Chapter 23 of 52 · 3864 words · ~19 min read

Part 23

As early as 729--some authorities fix the date a hundred and fifty years before--the Culdees possessed a monastery at Dunkeld, which was converted into a cathedral by David I. in 1127. This structure stood until the Reformation, when it was unroofed and suffered to fall into ruin. The building consists of the nave (120 ft. long, 60 ft. wide, 40 ft. high), aisles (12 ft. wide), choir, chapter-house and tower. The nave is the most beautiful portion. The Pointed arches rest upon pillars, possibly Norman, and above them, below the Decorated clerestory windows, is a series of semicircular arches with flamboyant tracery, a remarkable feature. The choir, founded by Bishop William Sinclair (d. 1337), has been repaired, and serves as the parish church, a blue marble slab in the floor marking the bishop's grave. The chapter-house, adjoining the choir, was built by Bishop Thomas Lauder (1395-1481) in 1469, and the vault beneath is the burial-place of the Atholl Murrays. Lauder also began the tower, completed in 1501. In the porch of the church is the most interesting of the extant old tombs, namely, the recumbent effigy of Alexander Stewart, the Wolf of Badenoch (1343-1405; the inscription refers his death to 1394, but this is said to be an error). The most famous of the Bishops was Gavin Douglas (1474-1522), translator of the _Aeneid_. One of the most heroic exploits in the annals of warfare is associated with the cathedral. Shortly after the battle of Killiecrankie (1689), the Cameronian regiment, enrolled in the same year (afterwards the 26th Foot), was despatched to hold Dunkeld prior to another invasion of the Highlands. It was under the command of Colonel William Cleland (b. 1661), a poet of some merit. On the 26th of August a force of 5000 Highlanders suddenly appearing, Cleland posted his men in the church and behind the wall of the earl of Atholl's mansion. Still flushed with their victory under Dundee, and animated by bitterest hatred of their Whiggamore foes, the Highlanders assaulted the position of the Covenanters, who were 1200 strong, with the most desperate valour. Sustained by their enthusiasm, however, the recruits displayed equal courage, and, at the end of four hours' stubborn fighting, their defence was still intact. Fearing lest victory, even if won, might be purchased too dearly, the Highlanders gradually withdrew. While leading a sortie Cleland was shot dead, and was buried in the churchyard.

Adjoining the cathedral is Dunkeld House, a seat of the duke of Atholl, the grounds of which are estimated to contain 50 m. of walks and 30 m. of drives. On the lawn near the cathedral stand two of the earliest larches grown in Great Britain, having been introduced from Tirol by the 2nd duke in 1738. The 4th duke planted several square miles of the estate with this tree, of which he had made a special study.

A mile south of Dunkeld, on the left bank of the Tay, is the village of Birnam (pop. 389), where Sir John Everett Millais, the painter, made his summer residence. It lies at the foot of Birnam Hill (1324 ft.), once covered with a royal forest that has been partly replaced by plantations. The oak and sycamore in front of Birnam House, the famed twin trees of Birnam, are believed to be more than 1000 years old, and to be the remnant of the wood of Birnam which Shakespeare immortalized in _Macbeth_. The Pass of Birnam, where the river narrows, was the path usually taken by the Highlanders in their forays. In the vicinity are the castles of Murthly, one a modern mansion in the Elizabethan style, erected about 1838 from designs by James Gillespie Graham (1777-1855), and the other the old castle, still occupied, which was occasionally used as a hunting-lodge by the Scottish kings.

At Little Dunkeld, almost opposite to Dunkeld, the Bran joins the Tay, after a run of 11 m. from its source in Loch Freuchie. It is celebrated for its falls about 2 m. from the mouth. The upper fall is known as the Rumbling Bridge from the fact that the stream pours with a rumbling noise through a deep narrow gorge in which a huge fallen rock has become wedged, forming a rude bridge or arch. Inver, near the mouth of the Bran, was the birthplace of the two famous fiddlers, Niel Gow (1727-1807) and his son Nathaniel (1766-1831).

DUNKIRK (Fr. _Dunkerque_), a seaport of northern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Nord, on the Straits of Dover, 53 m. N.W. of Lille on the Northern railway. Pop. (1906) 35,767. Dunkirk is situated in the low but fertile district of the Wateringues. It lies, amidst a network of canals, immediately to the west and south of its port, which disputes with Bordeaux the rank of third in importance in France. The populous suburbs of Rosendael and St Pol-sur-Mer lie respectively to the east and west of the town; to the north-east is the bathing resort of Malo-les-Bains. The streets of Dunkirk are wide and well paved, the chief of them converging to the square named after Jean Bart (born at Dunkirk in 1651), whose statue by David d'Angers stands at its centre. Close to the Place Jean Bart rises the belfry (290 ft. high) which contains a fine peal of bells and also serves as a signalling tower. It was once the western tower of the church of St Eloi, from which it is now separated by a street. St Eloi, erected about 1560 in the Gothic style, was deprived of its first two bays in the 18th century; the present facade dates from 1889. The chapel of Notre-Dame des Dunes possesses a small image, which is the object of a well-known pilgrimage. The chief civil buildings are a large Chamber of Commerce, including the customs and port services, and a fine modern town hall. Dunkirk is the seat of a sub-prefect; its public institutions include tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, an exchange, a branch of the Bank of France and a communal college; and it has a school of drawing, architecture and music, a library and a rich museum of paintings. Dunkirk forms with Bergues, Bourbourg and Gravelines a group of fortresses enclosed by inundations and canals. A chain of forts to the eastward is designed to facilitate the deployment of an army, concentrated within the fortified region, towards the Belgian frontier.

The harbour of Dunkirk (see DOCK) is approached by a fine natural roadstead entered on the east and west, and protected on the north by sand-banks. From the roadstead, entrance is by a channel into the outer harbour, which communicates with seven floating basins about 115 acres in area and is accessible to the largest vessels. The port is provided with four dry docks and a gridiron, and its quays exceed 5 m. in length. Its commerce is much facilitated by the system of canals which bring it into communication with Belgium, the coal-basins of Nord and Pas-de-Calais, the rich agricultural regions of Flanders and Artois, and the industrial towns of Lille, Armentieres, Roubaix, Tourcoing, Valenciennes, &c. The roadstead is indicated by lightships and the entrance channel to the port by a lighthouse which, at an altitude of 193 ft., is visible at a distance of 19 m.

Dunkirk annually despatches a fleet to the Icelandic cod-fisheries, and takes part in the herring and other fisheries. It imports great quantities of wool from the Argentine and Australia, and is in regular communication with New York, London and the chief ports of the United Kingdom, Brazil and the far East. Besides wool, leading imports are jute, cotton, flax, timber, petroleum, coal, pitch, wine, cereals, oil-seeds and oil-cake, nitrate of soda and other chemical products, and metals. The principal exports are sugar, coal, cereals, wool, forage, cement, chalk, phosphates, iron and steel, tools and metal-goods, thread and vegetables. The average annual value of the imports for the years 1901-1905 was L23,926,000 (L22,287,000 for 1896-1900), of exports L6,369,000 (L4,481,000 for 1896-1900). The industries include the spinning of jute, flax, hemp and cotton, iron-founding, brewing, and the manufacture of machinery, fishing-nets, sailcloth, sacks, casks, and soap. There are also saw- and flour-mills, petroleum refineries and oil-works. Ship-building is carried on, and the preparation of fish and cod-liver oil occupies many hands.

Dunkirk is said to have originated in a chapel founded by St Eloi in the 7th century, round which a small village speedily sprang up. In the 10th century it was fortified by Baldwin III., count of Flanders; together with that province it passed successively to Burgundy, Austria and Spain. In the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries its possession was disputed by French and Spaniards. In 1658 Turenne's victory of the Dunes (q.v.) gave it into the hands of the French and it was ceded to England. After the Restoration, Charles II., being in money difficulties, sold it to the French king Louis XIV., who fortified it. By the terms of the peace of Utrecht (1713) the fortifications were demolished and its harbour filled up, a sacrifice demanded by England owing to the damage inflicted on her shipping by Jean Bart and other corsairs of the port. In 1793 it was besieged by the English under Frederick Augustus, duke of York, who was compelled to retire after the defeat of Hondschoote.

See A. de St Leger, _La Flandre maritime et Dunkerque_ (Paris, 1900).

DUNKIRK, a city and a port of entry of Chautauqua county, New York, U.S.A., on the S. shore of Lake Erie, 40 m. S.W. of Buffalo. Pop. (1890) 9416; (1900) 11,616, of whom 3338 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 17,221. The city is served by the Pennsylvania, the Erie, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, the New York, Chicago & St Louis, and the Dunkirk, Allegheny Valley & Pittsburg railways, by the electric line of the Buffalo & Lake Erie Traction Co., and by several lines of freight and passenger steamships. Dunkirk is attractively situated high above the lake, and has several parks, including Point Gratiot and Washington; in the city are the Dunkirk free library, the Brooks Memorial hospital (1891), and St Mary's academy. The city lies in an agricultural and grape-growing region, and has a fine harbour and an extensive lake trade; the manufactures include locomotives, radiators, lumber, springs, shirts, axes, wagons, steel, silk gloves and concrete blocks. The value of factory products increased from $5,225,996 in 1900 to $9,909,260 in 1905, or 89.6%. Large numbers of food-fish are caught in the lake. The municipality owns and operates the water works and the electric lighting plant. Dunkirk was first settled about 1805. It was incorporated as a village in 1837, and was chartered as a city in 1880.

DUNLOP, JOHN COLIN (1785-1842), Scottish man of letters, was born on the 30th of December 1785. In 1816 he became sheriff of Renfrewshire, and retained this office until his death at Edinburgh, on the 26th of January (according to others, in February) 1842. The work by which he is best known, and which will always hold an honourable place in English literature, is his _History of Fiction_ (1814; new edition, 1888, with notes by H. Wilson, in Bohn's "Standard Library"). In spite of the somewhat contemptuous notices in _Blackwood's Magazine_ (September 1824) and the _Quarterly Review_ (July 1815), it may be pronounced the best book on the subject in English. F. Liebrecht, by whom it was translated into German (1851) with valuable notes, describes it as the only work of its kind. Dunlop was also the author of _A History of Roman Literature_ (1823-1828), and of _Memoirs of Spain during the Reigns of Philip IV. and Charles II._ (1834).

DUNMORE, a borough of Lackawanna county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., adjoining Scranton on the N.E. and about 20 m. N.E. of Wilkesbarre. Pop. (1890) 8315; (1900) 12,583, of whom 3103 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 17,615. It is served by the Erie, the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, and the Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley (electric) railways. Its chief industry is the mining of anthracite coal; the principal establishments are railway repair shops, which in 1905 gave employment to 48.9% of all wage-earners engaged in manufacturing. Among the borough's manufactures are stoves and furnaces, malt liquors and silk. Dunmore is the seat of the state oral school for the deaf. The town was first settled in 1783 and was incorporated in 1862. Its growth was accelerated by the establishment here, in 1863, of the shops of the railway from Pittston to Hawley built in 1849-1850 by the Pennsylvania Coal Company. Dunmore became a station of the Scranton post office in 1902.

DUNMOW (properly GREAT DUNMOW), a market town in the Epping (W.) parliamentary division of Essex, England, on the river Chelmer, 40 m. N.E. by N. from London on a branch of the Great Eastern railway. Pop. (1901) 2704. The church of St Mary is Decorated and Perpendicular. The town was corporate from the 16th century until 1886. Roman remains have been discovered. Two miles E. is the village of LITTLE DUNMOW, formerly the seat of a priory, remarkable for the custom of presenting a flitch of bacon to any couple who could give proof that they had spent the first year of married life in perfect harmony, and had never at any moment wished they had tarried. In place of the monastic judicature a jury of six bachelors and six maidens appear in the 16th century. A rhyming oath, quoted by Fuller, was taken. The institution of this strange matrimonial prize--which had its parallel at Whichanoure (or Wichnor) in Staffordshire, at St Moleine in Brittany, and apparently also at Vienna--appears to date from the reign of John. The first instance of its award recorded is in 1445, and there are a few others. But there are references which suggest its previous award in _Piers Plowman_ and Chaucer. The Chaucerian couplet conveys the idea of an award to a patient husband, without reference to the wife. A revival of the custom was effected in 1855 by Harrison Ainsworth, author of the novel _The Flitch of Bacon_, but the scene of the ceremony was transferred to the town hall of Great Dunmow. It has since been maintained in altered form. (For details see Chambers's _Book of Days_, ii. 748-751; and W. Andrews, _History of the Dunmow Flitch of Bacon Customs_, 1877.) Close to Little Dunmow is Felsted (q.v.) or Felstead; and Easton Lodge (with a railway station), a seat of the earl of Warwick, is in the vicinity.

DUNNE, FINLEY PETER (1867- ), American journalist and humorist, was born, of Irish descent, in Chicago, Illinois, on the 10th of July 1867. After a public school education he became a newspaper reporter (1885); he was city editor of the Chicago _Times_ (1891-1892), a member of the editorial staff of the Chicago _Evening Post_ and of the Chicago _Times-Herald_ (1892-1897), and editor of the Chicago _Journal_ (1897-1900). In 1900 he removed to New York city. Although for several years he had been contributing humorous sketches in Irish brogue to the daily papers, he did not come into prominence until he wrote for the Chicago _Journal_ a series of satirical observations and reflections attributed to an honest Irish-American, Martin Dooley, the shrewd philosopher of Archey Road, on social and political topics of the day. These were widely copied by the press of America and England. The first published collection, _Mr Dooley in Peace and in War_ (1898), was followed by several others, similar in subject-matter and method, including _Mr Dooley in the Hearts of his Countrymen_ (1899), _Mr Dooley's Philosophy_ (1900), _Mr Dooley's Opinions_ (1901), _Observations by Mr Dooley_ (1902), and _Dissertations by Mr Dooley_ (1906). These books made their author widely known as the creator of a delightfully original character, and as a humorist of shrewd insight. In 1906 he became associate editor of the _American Magazine_.

DUNNOTTAR CASTLE, a ruined stronghold, on the east coast of Kincardineshire, Scotland, about 2 m. S. of Stonehaven. It stands on a rock 160 ft. high, with a summit area of 4 acres, and surrounded on three sides by the sea. It is accessible from the land by a winding path leading across a deep chasm, to the outer gate in a wall of enormous thickness. It is supposed that a fortress stood here since perhaps the 7th century, but the existing castle dates from 1392, when it was begun by Sir William Keith (d. 1407), great marischal of Scotland. The keep and chapel are believed to be the oldest structures, most of the other buildings being two centuries later. It was the residence of the earls marischal and was regarded as impregnable. Here the seventh earl entertained Charles II. before the battle of Worcester. When Cromwell became Protector, the Scottish regalia were lodged in the castle for greater security, and, in 1651, when the Commonwealth soldiers laid successful siege to it, they were saved by a woman's wit. Mrs Granger, wife of the minister of Kinneff, a parish about 6 m. to the S., was allowed to visit the wife of the governor, Ogilvy of Barras, and when she rode out she was spinning lint on a distaff. The crown was concealed in her lap, and the distaff consisted of the sword and sceptre. The regalia were hidden beneath the flagstones in the parish church, whence they were recovered at the Restoration. In 1685 the castle was converted into a Covenanters' prison, no fewer than 167 being confined in a dungeon, called therefrom the Whigs' Vault. On the attainder of George, tenth and last marischal, for his share in the earl of Mar's rising in 1715 the castle was dismantled (1720).

DUNOIS, JEAN, COUNT OF (1403-1468), commonly called the "Bastard of Orleans," a celebrated French commander, was the natural son of the duke of Orleans (brother of Charles VI.) and Mariette d'Enghien, Madame de Canny. He was brought up in the house of the duke, and in the company of his legitimate sons, and it appears that he was present at the battle of Beauge in 1421 and Verneuil in 1424. His earliest feat of arms was the surprise and rout in 1427 of the English, who were besieging Montargis--the first successful blow against the English power in France following a long series of French defeats. In 1428 he defended Orleans with the greatest spirit, and enabled the place to hold out until the arrival of Joan of Arc, when he shared with her the honour of defeating the enemy there in 1429. He then accompanied Joan to Reims and shared in the victory of Patay. After her death he raised the siege of Chartres and of Lagny (1432) and engaged in a series of successful campaigns which ended in his triumphal entry into Paris on the 13th of April 1436. He continued to carry on the war against the English, and gradually drove them to the northward, though his work was to some extent interrupted by the civil disorders of the time, in which he played a conspicuous part. Finally in 1450 he completed the reconquest of northern France, and in 1451 he attacked them in Guienne, taking among other towns Bordeaux, which the English had held for three hundred years, and Bayonne. After the expulsion of the English he was constantly engaged in the highest diplomatic and military missions. In 1465 he joined the league of revolted princes, but, assuming the function of negotiator, he was after a time reinstated in his offices. Dunois was thenceforward in the greatest favour with the court. He died on the 24th of November 1468.

DUNOON, a police and municipal burgh of Argyllshire, Scotland, on the western shore of the Firth of Clyde, opposite to Gourock. Pop. (1901) 6779. Including Kirn and Hunter's Quay, it presents a practically continuous front of seaside villas. The mildness of its climate and the beauty of its situation have made it one of the most prosperous watering-places on the west coast. The principal buildings are the parish church, well-placed on a hill overlooking the pier, convalescent homes, Cottage and Victoria fever hospitals, and the town house. On a conical hill above the pier stand the remains of Dunoon Castle, the hereditary keepership of which was conferred by Robert Bruce on the family of Sir Colin Campbell of Loch Awe, an ancestor of the duke of Argyll. It was visited by Queen Mary in 1563, and in 1643 was the scene of the massacre of the Lamonts by the Campbells. The grounds have been laid out as a recreation garden. Near the hill stands the modern castle. Facing the pier a statue was erected in 1898 of Mary Campbell, Burns's "Highland Mary," who was a native of Dunoon. The town itself is of modern growth, having been a mere fishing village at the beginning of the 19th century. There is frequent communication daily by steamer with the railway piers at Craigendoran and Gourock, and Glasgow merchants are thus enabled to reside here all the year round. Hunter's Quay is the yachting headquarters, the Royal Clyde Yacht Club's house adjoining the pier. Kilmun, on the northern shore of Holy Loch, a portion of the parish of Dunoon and Kilmun, contains the ruins of a Collegiate chapel founded in 1442 by Sir Duncan Campbell of Loch Awe and used as the burial-ground of the Argyll family.

DUNROBIN CASTLE, a seat of the duke of Sutherland, picturesquely situated on the north-eastern shore of Dornoch Firth, Sutherlandshire, Scotland, about 2 m. N.E. of Golspie, with a private station on the Highland railway. The name is said to have originally meant the fort of Raffu, the "law-man," or crown agent for the district in 1222, but it was renamed out of compliment to Robert (or Robin), 6th earl of Sutherland, who died in 1389. The ancient portion, dating from the end of the 13th century, was a square structure with towers at the corners, but in 1856 there was added a wing, a main north-eastern tower, and front, with numerous bartizan turrets, and dormer windows in the roof. The stately entrance porch recalls that of Windsor Castle, and the interior is designed and decorated on a sumptuous scale. In April 1746 George Mackenzie, the 3rd earl of Cromarty, thinking that Prince Charles Edward had prevailed at Culloden, seized the castle in his interests, but the Sutherland militia surrounded the building and captured the earl in an apartment which was afterwards called the Cromartie room. The beautiful gardens contain a wealth of trees, which grow with remarkable luxuriance for the latitude of 58 deg. N. The 3rd duke of Sutherland erected a museum in the grounds in which are many specimens of the antiquities of the shire, such as querns, stone tools and weapons, silver brooches and the like, found in brochs and elsewhere. There is a graceful waterfall in Dunrobin glen, through which flows Golspie Burn, near the left bank of which are remains of Pictish towers. About 1 m. N.W. of Golspie rises Ben Bhragie (1256 ft.), crowned by a colossal statue of the 1st duke of Sutherland, by Chantrey.