Chapter XXIX: Part 29

_Geology._--The northern half of the county is occupied by Jurassic strata, in the southern half Cretaceous rocks predominate except in the south-eastern corner, where they are covered by Tertiary beds. Thus the oldest rocks are in the north, succeeded continuously by younger strata to the south; the general dip of all the rocks is south-easterly. A few patches of Upper Lias Clay appear near the northern boundary near Grafton Regis and Castle Thorpe, and again in the valley of the Ouse near Stoke Goldington and Weston Underwood. The Oolitic series is represented by the Great Oolite, with limestones in the upper part, much quarried for building stones at Westbury, Thornborough, Brock, Whittlewood Forest, &c.; the lower portions are more argillaceous. The Forest Marble is seen about Thornton as a thin bed of clay with an oyster-bearing limestone at the base. Next above is the Cornbrash, a series of rubbly and occasionally hard limestones and thin clays. The outcrop runs by Tingwick, Buckingham, Berehampton and Newport Pagnell, it is quarried at Wolverton and elsewhere for road metal. Inliers of these rocks occur at Marsh Gibbon and Stan Hill. The Oxford Clay and Kimmeridge Clay, with the Gault, lie in the vale of Aylesbury. The clay is covered by numerous outliers of Portland, Purbeck and Lower Greensand beds. The Portland beds are sandy below, calcareous above; the outcrop follows the normal direction in the county, from south-west to north-east, from Thame through Aylesbury; they are quarried at several places for building stone and fossils are abundant. The Hartwell Clay is in the Lower Portland. Freshwater Purbeck beds lie below the Portland and Lower Greensand beds; they cap the ridge between Oving and Whitchurch. Glass-making sands have been worked from the Lower Greensand at Hartwell, and phosphatic nodules from the same beds at Brickhill as well as from the Gault at Towersey. A broad band of Gault, a bluish clay, extends from Towersey across the county in a north-easterly direction. Resting upon the Gault is the Upper Greensand; at the junction of the two formations numerous springs arise, a circumstance which has no doubt determined the site of several villages. The Chalk rises abruptly from the low lying argillaceous plain to form the Chiltern Hills. The form of the whole of the hilly district round Chesham, High Wycombe and the Chalfonts is determined by the Chalk. Reading beds, mottled clays and sands, repose upon the Chalk at Woburn, Barnham, Fulmer and Denham, and these are in turn covered by the London Clay, which is exposed on the slopes about Stoke Common and Iver. Between the Tertiary-capped Chalk plateau and the Thames, a gentler slope, covered with alluvial gravel and brick earth, reaches down to the river. Thick deposits of plateau gravel cover most of the high ground in the southern corner of the county, while much of the northern part is obscured by glacial clays and gravels.

_Industries._--The agricultural capacities of the soil vary greatly in different localities. On the lower lands, especially in the Vale of Aylesbury, about the headwaters of the Thame, it is extremely fertile; while on the hills it is usually poor and thin. The proportion of cultivated land is high, being about 83% of the whole. Of this a large and growing portion is in permanent pasture; cattle and sheep being reared in great numbers for the London markets, to which also are sent quantities of ducks, for which the district round Aylesbury is famous. Wheat and oats are the principal grain crops, though both decrease in importance. Turnips and swedes for the cattle are the chief green crops; and dairy-farming is largely practised. There is no general manufacturing industry, but a considerable amount of lace-making and straw-plaiting is carried on locally; and at High Wycombe and in its neighbourhood there is a thriving trade in various articles of turnery, such as chairs and bowls, from beech and other hard woods. The introduction of lace-making in this and neighbouring counties is attributed to Flemish, and later to French immigrants, but also to Catharine of Aragon during her residence (c. 1532) at Ampthill. Down to the later part of the 19th century a general holiday celebrated by lace-makers on the 25th of November was known as "Cattarn's Day."

_Communications._--The main line of the London & North-Western railway crosses the north-east part of the county. Bletchley is an important junction on this system, branches diverging east to Fenny Stratford, Bedford and Cambridge, and west to Oxford and Banbury, Buckingham being served by the western branch. There is also a branch from Cheddington to Aylesbury. The Metropolitan-Great Central joint line serves Amersham, Chesham (by a branch), and Aylesbury, joining the North-Western Oxford branch at Verney Junction; this line is used by the Great Central railway, the main line of which continues north-westward from Quainton Road. A light railway connects this station with the large village of Brill to the south-west. The Great Central and the Great Western companies jointly own a line passing through Beaconsfield, High Wycombe, and Prince's Risborough, which is connected northward with the Great Central system. Before the opening of this line in 1906 the Great Western branch from Maidenhead to Oxford was the only line serving High Wycombe and Prince's Risborough, from which there are branches to Watlington and Aylesbury. The main line of this company crosses the extreme south of the county by Slough and Taplow. The Grand Junction Canal, reaching the valley of the Ouse by way of the Ouzel valley from the south, has branches to Aylesbury and to Buckingham. Except the Thames none of the rivers in the county is continuously navigable.

Bletchley is an important junction on this system, branches diverging east to Fenny Stratford, Bedford and Cambridge, and west to Oxford and Banbury, Buckingham being served by the western branch. There is also a branch from Cheddington to Aylesbury. The Metropolitan-Great Central joint line serves Amersham, Chesham (by a branch), and Aylesbury, joining the North-Western Oxford branch at Verney Junction; this line is used by the Great Central railway, the main line of which continues north-westward from Quainton Road. A light railway connects this station with the large village of Brill to the south-west. The Great Central and the Great Western companies jointly own a line passing through Beaconsfield, High Wycombe. and Prince's Risborough, which is connected northward with the Great Central system. Before the opening of this line in 1906 the Great Western branch from Maidenhead to Oxford was the only line serving High Wycombe and Prince's Risborough, from which there are branches to Watlington and Aylesbury. The main line of this company crosses the extreme south of the county by Slough and Taplow. The Grand Junction Canal, reaching the valley of the Ouse by way of the Ouzel valley from the south, has branches to Aylesbury and to Buckingham. Except the Thames none of the rivers in the county is continuously navigable.

_Population and Administration._--The area of the ancient county is 475,682 acres, with a population in 1891 of 185,284, and in 1901 of 195,764. The area of the administrative county is 479,358 acres. The county contains eight hundreds, of which three, namely Stoke, Burnham and Desborough, form the "Chiltern Hundreds" (_q.v._). The hundred of Aylesbury retains its ancient designation of the "three hundreds of Aylesbury." The municipal boroughs are Buckingham, the county town (pop. 3152), and Wycombe, officially Chepping Wycombe, also Chipping or High Wycombe (15,542). The other urban districts are Aylesbury (9243), Beaconsfield (1570), Chesham (7245), Eton (3301), Fenny Stratford (4799), Linslade, on the Ouzel opposite to Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire (2157), Marlow (4526), Newport Pagnell (4028), Slough (11,453). Among the lesser market towns may be mentioned Amersham (2674), Ivinghoe (808), Olney (2684), Prince's Risborough (2189), Stony Stratford (2353), Wendover (2009) and Winslow (1703). At Wolverton (5323) are the carriage works of the London & North-Western railway. Several of the villages on and near the banks of the Thames have become centres of residence, such as Taplow, Cookham and Bourne End, Burnham and Wooburn. Buckinghamshire is in the midland circuit, and assizes are held at Aylesbury. It has one court of quarter sessions, and is divided into thirteen petty sessional divisions. The boroughs of Buckingham and Wycombe have separate commissions of the peace. The administrative county contains 230 civil parishes. Buckinghamshire is almost entirely within the diocese of Oxford, and 215 ecclesiastical parishes are situated wholly or in part within it. There are three parliamentary divisions, Northern or Buckingham, Mid or Aylesbury, and Southern or Wycombe, each returning one member; and the county contains a small part of the parliamentary borough of Windsor (chiefly in Berkshire). The most notable institution within the county is Eton College, the famous public school founded by Henry VI.

_History._--The district which was to become Buckinghamshire was reached by the West Saxons in 571, as by a series of victories they pushed their way north along the Thames valley. With the grouping of the settlements into kingdoms and the consolidation of Mercia under Offa, Buckinghamshire was included in Mercia until, with the submission of that kingdom to the Northmen, it became part of the Danelaw. In the 10th century Buckinghamshire suffered frequently from the ravages of the Danes, and numerous barrows and earthworks mark the scenes [v.04 p.0675] of struggles against the invaders. These relics are especially abundant in the vale of Aylesbury, probably at this time one of the richest and best protected of the Saxon settlements. The Chiltern district, on the other hand, is said to have been an impassable forest infested by hordes of robbers and wild beasts. In the reign of Edward the Confessor, Leofstan, 12th abbot of St Albans, cut down large tracts of wood in this district and granted the manor of Hamstead (Herts) to a valiant knight and two fellow-soldiers on condition that they should check the depredations of the robbers. The same reason led at an early period to the appointment of a steward of the Chiltern Hundreds, and this office being continued long after the necessity for it had ceased to exist, gradually became the sinecure it is to-day. The district was not finally disforested until the reign of James I.

At the time of the Norman invasion Buckinghamshire was probably included in the earldom of Leofwine, son of Godwin, and the support which it lent him at the battle of Hastings was punished by sweeping confiscations after the Conquest. The proximity of Buckinghamshire to London caused it to be involved in most of the great national events of the ensuing centuries. During the war between King John and his barons William Mauduit held Hanslape Castle against the king, until in 1216 it was captured and demolished by Falkes de Bréauté. The county was visited severely by the Black Death, and Winslow was one of many districts which were almost entirely depopulated. In the civil war Buckinghamshire was one of the first counties to join in an association for mutual defence on the side of the parliament, which had important garrisons at Aylesbury, Brill and elsewhere. Newport Pagnell was for a short time garrisoned by the royalist troops, and in 1644 the king fixed his headquarters at Buckingham.

The shire of Buckingham originated with the division of Mercia in the reign of Edward the Elder, and was probably formed by the aggregation of pre-existing hundreds round the county town, a fact which explains the curious irregularities of the boundary line. The eighteen hundreds of the Domesday survey have now been reduced to eight, of which the three Chiltern hundreds, Desborough, Burnham and Stoke, are unaltered in extent as well as in name. The remainder have been formed each by the union of three of the ancient hundreds, and Aylesbury is still designated "the three hundreds of Aylesbury." All, except Newport and Buckingham, retain the names of Domesday hundreds, and the shire has altered little on its outer lines since the survey. Until the time of Queen Elizabeth Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire had a common sheriff. The shire court of the former county was held at Aylesbury.

The ecclesiastical history of Buckinghamshire is not easy to trace, as there is no local chronicler, but the earliest churches were probably subject to the West Saxon see of Dorchester, and when after the Conquest the bishop's stool was transferred to Lincoln no change of jurisdiction ensued. After the dissolution of the monasteries it was proposed to form a new diocese to include Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, but the project was abandoned, and both remained in the Lincoln diocese until 1837, when the latter was transferred to Oxford. The arch-deaconry was probably founded towards the close of the 11th century by Bishop Rémy, and the subdivision into rural deaneries followed shortly after. A dean of Thornborough is mentioned in the 12th century, and in the taxation of Nicholas IV. eight deaneries are given, comprising 186 parishes. In 1855 the deaneries were reconstructed and made eighteen in number.

On the redistribution of estates after the Conquest only two Englishmen continued to retain estates of any importance, and the chief landowners at this date were Walter Giffard, first earl of Buckingham, and Odo, bishop of Bayeux. Few of the great Buckinghamshire estates, however, remained with the same proprietors for any length of time. Many became annexed by religious establishments, while others reverted to the crown and were disposed of by various grants. The family of Hampden alone claim to have held the estate from which the name is derived in an unbroken line from Saxon times.

Buckinghamshire has always ranked as an agricultural rather than a manufacturing county, and has long been famed for its corn and cattle. Fuller mentions the vale of Aylesbury as producing the biggest bodied sheep in England, and "Buckinghamshire bread and beef" is an old proverb. Lace-making, first introduced into this county by the Fleming refugees from the Alva persecution, became a very profitable industry. The monopolies of James I. considerably injured this trade, and in 1623 a petition was addressed to the high sheriff of Buckinghamshire representing the distress of the people owing to the decay of bone lace-making. Newport Pagnell and Olney were especially famous for their lace, and the parish of Hanslape is said to have made an annual profit of £8000 to £9000 from lace manufacture. The straw-plait industry was introduced in the reign of George I., and formerly gave employment to a large number of the population.

The county was first represented in parliament by two members in 1290. The representation increased as the towns acquired representative rights, until in 1603 the county with its boroughs made a total return of fourteen members. By the Reform Act of 1832 this was reduced to eleven, and by the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885 the boroughs were deprived of representation and the county returned three members for three divisions.

_Antiquities._--Buckinghamshire contains no ecclesiastical buildings of the first rank. Monastic remains are scanty, but two former abbeys may be noted. At Medmenham, on the Thames above Marlow, there are fragments, incorporated into a residence, of a Cistercian abbey founded in 1201; which became notorious in the middle of the 18th century as the meeting-place of a convivial club called the "Franciscans" after its founder, Sir Francis Dashwood, afterwards Lord le Despencer (1708-1781), and also known as the "Hell-Fire Club," of which John Wilkes, Bubb Dodington and other political notorieties were members. The motto of the club, _fay ce que voudras_ (do what you will), inscribed on a doorway at the abbey, was borrowed from Rabelais' description of the abbey of Thelema in _Gargantua_. The remains of the Augustinian Notley Abbey (1162), incorporated with a farm-house, deserve mention rather for their picturesque situation by the river Thame than for their architectural value. Turning to churches, there is workmanship considered to be of pre-Norman date in Wing church, in the neighbourhood of Leighton Buzzard, including a polygonal apse and crypt. Stewkley church, in the same locality, shows the finest Norman work in the county; the building is almost wholly of the later part of this period, and the ornamentation is very rich. The Early English work of Chetwode and Haddenham churches, both in the west of the county, is noteworthy; especially in the first, which, as it stands, is the eastern part of a priory church of Augustinians (1244). Good specimens of the Decorated style are not wanting, though none is of special note; but the county contains three fine examples of Perpendicular architecture in Eton College chapel and the churches of Maids Moreton to the north, and Hillesden to the south, of Buckingham. Ancient domestic architecture is chiefly confined to a few country houses, of which Chequers Court, dating from the close of the 16th century, is of interest not only from the architectural standpoint but from its beautiful situation high among the Chiltern Hills between Prince's Risborough and Wendover, and from a remarkable collection of relics of Oliver Cromwell, preserved here as a consequence of the marriage, in 1664, of John Russell, a grandson of the Protector, into the family to which the house then belonged. The manor-house of Hampden, among the hills east of Prince's Risborough, was for many generations the abode of the family of that name, and is still in the possession of descendants of John Hampden, who fell at the battle of Chalgrove in 1643, and is buried in Hampden church. Fine county seats are numerous--there may be mentioned Stowe (Buckingham), formerly the seat of the dukes of Buckingham; Cliveden and Hedsor, two among the many beautifully situated mansions by the bank of the Thames; and Claydon House in the west of the county. Among the Chiltern Hills, also, there are several [v.04 p.0676] splendid domains. Associations with eminent men have given a high fame to several towns or villages of Buckinghamshire. Such are the connexion of Beaconsfield with Edmund Waller and Edmund Burke, that of Hughenden near Wycombe with Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield, whose father's residence was at Bradenham; of Olney and Stoke Pogis with the poets Cowper and Gray respectively. At Chalfont St Giles a cottage still stands in which Milton completed _Paradise Lost_ and began _Paradise Regained_. In earlier life he had lived and worked at Horton, near the Thames below Windsor.

AUTHORITIES.--The original standard history is the laborious work of G. Lipscomb, _History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham_ (London, 1831-1847). Other works are: Browne Willis, _History and Antiquities of the Town, Hundred, and Deanery of Buckingham_ (London, 1755); D. and S. Lysons, _Magna Britannia_, vol. i.; R. Gibbs, _Buckingham_ (Aylesbury, 1878-1882); _Worthies of Buckingham_ (Aylesbury, 1886); and _Buckingham Miscellany_ (Aylesbury, 1891); G.S. Roscoe, _Buckingham Sketches_ (London, 1891); P.H. Ditchfield, _Memorials of Old Buckinghamshire_ (London, 1901); _Victoria County History_, "Buckinghamshire."

BUCKLAND, FRANCIS TREVELYAN (1826-1880), English zoologist, son of Dean William Buckland the geologist, was born at Oxford on the 17th of December 1826. He was educated at Winchester and Christ Church, taking his degree in 1848, and then adopted the medical profession, studying at St George's hospital, London, where he became house-surgeon in 1852. The pursuit of anatomy led him to a good deal of out-of-the-way research in zoology, and in 1856 he became a regular writer on natural history for the newly established _Field_, particularly on the subject of fish. In 1866 he started _Land and Water_ on similar lines. In 1867 he was appointed government inspector of fisheries, and in the course of his work travelled constantly about the country, being largely responsible for the increased attention paid to the scientific side of pisciculture. Among his publications, besides articles and official reports, were _Fish Hatching_ (1863), _Curiosities of Natural History_ (4 vols., 1857-1872), _Logbook of a Fisherman_ (1875), _Natural History of British Fishes_ (1881). He died on the 19th of December 1880.

See _Life_ by G.C. Bompas (1885).

BUCKLAND, WILLIAM (1784-1856), English divine and geologist, eldest son of the Rev. Charles Buckland, rector of Templeton and Trusham, in Devon, was born at Axminster on the 12th of March 1784. He was educated at the grammar school of Tiverton, and at Winchester, and in 1801 was elected a scholar of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, becoming B.A. in 1804. In 1809 he was elected a fellow of his college, and was admitted into holy orders. From early boyhood he had exhibited a strong taste for natural science, which was subsequently stimulated by the lectures of Dr John Kidd on mineralogy and chemistry; and his attention was especially drawn to the then infant science of geology. He also attended the lectures of Sir Christopher Pegge (1765-1822) on anatomy. He now devoted himself systematically to an examination of the geological structure of Great Britain, making excursions, and investigating the order of superposition of the strata and the characters of the organic remains which they contained. In 1813, on the resignation of Dr Kidd, he was appointed reader in mineralogy in Oxford; and the interest excited by his lectures was so great that in 1819 a readership in geology was founded and especially endowed by the treasury, Dr Buckland being the first holder of the new appointment. In 1818 Dr Buckland was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1824 and again in 1840 he was chosen president of the Geological Society of London. In 1825 he was presented by his college to the living of Stoke Charity, near Whitchurch, Hants, and in the same year he was appointed by Lord Liverpool to a canonry of the cathedral of Christ Church, Oxford, when the degree of D.D. was conferred upon him. In 1825, also, he married Mary, the eldest daughter of Mr Benjamin Morland of Sheepstead House, near Abingdon, Berks, by whose abilities and excellent judgment he was materially assisted in his literary labours. In 1832 he presided over the second meeting of the British Association, which was then held at Oxford. In 1845 he was appointed by Sir Robert Peel to the vacant deanery of Westminster, and was soon after inducted to the living of Islip, near Oxford, a preferment attached to the deanery. In 1847 he was appointed a trustee in the British Museum; and in 1848 he was awarded the Wollaston medal by the Geological Society of London. In 1849 his health began to give way under the increasing pressure of his multifarious duties; and the later years of his life were overshadowed by a serious illness, which compelled him to live in retirement. He died on the 24th of August 1856, and was buried in a spot which he had himself chosen, in Islip churchyard.

Buckland was a man many-sided in his abilities, and of a singularly wide range of attainments. Apart from his published works and memoirs in connexion with the special department of geology, and in addition to the work entailed upon him by the positions which he at different times held in the Church of England, he entered with great enthusiasm into many practical questions connected with agricultural and sanitary science, and various social and even medical problems. As a teacher he possessed powers of the highest order; and the university of Oxford is enriched by the large and valuable private collections, illustrative of geology and mineralogy, which he amassed in the course of his active life. It is, however, upon his published scientific works that Dr Buckland's great reputation is mainly based. His first great work was the well-known _Reliquiae Diluvianae, or Observations on the Organic Remains contained in caves, fissures, and diluvial gravel attesting the Action of a Universal Deluge_, published in 1823 (2nd ed. 1824), in which he supplemented his former observations on the remains of extinct animals discovered in the cavern of Kirkdale in Yorkshire, and expounded his views as to the bearing of these and similar cases on the Biblical account of the Deluge. Thirteen years after the publication of the _Reliquiae_, Dr Buckland w as called upon, in accordance with the will of the earl of Bridgewater, to write one of the series of works known as the _Bridgewater Treatises_. The design of these treatises was to exhibit the "power, wisdom, and goodness of God, as manifested in the Creation," and none of them was of greater value, as evinced by its vitality, than that on "Geology and Mineralogy." Originally published in 1836, it has gone through three editions, and though not a "manual" of geological science, it still possesses high value as a storehouse of geological and palaeontological facts bearing upon the particular argument which it was designed to illustrate. The third edition, issued in 1858, was edited by his son Francis T. Buckland, and is accompanied by a memoir of the author and a list of his publications.

Of Dr Buckland's numerous original contributions to the sciences of Geology and Palaeontology, the following may be mentioned:--(1) "On the Structure of the Alps and adjoining parts of the Continent, and their relation to the Secondary and Transition Rocks of England" (_Annals of Phil._, 1821); (2) "Account of an Assemblage of Fossil Teeth and Bones of Elephant, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, &c., discovered in a cave at Kirkdale in Yorkshire in the year 1821" (_Phil. Trans._); (3) "On the Quartz Rock of the Lickey Hill in Worcestershire" (_Trans. Geol. Soc._); (4) "On the Megalosaurus or Great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield" (Ibid.); (5) "On the Cycadeoideae, a Family of Plants found in the Oolite Quarries of the Isle of Portland" (Ibid.); (6) "On the Discovery of a New Species of Pterodactyle in the Lias of Lyme Regis" (Ibid.); (7) "On the Discovery of Coprolites or Fossil Faeces in the Lias of Lyme Regis, and in other Formations" (Ibid.); (8) "On the Evidences of Glaciers in Scotland and the North of England" (_Proc. Geol. Soc. Lond._); (9) "On the South-Western Coal District of England" (joint paper with the Rev. W.D. Conybeare, _Trans. Geol. Soc. Lond._); (10) "On the Geology of the neighbourhood of Weymouth, and the adjacent parts of the Coast of Dorset" (joint paper with Sir H. De la Beche, _Trans. Geol. Soc. Lond._).

With regard to the Glacial theory propounded by Agassiz, no one welcomed it with greater ardour than Buckland, and he zealously sought to trace out evidences of former glaciation in Britain. A record of the interesting discussion which took place at the Geological Society's meeting in London in November 1840, [v.04 p.0677] after the reading of a paper by Buckland, was printed in the _Midland Naturalist_, October 1883.

BUCKLE, HENRY THOMAS (1821-1862), English historian, author of the _History of Civilization_, the son of Thomas Henry Buckle, a wealthy London merchant, was born at Lee, in Kent, on the 24th of November 1821. Owing to his delicate health he was only a very short time at school, and never at college, but the love of reading having been early awakened in him, he was allowed ample means of gratifying it. He gained his first distinctions not in literature but in chess, being reputed, before he was twenty, one of the first players in the world. After his father's death in January 1840 he spent some time with his mother on the continent (1840-1844). He had by that time formed the resolution to direct all his reading and to devote all his energies to the preparation of some great historical work, and during the next seventeen years he bestowed ten hours each day in working out his purpose. At first he contemplated a history of the middle ages, but by 1851 he had decided in favour of a history of civilization. The six years which followed were occupied in writing and rewriting, altering and revising the first volume, which appeared in June 1857. It at once made its author a literary and even social celebrity,--the lion of a London season. On the 1st of March 1858 he delivered at the Royal Institution a public lecture (the only one he ever gave) on the _Influence of Women on the Progress of Knowledge_, which was published in _Fraser's Magazine_ for April 1858, and reprinted in the first volume of the _Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works_. On the 1st of April 1859 a crushing and desolating affliction fell upon him in the death of his mother. It was under the immediate impression of his loss that he concluded a review he was writing of J.S. Mill's _Essay on Liberty_ with an argument for immortality, based on the yearning of the affections to regain communion with the beloved dead,--on the impossibility of standing up and living, if we believed the separation were final. The argument is a strange one to have been used by a man who had maintained so strongly that "we have the testimony of all history to prove the extreme fallibility of consciousness." The review appeared in _Fraser's Magazine_, May 1859, and is to be found also in the _Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works_ (1872). The second volume of his history was published in May 1861. Soon after he left England for the East, in order to recruit his spirits and restore his health. From the end of October 1861 to the beginning of March 1862 was spent by him in Egypt, from which he went over the desert of Sinai and of Edom to Syria, reaching Jerusalem on the 19th of April 1862. After staying there eleven days, he set out for Europe by Beyrout, but at Nazareth he was attacked by fever; and he died at Damascus on the 29th of May 1862.

Buckle's fame, which must rest wholly on his _History of Civilization in England_, is no longer what it was in the decade following his death. His _History_ is a gigantic unfinished introduction, of which the plan was, first to state the general principles of the author's method and the general laws which govern the course of human progress; and secondly, to exemplify these principles and laws through the histories of certain nations characterized by prominent and peculiar features,--Spain and Scotland, the United States and Germany. Its chief ideas are--(1) That, owing partly to the want of ability in historians, and partly to the complexity of social phenomena, extremely little had as yet been done towards discovering the principles which govern the character and destiny of nations, or, in other words, towards establishing a science of history; (2) That, while the theological dogma of predestination is a barren hypothesis beyond the province of knowledge, and the metaphysical dogma of free will rests on an erroneous belief in the infallibility of consciousness, it is proved by science, and especially by statistics, that human actions are governed by laws as fixed and regular as those which rule in the physical world; (3) That climate, soil, food, and the aspects of nature are the primary causes of intellectual progress,--the first three indirectly, through determining the accumulation and distribution of wealth, and the last by directly influencing the accumulation and distribution of thought, the imagination being stimulated and the understanding subdued when the phenomena of the external world are sublime and terrible, the understanding being emboldened and the imagination curbed when they are small and feeble; (4) That the great division between European and non-European civilization turns on the fact that in Europe man is stronger than nature, and that elsewhere nature is stronger than man, the consequence of which is that in Europe alone has man subdued nature to his service; (5) That the advance of European civilization is characterized by a continually diminishing influence of physical laws, and a continually increasing influence of mental laws; (6) That the mental laws which regulate the progress of society cannot be discovered by the metaphysical method, that is, by the introspective study of the individual mind, but only by such a comprehensive survey of facts as will enable us to eliminate disturbances, that is, by the method of averages; (7) That human progress has been due, not to moral agencies, which are stationary, and which balance one another in such a manner that their influence is unfelt over any long period, but to intellectual activity, which has been constantly varying and advancing:--"The actions of individuals are greatly affected by their moral feelings and passions; but these being antagonistic to the passions and feelings of other individuals, are balanced by them, so that their effect is, in the great average of human affairs, nowhere to be seen, and the total actions of mankind, considered as a whole, are left to be regulated by the total knowledge of which mankind is possessed"; (8) That individual efforts are insignificant in the great mass of human affairs, and that great men, although they exist, and must "at present" be looked upon as disturbing forces, are merely the creatures of the age to which they belong; (9) That religion, literature and government are, at the best, the products and not the causes of civilization; (10) That the progress of civilization varies directly as "scepticism," the disposition to doubt and to investigate, and inversely as "credulity" or "the protective spirit," a disposition to maintain, without examination, established beliefs and practices.

Unfortunately Buckle either could not define, or cared not to define, the general conceptions with which he worked, such as those denoted by the terms "civilization," "history," "science," "law," "scepticism," and "protective spirit"; the consequence is that his arguments are often fallacies. Moreover, the looseness of his statements and the rashness of his inferences regarding statistical averages make him, as a great authority has remarked, the _enfant terrible_ of moral statisticians. He brought a vast amount of information from the most varied and distant sources to confirm his opinions, and the abundance of his materials never perplexed or burdened him in his argumentation, but examples of well-conducted historical argument are rare in his pages. He sometimes altered and contorted the facts; he very often unduly simplified his problems; he was very apt when he had proved a favourite opinion true to infer it to be the whole truth. On the other hand, many of his ideas have passed into the common literary stock, and have been more precisely elaborated by later writers on sociology and history; and though his own work is now somewhat neglected, its influence was immensely valuable in provoking further research and speculation.

See his _Life_ by A.W. Huth (1880).

BUCKNER, SIMON BOLIVAR (1823- ), American soldier and political leader, was born in Hart county, Kentucky, on the 1st of April 1823. He graduated at West Point in 1844, and was assistant professor of geography, history and ethics there in 1845-1846. He fought in several battles of the Mexican War, received the brevet of first lieutenant for gallantry at Churubusco, where he was wounded, and later, after the storming of Chapultepec, received the brevet of captain. In 1848-1850 he was assistant instructor of infantry tactics at West Point. During the succeeding five years he was in the recruiting service, on frontier duty, and finally in the subsistence department. He resigned from the army in March 1855. During the futile attempt of Governor Beriah Magoffin to maintain Kentucky in a position of neutrality, he was commander of the state [v.04 p.0678] guard; but in September 1861, after the entry of Union forces into the state, he openly espoused the Confederate cause and was commissioned brigadier-general, later becoming lieutenant-general. He was third in command of Fort Donelson at the time of General Grant's attack (February 1862), and it fell to him, after the escape of Generals Floyd and Pillow, to surrender the post with its large garrison and valuable supplies. General Buckner was exchanged in August of the same year, and subsequently served under General Bragg in the invasion of Kentucky and the campaign of Chickamauga. He was governor of Kentucky in 1887-1891, was a member of the Kentucky constitutional convention of 1890, and in 1896 was the candidate of the National or "Gold" Democrats for vice-president of the United States.

BUCKRAM (a word common, in various early forms, to many European languages, as in the Fr. _bouqueran_ or Ital. _bucherame_, the derivation of which is unknown), in early usage the name of a fine linen or cotton cloth, but now only of a coarse fabric of linen or cotton stiffened with glue or other substances, used for linings of clothes and in bookbinding. Falstaff's "men in buckram" (Shakespeare, _Henry IV._, pt. i. II. 4) has become a proverbial phrase for any imaginary persons.

BUCKSTONE, JOHN BALDWIN (1802-1879), English actor and dramatic writer, was born at Hoxton on the 14th of September 1802. He was articled to a solicitor, but soon exchanged the law for the stage. After some years as a provincial actor he made his first London appearance, on the 30th of January 1823, at the Surrey theatre, as Ramsay in the _Fortunes of Nigel_. His success led to his engagement in 1827 at the Adelphi, where he remained as leading low comedian until 1833. At the Haymarket, which he joined for summer seasons in 1833, and of which he was lessee from 1853 to 1878, he appeared as Bobby Trot in his own _Luke the Labourer_; and here were produced a number of his plays and farces, _Ellen Wareham, Uncle Tom_ and others. After his return from a visit to the United States in 1840 he played at several London theatres, among them the Lyceum, where he was Box at the first representation of _Box and Cox_. As manager of the Haymarket he surrounded himself with an admirable company, including Sothern and the Kendals. He produced the plays of Gilbert, Planché, Tom Taylor and Robertson, as well as his own, and in most of these he acted. He died on the 31st of October 1879. He was the author of 150 plays, some of which have been very popular. His daughter, Lucy Isabella Buckstone (1858-1893), was an actress, who made her first London appearance at the Haymarket theatre as Ada Ingot in _David Garrick_ in 1875.

BUCKTHORN, known botanically as _Rhamnus cathartica_ (natural order Rhamnaceae), a much-branched shrub reaching 10 ft. in height, with a blackish bark, spinous branchlets, and ovate, sharply-serrated leaves, 1 to 2 in. long, arranged several together at the ends of the shoots. The small green flowers are regular and have the parts in fours; male and female flowers are borne on different plants. The fruit is succulent, black and globose, and contains four stones. The plant is a native of England, occurring in woods and thickets chiefly on the chalk; it is rare in Ireland and not wild in Scotland. It is native in Europe, north Africa and north Asia, and naturalized in some parts of eastern North America. The fruit has strong purgative properties, and the bark yields a yellow dye.

An allied species, _Rhamnus Frangula_, is also common in England, and is known as berry-bearing or black alder. It is distinguished from buckthorn by the absence of spiny branchlets, its non-serrated leaves, and bisexual flowers with parts in fives. The fruits are purgative and yield a green dye when unripe. The soft porous wood, called black dogwood, is used for gunpowder. Dyes are obtained from fruits and bark of other species of _Rhamnus_, such as _R. infectoria_, _R. tinctoria_ and _R. davurica_--the two latter yielding the China green of commerce. Several varieties of _R. Alaternus_, a Mediterranean species, are grown in shrubberies.

Sea-buckthorn is _Hippophae rhamnoides_, a willow-like shrub, 1 to 8 ft. in height, with narrow leaves silvery on the underside, and globose orange-yellow fruits one-third of an inch in diameter. It occurs on sandy seashores from York to Kent and Sussex, but is not common.

American buckthorns are: _Rhamnus purshiana_ or _Cascara sagrada_, of the Pacific coast, producing cascara bark, and _R. Caroliniana_, the alder-buckthorn. _Bumelia lycioides_ (or _lanuginosa_) is popularly called "southern buckthorn."

BUCKWHEAT, the fruit (so-called seeds) of _Fagopyrum esculentum_ (natural order Polygonaceae), a herbaceous plant, native of central Asia, but cultivated in Europe and North America; also extensively cultivated in the Himalaya, as well as an allied species _F. tataricum_. The fruit has a dark brown tough rind enclosing the kernel or seed, and is three-sided in form, with sharp angles, similar in shape to beech-mast, whence the name from the Ger. _Buchweizen_, beechwheat. Buckwheat is grown in Great Britain only to supply food for pheasants and to feed poultry, which devour the seeds with avidity. In the northern countries of Europe, however, the seeds are employed as human food, chiefly in the form of cakes, which when baked thin have an agreeable taste, with a darkish somewhat violet colour. The meal of buckwheat is also baked into crumpets, as a favourite dainty among Dutch children, and in the Russian army buckwheat groats are served out as part of the soldiers' rations, which they cook with butter, tallow or hemp-seed oil. Buckwheat is also used as food in the United States, where "buckwheat cakes" are a national dish; and by the Hindus it is eaten on "bart" or fast days, being one of the phalahas, or lawful foods for such occasions. When it is used as food for cattle the hard sharp angular rind must first be removed. As compared with the principal cereal grains, buckwheat is poor in nitrogenous substances and fat; but the rapidity and ease with which it can be grown render it a fit crop for very poor, badly tilled land. An immense quantity of buckwheat honey is collected in Russia, bees showing a marked preference for the flowers of the plant. The plant is also used as a green fodder.

In the United States buckwheat is sown at the end of June or beginning of July, the amount of seed varying from 3 to 5 pecks to the acre. The crop matures rapidly and continues blooming till frosts set in, so that at harvest, which is usually set to occur just before this period, the grain is in various stages of ripeness. It is cut by hand or with the self-delivery reaper, and allowed to lie in the swath for a few days and then set up in shocks. The stalks are not tied into bundles as in the case of other grain crops, the tops of the shocks being bound round and held together by twisting stems round them. The threshing is done on the field in most cases.

BUCOLICS (from the Gr. [Greek: boukolikos], "pertaining to a herdsman"), a term occasionally used for rural or pastoral poetry. The expression has been traced back in English to the beginning of the 14th century, being used to describe the "Eclogues" of Virgil. The most celebrated collection of bucolics in antiquity is that of Theocritus, of which about thirty, in the Doric dialect, and mainly written in hexameter verse, have been preserved. This was the name, as is believed, originally given by Virgil to his pastoral poems, with the direct object of challenging comparison with the writings of Theocritus. In modern times the term "bucolics" has not often been specifically given by the poets to their pastorals; the main exception being that of Ronsard, who collected his eclogues under the title of "Les Bucoliques." In general practice the word is almost a synonym for pastoral poetry, but has come to bear a slightly more agricultural than shepherd signification, so that the "Georgics" of Virgil has grown to seem almost more "bucolic" than his "Eclogues." (See also PASTORAL.)

(E. G.)

BUCYRUS, a city and the county-seat of Crawford county, Ohio, U.S.A., on the Sandusky river, 62 m. N. of Columbus. Pop. (1890) 5974; (1900) 6560 (756 foreign-born); (1910) 8122. It is served by the Pennsylvania, the Toledo, Walhonding Valley & Ohio (Pennsylvania system), and the Ohio Central railways, and by interurban electric lines. The Ohio Central, of which Bucyrus is a division terminal, has shops here. The city lies at an elevation of about 1000 ft. above sea-level, and is surrounded [v.04 p.0679] by a country well adapted to agriculture and stock-raising. Among its manufactures are machinery, structural steel, ventilating and heating apparatus, furniture, interior woodwork, ploughs, wagons, carriages, copper products and clay-working machines. Bucyrus was first settled in 1817; it was laid out as a town in 1822, was incorporated as a village in 1830, and became a city in 1885. The county-seat was permanently established here in 1830.

BUDAPEST, the capital and largest town of the kingdom of Hungary, and the second town of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, 163 m. S.E. of Vienna by rail. Budapest is situated on both banks of the Danube, and is formed of the former towns of Buda (Ger. _Ofen_) together with O-Buda (Ger. _Alt-Ofen_) on the right bank, and of Pest together with Köbánya (Ger. _Steinbruch_) on the left bank, which were all incorporated into one municipality in 1872. It lies at a point where the Danube has definitely taken its southward course, and just where the outlying spurs of the outer ramifications of the Alps, namely, the Bakony Mountains, meet the Carpathians. Budapest is situated nearly in the centre of Hungary, and dominates by its strategical position the approach from the west to the great Hungarian plain. The imposing size of the Danube, 300 to 650 yds. broad, and the sharp contrast of the two banks, place Budapest among the most finely situated of the larger towns of Europe. On the one side is a flat sandy plain, in which lies Pest, modern of aspect regularly laid out, and presenting a long frontage of handsome buildings to the river. On the other the ancient town of Buda straggles capriciously over a series of small and steep hills, commanded by the fortress and the Blocksberg (770 ft. high, 390 ft. above the Danube), and backed beyond by spurs of mountains, which rise in the form of terraces one above the other. The hills are generally devoid of forests, while those near the towns were formerly covered with vineyards, which produced a good red wine. The vineyards have been almost completely destroyed by the phylloxera.

Budapest covers an area of 78 sq. m., and is divided into ten municipal districts, namely Vár (Festung), Viziváros (Wasserstadt), Ó-Buda (Alt-Ofen), all on the right bank, belonging to Buda, and Belváros (Inner City), Lipótváros (Leopoldstadt), Terézváros (Theresienstadt), Erzsébetváros (Elisabethstadt), Józsefváros (Josephstadt), Ferenczváros (Franzstadt), and Köbánya (Steinbruch), all on the left bank, belonging to Pest. Buda, with its royal palace, the various ministries, and other government offices, is the official centre, while Pest is the commercial and industrial part, as well as the centre of the nationalistic and intellectual life of the town. The two banks of the Danube are united by six bridges, including two fine suspension bridges; the first of them, generally known as the Ketten-Brücke, constructed by the brothers Tiernay and Adam Clark in 1842-1849, is one of the largest in Europe. It is 410 yds. long, 39 ft. broad, 36 ft. high above the mean level of the water, and its chains rest on two pillars 160 ft. high; its ends are ornamented with four colossal stone lions. At one end is a tunnel, 383 yds. long, constructed by Adam Clark in 1854, which pierces the castle hill and connects the quarter known as the Christinenstadt with the Danube. The other suspension bridge is the Schwurplatz bridge, completed in 1903, 56 ft. broad, with a span of 317 yds. The other bridges are the Margaret bridge, with a junction bridge towards the Margaret island, the Franz Joseph bridge, and two railway bridges.

Perhaps the most attractive part of Budapest is the line of broad quays on the left bank of the Danube, which extend for a distance of 2½ m. from the Margaret bridge to the custom-house, and are lined with imposing buildings. The most important of these is the Franz Joseph Quai, 1 m. long, which contains the most fashionable cafés and hotels, and is the favourite promenade. The inner town is surrounded by the Innere Ring-Strasse, a circle of wide boulevards on the site of the old wall. Wide tree-shaded streets, like the Király Utcza, the Kerrepesi Ut, and the Üllöi Ut, also form the lines of demarcation between the different districts. The inner ring is connected by the Váczi Körut (Waitzner-Ring) with the Grosse Ring-Strasse, a succession of boulevards, describing a semicircle beginning at the Margaret bridge and ending at the Boráros Platz, near the custom-house quay, through about the middle of the town. One of the most beautiful streets in the town is the Andrássy Ut, 1½ m. long, connecting Váczi Körut with Városliget (_Stadtwäldchen_), the favourite public park of Budapest. It is a busy thoroughfare, lined in its first half with magnificent new buildings, and in its second half, where it attains a width of 150 ft., with handsome villas standing in their own gardens, which give the impression rather of a fashionable summer resort than the centre of a great city. Budapest possesses numerous squares, generally ornamented with monuments of prominent Hungarians, usually the work of Hungarian artists.

_Buildings._--Though of ancient origin, neither Buda nor Pest has much to show in the way of venerable buildings. The oldest church is the Matthias church in Buda, begun by King Bela IV. in the 13th century, completed in the 15th century, and restored in 1890-1896. It was used as a mosque during the Turkish occupation, and here took place the coronation of Franz Joseph as king of Hungary in 1867. The garrison church, a Gothic building of the 13th century, and the Reformed church, finished in 1898, are the other ecclesiastical buildings in Buda worth mentioning. The oldest church in Pest is the parish church situated in the Eskü-Ter (Schwur-Platz) in the inner town; it was built in 1500, in the Gothic style, and restored in 1890. The most magnificent church in Pest is the Leopoldstadt Basilica, a Romanesque building with a dome 315 ft. in height, begun in 1851; next comes the Franzstadt church, also a Romanesque building, erected in 1874. Besides several modern churches, Budapest possesses a beautiful synagogue, in the Moorish style, erected in 1861, and another, in the Moorish-Byzantine style, built in 1872, while in 1901 the construction of a much larger synagogue was begun. In Buda, near the Kaiserbad, and not far from the Margaret bridge, is a small octagonal Turkish mosque, with a dome 25 ft. high, beneath which is the grave of a Turkish monk. By a special article in the treaty of Karlowitz of 1699 the emperor of Austria undertook to preserve this monument.

Among the secular buildings the first place is taken by the royal palace in Buda, which, together with the old fortress, crowns the summit of a hill, and forms the nucleus of the town. The palace erected by Maria Theresa in 1748-1771 was partly burned in 1849, but has been restored and largely extended since 1894. In the court chapel are preserved the regalia of Hungary, namely, the crown of St Stephen, the sceptre, orb, sword and the coronation robes. It is surrounded by a magnificent garden, which descends in steep terraces to the Danube, and which offers a splendid view of the town lying on the opposite bank. New and palatial buildings of the various ministries, several high and middle schools, a few big hospitals, and the residences of several Hungarian magnates, are among the principal edifices in this part of the town.

The long range of substantial buildings fronting the left bank of the Danube includes the Houses of Parliament (see ARCHITECTURE, Plate IX. fig. 115), a huge limestone edifice in the late Gothic style, covering an area of 3¾ acres, erected in 1883-1902; the Academy, in Renaissance style, erected in 1862-1864, containing a lofty reception room, a library, a historic picture gallery, and a botanic collection; the Redoute buildings, a large structure in a mixed Romanesque and Moorish style, erected for balls and other social purposes; the extensive custom-house at the lower end of the quays, and several fine hotels and insurance offices. In the beautiful Andrássy Ut are the opera-house (1875-1884), in the Italian Renaissance style; the academy of music; the old and new exhibition building; the national drawing school; and the museum of fine arts (1900-1905), in which was installed in 1905 the national gallery, formed by Prince Esterházy, bought by the government in 1865 for £130,000, and formerly housed in the academy, and the collection of modern pictures from the national museum. At the end of the street is one of the numerous monuments erected in various parts of the country to commemorate the thousandth anniversary of the foundation of the kingdom of Hungary. Other buildings remarkable for their [v.04 p.0680] size and interest are: the national museum (1836-1844); the town-hall (1869-1875), in the early Renaissance style; the university, with a baroque façade (rebuilt 1900), and the university library (opened in 1875), a handsome Renaissance building; the palace of justice (1896), a magnificent edifice situated not far from the Houses of Parliament. In its neighbourhood also are the palatial buildings of the ministries of justice and of agriculture. There are also the exchange (1905); the Austro-Hungarian bank (1904); the central post and telegraph office; the art-industrial museum (1893-1897), in oriental style, with some characteristically Hungarian ornamentations; several handsome theatres; large barracks; technical and secondary schools; two great railway termini and a central market (1897) to be mentioned. To the south-east of the town lies the vast slaughter-house (1870-1872), which, with the adjacent cattle-market, covers nearly 30 acres of ground. The building activity of Budapest since 1867 has been extraordinary, and the town has undergone a thorough transformation. The removal of slums and the regulation of the older parts of the town, in connexion with the construction of the two new bridges across the Danube and of the railway termini, went hand-in-hand with the extension of the town, new quarters springing up on both banks of the Danube. This process is still going on, and Budapest has become one of the handsomest capitals of Europe.