Part 19
Cromwell, after a war of manoeuvre near Edinburgh, had been compelled by want of supplies to withdraw to Dunbar; Leslie pursued and took up a position on Doon Hill, commanding the English line of retreat on Berwick. The situation was more than difficult for Cromwell. Some officers were for withdrawing by sea, but the general chose to hold his ground, though his army was enfeebled by sickness and would have to fight on unfavourable terrain against odds of two to one. Leslie, however, who was himself in difficulties on his post among the bare hills, and was perhaps subjected to pressure from civil authorities, descended from the heights on the 2nd of September and began to edge towards his right, in order first to confront, and afterwards to surround, his opponent. The cavalry of his left wing stood fast, west of Doon Hill, as a pivot of manoeuvre, the northern face of Doon (where the ground rises from the burn at an average slope of fifteen degrees and is even steeper near the summit) he left unoccupied. The centre of infantry stood on the forward slope of the long spur which runs east from Doon, and beyond them, practically on the plain, was the bulk of the Scottish cavalry. In the evening Cromwell drew up his army, under 11,000 effective men, along the ravine, and issued orders to attack the Scots at dawn of the 3rd (13th). The left of the Scots was ineffective, as was a part of their centre of foot on the upper part of the hillside, and the English commander proposed to deal with the remainder. Before dawn the English advanced troops crossed the ravine, attacked Doon, and pinned Leslie's left; under cover of this the whole army began its manoeuvre. The artillery was posted on the Dunbar side of the burn, directly opposite and north of Doon, the infantry and cavalry crossed where they could, and formed up gradually in a line south of and roughly parallel to the Berwick road, the extreme left of horse and foot, acting as a reserve, crossed at Brocksmouth House on the outer flank. The Scots were surprised in their bivouacs, but quickly formed up, and at first repulsed both the horse and the foot. But ere long Cromwell himself arrived with his reserve, and the whole English line advanced again. The fresh impulse enabled it to break the Scottish cavalry and repulse the foot, and Leslie's line of battle was gradually rolled up from right to left. In the words of an English officer, "The sun appearing upon the sea, I heard Nol say, 'Now let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered,' and following us as we slowly marched I heard him say, 'I profess they run.'" Driven into the broken ground, and penned between Doon Hill and the ravine, the Scots were indeed helpless. "They routed one another after we had done their work on their right wing," says the same officer. Ten thousand men, including almost the whole of the Scottish foot, surrendered, and their killed numbered three thousand. Few of the English were killed. "I do not believe," wrote Cromwell, "that we have lost twenty men."
[Illustration: Map of Dunbar.]
The account of the battle of Dunbar here followed is that of C.H. Firth, for which see his _Cromwell_, pp. 281 ff. and references there given. For other accounts see Carlyle, _Cromwell's Letters and Speeches_, letter cxl.; Hoenig, _Cromwell_; Baldock, _Cromwell as a Soldier_; and Gardiner, _Hist. of the Commonwealth and Protectorate_, vol. i.
DUNBLANE, a police burgh of Perthshire, Scotland, on the left bank of Allan Water, a tributary of the Forth, 5 m. N. by W. of Stirling by the Caledonian railway. Pop. (1901) 2516. It is a place of great antiquity, with narrow streets and old-fashioned houses. The leading industry is the manufacture of woollens. The cathedral is situated by the side of the river, and was one of the few ecclesiastical edifices that escaped injury at the hands of the Reformers. The first church is alleged to have been erected by Blane, a saint of the 7th century, but the cathedral was founded by David I. in 1141, and almost entirely rebuilt about 1240 by Bishop Clemens. Excepting the tower, which is Early Norman and was probably incorporated from the earlier structure, the building is of the Early Pointed style. It consists of a nave (130 ft. long, 58 ft. wide, 50 ft. high), aisles, choir (80 ft. long by 30 ft. wide), chapter-house and tower. Ruskin considered that there was "nothing so perfect in its simplicity" as the west window, the design of which resembles a leaf. After the decline of episcopacy the building was neglected for a long period, but the choir, which contains some carved oak stalls of the 16th century, was restored in 1873, and the nave roofed and restored in 1892-1895, under the direction of Sir Rowand Anderson, the architect. From the time of the Reformation the choir had been used as the parish church, but since its restoration the whole cathedral has been devoted to this purpose. The new oak roof is emblazoned with the arms of the Scottish and later British monarchs, and of the old earls of Strathearn. Several members of the families of Strathearn and Strathallan were buried in the cathedral, and three stones of blue marble in the floor of the choir are supposed to mark the graves of Lady Margaret Drummond (b. 1472), mistress of James IV., and her two sisters, daughters of Lord Drummond, who were mysteriously poisoned in 1501. An ancient Celtic cross, 6-1/2 ft. high, stands in the north-western corner of the nave. Robert Leighton was the greatest of the bishops of Dunblane, and held the see from 1661 to 1670. The library of 1500 volumes which he bequeathed to the clergy of the diocese is housed in a building with an outside stair, standing near the cathedral, and the Bishop's Walk by the river also perpetuates his memory. Of the bishop's palace only a few ruins remain. The battlefield of Sheriffmuir is about 2-1/2 m. E. of the town. A mile and a half S. of Dunblane is the estate of Keir which belonged to Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, the historian and art critic. The duke of Leeds derives the title of one of his viscounties from Dunblane.
DUNCAN, the name of two Scottish kings.
DUNCAN I. (d. 1040) was a son of Crinan or Cronan, lay abbot of Dunkeld, and became king of the Scots in succession to his maternal grandfather, Malcolm II., in 1034, having previously as _rex Cumbrorum_ ruled in Strathclyde. His accession was "the first example of inheritance of the Scottish throne in the direct line." Duncan is chiefly known through his connexion with Macbeth, which has been immortalized by Shakespeare. The feud between these two princes originated probably in a dispute over the succession to the throne; its details, however, are obscure, and the only fact which can be ascertained with any certainty is that Duncan was slain by Macbeth in 1040. Two of Duncan's sons, Malcolm III. Canmore and Donald V. Bane, were afterwards kings of the Scots.
DUNCAN II. (d. 1094) was a son of Malcolm III. and therefore a grandson of Duncan I. For a time he lived as a hostage in England and became king of the Scots after driving out his uncle, Donald Bane, in 1093, an enterprise in which he was helped by some English and Normans. He was killed in the following year.
See W.F. Skene, _Celtic Scotland_ (1876-1880), and A. Lang, _History of Scotland_, vol. i. (1900).
DUNCAN, ADAM DUNCAN, 1ST VISCOUNT (1731-1804), British naval commander, was born on the 1st of July 1731, at Lundie, in Forfarshire, Scotland. After receiving the rudiments of his education at Dundee, he was in 1746 placed under Captain Haldane, of the "Shoreham" frigate, and in 1749 he became a midshipman in the "Centurion." In 1755 he was appointed second lieutenant of the "Norwich," but on the arrival of that ship in America, whither, with the rest of Keppel's squadron, it had convoyed General Braddock's forces, he was transferred to the "Centurion." Once again in England, he was promoted to be second lieutenant of the "Torbay," and after three years on the home station he assisted in the attack on the French settlement of Goree, on the African coast, in which he was slightly wounded. He returned to England as first lieutenant of the "Torbay"; and in 1759 was made a commander, and in 1761 a post-captain. His vessel, the "Valiant" (74), was Commodore Keppel's flag-ship in the expedition against Belle-Ile en Mer in that year, and also in 1762, when it took an important part in the capture of Havana. In 1778, on the recommencement of war with France, Captain Duncan was appointed to the "Suffolk" (74), whence before the close of the year he removed to the "Monarch" (74), one of the Channel Fleet. On the 16th of January 1780, in an action off Cape St Vincent, between a Spanish squadron under Don Juan de Langara and the British fleet under Sir George Rodney, Captain Duncan in the "Monarch" was the first to engage the enemy; and in 1782, as captain of the "Blenheim" (90), he took part in Lord Howe's relief of Gibraltar. From the rank of rear-admiral of the blue, received in 1789, he was gradually promoted until, in 1799, he became admiral of the white. In February 1795 he hoisted his flag as commander-in-chief of the North Sea fleet, appointed to harass the Batavian navy. Towards the end of May 1797, though, in consequence of the widespread mutiny in the British fleet, he had been left with only the "Adamant" (50), besides his own ship the "Venerable" (74), Admiral Duncan proceeded to his usual station off the Texel, where lay at anchor the Dutch squadron of fifteen sail of the line, under the command of Vice-Admiral de Winter. From time to time he caused signals to be made, as if to the main body of a fleet in the offing, a stratagem which probably was the cause of his freedom from molestation until, in the middle of June, reinforcements arrived from England. On the 3rd of October the admiral put into Yarmouth Roads to refit and victual his ships, but, receiving information early on the 9th that the enemy was at sea, he immediately hoisted the signal for giving him chase. On the morning of the 11th de Winter's fleet, consisting of 4 seventy-fours, 7 sixty-fours, 4 fifty-gun ships, 2 forty-four-gun frigates, and 2 of thirty-two guns, besides smaller vessels, was sighted lying about 9 m. from shore, between the villages of Egmont and Camperdown. The British fleet numbered 7 seventy-fours, 7 sixty-fours, 2 fifties, 2 frigates, with a sloop and several cutters, and was slightly superior in force to that of the Dutch. Shortly after mid-day the British ships, without waiting to form in order, broke through the Dutch line, and an engagement commenced which, after heavy loss on both sides, resulted in the taking by the British of eleven of the enemy's vessels. When the action ceased the ships were in nine fathoms water, within 5 m. of a lee shore, and there was every sign of an approaching gale. So battered were the prizes that it was found impossible to fit them for future service, and one of them, the "Delft," sank on her way to England. In recognition of this victory, Admiral Duncan was, on the 21st of October, created Viscount Duncan of Camperdown and baron of Lundie, with an annual pension of L3000 to himself and the two next heirs to his title. The earldom of Camperdown was created for his son Robert (1785-1859) in 1831, and is still in the possession of his descendants. In 1800 Lord Duncan withdrew from naval service. He died on the 4th of August 1804.
See Charnock, _Biog. Nav._ (1794-1796); Collins, _Peerage of England_, p. 378 (1812); W. James, _Naval History of Great Britain_ (1822); Yonge, _History of the British Navy_, vol. i. (1863); Earl of Camperdown, _Admiral Duncan_ (1898), vol. xvi. of the Navy Record Soc. Publications, contains the logs of the ships engaged in the battle of Camperdown.
DUNCAN, PETER MARTIN (1824-1891), English palaeontologist, was born on the 20th of April 1824 at Twickenham, and was educated partly at the local grammar school and partly in Switzerland. Having entered the medical department of King's College, London, in 1842, he obtained the degree of M.B. (Lond.) in 1846, and then acted for a short time as assistant to a doctor at Rochester. Subsequently he practised at Colchester (1848-1860), and during this period he served for a year as mayor of the city. Returning to London in 1860 he practised for a few years at Blackheath, and then gave his time entirely to scientific research, first in botany, and later in geology and palaeontology. His attention was directed especially to fossil corals, and in 1863 he contributed to the Geological Society of London the first of a series of papers on the fossil corals of the West Indian Islands in which he not only described the species, but discussed their bearings on the physical geography of the Tertiary period. Corals from various parts of the world and from different geological formations were subsequently dealt with by Duncan, and he came to be regarded as a leading authority on these fossils. He prepared also for the Palaeontographical Society (1866-1872) an important work on British fossil corals, as a supplement to the monograph by Henri Milne-Edwards and Jules Haime. He was elected F.R.S. in 1868. In 1870 he was chosen professor of geology at King's College. He was president of the Geological Society (1876-1877), and in 1881 was awarded the Wollaston medal. In addition to papers on fossil corals, he dealt with some of the living forms, also with the Echinoidea and other groups, recent and fossil. He edited the six volumes of Cassell's _Natural History_ (1877, &c.). He died at Gunnersbury on the 28th of May 1891.
DUNCAN, THOMAS (1807-1845), Scottish portrait and historical painter, was born at Kinclaven, in Perthshire. He was educated at the Perth Academy, and began the study of the law, but abandoned it for art. Beginning under the instruction of Sir William Allan, he early attained distinction as a delineator of the human figure; and his first pictures established his fame so completely, that at a very early age he was appointed professor of colouring, and afterwards of drawing, in the Trustees' Academy of Edinburgh. In 1840 he painted one of his finest pictures, "Prince Charles Edward and the Highlanders entering Edinburgh after the Battle of Prestonpans," which secured his election as an associate of the Royal Academy in 1843. In the same year he produced his picture of "Charles Edward asleep after Culloden, protected by Flora MacDonald," which, like many other of his works, has been often engraved. In 1844 appeared his "Cupid" and his "Martyrdom of John Brown of Priesthill." His last work was a portrait of himself, now in the National Gallery in Edinburgh. He particularly excelled in his portraits of ladies and children. He died in Edinburgh on the 25th of May 1845.
DUNCE, a slow or stupid person, one incapable of learning. The word is derived from the name of the great schoolman, John Duns Scotus, whose works on logic, theology and philosophy were accepted text-books in the universities from the 14th century. "Duns" or "Dunsman" was a name early applied by their opponents to the followers of Duns Scotus, the Scotists, and hence was equivalent to one devoted to sophistical distinctions and subtleties. When, in the 16th century, the Scotists obstinately opposed the "new learning," the term "duns" or "dunce" became, in the mouths of the humanists and reformers, a term of abuse, a synonym for one incapable of scholarship, a dull blockhead.
DUNCKER, MAXIMILIAN WOLFGANG (1811-1886), German historian and politician, eldest son of the publisher Karl Duncker, was born at Berlin on the 15th of October 1811. He studied at the universities of Bonn and Berlin till 1834, was then accused of participation in the students' societies, which the government was endeavouring to suppress, and was condemned to six years' imprisonment, afterwards reduced to six months. He had already begun his labours as a historian, but after serving his sentence in 1837, found himself debarred till 1839 from completing his course at Halle, where in 1842 he obtained a professorship. Elected to the National Assembly at Frankfort in 1848, he joined the Right Centre party, and was chosen reporter of the projected constitution. He sat in the Erfurt assembly in 1850, and in the second Prussian chamber from 1849 to 1852. During the crisis in Schleswig and Holstein in 1850 he endeavoured in person to aid the duchies in their struggles. An outspoken opponent of the policy of Manteuffel, he was refused promotion by the Prussian government, and in 1857 accepted the professorship of history at Tubingen. In 1859, however, he was recalled to Berlin as assistant in the ministry of state in the Auerswald cabinet, and in 1861 was appointed councillor to the crown prince. In 1867 he became director of the Prussian archives, with which it was his task to incorporate those of Hanover, Hesse and Nassau. He retired on the 1st of January 1875, and died at Ansbach on the 21st of July 1886. Duncker's eminent position among German historians rests mainly on his _Geschichte des Alterthums_ (1st ed., 1852-1857); 5th ed. in 9 vols., 1878-1886; (English translation by Evelyn Abbott, 1877-1882). He edited, with J.G. Droysen, _Preussische Staatsschriften_, _Politische Correspondenz Friedrichs des Grossen_, and _Urkunden und Actenstucke zur Geschichte des Kurfursten Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg_. To the period of his political activity belong _Zur Geschichte der deutschen Reichsversammlung in Frankfurt_ (1849); _Heinrich von Gagern_ (1850), in the series of _Manner der Gegenwart_; and the anonymous _Vier Monate auswartiger Politik_ (1851). His other works include _Origines Germanicae_ (1840); the lectures _Die Krisis der Reformation_ (1845) and _Feudalitat und Aristokratie_ (1858); _Aus der Zeit Friedrichs des Grossen und Friedrich Wilhelms III. Abhandlungen zur preussischen Geschichte_ (1876); followed after his death by _Abhandlungen aus der griechischen Geschichte_ and _Abhandlungen aus der neueren Geschichte_ (1887).
DUNCKLEY, HENRY (1823-1896), English journalist, was born at Warwick on the 24th of December 1823. Educated at the Baptist college at Accrington, Lancashire, and at Glasgow University, he became in 1848 minister of the Baptist church at Salford, Lancashire. Here he closely investigated the educational needs of the working-classes, embodying the results of his inquiries in an essay, _The Glory and the Shame of Britain_ (1851), which gained a prize offered by the Religious Tract Society. In 1852 he won the Anti-Corn-law League's prize with an essay on the results of the free-trade policy, published in 1854 under the title _The Charter of the Nations_. In 1855 he abandoned the ministry to edit the _Manchester Examiner and Times_, a prominent Liberal newspaper, in charge of which he remained till 1889. For twenty years he wrote, over the signature "Verax," weekly letters to the Manchester papers; those on _The Crown and the Cabinet_ (1877) and _The Crown and the Constitution_ (1878) evoked so much enthusiasm that a public subscription was set on foot to present the writer with a handsome testimonial for his public services. In 1878 Dunckley, who had often declined to stand for parliament, was elected a member of the Reform Club in recognition of his services to the Liberal party, and in 1883 he was made an LL.D. by Glasgow University. He died at Manchester on the 29th of June 1896.
DUNCOMBE, SIR CHARLES (c. 1648-1711), English politician, was a London apprentice, who became a goldsmith and a banker; he amassed great wealth in his calling and was chosen an alderman of the city of London in 1683. Duncombe's parliamentary career began in 1685, when he was elected member of parliament for Hedon, and he was afterwards one of the representatives of Yarmouth in the Isle of Wight and of Downton in Wiltshire. He was made receiver of the customs, and upon the flight of James II. from England in 1688 refused to forward to him the sum of L1500 as requested; accordingly his name alone was excepted from the pardon issued by the exiled king in 1692. A strong Tory, Duncombe held for a short time the office of receiver of the excise, and in this capacity he profited slightly by a transaction over some exchequer bills which had been falsely endorsed. Consequently he was imprisoned by the House of Commons, and expelled from parliament; and having been released by order of the House of Lords, where his friends were more powerful, he was again imprisoned by the Commons. Tried before the court of king's bench he was found "not guilty" on two occasions and the matter was allowed to drop. Duncombe made three unsuccessful attempts to enter parliament as member for the city of London, and then represented Downton a second time from 1702 until his death. In 1699 he was knighted, and in 1709 he served as lord mayor of London. Upon retiring from business in 1695 Duncombe caused some stir by giving the representatives of the duke of Buckingham a high price for an estate at Helmsley in Yorkshire, where he built a magnificent house.
He died at his residence at Teddington on the 9th of April 1711, and much of his great wealth passed to his sister, Ursula, wife of Thomas Browne, who took the name of Duncombe. Ursula's great-grandson, Charles Duncombe (1764-1841), was created Baron Feversham in 1826, and in 1868 his grandson, William Ernest, the 3rd baron (b. 1829), was made earl of Feversham. Sir Charles Duncombe's nephew, Anthony Duncombe (c. 1695-1763), who was made a baron in 1747, left an only daughter, Anne (1757-1829), who married Jacob Pleydell-Bouverie, 2nd earl of Radnor, by whom she was the ancestress of the succeeding earls of Radnor.
A celebrated member of the Duncombe family was THOMAS SLINGSBY DUNCOMBE (1796-1861), a Radical politician, who was member of parliament for Hertford from 1826 to 1832 and for Finsbury from 1834 until his death. Duncombe defended Lord Durham's administration of Canada; he sought to obtain the release of John Frost and other Chartists, whose immense petition he presented to parliament in 1842; and he interested himself in the affairs of Charles II., the deposed duke of Brunswick. He showed a practical sympathy with Mazzini, whose letters had been opened by order of the English government, by urging for an inquiry into this occurrence; and also with Kossuth. He died at Lancing on the 13th of November 1861.
See _Life and Correspondence of T.S. Duncombe_, edited by T.H. Duncombe (1868).