DERBYSHIRE DERVISE. 



649 



yards. Facilities for water-carriage, are afforded by 

 the Derby canal, which communicates with the river 

 Trent, and the Trent and Mersey canal. Population 

 in 1831, 23,607. 



DERBYSHIRE, a county of England, situated 

 about the centre of the kingdom, and extending about 

 fifty-six miles in length and thirty-three in breadth. 

 It in general exhibits much varied and romantic 

 scenery ; the southern and eastern parts enjoy a tem- 

 perate, healthy, and pleasant atmosphere: and the 

 soil is rich and fertile, producing abundantly various 

 kinds of grain, and particularly excellent crops of 

 barley. The north-western portion, including the 

 district of the Peak, is of a widely different character 

 the climate being bleak and changeable, and the 

 face of the country rocky and irregular. The moun- 

 tains of the Peak constitute the loftiest and most 

 considerable range of hills in the midland regions of 

 the kingdom. About seven hundred eminences, and 

 fifty rocky caverns, dells, and valleys, with mineral 

 and other springs, are enumerated by Mr Farey, in 

 his survey of this county : these have been repeatedly 

 celebrated, both in verse and prose, under the title 

 of the " Wonders of the Peak." 



The principal river in Derbyshire is the Derwent, 

 which, rising in the high Peak, runs southward, and 

 passing Derby, falls into the Trent, on the borders 

 of Leicestershire ; the Trent itself crosses the south- 

 ern extremity of the county, and, for a short distance, 

 divides it from Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire ; 

 other rivers are the Dove, the Wye, the Erwash, and 

 the Rother. Among the principal canals are the 

 Grand Trunk Navigation, completed in 1777 ; the 

 Peak Forest canal, in 1800 ; with those of Cromford, 

 Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and Derby. 



The mountainous ridges of the Peak, exteriorly 

 bare and unproductive, make amends for this steri- 

 lity by the mineral riches contained beneath their 

 surface. Coal is abundant in various parts of the 

 county; among the metals, lead was formerly the 

 most plentiful, but many of the mines are exhausted ; 

 iron and antimony are also found here ; the Fluor or 

 Derbyshire spar, which is wrought into vases, urns, 

 and many ornamental articles ; gypsum or alabaster, 

 marble, limestone, and stone for various purposes, 

 are procured from the mines and quarries in this 

 county. 



The borough and market-towns are Derby, Alfre- 

 ton, Ashbourn, Bakewell, Bolsover, Belper, Chapel- 

 in-the-Frith, Chesterfield, Dronfield, Tideswell, Win- 

 ster, and Wirksworth. By the Reform Bill, the 

 county returns four members to the house of com- 

 mons, and for that purpose it has been formed into 

 two divisions, each of which returns two members. 

 The northern division comprised, in 1831, a popula- 

 tion of 101,067, the southern division 136,103 ; total 

 of the county 237,170. 



DERBYSHIRE SPAR. See Fluate of Lime, in 

 article Lime. 



DERFLINGER, GEORGE, baron of (originally 

 Dorfling), a field marshal of Prussian Brandenburg, 

 and one of the first heroes of the Prussian military 

 state, founded by Frederic William, the great elector, 

 was born in 1606, according to some authors, in an 

 Austrian village near the Ens, but according to 

 Pauli, was the son of a Protestant peasant in Bohe- 

 mia. He was at first a tailor, and wished to remove 

 to Berlin, on account of the disturbances in Bohemia 

 to avoid the religious oppression exercised after the 

 battle at the Weisseberge. But, not being able to 

 get ferried across the Elbe, on account of his wani 

 of money, he thre"w his bundle into the stream, anc 

 betook himself to the sword. He served a long 

 time as a soldier under general Thurn, and, while 

 yet only a dragoon, indulged the hope of be 



:oming a general. He then entered tho Swedish 

 iervice, under Gustavus Adolphus, and afterwards 

 served under Bauer and Torstensohn. Having car- 

 ried queen Christina intelligence of the victory at 

 Leipsic (1642), to which his regiment of horse had 

 jreatly contributed, he was appointed by her a ma- 

 or-general. After the peace, he was dismissed, as 

 a foreigner, from the Swedish army, went to Bran 

 denburg, and entered the service of the elector, Fre- 

 deric William, in 1654, as major-general of the 

 cavalry. He distinguished himself in all the cam- 

 paigns of the great elector against the Poles, Swedes, 

 ind French, by his sagacity, activity, and valour. 

 He was also employed in embassies ; and the empe- 

 ror Leopold, at the request of his sovereign, raised 

 trim, in 1674, to the rank of baron of the empire. 

 He died in 1695. 



DERRY. See Londonderry. 



DERSCHAWIN, GABRIEL ROMANOWICH, an emi- 

 nent poet of Russia, was born in 1743, at Kasan. In 

 1760, he entered a corps of engineers, as a common 

 soldier, and distinguished himself in the field, parti- 

 cularly in 1774, against the rebel Pugatscheff. Even 

 at this time his poetic genius began to dawn. Un- 

 der Catharine, he rose, in 1800, to be treasurer eft 

 the empire, and in 1802 became minister of justice. 

 But he soon retired from business, and devoted his 

 life to the muses. His Ode to God is much cele- 

 brated, and was translated into Latin by Czersky, at 

 Wilna, in 1819. The emperor of China caused it to 

 be translated into Chinese, and hung up in an apart- 

 ment of his palace, printed on silk, in letters of gold. 

 An English translation of it may be found in The 

 Casquet,a collection of pieces published at Glasgow. 

 His Waterfall has also great merit. In other poems 

 his loftiness sometimes degenerates into bombast 

 Some of his poems have been translated into English 

 by Bowring. (See his Specimens of Russian Poetry.) 

 Derschawin's poems appeared in 1808, in four vo- 

 lumes. He also wrote political and topographical 

 works. Derschawin died July 8, 1819. 



DERVISE (Persian ; poor) ; the name of a cer- 

 tain class of religious persons in Asia. It denotes 

 the same amongst Mohammedans as monk with the 

 Christians. The observance of strict forms, fasting, 

 and acts of piety, give them a character of sanctity 

 amongst the people. They live partly together, in 

 monasteries, partly alone, and from their number the 

 Imans (q. v.) are generally chosen. Throughout Tur- 

 key, they are freely received, even at the tables of per- 

 sons of the highest rank. Among the Hindoos, these 

 monks are called fakirs. There are, throughout 

 Asia, multitudes of these devotees, monastic and as- 

 cetic, not only among the Mohammedans, but also 

 among the followers of Brama. There are thirty-two 

 .religious orders now existing in the Turkish empire, 

 many of which are scarcely known beyond its limits : 

 but others, such as the Nacshbendies and Mevlevies, 

 are common in Persia and India. All these commu- 

 nities are properly stationary, though some of them 

 send out a portion of their members to collect alms. 

 The regularly itinerant dervises in Turkey are all 

 foreigners, or outcasts, who, though expelled from 

 their orders for misconduct, find their profession too 

 agreeable and profitable to be abandoned, and there- 

 fore set up for themselves, and, under colour of sanc- 

 tity, fleece honest people. All these orders, except 

 the Nacshbendies, are considered as living in seclu- 

 sion from the world ; but that order is entirely com- 

 posed of persons who, without quitting the world, 

 bind themselves to a strict observance of certain forms 

 of devotion, and meet once a-week to perform them 

 together. Each order has its peculiar statutes, exer- 

 cises, and habits. Most of them impose a novitiate, 

 the length of which depends upon the spiritual state 



