Brailsford, Derbyshire.-Here was born, in the year 1721, John Bakewell, who became in early life a zealous preacher for a revival in the then decayed state of religion. He joined the Wesleys, and lived in London, preaching occasionally, and was a man of eminent piety. He wrote the hymn, "Hail! Thou once despised Jesus." Brampford Speke, Devon.(See Exeter.) Brampton Brian, Herefordshire. The castle, now entirely demolished, was the scene of a famous defence made by the Lady Brilliance Harley against the Royalists in 1643. Lord Molyneux, with the Cavalier forces, was completely foiled. After her success she speedily died. She was a strict Puritan, and an enthusiastic partisan of the Parliamentary cause, which she held to be the cause of God. the Swearer's Prayer, and other pungent tracts, which have been not only extensively circulated in this country, but translated into other tongues, and honoured as means of usefulness the wide world over. He died on the 2nd of January, 1857, after a life of ardent work and great usefulness. The pro Bray, Berkshire. verbial Vicar of Bray was Symeon Symonds (or Aleyn, according to some authorities), who died in 1588. He was twice a Papist, and twice a Protestant, in the reign of Henry VIII. and three successors. Braytoft, Lincolnshire.—In a small farm-house here was born, in the year 1747, Thomas Scott the commentator. His father was a grazier. Under great difficulties he acquired some learning. For his remarkable religious experience see his Force of Truth, a volume which Bishop Wilson pronounces Braunton, Devonshire. Here, to be second, scarcely inferior in on the 14th August, 1787, was value, to Augustine's Confessions. born Richard Knill. At the age His conversion was brought about of twenty he enlisted in the after his ordination, by his observarmy; but, before joining, was ing the marked difference between bought off, and apparently acci- the effects of his own preaching dentally present at the family and that of his neighbour John devotions at Mr. Evans's house Newton. He now earnestly at Barnstaple, where he was studied the Bible, and Hooker hiding, and became thus con- On Justification; and, after gravinced of sin and led to the dual enlightenment, came to be a Saviour. He went out as a mission- champion of the very doctrines ary, first to India, and next to which had first displeased him. Russia in 1820, where he remained He died in 1821, leaving a full many years, and was eminently succession of sons, all able men, useful. On his return he was and one, the late Sir Gilbert Scott, equally so, as a fervent preacher on became as famous in connection missionary topics, a sympathis-with the fabrics as his father had ing, ready evangelist, and a most been with the dogma and practice successful tract writer. He wrote of the Church. Bredwardine, Herefordshire. Here was the residence of the family of the " Profound Doctor," Thomas Bradwardine, a celebrated schoolman who became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1349, but died of the plague forty days after his consecration. Breedon, Leicestershire.-The inconvenient site of the church is popularly accounted for by the legend that the founder desired and attempted to build it at the foot of the hill; but every day's work was frustrated by doves carrying off the stones in the night, and placing them on the present site. Brenchley, Kent. The two Fletchers, the religious poets of the early part of the seventeenth century, were natives of this place. Giles, the author of Christ's Victory in Heaven, was rector of Alderton, in Suffolk, and died in 1623. Phineas, author of The Purple Island, was rector of Hilgay, in Norfolk, and died about 1650. Brentford, Middlesex.-On the 14th of July, in the last year of Queen Mary's reign, six persons of an Islington congregation, condemned by Bonner for Protestant doctrine and practice, were burnt here. They were apprehended in their secluded worship in a field near Islington. Brent Tor, Devonshire. Over the outer door of the church, which is built on a volcanic rock, and serves, though far inland, for a beacon to Plymouth Sound, there is inscribed, "Upon this rock will I build My Church." Brentwood, Essex. In the first year of the reign of Queen Mary, William Hunter, a London apprentice, nineteen years of age, was apprehended for reading the Bible in his father's house, was charged before Bonner with heresy; and refusing to recant, in spite of numerous tempting offers made to him, was taken down to Brentwood to be burnt. He held an affecting conversation with his heroic mother and father; and, after several most exciting days spent in custody at Brentwood, was burnt at a place adjoining, in the presence of his family. A the Roman Catholic chapel, now monument, erected in 1861, near marks the spot where Hunter was burnt. Bridford, Devonshire.—There is here an endowment of thirteen shillings per annum to be paid to the rector or curate, for preaching a penitential sermon on Thursday before Easter annually; and a gift of bread to eight poor persons then in attendance, and three shillings and fourpence for "butts," or other conveniences for the people to kneel upon at their prayers. Brierley Hill, Staffordshire. The church here was the scene of a remarkable service on Easter Sunday, 1869. Nine men and three boys, working colliers, attended to return thanks to God, for the preservation of their lives. They had (with one who did not survive) gone down the Lock Lane coal pit on Thursday. In the night the dam which kept the water out of the underground working burst, the mine was flooded, lights put out, and this party of workers driven into a dark gallery partly filled with water, without food or light. They agreed not to give up hope. They prayed, and as long as they could get sufficient air they sang hymns. On the Sunday morning, by heroic and indefatigable efforts made by their brother-miners, they were reached and rescued. Many touching incidents were connected with this unparalleled event. The men "nursed" and "cuddled" the boys, to keep them warm, and gave them the only bit of food left. One of the men wrote on a paper, and put it in a box, to be found after he was dead : "Dear wives, we're praying while we're dying; dear parents, mind you meet us in heaven." The boys bore up bravely, one of them saying, "It's not me, father, I'm thinking of, but you." Brighton, Sussex. This town, then the small fishing village of Brighthelmstone, furnished as victim to Gardiner's persecution, for denial of the real presence, in 1555, one Dirick Carver. He was burned at Lewes. An item in his accusation was that he had read in his house the Bible and Psalter in English, which he admitted. Dirick, though well-to-❘ do, learned to read only during his imprisonment. In 1556, on the arraignment of Stephen Greatwick for heresy before the Bishop of Winchester, Greatwick objected to the jurisdiction, as he dwelt at Bright Helmson (presumably afterwards Brighthelmstone) in the diocese of Chichester. They then added to the tribunal a counterfeit ordi nary for Chichester; and Greatwick, after an able defence, was convicted of denying transubstantiation, and burnt with two others in St. George's Fields, about the latter end of May. In 1759, the Countess of Huntingdon visited Brighton, and called upon a poor officer's wife, to whom she declared the gospel on several occasions. The house adjoined a common bakehouse, and the people often came to listen to her ladyship's exhortations through a crack in the partition. She sent for Whitefield, who first preached under a tree in a field behind the White Lion Inn. This was the beginning of the evangelical movement at Brighton, and issued in the erection by the countess of a small meeting-house, built partly out of the sale of her jewels. Madan, Romaine, Berridge, Venn, and Fletcher, successively took charge of the congregation. He In 1847, Frederick Robertson, ordained at Winchester, in 1840, a curate first there, and then for five years at Cheltenham, came to Trinity Chapel, and ministered at Brighton until he died. disliked the High Church on the one hand, and Evangelicals and Dissenters on the other; and his theology on cardinal points was unsatisfactory; but he was a man of broad popular sympathies; he had an intense and reverential affection toward Christ as his only Master, and was a most eloquent preacher and expositor. In very recent times the town has been favoured with the continued ministry of Henry Venn Elliott, and of Joseph Sortain. Miss Charlotte Elliott, authoress of the hymn, "Just as I am," was born here in 1789, and died in 1871. Her mother was a Venn, | and her father was well-known by his evangelical labours. She glorified God as a confirmed invalid by a saintly spiritual life, in the midst of a large circle of relatives and friends, as well as in her frequent seclusions owing to illness. Her beautiful hymns have become part of the permanent literature of believers everywhere. We wander in sickness, we struggle with sin, Often fearing the race to be arduous to win; She has entered the region where sin is unknown, And the crown and the joy are for ever her own. Brightstone. (See Brixton.) Brindle, Lancashire.-A place lying about six miles south of Preston. Here, in 1708, was born | William Grimshaw, who was ordained in 1731, and became a gay, hunting, worldly clergyman; but in the year 1734 his mind underwent a change. He passed through many stages of deep conviction, until in 1742, he attained and preached clearly salvation by Christ alone. He was all this time an entire stranger to serious persons or books. He came to Haworth, and effected a revolution there, and was the means of kindling and continuing an extensive concern for religion throughout the whole district. He was incessant in his labours, going from house to house, warning and exhorting every man concerning the salvation of Christ. He often preached five times a day, rarely less than three or four; and to do this would travel forty or fifty miles. He died of a fever caught in visiting a sick man of his flock. His last words were, "Here goes an unprofitable servant." Bristol, Gloucestershire.-One of the very first martyrs of the Reformation was William Taylor, a priest of Bristol, who had imbibed the doctrine of Wycliffe; and after having in his way to certainty abjured and then relapsed, was burned at Smithfield on the 1st of March, 1423. He appears to have been an intelligent and spiritual man, and was ultimately condemned for holding the doctrine that prayer should be offered to God alone. One of the martyrs, William Saxton, a weaver, burnt here in 1556, on the 18th of September, sang psalms as he went. The sheriff had prepared only green wood, but the spectators induced him to wait whilst in pity they went to Redlands, half a mile off, and got a store of straw sheaves, which made quicker dispatch. The close of the Marian persecution here was preceded by the martyrdom of Richard Sharpe, Thomas Benson, and Thomas Hale, artisans, for denying the doctrine of the real presence. A tablet to the memory of the three martyrs has been erected at Highbury Chapel, Coatham. Andrew Gifford was a famous preacher of the gospel in and around this city for nearly sixty years, during the troublous times of the penal laws against non conformity. He often preached in St. Leonard's church, and, after the Act of Uniformity, in country churches, as he was invited, he being greatly valued for his piety, zeal, and love of souls. Gifford was frequently hunted by informers, and often imprisoned, but useful and active as a minister in all places. He died at a good old age, in 1784. On the 2nd of April, 1739, John Wesley writes in his journal: "At four in the afternoon, I submitted to be more vile, and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation, speaking from a little eminence on a ground adjoining the city, to about three thousand people." A Welsh shoemaker, carrying on his business here when Whitefield preached, as he passed through the city, was converted by a sermon on the text, "Is not this a brand_plucked from the burning?" This was Thomas Olivers, born in 1725, who became one of Wesley's preachers. He wrote the great lyric, "The God of Abraham praise.' This hymn is said to have had some influence in determining Henry Martyn towards missionary work. Another of his fine productions is: Lo! He comes with clouds descending, Once for favoured sinners slain ! Thousand, thousand saints attending, Swell the triumph of His train ! Hallelujah! Jesus comes, and comes to reign. It was from amidst the deep sorrow for the loss of his two children that Olivers penned this lofty strain. In 1711, Silas Told was born at Bristol, and became a Colston schoolboy. After numerous adventures and perils as a sailor, he was converted, and became in mature life a helper of John Wesley at the Foundry. His special function was that of attending condemned criminals. He was made extremely useful in this task. The frequency of capital punishment in those days, and the frequent carelessness in trials, rendered this an urgent and painful duty. He also visited the metropolitan workhouses for twenty years, uttering spiritual truths in love from the words of the Master. He died in 1778. In St. Mary Redcliffe church is suspended the armour of Admiral Sir William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania. He died in 1670. The eminent preacher and divine, Robert Hall, died in Bristol, February 21st, 1831. (See Arnsby.) St. James's. In 1666, Thomas Waller gave £200 to purchase from the interest sixpenny loaves of wheaten bread for eight poor housekeepers, not drunkards, nor swearers, nor beggars, but quiet people desiring to live in the fear of God. Ashley Down, the well-known asylum for orphans under George Muller, was commenced here in 1849. Britforton, Worcestershire. -On one of the late Norman arcades of the church here, there is a rude sculpture representing Maid Margery tempted by the devil. She resists, and the fiend, thinking to end the contest, swallows her up whole. But she |