Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 05.djvu/419

 visited France, but at the beginning of the revolution he returned to England. He passed ‘through the whole of Ireland, beginning with Cork.’ At Ballinasloe his appearance in the street caused so great a commotion that the garrison was turned out. At Athlone his concert was ruined by the news of the landing of Hoche at Bantry Bay. He made a brief stay at Douglas, and passed to Whitehaven, Carlisle, Newcastle, and thence to Durham and Hull. On account of his failing means, he decided to go to America; but this design was abandoned, and about 1800 the prebendaries of Durham gave him a residence, the Bank's Cottage, near Durham, where the contributions of his friends enabled him to pass his latter years in peaceful retirement. He was a good linguist, his conversational powers were considerable, and his company was much courted in the city and neighbourhood. Catharine Hutton, who wrote a sketch of the dwarf, says: ‘I never saw a more graceful man, or a more perfect gentleman, than Boruwlaski.’ He had several children, who were of the ordinary size, but in his ‘Memoirs’ is almost silent as to his family affairs. His pride led him to keep up the fiction that he did not exhibit himself for hire—the people merely paid a shilling to his valet to open the door! He was terribly afraid lest George IV, to whom the last edition of his ‘Memoirs’ was dedicated, should offer him money in a direct fashion. The king, however, gave him a watch and chain, and thus spared his pride. Charles Mathews, who introduced him to George IV, and Patmore, who found him ‘domesticated’ with Mathews, speak of him as a fascinating companion, playful, accomplished, and sensible. In answer to Catharine Hutton's request for an autograph, he sent a letter with these rhymes:— Poland was my cradle, England is my nest; Durham is my quiet place, Where my weary bones shall rest.

He died at the great age of ninety-eight at Bank's Cottage on 5 Sept. 1837. His grave is near that of Stephen Kemble, in the Nine Altars of Durham Cathedral, and is marked only by the initials J. B., but there is a monument to his memory in the church of St. Mary, in the South Bailey, Durham.

The first edition of his ‘Autobiography,’ in both French and English, appeared at London in 1788, with a portrait by W. Hincks. The French part was the dwarf's own work, the English a translation by M. des Carrières. A German translation by Christian August Wichmann appeared at Leipzig in 1789. A second edition of the ‘Memoirs’ was printed at Birmingham in 1792. The final edition was printed at Durham in 1820, and has a portrait from a drawing by John Dowman, A.R.A. In Kay's ‘Edinburgh Portraits’ there is one of Boruwlaski taken from life. At the sale of Fillingham's collection, in 1862, were sold some scarce portraits of Boruwlaski, autograph letters, the handbill for his public breakfast, and the sale catalogue of his effects. One of his shoes, the sole of which is five inches and seven-eighths long, and a glove are now in the Bristol Philosophical Institution. In March 1786 Rowlandson published a caricature representation of Boruwlaski playing on the fiddle before the ‘Grand Seigneur’ and his wives. A full cast of Boruwlaski was taken by Joseph Bonomi shortly before the death of the dwarf.  BOSA (d. 705), bishop of York, was a monk of Hilda's monastery at Streoneshalch (Whitby). When in 678 King Ecgfrith and Archbishop Theodore divided the great northern diocese, presided over by Wilfrid, into three parts, Bosa was made bishop of the Deirans, the people of Yorkshire, and was consecrated by Theodore in the basilica of York. Wilfrid returned to Northumbria in 680, bringing with him a decree from Pope Agatho, commanding that he should be reinstated in his bishopric. Bosa attended the witenagemot that rejected this decree, and he in common with the other intruding bishops, advised the king to imprison Wilfrid. He was expelled from his diocese in 686, and Wilfrid was reinstated by King Ealdfrith. He seems, however, to have regained his see in 691, when the king and Wilfrid quarrelled. At the council of Ouestrefeld, in 702, Wilfrid's chief enemies were the bishops of the north, and Bosa, we may be sure, was prominent among them. lie and Wilfrid were reconciled at the council held on the banks of the Nidd in 705 ; but, though some of Wilfrid's claims were allowed by the council, he was not reinstated in the bishopric of York. Boas, however, died about this time, and was succeeded at York by St. John of Beverley. 