[Bath, Order of the], an English order of knighthood, traceable to the reign of Henry IV., consisting of three classes: the first, Knights Grand Cross; the second, Knights Commanders, and the third, Knights Companions, abbreviated respectively into G.C.B., K.C.B., and C.B.; initiation into the order originally preceded by immersion in a bath, whence the name, in token of the purity required of the members by the laws of chivalry. It was originally a military order, and it is only since 1847 that civil Knights, Knights Commanders, and Companions have been admitted as Knights. The first class, exclusive of royal personages and foreigners, is limited to 102 military and 28 civil; the second, to 102 military and 50 civil; and the third, to 525 military and 200 civil. The motto of the order is Tria juncta in uno (Three united in one); and Henry VI.'s chapel at Westminster is the chapel of the order, with the plates of the Knights on their stalls, and their banners suspended over them.
[Bathgate] (5), largest town in Linlithgowshire; a mining centre; the birthplace of Sir J. Simpson, who was the son of a baker in the place.
[Bathilda, St.], queen of France, wife of Clovis II., who governed France during the minority of her sons, Clovis III., Childéric II., and Thierry; died 680, in the monastery of Chelles.
[Bath`ori, Elizabeth], a Polish princess, a woman of infamous memory, caused some 650 young girls to be put to death, in order, by bathing in their blood, to renew her beauty; immersed in a fortress for life on the discovery of the crime, while her accomplices were burnt alive; d. 1614.
[Bathos], an anti-climax, being a sudden descent from the sublime to the commonplace.
[Bath`urst] (8), the capital of British Gambia, at the mouth of the river Gambia, in Western Africa; inhabited chiefly by negroes; exports palm-oil, ivory, gold dust, &c.
[Bathurst] (10), the principal town on the western slopes of New South Wales, second to Sydney, with gold mines in the neighbourhood, and in a fertile wheat-growing district.
[Bathurst], a district in Upper Canada, on the Ottawa, a thriving place and an agricultural centre.
[Bathyb`ius], (i. e. living matter in the deep), substance of a slimy nature found at great sea depth, over-hastily presumed to be organic, proved by recent investigation to be inorganic, and of no avail to the evolutionist.
[Batley] (28), a manufacturing town in the W. Riding of Yorkshire, 8 m. SW. of Leeds; a busy place.