Digges was appointed muster-master-general to the force. Availing himself of the experience thus gained, he wrote, upon his return to England, several treatises much esteemed in that day, upon various points of military science. A treatise which he wrote, called "Alæ Mathematicæ," was favourably noticed by Tycho Brahe. "He was a person," says Wood, "of great piety, well skilled in matters relating to soldiers and war, and learned to a miracle in mathematical sciences." He died in London in 1595.—T. A.
DILKE, Charles Wentworth, senior, bore a name of note in the history of contemporary British journalism, especially literary journalism. He was born in 1789, and began life as a clerk in a government office. Contributing to reviews and magazines, especially on subjects connected with our early literature, he was led to become proprietor of the Athenæum after its second financial failure in the hands of the Rev. Mr. Maurice and his friend the late John Sterling. Under Mr. Dilke, the Athenæum became the most successful and authoritative of critical journals published at short intervals. After the successive withdrawals of Mr. Charles Dickens and Mr. John Forster from the editorship of the Daily News, Mr. Dilke was offered and in 1846 accepted the post, which, however, he did not long retain. As an author Mr. Dilke courted the anonymous, but he was known to have contributed persistently and extensively to the literature of the Junius question. He died on the 10th August, 1864. His son, Charles Wentworth Dilke, was a prominent member of the executive committee of the Great Exhibition of 1851, and took an active part in several movements for the alliance of industrialism and taste. He died on the 9th May, 1869.—F. E.
DILLEN or DILLENIUS, Johann Jacob, a celebrated German naturalist, was born at Darmstadt in 1687, and died at Oxford on 2nd April, 1747. He prosecuted his studies at the university of Giessen, and devoted much attention to botany. He was early elected a member of the Societas Naturæ Curiosorum; and he presented to that society memoirs on the plants of America naturalized in Europe; on coffee; on the mode of obtaining opium from the papaver somniferum; and on the mode of development of ferns and mosses. In 1727 he published a Flora of Giessen, in which he treated specially of the cryptogamic plants He adopted the system of Ray in preference to those of Tournefort and Rivinus. Sherard, who had been struck with Dillenius' botanical merits, and more particularly with his knowledge of cryptogams, invited him to come to England. Accordingly, in August, 1721, Dillenius reached London, and finally established himself in Oxford, where Sherard and his brother resided. Dillenius soon after this edited an edition of Ray's Synopsis Methodica Stirpium Britannicarum. His fame as a botanist was spread abroad; but he had no appointment in Oxford—being supported entirely by the liberality of the Sherards. In 1728 Dr. Sherard died, and bequeathed to the university a sum of money for the purpose of endowing a professorship of botany, with the proviso that Dillenius should be the first occupant of the chair; thus Dillenius was placed in a botanical situation of eminence. In 1732 he testified his gratitude to his patron by publishing his "Hortus Elthamensis," or an account of the rare plants cultivated in Sherard's garden at Eltham. A few years afterwards he received the degree of doctor of medicine, and gave to the world his "Historia Muscorum"—a book which deservedly placed him in a high position among botanists. Among the mosses, however, he included many plants which are now placed among lichens, confervæ, hepaticæ, and lycopods. His remarks on the reproductive organs of mosses, and on the functions of antheridia and pistillidia, led the way to the subsequent discoveries made in cryptogamic reproduction. Dillenius appears to have had a peculiar temper. He wished to be considered the first botanist of his day, and did not receive Linnæus with proper respect when he visited Oxford. Linnæus dedicated to him the genus Dillenia, which includes beautiful Indian trees, and forms the type of the natural order Dilleniaceæ.—J. H. B.
DILLON, an ancient and honourable Irish family whose descendants made the name famous throughout Europe—
Theobald Dillon, Viscount, of Costello-Gallen, county of Mayo, was the third son of Thomas Dillon, and grandson of James, nicknamed the Prior. When Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne, Ireland was in a state of violent commotion. Münster was distracted by the enmities of the O'Briens, Thomond, Desmond, and Ormond; Connaught was harassed by the feuds of Clanricarde. Among the most zealous supporters of the queen at this critical juncture, Theobald Dillon of Mayo stood foremost. In 1559 we find him commanding an independent troop in the royal cause, and receiving the honour of knighthood on the field of battle. In 1582 he was appointed general collector of the composition money in Connaught and Thomond. James I., observant of his long-tried fidelity and merit, created him Viscount Dillon in March 16, 1621. He died in March 15, 1624, "at so advanced an age," says the pedigree, "that at one time he had the satisfaction of seeing above one hundred of his descendants in his house of Killenfaghny."—W. J. F.
Arthur Dillon, born in 1670, was the third son of Theobald Viscount Dillon, lineal descendant of the first viscount, who, together with his wife, suffered severely from their fidelity to the cause of James II.; Lord Dillon having been outlawed in 1690, and his lady struck dead by the second bomb thrown into Limerick by the Williamite forces, under General Ginkell, Arthur Dillon emigrated to France, and before he was twenty years of age he commanded one of the regiments of the Irish brigade In 1691 we find him besieging Urgel, and relieving Pratz-de-Molto. In June, 1693, he was at the capture of Rosas. On May 27th, 1694, he fought at the overthrow of the Spaniards, under the duke of Escalona, on the river Ter. He also served at the succeeding captures of Palamos, Girona, Ostalric, Castlefollet, &c. In 1695 he routed with a rear-guard several thousand Miquelets. In 1696 he ably conducted some sieges in Spain, under the duke de Vendôme, and defeated the Spanish cavalry under the prince of Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1697 he served at the capture of Barcelona. On the commencement of the war of the Spanish succession, we find him acting in conjunction with the marshal de Villeroy In 1702 he was removed to the army of Italy, fought at Vittoria and Luzzara, and was created brigadier. From 1693 until his last campaign in 1714, he distinguished himself at an immense number of battles and sieges, which may be found carefully enumerated in the History of the Irish Brigades, vol. i., pp. 97-99, and King James' Army List, p. 590. In 1705 he attained the rank of marechal-de-camp, general, and governor of Toulon. His intrepidity was wonderful. In appearance he has been described as possessing great beauty. His soldiers loved him passionately, and followed him with enthusiasm, while all the leading generals of the time eagerly sought his counsel. Notwithstanding the multifarious dangers to which he was exposed from 1691 to 1714, he never received a wound. He married the niece of General Sheldon, and died at St. Germain-en-Laye in 1733.—W. J. F.
James Dillon, son of Arthur Viscount Dillon, rewarded for honourable and distinguished services to the king of France in 1740, by being created a knight of Malta. He was also colonel of Dillon's regiment in the Irish brigade, and fell in the act of leading his troops to victory against the duke of Marlborough's forces at Fontenoy, May 11th, 1745. After the death of James Dillon, his regiment was given to his brother Edward, then aged twenty-five, who was wounded at the victorious battle of Lawfeldt, and died soon after at Maestricht. The king of France, remembering with gratitude the important services rendered to his crown and dignity by the family now under consideration, declared that he would not give the command of that regiment to any person save one who bore the name of Dillon, and had been recommended to his notice by the family. Of the three other sons of Arthur Viscount Dillon, two inherited the family title from their uncle; while Arthur, the youngest, was first made bishop of Evreux, promoted to the archiepiscopal see of Toulouse, and finally to that of Narbonne. Archbishop Dillon was also a commander of the order of the Holy Ghost, primate of the Gauls, and president of the states of Languedoc. The learned antiquarian Mervyn Archdale, writing in 1789, observes—"To this prelate the literati of Ireland confess much obligation. He has manifested a liberality of principle almost hitherto unknown, and through his inquiries and exertions the antiquities of Ireland have been lately much elucidated."—(Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, &c.) Since this prelate's death the abbés Roger and Arthur Dillon have acquired some celebrity as writers.—W. J. F.
Théobalde de Dillon, Count, who, as we are reminded by Lord Cloncurry in his Personal Recollections, p. 147, went by the sobriquet of "Le beau Dillon"—was born in Dublin in 1745, appointed colonel-proprietor of the regiment of Dillon, April 13, 1780; brigadier the same year; and marechal-de-camp, June 13, 1783. Having served with distinction under
