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282 BRIDGEWATER BR1DGMAN are places of worship for Unitarians, Quakers, Independents, Methodists, and Baptists; also various schools and charitable institutions. In the neighborhood is the isle of Athelney, in which Alfred took refuge from the Danes. At the conquest many Saxons were settled here. It was a place of importance in the various civil wars of England, and attained a celebrity from the part taken by its inhabitants in the Monmouth rising, and the retaliation therefor. BRIDGEWiTER, Francis Egerton, second and last duke of, an English nobleman, born in 1736, died March 8, 1803. He is chiefly known for having opened the first navigable canal in England, from his coal mines of Worsley to Manchester, which was subsequently extended to connect the Trent and Mersey. This canal, which was wholly constructed by the duke, not only largely increased his revenue from the mines, but reduced the price of coal at Man- chester 50 per cent. (See BBINDLEY, JAMES.) BRIDGEWATER, Francis Henry Egerton, earl of, born Nov. 11, 1758, died in Paris, Feb. 11, 1829. He was the second cousin of the pre- ceding, and the youngest son of John Egerton, bishop of Durham, grandson of John, 3d earl of Bridgewater, whose direct ancestor was Sir Thomas Egerton, lord chancellor of England. (See EGBKTON.) He graduated at Oxford in 1780, in which year his father appointed him a prebendary of Durham. His relative, the last duke of Bridgewater, presented him to valuable rectories in Shropshire in 1781 and 1797. His brother John succeeded to the earl- dom on the extinction of the dukedom of Bridgewater in 1803. Twenty years later Mr. Egerton himself became the eighth and last earl, dying a bachelor. He resided during the latter part of his life in Paris, where he was distinguished for his eccentricities. His house was nearly filled with cats and dogs ; out of fifteen dogs, two were admitted to his table, and six, dressed up like himself, were frequently seen alone in his carriage, drawn by four horses and attended by two footmen. His own pub- lications are a splendid edition of the " Hip- polytus" of Euripides, with scholia, notes, va- rious readings, and a Latin version ; a " Life of Lord Chancellor Egerton ; " a " Letter to the Parisians on Inland Navigation ; " and " Anec- dotes " of his own family. He bequeathed his manuscripts and autograph letters to the Brit- ish museum, with 12,000, the interest of which was to be expended in taking care of and increasing them. Further, by his will, dated Feb. 25, 1825, he left 8,000 to the pres- ident of the royal society, to be given to some person or persons named by him, who should write, print, and publish 1,000 copies of a work "on the power, wisdom, and goodness of God, as manifested in the creation." Mr. Davies Gilbert, who occupied the chair of the royal society when the earl died, decided that eight treatises, devoted to the illustration of separate branches of the subject, should be written. Thus originated the " Bridgewater Treatises," whose authors were Thomas Chalmers, D. D., John Kidd, M. D., William Whewell, D. D., Sir Charles Bell, Peter Mark Roget, M. D., William Buckland, D. D., the Rev. William Kirby, and William Prout, M. D. These works have had a large and continuous sale ; and, by the terms of the bequest, the profits of the treatises are appropriated to their respective authors. The earl's immense property, about 100,000 a 'year, in the first instance, came into possession of his kinsman, the duke of Sutherland. On his death in 1833, it devolved upon the duke's second son, Lord Francis Leveson Gower, who then took the name and arms of Egerton only, and was created Vis- count Brackley and earl of Ellesmere in 1846. UKIIMiM 1, Laura, a blind deaf mute, born at Hanover, N. H., Dec. 21, 1829. Up to the age of two years she possessed all her faculties, but a severe illness at that time occasioned the loss of sight and hearing, and consequently of speech, while the sense of smell was also de- stroyed, and that of taste greatly impaired. She recovered her health gradually, but none of her lost senses were restored. At the age of eight she became an inmate of the Perkins institution for the blind in Boston, under the care of Dr. S. G. Howe, and soon acquired such a familiarity with the building and its various apartments that she could wander at will through it unattended. Dr. Howe resolved to undertake the task of instructing her, a work which until that time had never been at- tempted with success. The first step was to teach her the names of objects; for this pur- pose an object with which she was familiar, such as a fork or spoon, was put into her hand, and with its name in raised letters. This was repeated many times and with dif- ferent objects, till she had learned that the word bore some relation to the object. As yet, however, her idea of this relation was very vague. The next step was to present her the separate letters in relief, at first so arranged as to form the name of an object which she knew. Finding that she recognized the word, her teacher disarranged the letters, and taking her hands in his own proceeded to reconstruct the word, causing her to observe each letter which composed it ; having done this several times, she constructed the word herself with- out assistance. The same process was then repeated with other words, and before the close of her lesson the idea had evidently dawned upon her mind that this was a means by which she could communicate her own thoughts to others. This process was con- tinued until she had become familiar with a considerable number of words. She was then furnished with type having the letters in relief, and a board which had been pierced with holes for the reception of the type. Objects known to her were then presented, and she would compose the names with the type. This af- forded her great delight. She was next taught the manual alphabet, which she acquired very