Heusden, Ravestein and Grave are all similarly situated. Breda is the next town in importance to the capital. Bergen-op-Zoom had originally a more maritime importance. Rozendaal, Eindhoven and Bokstel (or Boxtel) are important railway junctions. Bokstel was formerly the seat of an independent barony which came into the possession of Philip the Good in 1439. The castle was restored in modern times. The precarious position of the province on the borders of the country doubtless militated against an earlier industrial development, but since the separation from Belgium and the construction of roads, railways and canals there has been a general improvement, Tilburg, Eindhoven and Helmond all having risen into prominence in modern times as industrial centres. Leather-tanning and shoe-making are especially associated with the district called Langstraat, which is situated between Geertruidenberg and ’s Hertogenbosch, and consists of a series of industrial villages along the course of the Old Maas.
BRACCIANO, a town in the province of Rome, Italy, 25 m.
N.W. of Rome by rail, situated on the S.W. shore of the Lake
of Bracciano, 915 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 3987. It is
chiefly remarkable for its fine castle (built by the Orsini in 1460,
and since 1696 the property of the Odescalchi) which has preserved
its medieval character. The beautiful lake is the ancient
Lacus Sabatinus, supposed to derive its name from an Etruscan
city of the name of Sabate, which is wrongly thought to be
mentioned in the Itineraries; the reference is really to the lake
itself, which bore this name and gave it to one of the Roman tribes,
the tribus Sabatina, founded in 387 B.C. (O. Cuntz in
Jahreshefte des Österr. Arch. Instituts, ii., 1899, 85). It is 22 sq. m.
in area, 538 ft. above sea-level, and 530 ft. deep; it is almost
circular, but is held to be, not an extinct crater, but the result
of a volcanic subsidence. The tufa deposits which radiate from
it extend as far as Rome; various small craters surround it,
while the existence of warm springs in the district (especially
those of Vicarello, probably the ancient Aquae Apollinares)
may also be noted. Many remains of ancient villas may be seen
round the lake: above its west bank is the station of Forum
Clodii, and on its north shore the village of Trevignano, which
retains traces of the fortifications of an ancient town of unknown
name. About half-a-mile east of it was a post station called
Ad Novas. The site of Anguillara, on the south shore, was
occupied by a Roman villa. The water of the lake partly
supplies the Acqua Paola, a restoration by Paul V. of the Aqua
Traiana. (T. As.)
BRACCIOLINI, FRANCESCO (1566–1645), Italian poet, was
born at Pistoia, of a noble family, in 1566. On his removing to
Florence he was admitted into the academy there, and devoted
himself to literature. At Rome he entered the service of Cardinal
Maffeo Barberini, with whom he afterwards went to France.
After the death of Clement VIII. he returned to his own country;
and when his patron Barberini was elected pope, under the name
of Urban VIII., Bracciolini repaired to Rome, and was made
secretary to the pope’s brother, Cardinal Antonio. He had also
the honour conferred on him of taking a surname from the arms
of the Barberini family, which were bees; whence he was afterwards
known by the name of Bracciolini dell’ Api. During
Urban’s pontificate the poet lived at Rome in considerable
reputation, though at the same time he was censured for his
sordid avarice. On the death of the pontiff he returned to
Pistoia, where he died in 1645. There is scarcely any species of
poetry, epic, dramatic, pastoral, lyric or burlesque, which
Bracciolini did not attempt; but he is principally noted for his
mock-heroic poem Lo Scherno degli Dei, published in 1618,
similar but confessedly inferior to the contemporary work of
Tassoni, Secchia Rapita. Of his serious heroic poems the most
celebrated is La Croce Racquistata.
For the Italian humanist Poggio Bracciolini see Poggio.
BRACE, CHARLES LORING (1826–1890), American philanthropist,
was born on the 19th of June 1826 in Litchfield, Connecticut.
He graduated at Yale in 1846, studied theology there
in 1847–1848, and graduated from Union Theological Seminary
in 1849. From this time he practically devoted his life to social
work among the poor of New York, and to Christian propaganda
among the criminal classes; and he became well known as a
social reformer, at home and abroad. He started in 1852 to hold
“boys’ meetings,” and in 1853 helped to found the Children’s
Aid Society, establishing workshops, industrial schools and
lodging-houses for newsboys. In 1872 he was a delegate to the
international prison congress which met in London. He died at
Campfer, in Tirol, on the 11th of August 1890. He published
from time to time several volumes embodying his views on
practical Christianity and its application to the improvement of
social conditions.
See The Life and Letters of Charles Loring Brace (New York, 1894), edited by his daughter, Emma Brace.
BRACE, JULIA (1806–1884), American blind deaf-mute, was
born at Newington, Connecticut, on the 13th of June 1806. In
her fifth year she became blind and deaf, and lost the power of
speech. At the age of eighteen she entered the asylum for the
deaf and dumb at Hartford. The study of blind deaf-mutes and
their scientific training was then in its infancy; but she learnt
to sew well, was neat in her dress, and had a good memory. Dr
S. G. Howe’s experiments with her were interesting as leading to
his success with Laura Bridgman. She died at Bloomington,
Conn., on the 12th of August 1884.
BRACE (through the Fr. from the plural of the Lat. bracchium,
the arm), a measure of length, being the distance between the
extended arms. From the original meaning of “the two arms”
comes that of something which secures, connects, tightens or
strengthens, found in numerous uses of the word, as a carpenter’s
tool with a crank handle and socket to hold a bit for boring;
a beam of wood or metal used to strengthen any building or
machine; the straps passing over the shoulders to support the
trousers; the leathern thong which slides up and down the cord
of a drum, and regulates the tension and the tone; a writing and
printing sign ({) for uniting two or more lines of letterpress or
music; a nautical term for a rope fastened to the yard for trimming
the sails (cf. the corresponding French term bras de vergue).
As meaning “a couple” or “pair” the term was first applied
to dogs, probably from the leash by which they were coupled in
coursing. In architecture “brace mould” is the term for two
ressaunts or ogees united together like a brace in printing,
sometimes with a small bead between them.
BRACEGIRDLE, ANNE (c. 1674–1748), English actress, is
said to have been placed under the care of Thomas Betterton and his wife, and to have first appeared on the stage as the
page in The Orphan at its first performance at Dorset Garden
in 1680. She was Lucia in Shadwell’s Squire of Alsatia at the
Theatre Royal in 1688, and played similar parts until, in 1693,
as Araminta in The Old Bachelor, she made her first appearance
in a comedy by Congreve, with whose works and life her name
is most closely connected. In 1695 she went with Betterton
and the other seceders to Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where, on its
opening with Congreve’s Love for Love, she played Angelica.
This part, and those of Belinda in Vanbrugh’s Provoked Wife,
and Almira in Congreve’s Mourning Bride, were among her best
impersonations, but she also played the heroines of some of
Nicholas Rowe’s tragedies, and acted in the contemporary
versions of Shakespeare’s plays. In 1705 she followed Betterton
to the Haymarket, where she found a serious competitor in
Mrs Oldfield, then first coming into public favour. The story
runs that it was left for the audience to determine which was the
better comedy actress, the test being the part of Mrs Brittle
in Betterton’s Amorous Widow, which was played alternately
by the two rivals on successive nights. When the popular vote
was given in favour of Mrs Oldfield, Mrs Bracegirdle quitted
the stage, making only one reappearance at Betterton’s benefit
in 1709. Her private life was the subject of much discussion.
Colley Cibber remarks that she had the merit of “not being
unguarded in her private character,” while Macaulay does not
hesitate to call her “a cold, vain and interested coquette, who
perfectly understood how much the influence of her charms
was increased by the fame of a severity which cost her nothing.”
She was certainly the object of the adoration of many men,
