ing in America. He planned the grounds about the National Capitol, the White House, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C. To his foresight, and to his spirit as communicated to others, we owe our present American system of broad free municipal parks. Downing's monumental work, Fruits and Fruit Trees of America (1845), greatly extended by his brother Charles (q.v.), together with his numerous essays, form the bulk of his contribution to the literature of horticulture. Another important work is the Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening (1841). These essays were first published in the Horticulturist, of which he was editor at the time of his death, and afterwards in book form under the title of Rural Essays (1854), for which book George William Curtis wrote a memoir of Downing. He was drowned while attempting to save the lives of others on the burning Hudson River steamer Henry Clay.
DOWNING, Charles (1802-85). An American nurseryman, the elder brother of A. J. Downing. He was born at Newburgh, N. Y. He was one of those who put nursery gardening on a scientific basis. In fact, his nursery became so much of an experiment station that after the death of his brother (see Downing, Andrew Jackson), with whom he had collaborated, he abandoned commercial horticulture and devoted himself for the remainder of his life to the amplification and revision of The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America. His efforts more than doubled the original scope of the volume, and made him until his death a recognized authority throughout the world on all questions pertaining to pomology, horticulture, and tree-growth.
DOWNING, Sir George (1623-84). An English soldier and politician. He was born in Dublin, and was the nephew of Governor John Winthrop, who induced him to complete his education at Harvard College in 1642. Some years afterwards he went to England and served in the Parliamentary army. During the Protectorate, he was a member of both Parliaments, was a leader of the movement for offering the crown to Cromwell, and afterwards was British resident at The Hague. He ingratiated himself with the exiled Stuarts, however, and after the Restoration was instrumental, through his treachery, in arresting three regicides. He was knighted in 1663, and became Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Commissioners of Customs. Downing Street, Whitehall, derives its name from him, and Downing College, Cambridge, from his grandson, Sir George Downing (1684-1749).
DOWNING COLLEGE. A college of Cambridge University, founded by Sir George Downing, of Gamlingay Park, Cambridge, who died in 1749, leaving his estates to be appropriated to the founding of a college in Cambridge, after various trust provisions had expired. The succession on which the trust depended dying out, a charter was obtained in 1800 for a college devoted especially to the study of law and medicine, for a master, two professors, and sixteen fellows. The original scheme was straitened by costly litigation, and though the buildings were begun in 1807, only two sides of the quadrangle have so far been completed. The statutes were framed in 1805 and altered in 1860. The college had, in 1902, a master, eight fellowships, restricted to law and medicine, and ten scholars.
DOWNING STREET. A street in the ‘West End’ district of London, leading from Whitehall. The Home Office, Foreign Office, Colonial Office, and East India Office are situated in it, and the name is therefore used as a convenient synonym for the central powers of the British Government.
DOWN′PAT′RICK, or Down. A municipal borough and cathedral town in the county of Down, Ireland, of which it is the capital (Map: Ireland, F 2). It is situated near the mouth of the Quoyle, at the end of Lough Strangford, 21 miles south-southeast of Belfast, with which town it is connected by railway. The cathedral in its present form was restored in 1790 on the site of one built in 1412 and burned in 1538. Vessels of 100 tons reach the quay a mile from Downpatrick. It has manufactures of linen, muslins, soap, leather, and malt liquors. Population, about 3000. Downpatrick was famous before the arrival of Saint Patrick, who founded religious establishments here. Consult Ecclesiastical Associations of Downpatrick (Belfast, 1897).
DOWNS (AS., OHG. dūn, Ger. Düne, Fr. dune, from Ir. dūn, Welsh din, hill, fort; ultimately connected with AS., Icel. tūn, Engl. town, OHG. zūn, Ger. Zaun, hedge). A term usually applied to hillocks of sand thrown up by the sea or the wind along the seacoast. It is also a general name for any undulating tract of upland too light for cultivation and covered with short grass. It is especially applied to two broad ridges of undulating hills in England south of the Thames, beginning in the middle of Hampshire and running eastward, the one (the North Downs) through the middle of Surrey and Kent to Dover (about 120 miles), and the other (the South Downs) through the southeast of Hampshire and near the Sussex coast to Beachy Head (about 80 miles). Between the two ridges lies the valley of the Weald, from which the chalk strata are supposed to have been removed by denudation. Toward the Weald the descent from both Downs is rapid, while the opposite slopes are gradual. The highest point of the North Downs is Botley Hill, 880 feet, and that of the South Downs, Ditchelling Beacon, 858 feet. These uplands are covered with fine pasture, forming excellent feeding ground for the famous Southdown sheep. The valleys occurring among the hills are usually fertile and admit of cultivation, so that an excellent field is furnished for mixed husbandry.
DOWNS, The. An important English roadstead or shelter for shipping off the southeast coast of Kent, opposite Ramsgate and Deal, between North and South Foreland (Map: England, H 5). It is protected externally by the Goodwin Sands, a natural breakwater with one to four fathoms of water, and often partly dry at low tide. It is resorted to temporarily by outward and homeward bound vessels and by naval squadrons, and is unsafe only in south winds. It is defended by Deal, Dover, and Sandown castles. The Downs were the scene of a victory of the Dutch over the Spaniards in 1639, and of a great naval battle between the Dutch and English in 1666.
DOWNY MILDEW. See Mildew.
