Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/79

he hath also adjoyned certaine Questions of great Ordinaunce,’ Lond. 1579, 1590, 4to. Dedicated to Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester. To the second edition is appended ‘A briefe and true Report of the Proceedings of the Earle of Leycestre, for the Reliefe of the Towne of Sluce, from his arrival at Vlishing, about the end of June 1587, until the Surrendrie thereof 26 Julii next ensuing. Whereby it shall plainelie appeare his Excellencie was not in anie Fault for the Losse of that Towne.’ Robert Norton, gunner, published at London in 1624 a treatise ‘Of the Art of Great Artillery, viz. the explanation of the Definitions and Questions, pronounced and propounded by Thomas Digges, in his Stratiaticos and Pantometria, concerning great Ordinance, and his Theorems thereupon.’
5. ‘England's Defence: A Treatise concerning Invasion; or a brief discourse of what orders were best for the repulsing of foreign enemies, if at any time they should invade us by sea in Kent or elsewhere,’ at the end of the second edition of ‘Stratioticos,’ and Lond. 1686, fol.
6. Plan of Dover Castle, Town, and Harbour, drawn in 1581, by, or for the use of, Thomas Digges. Copy in Addit. MS. 11815.
7. ‘A briefe discourse declaringe how honorable and profitable to youre most excellent majestie … the making of Dover Haven shalbe, and in what sorte … the same may be accomplyshed.’ About 1582. Printed by T. W. Wrighte, M.A., in ‘Archæologia,’ xi. 212–54, from a manuscript bequeathed to the Society of Antiquaries by John Thorpe.
8. ‘Letter to the Earl of Leicester, with a Platt of military Ordnance for the Army he is to conduct into the Low Countries …’ Harleian MS. 6993, art. 49.
9. ‘Instructio exercitus apud Belgas,’ 1586, MS.
10. An augmented edition of his father's ‘Boke named Tectonicon,’ Lond. 1592, 4to, and again in 1605, 1614, 1625, 1630, 1634, 1637, 1647, 1656.
11. ‘Perfect description of the celestial orbs, according to the most antient doctrine of the Pythagoreans,’ Lond. 1592, 4to.
12. ‘Foure Paradoxes, or politique Discourses; two concerning militarie Discipline wrote long since by Thomas Digges; two of the Worthinesse of War and Warriors. By Dudley Digges his sonne,’ Lond. 1604, 4to.
13. ‘Nova Corpora regularia seu quinque corporum regularium simplicium in quinque alia regularia composita metamorphosis inventa ante annos 60 a T. Diggseio … jam, problematibus additis nonnullis, demonstrata a Nepote,’ Lond. 1634, 4to.

Besides the above works he had begun the following, with the intention of completing and publishing them, ‘had not the infernall furies, envying such his felicitie and happie societie with his mathematical muses, for many yeares so tormented him with lawe-brables, that he hath bene enforced to discontinue those his delectable studies.’

15. ‘A Treatise of the Arte of Navigation.’
16. ‘A Treatise of Architecture Nauticall.’
17. ‘Commentaries upon the Revolutions of Copernicus.’
18. ‘A Booke of Dialling.’
19. ‘A Treatise of Great Artillerie and Pyrotechnie.’
20. ‘A Treatise of Fortification.’

[Addit. MSS. 5867, f. 25, 11815; Ames's Typogr. Antiq. (Herbert); Biog. Brit. (Kippis); Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Halliwell's Letters illustrative of the Progress of Science in England, 6, 30, 33; Hasted's Kent, iii. 130, 762, iv. 35; Leigh's Treatise of Religion and Learning, 180; Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, (1547–80) 454, 577, (1581–90) 42, 44, 49–51, 101, 110, 111, 173, 180, 184, 214, 706, (1591–1594) 198, 234, 235, 316, 474, (1595–7) 263, 275, 293, 294, Addenda, (1580–1625) 306, 308, 309; Penny Cyclopædia, iii. 244, xxiv. 163; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. 227; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), i. 415, 636, ii. 592.]

T. C.

DIGGES, WEST (1720–1786), actor, has been variously stated to have been the son of Colonel Digges, an officer of the guards, whose fortune was lost in the South Sea scheme, and the illegitimate son of the second John West, earl of Delawarr. A commission was obtained for him, and he was sent to Scotland, where he encumbered himself with a burden of debt of which he was never able to get rid. Theophilus Cibber, on his visit to Dublin, introduced Digges to Sheridan, manager of the Smock Alley Theatre. On 27 Nov. 1749, as Jaffier in ‘Venice Preserved,’ he made at that house his first appearance on the stage. His success was complete. He remained in Dublin for some years, playing such characters as Lothario, Lear, Antony, Macheath, and Hamlet. He paid frequent visits to Edinburgh, where, 14 Dec. 1756, he was the original Young Norval in Home's tragedy of ‘Douglas.’ Having a wife still living, he went through the ceremony of marriage with George Ann Bellamy [q. v.], and acted in Scotland for a time (1763) under the name of Bellamy. In Edinburgh he was imprisoned for debt, but succeeded in effecting his escape. His first appearance in London took place at the Haymarket as Cato, 14 Aug. 1777. Foote was present, and with characteristic cruelty caused a laugh and disconcerted the actor by saying aloud in reference to Digges's costume, ‘A Roman chimney-sweeper on May day!’ He appeared at Covent Garden, 25 Sept. 1778, as Sir John Brute in the ‘Provoked Wife.’ In 1779 he returned to the Haymarket, and was the original Earl of Westmoreland in