D E S 



680 



D E S 



Detg of Adams' architectural skill. The front is of white 

 II stone, and divided into three parts : a centre and two 



r)escarte«. p av Qi onSj connected to it by corridors of the Doric or- 

 "~ v """ der, taking a sweeping form : that on the right, com- 

 prising the kitchen and offices ; that on the left, consist- 

 ing of Lord Scarsdale's private apartments. In the 

 centre of the north front is a double flight of steps, 

 leading to the grand portico, whose pediment is sup- 

 ported by six Corinthian pillars, proportioned from 

 those of the Pantheon at Rome. The hall is planned 

 after the Greek hall of the ancients. The coved ceil- 

 ing is supported by twenty Corinthian columns of va- 

 riegated marble, twenty-five feet high. The other apart- 

 ments are the music-room, the drawing-room, the li- 

 brary, and the grand saloon, a most elegant room. In 

 all these, there are innumerable paintings by the most 

 eminent old masters, forming a private collection sel- 

 dom surpassed in this country. Indeed, elegance and 

 taste, characterise every thing within and about Kedles- 

 ton. The park is very extensive, well stocked with 

 deer, and adorned by a great number of venerable oaks. 

 In front of the house, is a fine sheet of water, broken 

 into several falls ; and young plantations surround the 

 whole visible horizon. Beside the seats above men- 

 tioned, there are Wingerworth Hall, the seat of Sir W. 

 Hunloke ; Willersley Castle, the seat of R. Arkwright, 

 Esq. and many others of lesser note. 

 Manufac- produce of the manufactories of Derbyshire, are 



nsres. various and extensive. The manufactories of cotton 



into thread, stockings, and calico, at Cromford, Belper, 

 Derby, and other parts ,• of wool into hose, and cloth, 

 on the borders of Nottinghamshire, and in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Tideswell ; of iron on the north-east side, 

 and adjacent to Yorkshire ; of silk, and also of orna- 

 ments made of spar, at Derby, are the principal, and 

 employ some thousands of its population. 



Such is a sketch of the history of the county of 

 Derby, one of the most interesting in England. No 

 one exhibits such a variety of scenery, or produces so 

 rich a store of mines and minerals. It possesses some 

 highly cultivated tracts, and a spirit of improvement 

 has taken hold of its numerous and highly respectable 

 country gentlemen. It numbers among its sons, many 

 that have been, and are still eminent for science and 

 knowledge ; and its peasantry are highly moral, and in 

 a considerable degree enlightened, (d.p.d.) 



DERG Lough. See Donegal. 



DERRIS, a genus of plants of the class Diadelphia, 

 and order Decandria. See Botany, p. 286. 



DERRY. See Londonderry. 



DERVIS. See Turkey. 



DERWENT. See Cumberland and Derby. 



DESCARTES, Rene du Perron, a celebrated me- 

 taphysician, mathematician, and natural philosopher, was 

 descended of an ancient family, and was born at La 

 Hay e in Touraine, on the 31st of March ]596. He 

 was the youngest of three children, and his mother 

 died a few days after his birth of an illness which had 

 been contracted during pregnancy. Although his fa- 

 ther married a second wife, by whom he had two chil- 

 dren, yet the cares of Iris new family did not interfere 

 with the education of young Descartes, whom he was 

 in the habit of calling " his philosopher," from the in- 

 satiable desire which he displayed to discover the cau- 

 ses of every thing around him. From the instability of 

 his health, he was under the charge of females till near 

 the winter of 1 60 4, when he was sent to the Jesuits 

 college of La Fleche, and put under the special charge 

 of M. Charlet, a relation of his own, and rector of the 



college. After having spent five years in the study of D?«earte*. 

 the learned languages, in which he made uncommon ^■""Y^"' 

 proficiency, his attention was directed to logic and 

 moral philosophy, from which lie derived little satisfac- 

 tion ; but he was amply repaid for this unprofitable la- 

 bour, from the delight with which he was inspired by 

 his mathematical studies, into which he was initiated 

 during his last year at La Fleche. Having received a 

 dispensation from the strict scholastic discipline of 

 the college, in consequence of the infirm state of 

 his health, Descartes was enjoined by the rector to re- 

 cruit himself by lying long in bed. He thus formed 

 a habit, which continued during the rest of his life, 

 of devoting these hours of quiet to those subjects of 

 deep meditation, for which the greatest abstraction was 

 necessary. When he had finished his course of study 

 at La Fleche, which had lasted eight years and a 

 half, he returned in the month of August 1612 to 

 his father's house, accompanied with the blessings of 

 his preceptors ; but though he felt the warmest grati- 

 tude for the kindness and the instruction which he had 

 received, yet he was dissatisfied with himself, and 

 seemed to think that the utmost amount of his acquire- 

 ments, was a full conviction of his own ignorance, and 

 of the uncertainty of all human knowledge. He, there- 

 fore, resolved to abandon his studies ; and, in conse- 

 quence of this resolution, he went to Rheims to revisit 

 his family, and he spent the whole of the year 1 6 1 3 in ri- 

 ding, and fencing, and other exercises, which were con- 

 sidered as preparatory to a military life. Dreading, 

 however, that his constitution was not sufficiently robust 

 for the profession of arms, his father sent him to Paris in 

 the spring of 161S, without any other guide than his 

 valet de chambre, and left him the uncontrouled manage- 

 ment of his time. A love of pleasure, and a strong propen- 

 sity for gaming, in which he greatly excelled, were 

 the natural consequences of his father's indiscretion ; 

 and had he not been introduced to Claude Mydorge, 

 who succeeded Vieta in the reputation of being the 

 first mathematician in France, and renewed his ac- 

 quaintance with his fellow student Mersenne, he would 

 probably have abandoned himself wholly to every species 

 of intemperance. By their remonstrances, however, he 

 was reclaimed from his vicious pursuits, and he gradual- 

 ly acquired that love of study, which had formed such a 

 striking feature in his early character. His separation 

 from Mersenne, who was sent about the end of the year 

 1613 to Nevers, to teach philosophy to the young reli- 

 gious of his order, produced a complete change in Des- 

 cartes' views. He retired to the Fauxbourg of St Ger- 

 mains, with one or two domestics, and devoted himself 

 wholly to the study of mathematics. His old com- 

 panions sought for him in vain ; and he had even the 

 precaution to take his exercise in places where they 

 were not likely to discover him. In this state of seclu- 

 sion, Descartes spent two years. His precautions ha- 

 ving been relaxed, his companions soon discovered the 

 place of his retreat, and again allured him to the plea- 

 sures and amusements which he had forsaken. They 

 had lost, however, their former relish, and he deter- 

 mined to try a military life. In May 1617, he set off 

 for Holland, and entered as a volunteer in the Dutch 

 army, under Prince Maurice. While he was quartered 

 at Breda, some person had affixed on the corners of the 

 streets a mathematical problem, and required the solu- 

 tion of it. Descartes observing a number of the pas- 

 sengers reading this placard, which was hi Flemish, re- 

 quested one of them to translate it into Latin, The 

 person to whom this request »was addressed instantly 



