Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/390

342 BRIDGET,, one of the patron saints of Ireland, who lived during the 6th century, was a daughter of one of the princes of Ulster, and took the monastic vow at a very early age. Her cell, the first in Ireland, was erected under a large oak tree, whence the place was called Kil-dara, the cell of the oak. The city of Kildare is supposed to derive its name from St Bridget's cell. A whole collection of miraculous stories have clustered round her name, and her reputation was not confined to Ireland, for St Bride was a favourite saint in England and in Scotland.  BRIDGET,, of Sweden, was born about the year 1302. She was descended from a family of royal blood, and at the age of sixteen was married to Alpho, prince of Nericia. The husband and wife were equally devoted to works of piety, and undertook together a pilgrimage to the shrine of St Jago de Compostella. On their return both embraced the monastic life, and after the death of Alpho, his wife founded a new kind of monastery for monks and nuns. She then went on a pilgrimage to Rome, where she founded a house for Swedish pilgrims and students, and composed her Revelationes. After another pilgrimage to Jerusalem, she died at Rome in 1373. She was canonized in 1391. The order of St Bridget nourished for some time; they had one house in Britain.  BRIDGETOWN. See, ..  BRIDGEWATER, a municipal (and formerly a parliamentary) borough and seaport in Somersetshire, on the Great Western Railway, 29 miles S.S.W. of Bristol. It is pleasantly situated in a level and well-wooded country, having on the east the Mendip range and on the west the Quantock hills. The town, which is well built, lies along both sides of the River Parret, here crossed by a handsome iron bridge. It has an ancient Gothic church with a spire 174 feet in height, a town-hall, court-rooms, a jail, a market-place, an infirmary, a free grammar school, and some alms-houses. The river, which is subject to a bore, often two fathoms deep at the mouth, is navigable for vessels of 700 tons up to the town. The customs duties in 1874 were £7227. The chief imports are grain, coals, wine, hemp, tallow, and timber; the exports, agricultural produce, earthenware, cement, plaster of Paris, and bath-bricks, which last constitute the staple trade of the town. The value of the imports in 1874 was £118,509, and of the exports £5011. The town returned two members to parliament till 1870, when the borough was disfranchised. Population in 1871, 10,259. Bridgewater is said to derive its name, which appears in earlier times as Brugge Walter, from a certain Walter de Douay, to whom the manor was presented at the Conquest. In the reign of Henry II. a splendid castle was built and a harbour constructed by William de Briwere; and in 1230 a Grey-Friars' monastery was founded by his son. The castle was taken by the Royalists in 1643, and was almost completely demolished after its capture by the Parliamentary forces in 1645. Admiral Blake was a native of Bridgewater.  BRIDGEWATER,, who has sometimes been styled "the Father of British Inland Navigation," was born in 1736. The navigable canal which he projected for the transport of the coal obtained on his estates, was (with the exception of the Sankey canal) the first great undertaking of the kind executed in Great Britain in modern times. The construction of this remarkable work was carried out by Brindley, the celebrated engineer. (See and .) The untiring perseverance displayed by the duke in surmounting the various difficulties that retarded the accomplishment of his project, together with the pecuniary restrictions he imposed on himself in order to supply the necessary capital, affords an instructive example of that energy and self-denial on which the success of great undertakings so much depends. Though a steady supporter of Mr Pitt's administration, he never took any prominent part in politics. On his death, March 8, 1803, the ducal title became extinct.  BRIDGEWATER,, was born in 1758 and died on the 11th February 1829. He is best known as the originator of the Bridgewater Treatises. By his will he devised the sum of £8000, at the disposal of the president of the Royal Society, to be paid to the author or authors selected by the president to write and publish 1000 copies of a treatise "On the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as manifested in the Creation." Mr Davies Gilbert, who then filled the office, selected eight persons, each to undertake a branch of this subject, and each to receive £1000 as his reward, together with any benefit that might accrue from the sale of his work, according to the will of the testator.

1em  BRIDLINGTON,, or , a market-town of England, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, on the North-Eastern Railway, 23 miles from Scarborough. It lies about a mile from the coast on a gentle acclivity. The streets are narrow and the houses irregularly built. A large chamber over the old priory gateway (of the time of Richard II.) is used as a town-hall. The town has also a corn exchange, a temperance hall, a mechanics institute, and two subscription libraries. The parish church of St Mary's preserves a considerable part of the Augustinian priory which was erected in the 12th century, by Walter de Gaunt, a relative of the Conqueror, and continued to flourish till 1537, when its last prior was executed for taking part in the "Pilgrimage of Grace." On the coast is situated the pleasant watering-place of Bridlington Quay, which has recently increased in reputation. The harbour is enclosed by two stone piers, and there is good anchorage in the bay. The beach consists of a fine firm sand, and is bordered by a parade with ornamental gardens. Besides hot and cold baths, there is a chalybeate spring esteemed for its medicinal properties; and the town is supplied with drinking-water from an intermittent fountain discovered below high water mark in 1811. The most important public building is the Victoria Rooms, which comprise a ball-room, a reading-room, a news-room, &c. The united population of Bridlington and Bridlington Quay, which in 1851 was 2432, amounted in 1871 to 6203. Bridlington was placed by Henry I. under the civil jurisdiction of the priors, and by John was allowed to hold a market and an annual fair. In 1643 the town was cannonaded by Admiral Batten, on account of the presence of Queen Henrietta, who had landed with a supply of arms. Sir George Ripley and John de Bridlington were connected with the priory; Kent the landscape-gardener was a native of the town; and his patron, Robert Boyle, bore the title