Dr Paris to "an ungraceful timidity, which he could never conquer."
See Dr J. A. Paris, The Life of Sir Humphry Davy, 1831; Dr J. Davy, Works of Sir Humphry Davy, 1839. The former (vol. ii. pp. 450-456) contains a list of Davy's publications.(f. h. b.)
DAWLISH, a watering-place of England, on the south coast of Devonshire, situated a little beyond the mouth of the Exe, twelve miles south of Exeter. It lies in a cove of the English Channel formed by two projecting cliffs, and is admirably sheltered from the weather. A small stream, which flows through the town, is lined on both sides by pleasure grounds. The town is much resorted to during spring and early summer by the seekers after health. The parish contains an area of 5512 acres, and a population (1871) of 4241 persons, 2492 of whom are females.
DAX, formerly Ax, or Acqs, the ancient Aquæ Tarbellicæ, a town of France, at the head of an arrondissement in the department of Landes, situated in a fertile plain on the left bank of the Adour, 28 miles north-east of Bayonue, and connected by a fine stone bridge with the suburb of Sablar. It is still partially surrounded by its old tower-flanked walls, which present if not a genuine specimen, at least an interesting mediaeval imitation, of Roman masonry; and it has a cathedral (rebuilt in the 18th century, but preserving a sculptured doorway and porch of the 13th), an old episcopal palace, a court-house, a prison, a mineralogical museum, and a training college. It manufactures earthenware, pitch, oil, chocolate, salt, and liqueurs, and carries on cork-cutting, ham-curing, and a trade in wine, brandy, grain, and timber. Its prosperity is further increased by its thermal springs, of which the most remarkable, rising in a great re servoir 20 feet deep in the Central Square, has a temperature of 155-166° Fahr., and sometimes discharges such volumes of steam as to envelop the whole town in a mist. Dax, as its ancient name implies, was the capital of the Tarbelii; and during the Roman period it ranked as the second town of Novempopulonia. For some time it was the seat of a viscount, and its bishopric was preserved till the Revolution. The church of St Vincent derives its name from the first occupant of the see, and is interesting for its connection with the more famous St Vincent de Paul. Population in 1871, 8154.
DAY, John, a lyrical dramatist of the age of Elizabeth, of whose life no particulars have been transmitted to us, except that he was a student of Caius College, Cambridge. The first work which he is known to have produced is The Isle of Gulls, printed in 1606, a comedy founded upon Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia. In 1607 he published a curious drama, written by him in conjunction with William Rowley and George Wilkins, The Travels of Three English Brothers, which detailed the adventures of Sir Thomas, Sir Anthony, and Robert Shirley. In the same year appeared The Parliament of Bees, the work on which Day's reputation mainly rests. This exquisite and unique drama, or rather masque, is entirely occupied with "the doings, the births, the wars, the wooings" of bees, expressed in a style at once most singular and most charming. In 1608 Day published two comedies, Law Tricks and Humour out of Breath. In 1610 there was licensed by him a comedy of The Mad Pranks of Merry Moll, which has not survived. It is not known when he died, but his works were frequently reprinted before the civil wars, and as late as 1659 one of them, The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, first saw the light. The six dramas by John Day which we possess testify to a talent somewhat out of sympathy with the main poetic current of his day. Except The Parliament of Bees, which is all in rhyme, his plays are in prose, with occasional rhymed passages of great lyrical sweetness. He preserved, in a great measure, the dramatic tradition of John Lyly, and affected a kind of subdued euphuism. It is, indeed, not impossible that the Maid's Metamorphosis, 1600, wrongly supposed to be a posthumous work of Lyly's, may be attributable to the youth of Day. It possesses, at all events, many of his marked characteristics. The beauty and ingenuity of The Parliament of Bees were noted and warmly extolled by Charles Lamb; but no effort has been made in our generation to revive his fame, and the works of this writer of very distinct and peculiar genius remain still unedited.
DAYTON, a city of the United States, the capital of Montgomery county, Ohio, situated on the east bank of the Great Miami, which is there joined by the Mad, 46 miles north of Cincinnati, and 135 miles south of Toledo. The Miami canal, which connects the Ohio river with Lake Erie, passes by the town; and this means of communication, along with that of the railroads which converge here from different points, has contributed greatly to the prosperity of the place. The city is very regularly laid out, and the houses and public edifices are better than in many other western cities, partly owing to the comparatively moderate price of the white limestone, or marble, which abounds in its neighbourhood. The principal public buildings are the county court-house designed after the Parthenon at Athens, and erected at a cost of about £30,000 and the market-house, containing within its walls a city hall and the council chamber. There are, besides numerous churches, a high school, and the Cooper Academy, belonging to the Presbyterian body, for the instruction of females. Of charitable institutions the orphan asylum, the alms-house, and a lunatic asylum may be mentioned; and in the vicinity there is the Central National Soldiers Home. A considerable manufacturing industry is carried on, which is facilitated by a copious supply of water conveyed from the Mad. There are several machine shops, arid works for the manufacture of agricultural implements, railway carriages, paper, cotton, &c. The place, which was first settled in 1796, was incorporated as a town in 1805, and as a city in 1841. Population in 1850, 10,977; in 1860, 20,081; and in 1870,30,473.
end of volume sixth.
neill and company, printers, edinburgh
