Chapter Barrol Fever to Bas Bleu of B by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

The whole society is divided into three ranks: Benchers, Utter Barristers, and Inner Barristers.

An Inner Barrister. A barrister inferior in grade to a Bencher or Utter Barrister.

A Revising Barrister. One appointed to revise the lists of electors.

A Vacation Barrister: One newly called to the bar, who for three years has to attend in "long vacation."

Barristers' Bags In the Common Law bar, barristers' bags are either red or dark blue. Red bags are reserved for Queen's Counsel and sergeants; but a stuff gownsman may carry one "if presented with it by a silk." Only red bags may be taken into Common Law Courts; blue bags must be carried no farther than the robing room. In the Chancery Courts the etiquette is not so strict.

Barristers' Gowns "Utter barristers wear a stuff or bombazine gown, and the puckered material between the shoulders of the gown is all that is now left of the purse into which, in early days, the successful litigant ... dropped his ... pecuniary tribute ... for services rendered" (Notes and Queries, 11 March, 1893, p. 124). The fact is that the counsel was supposed to appear merely as a friend of the litigant. Even now he cannot recover his fees.

Barry Cornwall poet. A nom de plume of Bryan Waller Procter. It is an anagram of his name. (1788-- 1874.)

Barsanians Heretics who arose in the sixth century. They made their sacrifices consist in taking wheat flour on the tip of their first finger, and carrying it to their mouth.

Bar-sur-Aube (Prévot). Je ne voudrais pas être roi, si j'étais prévot de Bar-sur-Aube (French). I should not care to be king, if I were Provost of Bar-sur-Aube [the most lucrative and honourable of all the provostships of France]. Almost the same idea is expressed in the words

"And often to our comfort we shall find,
The sharded beetle in a safer hold
Than is the full-winged eagle."

Almost to the same effect Pope says:

"And more true joy Marcellus exiled feels,
Than Cæsar with a senate at his heels."

See Castle of Bungay.

Bartholo A doctor in the comedies of Le Mariage de Figaro, and Le Barbier de Séville, by Beaumarchais.

Bartholomew (St.). The symbol of this saint is a knife, in allusion to the knife with which he was flayed alive.

St. Bartholomew's Day, August 24th. Probably Bartholomew is the apostle called "Nathanael" by St. John the Evangelist (i. 45--51).

Massacre of St. Bartholomew. The slaughter of the French Prostestants in the reign of Charles IX, begun on St. Bartholomew's Day, i.e. between the 24th and 25th August, 1572. It is said that 30,000 persons fell in this dreadful persecution.

Bartholomew Fair Held in West Smithfield (1133--1855) on St. Bartholomew's Day.

A Bartholomew doll. A tawdry, overdressed woman; like a flashy, bespangled doll offered for sale at Bartholomew Fair.

Bartholomew pig. A very fat person. At Bartholomew Fair one of the chief attractions used to be a pig, roasted whole, and sold piping hot. Falstaff calls himself,

"A little tidy Bartholomew boar-pig." - 2 Henry IV. ii. 4.

Barthram's Dirge (in Sir Walter Scott's Border Minstrelsy). Sir Noel Paton, in a private letter, says: "The subject of this dirge was communicated to Sir