporated with England, were supplied chiefly, if not solely, with that necessary commodity from these two towns, called the former Hellath Wen, and the latter Hellath Du, i. e. the white and black salt-pit. In 1670 a rock of salt was discovered at a small distance from Northwich, which has been wrought to a great depth, and to a vast extent, so as to be justly esteemed one of the greatest curiosities in England; and it is highly probable, that there is an immense body of fossil salt in the bowels of the earth, under this whole country; for, upon boring, brine-pits have been found in many places on both sides of the Weever. This is the more likely, since at Middlewich, which stands at the confluence of the Croke and the Dan, there are salt-springs with a fresh brook running between them. The brines from these pits are of unequal strength; but when mixed, they commonly obtain four ounces of salt from a pound of brine. In these springs the water is strongest nearest the bottom, richer in dry weather than in wet, and when long drawn than when first wrought. But these are no rules in respect to other salt springs, for in those of Franche Comté the brine is strongest in wet weather. There are several other bodies dissolved in these brines besides salt; in some a sulphureous substance, which sublimes as the brine heats; a sort of dirty ochre which discolors the brine, but, if suffered to stand, speedily subsides; and in most brines a calcareous, or rather selenitic earth which settles to the bottom of the pan. See SALT and SPRING. BRING', Goth. brigga; Mod. Goth. BRING'ER, briggan; Swed. bringa; Dan. BRINGING. bringe; Sax. brytian, brycean, bringan; Teut. baeren, bringen; Belgic, brengen. In the preterperfect and perfect tenses it became, in different dialects, brigt, brigd, brid, brat, brot, brogt, broht; to bear, fetch, conduct, draw, lead, produce, breed. So many are the applications of this word, so various the senses in which it is employed, that we must set them down distinctly with their illustrations from Dr. Johnson, for Bring back gently their wandering minds, by going before them in the train they should pursue, without any rebuke. Locke. Nathan's fable had so good an effect, as to bring the man after God's own heart to a right sense of his guilt. Spectator. To attract; to draw along. In distillation, the water ascends difficultly, and brings over with it some part of the oil of vitriol. Newton's Opticks. To put into any particular state or circumstances; to make liable to any thing. Having got the way of reasoning, which that study necessarily brings the mind to, they might be able to transfer it to other parts of knowledge, as they shall have occasion. Locke. The question for bringing the king to justice was immediately put, and carried without any opposition that I can find. Swift's Presbyterian Plea. To induce; to prevail upon. The nature of the things, contained in those words, would not suffer him to think otherwise, how, or whensoever, he is brought to reflect on them. Locke. To bring about. See ABOUT. To bring to pass; to effect. By Him that made water, fire, erthe, and aire! Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. This turn of mind threw off the oppositions of envy and competition; it enabled him to gain the most vain and impracticable into his designs, and to bring about several great events, for the advantage of the publick. Addison's Freeholder. To bring forth. To give birth to; to produce. The good queen, For she is good, hath brought you forth a daughter: Here 'tis ; commends it to your blessing. Than that which, by creation, first brought forth Light out of darkness. Milton. Paradise Lost. Bewail thy falsehood, and the pious works It hath brought forth, to make thee memorable Among illustrious women, faithful wives. Id. Samson Agonistes, To bring in. To place in any condition. Shakspeare. Othello. There is but one God, who made heaven and earth, and sea and winds; but the folly and madness of mankind brought in the images of gods. Stillingfleet. The fruitfulness of Italy, and the like, are not brought in by force, but naturally rise out of the arguAddison. ment. To bring off. To clear; to procure; to be acquitted; to cause to escape. I trusted to my head, that has betrayed me, and I found fault with my legs, that would otherwise have brought me off L'Estrunge. The best way to avoid this imputation, and to bring off the credit of our understanding, is to be truly religious. Tillotson To bring on. To engage in action. If there be any that would reign, and take up all the time, let him find means to take them off, and bring others on. Bacon. |