Part 24

DUNS, a police burgh and county town of Berwickshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 2206. It is situated 44 m. E.S.E. of Edinburgh by road, with a station on the branch line of the North British railway from Reston to St Boswells. The principal buildings are the town-hall, county buildings, corn exchange, mechanics' institute and the public library. There is a woollen mill, and stock sales are held at frequent intervals. The alternative spelling of Dunse seems to have been in vogue from 1740 till 1882. It was on Duns Law (700 ft.) that the Covenanters, under Alexander Leslie, were encamped in 1639, and the Covenanters' Stone on the top of the hill has been enclosed to preserve it from relic-hunters. Duns castle, adjoining the town on the W., includes the Tower erected by Thomas Randolph, earl of Moray (d. 1332), and about 3 m. S.W. is the village of Polwarth.

DUNSINANE, a peak of the Sidlaw Hills, in the parish of Collace, Perthshire, Scotland, 8 m. N.E. of Perth. It is 1012 ft. high, and commands a fine view of the Carse of Gowrie and the valley of the Tay. Its chief claim to mention, however, is due to its association with Birnam Wood (about 12 m. N.W.) in two well-known passages in Shakespeare's _Macbeth_. An old fort on the summit, of which faint traces are still discernible, is traditionally called Macbeth's Castle.

DUNS SCOTUS, JOHN (1265 or 1275-1308), one of the foremost of the schoolmen. His birthplace has been variously given as Duns in Berwickshire, Dunum (Down) in Ulster, and Dunstane in Northumberland, but there is not sufficient evidence to settle the question. He joined the Franciscan order in early life, and studied at Merton College, Oxford, of which he is said to have been a fellow. He became remarkably proficient in all branches of learning, but especially in mathematics. When his master, William Varron, removed to Paris in 1301, Duns Scotus was appointed to succeed him as professor of philosophy, and his lectures attracted an immense number of students. Probably in 1304 he went to Paris, in 1307 he received his doctor's degree from the university, and in the same year was appointed regent of the theological school. His connexion with the university was made memorable by his defence of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, in which he displayed such dialectical ingenuity as to win for himself the title _Doctor Subtilis_. The doctrine long continued to be one of the main subjects in dispute between the Scotists and the Thomists, or, what is almost the same thing, between the Franciscans and the Dominicans. The university of Paris was so impressed by his arguments, that in 1387 it formally condemned the Thomist doctrine, and a century afterwards required all who received the doctor's degree to bind themselves by an oath to defend the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. In 1308 Duns Scotus was sent by the general of his order to Cologne, with the twofold object of engaging in a controversy with the Beghards and of assisting in the foundation of a university; according to some, his removal was due to jealousy. He was received with enthusiasm by the inhabitants but died suddenly (it was said, of apoplexy) on the 8th of November in the same year. There was also a tradition that he had been buried alive.

His philosophical position was determined, or at least very greatly influenced, by the antagonism between the Dominicans and the Franciscans. Further, while the genius of Aquinas was constructive, that of Duns Scotus was destructive; Aquinas was a philosopher, Duns a critic. The latter has been said to stand to the former in the relation of Kant to Leibnitz. In the matter of Universals, Duns was more of a realist and less of an eclectic than Aquinas. Theologically, the Thomistic system approximates to pantheism, while that of Scotus inclines distinctly to Pelagianism. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was the great subject in dispute between the two parties; it was strenuously opposed by Aquinas, and supported by Duns Scotus, although not without reserve. There were, however, differences of a wider and deeper kind. In opposition to Aquinas, who maintained that reason and revelation were two independent sources of knowledge, Duns Scotus held that there was no true knowledge of anything knowable apart from theology as based upon revelation. In conformity with this principle he denied that the existence of God was capable of being proved, or that the nature of God was capable of being comprehended. He therefore rejected as worthless the ontological proof offered by Aquinas. Another chief point of difference with Aquinas was in regard to the freedom of the will, which Duns Scotus maintained absolutely. He reconciled free-will and necessity by representing the divine decree not as temporarily antecedent, but as immediately related to the action of the created will. He maintained, in opposition to Aquinas, that the will was independent of the understanding, that only will could affect will. From this difference as to the nature of free-will followed by necessary consequence a difference with the Thomists as to the operation of divine grace. In ethics the distinction he drew between natural and theological virtues is common to him with the rest of the schoolmen. (Cf. AQUINAS.) Duns Scotus strongly upheld the authority of the church, making it the ultimate authority on which that of Scripture depends. (See also SCHOLASTICISM.)

The most important of his works consisted of questions and commentaries on the writings of Aristotle, and on the _Sentences_ of Lombard, the so-called _Opus Oxoniense_ or _Anglicanum_. Complete works, edited by Luke Wadding (13 vols., Lyons, 1639) and at Paris (26 vols., 1891-1895). There is an edition of his _De modis significandi_ or _Grammatica speculativa_, the first attempt to investigate the general laws of language, by F.M. Fernandez Garcia (Quaracchi, Florence, 1902).

On Duns Scotus generally, see life by Wadding in vol. i. of the works (full, however, of legendary absurdities); J. Muller, _Biographisches uber Duns Scotus_ (progr., Cologne, 1881); W.J. Townsend, _The Great Schoolmen_ (1881); K. Werner, _Die Scholastik des spateren Mittelalters_, i. (1881); J.M. Rigg, in _Dictionary of National Biography_. On his theology: C. Frassen, _Scotus Academicus_ (1744, new edition, 1900); Hieronymus de Montefortino (Jerome de Fortius), _Scoti summa theologica_ (1728-1738, new edition, 1900); L.F.O. Baumgarten-Crusius, _De theologia Scoti_ (1826); R. Seeberg, _Die Theologie des J. Duns Scotus_ (1900), and in Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopadie fur protestantische Theologie_ (1898), with bibliog. refs; F. Morin, _Dictionnaire de philosophie et de theologie scolastiques_ [= J.P. Migne, _Troisieme encyclopedie theologique_, xxi., xxii., 1857]; C.R. Hagenbach, _History of Doctrines_ (Eng. tr., ii., 1880). On his philosophy: E. Pluzanski, _Essai sur la philosophie de Duns Scot_ (1887); A. Schmid, _Die Thomistische und Scotistische Gewissheitlehre_ (1859); M. Schneid, _Die Korperlehre des J. Duns Scotus_--its relation to Thomism and Atomism (1879); P. Minges, "Ist Duns Scotus Indeterminist?" in _Beitrage zur Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters_, Bd. v. Heft 4 (1905); W. Kahl, _Die Lehre vom Primat des Willens bei Augustinus, Duns Scotus, und Descartes_ (1886).

DUNSTABLE, a municipal borough and market town in the southern parliamentary division of Bedfordshire, England, 37 m. N.W. of London, on branches of the Great Northern and London & North-Western railways. Pop. (1901) 5157. It lies at an elevation of about 500 ft. on the bleak northward slope of the Chiltern Hills. The church of St Peter and St Paul is a fine fragment of the church of the Augustinian priory founded by Henry I. in 1131. The building was cruciform, but only the west front and part of the nave remain. The front has a large late Norman portal of four orders, with rich Early English arcading above; the nave arcade is ornate Norman. The original triforium is transformed into a clerestory, the original clerestory being lost. The north-west tower has a Perpendicular upper portion, but the south-west tower is destroyed. The church contains various monuments of the 18th century. Foundations of a palace of Henry I. are traceable near the church. The main part of the town extends for a mile along the broad straight Roman road, Watling Street; the high road from Luton to Tring, which crosses it in the centre of the town, representing the ancient Icknield Way. The chief industry is straw hat manufacture; there are also printing, stationery and engineering works. The borough is under a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors. Area, 453 acres.

There may have been a Romano-British village on this site on the Watling Street. Dunstable (_Dunestaple_, _Donestaple_) first appears as a royal borough in the reign of Henry I., who, according to tradition, on account of the depredations of robbers, cleared the forest where Watling Street and the Icknield Way met, and encouraged his subjects to settle there by various grants of privileges. He endowed the priory by charter with the lordship of the manor and borough, which it retained till its dissolution in 1536-1537. The Dunstable Annals deal exhaustively with the history of the monastery and town in the 13th century. In 1219 the prior secured the right of holding a court there for all crown pleas and of sitting beside the justices itinerant, and this led to serious collision between the monks and burgesses. The body of Queen Eleanor rested here for a night on its journey to Westminster, and a cross, of which there is now no trace, was subsequently erected in the market-place. At Dunstable Cranmer held the court which, in 1533, declared Catherine of Aragon's marriage invalid. At the dissolution a plan was set on foot for the creation of a new bishopric from the spoils of the religious houses, which was to include Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire with Dunstable as cathedral city. The scheme was never realized, though plans for the cathedral were actually drawn up.

From the earliest time Dunstable has been an agricultural town. The Annals abound with references to the prices and comparative abundance or scarcity of the two staple products, wool and corn. The straw hat manufacture has flourished since the 18th century. Henry I. granted a market held twice a week, and a three days' fair on the feast of St Peter ad Vincula. John made a further grant of a three days' fair from the 10th of May. A market is still held weekly, also fairs in May and August correspond to these grants. Dunstable had also a gild merchant and was affiliated to London. In 1864 the town was made a municipal borough by royal charter.

DUNSTAFFNAGE, a ruined castle of Argyllshire, Scotland, 3 m. N.N.E. of Oban. It is situated on a platform of conglomerate rock forming a promontory at the south-west of the entrance to Loch Etive and is surrounded on three sides by the sea. It dates from the 13th century, occupying the site of the earlier stronghold in which was kept the Stone of Destiny prior to its removal to Scone (q.v.) in 843. The castle is a quadrangular structure of great strength, with rounded towers at three of the angles, and has a circumference of about 400 ft. The walls are 60 ft. high and 10 ft. thick, affording a safe promenade, which commands a splendid view. Brass cannon recovered from wrecked vessels of the Spanish Armada are mounted on the walls. In 1308 Robert Bruce captured the fortress from the original owners, the MacDougalls, and gave it to the Campbells. It was garrisoned at the period of the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745, fell into decay early in the 19th century, and is now the property of the crown, the duke of Argyll being hereditary keeper. The adjoining chapel, in a very ruinous state, was the burial-place of the Campbells of Dunstaffnage.

There are other interesting places on Loch Etive, an arm of the sea, measuring 19-1/4 m. in length and from 1/8 m. to fully 1 m. in width. Near the mouth, where the lake narrows to a strait, are the rapids which Ossian called the Falls of Lora, the ebbing and flowing tides, as they rush over the rocky bar, creating a roaring noise audible at a considerable distance. In the parish of Ardchattan, on the north shore, stands the beautiful ruin of St Modan's Priory, founded in the 13th century for Cistercian monks of the order of Vallis Caulium. It is said that Robert Bruce held within its walls the last parliament in which the Gaelic language was used. On the coast of Loch Nell, or Ardmucknish Bay, is the vitrified fort of Beregonium, not to be confounded with Rerigonium (sometimes miscalled Berigonium) on Loch Ryan in Wigtownshire--a town of the Novantae Picts, identified with Innermessan. The confusion has arisen through a textual error in an early edition of Ptolemy's _Geography_.

DUNSTAN, SAINT (924 or 925-988),[1] English archbishop, entered the household of King Aethelstan when still quite a boy. Here he soon excited the dislike of his young companions, who procured his banishment from the court. He now took refuge with his kinsman Alphege, bishop of Winchester, whose persuasion, seconded by a serious illness, induced him to become a monk. Aethelstan's successor, Edmund, recalled him to the court and made him one of his counsellors. Through the machinations of enemies he was again expelled from the royal presence; but shortly afterwards Edmund revoked the sentence and made him abbot of Glastonbury. His successor Edred showed him greater favour still. On the accession of Edwig, however, in 955, Dunstan's fortunes underwent a temporary eclipse. Having offended the influential Aelfgifu, he was outlawed and compelled to flee to Flanders. But in 957 the Mercians and Northumbrians revolted and chose Edgar as their king. The new king at once recalled Dunstan, who was made a bishop. At first apparently he was without a see; but that of Worcester falling vacant, he was appointed to fill it. In 959 he received the bishopric of London as well. In the same year Edwig died and Edgar became sole king, Dunstan shared his triumph, and was appointed archbishop of Canterbury. On Edgar's death in 975 the archbishop's influence secured the crown for his elder son Edward. But with the accession of Aethelred in 979 Dunstan's public career came to an end. He retired to Canterbury, and died on the 19th of May 988.

Dunstan is of more importance as a lay than as an ecclesiastical statesman. The great church movement of his time--the reformation of English monasticism on Benedictine lines--found in him a sympathizer, but in no sense an active participant. But as a secular statesman he occupies a high place. He guided the state successfully during the nine years' reign of the invalid Edred. Through that of Edgar, he was the king's chief minister and most trusted adviser; and to him a great share in its glories must be assigned.

See _Memorials of St Dunstan_, edited by W. Stubbs (London, 1874); _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, edited by C. Plummer (Oxford, 1892-1899).

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The date of Dunstan's birth here given is that given in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle and hitherto accepted. In an appendix to the _Bosworth Psalter_, edited by Mr Edmund Bishop and Abbot Gasquet (1908), Mr Leslie A. St L. Toke gives reason to believe that the date must be set back at least as early as 910.

DUNSTER, a market town in the Western parliamentary division of Somersetshire, England, 1-1/2 m. from the shore of the Bristol Channel, on the Minehead branch of the Great Western railway. Pop. (1901) 1182. Its streets, sloping sharply, contain many old houses. On an eminence stands the ancient castle, entered by a gateway of the 13th century. There are portions of later date, but still ancient, in the main building, but it has been considerably modernized as a residence. The church of St George has Norman portions, but the building is in the main Perpendicular. The fine tower in this style is characteristic of this part of England. There are traces of monastic buildings near the church, for it belonged to a Benedictine house of early Norman foundation. The church is cruciform and the altar stands beneath the eastern lantern arch, a fine rood screen separating off the choir, which was devoted to monastic use, while the nave was kept for the parishioners, in consequence of a dispute between the vicar and the monastery in 1499. The Yarn Market, a picturesque octagonal building with deep sloping roof, in the main street, dates from c. 1600, and is a memorial of Dunster's former important manufacture of cloth.

There were British, Roman and Saxon settlements at Dunster (_Torre Dunestorre_, _Dunester_), fortified against the piracies of the Irish Northmen. The Saxon fort of Alaric was replaced by a Norman castle built by William de Mohun, first lord of Dunster, who founded the priory of St George. Before 1183, Dunster had become a mesne borough, owned by the de Mohuns until the 14th century when it passed to the Luttrells, the present owners. Reginald de Mohun granted the first charter between 1245 and 1247, which diminished fines and tolls, limited the lord's "mercy," and provided that the burgesses should not against their will be made bailiffs or farmers of the seaport. John de Mohun granted other charters in 1301 and 1307. Dunster was only represented in parliament in conjunction with Minehead, one of its tithings being part of that borough. Representation began in 1562, and was lost in 1832. Feudal in origin, Dunster's later importance was commercial, and the port had a considerable wool, corn and cattle trade with Ireland. During the middle ages the Friday market and fair in Whit week, granted by the first charter, were centres for the sale of yarn and cloth called "Dunsters," made in the town. The market day is still Friday. The manufacture of cloth had disappeared, the harbour is silted up, and there is no special local industry.

See Sir H.C. Maxwell Lyte, _Dunster and its Lords_ (1882); _Victoria County History, Somerset_, vol. ii.

DUNTOCHER (Gaelic, "The Fort of ill hap"), a town on Dalmuir Burn, Dumbartonshire, Scotland, 9 m. from Glasgow. Pop. (1901) 2122. The district contains coal, limestone and ironstone, but there is not much mining. Many of the inhabitants are employed at the Singer factory in Kilbowie and at the Clyde Trust yards in Dalmuir. There are considerable Roman remains in the neighbourhood. Antoninus' Wall passed immediately to the south; the burn is crossed by a bridge alleged to be of Roman origin (which at least is doubtful); subterranean remains indicate a Roman structure; a Roman camp has been traced, and the vicinity has yielded a number of altars, urns, vases, coins and tablets, which are now in the custody of Glasgow University.

DUNTON, JOHN (1659-1733), English bookseller and author, was born at Graffham, in Huntingdonshire, on the 4th of May 1659. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather had all been clergymen. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to Thomas Parkhurst, bookseller, at the sign of the Bible and Three Crowns, Cheapside, London. Dunton ran away at once, but was soon brought back, and began to "love books." During the struggle which led to the Revolution, Dunton was the treasurer of the Whig apprentices. He became a bookseller at the sign of the Raven, near the Royal Exchange, and married Elizabeth Annesley, whose sister married Samuel Wesley. His wife managed his business, so that he was left free in a great measure to follow his own eccentric devices. In 1686, probably because he was concerned in the Monmouth rising, he visited New England, where he stayed eight months selling books and observing with interest the new country and its inhabitants. Dunton had become security for his brother's debts, and to escape the creditors he made a short excursion to Holland. On his return to England, he opened a new shop in the Poultry in the hope of better times. Here he published weekly the _Athenian Mercury_ which professed to answer all questions on history, philosophy, love, marriage and things in general. His wife died in 1697, and he married a second time; but a quarrel about property led to a separation; and being incapable of managing his own affairs, he spent the last years of his life in great poverty. He died in 1733. He wrote a great many books and a number of political squibs on the Whig side, but only his _Life and Errors of John Dunton_ (1705), on account of its naivete, its pictures of bygone times, and of the literary history of the period, is remembered. His letters from New England were published in America in 1867.

DUNTZER, JOHANN HEINRICH JOSEPH (1813-1901), German philologist and historian of literature, was born at Cologne on the 12th of July 1813. After studying philology and especially ancient classics and Sanskrit at Bonn and Berlin (1830-1835), he took the degree of doctor of philosophy and established himself in 1837 at Bonn as _Privat docent_ for classical literature. He had already, in his Goethes _Faust in seiner Einheit und Ganzheit_ (1836) and _Goethe als Dramatiker_ (1837), advocated a new critical method in interpreting the German classics, which he wished to see treated like the ancient classics. He subsequently turned his attention almost exclusively to the poets of the German classical period, notably Goethe and Schiller. Duntzer's method met with much opposition and he consequently failed to obtain the professorship he coveted. In 1846 he accepted the post of librarian at the Roman Catholic gymnasium in Cologne, where he died on the 16th of December 1901. Duntzer was a painstaking and accurate critic, but lacking in inspiration and finer literary taste; consequently his work as a biographer and commentator has, to a great extent, been superseded and discredited.

Among his philological writings may be mentioned _Die Lehre von der lateinischen Wortbildung_ (1836); _Die Deklination der indogermanischen Sprachen_ (1839); _Homer und der epische Kyklos_ (1839); _Die homerischen Beiworter des Gotter- und Menschengeschlechts_ (1859). Of his works on the German classical poets, especially Goethe, Schiller and Herder, the following are

## particularly worthy of note, _Erlauterungen zu den deutschen

Klassikern_ (1853-1892); _Goethes Prometheus und Pandora_ (1850); _Goethes Faust_ (2 vols., 1850-1851; 2nd ed. 1857); _Goethes Gotz und Egmont_ (1854); _Aus Goethes Freundeskreise_ (1868); _Abhandlungen zu Goethes Leben und Werken_ (2 vols., 1885); _Goethes Tagebucher der sechs ersten weimarischen Jahre_ (1889); _Goethes Leben_ (1880; 2nd ed. 1883; Engl. transl. by T. Lyster, London, 1884); _Schillers Leben_ (1881); _Schiller und Goethe; Ubersicht und Erlauterung zum Briefwechsel zwischen Schiller und Goethe_ (1859); _Herders Reise nach Italien_ (1859); _Aus Herders Nachlass_ (3 vols., 1856-1857), and further, _Charlotte von Stein_ (1874).