BADGER, the common name for any animal of the Musteline subfamily Melinae or the typical genus Meles (see Carnivora). The name is probably derived from "badge," device, on account of the marks on the head; or it may be identical with the term separately noticed below, the French blaireau being used in both senses. The members of the typical genus have the lower jaw so articulated to the upper, by means of a transverse condyle firmly locked into a long cavity of the cranium, that dislocation of the jaw is all but impossible, and this enables those creatures to maintain their hold with the utmost tenacity. The European badger (Meles taxus or M. meles) is from 25 in. to 29 in. long, with a tail of about 8 in.; the general hue of the fur is grey above and black on the under parts; the head is white, with a black stripe on each side. In habits it may be taken as typical of the subfamily. It is nowhere abundant, but is found over the northern parts of Europe and Asia, and is a quiet, inoffensive animal, nocturnal and solitary in its habits, sleeping by day in its burrow, and issuing forth at night to feed on roots, beech-mast, fruits, the eggs of birds, small quadrupeds, frogs and insects. It is said also to dig up the nests of wasps in order to eat the larvae, as the ratel—a closely allied South African form—is said to rob the bees of their honey. The male and female are seldom seen together, and are supposed to trace each other by the odour of the secretion in the anal glands. Fossil remains of the badger have been found in England in deposits of Pleistocene age. In eastern Persia this species is replaced by the Persian badger (M. canescens); two species—the white-tailed badger (M. leucurus) and the Chinese badger (M. chinensis) occur in eastern Asia; and another (M. anacuma) is found in Japan. The American badger (Taxidea americana) ranges over the greater part of the United States, and in habits closely resembles the European species, but seems to be more carnivorous. When badgers were more abundant than they now are, their skins, dressed with the hair attached, were commonly used for pistol furniture. They are now chiefly valued for the hair, that of the European badger being used in the manufacture of the best shaving-brushes while the softer hair of the American species is employed for the same purpose, and also for painters' pencils, and the fur is used for articles of ladies' apparel and trimmings. The Malay badger (Mydaus meliceps) is confined to the mountains of Java (where it is called the teledu), Sumatra and Borneo. The head and body are about 15 in. long, and the tail no more than an inch; the fur is dark brown, with the top of the head, neck and a broad dorsal stripe, white. Like the skunk, this animal can eject the foetid secretion of the anal glands. The sand-badgers (Arctonyx) are Asiatic; the best-known species (A. collaris) ranges from the eastern Himalayas to Burma; the smaller A. taxoides is found in Assam, Arakan and perhaps in China; and there is probably another in Tibet. In these the tail is much longer in proportion to the body than in the rest of the group.
The badger does not usually seek to attack, but, when driven to bay, its great muscular power and tough hide render it a formidable antagonist. The cruel sport of badger-drawing was formerly popular throughout Great Britain, but was prohibited about the middle of the 19th century, together with bear-baiting and bull-baiting. The badger-ward, who was usually attached to a bear-garden, kept his badger in a large box. Whenever a drawing was arranged, bets were made as to how many times the dog, usually a bull-terrier, would draw the badger, i.e. pull it out of its box, within a given number of minutes. As soon as the dog succeeded in doing this the animals were parted, often by the attendants biting their tails, and the badger was again shut up in his box, which, at a signal from the time-keeper, was again opened. Another method of baiting this animal is thus described in the Encyclopaedia of Sport: "They dig a place in the earth about a yard long, so that one end is four feet deep. At this end a strong stake is driven down. Then the badger's tail is split, a chain put through it, and fastened to the stake with such ability that the badger can come up to the other end of the place. The dogs are brought and set upon the poor animal who sometimes destroys several dogs before it is killed." The colloquial "to badger" (i.e. worry or tease) is a metaphorical derivative, and "drawing a badger" is similarly used in a figurative sense.
BADGER, a term of uncertain derivation (possibly derived from bagger, in allusion to the hawker's bag) for a dealer in food, such as corn or victuals (more expressly, fish, butter or cheese), which he has purchased in one place and brought for sale to another place; an itinerant dealer, corresponding to the modern hawker or huckster. An English statute of 1552 which summarized, and prescribed penalties against, the offences of engrossing, forestalling and regrating, specially exempted badgers from these penalties, but required them to be licensed by three justices of the peace for the county in which they dwelt. A statute of 1562-1563, after declaring that many people took up the trade of badgering "seeking only to live easily and to leave their honest labour," enacted that badgers should be licensed for a year only, should be householders of three years' standing in the county in which they were licensed, and should enter into recognizances not to engross or forestall. An act of 1844 abolished the offence of badgering, and repealed the statutes passed in relation to it. The word is still in common use in country districts.
BADGHIS ("home of the winds"), a district on the north-west of Afghanistan, between the Murghab and Hari Rud rivers, extending as far northward as the edge of the desert of Sarakhs. It includes the Chul formations through which the Russo-Afghan boundary runs. This region was surveyed by the boundary commission of 1885. Since that date it has been largely settled by the amir with purely Afghan tribes.
BADHAM, CHARLES (1813-1884), English scholar, was born at Ludlow, in Shropshire, on the 18th of July 1813. His father, Charles Badham, translator of Juvenal and an excellent classical scholar, was regius professor of physic at Glasgow; his mother was a cousin of Thomas Campbell, the poet. When about seven
years old, Badham was sent to Switzerland, where he became a pupil of Pestalozzi. He was afterwards transferred to Eton, and in 1830 was elected to a scholarship at Wadham College, Oxford, but only obtained a third class in classics (1836), a failure which may have been due to his dislike of the methods of study then in fashion at Oxford, at a time when classical scholarship was in a very unsatisfactory condition. Shortly after taking his degree in 1837 Badham went to Italy, where he occupied himself in the study of ancient MSS., in particular those of the Vatican library. It was here that he began a life-long friendship with G. C. Cobet. He afterwards spent some time in Germany, and on his return to England was incorporated M.A. at Peterhouse, Cambridge, in 1847. Having taken holy orders, he was appointed headmaster of Louth grammar school, Lincolnshire (1851-1854), and subsequently headmaster of Edgbaston proprietary school, near Birmingham. In the interval he had taken the degree of D.D. at Cambridge (1852). In 1860 he received the honorary degree of doctor of letters at the university of Leiden. In 1866 he left England to take up the professorship of classics and logic in Sydney University, which he held until his death on the 26th of February 1884. He was twice married. Dr Badham's classical attainments were recognized by the most famous European critics, such as G. C. Cobet, Ludwig Preller, W. Dindorf, F. W. Schneidewin, J. A. F. Meineke, A. Ritschl and Tischendorf. Like many schoolmasters who are good scholars and even good teachers, he was not a professional success; and his hasty temper and dislike of anything approaching disingenuousness may have stood in the way of his advancement. But it is strange that a scholar and textual critic of his eminence and of European reputation should have made comparatively little mark in his native country. He published editions of Euripides, Helena and Iphigenia in Tauris (1851), Ion (1851); Plato's Philebus (1855, 1878); Laches and Euthydemus (1865), Phaedrus (1851), Symposium (1866) and De Platonis Epistolis (1866). He also contributed to Mnemosyne (Cobet's journal) and other classical periodicals. His Adhortatio ad Discipulos Academiae Sydniensis (1869) contains a number of emendations of Thucydides and other classical authors. He also published an article on "The Text of Shakespere" in Cambridge Essays (1856); Criticism applied to Shakespere (1846); Thoughts on Classical and Commercial Education (1864).
A collected edition of his Speeches and Lectures delivered in Australia (Sydney, 1890) contains a memoir by Thomas Butler.
BADIUS, JODOCUS or JOSSE (1462-1535), sometimes called Badius Ascensius from the village of Asche, near Brussels, where he was born, an eminent printer at Paris, whose establishment was celebrated under the name of Prelum Ascensianum. He was himself a scholar of considerable repute, had studied at Brussels and Ferrara, and before settling in Paris, had taught Greek for several years at Lyons. He illustrated with notes several of the classics which he printed, and was the author of numerous pieces, amongst which are a life of Thomas à Kempis, and a satire on the follies of women, entitled Navicula Stultarum Mulierum.
BADLESMERE, BARTHOLOMEW, Baron (1275-1322), English nobleman, was the son and heir of Gunselm de Badlesmere (d. 1301), and fought in the English army both in France and Scotland during the later years of the reign of Edward I. In 1307 he became governor of Bristol Castle, and afterwards Edward II. appointed him steward of his household; but these marks of favour did not prevent him from making a compact with some other noblemen to gain supreme influence in the royal council. Although very hostile to Earl Thomas of Lancaster, Badlesmere helped to make peace between the king and the earl in 1318, and was a member of the middle party which detested alike Edward's minions, like the Despensers, and his violent enemies like Lancaster. The king's conduct, however, drew him to the side of the earl, and he had already joined Edward's enemies when, in October 1321, his wife, Margaret de Clare, refused to admit Queen Isabella to her husband's castle at Leeds in Kent. The king captured the castle, seized and imprisoned Lady Badlesmere, and civil war began. After the defeat of Lancaster at Boroughbridge, Badlesmere was taken and hanged at Canterbury on the 14th of April 1322. His son and heir, Giles, died without children in 1338.
BADMINTON, or Great Badminton, a village in the southern parliamentary division of Gloucestershire, England, 100 m. W. of London by the Great Western railway (direct line to south Wales). Here is Badminton House, the seat of the dukes of Beaufort, standing in a park some 10 m. in circumference. The manor of Badminton was acquired in 1608 from Nicolas Boteler (to whose family it had belonged for several centuries) by Thomas, Viscount Somerset (d. 1650 or 1651), third son of Edward, 4th earl of Worcester, and was given by his daughter and heiress Elizabeth to Henry Somerset, 3rd marquess of Worcester and 1st duke of Beaufort (1629-1699), who built the present mansion (1682) on the site of the old manor house. It is a stone building in Palladian style, and contains a number of splendid paintings and much fine wood-carving. The parish church of St. Michael stands close to it. This is a Grecian building (1785), with a richly ornamented ceiling and inlaid altar-pavement; it also contains much fine sculpture in the memorials to former dukes, and is the burial-place of Field Marshal Lord Raglan, who was the youngest son of the 5th duke of Beaufort. Raglan Castle, near Monmouth, now a beautiful ruin, was the seat of the earls and the 1st marquess of Worcester, until it was besieged by the Parliamentarians in 1646, and after its capitulation was dismantled.