Baton, or Batune,** a staff or cudgel, borne in English coats of arms, as a badge of illegitimacy. In architecture it denotes the round moulding at the base of a column, also called a *torus*.

**Baston, Robert,** a Carmelite monk, afterwards prior of the convent of that order at Scarborough, and also poet-laureate and public orator at Oxford, flourished in the fourteenth century. Edward II., in his expedition into Scotland in 1304, took Robert Baston with him in order to celebrate the victories he was to gain over the Scots; but the poet having been taken prisoner, was obliged to change his note and sing "the Bruce of Bannockburn." He wrote several pieces in Latin, on the Wars of Scotland, the Luxury of Priests, Synodical Sermons, &c.; and also a volume of tragedies and comedies, in English. He died about the year 1310.