BELLOY

belloy, dormont de, the name assumed by pierre laurext buireite (1727-1775), french dramatist, was born at saint-flour, in auvergne, on the 17th of november 1727. he was educated by his uncle, a distinguished advocate in paris, for the bar. to escape from a profession he disliked he joined a troupe of comedians playing in the courts of the northern sovereigns. in 1758 the performance of his _titus_, which had already been produced in st petersburg, was postponed through his uncle's exertions; and when it did appear, a hostile cabal procured its failure, and it was not until after his guardian's death that de belloy returned to paris with _zelmire_ (1762), a fantastic drama which met with great success. this was followed in 1765 by the patriotic play, _le siege de calais_. the moment was opportune. the humiliations undergone by france in the seven years' war assured a good reception for a play in which the devotion of frenchmen redeemed disaster. the popular enthusiasm was unaffected by the judgment of calmer critics such as diderot and voltaire, who pointed out that the glorification of france was not best effected by a picture of defeat. de belloy was admitted to the academy in 1772. his attempt to introduce national subjects into french drama deserves honour, but it must be confessed that his resources proved unequal to the task. the _siege de calais_ was followed by _gaston et bayard_ (1771), _pedro le cruel_ (1772) and _gabrielle de vergy_ (1777). none of these attained the success of the earlier play, and de belloy's death, which took place on the 5th of march 1775, is said to have been hastened by disappointment. bell or inchcape rock, a sandstone reef in the north sea, 11 m. s.e. of arbroath, belonging to forfarshire, scotland. it measures 2000 ft. in length, is under water at high tide, but at low tide is exposed for a few feet, the sea for a distance of 100 yds. around being then only three fathoms deep. lying in the fairway of vessels making or leaving the tay and forth, besides ports farther north, it was a constant menace to navigation. in the great gale of 1799 seventy sail, including the "york," 74 guns, were wrecked off the reef, and this disaster compelled the authorities to take steps to protect shipping. next year robert stevenson modelled a tower and reported that its erection was feasible, but it was only in 1806 that parliamentary powers were obtained, and operations began in august 1807. though john rennie had meanwhile been associated with stevenson as consulting engineer, the structure in design and details is wholly stevenson's work. the tower is 100 ft. high; its diameter at the base is 42 ft., decreasing to 15 ft. at the top. it is solid for 30 ft. at which height the doorway is placed. the interior is divided into six storeys. after five years the building was finished at a cost of l61,300. since the lighting no wrecks have occurred on the reef. a bust of stevenson by samuel joseph (d. 1850) was placed in the tower. according to tradition an abbot of aberbrothock (arbroath) had ordered a bell--whence the name of the rock--to be fastened to the reef in such a way that it should respond to the movements of the waves, and thus always ring out a warning to mariners. this signal was wantonly destroyed by a pirate, whose ship was afterwards wrecked at this very spot, the rover and his men being drowned. southey made the incident the subject of his ballad of "the inchcape rock." belluno (anc. _bellunum_), a city and episcopal see of venetia, italy, the capital of the province of belluno, n. of treviso, 54 m. by rail and 28 m. direct. pop. (1901) town, 6898; commune, 19,050. it is situated in the valley of the piave, at its confluence with the ardo, 1285 ft. above sea-level, among the lower venetian alps. it was a roman _municipium_. in the middle ages it went through various vicissitudes; it fell under the dominion of venice in 1511, and remained venetian until 1797. its buildings present venetian characteristics; it has some good palaces, notably the fine early lombard renaissance palazzo dei rettori, now the seat of the prefecture. the cathedral, erected after 1517 by tullio lombardo, was much damaged by the earthquake of 1873, which destroyed a considerable portion of the town, though the campanile, 217 ft. high, erected in 1732-1743, stood firm. the facade was never finished. important remains of prehistoric settlements have been found in the vicinity; cf. g. ghirardini in _notizie degli scavi_, 1883, 27, on the necropolis of caverzano. (t. as.)