So the Bistonian race, a maddening train,
  Exult and revel on the Thracian plain.

Pitt’s Statius, ii.

BIT’ELAS(3 syl.), sister of Fairlimb, and daughter of Rukenaw the ape, in the beast-epic called Reynard the Fox (1498).

BIT’TLEBRAINS (Lord), friend of sir William Ashton, lord-keeper of Scotland.

Lady Bittlebrains, wife of the above lord.—­Sir W. Scott, Bride of Lammermoor (time, William III.).

BIT’ZER, light porter in Bounderby’s bank at Coketown.  He is educated at M’Choakumchild’s “practical school,” and becomes a general spy and informer.  Bitzer finds out the robbery of the bank, and discovers the perpetrator to be Tom Gradgrind (son of Thomas Gradgrind, Esq., M.P.), informs against him, and gets promoted to his place.—­C.  Dickens, Hard Times (1854).

BIZARRE [Be.zar’(1)], the friend of Orian’a, forever coquetting and sparring with Duretete [Dure.tait], and placing him in awkward predicaments.—­G.K.  Farquhar, The Inconstant (1702).

BLACK AG’NES, the countess of March, noted for her defence of Dunbar during the war which Edward III. maintained in Scotland (1333-1338).

Sir Walter Scott says:  “The countess was called ‘Black Agnes’ from her complexion.  She was the daughter of Thomas Randolph, earl of Murray.”—­Tales of a Grandfather, i. 14. (See BLACK PRINCE.)

BLACK COLIN CAMPBELL, general Campbell, in the army of George III., introduced by sir W. Scott in Redgauntlet.

BLACK DOUGLAS, William Douglas, lord of Nithsdale, who died 1390.

He was tall, strong, and well made, of a swarthy complexion, with dark hair, from which he was called “The Black Douglas.”—­Sir Walter Scott, Tales of a Grandfather, xi.

BLACK DWARF (The), of sir Walter Scott, is meant for David Ritchie, whose cottage was and still is on Manor Water, in the county of Peebles.

BLACK-EYED SUSAN, one of Dibdin’s sea-songs.

BLACK GEORGE, the gamekeeper in Fielding’s novel, called The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1750).

Black George, Greorge Petrowitsch of Servia, a brigand; called by the Turks Kara George, from the terror he inspired.

BLACK HORSE (The), the 7th Dragoon Guards (not the 7th Dragoons).  So called because their facings (or collar and cuffs) are black velvet.  Their plumes are black and white; and at one time their horses were black, or at any rate dark.

BLACK KNIGHT OF THE BLACK LANDS (The), sir Pereard.  Called by Tennyson “Night” or “Nox.”  He was one of the four brothers who kept the passages of Castle Dangerous, and was overthrown by sir Gareth.—­Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 126 (1470); Tennyson, Idylls ("Gareth and Lynette").

BLACK LORD CLIFFORD, John ninth lord Clifford, son of Thomas lord Clifford.  Also called “The Butcher” (died 1461).