BLENHEIM PARK, near Woodstock, Oxford, the gift, with the Woodstock estate, of the country to the Duke of Marlborough, for his military services in the Spanish Succession war.

BLESSINGTON, COUNTESS OF, an Irish lady celebrated for her beauty and wit; figured much in intellectual circles in London; had her salon at Kensington; was on intimate terms with Byron, and published “Conversations with Byron,” and wrote several novels; being extravagant, fell into debt, and had to flee the country (1789-1849).

BLICHER, STEEN STEENSEN, Danish poet of rural life (1782-1848).

BLIGH, WM., a naval officer; served under Captain Cook; commanded the Bounty at Tahiti, when his crew mutinied under his harsh treatment, and set him adrift, with 18 others, in an open boat, in which, after incredible privations, he arrived in England; was afterwards governor of N.S.  Wales, but dismissed for his rigorous and arbitrary conduct (1753-1817).

BLIMBER, MRS. CORNELIA, a prim school-matron in “Dombey & Son.”

BLIND, KARL, revolutionist and journalist, born at Mannheim; took part in the risings of 1848, and sentenced to prison in consequence of a pamphlet he wrote entitled “German Hunger and German Princes,” but rescued by the mob; found refuge in England, where he interested himself in democratic movements, and cultivated his literary as well as his political proclivities by contributing to magazines, and otherwise; b. 1826.

BLIND HARRY, a wandering Scottish minstrel of the 15th century; composed in verse “The Life of that Noble Champion of Scotland, Sir William Wallace.”

BLINKERT DUNE, a dune near Haarlem, 197 ft. above the sea-level.

BLOCH, MARCUS ELIESER, a naturalist, born at Anspach, of Jewish descent; his “Ichthyology” is a magnificent national work, produced at the expense of the wealthiest princes of Germany (1723-1799).

BLOEMAERT, a family of Flemish painters and engravers in 16th and 17th centuries.

BLOIS, capital of the deps. of Loire and Cher, France, on the Loire, 35 m.  S. of Orleans; a favourite residence of Francis I. and Charles IX., and the scene of events of interest in the history of France.

BLOMEFLELD, FRANCIS, a clergyman, born at Norfolk; author of “Topographical History of the County of Norfolk” (1705-1751).

BLOMFIELD, bishop of London, born at Bury St. Edmunds; Greek scholar; active in the Church extension of his diocese (1785-1857).

BLONDEL, a troubadour of the 12th century; a favourite of Richard Coeur de Lion, who, it is said, discovered the place of Richard’s imprisonment in Austria by singing the first part of a love-song which Richard and he had composed together, and by the voice of Richard in responding to the strain.

BLONDIN, CHARLES, an acrobat and rope-dancer, born at St. Omer, France; celebrated for his feats in crossing Niagara Falls on the tight-rope; b. 1824.