rhyming oath, quoted by Fuller, was taken. The institution of this strange matrimonial prize—which had its parallel at Whichanoure (or Wichnor) in Staffordshire, at St Moleine in Brittany, and apparently also at Vienna—appears to date from the reign of John. The first instance of its award recorded is in 1445, and there are a few others. But there are references which suggest its previous award in Piers Plowman and Chaucer. The Chaucerian couplet conveys the idea of an award to a patient husband, without reference to the wife. A revival of the custom was effected in 1855 by Harrison Ainsworth, author of the novel The Flitch of Bacon, but the scene of the ceremony was transferred to the town hall of Great Dunmow. It has since been maintained in altered form. (For details see Chambers’s Book of Days, ii. 748–751; and W. Andrews, History of the Dunmow Flitch of Bacon Customs, 1877.) Close to Little Dunmow is Felsted (q.v.) or Felstead; and Easton Lodge (with a railway station), a seat of the earl of Warwick, is in the vicinity.
DUNNE, FINLEY PETER (1867– ), American journalist and humorist, was born, of Irish descent, in Chicago, Illinois, on the 10th of July 1867. After a public school education he became a newspaper reporter (1885); he was city editor of the Chicago Times (1891–1892), a member of the editorial staff of the Chicago Evening Post and of the Chicago Times-Herald (1892–1897), and editor of the Chicago Journal (1897–1900). In 1900 he removed to New York city. Although for several years he had been contributing humorous sketches in Irish brogue to the daily papers, he did not come into prominence until he wrote for the Chicago Journal a series of satirical observations and reflections attributed to an honest Irish-American, Martin Dooley, the shrewd philosopher of Archey Road, on social and political topics of the day. These were widely copied by the press of America and England. The first published collection, Mr Dooley in Peace and in War (1898), was followed by several others, similar in subject-matter and method, including Mr Dooley in the Hearts of his Countrymen (1899), Mr Dooley’s Philosophy (1900), Mr Dooley’s Opinions (1901), Observations by Mr Dooley (1902), and Dissertations by Mr Dooley (1906). These books made their author widely known as the creator of a delightfully original character, and as a humorist of shrewd insight. In 1906 he became associate editor of the American Magazine.
DUNNOTTAR CASTLE, a ruined stronghold, on the east coast of Kincardineshire, Scotland, about 2 m. S. of Stonehaven. It stands on a rock 160 ft. high, with a summit area of 4 acres, and surrounded on three sides by the sea. It is accessible from the land by a winding path leading across a deep chasm, to the outer gate in a wall of enormous thickness. It is supposed that a fortress stood here since perhaps the 7th century, but the existing castle dates from 1392, when it was begun by Sir William Keith (d. 1407), great marischal of Scotland. The keep and chapel are believed to be the oldest structures, most of the other buildings being two centuries later. It was the residence of the earls marischal and was regarded as impregnable. Here the seventh earl entertained Charles II. before the battle of Worcester. When Cromwell became Protector, the Scottish regalia were lodged in the castle for greater security, and, in 1651, when the Commonwealth soldiers laid successful siege to it, they were saved by a woman’s wit. Mrs Granger, wife of the minister of Kinneff, a parish about 6 m. to the S., was allowed to visit the wife of the governor, Ogilvy of Barras, and when she rode out she was spinning lint on a distaff. The crown was concealed in her lap, and the distaff consisted of the sword and sceptre. The regalia were hidden beneath the flagstones in the parish church, whence they were recovered at the Restoration. In 1685 the castle was converted into a Covenanters’ prison, no fewer than 167 being confined in a dungeon, called therefrom the Whigs’ Vault. On the attainder of George, tenth and last marischal, for his share in the earl of Mar’s rising in 1715 the castle was dismantled (1720).
DUNOIS, JEAN, Count of (1403–1468), commonly called the “Bastard of Orleans,” a celebrated French commander, was the natural son of the duke of Orleans (brother of Charles VI.) and Mariette d’Enghien, Madame de Canny. He was brought up in the house of the duke, and in the company of his legitimate sons, and it appears that he was present at the battle of Beaugé in 1421 and Verneuil in 1424. His earliest feat of arms was the surprise and rout in 1427 of the English, who were besieging Montargis—the first successful blow against the English power in France following a long series of French defeats. In 1428 he defended Orleans with the greatest spirit, and enabled the place to hold out until the arrival of Joan of Arc, when he shared with her the honour of defeating the enemy there in 1429. He then accompanied Joan to Reims and shared in the victory of Patay. After her death he raised the siege of Chartres and of Lagny (1432) and engaged in a series of successful campaigns which ended in his triumphal entry into Paris on the 13th of April 1436. He continued to carry on the war against the English, and gradually drove them to the northward, though his work was to some extent interrupted by the civil disorders of the time, in which he played a conspicuous part. Finally in 1450 he completed the reconquest of northern France, and in 1451 he attacked them in Guienne, taking among other towns Bordeaux, which the English had held for three hundred years, and Bayonne. After the expulsion of the English he was constantly engaged in the highest diplomatic and military missions. In 1465 he joined the league of revolted princes, but, assuming the function of negotiator, he was after a time reinstated in his offices. Dunois was thenceforward in the greatest favour with the court. He died on the 24th of November 1468.
DUNOON, a police and municipal burgh of Argyllshire, Scotland, on the western shore of the Firth of Clyde, opposite to Gourock. Pop. (1901) 6779. Including Kirn and Hunter’s Quay, it presents a practically continuous front of seaside villas. The mildness of its climate and the beauty of its situation have made it one of the most prosperous watering-places on the west coast. The principal buildings are the parish church, well-placed on a hill overlooking the pier, convalescent homes, Cottage and Victoria fever hospitals, and the town house. On a conical hill above the pier stand the remains of Dunoon Castle, the hereditary keepership of which was conferred by Robert Bruce on the family of Sir Colin Campbell of Loch Awe, an ancestor of the duke of Argyll. It was visited by Queen Mary in 1563, and in 1643 was the scene of the massacre of the Lamonts by the Campbells. The grounds have been laid out as a recreation garden. Near the hill stands the modern castle. Facing the pier a statue was erected in 1898 of Mary Campbell, Burns’s “Highland Mary,” who was a native of Dunoon. The town itself is of modern growth, having been a mere fishing village at the beginning of the 19th century. There is frequent communication daily by steamer with the railway piers at Craigendoran and Gourock, and Glasgow merchants are thus enabled to reside here all the year round. Hunter’s Quay is the yachting headquarters, the Royal Clyde Yacht Club’s house adjoining the pier. Kilmun, on the northern shore of Holy Loch, a portion of the parish of Dunoon and Kilmun, contains the ruins of a Collegiate chapel founded in 1442 by Sir Duncan Campbell of Loch Awe and used as the burial-ground of the Argyll family.
DUNROBIN CASTLE, a seat of the duke of Sutherland, picturesquely situated on the north-eastern shore of Dornoch Firth, Sutherlandshire, Scotland, about 2 m. N.E. of Golspie, with a private station on the Highland railway. The name is said to have originally meant the fort of Raffu, the “law-man,” or crown agent for the district in 1222, but it was renamed out of compliment to Robert (or Robin), 6th earl of Sutherland, who died in 1389. The ancient portion, dating from the end of the 13th century, was a square structure with towers at the corners, but in 1856 there was added a wing, a main north-eastern tower, and front, with numerous bartizan turrets, and dormer windows in the roof. The stately entrance porch recalls that of Windsor Castle, and the interior is designed and decorated on a sumptuous scale. In April 1746 George Mackenzie, the 3rd earl of Cromarty, thinking that Prince Charles Edward had prevailed at Culloden, seized the castle in his interests, but the Sutherland militia surrounded the building and captured the earl in an apartment which was afterwards called the Cromartie room. The beautiful
