producing rain, lightning, thunder, or extreme cold at any time. The last-named experiment he is reported to have performed on a summer's day in Westminster Hall before the king, with the result of driving all his audience hastily from the building. He is further credited with the invention of an extraordinary pump, an ‘incubator’ for hatching fowls, an instrument for showing pictures or portraits of people not present at the time—possibly a magic lantern—and other ingenious arrangements for light or reflection of light. He is also stated to have discovered the art of dyeing scarlet, which he communicated to his son-in-law, Dr. Kufler, from whom it was called ‘Color Kuflerianus.’ Pepys (Diary, 14 March 1662) mentions that Kufler and Drebbel's son Jacob tried to induce the admiralty to adopt an invention by Drebbel for sinking an enemy's ship. This they alleged had been tried with success in Cromwell's time. It seems to have been an explosive acting directly in a downward direction. Drebbel wrote, in Dutch, a treatise on the ‘Nature of the Elements’ (Leyden, 1608, German translation; Haerlem, 1621, Dutch; Frankfort, 1628, Latin translation). This work and a tract on the ‘Fifth Essence,’ together with a letter to James I on ‘Perpetual Motion,’ were issued in Latin at Hamburg, 1621, and Lyons, 1628. His portrait was engraved on wood by C. von Sichem, and on copper by P. Velyn, and is to be found in some editions of his works.
[W. B. Rye's England as seen by Foreigners temp. Eliz. and James; Biographie Universelle; the Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography; Karel van Mander's Vies des Peintres (ed. Hymans), ii. 270; Immerzeel (and Kramm), Levens en Werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche Kunstschilders, &c.]
DREGHORN, Lord. [See Maclaurin, John, 1734–1796.]
DRELINCOURT, PETER (1644–1722), dean of Armagh, born in Paris 22 July 1644, was the sixth son of Charles Drelincourt (1595–1629), minister of the reformed church in Paris, and author of ‘Les Consolations de l'Ame contre les Frayeurs de la Mort’ (Geneva, 1669), translated by Marius D'Assigny [q. v.] as the ‘Christian's Defence against the Fear of Death,’ 1675. To the fourth edition of the translation (1706) Defoe added his ‘Apparition of Mrs. Veal.’ Peter graduated M.A. in Trinity College, Dublin, 1681, and LL.D. 1691. Having been appointed chaplain to the Duke of Ormonde, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, he became in 1681 precentor of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin; in 1683 archdeacon of Leighlin; and 28 Feb. 1690–1 dean of Armagh, retaining his archdeaconry, and holding at the same time the rectory of Armagh. He died there 7 March 1721–2, and was buried in the cathedral, where a fine monument by Rysbrach was erected by his widow to his memory. On a mural tablet, in Latin, is a minute account of his origin and promotions, and on the front of the sarcophagus an inscription in English verse. It alludes to the erection in Armagh of the ‘Drelincourt Charity School’ by the dean's widow, who endowed it with 90l. per annum. To their daughter, Viscountess Primrose, the citizens of Armagh are chiefly indebted for a plentiful supply of water. Drelincourt's only publication is ‘A Speech made to … the Duke of Ormonde, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and to the … Privy Council. To return the humble thanks of the French Protestants lately arriv'd in this kingdom; and graciously reliev'd by them,’ 4to, Dublin, 1682.
[Todd's Catalogue of Dublin Graduates; Cotton's Fasti Ecclesiæ Hibernicæ, ii. 53, 398, iii. 33, v. 91; Stuart's Historical Memoirs of Armagh, pp. 518, 539.]
DRENNAN, WILLIAM (1754–1820), Irish poet, son of the Rev. Thomas Drennan, presbyterian minister at Belfast, was born in that city on 23 May 1754. He was educated at the university of Glasgow, where he took the degree of M.A. in 1771, and he then proceeded to Edinburgh to study medicine. At Edinburgh he was noted as one of the most distinguished students of his period, not only in medicine, but in philosophy; he became a favourite pupil and intimate friend of Dugald Stewart, and after seven years of study took his M.D. degree in 1778. After practising his profession for two or three years in his native city, he moved to Newry, where he settled down, and where he first began to take an interest in politics and literature. In the great political movement in Ireland of 1784, Drennan, like all the other Ulstermen who had felt the influence of Dugald Stewart, took a keen interest. His letters to the press, signed ‘Orellana, the Irish Helot,’ attracted universal attention. In 1789 he moved to Dublin, where he soon got into good practice, and became a conspicuous figure in the social life of the Irish capital. Drennan was a member of the jovial club of the ‘Monks of the Screw,’ a friend of Lysaght and Curran, and well known for his poetical powers. In politics he continued to take a still deeper interest; he was a member of the political club founded in 1790 by T. A. Emmett and Peter Burrowes, and in June 1791 he wrote the original prospectus of the famous society of the
