he more usually accepted, is
that custom casts the inheritance upon the youngest, because after the
death of his parents he is least able to support himself, and more
likely to be left destitute of any other support. Blackstone derived
Borough English from the usages of pastoral life, the elder sons
migrating and the youngest remaining to look after the household. C.I.
Elton claims it to be a survival of pre-Aryan times. It was referred to
by the Normans as "the custom of the English towns." In the Yearbook of
22 Edward IV. fol. 32b it is described as the custom of Nottingham,
which is made clear by the report of a trial in the first year of Edward
III. where it was found that in Nottingham there were two districts, the
one the _Burgh-Frauncoyes_, the other the _Burgh-Engloyes_, where
descent was to the youngest son, from which circumstance the custom has
derived its name. On the European continent the custom of junior-rights
is not unknown, more particularly in Germany, and it has by some been
ascribed to the _jus primae noctis_ (q.v.). It is also said to exist
amongst the Mongols.

See also GAVELKIND; INHERITANCE; PRIMOGENITURE; TENURE; Blackstone's
_Commentaries_; Coke's _Institutes_; Comyn's _Digest of the Law_;
Elton's _Origin of English History_; Pollock and Maitland, _History of
English Law_.

BORROMEAN ISLANDS, a group of four islands on the W. side of Lago
Maggiore off Baveno and Stresa. The southernmost, the Isola Bella, is
famous for its chateau and terraced gardens, constructed by Count
Vitaliano Borromeo (d. 1690). To the N.W. is the Isola dei Pescatori,
containing a fishing village; and to the N.E. of this the Isola Madre,
the largest of the group, with a chateau and garden; and to the N.
again, off Pallanza, is the little Isola S. Giovanni.

BORROMEO, CARLO (1538-1584), saint and cardinal of the Roman Catholic
Church, son of Ghiberto Borromeo, count of Arona, and Margarita de'
Medici, was born at the castle of Arona on Lago Maggiore on the 2nd of
October 1538. When he was about twelve years old, Giulio Cesare Borromeo
resigned to him an abbacy, the revenue of which he applied wholly in
charity to the poor. He studied the civil and canon law at Pavia. In
1554 his father died, and, although he had an elder brother, Count
Federigo, he was requested by the family to take the management of their
domestic affairs. After a time, however, he resumed his studies, and in
1559 he took his doct