_Life of Pope_, in the preface to which he expressed some views on poetry
which resulted in a rather fierce controversy with Byron, Campbell, and
others. He also wrote a _Life of Bishop Ken_. B. was an amiable,
absent-minded, and rather eccentric man. His poems are characterised by
refinement of feeling, tenderness, and pensive thought, but are deficient
in power and passion.

Other works are _Coombe Ellen and St. Michael's Mount_ (1798), _The
Battle of the Nile_ (1799), _The Sorrows of Switzerland_ (1801), _St.
John in Patmos_ (1833), etc.


BOWRING, SIR JOHN (1792-1872).--Linguist, writer, and traveller, was _b._
at Exeter. His talent for acquiring languages enabled him at last to say
that he knew 200, and could speak 100. He was appointed editor of the
_Westminster Review_ in 1824; travelled in various countries with the
view of reporting on their commercial position; was an M.P. 1835-37 and
1841-49, and held various appointments in China. His chief literary work
was the translation of the folk-songs of most European nations, and he
also wrote original poems and hymns, and works on political and economic
subjects. B. was knighted in 1854. He was the literary executor of Jeremy
Bentham (_q.v._).


BOYD, ANDREW KENNEDY HUTCHISON (1825-1899).--Miscellaneous writer, _s._
of Rev. Dr. B. of Glasgow, was originally intended for the English Bar,
but entered the Church of Scotland, and was minister latterly at St.
Andrews, wrote in _Fraser's Magazine_ a series of light, chirping
articles subsequently collected as the _Recreations of a Country Parson_,
also several books of reminiscences, etc., written in a pleasant chatty