Images de page
PDF
ePub

DUNDEE-DUNDONALD.

He was

It stands mostly on the slope between Dundee performed) was destined for the army, and while Law (525 feet high, composed of trap, and with still a boy, obtained a commission in the 104th traces of ancient vitrification) and Balgay Hill and Regiment. At the age of 17, however, he joined the Tay. The streets are mostly narrow and irre- the Hind corvette, commanded by his uncle, Captain gular. The Royal Exchange, built in the Flemish Sir Alexander Cochrane, and began the career in pointed style of the 15th c., at a cost of upwards which he was destined to win so much renown. In of £12,000, and opened in 1856; the Corn Exchange, 1795, as acting lieutenant of the Thetis, he assisted capable of containing 2000 people; the Infirmary; in the capture, on the coast of North America, of St Paul's Episcopal Church, with a tower and two of a French squadron of five sail. In 1800, he spire 217 feet high; the old tower or steeple of St became master and commander of the Speedy sloopMary's parish church, 156 feet high-are the most of-war, of 14 guns and 54 men; and in ten months he striking architectural features of the town. D. has took 33 vessels, carrying together 128 guns and 533 several public parks, one of which, the Baxter men, besides assisting in the capture of many others. Park, on a beautiful slope to the eastward of the D. received his post-rank, 1801, for the capture, by town, is 37 acres in extent. A handsome Post- boarding, of El Gamo, a Spanish frigate of 32 guns, office and County Buildings are now (1861) being off Barcelona. In the same year the little Speedy erected. D. is the chief seat in Great Britain of the was herself captured by the French squadron under manufacture of coarse linen fabrics (osnaburgs, Linois, on which occasion his sword was returned to sheetings, ducks, dowlas, drills, canvas, and cord- him, with the request that he would continue to age). Manufactures of jute are almost exclusively wear what he had so nobly used. On his exchange, carried on here. The consumption in D. of this he returned to England, and went on half-pay. In material, which is grown in India, amounts nearly 1803, he was appointed to the Arab, 22, and served to 40,000 tons annually. The raw material costs at the blockade of Boulogne. In 1804, he removed in D. a little over 2d. per lb.; and the cloth made to the Pallas frigate, 32, and was sent out to assist from it, reckoned by weight, is the cheapest his uncle, then employed in the blockade of Ferrol. textile fabric made in Great Britain. Of jute He made several valuable prizes while cruising off many varieties of fabric are made, from the coarsest the Spanish coast, among others the Fortuna, with nail-bagging to carpets of great beauty. This specie to the amount of £150,000, besides merchanrange includes packsheets for every species of dise, but generously returned 10,000 crowns to the merchandise, sacks for wool, coffee, guano, &c. The Spanish captain and supercargo. In 1806, he cut out annual value of the flax, hemp, and jute manufac- the Tapageuse corvette, which lay in the Gironde, tures in D. is upwards of £3,000,000. D. is also under the protection of two heavy batteries. He famous for its manufacture of confectionary, which destroyed the semaphores along the French coast, is exported to all parts of the world. One firm uses and carried by storm the battery at Pointe l'Equilon, 150 tons of bitter oranges annually in the manufac- which he blew up. Being now transferred to ture of marmalade. Ship-building and machine- L'Impérieuse, he took and destroyed, in the month making are carried on to some extent. D. has ending January 7, 1807, 15 of the enemy's ships, magnificent harbours, in addition to the tide chiefly laden with wine and provisions. harbour. Its wet docks cover 33 acres. The new next sent to co-operate with the patriots on the coast dock will admit vessels drawing, at spring-tides, 25 of Catalonia, and contributed to the surrender of the feet; and at neap-tides, 19 feet. There are also a castle of Mongat. After harassing the French coast, very extensive dry dock and patent slip for repair- and destroying the semaphores on the coast of ing ships, and six commodious ship-building yards. Languedoc, he volunteered for the defence of Fort The docks have been erected at a cost of £600,000. Trinidad, at Rosas, on the coast of Catalonia. At the At the north end of the mid quay stands the Royal head of 80 of his own men, and the same number of Arch, raised at a cost of £2500, in commemoration Spaniards, he repelled 1000 of the enemy in an assault of Her Majesty's landing here in 1844. D. is well made by them upon the castle. He protracted the supplied with water from Monikie, 10 miles dis- siege for 12 days, then blew up the magazine, and tant. Pop. (1861) 90,425. D. sends one member to returned to his ship. In April 1809, he was selected parliament. It was an important place in the 12th by the Admiralty for the daring and hazardous century. Edward I. was here in 1296 and 1303. service of burning the French fleet then lying at Wallace is said to have taken the castle in 1297, anchor, and blockaded by Lord Gambier, in the and Bruce demolished it in 1313. The Duke of Basque Roads. At night he went on board one of Lancaster burned D. in 1385, and the Marquis of the fireships, containing 1500 barrels of gunpowder, Montrose pillaged it in 1645. Charles II. lived and performed the service intrusted to him with here, after his coronation at Scone, in 1650. On characteristic intrepidity. He was rewarded with the refusal of D. to submit to Cromwell, General the knighthood of the Bath. He had been chosen Monk, in 1651, sacked and burned it, massacring M.P. for Westminster in 1807; and his charges 1000 citizens and soldiers, and filling 60 vessels of incompetency against Lord Gambier led to a with booty, which were totally wrecked on their court-martial upon that nobleman. Lord Gambier, voyage to England. D. was one of the first Scotch after a partial trial, was acquitted, and the protowns which publicly renounced Romanism at the fessional prospects of his assailant were ruined. Reformation. Wishart the martyr preached here During the rest of the war, the country lost the during the plague of 1544, from the Cowgate arch, incalculable benefit of his services at sea, the navy now the only relic of the old walls. In 1860, 3130 gaining, on the other hand, such small advantage vessels, of 396,919 tons, entered and cleared the as could in those days be derived from D.'s protests port. in parliament against naval abuses. Early in 1814, he was accused of complicity in fraudulent stock. jobbing transactions. A rumour of the downfall of Napoleon having caused a sudden rise in the funds, D. and his friends were charged with having fraudulently propagated the rumour, and with having sold out' to a large amount. He was found guilty of fraud, and was sentenced to pay a fine of £1000, to suffer a year's imprisonment, and to stand in the pillory. The latter part of the punishment

DUNDO'NALD, THOMAS COCHRANE, EARL OF, son of the ninth Earl of Dundonald, was born December 14, 1775. His education was scanty, his father having so completely wasted his means in scientific research that he could not afford to pay for his son's schooling, while his pride would not allow him to accept the offer of his parish minister to teach the lad gratuitously. The young Lord Cochrane (under which name his great naval exploits were

[ocr errors]

DUNDRUM BAY-DUNES.

was remitted, but he was deprived of the order of the Bath, of his rank in the navy, and expelled from the House of Commons. A new writ was issued for Westminster; but his constituents immediately re-elected him, notwithstanding his expulsion from the House; and his daring was shewn by his escape from prison, and his re-appearance in the House. He represented Westminster until 1818, when, panting for a more active and eventful career, he drew his sword in defence of the independence of the South American colonies of Spain. The command of the fleet of the republic of Chili was offered to him, and the terror of his name materially contributed to the success of the national cause. Valdivia, the last stronghold of the Spaniards, was captured by him. Another daring exploit was the cutting out of a large 40-gun frigate from under the guns of the castle of Callao, 5th November 1820. The Emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro, afterwards gave him the command of the Brazilian fleet, and created him a marquis. In 1827 and 1828, he assisted in the Greek war of independence. In 1830, the Whig administration of Earl Grey came into office, and, believing him to have been the victim of a cruel and unjust persecution, hastened to restore him to his naval rank. In 1831, he succeeded to the earldom. In 1847, Queen Victoria conferred on him the Grand Cross of the Bath. He was also appointed commander-in-chief on the North American and West India station. In 1851, he was Vice-admiral of the White, and in 1854, Rear-admiral of the United Kingdom, a distinction which he held until his death. On his retirement from active service, he devoted himself to scientific inventions. He made improvements in poop and signal lights, and especially turned his attention to naval projectiles. He declared himself to be in possession of a means of annihilating an enemy's Heet, and during the Russian war offered to destroy | Sebastopol in a few hours with perfect security to the assailants. His plans were, however, rejected. When upwards of 80 years of age, he published his Autobiography-the record of a career almost unequalled even by British seamen for desperate service and dauntless exploit. He died October 31, 1860, and was interred in Westminster Abbey. In his naval expeditions, it was his fate to be constantly opposed to forces greatly superior to his own in numbers and metal. His inventiveness and fertility of resource under such circumstances have perhaps never been equalled. His daring would have been, in a man of less genius, the height of rashness, yet the almost unvarying success of his manoeuvres and exploits attests his forethought, and his happy adaptation of slender means to the achievement of great ends and noble enterprises. In person, he was tall and broad built; and a slight stoop, contracted by service in the small sloops and corvettes of his early days, scarcely impaired a height of stature that might be described as commanding. His features were Scottish in character, and strongly marked, bearing in deep lines the traces of struggle, sorrow, and the wear and tear of an unusually long, active, and eventful life. His life at sea was a constant romance, and the story of his ubiquitous and incessant actions against the enemy will remain the wonder and delight of sailors of every age and nation.

DUNDRUM BAY, an inlet of the Irish Sea, on the east coast of Ireland, in the county of Down, 5 miles to the south of Downpatrick, is about 10 miles wide at its entrance, and forms a long curve into the shore, with a uniform breadth of about 24 miles. Here, in 1846, the steam-ship Great Britain was stranded, but was got off in the following year without having suffered any very serious damage.

DUNE DIN, the capital of the province of Otago, in New Zealand, a colony situated in lat. 45° 50′ S., long. 170° 36′ E., on the east side of the Middle Isle, towards its southern extremity. It appears to be, with the comparatively insignificant exception of Invercargill, the only seaport of its own section of the colony. Since its foundation in 1848, the place has rapidly increased in importance and prosperity. In 1859, the foreign trade was represented by 54 vessels and 16,606 tons inwards, and by 52 vessels and 16,119 tons outwards During the same year, the imports and the exports were valued respectively at £218,845 and £81,578 Under the latter head, the principal articles were grain, potatoes, and wool. Among the staple products, the wool alone was worth nearly thrice as much as all the others taken together, yielding £57,925 out of the above stated amount of £81,578. The extension of this branch of traffic has been truly marvellous. Between 1853 and 1859, the quantity rose from 5000 pounds to 900,000, so that, in six years, the proportion had become as 180 to 1. With respect to population, the official returns do not sufficiently distinguish D. from its district. But, in the whole of Otago, the white inhabitants of 1859 were estimated at 9010; while in 1850 they had been only 1149. At the latest moment, the official returns for one year more have come to hand, shewing, in almost every particular, a very considerable improvement. In 1860 the foreign trade was represented by 69 vessels and 24,721 tons inwards and by 60 vessels and 23,458 tons outwards-the superiority over the immediately preceding year bearing more largely on the size of the ships than even on their number. In 1860, again, the imports and the exports were valued respectively at £288,483 and £51,181-the diminution under the latter head comprising a decrease in wool from 900,000 lbs. to 654,270. Finally, in the course of the intermediate year, the population of Otago-meaning that only of European origin-had risen from 9010 to 12,691, or at the rate of fully 40 per cent.

At

DUNES, from the same root as Dun (q. v.), a hill, the name given to the sand-hills or mounds which stretch less or more along the sea-coast of the Netherlands and north of France. These dunes are a natural curiosity. As if anxious to save the low countries from tidal inundation, Nature has for centuries been energetically working to increase the magnitude of the mounds on the coast. low water, when the beach is exposed to the action of the winds from the German Ocean, clouds of sand are raised into the air, and showered down upon the country for at least a mile inland; and this constantly going on, the result is, that along the whole line, from Haarlem to about Dunkirk or Calais, the coast consists of sandy mounds of great breadth, partially covered with grass and heath, but unfit for pasturage or any other purpose, and these are the bulwarks which protect the coast. In some places, these dunes look like a series of irregular hills; and when seen from the tops of the steeples, they are so huge as to shut out the view of the sea. The traveller, in visiting them from the fertile plains, all at once ascends into a region of desert barrenness. He walks on and on for miles in a wilderness such as might be expected to be seen in Africa, and at last emerges on the sea-shore, where the mode of creation of this singular kind of territory is at once conspicuous. Loose particles of sand are blown in his face; and as he descends to the shore, he sinks to the ankle in the drifted heaps. In some parts of these dreary solitudes, the sandy soil has been prevented from rising with the wind and injuring the fertile country, by

DUNFERMLINE-DUNG BEETLE.

In the

in Ulster. The chief manufactures are linen, coarse earthen-ware, and firebrick. Pop. (1861) 3856. It sends one member to parliament. It was the chief seat of the O'Neils, the kings of Ulster, till 1607 Its castle was destroyed by the parliamentary forces

in 1641.

being sown with the seeds of a kind of bent-grass, consists of a square with diverging streets. and in a few spots fir-trees have been successfully vicinity are the largest lime-quarries and collieries planted.'-Tour in Holland, by W. Chambers. The English term down (q. v.) has a similar meaning. DUNFERMLINE, a royal burgh in Fife, of the western district of which it is the chief town, under the jurisdiction of a sheriff-substitute, who holds courts twice a week during the session. The town is situated on a long swelling ridge, 3 miles from the Firth of Forth, and 16 miles west-north-west from Edinburgh, 300 feet above the mean level of the firth, and seen from the south, has an imposing appearance. The date of the origin of the town is not known, but it was a place of note before the end of the 11th century. Here, King Malcolm Canmore and his queen, St Margaret, between the years 1070 and 1093, founded an abbey for Benedictines brought from Canterbury. In 1303-1304, Edward I. of England wintered here, the buildings being then described as capable of accommodating three kings and their suits. In 1588, D. was created a royal burgh by James VI. David II., James I. of Scotland, and Charles I., were born here; and

DUNGA'RVAN, a parliamentary and municipal burgh, seaport, and bathing-place, in the south of Waterford county, 25 miles west-south-west of Waterford. Pop. of parliamentary burgh (1861) 8614, chiefly engaged in hake, cod, herring, &c. fisheries. The chief exports are grain, butter, cattle, and fish. Vessels of more than 250 tons cannot discharge at the quay. D. has the remains of an Augustinian abbey, founded in the 7th c. by St Garvan. It has besides the remains of walls built by King John, who also built the castle, now a barracks.-Dungarvan Bay is three miles across and three deep, with one to five fathoms of water.

Dung Beetle (Geotrupes stercorarius).

DUNG BEETLE, the common name of many Malcolm Canmore, his queen Margaret, Edgar, feed upon the dung of animals, and for the most part coleopterous insects of the tribe Scarabaides, which Alexander I., David I., Malcolm the Maiden, live in it. They are found in all parts of the world. Alexander III., Robert Bruce, his queen Elizabeth, and nephew Randolph, Annabella, queen of Robert Many of them belong to the section of Scarabaides III., Robert Duke of Albany, governor of Scot-called Coprophagi (Gr. dung-eaters); but others, land, were buried in the abbey and its precincts. stercorarius), to the section called Arenicoli (Lat. as the DOR, or SHARD-BORN BEETLE (Geotrupes The tomb of Robert the Bruce was discovered at sand-dwelling), distinguished by peculiarities in the the building of the new church, which was opened antennæ, mandibles, &c. in 1821. The skeleton of the king was disinterred, Neither section, however, consists exclusively of insects entitled from their habits to be called dung beetles, some of the Copmarine vegetables in a rophagi feeding chiefly on state of putrescence, and some of the Arenicoli on the roots of plants. The common British beetles; it DOR is one of the most is of a stout form, less than brilliant metallic and blue an inch long; black, with heard droning through the air towards the close of reflections on the under surface; it may often be and certainty to cow-dung, on which it feeds, and the summer twilight, and finds its way with rapidity under which it burrows, making a large cylindrical hole, often of considerable depth, and depositing therein its eggs, enveloped in a mass of dung. These habits-more or less modified-are shared by many other species, which thus not only hasten the removal of what would otherwise become offensive on the surface of the ground, but even distribute it in the soil, where it affords nourishment to plants.-The sacred beetle or Scarabæus (q. v.) of the Egyptians (Scarabaus sacer, or Ateuchus sacer of molern entosize and colour much resembling the dor. It is mologists) is a true D. B., one of the Coprophagi, in found not only in Egypt, but in the south of Europe and west of Asia, and deposits its eggs in dung, which it rolls into little balls for the purpose. A nearly allied insect (Gymnopleurus pilularius), a native of North America, is known as the TUMBLEBUG or BEETLE, from its habit of rolling globular pellets of dung to the place where they are to be buried in the earth. Several individuals sometimes combine their strength in this curious operation, which is performed by the hind-feet pushing backwards.-The dor, and some other dung beetles, simulate death to deceive their enemies when they apprehend danger, not, like many insects,

and a cast was taken of the cranium. Some interesting fragments of the ancient regal and ecclesiastical magnificence of D. still remain. What is called Malcolm Canmore's Tower is a mass of shapeless ruins, but the south wall of the palace of the Stuarts still exists, overhanging the romantic glen of Pittencrieff, a noble wreck, with massive flying buttresses. Of the abbey, the Frater Hall or refectory, and a tower and arched gateway, still remain. The nave of the abbey church, consecrated in 1150, is in the Romanesque style, 106 feet long, and 55 wide. The choir, built about 1250, a fine example of the First Pointed style, was taken down in 1818-1821, when it was replaced by what is now the parish church, surmounted by a square tower 100 feet high, round which is the inscription, in open hewn capital letters, 'King Robert the Bruce.' The modern history of D. is chiefly remarkable in connection with the rise of Scottish dissent, Ralph Erskine and Thomas Gillespie having respectively been founders of the Seceder and Relief bodies, now joined under the name of United Presbyterians. The staple trade of the town is damask linen-weaving, which took its rise about the beginning of last century: there are likewise large collieries and lime-works, iron foundries, breweries, dye-works, a soap work, a flax spinning-mill, bleach-works, four power-weaving, besides several hand-loom factories. See article DAMASK. The public buildings aretown-house and county buildings, each having a spire, and the prison, poors-house, and music hall. There are eight fairs, a monthly cattle-market, and two weekly markets for grain and country produce. Pop. of parish (1861), 20,952, of which the town contains 13,504. It joins with Stirling, Inverkeithing, Queensferry, and Culross in returning a member to parliament.

DUNGA'NNON, a parliamentary and municipal burgh in the east of Tyrone, near a tributary of the Blackwater, eleven miles north-north-west of Armagh, and eight west of Lough Neagh. It lies on a hill-slope, in a densely peopled district, with high mountains to the west. It is well built, and

DUNGEON-DUNNET HEAD.

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 them selves in that position. Crows and other birds are supposed to prefer them in a living state.

DUNGEON. 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 unirteresting appearance. Pop. in 1861, 32,215.

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, Churen 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.

DU'NLIN, or PURRE (Tringa alpina, T. cinclus, or7. variabilis), a bird of the family Scolopacida (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

[graphic][ocr errors][merged small]

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.'

DUNMOW 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 prize had been instituted, and since that time it has been awarded only on eight occasions, of which 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 locse 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 rest

[merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small]

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 Guienne. The next grand series of successes on the part of D. was the expulsion of the English

[ocr errors]

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 Englis He never had a force under him which could enable him to win a victory that might balance Agincourt or Crécy, Lut 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 tine villas around, has of late years sprung up. The population fluctuates from 1500 to 2500.

« PrécédentContinuer »