happened accidentally to be at Leicester in 1642, when Prince Rupert approached that town. The prince sent into the town threatening, that unless an assessment of £2000 was raised within twenty-four hours, he would give the town up to plunder. Lord Newport posted at once to the king, and by his influence obtained a relief from the payment of the fine. His loyalty, however, appears not to have been very firm. Having accompanied the prince of Wales into the west, he, by his own confession, did all he could to hinder the escape of his royal highness into France, but without success. The prince sailed from Dartmouth, and he had scarcely left when the town was stormed, in January, 1645, by the rebel army under Fairfax; and Lord Newport, after having delivered up Kingsworth Fort, the strongest fortress in the place, to the enemy, was made, as he himself said, a not unwilling prisoner. His estates were sequestered, and he continued a prisoner upon bail until November, 1646, when he was permitted to compound for his lands and liberty upon the payment of a fine equal to one-tenth of the value of his property. His fine was fixed at £4579.
On the death of Oliver Cromwell, and the abdication of Richard his son, Lord Newport took part in the measures which were adopted for the restoration of the royal family. His zeal, however, was not so marked as to secure his office of master of the ordnance. Indeed, his life patent appears to have been overlooked, for Charles II., immediately upon his restoration, conferred the office upon Sir William Compton, who had been his constant companion in his exile, and it was not until the 16th August, 1661, that Lord Newport surrendered his patent in favour of that gentleman. His career was, however, now nearly closed, for he died in 1665, leaving surviving issue two sons and two daughters. Both his sons succeeded to the title, which finally became extinct upon the death of the younger in 1681.—(Privy Council Registers; MSS. State Paper Office; Ord. MSS. Rushworth Collection; Clarendon.)—M.
BLOW, John, Mus. Doc, a native of North Collingham, Nottinghamshire, born in 1648, was one of the first set of children of the Royal chapels, after the Restoration, being educated under Captain Henry Cook. He was afterwards a pupil of John Hingston, and of Dr. Christopher Gibbons. In 1669, at the age of twenty-one, he was appointed organist of Westminster abbey, which situation he resigned in 1680, in favour of the celebrated Henry Purcell. In 1673 he was appointed one of the gentlemen of the chapel, and in 1674, on the decease of Pelham Humphries, was chosen master of the children of the chapel. In 1685 he was made one of the king's private musicians, and also composer to his majesty, a title which Matthew Lock had enjoyed before him. He was also almoner and master of the choristers of St. Paul's cathedral, being appointed to these places on the death of Michael Wise; he resigned them in 1693, in favour of his pupil, Jeremiah Clark. Blow was not a graduate of any university, but Archbishop Sancroft, by virtue of his authority as archbishop of Canterbury, conferred on him the degree of doctor in music. On the decease of Henry Purcell in 1695, he was appointed composer to the royal chapel, at a yearly salary of forty pounds. He also resumed his post as organist of the abbey. Blow was early distinguished as a composer. In Clifford's "Collection of the Words of Anthems," 1664, are several subscribed, "John Blow, one of the children of his majesty's chapel," and, on account of his great merit, he was eminently patronized by Charles II. The king admired very much a little duet of Carsisimi, "Dite, o cieli," and asked Blow if he could imitate it. The musician modestly answered he would try, and composed in the same key and measure the fine duet, "Go, perjured man." This was first published singly, afterwards in the Theatre of Music, 1687, and then, with the addition of instrumental parts, in the "Amphion Anglicus." The "Orpheus Britannicus" of Purcell had been published by his widow soon after his decease, and comprised some of his finest songs. The favourable reception this met with was Blow's motive for publishing a similar collection, which he entitled "Amphion Anglicus, containing compositions for one, two, three, and four voices, with accompaniments of instrumental music, and a thorough-bass figured for the organ, harpsichord, or theorbo-lute," 1700, folio. The work was dedicated to the princess Anne of Denmark. In the preface the author says that he is preparing to publish his church services and divine compositions: but he lived not to carry his design into effect. Blow's other compositions, printed in his lifetime, are as follows—"An Ode for St. Cecilia's Day," 1684; "Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinnet;" "Psalm Tunes for the Organ;" and an "Ode on the Death of Purcell," written by Dryden. Also several hymns in the "Harmonia Sacra," a number of catches in the latter editions of the "Musical Companion," and many detached songs in Playford's various publications. This great musician died October 1, 1708, and was buried in the north aisle of Westminster abbey. In the inscription on his monument he is called "Master to the famous Mr. H. Purcell." Dr. Blow's chief reputation must rest upon the merit of his church music, of which he was a voluminous writer. These compositions consist, as far as at present ascertained, of ten services, and seventy-nine anthems, a few only of which have been printed in the collections of Boyce, Page, and Stevens. Dr. Burney had a very mean opinion of Blow's abilities, and fills four quarto pages with examples of what he terms his "crudities." But the historian lived at a period when it was the fashion to cry down what was not understood. A critic of the present age would see in these so-called crudities only indications of superior genius, and a foreshadowing of those wondrous harmonic combinations which a later age has brought to perfection.—(Burney; Hawkins; Records of Westminster Abbey; Cheque Book of the Chapel Royal.)—E. F. R.
* BLOXAM, A., an English clergyman, who has devoted attention to botany, more particularly to the flora of Britain. He has examined carefully the species of Rubus, and has done service to the student of British plants, by the publication of sets of thirty species and varieties.—J. H. B.
BLUCHER, Gebberal Lebrecht von, field-marshal of the Prussian army and prince of Wohlstadt, was born at Rostock in Mecklenburg-Schwerin on the 16th December, 1742. At the beginning of the Seven Years' war he was sent by his father, who was a captain of horse in the service of Hesse Cassel, to Bergen, when his love for the military life was excited by the Swedish hussars, and he enlisted, contrary to the advice of his friends, at the early age of fourteen. He made his first campaign against the Prussians, and was taken prisoner by the hussar regiment in which he afterwards so distinguished himself. He was persuaded to enter the Prussian service, and having been exchanged for a Swedish officer, remained with his regiment till the close of the war, during which he rose from a lieutenant to senior captain. Conceiving, however, that his merits had been overlooked by the promotion to the rank of major of an individual of higher station than himself, he resigned his commission and retired to Silesia, where he engaged in farming for fifteen years, and succeeded in gaining an honourable independence. On the death of Frederick the Great and the accession of William II. he returned to his old regiment with the rank of major, and led it with great gallantry and distinction during the campaign of 1793-4. After the battle of Leystudt, September 18, 1794, he received as major-general a command in the army of observation on the Lower Rhine. In 1802 he took possession for Prussia of Erfurt and Muhlhausen. In 1805-6 he was again in active service. At the close of the battle of Jena, so disastrous to Prussia, he retreated with 20,000 men, forming Prince Hohenlohe's rear, and after a series of bloody but unsuccessful, engagements with the French generals who hung on his march, he threw himself into Lubeck, in the streets of which he lost, after an obstinate engagement, 5000 men. On the following morning he was forced to capitulate at the village of Ratkau, but only, as the terms of surrender bore, "through want of ammunition and provisions." On his exchange soon after for the French marshal, Victor, he was sent by the king of Prussia with a small detachment to Swedish Pomerania, but after a brief occupation he evacuated on the peace at Tilsit. He was employed subsequently in the war department, and was appointed general in Pomerania; but the hostile influence of Napoleon was successful in depriving him of his command, and driving him into retirement. On the resumption of hostilities between Prussia and France in 1813, he was suddenly recalled to the field, and though in the seventy-first year of his age, he obeyed with his wonted promptitude and energy. In the indecisive battle of Lutzen, fought on the 1st of May, he gained by his conduct the order of St. George from the Emperor Alexander; and on the 20th of the same month, in the sanguinary conflict at Bautzen, he maintained with heroic bravery for four hours the wooded heights where he commanded, and retired at last, leaving neither prisoner nor gun with the enemy. In the battle of Katzbach, near Leignitz in Silesia, which was fought on the 26th of August, he inaugurated a series of brilliant victories, by defeating
