known figure in London society, numbering Lord Granville, Matthew Arnold, Dean Stanley, Lord Houghton, and Baron Meyer de Rothschild among his friends. With the Baroness Rothschild he took a leading part in the movement for the oral instruction of the deaf and dumb. His leisure between 1870 and 1875 he devoted to the production of some semi-autobiographical novels. He was already a knight of the Danish order of the Dannebrog, and on 27 June 1876, on Disraeli's recommendation, he was knighted at Windsor Castle. He was also appointed one of the original commissioners of historical manuscripts in 1870. In 1890 he sustained a severe loss through the total destruction by fire of his library and other collections at Tower Hill, Ascot. He was a connoisseur of antique silver and an early student of hall-marks, in connection with which subject he had a fine collection (a portion of which he had sold in June 1875). He retired from the public service in 1892, and from the house which he had rebuilt at Ascot he dated his last work, a masterly translation for the Rolls series of 'The Orkneyinger's Magnus and Hacon's Sagas,' executed in 1894 with the assistance of his elder son, Mr. John Roche Dasent, C.B.; this translation occupies the third and fourth of the four volumes of 'Icelandic Sagas relating to the British Isles;' the Norse text was edited by Vigfússon in the first two volumes. Dasent's contemplated life of Delane, whose vast correspondence passed into his hands, was sufficiently advanced for publication, but was left in the hands of his literary executors. He died at Tower Hill, Ascot, on 11 June 1896, and was buried near John Delane in the churchyard of Easthampstead, Berkshire. He married, at St. James's, Piccadilly, on 4 April 1846, Fanny Louisa, third daughter of William Frederick Augustus Delane of Old Bracknell, Easthampstead; she survives him with two sons and one daughter.
Dasent's chief works were:
- 'The Prose or Younger Edda,' commonly ascribed to Snorri Sturluson, translated for the first time from the Old Norse collection published by Rask in 1818, Stockholm, 8vo; dated Ulfsunda, 20 July 1842, and inscribed to Thomas Carlyle.
- 'Popular Tales from the Norse … with an Introductory Essay on the Origin and Diffusion of Popular Tales,' Edinburgh, 1859, 8vo; the tales are derived from the collection of Norske Folkeeventyr made by Asbjornsen and Moe.
- 'The Story of Burnt Njal, or Life in Iceland at the end of the Tenth Century; from the Icelandic of the Njals Saga, with Introduction, Maps, and Plans,' Edinburgh, 1861, 2 vols. 8vo (the introduction includes short chapters on the religion, superstitions, and organisation of the Icelandic commonwealth); new edit. 1900.
- 'A Selection from the Norse Tales, for the use of Children,' Edinburgh, 1862, 8vo.
- 'The Story of Gisli the Outlaw,' Edinburgh, 1866, 8vo, with illustrations and a beautiful map of Iceland. The story is based upon a fusion of two Icelandic texts, and is one of the finest of the lesser sagas.
- 'Annals of an Eventful Life,' London, 1870, 3 vols. 8vo; a somewhat rambling novel of autobiographical tendency.
- 'Jest and Earnest: a Collection of Essays and Reviews,' London, 1873, 2 vols. 8vo; the papers are mostly reproduced from the 'North British Review;' they include elaborate studies of England and Norway in the eleventh century, and of Harold Hardrada.
[Times, 13 July 1896; Athenæum, 1896, i. 811; Foster's Men at the Bar, 1885, p. 115; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886; Memoirs of Henry Reeve, ed. Laughton, 1898, i. 284, 338; Men of the Time, 14th edit.; Engl. Hist. Review, v. 127; Saturday Review, 27 April 1861; Brit. Mus. Cat.; notes kindly furnished by Arthur Irwin Dasent, esq.]
DASHWOOD, FRANCIS, Baron le Despencer (1708–1781), chancellor of the exchequer, born in December 1708, was only son of Sir Francis Dashwood, first baronet (d. 1724), and his second wife Mary, eldest daughter of Vere Fane, baron Le Despencer and fourth earl of Westmorland. His father, third son of Francis Dashwood, a Turkey merchant and alderman of London, and brother of Sir Samuel Dashwood, lord mayor of London in 1702, was elected M.P. for Winchilsea on 4 May 1708, and again on 9 Oct. 1710; he was created a baronet on 28 June 1707, died on 19 Nov. 1724 (not on 4 Nov. as Burke says: see Hist. Reg. 1724, Chron. Diary, p. 49), and was buried at Wycombe.
He was four times married, and by his third wife, Mary, daughter of Major King, was father of Sir John Dashwood-King (1716–1793), who succeeded his half-brother Lord Le Despencer as third baronet, an honour which his descendants, having dropped the name King, still hold.
Dashwood appears to have been educated privately. On 19 Nov. 1724, when still under sixteen, he succeeded to his father's title and estates, and he spent his youth and early manhood in riotous living abroad, gaining 'a European reputation for his pranks and adventures. … He roamed from court to court in search of notoriety. In Russia he masqueraded as Charles XII,
