Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/579

 BERGUES BERKELEY 559 for the excellence of his violoncellos. His in- struments are quite rare and very valuable, as he ranked probably third in merit among the Cremona makers, that is, next after Guar- nerius, Stradivarius holding undoubtedly the first position. II. Michel Angelo, son of the preceding, was also a violin maker, but greatly inferior to his father in workmanship and finish, as also in varnish. His instruments bear date from 1750 to 1780. HI. Meolo, son of Michael Angelo, born in 1758, died in 1838. The earliest of his known instruments, a viola, is dated 1780. He formed the connecting link between the days of Stradivarius and our own, remembering and pointing out the house where the great violin maker lived. BERGUES, or lin-uf>-S(.-Vinr, a fortified town of France, department of Nord, 5 m. S. S. E. of Dunkirk, on the railway from that place to Hazebrouck, and at the junction of several canals, by one of which vessels of 300 tons reach the town from the sea ; pop. in 1866, 5,738. It is well built. The finest buildings are the town house, an ancient clock tower 160 feet high, and the two towers of the abbey of St. Winoc. It has manufactories of soap, hosiery, cotton yarn, sugar, salt, dis- tilled spirits, leather, &c., and has a consider- able trade in corn, cheese, butter, wine, and cattle. It was fortified by Vauhan, and be- sieged by the English in 1793 without success. BERINGTOJV, Joseph, an English author, born in Shropshire in 1744, died at Buckland in Berkshire, Dec. 1, 1827. He belonged to a Roman Catholic family, was educated at St. Omer, and after 20 years' ministry as a priest in France was placed in charge of a chapel at Buckland near Oxford. He wrote a number of controversial works ; a valuable " History of the Lives of Abelard and Heloisa " (London, 1784); "Account of the Present State of Roman Catholics in Great Britain" (1787); " History of the Reign of Henry II. and of Richard and John," especially with reference to the life of Thomas a Becket (Birmingham, 1790) ; " Memoirs of Gregorio Panzani, giv- ing an Account of his Agency in England in 1634-'5-'6 " (London, 1793), a translation from the Italian, which gave great offence to the Catholics ; " Examination of Events termed Miraculous" (1796), in which he disputed the authenticity of certain accounts of wonderful events in Italy; "The Faith of Catholics," with Dr. Kirk (1813) ; and a " Literary His- tory^ of the Middle Ages " (1814). BERIOT, Charles Anguste de, a Belgian violinist and composer, born in Louvain, Feb. 20, 1802, died in Brussels April 10, 1870. At the age of nine he was able to perform difficult con- certos for the violin. In 1821 he became a pupil in the Paris conservatoire, but soon found that his style was already too absolutely formed to admit of much modification. He commenced giving concerts, and made himself famous in England, France, Austria, and other European countries, being distinguished for the purity 88 VOL. ii. 36 j of his tone, his correctness of intonation, and his refined taste. Some of his concert tours ! were made in company with Mme. Malibran, six months, and De Beriot was not again heard in public for several years. In 1842 he was appointed professor of the violin at the con- servatoire of Brussels, which position he re- signed in 1852 in consequence of almost total blindness occasioned by paralysis of the optic nerve. Among his pupils were Vieuxtemps, Ghys, Prume, and Konsky. He was succeed- ed in the professorship by Leonard, also one of his best pupils. De Beriot's compositions
 * whom he married in 1836. She died within
 * are numerous, and have been in constant use

by violinists. His most valuable production is a very complete manual in three parts entitled Nethode de violon. BERKELEY, a N. E. county of West Virginia, separated on the N. E. from Maryland by the Potomac, bounded S. E. by a branch of that river, and N. W. by the Shenandoah moun- tains ; area, 250 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 14,900, of whom 1,672 were colored. Its surface is uneven and broken, and its soil stubborn and underlaid with limestone and slate, through which permeate numerous sulphur and chalyb- eate springs. The Baltimore and Ohio rail- road passes through it. The chief productions in 1870 were 296,975 bushels of wheat, 297,639 of Indian corn, 107,588 of oats, 8,529 tons of hay, 239,493 Ibs. of butter, and 41,147 of wool. There were 3,358 horses, 3,050 milch cows, 4,015 other cattle, 9,213 sheep, and 8,892 swine. Capital, Martinsburg. BERKELEY, a market town and parish of Gloucestershire, England, on the right bank of the Little Avon, 1| m. from the Severn, 3 m. from the Bristol and Birmingham railway, and 15m. S. W. of Gloucester ; pop. of the parish in 1871, 5,523. The Gloucester and Berkeley ship canal extends from Sharpness Point near Berkeley to Gloucester. The town is situated upon a gentle eminence in what is known as the vale of Berkeley, long famous for its butter and cheese, the cheese called double Gloucester being made only here. At the S. E. end of the town stands Berkeley castle, built before the time of Henry II., and still inhabited by a descendant of its founders, Earl Fitzhardinge. In one of its dungeons Edward II. was mur- dered in 1327. The gate house, hall, chapel, tower, and keep are all in perfect preservation. BERKELEY, George, an Irish prelate and phi- losopher, born at Kilcrin, county Kilkenny, March 12, 1684, died in Oxford, Jan. 14, 1753. His father, William Berkeley, came of a family noted for its loyalty to Charles I., and was col- lector of Belfast. The son received his early education at Kilkenny school, and at Trinity college, Dublin, of which he became a fellow in 1707. About the same time he published a mathematical tract which attracted some no- tice, and this was followed in 1709 by "An Essay toward a new Theory of Vision." In this he maintained that the eye has no natural