[1] Isakcea was 66 nautical m. from the sea measured by the Sulina
arm of the Danube, 37 m. below Braila and 26 m. below Galatz.
[2] Sir Charles Hartley became consulting engineer in 1872, when he
was succeeded as resident engineer by Mr Charles Kuhl, C.E., C.M.G.
To those two gentlemen is mainly due the conspicuous success of the
engineering works.
[3] Ships pay no taxes to the commission on entering the river, but
on leaving it every ship of over 1500 tons register pays 1s. 5d. per
registered ton if loaded at Galatz or Braila, or 11d. per ton if
loaded at Sulina. This includes pilotage and light dues. Smaller
vessels pay less and ships of less than 300 tons are exempt.
DANVERS, a township of Essex county, on the coast of Massachusetts,
U.S.A., about 19 m. N. by E. of Boston. Pop. (1890) 7454; (1900) 8542,
of whom 1873 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 9407. Danvers includes an
area of 14 sq. m. of level country diversified by hills. There are
several villages or business centres, the largest of which, bearing the
same name as the township, is served by the Boston & Maine railway. In
the township are a state insane asylum, with accommodation for 1000
patients; St John's Preparatory College (Roman Catholic), conducted by
the Xavierian Brothers; and, in Peabody Park, the Peabody Institute,
with a good public library and museum, the gift (1867) of George
Peabody. The Danvers historical society has a valuable collection.
Although chiefly a residential town, Danvers has various manufactures,
the most important of which are leather, boots and shoes, bricks, boxes
and electric lamps. The total value of the factory product in 1905 was
$2,017,908, of which more than one half was the value of leather.
Danvers owns its water-works and its electric lighting and power plant.
A part of what is now Danvers was included in the grant made by the
court of assistants to Governor John Endecott and the Rev. Samuel
Skelton of the Salem church in 1632. Danvers was set off from Salem as a
district in 1752 and was incorporated as a township in 1757, but the act
of incorporation was disallowed in 1759 by the privy council on the
recommendation of the board of trade, in view of George II.'s
disapproval of the incorporation of new townships at that time,--hence
the significance of the words on the seal of Danvers, "The King
Unwilling"; in 1775 the district was again incorporated. Salem Village,
a part of the present township, was the centre of the famous witchcraft
delusion in 1692. In 1885 South Danvers was set off as a separate
township, and in 1868 was named Peabody in honour of George Peabody, who
was born and is buried there. In 1857 part of Beverly was annexed to
Danvers. Among distinguished natives of Danvers are Samuel Holton
(1738-1816), a member (1778-1780 and 1782-1787) of the Continental
Congress and (1793-1795) of the Federal Congress; Israel Putnam; Moses
Porter (1755-1822), who served through the War of Independence and the
War of 1812; and Grenville Mellen Dodge (b. 1831), a prominent railway
engineer, who fought in the Union army in the Civil War, reaching the
rank of major-general of volunteers, was a Republican member of the
national House of Representatives in 1867-1869, and in 1898 president of
the commission which investigated the management of the war with Spain.
See J. W. Hanson, _History of the Town of Danvers_ (Danvers, 1848);
Ezra D. Hines, _Historic Danvers_ (Danvers, 1894) and _Historical
Address_ (Boston, 1907), in celebration of the 150th anniversary of
the first incorporation; and A. P. White, "History of Danvers" in
_History of Essex County, Mass._ (Philadelphia, 1888).
DANVILLE, a city and the county-seat of Vermilion county, Illinois,
U.S.A., in the E. part of the state, near the Big Vermilion river, 120
m. S. of Chicago. Pop. (1890) 11,491; (1900) 16,354, of whom 1435 were
foreign-born; (1910) 27,871. Danville is served by the Chicago & Eastern
Illinois (whose shops are here), the Wabash, the Chicago, Indiana &
Southern, and the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis railways,
and by three interurban lines. There are three public parks (Lincoln,
Douglas and Ellsworth), a Carnegie library (1883), and a national home
for disabled volunteer soldiers (opened in 1898). Situated in the
vicinity of an extensive coalfield (the Grape Creek district), Danville
has a large trade in coal; it has also several manufacturing
establishments engaged principally in the construction and repair of
railway cars, and in the manufacture of bricks, foundry products, glass,
carriages, flour and hominy. The value of the factory products of the
city in 1905 was $3,304,120, an increase of 72.7% since 1900. Danville
was first settled about 1830 and was first incorporated in 1839; in 1874
it was chartered as a city under the general state law of 1872 for the
incorporation of municipalities. It annexed Vermilion Heights in 1905,
South Danville (pop. in 1900, 898) in 1906, and Germantown (pop. in
1900, 1782) and Roselawn in 1907.
DANVILLE, a city and the county-seat of Boyle county, Kentucky, U.S.A.,
113 m. S. by W. of Cincinnati. Pop. (1890) 3766; (1900) 4285 (1913
negroes) (1910) 5420. The city is served by the Southern and the
Cincinnati Southern railways, the latter connecting at Junction City (4
m. S.) with the Louisville & Nashville railway. Danville is an
attractive city, situated in the S.E. part of the fertile "Blue Grass
region" of Kentucky. In McDowell Park there is a monument to the memory
of Dr Ephraim McDowell (1771-1830), who after 1795 lived in Danville,
and is famous for having performed in 1809 the first entirely successful
operation for the removal of an ovarian tumour. Danville is the seat of
several educational institutions, the most important of which is the
Central University of Kentucky (Presbyterian), founded in 1901 by the
consolidation of Centre College (opened at Danville in 1823), and the
Central University (opened at Richmond, Ky., in 1874). The law school
also is in Danville. The classical, scientific and literary department
of the present university is still known as Centre College; the medical
and dental departments are in Louisville, and the university maintains a
preparatory school, the Centre College academy, at Danville. In 1908 the
university had 87 instructors and 696 students. Other institutions at
Danville are Caldwell College for women (1860; Presbyterian), and the
Kentucky state institution for deaf mutes (1823). The Transylvania
seminary was opened here in 1785, but four years later was removed to
Lexington (q.v.), and a Presbyterian theological seminary was founded
here in 1853, but was merged with the Louisville theological seminary
(known after 1902 as the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of Kentucky)
in 1901. The municipality owns and operates its water-works and power
plant. From its first settlement in 1781 until the admission of Kentucky
into the Union in 1792 Danville was an important political centre. There
was an influential political club here from 1786 to 1790, and here, too,
sat the several conventions--nine in all--which asked for a separation
from Virginia, discussed the proposed conditions of separation from that
commonwealth, framed the first state constitution, and chose Frankfort
as the capital. Danville was incorporated in 1789. It was the birthplace
of James G. Birney and of Theodore O'Hara.
DANVILLE, a borough and the county-seat of Montour county, Pennsylvania,
U.S.A., on the N. branch of the Susquehanna river, about 65 m. N. by E.
of Harrisburg. Pop. (1890) 7998; (1900) 8042, of whom 771 were
foreign-born; (1910 census) 7517. It is served by the Delaware,
Lackawanna & Western, and the Philadelphia & Reading railways, and by
electric railway to Bloomsburg. The borough is built on an elevated bank
of the river at the base of Montour Ridge, where the narrow valley
appears to be shut in on every side by hills; the river is spanned by a
steel bridge, built in 1905. Iron, coal and limestone abound in the
vicinity, and the borough has large manufactories of stoves and
furnaces, and of iron and steel, in one of which in 1845 a "T"-rail,
probably the first in America, was rolled. It is the seat of a state
hospital for the insane (established in 1868). The water-works and
electric light plant are owned and operated by the municipality. A
settlement was founded here about 1776 by Captain William Montgomery and
his son Daniel; and a town was laid out in 1792 and called Dan's Town
until the present name was adopted a few years later. Growth was slow
until the discovery of iron ore on Montour Ridge, followed in 1832 by
the completion of the N. branch of the Pennsylvania Canal, which runs
through the centre of the borough. Danville was incorporated in 1849.
DANVILLE, a city in Pittsylvania county, Virginia, U.S.A., on the Dan
river about 140 m. (by rail) S.W. of Richmond. Pop. (1890) 10,305;
(1900) 16,520 (6515 negroes); (1910) 19,020. It is on the main line of
the Southern railway, and is the terminus of branches to Richmond and
Norfolk; it is also served by the Danville & Western railway, a road (75
m. long) connecting with Stuart, Va., and controlled by the Southern,
though operated independently. The city is built on high ground above
the river. It has a city hall, a general hospital, a Masonic temple, and
a number of educational institutions, including the Roanoke College
(1860; Baptist), for young women; the Randolph-Macon Institute (1897;
Methodist Episcopal, South), for girls; and a commercial college. The
river furnishes valuable water-power, which is utilized by the city's
manufactories (value of product in 1900, third in rank in the state,
$8,103,484, of which only $3,693,792 was "factory" product; in 1905 the
"factory" product was valued at $4,774,818), including cotton mills--in
1905 Danville ranked first among the cities of the state in the value of
cotton goods produced--a number of tobacco factories, furniture and
overall factories, and flour and knitting mills. The city is a jobbing
centre and wholesale market for a considerable area in southern Virginia
and northern North Carolina, and is probably the largest loose-leaf
tobacco market in the country, selling about 40,000,000 lb. annually. In
the industrial suburb of Schoolfield, which in 1908 had a population of
about 3000, there is a large textile mill. The city owns and operates
its water-supply system (with an excellent filtration plant installed in
1904) and its gas and electric lighting plants. Danville was settled
about 1770, was first incorporated as a town in 1792, and became a city
in 1833; it is politically independent of Pittsylvania county. To
Danville, after the evacuation of Richmond on the 2nd of April 1865, the
archives of the Confederacy were carried, and here President Jefferson
Davis paused for a few days in his flight southward.
DANZIG, or DANTSIC (Polish _Gdansk_), a strong maritime fortress and
seaport of Germany, capital of the province of West Prussia, on the left
bank of the western arm of the Vistula, 4 m. S. of its entrance, at
Neufahrwasser, into the Baltic, 253 m. N.E. from Berlin by rail. Pop.
(1885) 114,805; (1905) 159,088. The city is traversed by two branches of
the Mottlau, a small tributary of the Vistula, dredged to a depth of 15
ft., thus enabling large vessels to reach the wharves of the inner town.
The strong fortifications which, with ramparts, bastions and wet
ditches, formerly entirely surrounded the city, were removed on the
north and west sides in 1895-1896, the trenches filled in, and the area
thus freed laid out on a spacious plan. One portion, acquired by the
municipality, has been turned into promenades and gardens, the Steffens
Park, outside the Olivaer Tor, fifty acres in extent, occupying the
north-western corner. The remainder of the massive defences remain, with
twenty bastions, in the hands of the military authorities; the works for
laying the surrounding country under water on the eastern side have been
modernized, and the western side defended by a cordon of forts crowning
the hills and extending down to the port of Neufahrwasser.
Danzig almost alone of larger German cities still preserves its
picturesque medieval aspect. The grand old patrician houses of the days
of its Hanseatic glory, with their lofty and often elaborately
ornamented gables and their balconied windows, are the delight of the
visitor to the town. Only one ancient feature is rapidly
disappearing--owing to the exigencies of street traffic--the stone
terraces close to the entrance doors and abutting on the street. Of its
old gates the Hohe Tor, modelled after a Roman triumphal arch, is a
remarkable monumental erection of the 16th century. From it runs the
Lange Gasse, the main street, to the Lange Markt. On this square stands
the Artus- or Junker-hof (the merchant princes of the middle ages were
in Germany styled _Junker_, squire), containing a hall richly decorated
with wood carving and pictures, once used as a banqueting-room and now
serving as the exchange. There are twelve Protestant and seven Roman
Catholic churches and two synagogues. Of these the most important is St
Mary's, begun in 1343 and completed in 1503, one of the largest
Protestant churches in existence. It possesses a famous painting of the
Last Judgment, formerly attributed to Jan van Eyck, but probably by
Memlinc. Among other ancient buildings of note are the beautiful Gothic
town hall, surmounted by a graceful spire, the armoury (Zeughaus) and
the Franciscan monastery, restored in 1871, and now housing the
municipal picture gallery and a collection of antiquities. Of modern
structures, the government offices, the house of the provincial diet,
the post office and the palace of the commander of the 17th army corps,
which has its headquarters in Danzig, are the most noteworthy.
The manufacture of arms and artillery is carried on to a great extent,
and the imperial and private docks and shipbuilding establishments,
notably the Schichau yard, turn out ships of the largest size. The town
is famous for its amber, beer, brandy and liqueurs, and its transit
trade makes it one of the most important commercial cities of northern
Europe. Danzig originally owed its commercial importance to the fact
that it was the shipping port for the corn grown in Poland and the
adjacent regions of Russia and Prussia; but for some few years past this
trade has been slipping away from her. On the other hand, her trade in
timber and sugar has grown proportionally. Nevertheless energetic
efforts are being made to check any loss of importance--first, in 1898,
by a determined attempt to make Danzig an industrial centre,
manufacturing on a large scale; and secondly, by the construction and
opening in 1899 of a free harbour at Neufahrwasser at the mouth of the
Vistula. The industries which it has been the principal aim to foster
and further develop are shipbuilding (naval and marine), steel foundries
and rolling mills, sugar refineries, flour and oil mills, and
distilleries.
_History._--The origin of Danzig is unknown, but it is mentioned in 997
as an important town. At different times it was held by Pomerania,
Poland, Brandenburg and Denmark, and in 1308 it fell into the hands of
the Teutonic knights, under whose rule it long prospered. It was one of
the four chief towns of the Hanseatic League. In 1455, when the Teutonic
Order had become thoroughly corrupt, Danzig shook off its yoke and
submitted to the king of Poland, to whom it was formally ceded, along
with the whole of West Prussia, at the peace of Thorn. Although
nominally subject to Poland, and represented in the Polish diets and at
the election of Polish kings, it enjoyed the rights of a free city, and
governed a considerable territory with more than thirty villages. It
suffered severely through various wars of the 17th and 18th centuries,
and in 1734, having declared in favour of Stanislus Leszczynski, was
besieged and taken by the Russians and Saxons. At the first partition of
Poland, in 1772, Danzig was separated from that kingdom; and in 1793 it
came into the possession of Prussia. In 1807, during the war between
France and Prussia, it was bombarded and captured by Marshal Lefebvre,
who was rewarded with the title of duke of Danzig; and at the peace of
Tilsit Napoleon declared it a free town, under the protection of France,
Prussia and Saxony, restoring to it its ancient territory. A French
governor, however, remained in it, and by compelling it to submit to the
continental system almost ruined its trade. It was given back to Prussia
in 1814.
See J. C. Schultz, _Danzig und seine Bauwerke_ (Berlin, 1873);
Wistulanus, _Geschichte der Stadt Danzig_ (Danzig, 1891); _Defense de
Dantzig en 1813; documents militaires du lieutenant-general
Campredon_, pub. by Auriel (Paris, 1888); Daniel, _Deutschland_
(Leipzig, 1895).
DAPHLA (or DAFLA) HILLS, a tract of hilly country on the border of
Eastern Bengal and Assam, occupied by an independent tribe called
Daphla. It lies to the north of the Tezpur and North Lakhimpur
subdivisions, and is bounded on the west by the Aka Hills and on the
east by the Abor range. Colonel Dalton in _The Ethnology of Bengal_
considers the Daphlas to be closely allied to the hill Miris, and they
are akin to and intermarry with the Abors. They have a reputation for
cowardice, and as politically they are disunited, they are at the mercy
of the Akas, their less numerous but more warlike neighbours on the
west. Their clothing is scanty, and its most distinguishing feature is a
cane cap with a fringe of bearskin or feathers, which gives them a very
curious appearance. The men wear their hair in a plait, which is coiled
into a ball on the forehead, to which they fasten their caps with a long
skewer. In 1872 a party of independent Daphlas suddenly attacked a
colony of their own tribesmen, who had settled at Amtola in British
territory, and carried away forty-four captives to the hills. This led
to the Daphla expedition of 1874, when a force of 1000 troops released
the prisoners and reduced the tribe to submission. According to the
census of 1901 the Daphlas in British territory numbered 954, the tribal
country not being enumerated.
DAPHNAE (Tahpanhes, Taphne; mod. _Defenneh_), an ancient fortress near
the Syrian frontier of Egypt, on the Pelusian arm of the Nile. Here King
Psammetichus established a garrison of foreign mercenaries, mostly
Carians and Ionian Greeks (Herodotus ii. 154). After the destruction of
Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar in 588 B.C., the Jewish fugitives, of whom
Jeremiah was one, came to Tahpanhes. When Naucratis was given by Amasis
II. the monopoly of Greek traffic, the Greeks were all removed from
Daphnae, and the place never recovered its prosperity; in Herodotus's
time the deserted remains of the docks and buildings were visible. The
site was discovered by Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie in 1886; the name
"Castle of the Jew's Daughter" seems to preserve the tradition of the
Jewish refugees. There is a massive fort and enclosure; the chief
discovery was a large number of fragments of pottery, which are of great
importance for the chronology of vase-painting, since they must belong
to the time between Psammetichus and Amasis, i.e. the end of the 7th or
the beginning of the 6th century B.C. They show the characteristics of
Ionian art, but their shapes and other details testify to their local
manufacture.
See W. M. F. Petrie, _Tanis II., Nebesheh, and Defenneh_ (4th Memoir
of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1888). (E. Gr.)
DAPHNE (Gr. for a laurel tree), in Greek mythology, the daughter of the
Arcadian river-god Ladon or the Thessalian Peneus, or of the Laconian
Amyclas. She was beloved by Apollo, and when pursued by him was changed
by her mother Gaea into a laurel tree sacred to the god (Ovid, _Metam._
i. 452-567). In the Peloponnesian legends, another suitor of Daphne,
Leucippus, son of Oenomaus of Pisa, disguised himself as a girl and
joined her companions. His sex was discovered while bathing, and he was
slain by the nymphs (Pausanias viii. 20; Parthenius, _Erotica_, 15).
DAPHNE, in botany, a genus of shrubs, belonging to the natural order
Thymelaeaceae, and containing about forty species, natives of Europe and
temperate Asia. _D. Laureola_, spurge laurel, a small evergreen shrub
with green flowers in the leaf axils towards the ends of the branches
and ovoid black very poisonous berries, is found in England in copses
and on hedge-banks in stiff soils. _D. Mezereum_, mezereon, a rather
larger shrub, 2 to 4 ft. high, has deciduous leaves, and bears fragrant
pink flowers in clusters in the axils of last season's leaves, in early
spring before the foliage. The bright red ovoid berries are cathartic,
the whole plant is acrid and poisonous, and the bark is used
medicinally. It is a native of Europe and north Asia, and found
apparently wild in copses and woods in Britain. It is a well-known
garden plant, and several other species of the genus are cultivated in
the open air and as greenhouse plants. _D. Cneorum_ (Europe) is a hardy
evergreen trailing shrub, with bright pink sweet-scented flowers. _D.
pontica_ (Eastern Europe) is a hardy spreading evergreen with
greenish-yellow fragrant flowers. _D. indica_ (China) and _D. japonica_
(Japan) are greenhouse evergreens with respectively red or white and
pinkish-purple flowers.
DAPHNEPHORIA, a festival held every ninth year at Thebes in Boeotia in
honour of Apollo Ismenius or Galaxius. It consisted of a procession in
which the chief figure was a boy of good family and noble appearance,
whose father and mother must be alive. Immediately in front of this
boy, who was called Daphnephoros (laurel bearer), walked one of his
nearest relatives, carrying an olive branch hung with laurel and flowers
and having on the upper end a bronze ball from which hung several
smaller balls. Another smaller ball was placed on the middle of the
branch or pole (called [Greek: kopo]), which was then twined round with
purple ribbons, and at the lower end with saffron ribbons. These balls
were said to indicate the sun, stars and moon, while the ribbons
referred to the days of the year, being 365 in number. The Daphnephoros,
wearing a golden crown, or a wreath of laurel, richly dressed and partly
holding the pole, was followed by a chorus of maidens carrying suppliant
branches and singing a hymn to the god. The Daphnephoros dedicated a
bronze tripod in the temple of Apollo, and Pausanias (ix. 10. 4)
mentions the tripod dedicated there by Amphitryon when his son Heracles
had been Daphnephoros. The festival is described by Proclus (in Photius
_cod._ 239).
See also A. Mommsen, _Feste der Stadt Athen_ (1898); C. O. Muller,
_Orchomenos_ (1844); article in Daremberg and Saglio's _Dictionnaire
des antiquites_.
DAPHNIS, the legendary hero of the shepherds of Sicily, and reputed
inventor of bucolic poetry. The chief authorities for his story are
Diodorus Siculus, Aelian and Theocritus. According to his countryman
Diodorus (iv. 84), and Aelian (_Var. Hist._, x. 18), Daphnis was the son
of Hermes (in his character of the shepherd-god) and a Sicilian nymph,
and was born or exposed and found by shepherds in a grove of laurels
(whence his name.) He was brought up by the nymphs, or by shepherds, and
became the owner of flocks and herds, which he tended while playing on
the syrinx. When in the first bloom of youth, he won the affection of a
nymph, who made him promise to love none but her, threatening that, if
he proved unfaithful, he would lose his eyesight. He failed to keep his
promise and was smitten with blindness. Daphnis, who endeavoured to
console himself by playing the flute and singing shepherds' songs, soon
afterwards died. He fell from a cliff, or was changed into a rock, or
was taken up to heaven by his father Hermes, who caused a spring of
water to gush out from the spot where his son had been carried off. Ever
afterwards the Sicilians offered sacrifices at this spring as an
expiatory offering for the youth's early death. There is little doubt
that Aelian in his account follows Stesichorus (q.v.) of Himera, who in
like manner had been blinded by the vengeance of a woman (Helen) and
probably sang of the sufferings of Daphnis in his recantation. Nothing
is said of Daphnis's blindness by Theocritus, who dwells on his amour
with Nais; his victory over Menalcas in a poetical competition; his love
for Xenea brought about by the wrath of Aphrodite; his wanderings
through the woods while suffering the torments of unrequited love; his
death just at the moment when Aphrodite, moved by compassion, endeavours
(but too late) to save him; the deep sorrow, shared by nature and all
created things, for his untimely end (Theocritus i. vii. viii.). A later
form of the legend identifies Daphnis with a Phrygian hero, and makes
him the teacher of Marsyas. The legend of Daphnis and his early death
may be compared with those of Narcissus, Linus and Adonis--all beautiful
youths cut off in their prime, typical of the luxuriant growth of
vegetation in the spring, and its sudden withering away beneath the
scorching summer sun.
See F. G. Welcker, _Kleine Schriften zur griechischen
Litteraturgeschichte_, i. (1844); C. F. Hermann, _De Daphnide
Theocriti_ (1853); R. H. Klausen, _Aeneas und die Penaten_, i. (1840);
R. Reitzenstein, _Epigramm und Skolion_ (1893); H. W. Prescott in
_Harvard Studies_, x. (1899); H. W. Stoll in Roscher's _Lexikon der
Mythologie_; and G. Knaack in Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencyclopadie_.
DARAB (originally DARABGERD), a district of the province of Fars in
Persia. It has sixty-two villages, and possesses a hot climate, snow
being rarely seen there in winter. It produces a great quantity of dates
and much tobacco, which is considered the best in Persia. The town
Darab, the capital of the district, is situated in a very fertile plain,
140 m. S.E. of Shiraz. It has a population of about 5000, and extensive
orchards of orange and lemon trees and immense plantations of
date-palms. Legend ascribes the foundation of the city to Darius, hence
its name Darab-gerd (Darius-town). In the neighbourhood there are
various remains of antiquity, the most important of which 3(1/2) m. S.,
is known as the Kalah i Darab, or citadel of Darius, and consists of a
series of earthworks arranged in a circle round an isolated rock.
Nothing, however, remains to fix the date or explain the history of the
fortification. Another monument in the vicinity is a gigantic
bas-relief, carved on the vertical face of a rock, representing the
victory of the Sassanian Shapur I. (Sapor) of Persia over the Roman
emperor Valerian, A.D. 260.
DARBHANGA, a town and district of British India, in the Patna division
of Bengal. The town is on the left bank of the Little Baghmati river,
and has a railway station. Pop. (1901) 66,244. The town is really a
collection of villages that have grown up round the residence of the
raja. This is a magnificent palace, with gardens, a menagerie and a good
library. There are a first-class hospital, with a Lady Dufferin hospital
attached; a handsome market-place, and an Anglo-vernacular school. The
district of Darbhanga extends from the Nepal frontier to the Ganges. It
was constituted in 1875 out of the unwieldy district of Tirhoot. Its
area is 3348 sq. m. In 1901 the population was 2,912,611, showing an
increase of 4% in the decade. The district consists entirely of an
alluvial plain, in which the principal rivers are the Ganges, Buri
Gandak, Baghmati and Little Baghmati, Balan and Little Balan, and
Tiljuga. The land is especially fertile in the more elevated part of the
district S.W. of the Buri Gandak; rice is the staple crop, and it may be
noted that the cultivator in Darbhanga is especially dependent on the
winter harvest. The chief exports are rice, indigo, linseed and other
seeds, saltpetre and tobacco. There are several indigo factories and
saltpetre refineries, and a tobacco factory. The district is traversed
by the main line of the Bengal & North-Western railway and by branch
lines, part of which were begun as a famine relief work in 1874.
The maharaja bahadur of Darbhanga, a Rajput, whose ancestor Mahesh
Thakor received the Darbhanga raj (which includes large parts of the
modern districts of Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Monghyr, Purnea and
Bhagalpur) from the emperor Akbar early in the 16th century, is not only
the premier territorial noble of Behar but one of the greatest noblemen
of all India. Maharaja Lachhmeswar Singh Bahadur, who succeeded to the
raj in 1860 and died in 1898, was distinguished for his public services,
and especially as one of the most munificent of living philanthropists.
Under his supervision his raj came to be regarded as the model for good
and benevolent management; he constructed hundreds of miles of roads
planted with trees, bridged all the rivers, and constructed irrigation
works on a great scale. His charities were without limit; thus he
contributed L300,000 for the relief of the sufferers from the Bengal
famine of 1873-1874, and it is computed that during his possession of
the raj he expended at least L2,000,000 on charities, works of public
utility, and charitable remissions of rent. For many years he served as
a member of the legislative council of the viceroy with conspicuous
ability and moderation of view. As representative of the landowners of
Berar and Bengal he took an important part in the discussion on the
Bengal Tenancy Bill. He was succeeded by his brother, Maharaja Rameshwar
Singh Bahadur, who was born on the 16th of January 1860, and on
attaining his majority in 1878 was appointed to the Indian Civil
Service, serving as assistant magistrate successively at Darbhanga,
Chhapra and Bhagalpur. In 1886 he was created a raja bahadur, exempted
from attendance at the civil courts, and appointed a member of the
legislative council of Bengal. He was created a maharaja bahadur on his
succession to the raj in 1898. Like his brother, he was educated by an
English tutor, and his administration carried on the enlightened
traditions of his predecessor.
See Sir Roper Lethbridge, _The Golden Book of India_.
D'ARBLAY, FRANCES (1752-1840), English novelist and diarist, better
known as FANNY BURNEY, daughter of Dr Charles Burney (q.v.), was born at
King's Lynn, Norfolk, on the 13th of June 1752. Her mother was Esther
Sleepe, granddaughter of a French refugee named Dubois. Fanny was the
fourth child in a family of six. Of her brothers, James (1750-1821)
became an admiral and sailed with Captain Cook on his second and third
voyages, and Charles Burney (1757-1817) was a well-known classical
scholar. In 1760 the family removed to London, and Dr Burney, who was
now a fashionable music master, took a house in Poland Street. Mrs
Burney died in 1761, when Fanny was only nine years old. Her sisters
Esther (Hetty), afterwards Mrs Charles Rousseau Burney, and Susanna,
afterwards Mrs Phillips, were sent to school in Paris, but Fanny was
left to educate herself. Early in 1766 she paid her first visit to Dr
Burney's friend Samuel Crisp at Chessington Hall, near Epsom. Dr Burney
had first made Samuel Crisp's acquaintance about 1745 at the house of
Fulke Greville, grandfather of the diarists, and the two studied music
while the rest of the guests hunted. Crisp wrote a play, _Virginia_,
which was staged by David Garrick in 1754 at the request of the
beautiful countess of Coventry (nee Maria Gunning). The play had no
great success, and in 1764 Crisp established himself in retirement at
Chessington Hall, where he frequently entertained his sister, Mrs Sophia
Gast, of Burford, Oxfordshire, and Dr Burney and his family, to whom he
was familiarly known as "daddy" Crisp.[1] It was to her "daddy" Crisp
and her sister Susan that Fanny Burney addressed large portions of her
diary and many of her letters. After his wife's death in 1767, Dr Burney
married Elizabeth Allen, widow of a King's Lynn wine-merchant.
From her fifteenth year Fanny lived in the midst of an exceptionally
brilliant social circle, gathered round her father in Poland Street, and
later in his new home in St Martin's Street, Leicester Fields. Garrick
was a constant visitor, and would arrive before eight o'clock in the
morning. Of the various "lyons" they entertained she leaves a graphic
account, notably of Omai, the Otaheitan native, and of Alexis Orlov, the
favourite of Catherine II. of Russia. Dr Johnson she first met at her
father's home in March 1777. Her father's drawing-room, where she met
many of the chief musicians, actors and authors of the day, was in fact
Fanny's only school. Her reading, however, was by no means limited.
Macaulay stated that in the whole of Dr Burney's library there was but
one novel, Fielding's _Amelia_; but Austin Dobson points out that she
was acquainted with the abbe Prevost's _Doyen de Killerine_, and with
Marivaux's _Vie de Marianne_, besides _Clarissa Harlowe_ and the books
of Mrs Elizabeth Griffith and Mrs Frances Brooke. Her diary also
contains the record of much more strenuous reading. Her stepmother, a
woman of some cultivation, did not encourage habits of scribbling.
Fanny, therefore, made a bonfire of her MSS., among them a _History of
Caroline Evelyn_, a story containing an account of Evelina's mother.
Luckily her journal did not meet with the same fate. The first entry in
it was made on the 30th of May 1768, and it extended over seventy-two
years. The earlier portions of it underwent wholesale editing in later
days, and much of it was entirely obliterated. She planned out
_Evelina_, or _A Young Lady's Entrance into the World_, long before it
was written down. _Evelina_ was published by Thomas Lowndes in the end
of January 1778, but it was not until June that Dr Burney learned its
authorship, when the book had been reviewed and praised everywhere.
Fanny proudly told Mrs Thrale the secret. Mrs Thrale wrote to Dr Burney
on the 22nd of July: "Mr Johnson returned home full of the Prayes of the
_Book_ I had lent him, and protesting that there were passages in it
which might do _honour_ to Richardson: we talk of it for ever, and he
feels ardent after the denouement; he could not get _rid_ of the Rogue,
he said." Miss Burney soon visited the Thrales at Streatham, "the most
consequential day I have spent since my birth" she calls the occasion.
It was the prelude to much longer visits there. Dr Johnson's best
compliments were made for her benefit, and eagerly transcribed in her
diary. His affectionate friendship for "little Burney" only ceased with
his death.
_Evelina_ was a continued success. Sir Joshua Reynolds sat up all night
to read it, as did Edmund Burke, who came next to Johnson in Miss
Burney's esteem. She was introduced to Elizabeth Montagu and the other
bluestocking ladies, to Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and to the gay Mrs
Mary Cholmondeley, the sister of Peg Woffington, whose manners, as
described in the diary, explain much of _Evelina_. At the suggestion of
Mrs Thrale, and with offers of help from Arthur Murphy, and
encouragement from Sheridan, Fanny began to write a comedy. Crisp,
realizing the limitations of her powers, tried to dissuade her, and the
piece, _The Witlings_, was suppressed in deference to what she called a
"hissing, groaning, catcalling epistle" from her two "daddies."
Meanwhile her intercourse with Mrs Thrale proved very exacting, and left
her little time for writing. She went with her to Bath in 1780, and was
at Streatham again in 1781. Her next book was written partly at
Chessington and after much discussion with Mr Crisp. _Cecilia; or,
Memoirs of an Heiress_, by the author of _Evelina_, was published in 5
vols. in 1782 by Messrs Payne & Cadell (who paid the author L250--not
L2000 as stated by Macaulay). If _Cecilia_ has not quite the freshness
and charm of _Evelina_, it is more carefully constructed, and contains
many happy examples of what Johnson called Miss Burney's gift of
"character-mongering." Burke sent her a letter full of high praise. But
some of her friends found the writing too often modelled on Johnson's,
and Horace Walpole thought the personages spoke too uniformly in
character.
On the 24th of April 1783, Fanny Burney's "most judicious adviser and
stimulating critic," "daddy" Crisp, died. He was her devoted friend, as
she was to him, "the dearest thing on earth." The next year she was to
lose two more friends. Mrs Thrale married Piozzi, and Johnson died.
Fanny had met the celebrated Mrs Delany in 1783, and she now attached
herself to her. Mrs Delany, who was living (1785) in a house near
Windsor Castle presented to her by George III., was on the friendliest
terms with both the king and queen, and Fanny was honoured with more
than one royal interview. Queen Charlotte, soon afterwards, offered Miss
Burney the post of second keeper of the robes, with a salary of L200 a
year, which after some hesitation was accepted. Much has been said
against Dr Burney for allowing the authoress of _Evelina_ and _Cecilia_
to undertake an office which meant separation from all her friends and a
wearisome round of court ceremonial. On the other hand, it may be fairly
urged that Fanny's literary gifts were really limited. She had written
nothing for four years, and apparently felt she had used her best
material. "What my daddy Crisp says," she wrote as early as 1779, "'that
it would be the best policy, but for pecuniary advantages, for me to
write no more,' is exactly what I have always thought since _Evelina_
was published" (_Diary_, i. 258). Her misgivings as to her unfitness for
court life were quite justified. From Queen Charlotte she received
unvarying kindness, though she was not very clever with her
waiting-maid's duties. She had to attend the queen's toilet, to take
care of her lap-dog and her snuff-box, and to help her senior, Mrs
Schwellenberg, in entertaining the king's equerries and visitors at tea.
The constant association with Mrs Schwellenberg, who has been described
as "a peevish old person of uncertain temper and impaired health,
swaddled in the buckram of backstairs etiquette," proved to be the worst
part of Fanny's duties. Her diary is full of amusing court gossip, and
sometimes deals with graver matters, notably in the account of Warren
Hastings' trial, and in the story of the beginning of George III.'s
madness, as seen by a member of his household. But the strain told on
her health, and after pressure both from Fanny and her numerous friends,
Dr Burney prepared with her a joint memorial asking the queen's leave to
resign. She left the royal service in July 1791 with a retiring pension
of L100 a year, granted from the queen's private purse, and returned to
her father's house at Chelsea. Dr Burney had been appointed organist at
Chelsea Hospital in 1783, through Burke's influence.
In 1792 she became acquainted with a group of French exiles, who had
taken a house, Juniper Hall, near Mickleham, where Fanny's sister, Mrs
Phillips, lived. On the 31st of July 1793 she married one of the exiles,
Alexandre D'Arblay, an artillery officer, who had been adjutant-general
to La Fayette. They took a cottage at Bookham on the strength, it
appears, of Miss Burney's pension. In 1793 she produced her _Brief
Reflections relative to the Emigrant French Clergy_. Her son Alexandre
was born on the 18th of December 1794. In the following spring Sheridan
produced at Drury Lane her _Edwy and Elgiva_, a tragedy which was not
saved even by the acting of the Kembles and Mrs Siddons. The play was
never printed. Money was now a serious object, and Madame D'Arblay was
therefore persuaded to issue her next novel, _Camilla: or A Picture of
Youth_ (5 vols., 1796), by subscription. A month after publication Dr
Burney told Horace Walpole that his daughter had made L2000 by the book,
and this sum was almost certainly augmented later. It is interesting to
note that Jane Austen was among the subscribers. Unfortunately its
literary success was not as great. "How I like _Camilla_?" wrote Horace
Walpole to Miss Hannah More (August 29th, 1796), "I do not care to say
how little. Alas! she has reversed experience ... this author knew the
world and penetrated characters before she had stepped over the
threshold; and, now she has seen so much of it, she has little or no
insight at all: perhaps she apprehended having seen too much, and kept
the bags of foul air that she brought from the Cave of Tempests too
closely tied." Nevertheless _Camilla_ has found judicious persons to
admire it, notably Jane Austen in _Northanger Abbey_. A second play,
_Love and Fashion_, was actually put in rehearsal in 1799, but was
withdrawn in the next year. In 1801 Madame D'Arblay accompanied her
husband to Paris, where General D'Arblay eventually obtained a place in
the civil service. In 1812 she returned to England, bringing with her
her son Alexandre to escape the conscription. In 1814 she published _The
Wanderer; or Female Difficulties_. Possibly because readers expected to
find a description of her impressions of revolutionary France, it had a
large sale, from which the author realized L7000. Nobody, it has been
said, ever read _The Wanderer_. In the end of the year General D'Arblay
came to England and took his wife back to France. During the Hundred
Days of 1815 she was in Belgium, and the vivid account in her Diary of
Brussels during Waterloo may have been used by Thackeray in _Vanity
Fair_. General D'Arblay now received permission to settle in England.
After his death, which took place at Bath on the 3rd of May 1818, his
wife lived in Bolton Street, Piccadilly. There she was visited in 1826
by Sir Walter Scott, who describes her (_Journal_, November 18th, 1826)
as an elderly lady with no remains of personal beauty, but with a gentle
manner and a pleasing countenance. The later years of her life were
occupied with the editing of the _Memoirs of Dr Burney, arranged from
his own Manuscripts, from family papers and from personal recollections_
(3 vols., 1832). Her style had, as time went on, altered for the worse,
and this book is full of extraordinary affectations. Madame D'Arblay
died in London on the 6th of January 1840 and was buried at Walcot,
Bath, near her son and husband.
Madame D'Arblay is still read in _Evelina_, but her best title to the
affections of modern readers is the _Diary and Letters_. The small
egotisms of the writer do not alienate other readers as they did John
Wilson Croker. Dr Johnson lives in its pages almost as vividly as in
those of Boswell, and King George and his wife in a friendlier light
than in most of their contemporary portraits. Croker, in _The Quarterly
Review_, April 1833 and June 1842, made two attacks on Madame D'Arblay.
The first is an unfriendly but largely justifiable criticism on the
_Memoirs of Dr Burney_. In the second, a review of the first three
volumes of the _Diary and Letters_, Croker abused the writer's innocent
vanity, and declared that, considering their bulk and pretensions, the
_Diary and Letters_ were "nearly the most worthless we have ever waded
through." These pronouncements drew forth the eloquent defence by Lord
Macaulay, first printed in _The Edinburgh Review_, January 1843, which,
in spite of some inaccuracies and considerable exaggeration, has perhaps
done more than anything else to maintain Madame D'Arblay's constant
popularity.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The _Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay_ was edited
by her niece, Charlotte Frances Barrett, in 7 vols. (1842-1846). The
text, covering the years 1778-1840, was edited with preface, notes and
reproductions of contemporary portraits and other illustrations, by Mr
Austin Dobson in 6 vols. (1904-1905). This _Diary_, which begins with
the publication of _Evelina_, was supplemented in 1889 by _The Early
Diary of Frances Burney_ (1768-1778), which was in the first instance
suppressed as being of purely private interest, edited by Mrs Annie
Raine Ellis, with an introduction giving many particulars of the
Burney family. Mrs Ellis also edited _Evelina_ for "Bohn's Novelist's
Library" in 1881, and _Cecilia_ in 1882. See also Austin Dobson's
_Fanny Burney_ (_Madame D'Arblay_) (1903), in the "English Men of
Letters Series."