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 area of 11,260 sq. m. It is mountainous in the south and south-east, while in the north, west and south-west it is flat and in some places marshy. The climate, except in the marshy parts, is generally healthy. It is well-watered, and forms one of the most fertile districts of Hungary. Wheat, barley, oats, rye, maize, flax, hemp and tobacco are grown in large quantities, and the products of the vineyards are of a good quality. Game is plentiful and the rivers swarm with fish. The mineral wealth is great, including copper, tin, lead, zinc, iron and especially coal. Amongst its numerous mineral springs, the most important are those of Mehadia, with sulphurous waters, which were already known in the Roman period as the Thermae Herculis. The Banat had in 1900 a population of 1,431,329 inhabitants. According to nationality there were 578,789 Rumanians, 362,487 Germans, 251,938 Servians and 170,124 Magyars. The chief town is Temesvár (pop. 53,033), and other places of importance are Versecz (25,199), Lugos (16,126), Nagybecskerek (26,407), Nagykikinda (24,843) and Pancsova (19,044).

The Banat was conquered by the Turks in 1552, and remained a Turkish sanjak (province) till 1716, when Prince Eugene of Savoy liberated it from the Turkish yoke. It received the title of Banat after the peace of Passarowitz (1718), and remained under a military administration until 1751, when Maria Theresa introduced a civil administration. During the Turkish occupation the district was nearly depopulated, and allowed to lie almost desolate in marsh and heath and forest. Count Claudius Mercy (1666–1734), who was appointed governor of Temesvár in 1720, took numerous measures for the regeneration of the Banat. The marshes near the Danube and Theiss were cleared, roads and canals were built at great expense of labour, German artisans and other settlers were attracted to colonize the district, and agriculture and trade encouraged. Maria Theresa also took a great interest in the Banat, colonized the land belonging to the crown with German peasants, founded many villages, encouraged the exploitation of the mineral wealth of the country, and generally developed the measures introduced by Mercy. In 1779 the Banat was again incorporated with Hungary. After the revolution of 1848–1849, the Banat together with another county (Bács) was separated from Hungary, and created into a distinctive Austrian crown land, but in 1860 it was definitely incorporated with Hungary.

BANATE (a corruption of Panaiti, their real name), or, as they are now usually called, a tribe of North American Indians of Shoshonean stock. They were sometimes known as "Robber Indians." Their former range was southern Idaho and eastern Oregon. They are now divided between the Fort Hall and Lemhi reservations, Idaho. They were generally friendly with the whites, but in 1866 and in 1877–78 there were serious outbreaks. They number about 500. BANBRIDGE, a town of Co. Down, Ireland, in the west parliamentary division, on the Bann, 23 m. S.W. of Belfast on a branch of the Great Northern railway, standing on an eminence. Pop. of urban district (1901) 5006. To mitigate a steep ascent, a central carriage-way, 200 yds, long, is cut along the main street to a depth of 15 ft., the opposite terraces being connected by a bridge. Banbridge is an entirely modern town. It is the principal seat of the linen trade in the county, and has extensive cloth and thread factories, bleachfields and chemical works. A memorial in Church Square commemorates the Franklin expedition to the discovery of the North-West Passage, and in particular Captain Francis Crozier, who was born at Banbridge in 1796 and served on the expedition. BANBURY, a market-town and municipal borough in the Banbury parliamentary division of Oxfordshire, England, on the river Cherwell and the Oxford canal, 86 m. N.W. of London by the northern line of the Great Western railway. Pop. (1901) 12,968. The canal communicates northward with the Grand Junction and Warwick canals, and there are branch lines of the Great Central railway to the main line at Woodford, and of the London & North-Western railway to Bletchley. The town is the centre of a rich agricultural district, and there is a large manufacture of agricultural implements; while other industries include rope and leather works and brewing. Banbury cakes, consisting of a case of pastry containing a mixture of currants, have a reputation of three centuries' standing. A magnificent Gothic parish church was destroyed by fire and gunpowder in 1790 to make way for a building of little merit in Italian style. The ancient Banbury Cross, celebrated in a familiar nursery rhyme, was destroyed by Puritans in 1610. During the 17th century the inhabitants of Banbury seem to have been zealous Puritans, and are frequently satirized by contemporary dramatists. At a somewhat earlier period the grammar school, now extinct, was of such repute as to be chosen as the model for the constitution of the school of St Paul’s. A school of science was erected in 1861, and there is a municipal secondary and technical school. Some fine old timbered houses remain in the streets. Of the castle built in 1125 there are only the barest traces. Wroxton Abbey, 2 m. N.W., shows slight remains of the original Augustinian priory; but the present beautiful gabled building, picturesquely situated, dates mainly from 1618. Broughton Castle, 2 m. S.W., is the most noteworthy house in the county. The oblong block of buildings, fronted by lawns, is surrounded by a moat and protected by a gate-house, part of which dates from 1301, at which date the chapel and a part of the house were also built. There is also work of the 15th century and the Elizabethan period. The house is the seat of Lord Saye and Sele, having been in the Fiennes family since the reign of Henry VII. (1485–1509). Here Pym and Hampden and other leaders of the Parliamentarians were wont to meet in 1640. Without the gate is a fine Decorated church. Banbury is governed by a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Area, 4633 acres.

In the year 556 Banbury (Beranbyrig, Banesberie) was the scene of a battle between Cynric and Ceawlin and Britons. It was assessed at 50 hides in the Domesday survey and was then held by the bishop of Lincoln. Allusions to the market occur as early as 1138, and Henry II. by charter confirmed a market on Thursday and granted a fair at Whitsun. The first charter of incorporation was granted by Queen Mary in 1553, and instituted a common council consisting of a bailiff, 12 aldermen and 12 chief burgesses; a court of record, one justice of the peace, a Thursday market and two annual fairs. James I. confirmed this charter in 1608. with some additions, including a weekly wool-market, a horse-market and two additional annual fairs. Both these charters were surrendered in 1683 in favour of a new charter, but were resumed in 1688. In 1718 George I. granted a new charter, which held until the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835. From the date of Queen Mary’s charter until the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885 the borough was represented by one member in parliament.

BANCHIERI, ADRIANO (c. 1557–1634), Bolognese composer for church and stage, organist, writer on music and poet. He founded the Accademia Florida of Bologna. Like Orazio Vecchi he was interested in converting the madrigal to dramatic purposes. He disapproved of the monodists with all their revolutionary harmonic tendencies, about which he expressed himself vigorously in his Moderna Practica Musicale (Venice, 1613), while systematizing the legitimate use of the monodic art of thorough-bass. BANCROFT, GEORGE (1800–1891), American historian and statesman, was born in Worcester, Mass., on the 3rd of October 1800. His family had been in America since 1632, and his father, Aaron Bancroft, was distinguished as a revolutionary soldier, clergyman and author. The son was educated at Phillips Academy, Exeter, at Harvard University, at Heidelberg, Göttingen and Berlin. At Göttingen he studied Plato with Heeren, New Testament Greek with Eichhorn and natural science with Blumenbach. His heart was in the work of Heeren, easily the greatest of historical critics then living, and the forerunner of the modern school; it was from this master that Bancroft caught his enthusiasm for minute pains-taking erudition. He concluded his years of preparation by a European tour, in the