Doctor Slop, a doctor in "Tristram Shandy," fanatical about a forceps he invented.
Doctor Squintum, George Whitfield.
Doctor Syntax. See Combe, William.
Doctors' Commons, a college of doctors of the civil law in London, where they used to eat in common, and where eventually a number of the courts of law were held.
Doctrinaires, mere theorisers, particularly on social and political questions; applied originally to a political party that arose in France in 1815, headed by Roger-Collard and represented by Guizot, which stood up for a constitutional government that should steer clear of acknowledging the divine right of kinghood on the one hand and the divine right of democracy on the other.
Dodabetta, the highest peak, 8700 ft., in the Nilgherries.
Dodd, Dr. William, an English divine, born at Bourne, Lincolnshire; was one of the royal chaplains; attracted fashionable audiences as a preacher in London, but lived extravagantly, and fell hopelessly into debt, and into disgrace for the nefarious devices he adopted to get out of it; forged a bond for £4500 on the Earl of Chesterfield, who had been a pupil of his; was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death, a sentence which was carried out notwithstanding the great exertions made to procure a pardon; wrote a "Commentary on the Bible," and compiled "The Beauties of Shakespeare" (1729-1777).
Doddridge, Philip, a Nonconformist divine, born in London; was minister at Kebworth, Market Harborough, and Northampton successively, and much esteemed both as a man and a teacher; suffered from pulmonary complaint; went to Lisbon for a change, and died there; was the author of "The Family Expositor," but is best known by his "Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul," and perhaps also by his "Life of Colonel Gardiner" (1702-1751).
Döderlein, Ludwig, a German philologist, born at Jena; became professor of Philology at Erlangen; edited Tacitus, Horace, and other classic authors, but his principal works were on the etymology of the Latin language (1791-1863).
Dodger, The Artful, a young expert in theft and other villanies in Dickens's "Oliver Twist."
Dodgson, Charles Lutwidge, English writer and man of genius, with the nom de plume of Lewis Carroll; distinguished himself at Oxford in mathematics; author of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," with its sequel, "Through the Looking-Glass," besides other works, mathematical, poetic, and humorous; mingled humour and science together (1833-1898).
Dodington, George Bubb, an English politician, notorious for his fickleness, siding now with this party, now with that; worked for and won a peerage before he died; with all his pretensions, and they were many, a mere flunkey at bottom (1691-1762).
Dodo, an ungainly bird larger than a turkey, with short scaly legs, a big head and bill, short wings and tail, and a greyish down plumage, now extinct, though it is known to have existed in the Mauritius some 200 years ago.
Dodo`na, an ancient oracle of Zeus, in Epirus, close by a grove of oak trees, from the agitation of the branches of which the mind of the god was construed, the interpreters being at length three old women; it was more or less a local oracle, and was ere long superseded by the more widely known oracle of Delphi (q. v.).
Dods, Meg, an old landlady of consistently inconsistent qualities in "St. Ronan's Well"; also the pseudonym of the authoress of a book on cookery.
Dodsley, Robert, an English poet, dramatist, and publisher; wrote a drama called "The Toyshop," which, through Pope's influence, was acted in Drury Lane with such success as to enable the author to commence business as a bookseller in Pall Mall; projected and published the Miscellany, and continued to write plays, the most popular "Cleone"; is best known in connection with his "Collection of Old Plays"; he was a patron of Johnson, and much esteemed by him (1703-1764).
Doeg, a herdsman of Saul (1 Sam. xxi. 7); a name applied by Dryden to Elkanah Settle in "Absalom and Achitophel."
Dogberry, a self-satisfied night constable in "Much Ado about Nothing."
Dog-days, 20 days before and 20 after the rising of the dog-star Sirius, at present from 3rd July to 11th August.
Doge, the name of the chief magistrate of Venice and Genoa, elected at first annually and then for life in Venice, with, in course of time, powers more and more limited, and at length little more than a figure-head; the office ceased with the fall of the republic in 1797, as it did in Genoa in 1804.
Dogger Bank, a sandbank in the North Sea; a great fishing-field, extending between Jutland in Denmark and Yorkshire in England, though distant from both shores, 170 m. long, over 60 m. broad, and from 8 to 10 fathoms deep.
Dogs, Isle of, a low-lying projection of a square mile in extent from the left bank of the Thames, opposite Greenwich, and 3½ m. E. of St. Paul's.
Dolabella, son-in-law of Cicero, a profligate man, joined Cæsar, and was raised by him to the consulship; joined Cæsar's murderers after his death; was declared from his profligacy a public enemy; driven to bay by a force sent against him, ordered one of his soldiers to kill him.
Dolci, Carlo, a Florentine painter, came of a race of artists; produced many fine works, the subjects of them chiefly madonnas, saints. &c. (1616-1686).
Dolcino, a heresiarch and martyr of the 14th century, of the Apostolic Brethren, a sect which rose in Piedmont who made themselves obnoxious to the Church; was driven to bay by his persecutors, and at last caught and tortured and burnt to death; a similar fate overtook others of the sect, to its extermination.
Doldrums, a zone of the tropics where calms, squalls, and baffling winds prevail.
Dôle (12), a town in the dep. of Jura, on the Doubs, and the Rhône and Rhine Canal, 28 m. SE. of Dijon, with iron-works, and a trade in wine, grain, &c.
Dolet, Étienne, a learned French humanist, born at Orleans, became, by the study of the classics, one of the lights of the Renaissance, and one of its most zealous propagandists; suffered persecution after persecution at the hands of the Church, and was burned in the Place Maubert, Paris, a martyr to his philosophic zeal and opinions (1509-1546).
Dolgelly, capital of Merioneth, Wales, with manufactures of flannel.
Dolgorouki, the name of a noble and illustrious Russian family.
Dollart Zee, a gulf in Holland into which the Ems flows, 8 m. long by 7 broad, and formed by inundation of the North Sea.
Döllinger, a Catholic theologian, born in Bamberg, Bavaria, professor of Church History in the University of Münich; head of the old Catholic party in Germany; was at first a zealous Ultramontanist, but changed his opinions and became quite as zealous in opposing, first, the temporal sovereignty, and then the infallibility of the Pope, to his excommunication from the Church; he was a polemic, and as such wrote extensively on theological and ecclesiastical topics; lived to a great age, and was much honoured to the last (1799-1890).
Dollond, John, a mathematical instrument-maker, born in Spitalfields, London, of Dutch descent; began life as a silk-weaver; made good use of his leisure hours in studies bearing mainly on physics; went into partnership with his son, who was an optician; made a study of the telescope, suggested improvements which commended themselves to the Royal Society, and in especial how, by means of a combination of lenses, to get rid of the coloured fringe in the image (1706-1761).
Dolmen, a rude structure of prehistoric date, consisting of upright unhewn stones supporting one or more heavy slabs; long regarded as altars of sacrifice, but now believed to be sepulchral monuments; found in great numbers in Bretagne especially.
Dolomite Alps, a limestone mountain range forming the S. of the Eastern Alps, in the Tyrol and N. Italy, famous for the remarkable and fantastic shapes they assume; named after Dolomieu, a French mineralogist, who studied the geology of them.
Domat, Jean, a learned French jurist and friend of Pascal, regarded laws and customs as the reflex of political history (1625-1696).
Dombasle, an eminent French agriculturist, born at Nancy (1771-1818).
Dom-Boke (i. e. Doom-book), a code of laws compiled by King Alfred from two prior Saxon codes, to which he prefixed the Ten Commandments of Moses, and rules of life from the Christian code of ethics.
Dombrowski, John Henry, a Polish general, served in the Polish campaigns against Russia and Prussia in 1792-1794; organised a Polish legion which did good service in the wars of Napoleon; covered the retreat of the French at the Beresina in 1812 (1755-1818).
Domdaniel, a hall under the ocean where the evil spirits and magicians hold council under their chief and pay him homage.
Domenichi`no, a celebrated Italian painter, born at Bologna; studied under Calvaert and Caracci; was of the Bolognese school, and reckoned one of the first of them; his principal works are his "Communion of St. Jerome," now in the Vatican, and the "Martyrdom of St. Agnes," at Bologna, the former being regarded as his masterpiece; he was the victim of persecution at the hands of rivals; died at Naples, not without suspicion of having been poisoned (1581-1641).
Domesday Book, the record, in 2 vols., of the survey of all the lands of England made in 1081-1086 at the instance of William the Conqueror for purposes of taxation; the survey included the whole of England, except the four northern counties and part of Lancashire, and was made by commissioners appointed by the king, and sent to the different districts of the country, where they held courts, and registered everything on evidence; it is a valuable document.
Dominic de Guzman, St., saint of the Catholic Church, born in Old Castile; distinguished for his zeal in the conversion of the heretic; essayed the task by simple preaching of the Word; sanctioned persecution when persuasion was of no avail; countenanced the crusade of Simon de Montfort against the Albigenses for their obstinate unbelief, and thus established a precedent which was all too relentlessly followed by the agents of the Spanish Inquisition, the chiefs of which were of the Dominican order, so that he is ignominiously remembered as the "burner and slayer of heretics" (1170-1221). Festival, Aug. 4.
Dominica, or Dominique (26), the largest and most southerly of the Leeward Islands, and belongs to Britain; one-half of the island is forest, and parts of it have never been explored; was discovered by Columbus on Sunday, November 3, 1493, whence its name.
Dominical Letter, one of seven letters, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, used to mark the Sundays throughout the year, so that if A denote the first Sunday, it will denote all the rest, and so on with B, C, &c., till at the end of seven years A becomes the dominical letter again.
Dominican Republic, or St. Domingo (610), a republic forming the E. part of the island of Haiti, and consisting of two-thirds of it; it belonged alternately to France and Spain till 1865, when, on revolt, the Spaniards were expelled, and a republic established; the capital is St. Domingo (15), and the chief port Puerto Plata.
Dominicans, a religious order of preaching friars, founded at Toulouse in 1215 by St. Dominic, to aid in the conversion of the heretic Albigenses to the faith, and finally established as the order whose special charge it was to guard the orthodoxy of the Church. The order was known by the name Black Friars in England, from their dress; and Jacobins in France, from the street of Paris in which they had their head-quarters.
Dominie, Sampson, a schoolmaster in "Guy Mannering," "a poor, modest, humble scholar, who had won his way through the classics, but fallen to the leeward in the voyage of life."
Dominis, Marco Antonio de, a vacillating ecclesiastic, born in Dalmatia; was educated by the Jesuits; taught mathematics in Padua; wrote a treatise in which an explanation was for the first time given of the phenomenon of the rainbow; became archbishop of Spalatro; falling under suspicion he passed over to England, professed Protestantism, and was made dean of Windsor; reconciled to the Papacy, returned to the Church of Rome, and left the country; his sincerity being distrusted, was cast into prison, where he died, his body being afterwards disinterred and burned (1566-1624).
Domitian, Roman emperor, son of Vespasian, brother of Titus, whom he succeeded in 81, the last of the twelve Cæsars; exceeded the expectations of every one in the beginning of his reign, as he had given proof of a licentious and sanguinary character beforehand, but soon his conduct changed, and fulfilled the worst fears of his subjects; his vanity was wounded by the non-success of his arms, and his vengeful spirit showed itself in a wholesale murder of the citizens; many conspiracies were formed against his life, and he was at length murdered by an assassin, who had been hired by his courtiers and abetted by his wife Domitia, in 96.
Domrémy, a small village on the Meuse, in the dep. of Vosges; the birthplace of Joan of Arc.
Don, a Russian river, the ancient Tanaïs; flows southward from its source in the province of Tula, and after a course of 1153 m. falls into the Sea of Azov; also the name of a river in Aberdeenshire, and another in Yorkshire.
Don Juan, the member of a distinguished family of Seville, who seduces the daughter of a noble, and when confronted by her father stabs him to death in a duel; he afterwards prepares a feast and invites the stone statue of his victim to partake of it; the stone statue turns up at the least, compels Don Juan to follow him, and delivers him over to the abyss of hell, the depths of which he had qualified himself for by his utter and absolute depravity.
Don Quixote, the title of a world-famous book written by Miguel Cervantes, in satire of the romances of chivalry with which his countrymen were so fascinated; the chief character of which gives title to it, a worthy gentleman of La Mancha, whose head is so turned by reading tales of knight-errantry, that he fancies he is a knight-errant himself, sallies forth in quest of adventures, and encounters them in the most commonplace incidents, one of his most ridiculous extravagancies being his tilting with the windmills, and the overweening regard he has for his Dulcinea del Tobosa.
Donaldson, John William, a philologist, born in London; Fellow of Cambridge and tutor of Trinity College; author of "New Cratylus; or Contributions towards a more Accurate Knowledge of the Greek Language," a work of great erudition and of value to scholars; contributed also to the philological study of Latin, and wrote a grammar of both languages; he failed when he intruded into the field of biblical criticism (1811-1861).
Donatello, a great Italian sculptor, born at Florence, where he was apprenticed to a goldsmith; tried his hand at carving in leisure hours; went to Rome and studied the monuments of ancient art; returned to Florence and executed an "Annunciation," still preserved in a chapel in Santa Croce, which was followed by marble statues of St. Peter, St. Mark, and St. George, before one of which, that of St. Mark, Michael Angelo exclaimed, "Why do you not speak to me?"; he executed tombs and figures, or groups in bronze as well as marble; his schoolmasters were the sculptors of Greece, and the real was his ultimate model (1383-1460).
Donati, an Italian astronomer, born at Pisa; discoverer of the comet of 1858, called Donati's comet (1826-1873).
Donatists, a sect in N. Africa, founded by Donatus, bishop of Carthage, in the 4th century, that separated from the rest of the Church and formed itself into an exclusive community, with bishops and congregations of its own, on the ground that no one was entitled to be a member of Christ's body, or an overseer of Christ's flock, who was not of divine election, and that in the face of an attempt, backed by the Emperor Constantine, to thrust a bishop on the Church at Carthage, consecrated by an authority that had betrayed and sold the Church to the world; the members of it were subject to cruel persecutions in which they gloried, and were annihilated by the Saracens in the 7th century.
Donatus, a Latin grammarian and rhetorician of the 4th century, the teacher of St. Jerome; the author of treatises in grammar known as Donats, and, along with the sacred Scriptures, the earliest examples of printing by means of letters cut on wooden blocks, and so appreciated as elementary treatises that they gave name to treatises of the kind on any subject; he wrote also scholia to the plays of Terence.
Donau, the German name for the Danube.
Doncaster (26), a market and manufacturing town in the West Riding of Yorkshire, well built, in a pleasant country, on the right bank of the Don, 33 m. S. of York; famous for its races, the St. Leger in particular, called after Colonel St. Leger, who instituted them in 1776.
Dondra Head, the southern extremity of Ceylon, once the site of the capital.
Donegal (185), a county in the NW. of Ireland, in the province of Ulster, the most mountainous in the country; is mossy and boggy, and is indented along the coast with bays, and fringed with islands.
Donetz, a tributary of the Russian Don, the basin of which forms one large coal-field, reckoned to be as large as all Yorkshire, and is reckoned one of the largest of any in the world.
Dongola, New, a town in Nubia, on the left bank of the Nile, above the third cataract, 20° N. and over 700 m. from Cairo; was founded by the Mamelukes.
Donizetti, a celebrated Italian composer, born at Bergamo, Lombardy, and studied at Bologna; devoted himself to dramatic music; produced over 60 operas, among the number "Lucia di Lammermoor," the "Daughter of the Regiment," "Lucrezia Borgia," and "La Favorita," all well known, and all possessing a melodious quality of the first order (1797-1848).
Donne, John, English poet and divine, born in London; a man of good degree; brought up in the Catholic faith; after weighing the claims of the Romish and Anglican communions, joined the latter; married a young lady of sixteen without consent of her father, which involved him in trouble for a time; was induced to take holy orders by King James; was made his chaplain, and finally became Dean of St. Paul's; wrote sermons, some 200 letters and essays, as well as poems, the latter, amid many defects, revealing a soul instinct with true poetic fire (1573-1631). See "Professor Saintsbury on Donne."
Donnybrook, a village now included in Dublin, long celebrated for its fairs and the fights it was the scene of on such occasions.
Donon, the highest peak of the Vosges Mountains.
Doo, George Thomas, a celebrated English line-engraver, and one of the best in his day (1800-1886).
Doon, a river rendered classic by the muse of Burns, which after a course of 30 m. joins the Clyde 2 m. S. of Ayr.
Dora, the child-wife of "David Copperfield," Dickens's novel.
Dora d'Istria, the pseudonym of Helena Ghika, born in Wallachia, of noble birth; distinguished for her beauty and accomplishments; was eminent as a linguist; translated the "Iliad" into German; wrote works, the fruits of travels (1829-1888).
Doran, John, an English man of letters, born In London, of Irish descent; wrote on miscellaneous subjects; became editor of the Athenæum and Notes and Queries (1807-1878).
Dorat, Jean, a French poet, born at Limoges; a Greek scholar; contributed much to the revival of classical literature in France, and was one of the French Pléiade (q. v.); d. 1588.
Dorcas Society, a society for making clothing for the poor. See Acts ix. 39.
Dorchester (7), the county town of Dorset, on the Frome; was a Roman town, and contains the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre.
Dordogne, a river in the S. of France, which, after a course of 300 m., falls into the estuary of Garonne; also a dep. (478) through which it flows.
Doré, Gustave, a French painter and designer, born in Strasburg; evinced great power and fertility of invention, having, it is alleged, produced more than 50,000 designs; had a wonderful faculty for seizing likenesses, and would draw from memory groups of faces he had seen only once; among the books he illustrated are the "Contes Drolatiques" of Balzac, the works of Rabelais and Montaigne, Dante's "Inferno," also his "Purgatorio" and "Paradiso," "Don Quixote," Tennyson's "Idylls," Milton's works, and Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner"; among his paintings were "Christ Leaving the Prætorium," and "Christ's Entry into Jerusalem"; he has left behind him works of sculpture as well as drawings and pictures; his art has been severely handled by the critics, and most of all by Ruskin, who treats it with unmitigated scorn (1832-1883).
Doria, Andrea, a naval commander, born in Genoa, of noble descent, though his parents were poor; a man of patriotic instincts; adopted the profession of arms at the age of 19; became commander of the fleet in 1513; attacked with signal success the Turkish corsairs that infested the Mediterranean; served under Francis I. to free his country from a faction that threatened its independence, and, by his help, succeeded in expelling it; next, in fear of the French supremacy, served, under Charles V., and entering Genoa, was hailed as its liberator, and received the title of "Father and Defender of his country"; the rest of his life, and it was a long one, was one incessant wrestle with his great rival Barbarossa, the chief of the corsairs, and which ended in his defeat (1466-1560).
Dorians, one of the four divisions of the Hellenic race, the other three being the Achæans, the Æolians, and the Ionians; at an early period overran the whole Peloponnesus; they were a hardy people, of staid habits and earnest character.
Doric, the oldest, strongest, and simplest of the four Grecian orders of architecture.
Dorine, a petulant domestic in Molière's "Tartuffe."
Doris, a small mountainous country of ancient Greece, S. of Thessaly, and embracing the valley of the Pindus.
Doris, the wife of Nereus, and mother of the Nereids.
Dorislaus, Isaac, a lawyer, born at Alkmaar, in Holland; came to England, and was appointed Judge-Advocate; acted as such at King Charles's trial, and was for that latter offence assassinated at the Hague one evening by certain high-flying Royalist cut-throats, Scotch several of them; "his portrait represents him as a man of heavy, deep-wrinkled, elephantine countenance, pressed down by the labours of life and law" (1595-1649).
Dorking (7), a market-town picturesquely situated in the heart of Surrey, 24 m. SW. of London; gives name to a breed of fowls; contains a number of fashionable villas.
Dorn, a distinguished German orientalist; wrote a History of the Afghans, and on their language (1805-1881).
Dorner, Isaak August, a German theologian, born at Würtemberg; studied at Tübingen; became professor of Theology in Berlin, after having held a similar post in several other German universities; his principal works were the "History of the Development of the Doctrine of the Person of Christ," and the "History of Protestant Theology" (1809-1884).
Dornoch, the county town of Sutherland, a small place, but a royal burgh; has a good golf course.
Doros, a son of Helen and grandson of Deucalion, the father of the Dorians, as his brother Æolis was of the Æolians.
Dorothea, St., a virgin of Alexandria, suffered martyrdom by being beheaded in 311. Festival, Feb. 6.
Dorpat (38), a town on the Embach, in Livonia, Russia, 150 m. NE. of Riga, with a celebrated university founded by Gustavus Adolphus in 1632; it has a well-equipped staff, and is well attended; the majority of the population is German.
D'Orsay, Count, a man of fashion, born in Paris; entered the French army; forsook it for the society of Lord and Lady Blessington; married Lady B.'s daughter by a former marriage; came to England with her ladyship on her husband's death; started a joint establishment in London, which became a rendezvous for all the literary people and artists about town; was "Phoebus Apollo of Dandyism"; paid homage to Carlyle at Chelsea one day in 1839; "came whirling hither in a chariot that struck all Chelsea into mute amazement with splendour," says Carlyle, who thus describes him, "a tall fellow of six feet three, built like a tower, with floods of dark auburn hair, with a beauty, with an adornment unsurpassable on this planet: withal a rather substantial fellow at bottom, by no means without insight, without fun, and a sort of rough sarcasm, rather striking out of such a porcelain figure"; having shown kindness to Louis Napoleon when in London, the Prince did not forget him, and after the coup d'état appointed him to a well-salaried post, but he did not live to enjoy it (1798-1852).
Dorset (194), maritime county in the S. of England, with a deeply indented coast; it consists of a plain between two eastward and westward reaching belts of downs; is mainly a pastoral county; rears sheep and cattle, and produces butter and cheese.
Dort, or Dordrecht (34), a town on an island in the Maas, in the province of South Holland, 12 m. SE. of Rotterdam; admirably situated for trade, connected as it is with the Rhine as well, on which rafts of wood are sent floating down to it; is famous for a Synod held here in 1618-19, at which the tenets of Arminius were condemned, and the doctrines of Calvin approved of and endorsed as the doctrines of the Reformed Church.
Dortmund (89), a town in Westphalia; a great mineral and railway centre, with large iron and steel forges, and a number of breweries.
Dory, John, the hero of an old ballad.
Do-the-Boys'-Hall, a scholastic establishment in "Nicholas Nickleby."
Douay (31), a town on the Scarpe, in the dep. of Nord, France, 20 m. S. of Lille, and one of the chief military towns of the country; has a college founded in 1568 for the education of Catholic priests intended for England, and is where a version of the Bible in English for the use of Catholics was issued.
Doubs, a tributary of the Saône, which it falls into below Dôle; gives name to the dep. (303), which it traverses.
Doubting Castle, a castle belonging to Giant Despair in the "Pilgrim's Progress," which only one key could open, the key Promise.
Douce, Francis, a learned antiquary, born in London; for a time keeper of MSS. in the British Museum; author of "Illustrations of Shakespeare," and an illustrated volume, "The Dance of Death"; left in the Museum a chest of books and MSS. not to be opened till 1900; was a man of independent means, and a devoted archæologist (1757-1834).
Douglas (19), the largest town and capital as well as chief port of the Isle of Man, 74 m. from Liverpool; much frequented as a bathing-place; contains an old residence of the Dukes of Atholl, entitled Castle Mona, now a hotel. See Man, Isle of.
Douglas-1, the name of an old Scotch family, believed to be of Celtic origin, and that played a conspicuous part at one time in the internal and external struggles of the country; they figure in Scottish history in two branches, the elder called the Black and the later the Red Douglases or the Angus branch, now represented by the houses of Hamilton and Home. The eldest of the Douglases, William, was a kinsman of the house of Murray, and appears to have lived about the end of the 12th century. One of the most illustrious of the family was the Good Sir James, distinguished specially as the "Black" Douglas, the pink of knighthood and the associate of Bruce, who carried the Bruce's heart in a casket to bury it in Palestine, but died fighting in Spain, 1330.
Douglas, Gawin or Gavin, a Scottish poet and bishop of Dunkeld, third son of Archibald, Earl of Angus, surnamed "Bell-the-Cat"; political troubles obliged him to leave the country and take refuge at the Court of Henry VII., where he was held in high regard; died here of the plague, and was buried by his own wish in the Savoy; besides Ovid's "Art of Love," now lost, he translated (1512-1513) the "Æneid" of Virgil into English verse, to each book of which he prefixed a prologue, in certain of which there are descriptions that evince a poet's love of nature combined with his love as a Scotchman for the scenery of his native land; besides this translation, which is his chief work, he indited two allegorical poems, entitled the "Palace of Honour," addressed to James IV., and "King Hart" (1474-1522).
Douglas, Sir Howard, an English general and writer on military subjects, born at Gosport; saw service in the Peninsula; was Governor of New Brunswick and Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands (1776-1861).
Douglas, John, bishop of Salisbury, born at Pittenweem, Fife; wrote "The Criterion of, or a Discourse on, Miracles" against Hume; was a friend of Samuel Johnson's (1721-1807).
Douglas, Stephen Arnold, an American statesman, born in Brandon, Vermont; a lawyer by profession, and a judge; a member of Congress and the Senate; was a Democrat; stood for the Presidency when Lincoln was elected; was a leader in the Western States; a splendid monument is erected to his memory in Chicago (1813-1861).
Douglass, Frederick, American orator, born a slave in Maryland; wrought as a slave in a Baltimore shipbuilder's yard; escaped at the age of 21 to New York; attended an anti-slavery meeting, where he spoke so eloquently that he was appointed by the Anti-Slavery Society to lecture in its behalf, which he did with success and much appreciation in England as well as America; published an Autobiography, which gives a thrilling account of his life (1817-1895).
Doulton, Sir Henry, the reviver of art pottery, born in Lambeth; knighted in the Jubilee year for his eminence in that department; b. 1820.
Douro, a river, and the largest, of the Spanish Peninsula, which rises in the Cantabrian Mountains; forms for 40 m. the northern boundary of Portugal, and after a course of 500 m. falls into the Atlantic at Oporto; is navigable only where it traverses Portugal.
Douster-swivel, a German swindling schemer in the "Antiquary."
Dove, in Christian art the symbol of the Holy Ghost, or of a pure, or a purified soul, and with an olive branch, the symbol of peace and the gospel of peace.
Dove, Heinrich Wilhelm, a German physicist, born at Liegnitz, Silesia; professor of Natural Philosophy in Berlin; was eminent chiefly in the departments of meteorology and optics; he discovered how by the stereoscope to detect forged bank-notes (1803-1879).
Dover (33), a seaport on the E. coast of Kent, and the nearest in England to the coast of France, 60 m. SE. of London, and with a mail service to Calais and Ostend; is strongly fortified, and the chief station in the SE. military district of England; was the chief of the Cinque Ports.
Dover, Strait of, divides France from England and connects the English Channel with the North Sea, and at the narrowest 20 m. across; forms a busy sea highway; is called by the French Pas de Calais.
Dovrefeld, a range of mountains in Norway, stretching NE. and extending between 62° and 63° N. lat., average height 3000 ft.
Dow or Douw, Gerard, a distinguished Dutch genre-painter, born at Leyden; a pupil of Rembrandt; his works, which are very numerous, are the fruit of a devoted study of nature, and are remarkable for their delicacy and perfection of finish; examples of his works are found in all the great galleries of Europe (1613-1675).
Dowden, Edward, literary critic, professor of English Literature in Dublin University, born in Cork; is distinguished specially as a Shakesperian; is author of "Shakespeare: a Study of his Mind and Art," "Introduction to Shakespeare," and "Shakesperian Sonnets, with Notes"; has written "Studies in Literature," and a "Life of Shelley"; is well read in German as well as English literature; has written with no less ability on Goethe than on Shakespeare; b. 1843.