Chapter Bent to Bertha of B by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Berkshire (Saxon, Bearoc - scire, forest-shire), a name peculiarly appropriate to this county, which contains the forest districts of Windsor and Bagshot.

Berlin Decree A decree issued at Berlin by Napoleon I., forbidding any of the nations of Europe to trade with Great Britain (1806). This mad fancy was the first step to the great man's fall.

Berlin Time The new Berlin Observatory is 44' 14” east of Paris, and 53' 35” east of Greenwich. The Berlin day begins at noon, but our civil day begins the midnight preceding.

Berliners The people of Berlin, in Prussia.

Bermeja Insula de la Torre, from which Amadis of Gaul starts when he goes in quest of the Enchantress- Damsel, daughter of Finetor the necromancer.

Bermoothes An hypothetical island feigned by Shakespeare to be enchanted, and inhabited by witches and devils. Supposed by some to be Bermudas; but a correspondent in Notes and Queries (January 23rd, 1886, p. 72) utterly denies this, and favours the suggestion that the island meant was Lampedusa.

“From the still-vexed Bermoothes, there she's hid.”
Shakespeare: The Tempest, i. 2.

Bermudas To live in the Bermudas, i.e. in some out-of-the-way place for cheapness. The shabby genteel hire a knocker in some West-end square, where letters may be left for them, but live in the Bermudas, or narrow passages north of the Strand, near Covent Garden.

Bernard (St. ). Abbot of the monastery of Clairvaux in the twelfth century. His fame for wisdom was very great, and few church matters were undertaken without his being consulted.
   Petit Bernard. Solomon Bernard, engraver of Lyons. (Sixteenth century.)
   Poor Bernard. Claude Bernard, of Dijon, philanthropist (1588-1641).
   Lucullus. Samuel Bernard, capitalist (1651-1739).
   Le gentil Bernard. Pierre Joseph Bernard, the French poet (1710-1775).

Bernard Bonus Bernardus non videt omnia (see above). We are all apt to forget sometimes; events do not always turn out as they are planned before-hand.

“Poor Peter was to win honours at Shrewsbury school, and carry them thick to Cambridge; and after that a living awaited him, the gift of his godfather, Sir Peter Arley; but Bonus Bernardus non videt omnia, and Poor Peter's lot in life was very different to what his friends had planned.”-Mrs. Gaskell: Cranford, chap. vi.

Bernard Soup (St. ). (See Stone Soup. )

Bernardo Bernardo del Carpio One of the most favourite subjects of the Spanish minstrels; the other two being the Cid and Lara's seven infants.

Bernard's Inn Formerly called Mackworth Inn, from Dean Mackworth, who died 1454.

“This house was, in the thirty-first year of the reign of Henry VI., a messuage belonging to Dr. John Mackworth. dean of the cathedral church of Lincoln, and at that time in the holding of one Lionel Bernard. ... and it hath ever since retained the name of Bernard's Inn.”-Harleian MSS. No. 1104.

Berners or Barnes (Juliana ). Prioress of Sopewell nunnery, near St. Albans, reputed authoress of the Bokys of Hawking and Hunting (1486). Generally called “Dame Berners.” Another book ascribed to her is the Boke of the Blazing of Arms (1485).

Bernese (2 syl.). A native of Berne, in Switzerland.