BERWICK (the Duke of), was natural son of James II. by Mrs Arabella Churchill, sister to the great Duke of Marlborough. He followed the fate of his father, and came into France after the revolution with James II. Here the Duke of Berwick was recommended to the court by his superior merit. He was created marshal of France, knight of the Holy Ghost, duke and peer of France, grandee of Spain, commander in chief of the French armies; in all which stations his behaviour was such, that few equalled, perhaps none surpassed, him. He lived in an age when the renowned Prince of Orange and many other of the greatest men commanded against him. His courage was of the cool steady kind; always possessing himself; taking all advantages; not foolishly, rashly, or wantonly throwing away the lives of his soldiers. He kept up on all occasions the most strict discipline; and did not spare punishment among his soldiers for marauding and other crimes, when properly deserved; for which some inconsiderate people have blamed him. He has been reflected upon by the very zealous and violent adherents of the Stuart family for not being sufficiently attached to that party, which was his own family. But by a cool examination of his actions, it will appear, that his behaviour in this particular.
Berwick—ticular was, as in most parts of his life, sensible and just. When he accepted of employments, received honours, dignities, and became a naturalized Frenchman, he thought it his duty, as an honest man, to become a Frenchman, and a real subject to the monarch who gave him bread; and to be, or not to be, in the interest of the Stuart family, according to the will and commands of the sovereign whom he served, and in the interest of France according to time and circumstances; for there is no serving two masters well. But when ordered by his king to be in that family's interest, he acted with the greatest sincerity; and took the most effectual and sensible methods to serve that unhappy house, as the following anecdote, if true, and it has great appearance and probability on its side, proves. The Duke of Marlborough, after the signing of the treaty of Utrecht, was censured by the British parliament for some of the army contracts in relation to bread and forage; upon which he retired into France: and it was then credibly asserted, the Duke of Marlborough was brought over to the interest of the Stuart family; for it is now past a doubt, that Queen Anne had a very serious intention of having her brother upon the throne of England after her death: and several circumstances, as well as the time of that Duke's landing in England, make many people believe he was gained over to the Stuart party. If the Duke of Berwick was, directly or indirectly, the means of gaining his uncle over to that interest, he more effectually served it than that rash mock army of unhappy gentlemen who were taken prisoners at Preston in 1715 had it in their power to do. In a word, the Duke of Berwick was, without being a bigot, a moral and religious man; and showed by his life and actions, that morality and religion are very compatible and consistent with the life of a statesman and a great general; and if they were oftener united in those two professions, it would be much happier for the rest of mankind. He was killed by a cannon-ball at the siege of Philipburgh in 1738.
Berwick, one of the best cultivated counties in Scotland; bounded by the river Tweed, on the south; by Lothian, on the north; by the German Ocean, on the east; and by Tiviotdale, on the west. It abounds with corn and grass, and has in it several seats of persons of quality. The principal rivers are the Tweed, the Whiteater, Blackadder, Eye, and Ednel. The chief place is the town and castle of Dunse. Eymouth is the sea-port, where a great deal of grain is shipped. Lauder is the only royal borough, though Greenlaw is the county-town. It sends one member to parliament.
Berwick (North), a royal borough and sea-port in the county of East Lothian in Scotland. W. Long. 2. 29. N. Lat. 5. 56.
Berwick-upon-Tweed, is a town on the borders of England and Scotland, and a county of itself. It stands on the north or Scottish side of the river Tweed; and is pleasantly situated on an easy declivity, almost close to the sea. It has a ditch on the north and east; but on the south and west it has high walls, regularly fortified, and planted with cannon, and to which the river serves as a moat. The houses are generally well built; and the town-house is a handsome structure, with a lofty turret, in which are eight bells, and a fine clock which tells the quarters, with four dials, one on each side the
square. The church is a neat building, but has no bells. The bridge is 947 feet long, and is supported by fifteen arches. The barracks form a large regular square, and will hold two regiments of foot very conveniently. The town is governed by a mayor, recorder, town-clerk, and four bailiffs; and has a coroner, a treasurer, four sergeants at mace, and a water bailiff. It had a strong castle, which now lies quite in ruins. It has a market on Saturdays, extremely well supplied; and a fair on Friday on Trinity-week for black cattle and horses. Corn and eggs are shipped from hence for London and other ports; but the principal trade is the salmon which are caught in the Tweed, and reckoned to be as good as any in the kingdom. Some are sent alive, and some pickled in kits by persons who subsist on that employment, and are called salmon coopers. The living is a rectory, rated at 201. a-year in the king's books. Though this town is not admitted to be either in England or Scotland, the English judges hold assizes here; and it is subject to the bishop of Durham. It sends two members to parliament. W. Long. 1. 35. N. Lat. 55. 58.
Bery, or Bury, the vill or seat of habitation of a nobleman, a dwelling or mansion house, being the chief of a manor: from the Saxon berg, which signifies a hill or castle; for heretofore noblemen's seats were castles situated on hills, of which we have still some remains; as in Herefordshire there are the berries of Stockton, Hope, &c. It was anciently taken for a sanctuary.
Bery. See Beria.
Beryl, in natural history, called by our lapidaries aqua marina, is a pellucid gem of a bluish green colour, found in the East Indies and about the gold mines of Peru: we have also some from Silesia, but what are brought from thence are oftener coloured crystals than real beryls; and when they are genuine, they are greatly inferior both in hardness and lustre to the oriental and Peruvian kinds.
The beryl, like most other gems, is met with both in the pebble and columnar form, but in the latter most frequently. In the pebble form it usually appears of a roundish but flattened figure, and commonly full of small flat faces, irregularly disposed. In the columnar or crystalline form it always consists of hexangular columns, terminated by hexangular pyramids. It never receives any admixture of colour into it, nor loses the blue and green, but has its genuine tinge in the degrees from a very deep and dusky to the palest imaginable of the hue of sea-water.
The beryl, in its perfect state, approaches to the hardness of the garnet, but is often softer; and its size is from that of a small tare to that of a pea, a horse-bean, or even a walnut. It may be imitated by adding to 20 pounds of crystal-glass made without magnesia, six ounces of calcined brass or copper, and a quarter of an ounce of prepared zaffre.—The properties of the beryl were very wonderful in the opinion of the ancient naturalists; it kept people from falling into ambuscades of enemies, excited courage in the fearful, and cured diseases of the eyes and stomach. It does none of these things now; because people are not simple enough to believe it has the virtue to do them.
Beryl-crystal, in natural history, a species of what Dr Hill calls elipemacrostyla, or imperfect crystals, is
of an extreme pure, clear, and equal texture, and scarce ever subject to the slightest films or blemishes. It is ever constant to the peculiarity of its figure, which is that of a long and slender column, remarkably tapering towards the top, and very irregularly hexagonal. It is of a very fine transparency, and naturally of a pale brown; and carries such evident marks of distinction from all brown crystals, that our lapidaries call it, by way of eminence, the beryl-crystal, or simply the beryl.