[1] The date of his birth is variously given as 1623, 1624 and 1625
(Sibley's _Harvard Graduates_, 1883).
[2] _Cal. of St Pap._; _Dom._ (1661-1662) p. 408; _Notes and
Queries_, ix. ser. vii. 92.
[3] _Diary_, March 12, 17, 1662.
[4] Ib. May 27, 1667.
[5] Sibley, i. 46.
DOWNMAN, JOHN (1750-1824), English portrait painter, was the son of
Francis Downman, attorney, of St Neots, by Charlotte Goodsend, eldest
daughter of the private secretary to George I.; his grandfather, Hugh
Downman (1672-1729), having been the master of the House of Ordnance at
Sheerness. He is believed to have been born near Ruabon, educated first
at Chester, then at Liverpool, and finally at the Royal Academy schools,
and he was for a while in the studio of Benjamin West. His exquisite
pencil portrait drawings, slightly tinted in colour, usually from the
reverse, are well known, and many of them are of remarkable beauty.
Several volumes of sketches for these drawings are still in existence.
Downman is believed to have been "pressed" for the navy as a young man,
and on his escape settled down for a while in Cambridge, eventually
coming to London, and later (1804) going to reside in Kent in the
village of West Malling. He afterwards spent some part of his life in
the west of England, especially in Exeter, and then travelled all over
the country painting his dainty portraits. In 1818 he settled down at
Chester, finally removing to Wrexham, where his only daughter married
and where he died and was buried. He was an associate of the Royal
Academy. The Downman family is usually known as a Devonshire one, but
the exact connexion between the artist and the Devonshire branch has
not been traced. Many of his portraits have attached to them remarks of
considerable importance respecting the persons represented.
See _John Downman, his Life and Works_, by G. C. Williamson (London,
1907). (G. C. W.)
DOWNPATRICK, a market town and the county town of Co. Down, Ireland, in
the east parliamentary division, 28 m. S.S.E. of Belfast by the Belfast
& County Down railway. Pop. (1901) 2993. It stands picturesquely on a
sloping site near the south-west extremity of Strangford Lough. It is
the seat of the Protestant and Roman Catholic dioceses of Down. St
Patrick founded the see about 440, but the present Protestant cathedral
dates from 1790, the old structure, after suffering many vicissitudes,
having been in ruins for 250 years. The cathedral is said to contain the
remains of its founder, together with those of St Columba and St
Bridget. A round tower adjoining it was destroyed in 1790. A small trade
is carried on at Strangford Lough by means of vessels up to 100 tons,
which discharge at Quoile quay, about 1 m. from the town; but vessels of
larger tonnage can discharge at a steamboat quay lower down the Quoile.
The imports are principally iron, coal, salt and timber; the exports
barley, oats, cattle, pigs and potatoes. Linen manufacture is also
carried on, and brewing, tanning and soap-making give considerable
employment. The Down corporation race-meeting is important and attracts
visitors from far outside the county. The rath or dun from which the
town is named remains as one of the finest in Ireland. It was called
Rath-Keltair, or the rath of the hero Keltar, and covers an area of 10
acres. In the vicinity of the town are remnants of the monastery of
Saul, a foundation ascribed to St Patrick, and of Inch Abbey (1180),
founded by Sir John de Courcy. Three miles south is a fine stone circle,
and to the south-east are the wells of Struell, famous as miraculous
healers among the peasantry until modern times. The town is of extreme
antiquity. It was called _Dun-leth-glas_, the fort of the broken
fetters, from the miraculous deliverance from bondage of two sons of
Dichu, prince of Lecale, and the first convert of St Patrick. It is the
_Dunum_ of Ptolemy, and was a residence of the kings of Ulster. It was
already incorporated early in the 15th century. It returned two members
to the Irish parliament until the Union in 1800, and thereafter one to
the Imperial parliament until 1832.
DOWNS, the name of a system of chalk hills in the south-east of England.
For the etymology of the word and its meaning see DOWN. It is most
familiar in its application to the two ranges of the North and South
Downs. Of these the North Downs are confined chiefly to the counties of
Surrey and Kent, and the South to Sussex. Each forms a well-defined long
range springing from the chalk area of Dorsetshire and Hampshire, to
which, though broken up into a great number of short ranges and groups
of hills, the general name of the Western Downs is given. The Downs
enclose the rich district of the Weald (q.v.).
The North Downs, extending from a point near Farnham to the English
Channel between Dover and Folkestone, have a length along the crest
line, measured directly, of 95 m. The crest, however, is not continuous,
as the hills are breached by a succession of valleys, forming gaps
through which high-roads and railways converge upon London. The rivers
flowing through these gaps run northward, and, except in the extreme
east, are members of the Thames basin. These breaching valleys, which
are characteristic of the South Downs also, "carry us back to a time
when the greensand and chalk were continued across, or almost across,
the Weald in a great dome." The rivers "then ran down the slopes of the
dome, and as the chalk and greensand gradually weathered back ...
deepened and deepened their valleys, and thus were enabled to keep their
original course."[1] The western termination of the North Downs is the
Hog's Back, a narrow ridge, little more than a quarter of a mile broad
at the summit, sloping sharply north and south, and reaching 489 ft. in
height. At the west end a depression occurs where the rivers Wey and
Blackwater closely approach each other; and it is thought that the Wey
has beheaded the Blackwater, which formerly flowed through the gap. In
this depression lies Farnham, the first of a series of towns which have
grown up at these natural gateways through the hills. The Wey, flowing
south of the Hog's Back, breaches the Downs at its eastern extremity,
the town of Guildford standing at this point. The next gap is that of
the Mole, in which Dorking lies. Between Guildford and Dorking the main
line of the Downs reaches a height of 712 ft., but a lateral depression,
followed by the railway between these towns, marks off on the south a
loftier range of lower greensand, in which Leith Hill, famous as a
view-point, is 965 ft. in height. East of the Mole the northward slope
of the Downs is deeply cut by narrow valleys, and the depression above
Redhill may have been traversed by a stream subsequently beheaded by the
Mole. A height of 868 ft. is attained east of Caterham. The next river
to break through the main line is the Darent, but here another lateral
depression, watered by the headstreams of that river, marks off the
Ragstone Ridge, south of Sevenoaks, reaching 800 ft. The lateral
depression is continued along the valleys of streams tributary to the
Medway, so that nearly as far as Ashford the Downs consist of two
parallel ranges; but the Medway itself breaches both, Maidstone lying in
the gap. The elevation now begins to decrease, and 682 ft. is the
extreme height east of the Medway. The direction, hitherto E. by N.,
trends E.S.E. The final complete breach is made by the Great Stour,
between Ashford and Canterbury, east of which a height of 600 ft. is
rarely reached. The valley of the Little Stour, however, offers a
well-marked pass followed by the Folkestone-Canterbury railway, and the
North Downs finally fall to the sea in the grand white cliffs between
Dover and Folkestone.
The South Downs present similar characteristics on a minor scale.
Springing from the main mass of the chalk to the south of Petersfield
they have their greatest elevation (889 ft. in Butser Hill) at that
point, and extend E. by S. for 65 m. to the English Channel at the
cliffs of Beachy Head. As in the case of the North Downs a succession of
rivers breach the hills, and a succession of towns mark the gaps. These
are, from east to west, the Arun, with the town of Arundel, the Adur,
with Shoreham, the Ouse, with Lewes and Newhaven, and the Cuckmere, with
no considerable town. The steep slope of the South Downs is northward
towards the Weald. The southern slopes reach the coast east of Brighton,
but west of this town a flat coastal belt intervenes, widening westward.
Apart from the complete breaches mentioned, the South Downs, scored on
the south with many deep vales, are generally more easily penetrable
than the North Downs, and the coast is less continuous.
Smooth convex curves are characteristic of the Downs; their graceful and
striking outline gives them an importance in the landscape in excess of
their actual height; their flanks are well wooded, their summits covered
with close springy turf.
"THE DOWNS" is also the name of a roadstead in the English Channel off
Deal between the North and the South Foreland. It forms a favourite
anchorage during heavy weather, protected on the east by the Goodwin
Sands and on the north and west by the coast. It has depths down to 12
fathoms. Even during southerly gales some shelter is afforded, though
under this condition wrecks are not infrequent.