Chapter Baliverso to Bandy-legged of B by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Banagher, a town in Ireland, on the Shannon (King’s County). It formerly sent two members to parliament, and was a pocket borough. When a member spoke of a rotten borough, he could devise no stronger expression than That beats Banagher, which passed into a household phrase.

Banastar (Humfrey), brought up by Henry duke of Buckingham, and advanced by him to honour and wealth. He professed to love the duke as his dearest friend; but when Richard III, offered£1000 reward to any one who would deliver up the duke, Banastar betrayed him to John Mitton, sheriff of Shropshire, and he was conveyed to Salisbury, where he was beheaded. The ghost of the duke prayed that Banaster’s eldest son, “reft of his wits might end his life in a pigstye;” that his second son might “be drowned in a dyke” containing less than “half a foot of water;” that his only daughter might be a leper; and that Banaster himself might “live in death and die in life.”—Sackville: A Mirrour for Magistraytes (“The Complaynt,” 1587).

Banberg (The bishop of), introduced in Donnerhugel’s narrative.—Sir W. Scott: Anne of Geierstein (time, Edward IV.).

Banbury Cheese. Bardolph calls Slender a “Banbury cheese” (Merry Wives of Windsor, act i. sc. 1); and in Jack Drum’s Entertainment we read, “You are like a Banbury cheese, nothing but paring.” The Banbury cheese alluded to was a milk cheese, about an inch in thickness.

Bandy-legged, Armand Gouffé 1775–1845), also called Le panard du dix-neuvième siècle. He was one of the founders of the “Caveau moderne.”