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BRAMANTE—BRAMWELL, LORD
  

worked, he was indebted to Henry Maudslay, one of his workmen, who also helped him in designing machines for the manufacture of his locks. In 1806 he devised for the Bank of England a numerical printing machine, specially adapted for bank-notes. Other inventions of his included the beer-engine for drawing beer, machinery for making aerated waters, planing machines, and improvements in steam-engines and boilers and in paper-making machinery. In 1785 he suggested the possibility of screw propulsion for ships, and in 1802 the hydraulic transmission of power; and he constructed waterworks at Norwich in 1790 and 1793. He died in London on the 9th of December 1814.


BRAMANTE, or Bramante Lazzari (c. 1444–1514), Italian architect and painter, whose real name was Donato d’Augnolo, was born at Monte-Asdrualdo in Urbino, in July 1444. He showed a great taste for drawing, and was at an early age placed under Fra Bartolommeo, called Fra Carnavale. But though he afterwards gained some fame as a painter, his attention was soon absorbed by architecture. He appears to have studied under Scirro Scirri, an architect in his native place, and perhaps under other masters. He then set out from Urbino, and proceeded through several of the towns of Lombardy, executing works of various magnitudes, and examining patiently all remains of ancient art. At last, attracted by the fame of the great Duomo, he reached Milan, where he remained from 1476 to 1499. He seems to have left Milan for Rome about 1500. He painted some frescoes at Rome, and devoted himself to the study of the ancient buildings, both in the city and as far south as Naples. About this time the Cardinal Caraffa commissioned him to rebuild the cloister of the Convent della Pace. Owing to the celerity and skill with which Bramante did this, the cardinal introduced him to Pope Alexander VI. He began to be consulted on nearly all the great architectural operations in Rome, and executed for the pope the palace of the Cancelleria or chancery. Under Julius II., Alexander’s successor, Bramante’s talents began to obtain adequate sphere of exercise. His first large work was to unite the straggling buildings of the palace and the Belvedere. This he accomplished by means of two long galleries or corridors enclosing a court. The design was only in part completed before the death of Julius and of the architect. So impatient was the pope and so eager was Bramante, that the foundations were not sufficiently well attended to; great part of it had, therefore, soon to be rebuilt, and the whole is now so much altered that it is hardly possible to decipher the original design.

Besides executing numerous smaller works at Rome and Bologna, among which is specially mentioned by older writers a round temple in the cloister of San Pietro-a-Montorio, Bramante was called upon by Pope Julius to take the first part in one of the greatest architectural enterprises ever attempted—the rebuilding of St Peter’s. Bramante’s designs were complete, and he pushed on the work so fast that before his death he had erected the four great piers and their arches, and completed the cornice and the vaulting in of this portion. He also vaulted in the principal chapel. After his death on the 11th of March 1514, his design was much altered, in particular by Michelangelo.

See Pungileoni, Memoire intorno alla vita ed alle opere di Bramante (Rome, 1836); H. Semper, Donato Bramante (Leipzig, 1879).


BRAMPTON, HENRY HAWKINS, Baron (1817–1907), English judge, was born at Hitchin, on the 14th of September 1817. He received his education at Bedford school. The son of a solicitor, he was early familiarized with legal principles. Called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1843, he at once joined the old home circuit, and after enjoying a lucrative practice as a junior, took silk in 1859. His name is identified with many of the famous trials of the reign of Queen Victoria. He was engaged in the Simon Bernard case (of the Orsini plot celebrity), in that of Roupell v. Waite, and in the Overend-Gurney prosecutions. The two causes célèbres, however, in which Hawkins attained his highest legal distinction were the Tichborne trials and the great will case of Sugden v. Lord St Leonards. In both of these he was victorious. In the first his masterly cross-examination of the witness Baigent was one of the great features of the trial. He did a lucrative business in references and arbitrations, and acted for the royal commissioners in the purchase of the site for the new law courts. Election petitions also formed another branch of his extensive practice. Hawkins was raised to the bench in 1876, and was assigned to the then exchequer division of the High Court, not as baron (an appellation which was being abolished by the Judicature Act), but with the title of Sir Henry Hawkins. He was a great advocate rather than a great lawyer. His searching voice, his manner, and the variety of his facial expression, gave him an enormous influence with juries, and as a cross-examiner he was seldom, if ever, surpassed. He was an excellent judge in chambers, where he displayed a clear and vigorous grasp of details and questions of fact. His knowledge of the criminal law was extensive and intimate, the reputation he gained as a “hanging” judge making him a terror to evil-doers; and the court for crown cases reserved was never considered complete without his assistance. In 1898 he retired from the bench, and was raised to the peerage under the title of Baron Brampton. He frequently took part in determining House of Lords appeals, and his judgments were distinguished by their lucidity and grasp. He held for many years the office of counsel to the Jockey Club, and as an active member of that body found relaxation from his legal and judicial duties at the leading race meetings, and was considered a capable judge of horses. In 1898 he was received into the Roman Catholic Church, and in 1903 he presented, in conjunction with Lady Brampton (his second wife), the chapel of SS. Augustine and Gregory to the Roman Catholic cathedral of Westminster, which was consecrated in that year. In 1904 he published his Reminiscences. He died in London on the 6th of October 1907, and Lady Brampton in the following year.


BRAMPTON, a market town in the Eskdale parliamentary division of Cumberland, England, 9 m. E.N.E. of Carlisle, on a branch of the North Eastern railway. Pop. (1901) 2494. It is picturesquely situated in a narrow valley opening upon that of the Irthing. The town has an agricultural trade, breweries, and manufactures of cotton and tweeds. The neighbourhood is rich in historical associations. Two miles N.E. of Brampton is the castle of Naworth, a fine example of a Border fortress. It was built in the reign of Edward III., by a member of the family of Dacre, who for many generations had had their stronghold here. Overlooking a deep wooded ravine, with streams to the east and west, the great quadrangular castle was naturally defended except on the south, where it was rendered secure by a double moat and drawbridge. By marriage in 1577 with Lady Elizabeth Dacre it passed into the hands of William Howard, afterwards lord warden of the Marches, the “Belted Will” of Sir Walter Scott and the Border ballads, who acquired great fame by his victories over the Scottish moss-troopers. The castle, the walls of which have many secret passages and hiding-places, is inhabited, and in its hall are numerous fine pictures, including a portrait of Charles I. by Van Dyck. Not far distant is Lanercost Priory, where in 1169 an Augustinian monastery was established. In 1311 Robert Bruce and his army were quartered here, and the priory was pillaged in 1346 by David, king of Scotland. From this time its prosperity declined, and at its dissolution under Henry VIII. it consisted only of a prior and seven canons. The Early English church has a restored nave, but retains much fine carving. The chancel is ruined, but the interesting crypt is preserved.


BRAMWELL, GEORGE WILLIAM WILSHERE BRAMWELL, Baron (1808–1892), English judge, was born in London on the 12th of June 1808, being the eldest son of George Bramwell, of the banking firm of Dorrien, Magens, Dorrien & Mello. He was educated privately, and at the age of sixteen he entered Dorriens’ bank. In 1830 he gave up this business for the law, being admitted as a student at Lincoln’s Inn in 1830, and at the Inner Temple in 1836. At first he practised as a special pleader, but was eventually called to the bar at both Inns in 1838. He soon worked his way into a good practice both in London and the home circuit, his knowledge of law and procedure being so well recognized that in 1850 he was appointed a member