an ancient celebrated town of Italy, in the Terra d'Otranto, and kingdom of Naples, 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; the buildings poor and ruinous; no very remarkable church or edifice. The cathedral, dedicated to St Theodore, is a work of king Roger, but not equal in point of architecture to many churches founded by that monarch, who had a strong passion for building. Little remains of ancient Brundusium, except innumerable broken pillars, fixed at the corners of streets to defend the houses from carts; fragments of coarse Molaic, the floors of former habitations; the column of the light-house; a large marble basin, into which the water runs from brazen heads of deer; some inscriptions, ruins of aqueducts, coins, and other small furniture of an antiquary's cabinet. Its castle, built by the emperor Frederick II., to protect the northern branches of the harbour, is large and stately. Charles V. repaired it. The port is double, and the finest in the Adriatic. The outer part is 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 Alphonso 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 semicircular 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. Its capital... capitals is adorned with figures of Syrens and Tritons, intermingled with the acanthus leaf, and upon it a circular vase, which formerly held the fire. A modern inscription has been cut upon the plinth. Near it is another pedestal of similar dimensions, with one piece of the shaft lying on it. The space between these pillars answered to the entrance of the harbour.

"The whole kingdom of Naples (says Mr Swinburne) cannot show a more complete situation for trade than Brindisi. Here goodness of soil, depth of water, safety of anchorage, and a central position, are all united; yet it has neither commerce, husbandry, nor populousness. From the obstructions in the channel, which communicates with the two havens, arises the tribe of evils that afflict and defoliate this unhappy town. Julius Caesar may be said to have begun its ruin, by attempting to block up Pompey's fleet. He drove piles into the neck of land between the two ridges of hills; threw in earth, trees, and ruins of houses; and had nearly accomplished the blockade, when Pompey sailed out and escaped to Greece. In the 15th century, the prince of Taranto sunk some ships in the middle of the passage, to prevent the royalists from entering the port, and thereby provided a resting place for sea-weeds and sand, which soon accumulated, choked up the mouth, and rendered it impracticable for any vessels whatsoever. In 1752 the evil was increased, so as to hinder even the waves from beating through; and all communication was cut off, except in violent easterly winds or rainy seasons, when an extraordinary quantity of fresh water raises the level. From that period the port became a fetid green lake, full of infection and noxious insects; no fish but eels could live in it, nor any boat ply except canoes made of a single tree. They can hold but one person, and overset with the least irregularity of motion. The low grounds at each end were overflowed and converted into marshes, the vapours 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 eighteen thousand, they were reduced in 1766 to that of five thousand livid wretches, tormented with agues and malignant fevers. In 1775 above fifteen hundred persons died during the autumn; a woeful change of climate! Thirty years ago, the air of Brindisi was esteemed so wholesome and balsamic, that the convents of Naples were wont to send their consumptive friars to this city for the recovery of their health. This state of misery and destruction induced the remaining citizens to apply for relief to Don Carlo Demarco, one of the king's ministers, and a native of Brindisi. In consequence of this application, Don Vito Caravelli was ordered to draw up plans, and fix upon the means of opening the port anew: Don Andrea Pignoni was last year sent to execute his projects; and, by the help of machines and the labour of the galley-slaves, has succeeded in some measure. The channel has been partly cleared, and has now two fathom of water. It can 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 canal or gut is to be seven hundred yards long, and drawn in a straight line from the column. At present its parapets are defended by piles and fascines; but if the original plan be pursued, stone piers will be erected on both sides. When the canal shall be scooped out to a proper depth, and its piers solidly established, vessels of any burden may once more enter this land-locked port, which affords room for a whole navy. Docks wet and dry may be dug, goods may be shipped at the quay, and convenient watering-places be made with great ease. If merchants should think it a place of rising trade, and worthy of their notice, there is no want of space in the town for any factory whatever. Circulation of cash would give vigour to husbandry, and provisions would soon abound in this market. The sands at the foot of the hills, which form the channel, are to be laid out in beds for mussels and oysters. Some ecclesiastics are raising nurseries of orange and lemon trees; and other citizens intend introducing the cultivation of mulberry-trees, and breeding of silk-worms. The engineer would have done very little for the health of Brindisi, had he only opened a passage, and given a free course to the waters; the marshes at each extremity of the harbour would still have infected the air; he, therefore, at the expense of about a thousand ducats, had the fens filled up with earth, and a dam raised to confine the waters, and prevent their flowing back upon the meadows. The people of Brindisi, who are sensible of the blessings already derived from these operations, who feel a return of health, and see an opening for commerce and opulence, seem ready to acknowledge the obligation. They intend to erect a statue to the king, with inscriptions on the pedestal in honour of the minister and agents. The workmen, in clearing the channel, have found some medals and seals, and have drawn up many of the piles that were driven in by Caesar. They are small oaks 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.

"It is impossible to determine who were the founders of Brundusium, or when it was first inhabited. The Romans took early possession of a harbour so convenient for their enterprises against the nations dwelling beyond the Adriatic. In the year of Rome 509, they sent a colony hither. Pompey took refuge here, but finding his post untenable, made a precipitate retreat to Greece. In this city Octavian first assumed the name of Caesar, and here he concluded one of his 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 gave a smiting 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 splendour, 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..." wealth and subjects, contributed powerfully to the re-establishment of this city, one of the ports where pilgrims and warriors took shipping. It also benefited 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." E. Long. 18. 5. N. Lat. 40. 52.

BRINLEY (James), a most uncommon genius for mechanical inventions, and particularly excellent in planning and conducting inland navigations, was born, 1716, at Tunstall in Derbyshire. Through the mismanagement of his father (for there was some little property in his house) his education was totally neglected; and, at seventeen, he bound himself apprentice to a mill-wright, near Macclesfield, in Cheshire. He served his apprenticeship; and, afterwards, setting up for himself, advanced the mill-wright business, by inventions and contrivances of his own, to a degree of perfection which it had not attained before. His fame, as a most ingenious mechanic, spreading widely, his genius was no longer confined to the business of his profession: for, in 1752, he erected a very extraordinary water-engine at Clifton, in Lancashire, for the purpose of draining coal-mines; and, 1755, was employed 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 Lyme upon a new plan; and it is believed that he would have brought this engine 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, hath proved of high importance to trade and commerce; namely, the projecting and executing "Inland navigations." By these navigations the expense of carriage is lessened; a communication is opened from one part of the kingdom to another, and from each of these parts to the sea; and hence products and manufactures are afforded at a moderate price. The duke of Bridgewater hath, at Worley, about seven miles from Manchester, a large estate abounding with coal, which had hitherto lain useless, because the expense of land-carriage was too great to find a market for consumption. The duke, willing to work these mines, perceived the necessity of a canal from Worley 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 agreeably to the new plan, and likewise to extend a side-branch to Longford-bridge in Stretford. Brindley, in the mean time, 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 should 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 project was treated as wild and chimerical, yet, supported by his noble patron, he began his work in Sept. 1760, and the first boat failed over it in July 1761. The duke afterwards extended his ideas to Liverpool; and obtained, in 1762, an act for branching his canal to the tide-water in the Mersey: this part of the canal is carried over the rivers Mersey and Bollan, and over many wide and deep valleys.

The success of the duke of Bridgewater's undertakings encouraged a number of gentlemen and manufacturers in Staffordshire, to revive the idea of a canal-navigation through that county; and Brindley was, therefore, engaged to make a survey from the Trent to the Mersey. In 1766, this canal was begun, and conducted under Brindley's direction as long as he lived; but finished after his death by his brother-in-law Mr Hennhall, of whom he had a great opinion, in May 1777. 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 93 miles in length; and, besides a large number of bridges over it, has 76 locks and five tunnels. The most remarkable of the tunnels is the subterraneous passage of Harecastle, being 2880 yards in length, and more than 70 yards below the surface of the earth. The scheme of this inland-navigation had employed the thoughts of the ingenious part of the kingdom for upwards of 20 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 Brindley alone who surmounted this and other like difficulties, arising from the variety of strata and quicksands, as no one but himself would have attempted to conquer.

Brindley was engaged in many other similar undertakings, for a fuller account of which, not being consistent with our plan, we refer the reader to the "Biographia Britannica;" or rather to a curious and valuable pamphlet, published some years since, and intitled, "The History of Inland-Navigations, particularly that of the Duke of Bridgewater." He died at Turnhurft in Staffordshire, Sept. 27th, 1772, in his 56th year; somewhat immaturely, as it should seem; but he is supposed to have shortened his days by too intense application, and to have brought on a hectic fever, which continued on him for some years before it consumed him. For he never indulged and relaxed himself in the common diversions of life, as not having the least relish for them; and, though once prevailed on to see a play in London, yet he declared that he would on no account be present at another; because it so disturbed his ideas for several days after, as to render him unfit for business. When any extraordinary difficulty occurred to him in the execution of his works, he generally retired to bed; and has been known to lie there one, two, or three days, till he has surmounted it. He would would then get up, and execute his design without any drawing or model; for he had a prodigious memory, and carried every thing in his head.

As his station in life was low, and his education totally neglected, so his exterior accomplishments were suitable to them. He could indeed read and write, but both very indifferently; and he was perhaps, in his way, as abnormis sapiens—"of mother-wit, and wife without the schools"—as any man that ever lived. "He is as plain a looking man as one of the boors in the Peake, or one of his own carters: but when he speaks, all ears listen; and every mind is filled with wonder, at the things he pronounces to be practicable." The same author gives us also no ungracious idea of his moral make: "being great in himself, he harbours 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. Sensible that he must one day cease to be, 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. It is not to the duke of Bridgewater only that his services are confined: he is of public utility, and employs his talents in rectifying the mistakes of defective workmen, &c. 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."