Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/278

 intended to prepare the public mind for this step.

Blakman is stated in the title of the printed copy of his book to have been a 'bachelor of divinity and afterwards a monk of the Charterhouse of London.' The correctness of the latter part of this statement is rendered probable by the existence of a copy of Higden's 'Polychronicon' in the Ashburnham collection inscribed at the foot of the first page, 'Liber domus beate Marie de Witham ordinis Carthusiensis ex dono m. Johannis Blakman.' The volume is bound in crimson morocco with the royal arms, each book having an illuminated initial with the arms of Eton College and a marginal ornament in gold and colours. Nothing is known as to the date of Blakman's death. An inscription in the west wall of the Grey Friars Church, London, 'fr. Johannes Blackeman ob. 31 Jul: 1511' must, as the dates show, refer to another person. A third contemporary of the same name was a benefactor of St. John's Hospital, Coventry.

 BLANCHARD, EDWARD LITT LAMAN (1820–1889), miscellaneous writer, the son of William Blanchard [q. v.], comedian, was born at No. 28 (originally 31) Great Queen Street, London, was educated at Brixton, Ealing, and Lichfield, accompanied his father to New York in 1831, and was in 1836 sub-editor of Pinnock's 'Guide to Knowledge.' In 1839 he wrote for amateurs his first pantomime, in which he played harlequin. Under the pseudonym of 'Francisco Frost,' and subsequently under his own name, he wrote countless dramas, farces, and burlesques. In 1841 he edited Chambers's 'London Journal,' and subsequently founded and edited 'The Astrologer and Oracle of Destiny' (1845, 29 Nos.), and also edited the 'New London Magazine' (1845, 2 Nos.) He is responsible for editions of Thomas Dugdale's 'England and Wales Delineated' (2 vols. 1854, 1860), and Willoughby's 'Shakespeare;' was author of 'Temple Bar' and 'Brave without a Destiny,' novels; wrote many illustrated guides to London and other places, including Bradshaw's 'Descriptive Railway Guides;' furnished entertainments for W. S. Woodin and Miss Emma Stanley; songs comic and sentimental, principally the former; and other miscellaneous works. His dramatic efforts included plays for the eastern or minor theatres, written often for 10s. an act. To west-end playgoers he is principally known as having for thirty-seven years supplied the Drury Lane pantomime. These works were not devoid of prettiness and fancy, in which respects they have not since been equalled. Alone or with various collaborators he also wrote pantomimes for other London and country theatres, amounting, it is said, to one hundred in all. His plays have never been collected, very few of them having been printed. Blanchard contributed to most of the comic rivals to 'Punch' and to various literary ventures, and was associated with many well-known men of letters, from Leigh Hunt to Edmund Yates; was theatrical critic of many papers, including the 'Sunday Times,' the 'Weekly Dispatch,' the 'Illustrated Times,' the 'London Figaro,' the 'Observer,' and ultimately the 'Daily Telegraph.' To successive numbers of the 'Era Almanack ' he contributed ' The Playgoer's Portfolio,' and he wrote frequently in the 'Era.' A mere list of his productions, theatrical and other, would occupy columns. He kept a diary, edited in 1891, after his death, by Messrs. Clement Scott and Cecil Howard, which is a memorial of arduous and incessant struggle and, until near the end, of miserable pay. It furnishes a delightful picture of one of the kindest, most genial, and lovable of Bohemians — a man with some of the charm of a Charles Lamb. After a long and distressing illness he died of creeping paralysis (4 Sept. 1889) at Albert Mansions, Victoria Street, and was buried on the 10th in the Kensington cemetery at Hanwell. Blanchard was twice married, his second wife, to whom a complimentary performance was given at Drury Lane, surviving him. In his 'Life' by Scott and Howard his third name is given as Leman; on his tombstone it is Laman.

 BLAND, NATHANIEL (1803–1865), Persian scholar, born 3 Feb. 1803, was the only son of Nathaniel Bland of Randalls Park, Leatherhead. His father's name was originally Crumpe, but after leaving Ireland and purchasing Randalls Park he took, in 1812, the surname of his mother, Dorothea, daughter of Dr. Bland of Derriquin Castle, co. Kerry, an eminent civilian.

Bland entered Eton in 1818, matriculated 