He soon learned something of the scientific importance of his discoveries, and became an eager collector of the contents of the bone-caves of the neighbourhood, at Hutton, Bleadon, and Sandford. He was a reserved man, of quaint manners, and with a high opinion of his own skill. The nickname of the 'Professor' given him by the bishop greatly pleased him, and he was generally called by it. He died on 9 Jan. 1868 in his ninety-sixth year. He retained his bodily and mental activity almost to the day of his death. He was a small man, of short stature and light build. There is a bust of him in Banwell churchyard, and an engraving representing him at the age of seventy-seven in Rutter's 'Delineations of Somersetshire.' His collection of bones was bought by the Somersetshire Archæological and Natural History Society, and is now in the museum at Taunton Castle. Some idea of its value may be gained from the fact that it includes a large number of the bones of the Felis spelæa, one skull being the most perfect that has been found in England.
[Information received from Mr. W. Edginton of Banwell; Rutter's Delineations of Somersetshire, 117-60; Soraersetshire Archæol. and Nat. Hist. Soc.s Proc. ii, 103, xiv, 160.]
BEARDMORE, NATHANIEL (1816–1872), civil engineer, was born at Nottingham on 19 March 1816. He began his professional
education as pupil to a Plymouth architect,
and subsequently to the well-known engineer
Mr. J. M. Rendel, whose partner he ultimately
became. Much of the experience be obtained
respecting water supplies and so forth was
gained in works undertaken at this time.
His partnership with Mr. Rendel ceased in
1848. In 1850 Beardmore became sole
engineer to the works for the drainage and
navigation of the river Lee. In the same
year appeared, with the title of 'Hydraulic
Tables,' the first edition of a book which,
under the fuller description of 'Manual of
Hydrology; containing I. Hydraulic and other
Tables; II. Rivers, Flow of Water, Springs,
Wells, and Percolation; III. Tides, Estuaries,
and Tidal Rivers; IV. Rain-fall and Evaporation,' afterwards became the text-book of
the profession for hydraulic engineering. The
above title is that of the third and enlarged
edition, which appeared in 1862. During
the remaining ten years of his life Beardmore's practice as an engineer was greatly
extended by this work. He died on 24 Aug.
1872, at Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, whither
he had moved in 1855.
[Annual Report of the Institute of Civil Engineers, 17 Dec. 1872]
BEATNIFFE, RICHARD (1740–1818), bookseller, was born in 1740 at Louth in Lincolnshire, and was adopted and educated by his uncle, the Rev. Samuel Beatniffe, rector of Gaywood and Bawsey in Norfolk. He was apprenticed to a bookseller at Lynn of the name of Hollingworth, who was in the habit of taking four apprentices. When we are told that all the four were expected to sleep in one bed, that the sheets were changed only once a year, and that the youths were dieted in the most economical manner, it says much for the sturdiness of Beatniffe that he was the only apprentice Hollingworth had for forty years who remained to serve his full time. The temptations of the hand of his master's daughter, who was deformed in person and unpleasing in manners, together with a share in the business, were not able to retain Beatniffe in Lynn. Upon the termination of his apprenticeship he went to Norwich, and worked there for some years as a journeyman bookbinder. His old master Hollingworth, if harsh, must have been also generous, since he advanced Beatniffe 500l. for the purchase of the stock of Jonathan Gleed, a bookseller of
London Lane, in Norwich.
Shortly after this period Beatniffe produced
his excellent little 'Norfolk Tour, or Traveller's Pocket Companion, being a concise description of all the noblemen's and gentlemen's
seats, as well as of the principal towns and
other remarkable places in the county,' of
which the first edition appeared in 1772, the
second in 1773, the third in 1777, the fourth
in 1786, the fifth in 1795, and the sixth and
last in 1808, 'greatly enlarged and improved.'
This edition extended to 399 pages, or about
four times the size of the first. In the advertisement the author states that he had
carefully revised every page, 'and by the
friendly communications of several gentlemen In the county and [his] own observations
during the last ten years greatly enlarged'
It. Improvements and additions were made
by the author to each successive edition, and
most of the places described were personally visited. It Is written in a plain manner, and is full of information. Mr. W. Rye says: 'The numerous editions to which it
ran show it had considerable merit, and in its
notes and illustrations there is much useful
and interesting reading' (Index to Norfolk Topogr. 1881, p. xxvii).
His biographer tells some characteristic anecdotes of the bookseller's unyielding toryism, of his rebuffs to chaffering customers, and of his unwillingness to supply the London trade. He preferred to sell to private buyers, and indeed was often loth to part with his
