[1] His friendship with Victor Hugo was interrupted in 1833-1834 by
the articles contributed to the _Journal des debats_ by a friend and
protege of the poet, Granier de Cassagnac, who brought against Dumas
charges of wholesale plagiarism from other dramatists.
[2] The details of this collaboration were brought to light in a suit
brought against Dumas by Maquet with regard to his share in the
profits. See the _Gazette des tribunaux_ (January 21, 22, 28, and
February 4, 1858).
DUMAS, ALEXANDRE ["DUMAS _FILS_"] (1824-1895), French dramatist and
novelist, was born in Paris on the 27th of July 1824, the natural son of
Alexandre Dumas (see above) and the dressmaker Marie Labay. His father
at that date was still a humble clerk and not much more than a boy.
"Happily," writes the son, "my mother was a good woman, and worked hard
to bring me up"; while of his father he says, "by a most lucky chance he
happened to be well-natured," and "as soon as his first successes as a
dramatist" enabled him to do so, "recognized me and gave me his name."
Nevertheless, the lad's earlier school-life was made bitter by his
illegitimacy. The cruel taunts and malevolence of his companions rankled
through life (see preface to _La Femme de Claude_ and _L'Affaire
Clemenceau_), and left indelible marks on his character and thoughts.
Nor was his paternity, however distinguished, without peril. Alexandre
the younger and elder saw life together very thoroughly, and Paris can
have had few mysteries for them. Suddenly the son, who had been led to
regard his prodigal father's resources as inexhaustible, was rudely
undeceived. Coffers were empty, and he had accumulated debts to the
amount of two thousand pounds.
Thereupon he pulled himself together. To a son of Dumas the use of the
pen came naturally. Like most clever young writers--and report speaks of
him as specially brilliant at that time--he opened with a book of verse,
_Peches de jeunesse_ (1847). It was succeeded in 1848 by a novel, _La
Dame aux camelias_, a sort of reflection of the world in which he had
been living. The book had considerable success, and was followed, in
fairly quick succession, by _Le Roman d'une femme_ (1848) and _Diane de
Lys_ (1851). All this, however, did not deliver him from the load of
debt, which, as he tells us, remained odious. In 1849 he dramatized _La
Dame aux camelias_, but for various reasons, the rigour of the
censorship being the most important, it was not till the 2nd of February
1852, and then only by the intervention of Napoleon's all-powerful
minister, Morny, that the play could be produced at the Vaudeville. It
succeeded then, and has held the stage ever since, less perhaps from
inherent superiority to other plays which have foundered than to the
great opportunities it affords to any actress of genius.
Thenceforward Dumas's career was that of a brilliant and prosperous
dramatist. _Diane de Lys_ (1853), _Le Demi-Monde_ (1855), _La Question
d'argent_ (1857), _Le Fils naturel_ (1858), _Le Pere prodigue_ (1859)
followed rapidly. Debts became a thing of the past, and Dumas a wealthy
man. The didactic habit was always strong upon him. "Alexandre loves
preaching overmuch," wrote his father; and in most of his plays he
assumes the attitude of a rigid and uncompromising moralist commissioned
to impart to a heedless world lessons of deep import. The lessons
themselves are mostly concerned with the "eternal feminine," by which
Dumas was haunted, and differ in ethical value. Thus in _Les Idees de
Madame Aubray_ (1867) he inculcates the duty of the seducer to marry the
woman he has seduced; but in _La Femme de Claude_ (1873) he argues the
right of the husband to take the law into his own hand and kill the wife
who is unfaithful and worthless--a thesis again defended in his novel,
_L'Affaire Clemenceau_, and in his pamphlet, _L'Homme-femme_; while in
_Diane de Lys_ he had taught that the betrayed husband was entitled to
kill--not in a duel, but summarily--the man who had taken his honour;
and in _L'Etrangere_ (1876) the bad husband is the victim. Nor did he
preach only in his plays. He preached in voluminous introductions, and
pamphlets not a few. And when, in 1870 and 1872, France was going
through bitter hours of humiliation, he called her to repentance and
amendment in a _Nouvelle Lettre de Junius_ and two _Lettres sur les
choses du jour_.
As a moralist Dumas _fils_ took himself very seriously indeed. As a
dramatist, didacticism apart, he had great gifts. He knew his business
thoroughly, possessed the art of situation, interest, crisis--could
create characters that were real and alive. His dialogue also is
admirable, the repartee rapier-like, the wit most keen. He was
singularly happy, too, in his dramatic interpreters. The cast of
_L'Etrangere_, for instance, comprised Sarah Bernhardt, Sophie
Croizette, Madeleine Brohan, in the female characters; and Coquelin,
Got, Mounet-Sully and Febvre in the male characters; and Aimee Desclee,
whom he discovered, gave her genius to the creation of the parts of the
heroine in _Une Visite de noces_, the _Princesse Georges_ and _La Femme
de Claude_. His wit has been mentioned. He possessed it in abundance, of
a singularly trenchant kind. It shows itself less in his novels, which,
however, do not contain his best work; but in his introductions, whether
to his own books or those of his friends, and what may be called his
"occasional" writings, there is an admirable brightness. At work of this
kind he showed the highest literary skill. His style is that of the best
French traditions. Towards his father Dumas acted a kind of brother's
part, and while keeping strangely free from his literary influence, both
loved and admired him. The father never belonged to the French Academy.
The son was elected into that august assembly on the 30th of January
1874. He died on the 27th of November 1895.
See also Jules Claretie, _A. Dumas fils_ (1883); Paul Bourget,
_Nouveaux Essais de psychologie contemporaine_ (1885); "La Comedie de
moeurs," by Rene Doumic, in L. Petit de Julleville's _Histoire de la
langue et de la litterature francaise_, viii. pp. 82 et seq.; R.
Doumic, _Portraits d'ecrivains_ (1892), Emile Zola, _Documents
litteraires, etudes et portraits_ (1881). (F. T. M.)
DUMAS, GUILLAUME MATHIEU, COUNT (1753-1837), French general, was born at
Montpellier, of a noble family, on the 23rd of November 1753. He joined
the army in 1773, and entered upon active service in 1780, as
aide-de-camp to Rochambeau in the American War. He had a share in all
the principal engagements that occurred during a period of nearly two
years. On the conclusion of peace in 1783 he returned to France as a
major. He was engaged from 1784 to 1786 in exploring the archipelago and
the coasts of Turkey. He was present at the siege of Amsterdam in 1787,
where he co-operated with the Dutch against the Prussians. At the
Revolution he acted with Lafayette and the constitutional liberal party.
He was entrusted by the Assembly with the command of the escort which
conducted Louis XVI. to Paris from Varennes. In 1791 as a _marechal de
camp_ he was appointed to a command at Metz, where he rendered important
service in improving the discipline of the troops. Chosen a member of
the Legislative Assembly in the same year by the department of
Seine-et-Oise, he was in the following year elected president of the
Assembly. When the extreme republicans gained the ascendancy, however,
he judged it prudent to make his escape to England. Returning after a
brief interval, under the apprehension that his father-in-law would be
held responsible for his absence, he arrived in Paris in the midst of
the Reign of Terror, and had to flee to Switzerland. Soon after his
return to France he was elected a member of the Council of Ancients.
After the 18th Fructidor (1797) Dumas, being proscribed as a monarchist,
made his escape to Holstein, where he wrote the first part of his
_Precis des evenements militaires_ (published anonymously at Hamburg,
1800).
Recalled to his native country when Bonaparte became First Consul, he
was entrusted with the organization of the "Army of Reserve" at Dijon.
In 1801 he was nominated a councillor of state. He did good service at
Austerlitz, and went in 1806 to Naples, where he became minister of war
to Joseph Bonaparte. On the transfer of Joseph to the throne of Spain,
Dumas rejoined the French army, with which he served in Spain during the
campaign of 1808, and in Germany during that of 1809. After the battle
of Wagram, Dumas was employed in negotiating the armistice. In 1810 he
became grand officer of the Legion of Honour and a count of the empire.
In the Russian campaign of 1812 he held the post of intendant-general of
the army, which involved the charge of the administrative department.
The privations he suffered in the retreat from Moscow brought on a
dangerous illness. Resuming, on his recovery, his duties as
intendant-general, he took part in the battles of 1813, and was made
prisoner after the capitulation of Dresden. On the accession of Louis
XVIII., Dumas rendered his new sovereign important services in connexion
with the administration of the army. When Napoleon returned from Elba,
Dumas at first kept himself in retirement, but he was persuaded by
Joseph Bonaparte to present himself to the emperor, who employed him in
organizing the National Guard. Obliged to retire when Louis XVIII. was
restored, he devoted his leisure to the continuation of his _Precis des
evenements militaires_, of which nineteen volumes, embracing the history
of the war from 1798 to the peace of 1807, appeared between 1817 and
1826. A growing weakness of sight, ending in blindness, prevented him
from carrying the work further, but he translated Napier's _Peninsular
War_ as a sort of continuation to it. In 1818 Dumas was restored to
favour and admitted a member of the council of state, from which,
however, he was excluded in 1822. After the revolution of 1830, in which
he took an active part, Dumas was created a peer of France, and
re-entered the council of state. He died at Paris on the 16th of October
1837.
Besides the _Precis des evenements militaires_, which forms a valuable
source for the history of the period, Dumas wrote _Souvenirs du
lieut.-general Comte Mathieu Dumas_ (published posthumously by his
son, Paris, 1839).
DUMAS, JEAN BAPTISTE ANDRE (1800-1884), French chemist, was born at
Alais (Gard) on the 15th of July 1800. Disappointed in his early hope of
entering the navy, he became apprentice to an apothecary in his native
town; but seeing little prospect of advancement in that calling, he soon
moved to Geneva (in 1816). There he attended the lectures of such men as
M.A. Pictet in physics, C.G. de la Rive in chemistry, and A.P. de
Candolle in botany, and before he had reached his majority he was
engaged with Pierre Prevost in original work on problems of
physiological chemistry, and even of embryology. In 1823, acting on the
advice of A. von Humboldt, he left Geneva for Paris, which he made his
home for the rest of his life. There he gained the acquaintance of many
of the foremost scientific men of the day, and quickly made a name for
himself both as a teacher and an investigator, attaining within ten
years the honour of membership of the Academy of Sciences. When
approaching his fiftieth year he entered political life, and became a
member of the National Legislative Assembly. He acted as minister of
agriculture and commerce for a few months in 1850-1851, and subsequently
became a senator, president of the municipal council of Paris, and
master of the French mint; but his official career came to a sudden end
with the fall of the Second Empire. He died at Cannes on the 11th of
April 1884. Dumas is one of the most prominent figures in the chemical
history of the middle part of the 19th century. He was one of the first
to criticize the electro-chemical doctrines of J.J. Berzelius, which at
the time his work began were widely accepted as the true theory of the
constitution of compound bodies, and opposed a unitary view to the
dualistic conception of the Swedish chemist. In a paper on the atomic
theory, published so early as 1826, he anticipated to a remarkable
extent some ideas which are frequently supposed to belong to a later
period; and the continuation of these studies led him to the ideas about
substitution ("metalepsis") which were developed about 1839 into the
theory ("Older Type Theory") that in organic chemistry there are certain
types which remain unchanged even when their hydrogen is replaced by an
equivalent quantity of a haloid element. Many of his well-known
researches were carried out in support of these views, one of the most
important being that on the action of chlorine on acetic acid to form
trichloracetic acid--a derivative of essentially the same character as
the acetic acid itself. In the 1826 paper he described his famous method
for ascertaining vapour densities, and the redeterminations which he
undertook by its aid of the atomic weights of carbon and oxygen proved
the forerunners of a long series which included some thirty of the
elements, the results being mostly published in 1858-1860. He also
devised a method of great value in the quantitative analysis of organic
substances for the estimation of nitrogen, while the classification of
organic compounds into homologous series was advanced as one consequence
of his researches into the acids generated by the oxidation of the
alcohols. Dumas was a prolific writer, and his numerous books, essays,
memorial addresses, &c., show him to have been gifted with a clear and
graceful style. His earliest large work was a treatise on applied
chemistry in eight volumes, the first of which was published in 1828 and
the last twenty years afterwards. In the _Essai de statique chimique des
etres organises_ (1841), written jointly with J.B.J.D. Boussingault
(1802-1887), he treated the chemistry of life, both plant and animal;
this book brought him into conflict with Liebig, who conceived that some
of his prior work had been appropriated without due acknowledgment. In
1824, in conjunction with J.V. Audouin and A.T. Brongniart, he founded
the _Annales des sciences naturelles_, and from 1840 he was one of the
editors of the _Annales de chimie et de physique_. As a teacher Dumas
was much sought after for his lectures at the Sorbonne and other
institutions both on pure and applied science; and he was one of the
first men in France to realize the importance of experimental laboratory
teaching.
DU MAURIER, GEORGE LOUIS PALMELLA BUSSON (1834-1896), British artist and
writer, was born in Paris. His father, a naturalized British subject,
was the son of _emigres_ who had left France during the Reign of Terror
and settled in London. In _Peter Ibbetson_, the first of the three books
which won George Du Maurier late in life a reputation as novelist almost
as great as he had enjoyed as artist and humorist for more than a
generation, the author tells in the form of fiction the story of his
singularly happy childhood. He was brought to London, indeed, when three
or four years old, and spent in Devonshire Terrace and elsewhere two
colourless years; but vague memories of this period were suddenly
exchanged one beautiful day in June--"the first day of his conscious
existence"--for the charming realities of a French garden and "an old
yellow house with green shutters and mansard roofs of slate." Here, at
Passy, with his "gay and jovial father" and his young English mother,
the boy spent "seven years of sweet priceless home-life--seven times
four changing seasons of simple genial prae-Imperial Frenchness." The
second chapter of Du Maurier's life had for scene a Paris school, very
much in the style of that "Institution F. Brossard" which he describes,
at once so vividly and so sympathetically, in _The Martian_; and like
"Barty Josselin's" schoolfellow and biographer, he left it (in 1851) to
study chemistry at University College, London, actually setting up as an
analytical chemist afterwards in Bucklersbury. But this was clearly not
to be his _metier_, and the year 1856 found him once more in Paris, in
the Quartier Latin this time, in the core of that art-world of which in
_Trilby_, forty years later, he was to produce with pen and pencil so
idealistic and fascinating a picture. Then, like "Barty Josselin"
himself, he spent some years in Belgium and the Netherlands,
experiencing at Antwerp in 1857, when he was working in the studio of
van Lerius, the one great misfortune of his life--the gradual loss of
sight in his left eye, accompanied by alarming symptoms in his right. It
was a period of tragic anxiety, for it seemed possible that the right
eye might also become affected; but this did not happen, and the dismal
cloud was soon to show its silver lining, for, about Christmastime 1858,
there came to the forlorn invalid a copy of _Punch's Almanac_, and with
it the dawn of a new era in his career.
There can be little doubt that the study of this _Almanac_, and
especially of Leech's drawings in it, fired him with the ambition of
making his name as a graphic humorist; and it was not long after his
return to London in 1860 that he sent in his first contribution (very
much in Leech's manner) to _Punch_. Mark Lemon, then editor, appreciated
his talent, and on Leech's death in 1865 appointed him his successor,
counselling him with wise discrimination not to try to be "too funny,"
but "to undertake the light and graceful business" and be the "romantic
tenor" in Mr Punch's little company, while Keene, as Du Maurier puts it,
"with his magnificent highly-trained basso, sang the comic songs." These
respective roles the two artists continued to play until the end, seldom
trespassing on each other's province; the "comic songs" finding their
inspiration principally in the life of the homely middle and lower
middle classes, while the "light and graceful business" enacted itself
almost exclusively in "good Society." To a great extent, also, Du
Maurier had to leave outdoor life to Keene, his weak sight making it
difficult for him to study and sketch in the open air and sunshine, thus
cutting him off, as he records regretfully, from "so much that is so
popular, delightful and exhilarating in English country life"--hunting
and shooting and fishing and the like. He contrived, however, to give
due attention to milder forms of outdoor recreation, and turned to good
account his familiarity with Hampstead Heath and Rotten Row, and his
holidays with his family at Whitby and Scarborough, Boulogne and Dieppe.
Of Du Maurier's life during the thirty-six years of his connexion with
_Punch_ there is not, apart from his work as an artist, much to record.
In the early 'sixties he lived at 85 Newman Street in lodgings, which he
shared with his friend Lionel Henley, afterwards R.B.A., working hard at
his _Punch_ sketches and his more serious contributions to _Once a Week_
and the _Cornhill Magazine_. After his marriage with Miss Emma Wightwick
in 1862 he took a spacious and pleasant house near Hampstead Heath, in
surroundings made familiar in his drawings. Shortly before he died he
moved to a house in Oxford Square. About 1866 he struck out a new line
in his admirable illustrations to Jerrold's _Story of a Feather_. In
1869 he realized a long-cherished aspiration, the illustrating of
Thackeray's _Esmond_, and in 1879 he drew twelve additional vignettes
for it, in the same year providing several illustrations for the
_Ballads_. From time to time he sent pretty and graceful pictures to the
exhibitions of the Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colour, to which
he was elected in 1881. In 1885 the first exhibition of his works at the
Fine Art Society took place. Thus occupied in the practice of his art,
spending his leisure in social intercourse with his many friends and at
home with his growing family, hearing all the new singers and musicians,
seeing all the new plays, he lived the happiest of lives. He died
somewhat suddenly on the 8th of October 1896, and was buried in the
Hampstead parish churchyard. He left a family of two sons--the elder,
Major Guy Du Maurier (b. 1865), a soldier who became more widely known
in 1909 as author of the military play _An Englishman's Home_, and the
younger, Gerald, a well-known actor--and three daughters.
It is impossible, in considering Du Maurier's work, to avoid comparing
it with that of Leech and Keene, the more so that in his little book on
_Social Pictorial Satire_ he himself has set forth or suggested the
points both of resemblance and of difference. Like Keene, though Keene's
marvellous technique was his despair, Du Maurier was a much more
finished draughtsman than John Leech, but in other respects he had less
in common with the younger than with the older humorist. He shows
himself, in the best sense, a man of feeling in all his work. He is
clearly himself in love with "his pretty woman," as he calls her--every
pen-stroke in his presentment of her is a caress. How affectionate, too,
are his renderings of his fond young mothers and their big, handsome,
simple-minded husbands; his comely children and neat nurserymaids; even
his dogs--his elongated dachshunds and magnificent St Bernards! And how
he scorns the snobs and philistines--Sir Gorgius Midas and Sir Pompey
Bedell, Grigsby and Cadby, Soapley and Toadson! How merciless is his
ridicule of the aesthetes of the 'eighties--Maudle and Postlethwaite and
Mrs Cimabue Brown! Even to Mrs Ponsonby de Tomkyns, his most conspicuous
creation, his satire is scarcely tempered, despite her prettiness. He
shows up unsparingly all her unscrupulous little ways, all her cynical,
cunning little wiles. Like Leech, he revelled in the lighter aspects of
life--the humours of the nursery, the drawing-room, the club, the
gaieties of the country house and the seaside--without being blind to
the tragic and dramatic. Just as Leech could rise to the height of the
famous cartoon "General Fevrier turned Traitor," so it was Du Maurier
who inspired Tenniel in that impressive drawing on the eve of the
Franco-German War, in which the shade of the great Napoleon is seen
warning back the infatuated emperor from his ill-omened enterprise. In
his tender drawings in _Once a Week_, also, and in his occasional
excursions into the grotesque in _Punch_, such as his picture of "Old
Nickotin stealing away the brains of his devotees," he has given ample
proof of his faculty for moving and impressive art. The technique of Du
Maurier's work in the 'eighties and the 'nineties, though to the average
man it seems a marvel of finish and dexterity, is considered by artists
a falling off from what was displayed in some of his earlier _Punch_
drawings, and especially in his contributions to the _Cornhill Magazine_
and _Once a Week_. His later work is undoubtedly more mannered, more
"finicking," less simple, less broadly effective. But it is to his
fellow-craftsmen only and to experts that this is noticeable.
A quaint tribute has been paid to the literary talent shown in Du
Maurier's inscriptions to his drawings by Mr F. Anstey (Guthrie), author
of _Vice Versa_, and Du Maurier's colleague on the staff of _Punch_. "In
these lines of letterpress," says Mr Anstey, "he has brought the art of
precis-writing to perfection." They are indeed singularly concise and to
the point. It is the more curious, therefore, to note that in his novels,
and even in his critical essays, Du Maurier reveals very different
qualities: the precis-writer has become an _improvisatore_, pouring out
his stories and ideas in full flood, his style changing with every
mood--by turn humorous, eloquent, tender, gay, sometimes merely
"skittish," sometimes quite solemn, but never for long; sometimes, again,
breaking into graceful and haunting verse. He writes with apparent
artlessness; but, in his novels at least, on closer examination, it is
found that he has in fact exerted all his ingenuity to give them--what
such flagrantly untrue tales most require--verisimilitude. It is hard to
say which of the three stories is the more impossible: that of Trilby,
the tone-deaf artist's model who becomes a _prima donna_, that of Barty
Josselin and his guardian angel from Mars, or that of the dream-existence
of Peter Ibbetson and the duchess of Towers. They are all equally
preposterous, and yet plausible. The drawings are cunningly made to serve
the purpose of evidence, circumstantial and direct. These books cannot be
criticized by the ordinary canons of the art of fiction. They are a
_genre_ by themselves, a blend of unfettered day-dream and rose-coloured
reminiscence. For the dramatic version of _Trilby_ by Mr Paul Potter Du
Maurier would accept no credit. The play was produced in 1895 by Herbert
Beerbohm Tree, at the Haymarket, with immense popular success.
Some striking examples of Du Maurier's work for _Once a Week_ and the
_Cornhill Magazine_ are included in Gleeson White's _English
Illustrators of the Sixties_. The following is a list of the chief
works which he illustrated: Foxe's _Book of Martyrs_ (1865), Mrs
Gaskell's _Wives and Daughters_ (1866), Jerrold's _Story of a Feather_
(1867), Owen Meredith's _Lucile_ (1868), _The Book of Drawing room
Plays_, by H. Dalton (1868), _Sooner or Later_, by C.A.G. Brooke
(1868), Thackeray's _Esmond_ (1869 and 1879), and _Ballads_ (1879),
_Misunderstood_, by Florence Montgomery (1874), _Round about the
Islands_, by C.W. Scott (1874), _Hurlock Chase_, by G.E. Sargent
(1876), _Songs of many Seasons_, by J. Browne (in collaboration)
(1876), _Pegasus Re-saddled_, by H.C. Pennell (1877), _Ingoldsby
Legends_ (in collaboration), by R. Barham (1877), _Prudence_, by L.C.
Lillie (1882), _As in a Looking-glass_ by F.C. Phillips (1889), _Luke
Ashleigh_, by A. Elwes (1891), and his own three novels, which
appeared serially in _Harper's Magazine_: _Peter Ibbetson_ (1892),
_Trilby_ (1894), _The Martian_ (1897), and published after his death.
In 1897 also there was published, under the title _English Society_,
with an introduction by W.D. Howells, a collection of full page
drawings which he had contributed regularly to _Harper's Magazine_.
Some of his _Punch_ drawings have been reproduced also in _The
Collections of Mr Punch_ (1880), _Society Pictures from Punch_ (1890),
_A Legend of Camelot_ (1890). To his _Social Pictorial Satire_ (1890)
reference has been made. He contributed two essays upon book
illustration to the _Magazine of Art_ (1890). See also the _Magazine
of Art_ for 1892, for an article upon his work by W. Delaplaine Scull,
with illustrations. Other volumes containing information about his
life and work are: _The History of Punch_ by M.H. Spielmann, _In
Bohemia with Du Maurier_, by Felix Moscheles, Henry James's "Du
Maurier and London Society," _Century Magazine_ (1883), and "Du
Maurier," _Harper's Magazine_ (September 1897, June 1899). See also
Ruskin's _Art of England_ Lecture 5, Pennell's _Pen-Drawing and
Pen-Draughtsmen_, and Muther's _Modern Painting_ vol. ii.
(F. W. W.)
DUMBARTON, a royal, municipal and police burgh, seaport, and county town
of Dumbartonshire, Scotland, situated on the river Leven, near its
confluence with the Clyde, 15-1/2 m. W. by N. of Glasgow by the North
British and Caledonian railways. Pop. (1891) 17,625, (1901) 19,985. The
Alcluith ("hill of the Clyde") of the Britons, and Dunbreatan ("fort of
the Britons") of the Celts, it was the capital of the district of
Strathclyde. Here, too, the Romans had a naval station which they called
Theodosia. Although thus a place of great antiquity, the history of the
town practically centres in that of the successive fortresses on the
Rock of Dumbarton, a twin peaked mount, 240 ft. high and a mile in
circumference at the base. The fortress was often besieged and sometimes
taken, the Picts seizing it in 736 and the Northmen in 870, but the most
effectual surprise of all was that accomplished, in the interests of the
young King James VI., by Thomas Crawford of Jordanhill on March 31,
1571. The castle was held by Queen Mary's adherents, and as it gave them
free communication with France, its capture was deemed essential.
Crawford decided to climb the highest point, concluding that, owing to
its imagined security, it would be carelessly guarded. Favoured with a
dark and foggy night the party of 150 men and a guide reached the first
ledge of rock undiscovered. In scaling the second precipice one of the
men was seized with an epileptic fit on the ladder. Crawford bound him
to the ladder and then turned it over and was thus enabled to ascend to
the summit. At this moment the alarm was given, but the sentinel and the
sleepy soldiers were slain and the cannon turned on the garrison.
Further resistance being useless, the castle was surrendered. During the
governorship of Sir John Menteith, William Wallace was in 1305
imprisoned within its walls before he was removed to London. The higher
of the two peaks is known as Wallace's seat, a tower, perhaps the one in
which he was incarcerated, being named after him. On the portcullis
gateway may still be seen rudely carved heads of Wallace and his
betrayer, the latter with his finger in his mouth. Queen Mary, when a
child, resided in the castle for a short time. It is an ugly
barrack-like structure, defended by a few obsolete guns, although by the
Union Treaty it is one of the four fortresses that must be maintained.
The rock itself is basalt, with a tendency to columnar formation, and
some parts of it have a magnetic quality.
The town arms are the elephant and castle, with the motto _Fortitudo et
fidelitas_. Dumbarton was of old the capital of the earldom of Lennox,
but was given up by Earl Maldwyn to Alexander II., by whom it was made a
royal burgh in 1221 and declared to be free from all imposts and burgh
taxes. Later sovereigns gave it other privileges, and the whole were
finally confirmed by a charter of James VI. It had the right to levy
customs and dues on all vessels on the Clyde between Loch Long and the
Kelvin. "Offers dues" on foreign ships entering the Clyde were also
exacted. In 1700 these rights were transferred to Glasgow by contract,
but were afterwards vested in a special trust created by successive acts
of parliament.
Most of the town lies on the left bank of the Leven, which almost
converts the land here into a peninsula, but there is communication with
the suburb of Bridgend on the right bank by a five-arched stone bridge,
300 ft. long. The public buildings include the Burgh Hall, the academy
(with a graceful steeple), the county buildings, the Denny Memorial, a
Literary and a Mechanics' institute, Masonic hall, two cottage
hospitals, a fever hospital, a public library and the combination
poorhouse. There are two public parks--Broad Meadow (20 acres), part of
ground reclaimed in 1859, and Levengrove (32 acres), presented to the
corporation in 1885 by Peter Denny and John McMillan, two ship-builders
who helped lay the foundation of the town's present prosperity. The old
parish kirkyard was closed in 1856, but a fine cemetery was constructed
in its place outside the town. Dumbarton is controlled by a provost and
a council. With Port-Glasgow, Renfrew, Rutherglen and Kilmarnock it
unites in returning one member to parliament. The principal industry is
shipbuilding. The old staple trade of the making of crown glass, begun
in 1777, lapsed some 70 years afterwards when the glass duty was
abolished. There are several great engineering works, besides iron and
brass foundries, saw-mills, rope-yards and sail-making works. There are
quays, docks and a harbour at the mouth of the Leven, and a pier for
river steamers runs out from the Castle rock. The first steam navigation
company was established in Dumbarton in 1815, when the "Duke of
Wellington" (built in the town) plied between Dumbarton and Glasgow. But
it was not till 1844, consequent on the use of iron for vessels, that
shipbuilding became the leading industry.
DUMBARTONSHIRE, a western county of Scotland, bounded N. by Perthshire,
E. by Stirlingshire, S.E. by Lanarkshire, S. by the Clyde and its
estuary, and W. by Loch Long and Argyllshire. There is also a detached
portion, comprising the parish of Kirkintilloch and part of that of
Cumbernauld enclosed between the shires of Stirling and Lanark. This
formerly formed part of Stirlingshire, but was annexed in the 14th
century when the earl of Wigtown, to whom it belonged, became heritable
sheriff of Dumbartonshire. Dumbartonshire has an area of 170,762 acres
or 267 sq. m. The north-west and west are mountainous, the chief summits
being Ben Vorlich (3092 ft.), Ben Vane (3004), Doune Hill (2409), Beinn
Chaorach (2338), Beinn a Mhanaich (2328), Beinn Eich (2302), Cruach ant
Suthein (2244), Ben Reoch (2168), Beinn Tharsuinn (2149), Beinn Dubh
(2018), Balcnock (2092) and Tullich Hill (2075). In the south are the
Kilpatrick Hills, their highest points being Duncomb and Fynloch (each
1313 ft.). The Clyde, the Kelvin and the Leven are the only rivers of
importance. The Leven flows out of Loch Lomond at Balloch and joins the
Clyde at Dumbarton after a serpentine course of about 7 m. Most of the
other streams are among the mountains, whence they find their way to
Loch Lomond, the principal being the Inveruglas, Douglas, Luss, Finlas
and Fruin. Nearly all afford good sport to the angler. Of the inland
lakes by far the largest and most magnificent is Loch Lomond (q.v.). The
boundary between the shires of Dumbarton and Stirling follows an
imaginary line through the lake from the mouth of Endrick Water to a
point opposite the isle of Vow, giving about two-thirds of the loch to
the former county. Loch Sloy on the side of Ben Vorlich is a long,
narrow lake, 812 ft. above the sea amid wild scenery. From its name the
Macfarlanes took their slogan or war-cry. The shores of the Gareloch, a
salt-water inlet 6-1/2 m. long and 1 m. wide, are studded with houses of
those whose business lies in Glasgow. Garelochhead has grown into a
favourite summer resort; Clynder is famed for its honey. The more
important salt-water inlet, Loch Long, is 17 m. in length and varies in
width from 2 m. at its mouth to about 1/2 a mile in its upper reach. It
is the dumping-place for the dredgers which are constantly at work
preserving the tide-way of the Clyde from Dumbarton to the
Broomielaw--its use for this purpose being a standing grievance to
anglers. The scenery on both shores is very beautiful. Only a mile
separates Garelochhead from Loch Long, and at Arrochar the distance from
Tarbet on Loch Lomond is barely 1-3/4 m. Nearly all the glens are
situated in the Highland part of the shire, the principal being Glen
Sloy, Glen Douglas, Glen Luss and Glen Fruin. The last is memorable as
the scene of the bloody conflict in 1603 between the Macgregors and the
Colquhouns, in which the latter were almost exterminated. It was this
savage encounter that led to the proscription of the Macgregors,
including the famous Rob Roy.
_Geology._--Like the other counties along the eastern border of the
Highlands, Dumbartonshire is divided geologically into two areas, the
boundary between the two being defined by a line extending from
Rossdhu on Loch Lomond south-west by Row and Roseneath to Kilcreggan.
The mountainous region lying to the north of this line is composed of
rocks belonging to the metamorphic series of the Eastern Highlands and
representing several of the groups met with in the adjoining counties
of Perth and Argyll. Immediately to the north of the Highland border
the Aberfoyle slates and grits appear, repeated by isoclinal folds
trending north-east and south-west and dipping towards the north-west.
These are followed by a great development of the Ben Ledi grits and
schists--the representatives of the Beinn Bheula grits and ablite
schists of Argyllshire, which, by means of rapid plication, spread
over the high grounds northwards to beyond the head of Loch Lomond.
Along the line of section between Luss and Ardlui important evidence
is obtained of the gradual increase of metamorphism as we proceed
northwards from the Highland border. The original clastic characters
of the strata are obscured and the rocks between Arrochar and
Inverarnan in Glen Falloch merge into quartz-biotite gneisses and
albite schists. In the extreme north between Ardlui and the head of
Glen Fyne in Argyllshire there is a large development of plutonic
rocks piercing the Highland schists and producing marked contact
metamorphism. These range from acid to ultrabasic types and include
granite, augite-diorite, picrite and serpentine. On the hill-slopes to
the west of Ardlui and Inverarnan the diorite appears, while farther
west, between the watershed and Glen Fyne, there is a large mass of
granite. Boulders of plutonic rocks from this area have been widely
distributed by the ice during the glacial period. Immediately to the
south of the Highland border line there is a belt of Upper Old Red
Sandstone strata which stretches from the shores of Loch Lomond
westwards by Helensburgh and Roseneath Castle to Kilcreggan. These
sandstones and conglomerates are succeeded by the sandstones, shales,
clays and cementstones at the base of the Carboniferous formation
which occupy a narrow strip between Loch Lomond and Gareloch and are
cut off by a fault along their south-east margin. East of this
dislocation there is a belt of Lower Old Red Sandstone strata
extending from the mouth of the Endrick Water south-westwards by
Balloch to the shore of the Clyde west of Cardross, which is bounded
on either side by the upper division of that system. Still farther
east beyond Dumbarton the Upper Old Red Sandstone is again surmounted
by the representatives of the Cementstone group, which are followed by
the lavas, tuffs and agglomerates of the Kirkpatrick Hills,
intercalated in the Calciferous Sandstone series. Here the terraced
features of the volcanic plateau, produced by the denudation of the
successive flows is well displayed. Eastwards by Kilpatrick and
Bearsden to the margin of the county near Maryhill the rocks of
Calciferous Sandstone age are followed in normal order by the
Carboniferous Limestone series; the Hurlet Limestone and Hurlet Coal
of the lower limestone group being prominently developed. In the
detached portion of the county between Kirkintilloch and Cumbernauld
there is an important coalfield embracing the seams in the middle or
coal-bearing group of the Carboniferous Limestone series. In this
county there are several striking examples of the east and west
dolerite dykes which are probably of late Carboniferous age. These
traverse the Highland schists between Loch Long and Loch Lomond, the
Old Red Sandstone area between Alexandria and the Blane Valley, and
the Carboniferous tract near Cumbernauld. The ice which radiated from
the Dumbartonshire Highlands moved south-east and east towards the
central plain of Carboniferous rocks. Hence the boulder clay of the
lowland districts is abundantly charged with boulders of schistose
grit, slate, gneiss and granite derived from areas lying far to the
north-west. Along the shores of the Clyde the broad terraced features
indicate the limits of successive raised beaches.
_Climate and Agriculture._--There is excessive rainfall in the
Highlands, averaging 53 in. at Helensburgh up to nearly 70 in. in the
north. The temperature, with an average for the year of 47-1/2 deg. F.,
varies from 38 deg. in January to 58 deg. in July, but in the valleys
the heat in midsummer is often oppressive. The prevailing winds are from
the west and south-west, but easterly winds are frequent in the spring.
Frosts are seldom severe, and, except on the mountains, snow never lies
long. The arable lands extend chiefly along the Clyde and the Leven, and
are composed of rich black loam, gravelly soil and clay. From the
proximity to Glasgow and other large towns the farmers have the double
advantage of good manure and a ready market for all kinds of stock and
produce, and under this stimulus high farming and dairying on a
considerable scale prosper. Black-faced sheep and Highland cattle are
pastured on the hilly lands and Cheviots and Ayrshires on the low
grounds. Oats and wheat are the principal cereals, but barley and
potatoes in abundance, and turnips and beans are also grown.
_Other Industries_.--Turkey-red dyeing has long been the distinctive
industry of the county. The water of the Leven being not only constant
but also singularly soft and pure, dyers and bleachers have constructed
works at many places in the Vale of Leven. Bleaching has been carried on
since the early part of the 18th century, and cotton-printing at
Levenfield dates from 1768. The establishments at Alexandria, Bonhill,
Jamestown, Renton and other towns for all the processes connected with
the bleaching, dyeing and printing of cottons, calicoes and other
cloths, besides yarns, are conducted on the largest scale. At Milton the
first power-loom mill was erected. The engineering works and
shipbuilding yards at Clydebank are famous, and at Dumbarton there are
others almost equally busy. The extensive Singer sewing-machine works
are at Kilbowie, and the Clyde Trust barge-building shops are at
Dalmuir. There are distilleries and breweries at Duntocher, Bowling,
Dumbarton, Milngavie (pronounced _Milguy_) and other towns. In fact the
Vale of Leven and the riverside towns east of Dumbarton form a veritable
hive of industry. In the detached portion, Kirkintilloch and Cumbernauld
are seats of great activity in the mining of coal and ironstone, and
there are besides chemical works and saw-mills in the former town. There
is some fishing at Helensburgh and along the Gareloch.
The populous districts of the county are served almost wholly by the
North British railway. From Helensburgh to Inverarnan the Highland
railway runs through scenery of the most diversified and romantic
character. The Caledonian railway has access to Balloch from Glasgow,
and its system also traverses the detached portion. Portions of the
Forth and Clyde Canal, which connects with the Clyde at Bowling, and was
opened for traffic in 1775, pass through the shire. There is regular
steamer communication between Glasgow and the towns and villages on the
coast, and on Loch Lomond steamers call at several points between
Balloch and Ardlui.
_Population and Government._--The population of Dumbartonshire in 1891
was 98,014 and in 1901 113,865, of whom 3101 spoke both Gaelic and
English and 14 Gaelic only. The principal towns, with populations in
1901, are--Alexandria (8007), Bonhill (3333), Clydebank (21,591),
Dumbarton (19,985), Duntocher (2122), Helensburgh (8554), Jamestown
(2080), Kirkintilloch (11,681), Milngavie (3481), New Kilpatrick or
Bearsden (2705) and Renton (5067). The county returns one member to
parliament. Dumbarton, the county town, is the only royal burgh, and
belongs to the Kilmarnock group of parliamentary burghs. The municipal
and police burghs are Clydebank, Cove and Kilcreggan, Dumbarton,
Helensburgh, Kirkintilloch and Milngavie. Dumbartonshire forms a
sheriffdom with the counties of Stirling and Clackmannan, and there is a
resident sheriff-substitute at Dumbarton, who sits also at
Kirkintilloch. The shire is under school-board jurisdiction, but there
are several voluntary schools, besides St Peter's Roman Catholic College
in New Kilpatrick. Science, art and technical classes are subsidized out
of the whole of the county "residue" and, if necessary, out of part of
the burgh "residue" also. Agricultural lectures and the travelling
expenses and fees of county students at Glasgow Technical College are
also paid for from the same source.
_History._--The country is rich in antiquities connected with the
aborigines and also with the Romans. The Caledonians and Picts have left
their traces in rude forts and tumuli, but of greater interest are
remains in several places of the wall of Antoninus, built from the Forth
to the Clyde, and running along the north of the detached portion of the
shire and through the south-eastern corner of the county to Kilpatrick.
Other Roman relics have been found at Duntocher, Cumbernauld and
elsewhere. The shire forms part of the old Scottish territory of Lennox
(_Levenachs_, "fields of the Leven"), which embraced the Vale of the
Leven and the basin of Loch Lomond, or all modern Dumbartonshire, most
of Stirling and parts of the shires of Renfrew and Perth. It gave the
title of the earldom created in 1174 by William the Lion and of the
dukedom conferred by Charles II. on his natural son, Charles, duke of
Richmond and Lennox. In 1702 the Lennox estates were sold to the marquis
of Montrose. The captive Wallace was conveyed in chains to Dumbarton
Castle, whence he was taken to his death in London. Robert Bruce is said
to have mustered his forces at Dullatur prior to the battle of
Bannockburn, and died at Cardross Castle in 1329. The Covenanters in
their flight from the bloody field of Kilsyth, where in 1645 Montrose
had defeated them with great slaughter, made their way through the
southern districts. When the Forth and Clyde Canal was being excavated
swords, pistols, and other weapons dropped by the fugitives were found
at Dullatur, together with skeletons of men and horses. In the Highland
country the clans of Macgregor and Macfarlane made their home in the
fastnesses, whence they descended in raids upon the cattle, the goods
and sometimes the persons of their Lowland neighbours.
See J. Irving, _History of Dumbartonshire_ (Dumbarton, 1860); _Book of
Dumbartonshire_ (Edinburgh, 1879); Sir W. Fraser, _Chiefs of
Colquhoun_ (Edinburgh, 1869); _The Lennox_ (Edinburgh, 1874); D.
Macleod, _Castle and Town of Dumbarton_ (Dumbarton, 1877); _Dumbarton_
(Dumbarton, 1884); _Dumbarton: Ancient and Modern_ (Glasgow, 1893);
_Ancient Records of Dumbarton_ (Dumbarton, 1896); J. Glen, _History of
Dumbarton_ (Dumbarton, 1876).
DUMB WAITER,[1] a small oblong or circular table to hold reserve plates,
knives and forks, and other necessaries for a meal. This piece of
furniture originated in England towards the end of the 18th century, and
some exceedingly elegant examples were designed by Sheraton and his
school. They were usually circular, with three diminishing tiers,
sometimes surrounded by a continuous or interrupted pierced gallery in
wood or brass. The smaller varieties are now much used in England for
the display of small silver objects in drawing-rooms.