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 earlier construction, the south aisle flanked by two beautiful chapels and an ornate porch; transepts and a central tower, and choir with flanking chapels. The massive Norman tower contrasts strongly with the delicate Perpendicular spire rising upon it. The church contains many interesting memorials, and, in the nave, a Perpendicular shrine dedicated to St Peter. Near the church is the half-ruined priory house, built in the 17th century, and containing much fine plaster ornament characteristic of the period; a curious chapel adjoins it. William Lenthall, speaker of the Long Parliament, was granted this mansion, died here in 1662, and is buried in the church. In the High Street nearly every house is of some antiquity. The Tolsey or old town hall is noteworthy among them; and under one of the houses is an Early English crypt. Burford is mentioned as the scene of a synod in 705; in 752 Cuthred, king of the West Saxons, fighting for independence, here defeated Æthelbald, king of Mercia; and in 1649 the town and district were the scene of victorious operations by Cromwell.

 BURG, a town of Germany, in Prussian Saxony, on the river Ihle, and the railway from Berlin to Magdeburg, 14 m. N.E. of the latter. Pop. (1900) 22,432. It is noted for its cloth manufactures and boot-making, which afford employment to a great part of its population. The town belonged originally to the lordship of Querfurt, passed with this into the possession of the archbishops of Magdeburg in 1496, and was ceded in 1635 with other portions of the Magdeburg territories to Saxony; in 1687 it was ceded to Brandenburg. It owes its prosperity to the large influx of industrious French, Palatinate and Walloon refugees, which took place about the end of the 17th century.

 BURGAGE (from Lat. burgus, a borough), a form of tenure, both in England and Scotland, applicable to the property connected with the old municipal corporations and their privileges. In England, it was a tenure whereby houses or tenements in an ancient borough were held of the king or other person as lord at a certain rent. The term is of less practical importance in the English than in the Scottish system, where it held an important place in the practice of conveyancing, real property having been generally divided into feudal-holding and burgage-holding. Since the Conveyancing (Scotland) Act 1874, there is, however, not much distinction between burgage tenure and free holding. It is usual to speak of the English burgage-tenure as a relic of Saxon freedom resisting the shock of the Norman conquest and its feudalism, but it is perhaps more correct to consider it a local feature of that general exemption from feudality enjoyed by the municipia as a relic of their ancient Roman constitution. The reason for the system preserving for so long its specifically distinct form in Scottish conveyancing was because burgage-holding was an exception to the system of subinfeudation which remained prevalent in Scotland when it was suppressed in England. While other vassals might hold of a graduated hierarchy of overlords up to the crown, the burgess always held directly of the sovereign. It is curious that while in England the burgage-tenure was deemed a species of socage, to distinguish it from the military holdings, in Scotland it was strictly a military holding, by the service of watching and warding for the defence of the burgh. In England the franchises enjoyed by burgesses, freemen and other consuetudinary constituencies in burghs, were dependent on the character of the burgage-tenure. Tenure by burgage was subject to a variety of customs, the principal of which was (q.v.).

 BURGAS (sometimes written Burghaz, Bourgas or Borgas, and, in the middle ages, Pyrgos), a seaport, and capital of the department of Burgas, in Bulgaria (Eastern Rumelia), on the gulf of Burgas, an inlet of the Black Sea, in 42° 27′ N. and 27° 35′ E. Pop. (1906) 12,846. Burgas is built on a low foreland, between the lagoons of Ludzha, on the north, and Kara-Yunus, on the west; it faces towards the open sea on the east, and towards its own harbour on the south. The principal approach is a broad isthmus on the north-west, along which runs the railway to Philippopolis and Adrianople. Despite its small population and the rivalry of Varna and the Turkish port of Dedeagatch, Burgas has a considerable transit trade. Its fine harbour, formally opened in 1904, has an average depth of five fathoms; large vessels can load at the quays, and the outer waters of the gulf are well lit by lighthouses on the islets of Hagios Anastasios and Megalo-Nisi. In 1904, the port accommodated over 1400 ships, of about 700,000 tons. These included upwards of 800 Bulgarian and Turkish sailing-vessels, engaged in the coasting trade. Fuel, machinery and miscellaneous goods are imported, chiefly from Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom; the exports include grain, wool, tallow, cheese, butter, attar of roses, &c. Pottery and pipes are manufactured from clay obtained in the neighbourhood.

 BURGDORF (Fr. Berthoud), an industrial town in the Swiss canton of Bern. It is built on the left bank of the Emme and is 14 m. by rail N.E. of Bern. The lower (or modern) town is connected by a curious spiral street with the upper (or old) town. The latter is picturesquely perched on a hill, at a height of 1942 ft. above sea-level (or 167 ft. above the river); it is crowned by the ancient castle and by the 15th-century parish church, in the former of which Pestalozzi set up his educational establishment between 1798 and 1804. A large trade is carried on at Burgdorf in the cheese of the Emmenthal, while among the industrial establishments are railway works, and factories of cloth, white lead and tinfoil. In 1900 the population was 8404, practically all Protestants and German-speaking. A fine view of the Bernese Alps is obtained from the castle, while a still finer one may be enjoyed from the Lueg hill (2917 ft.), north-east of the town. The castle dates from the days of the dukes of Zäringen (11th–12th centuries), the last of whom (Berchtold V.) built walls round the town at its foot, and granted it a charter of liberties. On the extinction (1218) of that dynasty both castle and town passed to the counts of Kyburg, and from them, with the rest of their possessions, in 1272 by marriage to the cadet line of the Habsburgs. By that line they were sold in 1384, with Thun, to the town of Bern, whose bailiffs ruled in the castle till 1798.

 BURGEE (of unknown origin), a small three-cornered or swallow-tailed flag or pennant used by yachts or merchant vessels; also a kind of small coal burnt in engine furnaces.

 BÜRGER, GOTTFRIED AUGUST (1748–1794), German poet, was born on the 1st of January 1748 at Molmerswende near Halberstadt, of which village his father was the Lutheran pastor. He was a backward child, and at the age of twelve was practically adopted by his maternal grandfather, Bauer, at Aschersleben, who sent him to the Pädagogium at Halle. Hence in 1764 he passed to the university, as a student of theology, which, however, he soon abandoned for the study of jurisprudence. Here he fell under the influence of C. A. Klotz (1738–1771), who directed Bürger’s attention to literature, but encouraged rather than discouraged his natural disposition to a wild and unregulated life. In consequence of his dissipated habits, he was in 1767 recalled by his grandfather, but on promising to reform was in 1768 allowed to enter the university of Göttingen as a law student. As he continued his wild career, however, his grandfather withdrew his support and he was left to his own devices. Meanwhile he had made fair progress with his legal studies, and had the good fortune to form a close friendship with a number of young men of literary tastes. In the Göttingen Musenalmanach, edited by H. Boie and F. W. Gotter, Bürger’s first poems were published, and by 1771 he had already become widely known as a poet. In 1772, through Boie’s influence, Bürger obtained the post of “Amtmann” or district magistrate at Altengleichen near Göttingen. His grandfather was now reconciled to him, paid his debts and established him in his new sphere of activity. Meanwhile he kept in touch with his Göttingen friends, and when the “Göttinger Bund” or “Hain” was formed, Bürger, though not himself a member, kept in close touch with it. In 1773 the ballad Lenore was published in the Musenalmanach. This poem, which in dramatic force and in its vivid realization of the weird and supernatural remains without a rival, made his name a household word in Germany. In 1774 Bürger married Dorette Leonhart, the