BASS BOCK, an islet of greenstone and trap tuff, about a mile in circumference, on the coast of East Lothian near the entrance of the Firth of Forth, in 56° 4' N. lat., and 2° 37' W. long. Purchased from the Lauder family by Charles II. in 1671, it was afterwards converted into a place of confinement for state prisoners, and during the religious troubles of Scotland numbered among its captives Peden, Blackadder, and other Covenanting leaders. At the Revolution a party of King James’s adherents got possession of the island, and held out after the whole of Great Britain had submitted. Dismantled of its fortifications in 1701, the Bass Rock again became private property, and is now farmed for the sake of the sea-fowls that resort thither during the breeding season. See The Bass Rock, its Civic and Ecclesiastical History, <kc. (Edin. 1848), by M i Crie, Hugh Miller, Anderson, Fleming, and Balfour.