supported by his constituents, and upon his return
to Tennessee was made a member and the presiding officer of the state
senate. He died at Knoxville on the 21st of March 1800.

For a defence of Blount, see General Marcus J. Wright's _Account of
the Life and Services of William Blount_ (Washington, D.C., 1884).

BLOUSE, a word (taken from the French) used for any loosely fitting
bodice belted at the waist. In France it meant originally the loose
upper garment of linen or cotton, generally blue, worn by French workmen
to preserve their clothing, and, by transference, the workman himself.

BLOW, JOHN (1648-1708), English musical composer, was born in 1648,
probably at North Collingham in Nottinghamshire. He became a chorister
of the chapel royal, and distinguished himself by his proficiency in
music; he composed several anthems at an unusually early age, including
_Lord, Thou hast been our refuge; Lord, rebuke me not_; and the
so-called "club anthem," _I will always give thanks_, the last in
collaboration with Pelham Humphrey and William Turner, either in honour
of a victory over the Dutch in 1665, or--more probably--simply to
commemorate the friendly intercourse of the three choristers. To this
time also belongs the composition of a two-part setting of Herrick's
_Goe, perjur'd man_, written at the request of Charles II. to imitate
Carissimi's _Dite, o cieli_. In 1669 Blow became organist of Westminster
Abbey. In 1673 he was made a gentleman of the chapel royal, and in the
September of this year he was married to Elizabeth Braddock, who died in
childbirth ten years later. Blow, who by the year 1678 was a doctor of
music, was named in 1685 one of the private musicians of James II.
Between 1680 and 1687 he wrote the only stage composition by him of
which any record survives, the _Masque for the Entertainment of the
King: Venus and Adonis_. In this Mary Davies played the part of Venus,
and her daughter by Charles II., Lady Mary Tudor, appeared as Cupid. In
1687 he became master of the choir of St Paul's church; in 1695 he was
elected organist of St Margaret's, Westminster, and is said to have
resumed his post as organist of Westminster Abbey, from which in 1680 he
had retired or been dismissed to make way for Purcell. In 1699 he was
appointed to the newly created post of composer to the chapel royal.
Fourteen services and more than a hundred anthems by Blow are extant. In
addition to his purely ecclesiastic