by contracting their bodies as much as possible, and drawing in their legs, but by stretching every part out to the utmost, and rigidly fixing themselves in that position. Crows and other birds are supposed to prefer them in a living state.

DU'NGEON. See DONJON.

DUNKELD, a city and burgh of barony in the east of Perthshire, 15 miles north-north-west of Perth. It lies in a deep romantic hollow, on the great east pass (of Birnam) to the Highlands, on the left bank of the Tay, across which it communicates with the south by a handsome bridge, built in 1809 by the Duke of Athole. It is environed by darkwooded and craggy mountains. Pop. (1861) 929. D. is a place of great antiquity, dating probably from the 7th or 8th century. About the year 1130, King David I. made it the seat of a bishopric, of which the Culdees of the ancient abbey were the chapter. The choir of the cathedral, chiefly in the First Pointed style, was built between 1318 and 1337; the nave, in the Second Pointed style, was built between 1406 and 1464; and the tower and chapterhouse, also in the Second Pointed style, were built between 1470 and 1477. The choir is now the parish church. The nave, which is in ruins, contains one or two ancient monuments. The monument of the Wolf of Badenoch (Alexander Stuart, Earl of Buchan, who died in 1384) lies in the vestibule. The Duke of Athole's grounds, unsurpassed in Scotland for extent and beauty, lie on the west and north of D., and include the cathedral; Craigvinean and Craig-y-Barns; 50 miles of walks, and 30 miles of drives; falls of the Bran (upper one, 80 feet), near Ossian's Hall at the Rumbling Bridge; and 20 square miles of larch-wood, including the first two larches planted in Britain (in 1737). D., in ancient times, is said to have been the seat of the Pictish kings. It was the seat of a diocese from 1127 to 1688. Three miles south of D. stood Birnam Wood, so famous in connection with the fate of Macbeth.

DUNKIRK, or DUNKERQUE, the most northerly seaport and fortified town of France, stands on the eastern shore of the Strait of Dover, in the department of Nord, its distance from Paris being in a direct line about 155 miles north, and from Lille about 43 miles north-west. The town, which is connected by railway and canal with the principal manufacturing centres of Belgium and France, is surrounded by ramparts and ditches, and is defended by a citadel. It is well built, the streets spacious and well paved, the houses chiefly of brick. Its quay and pier, its church of St Eloi-a Gothic structure, having a handsome though rather incongruous frontispiece in its Corinthian portico -its town-hall, barracks, college, and theatre, are the principal architectural features. The harbour of D. is shallow, and the entrance difficult, but the roadstead is large and safe. D. has manufactures of soap, starch, beer, beetroot-sugar, cordage, and leather; also metal foundries, distilleries, salt-refineries, and ship-building yards. Forming as it does the outlet for the great manufacturing department of Nord, its trade by sea is very considerable. Since becoming a free port, it has also carried on a good trade in wine and liqueurs. Its cod and herring fisheries are actively prosecuted. The immediate vicinity of D. has a dreary and uninteresting appearance. Pop. 26,132.

D. is a place of considerable historic interest. It owes its origin, it is said, to the church built by St Eloi in the 7th c., in the midst of a waste of sand-hills or dunes, and hence its name, 'Churca of the Dunes.' D. was burned by the English in 1388, taken by them under Oliver Cromwell in

1658, but sold to Louis XIV. by Charles II. for a sum of money in 1662. By the treaty of Utrecht in 1715, the French were compelled to destroy the fortifications of D., which were again restored, however, in 1783. In 1793, the allies under the Duke of York laid siege to D., but were compelled by the French to retire, after having suffered severely. D. was made a free port in 1826.

or T. variabilis), a bird of the family Scolopacida DU'NLIN, or PURRE (Tringa alpina, T. cinclus, (Snipes, &c.), and of the large group to which the is not quite nine inches in length from the extremity names Sandpiper and Stint are variously given. It of the bill to that of the tail. The plumage undergoes great variations in summer and winter. It is a

very widely diffused bird. In summer, it frequents even the desolate shores of Melville Island. It is to be seen in autumn and winter on the shores of Britain and of most parts of Europe; often in very great numbers on sandy or muddy sea-shores; and Gulf of St Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico. It is equally common on those of America from the exhibits great restlessness and activity in running about, searching and probing for its food. When flying in great autumnal flocks, its aerial movements are extremely beautiful, each individual of the vast impulsion as to exhibit alternately the upper and assemblage yielding so instantaneously to the same the under surface of the body, so that we have for a time a living moving cloud of dusky brown, and then a brilliant flash of snowy whiteness.'

DU'NMOW FLITCH OF BACON, a prize instituted at Dunmow, in Essex, in 1244, by Robert de Fitzwalter, on the following conditions: "That whatever married couple will go to the priory, and kneeling on two sharp-pointed stones, will swear that they have not quarrelled nor repented of their marriage within a year and a day after its celebration, shall receive a flitch of bacon.' The prize was first claimed in 1445, two hundred years after the has been awarded only on eight occasions, of which prize had been instituted, and since that time it the last two were in 1855 and in 1860. Endeavours are being made to perpetuate the custom.

DU'NNAGE, on shipboard, is a name applied to miscellaneous fagots, boughs, bamboos, old mats or sails, and loose wood of any kind, laid in the bottom of the hold to rest the cargo upon; either to keep the ship in trim, or to preserve the cargo from damage by leakage.

DU'NNET HEAD, a rocky peninsula, 100 to 600 feet high, the most northerly point of Scotland, on the north coast of Caithness, in lat. 58° 40′ N, and long. 3° 21′ W. It consists of upper old red

of James II. and Charles II., D. C. was one of the state prisons, where the Covenanters were confined. It was dismantled after the rebellion of 1715, on the attainder of the last Earl Marischal.

DUNOIS, JEAN, called the Bastard of Orleans, Count of Dunois and Longueville, one of the most brilliant soldiers that France ever produced, was born about the year 1403. He was the natural son of Louis Duke of Orleans, brother of Charles VI., and was brought up in the house of that prince along with his legitimate children. D. is said to have been intended for the church, but this is doubted. His first important military achievement was the overthrow of the English at Montargis (1427). He next threw himself into Orleans with a small body of men, and bravely defended the place till the arrival of the famous Joan of Arc, whose religious enthusiasm combined with the valour of the Bastard raised the drooping spirits of the French, and the English were obliged to raise the siege. This was the turning-point in the fortunes of the French nation. In 1429, D. and the Maid of Orleans won the battle of Patay, after which he marched, with a small body of men, through the provinces then overrun by the English, and took the fortified towns. The capture and death of Joan of Arc arrested for a moment the progress of the French arms, but the heroism of D. was irresistible. He took Chartres, the key of Paris, forced Bedford to raise the siege of Lagny, chased the enemy from Paris, and within a very short period deprived them of all their French conquests except Normandy and truienne. The next grand series of successes on the part of D. was the expulsion of the English

from Normandy. Town after town yielded-Rouen, Harfleur, Honfleur, Caen, Falaise, Cherbourg. This splendid campaign lasted only a year and six days. Not less triumphant was his career immediately after in Guienne; Montguyon, Blaye, Fronsac, Bordeaux, and lastly Bayonne, fell into his hands. The English, in fact, were swept out of the country, and the freedom of France from all external pressure permanently secured. Louis XI., on his accession to the throne in 1462, despatched D. as governor to Genoa, which had yielded itself to France, but soon after, in a fit of jealousy and suspicion, deprived him of all his offices. D. now placed himself at the head of the alliance Pour le Bien Public, and by the treaty of Conflans, 1465, recovered all his confiscated estates. He died 24th November 1468. There is no name so popular in France as that of D.; there is no hero so national; he laboured 25 years for the deliverance of his country, and this alone-his sword was never unsheathed, except against the English. He never had a force under him which could enable him to win a victory that might balance Agincourt or Crécy, but the multitude and constancy of his petty successes served the cause of France more effectively than great and sanguinary contests would have done.

DUNOON, one of the most frequented seabathing places and summer residences in the west of Scotland, is situated in the south-east of Argyleshire, on the west side of the Firth of Clyde, nine miles west of Greenock. A village existed here from a very early date, but a new well-built town, with fine villas around, has of late years sprung up. The population fluctuates from 1500 to 2500

Dunoon Castle, of which only a small part now remains stood on a conical hill near the pier, and was once a royal palace and strong fortress. The Argyle family once lived here, but the building became a ruin about 1700.

DUNSE, a burgh of barony in the Merse, in the middle of Berwickshire, the largest town in the county, on an eminence on the Whitadder, 44 miles south-east of Edinburgh, and 13 west of Berwickon-Tweed. Pop. (1861) 2556. To the north of the town is Dunse Law, 630 feet high.

DUNSI'NNANE, one of the Sidlaw Hills, in the east of Perthshire, 1114 feet high, 7 miles northeast of Perth, and looking towards Birnam Hill (q. v.). On the top are the remains of the rampart and fosse of an ancient fortification, popularly called Macbeth's Castle.

DUNS SCOTUS, one of the most famous and influential of the scholastics of the 14th century. His history is involved in considerable obscurity. England, Scotland, and Ireland all contend for the honour of having given him birth, but without anything to offer in support of their respective claims beyond inference from his name. As to the date of his birth, all that can be said is, that it was in the last half of the 13th century. Whatever was the history of his youth, he entered early the order of Franciscans, studied at Oxford, and soon became professor of theology. His prelections were attended by crowds of auditors, the number of students at Oxford then exceeding 30,000. About 1304, he removed to Paris, then the chief seat of scholastic philosophy, where he taught theology with great applause. He was especially distinguished for the zeal and ability with which he defended the immaculate conception of the Virgin against Thomas Aquinas. He is said to have demolished 200 objections to the doctrine, and established it by a cloud of proofs. It continued long a point of dispute between the Scotists and Thomists; and it was only in 1854 that the dogma was by papal authority declared a necessary doctrine of the Catholic faith, which it is now heresy to deny. In 1308, D. S. was called to Cologne to oppose the heresies of the Beguin brethren, and there he suddenly died, in the 34th or 43d year of his life. D. S. was mostly opposed to Thomas Aquinas in theological opinions, and held very tenaciously the doctrine of the absolute freedom of the human will, from whose spontaneous exercise he derives all morality. He was a realist in philosophy, and his followers are on that ground opposed to the Occamists, who were nominalists. See NOMINALISTS AND REALISTS. He defended his opinions in the style of dialectic then in vogue, and with an acuteness that got him from his contemporaries the name of Doctor Subtilis. When, however, at the revival of learning, the followers of Duns, or Dunsmen, saw that the hair-splitting style of reasoning was going out of fashion, they 'raged,' as old Tyndal says, 'in every pulpit' against the new classic studies, so that the name gradually came to signify not only one opposed to learning, but one slow at learning; hence our word dunce, a blockhead. It would be difficult to indicate the nature of his speculative opinions without entering into particulars, nor are his writings as yet sufficiently known and explored for the formation of a decided judgment. The most famous of his works, besides his commentaries on the Bible and on Aristotle, is his Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, called the Opus Oroniense, of which the Opus Parisiense is an abridgment. The chief edition of his works is that of Luke Wadding (12 vols., Lyon, 1639), but it is by no means complete. The controversies

carried on so long between the Scotists and Thomists owed their bitterness not so much to zcal for science and religion, as to the jealousy existing between the Franciscans and Dominicans.

DU'NSTABLE, a town in the south of Bedfordshire, at the east base of the Chiltern chalk-hills or Dunstable Downs, 18 miles south-south-west of Bedford. It chiefly consists of one main street crossed by another. The houses are mostly of brick, some of them very old. Pop. (1861) 4467. D. is the chief seat of the British straw-plait manufacture, which employs many women. Whiting is also made. In winter, many large larks are caught in the neighbourhood, and sold chiefly in London as an article of luxury. Henry I. founded here a priory of Black Canons, of which the present parish church is a part. D. was in 1110 the scene of some of the of Catherine, by Abbot Geoffry of St Albans. earliest theatricals, the subject being the miracles

DU'NSTAN, ST, was born at or near Glastonbury, in Somersetshire, 925 A. D. He was of noble birth, and even remotely related to the royal family, as well as connected with the church through two uncles, one of whom, Adelm, was Archbishop of Canterbury. His early studies were pursued with extraordinary assiduity; but besides his professional learning, D. possessed a variety of accomplishments. He was an excellent composer in music; he played skilfully upon various instruments; he was a painter, a worker in design, and a caligrapher; a jeweller, and a blacksmith. After he had taken the clerical habit, he was introduced by his uncle Adelm to King Athelstane, who seems to have been delighted with his music; but the courtiers envying the favour of the sovereign, denounced him as a dealer in sorcery, and procured his expulsion from court. D. now began to figure in a new character. Contiguous to the church of Glastonbury, he erected a cell, five feet in length by two in breadth, the floor of which was sunk beneath the surface, while the roof, on the outside, was only breast-high, so that he could stand upright in it, though unable to lie at full length. This was at once his bedchamber, his oratory, and his workshop. It was here that (according to the monkish legends) he had his most celebrated contest with the devil. One evening, while the saint was employed at his forge, the devil thrust his head in at the window, and began to tempt him with some immoral propositions. D. patiently endured the annoyance until his tongs were red hot in the fire, when, snatching them suddenly up, he seized the foul fiend by the nose, and held him till the whole neighbourhood resounded with the clamour of his agony. Gradually, D. acquired a great reputation for sanctity; and on the accession of Edmund to the throne in 940, he was recalled to court; but in spite of the exploits and penances which had made his banishment illustrious, he was still opposed by the courtiers, who saw his ambition, and dreaded his talents. A second time D. was dismissed, but the king made him Abbot of Glastonbury, and increased the privileges of that monastery. Edred, nicknamed debilis pedibus (weak in the feet), who succeeded Edmund in 946, shewed D. great favour. The saint now began to distinguish himself as a statesman, and the vigorous policy of Edred's reign is affirmed to have proceeded from the inspiration of Dunstan. If such was the case, then to D. was owing the complete subjugation of the Northumbrian Danes. Edred was succeeded by Edwy in 955, who detested D., and not without reason, for the saint, on the day of Edwy's coronation, had grossly insulted his wife and her mother. Besides, Edwy had long suspected D. of peculation in his charge, and this outrage made his wrath overflow