a great authority on
theosophy, the doctrines of which she professed she derived from the
fountain-head in Thibet (1813-1891).

BLEEK, FRIEDRICH, eminent German Biblical exegete and critic of the
Schleiermacher school, born in Holstein; professor at Bonn; his chief
work, "Commentary on the Hebrews," a great work; others are Introductions
to the Old and to the New Testaments (1793-1859).

BLEEK, WM., son of preceding, a philologist; accompanied Colenso to
Natal; author of "Comparative Grammar of the S. African Languages"
(1827-1875).

BLEFUSCU, an island separated from Lilliput by a strait 800 yards
wide, inhabited by pigmies; understood to represent France.

BLENHEIM, a village in Bavaria, near Augsburg; famous for
Marlborough's victory in 1704, and giving name to it.

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.