ntually of Russia. The Arab geographer Ibn Haukal
states that in his time, near the end of the 10th century, it was a
place of 10,000 inhabitants.

See Ibn Fadhlan, _Nachrichten uber die Wolga Bulgaren_ (Ger. trans. by
Frahn, St Petersburg, 1832).

BOLI, the chief town of a sanjak of the Kastamuni vilayet in Asia Minor,
altitude 2500 ft., situated in a rich plain watered by the Boli Su, a
tributary of the Filiyas Chai (_Billaeus_). Pop. (1894) 10,796 (Moslems,
9642; Greeks, 758; Armenians, 396). Cotton and leather are manufactured;
the country around is fertile, and in the neighbourhood are large
forests of oak, beech, elm, chestnut and pine, the timber of which is
partly used locally and partly exported to Constantinople. Three miles
east of Boli, at Eskihissar, are the ruins of _Bithynium_, the
birthplace of Antinous, also called _Antinoopolis_, and in Byzantine
times _Claudiopolis_. In and around Boli are numerous marbles with Greek
inscriptions, chiefly sepulchral, and architectural fragments. At Ilija,
south of the town, are warm springs much prized for their medicinal
properties.

BOLINGBROKE, HENRY ST JOHN, VISCOUNT (1678-1751), English statesman and
writer, son of Sir Henry St John, Bart. (afterwards 1st Viscount St
John, a member of a younger branch of the family of the earls of
Bolingbroke and barons St John of Bletso), and of Lady Mary Rich,
daughter of the 2nd earl of Warwick, was baptized on the 10th of October
1678, and was educated at Eton. He travelled abroad during 1698 and 1699
and acquired an exceptional knowledge of French. The dissipation and
extravagance of his youth exceeded all limits and surprised his
contemporaries. He spent weeks in riotous orgies and outdrank the most
experienced drunkards. An informant of Goldsmith saw him once "run naked
through the park in a state of intoxication." Throughout his career he
desired, says Swift, his intimate friend, to be thought the Alcibiades
or Petronius of his age, and to mix licentious orgies with the highest
political responsibilities.[1] In 1700 he married Frances, daughter of
Sir Henry Winchcombe, Bart., of Bucklebury, Berkshire, but matrimony
while improving his fortune did not redeem his morals.

He was returned to parliament in 1701 for the family borough of Wootton
Bassett in Wiltshire. He declared himself a Tory, attached himself to
Harley (afterwards Lord Oxford), then speaker, whom he now addressed as
"dear master," and dis