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DODDRIDGE DODWELL. 



disgrace which attended the knowledge of Iiis con- 

 duct, he went to Geneva, where lit- met with the 

 earl of Chesterfield, to whom he liad been tutor. 

 This nobleman afterwards presented him with a liv- 

 ing. In 1777, he committed a forgery upon his pa- 

 tron, by which he obtained a hirge sum of money, 

 which he probably hoped to replace, and thereby 

 avoid detection. But the offence was scarcely com- 

 mitted before the criminal was discovered. He was 

 imprisoned, tried, convicted, and executed at Tyburn 

 (V.ih June, 1777), notwithstanding great efforts to 

 procure his pardon. He died with all the marks of 

 sincere contrition for the crimes he had committed, 

 and the scandal he had brought upon his profession. 

 Hi-; work-; \MTC numerous; among which may be 

 mentioned his Reflections on Death, lu's Commen- 

 tary on the Bible, and his Prison Thoughts, in which 

 latter work Dr Johnson had a hand. 



DODDRIDGE, PHILIP; an eminent dissenting 

 div ine. His father was a tradesman in London, and 

 lie was born there in 1702. After some previous edu- 

 cation, he became the pupil of Mr Jolm Jennings, 

 who kept a theological academy. On the death of 

 his tutor, he succeeded to the situation, but removed 

 the seminary, in 1729, to Northampton. There he 

 resided nearly twenty-two years, filling his station as 

 a minister and academical preceptor with great cre- 

 dit. He died, Oct. 26, 1751, at Lisbon, whither he 

 had gone in the hope of deriving benefit from Uie 

 cliange of air, in a puhnonic complaint. Doctor 

 Doddridge distinguished himself by a commentary on 

 the New Testament, published under the title of the 

 family Expositor, which became deservedly popular, 

 and lias gone through many editions. After hi- death 

 appeared a Course of Lectures on the principal Sub- 

 jects of Pneumatology, Ethics, and Divinity, with 

 References to the most considerable authors on each 

 of those subjects (4to, 1763 ; republished with im- 

 provements, by doctor Kippis, in 17 ( J4, 2 vols. 8vo). 

 Doctor Doddridge was also the author of sermons, 

 hymns, devotional treatises, &c. A series of his Let- 

 ters was recently published at London, in which he 

 figures in the unexpected light of a thorough-bred 

 ladies' man. 



DODECANDRIA (from lull**, twelve, aiffl , 

 man) ; the twelfth class of Linnaeus,%i botany, be- 

 cause it comprises plants with hermaphrodite flowers, 

 tliat have twelve male organs. It is. however, not 

 limited to this number : several genera of tliis class 

 liave sixteen, eighteen, and even nineteen stamens. 

 The essential character is, that the stamens, how- 

 ever numerous, are inserted into the receptacle. 



DODINGTON, GEORGE BUBB (lord Melcombe 

 Regis), was the son of a gentleman of fortune ; or, as 

 others say, of an apothecary, named Bubb, who mar- 

 ried into a wealthy family, in Dorsetshire. He was 

 born in 1691, was elected member of parliament for 

 Winchelsea, in 1715, and was soon after appointed 

 envoy to the court of Spain. In 1720, by the death 

 of his maternal uncle, he came into possession of a 

 large estate, and took the surname of Dodington. 

 In 1724, having closely connected himself with Sir 

 Robert Walpole, he was appointed a lord of the trea- 

 sury, and became clerk of the pells hi Ireland. He 

 afterwards joined the opposition, and, on the fall of 

 Walpole, became treasurer of the navy. This party 

 he also quitted, in order to lead the opposition under 

 Frederic, prince of Wales, whose deatli for some time 

 arrested his career. In 1755, he accepted his former 

 post of treasurer of the navy, under the duke of New- 

 castle, but lost it the following year. On the acces- 

 sion of George III., he was early received into the 

 confidence of lord Bute ; and, in 1761, was advanced 

 to the peerage by the title of lord Melcombe, and died 

 the following year. This versatile politician was gen- 



erous, magnificent, and convivial in private life, and 

 the patron or friend of Young, Thomson, G lover, Fiel- 

 ding, Bentley, Voltaire, Lyttelton, and Chesterfield, 

 wljo, with many of meaner pretensions, mingled at his 

 hospitable table. He is best known by his celebrated 

 Diary, published in 1784, by Henry Penniddock 

 U yndliam, Esq. A more curious exposition of ava- 

 rice, vanity, servility, and selfisliness, as a place-hun- 

 ter and trading politician, lias seldom been exhibited. 

 It is a most extraordinary instance of a self-recorded 

 and seemingly unconscious prostration of honourable 

 and manly feelings to the acquirement of place, emo- 

 lument, and court favour. 



DODON A ; a celebrated place in Epirus, built, 

 according to tradition, by Deucalion, containing one 

 of the most ancient oracles in Greece. The oracle 

 belonged to Jupiter, and near the splendid temple 

 was a sacred grove, in which there was a prophetic 

 ak. Jupiter, says the fable, had presented to his 

 daughter Thebe two doves, which possessed the fa- 

 culty of speaking. One day they left Thebes in 

 Egypt, taking their course, the one to Libya, where 

 it founded the oracle of Jupiter Ammon, the other to 

 Epirus, where, alighting on an oak tree, it announced 

 in a loud voice, to the inhabitants, that it was the 

 will of Jupiter to establish there an oracle. The 

 prophetic priestesses announced the divine communi- 

 cations in different ways. They approached the 

 sacred tree, and listened to the rustling of its leaves, 

 or, standing by the fountain at the foot of the tree, 

 observed the murmuring of the water which gushed 

 forth from the earth. They also prophesied from the 

 sounds issuing from brazen vessels, which were sus- 

 pended from the pillars of the temple, &c. 



DODSLEY, ROBERT, an ingenious poet and dra- 

 matist, was born of parents in humble life, at Mans- 

 field, in Nottinghamshire, in 1703. He was appren- 

 ticed to a stocking-weaver, but left that employment, 

 became footman to the honourable Mrs Lowther,and 

 published by subscription a volume of poems, entitled 

 the Muse in Livery, Which attracted public favour, 

 less from its intrinsic merit than from the situation of 

 the author. His next effort was the Toyshop, a dra- 

 matic satire on the fashionable follies of the time. 

 Pope patronised this piece, and, through his influence, 

 it was brought upon the( stage in 1735. Dodsley was 

 enabled, by his profibpls an author, to set up a book- 

 seller's shop in fall-Mall, which ultimately proved 

 a very prosperous concern. He next wrote the farce 

 of the King and the Miller of Mansfield, founded on 

 an old ballad ; which succeeded so well, that he pro- 

 duced a se^iel to it, called Sir John Cockle at Court. 

 In 1741jhe brought out a musical piece, entitled the 

 Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green ; and, in 1745, he 

 made an attempt to introduce on the stage a new 

 species of pantomime, in Rex et Pontifex. A loyal 

 masque in honour of the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 

 appeared in 1749. His next work was the Economy 

 of Human Life, a well known collection of moral 

 maxims. He wrote a tragedy, entitled Cleone, which 

 had some success on the stage, but possesses no ex- 

 traordinary merit. A selection of Fables hi prose, 

 with an Essay on Fable prefixed, was one of his lat- 

 est productions. Having acquired a competent for- 

 tune by his double occupation of author and book- 

 seller, he retired from business. He died at Durham, 

 in 1764. He planned the Preceptor ; the Collection 

 of Old Plays, 12 vols., 12mo; and the Collection of 

 Poems by different Hands, 6 vols., 12mo. 



DODWELL, HENRY, a critic and theological 

 writer of distinction, was born at Dublin, in 1641, 

 and, owing to family misfortunes, during the Irish 

 rebellion, and the death of his father, was early sub- 

 jected to a life of want and dependence. Sir Henry 

 Slingsby, his mother's brother, at length enabled him 



