D A R 



5U 



D All 



Dart 

 mouth 



Dartmoor, above the bridge, Sir John Spelman erected a mill for 

 writing paper, and the same place is now occupied by 

 the gunpowder mills. The present paper mill, which 

 is a short distance below it, was erected on the place 

 where Geoffrey -Box of Liege built, in 1590, what is 

 supposed to have been the first mill in England for slit- 

 ting iron bars into rods. 



The following is an abstract of the population return 

 for 1811, for the parish of Dartford : 



Inhabited houses, 526 



Families that occupy them, 732 



Ditto employed in agriculture, 251 



Ditto in trades and manufactures, 308 



Ditto not included in these classes, 173 



Males, 1599 



Females, 1578 



Total population in 1811, 3i77 



See Hasted's History of Kent ; and Brayley's Beau- 

 ties of Eh gland and Wales, vol. vii. p. 557 — 56*5. (j) 



DARTMOOR. See Devonshire. 



DARTMOUTH, a borough and sea-port town of 

 England, in Devonshire, situated near the place where 

 the river Dart discharges itself into the British Channel. 

 Mr Gilpin describes the bay formed by the mouth of 

 the river, as one of the most beautiful scenes on the 

 coast. " Both the entrance of the Dart into it, and its 

 exit to the sea, appear from many stations closed up by 

 the folding of the banks ; so that the bay has frequent- 

 ly the form of a lake, only furnished with shipping 

 instead of boats. Its banks are its great beauty. They 

 consist of lofty wooded hills, shelving down in all di- 

 rections." The town itself has also a fine appearance 

 when seen from the bay. The houses, embosomed in 

 trees, appear on the slope of a craggy hill, stretching 

 almost a mile along the water's edge. The dock-yards 

 and quay project into the river ; and the rocks on each 

 side consist of a glossy slate of a purple hue, having 

 plants and shrubs on their summits. 



Dartmouth formerly consisted of three villages, Dart- 

 mouth, Clifton, and Hardness, which are now united 

 by buildings. The streets are very irregular, some of 

 them being so much higher than others, " that it is al- 

 most possible to shake hands from without with a per- 

 son at the window of an attic story." The streets are 

 disagreeably narrow, and the lower tier of houses often 

 communicate, by means of steps, with those above. 

 The principal street, which is spacious, fronts the quay, 

 and is chiefly inhabited by merchants. There are three 

 churches in this town, besides a dissenting meeting- 

 house. St Clement's stands on a hill about a quarter 

 of a mile from the town, and has a tower 70 feet high. 

 There are also three charity schools for the education of 

 the poor. At the south end of the town are the remains 

 of an ancient castle, rising immediately above the wa- 

 ter. It appears to have been circular, but not strong. 



The harbour, the entrance of which is defended by a 

 castle, and two plattorms of cannon, is very secure, and 

 is capable of holding 500 sail. The castle was pro- 

 bably erected in the time of Henry VII. It is not large, 

 and has but a few cannon upon its walls, but is remark- 

 able for its picturesque situation. 



The trade of this town arises chiefly from the New- 

 foundland fishery, which furnishes employment to about 

 3000 men, and is carried on to a great extent. About 

 350 vessels are employed in this trade, both in catching 

 the fish, and in carrying them, when cured, to foreign 

 markets. They are taken principally to the ports in the 

 Mediterranean, and the vessels bring home, wine, oil, 



fruit, and salt. A number of ships are also employed 

 in the pilchard fishery. Ship-building is carried on to 

 a considerable extent. To the north of Dartmouth 

 harbour lies Torbay, the famous rendezvous of the Bri- 

 tish fleet during inclement weather. Distance of Dart- 

 mouth from London 203^ miles. 



The following is an abstract of the population return 

 for 1811, for the parishes of St Petrox, St Saviour, and 

 Townshall, which form the borough of Chiton Dart- 

 mouth, Hardness : 



Inhabited houses 364 



Families that occupy them S-12 



Do. employed in agriculture 93 



Do. in trade and manufacture 468 



Do. not included in these classes 281 



Males 1464 



Females 2131 



Total population, in 1811 3595 



See Polywhele's History of Devonshire ; Dr Maton's 

 Tour through the Southern Counties ; and Britton and 

 Brayley's Beauties of England and Wales, vol. iv. p. 

 127—131. (j) 



DARWIN, Erasmus, an eminent philosopher and 

 physician, was the son of Robert Darwin, Esq. a bar- 

 rister, and was born on the 12th of December, 173 J, 

 at Elveston, or Elston, in Nottinghamshire, where 

 the family had a seat. He went through the usual 

 routine of grammar-school education, at Chesterfield, 

 under the tuition of the Rev. Mr Burrows. ■ While 

 under this gentleman's care, he made a very great 

 pi'oficiency in the attainment of classical learning ; and 

 even at that early age, discovered some of that poetical 

 genius, and evinced that thinking and philosophical 

 mind, which gave him so much celebrity in future years. 

 The mathematics seemed to have no allurements for 

 him ; and his knowledge of that science was never ex- 

 tensive. To mechanical knowledge he was partial, 

 and, during the course of his life, invented several in- 

 genious contrivances. In the year 1753-4, he removed 

 to Edinburgh, where he studied medicine ; and from 

 that to St John's College, Cambridge, where he took 

 his degree of M. B. in 1755 ; and in his Thesis on that 

 occasion, maintained that the movements of the heart 

 and arteries are immediately produced by the stimulus 

 of the blood. While at Cambridge, he composed a poem 

 on the death of Frederick, Prince of Wales: it was 

 printed among the Cambridge collection of verses on 

 that occasion ; but the merits of this, as well as some 

 other pieces of poetry, which he occasionally produced 

 about this time, do not rise above mediocrity, though 

 they are ingenious and respectable. 



Having completed his studies, he went to Nottingham, 

 with the intention of settling there as a physician ; but 

 not meeting with success, he removed to Lichfield in 

 1756. At this time he was twenty-four years of age, 

 rather above the middle size, his form athletic, and in- 

 clined to corpulency, and his limbs too heavy for exact 

 proportion. The traces of a severe small-pox ; features 

 and a countenance wliich, when they were not anima- 

 ted by pleasure, were rather saturnine than sprightly ; 

 a stoop in the shoulders, and the then professional ap- 

 pendage, a full-bottomed wig, gave him, at that early 

 period of life, an appearance of nearly twice the years 

 he bore. Florid health, and earnest good humour, a 

 cheering smile on entering a room, and on first accost- 

 ing his friends, rendered in his youth that exterior 

 agreeable, to which beauty and symmetry had not been 

 propitious, 



Darwin. 



