20 
DON 
varia,'to prevent Us falling into the hands of the allies, 
ordered his garrifon to fet it on fire ; but, the duke of 
Marlborough coming fuddenly into the town, the Bava¬ 
rian troop* were compelled to a precipitate retreat, and 
the town was faved : thirty miles weft of Ingoldftadt, 
and eighteen north of Augfburg. Lat. 4S. 39 N. Ion, 28. 
25. E. Ferro. 
DO'NAX,/! in botany. See Arundq. 
DO'NAXjy A genus of fliell-fifh, belonging to the 
order of vermes teftacea, commonly called the Jlat-fded 
cockle. The animal is a tethys; (hell bivalve, with ge¬ 
nerally a crenulate margin ; the frontal margin very ob- 
tufe : hinge with two teeth, and a fingle marginal one 
placed a little behind. For the number of fpecies, &c. 
fee the article Conchology, vol.v. p. 32. 
DON'CASTER, a confiderable manufacturing town 
of Yorklhire, named from its fituation on the river Don, 
over which it has two bridges ; diftant thirty-feven miles 
from York, eighteeen from Sheffield, and 162 from Lon¬ 
don. It is a place of great antiquity, as appears from 
the Itinerary of Antoninus, who tells us that the Crif- 
pinian horfe were Rationed here while the Romans were 
in Britain ; and that the governor of the province gene¬ 
rally refided in the caftle, that he might be near the great 
wall, in order to repel the incurfions of the Scots and 
PiCts. This caftle remained as a place of great ftrength 
under the kings of Deira; but a dreadful fire breaking 
out, anno 759, not only the caftle but the whole town 
was reduced to afhes. The caftle was never after re¬ 
built; and at prefent the place where it ftood is fcarcely 
known. But the town was not fuffered to remain long 
in ruins, it being foon after rebuilt in a handfome man¬ 
ner, and it has continued to flouriih from that time to 
the prefent. In the reign of Henry III. a convent was 
founded in it, with, an hofpital for lepers; but no re¬ 
mains of either are now left, only that there is a ftone 
erofs ftill Handing at one end of the town, which appears 
to have been ereCted in that age, and probably by the 
perfon who founded the convent. The fituation of Don- 
cafter is exceedingly pleafant, and is a great thorough¬ 
fare to York and other places in the north. It has two 
fairs annually for horfes, &c. and a weekly market on 
Saturdays. ProvYions of all kinds are plentiful, and the 
town is well fupplied with water, which is conducted 
through pipes from the river. The principal manufac¬ 
tories eftablifhed here are for fpinning wool, cotton, See. 
The river is navigable up to the town ; and here are 
the remains of a great Roman caufeway. The govern¬ 
ment of Doncafter is vefted in a mayor, recorder, aider- 
men, and common-council. The church is a very ancient 
ftruCture; and the fteeple is greatly admired for its ex¬ 
traordinary workmanfhip. The manfion-houfe is a very 
fpacious ftone edifice ; and it is to be remarked, that 
Doncafter had a magnificent manfion-houfe, built by 
Paine, for its mayor, before either London or York. It 
has a free grammar-fehool, an alms-houfe for aged per- 
fons, and a difpenfary for the relief of the fick poor in 
the town and its neighbourhood. 
Not far from Doncafter is Conifborough caftle, called 
in Britifh Car Conan, (ituate on a rock, where Matthew 
df Weftminfter fays, that Aurelius Ambrofius, a Britifh 
rince, vanquifhed Hengift, the Saxon general, and took 
im prifoner. Before the gate is an agger, faid to be the 
burying-place of Hengift. It is not only famous for its 
antiquity, but its fituation alfo celebrious, upon a plea¬ 
fant afeent, having in its neighbourhood fix large market- 
towns, 120 villages, many large woods of oak, fiome beau¬ 
tifully cut through into walks; fix iron-fmeltingfurnaces, 
many mines of coal and iron, quarries of ftone for build¬ 
ing, nine large ftone bridges, forty water-mills, fix feats 
©f noblemen, fixty of gentlemen, fifty parks, and two na¬ 
vigable rivers. Contiguous to Conifborough is Went¬ 
worth, the feat of the Wentworths, who have flourifiled 
here ever (ince the Norman invafion, and been poftefied 
©f the eftate of Woodhoufe from the time of Henry III, 
DON 
It was rebuilt in a moft elegant manner by the late mar- 
quis of Rockingham, and is now called Wentworth-houfe. 
It is fituated in the midft of a moft beautiful country, and 
in a park that is one of the moft exquifite fpbts in the 
world. On entering the park, the profpeCt which pre- 
fents itfelf is delicious, being diverfified by a noble range 
of hills, dales, lakes, and woods, with the houfe magni¬ 
ficently fituated in the center of the whole. The eye 
naturally falls into the valley, through which the water 
winds in a noble ftile. On the oppofite fide is a vaft 
fweep of rifing Hopes, finely fcattered with trees and 
ffirubs, up to the houfe, which is here feen diftinCtly, 
and ftands in the higheft point of grandeur, from whence 
it commands all the furrounding country ; the woods 
ftretching away above, below, and to the right and left, 
with inconceivable magnificence. From the pyramid on 
one fide, which riles from the bofom of a great wood, ex¬ 
tending quite round on the left, it there joins one of above 
an hundred acres, hanging on the fide of a vaft hill, and 
forming altogether an amphitheatrical profpeCt, the beau¬ 
ties of which are much eafier to be imagined than cje- 
feribed. Upon the whole, Wentworth is in every refpeCt: 
confidered as one of the fineft feats in the kingdom. With 
feme, the houfe is an object of curiofity; with others, 
the park is admired ; the ornamental buildings give a 
general beauty to the whole, in which fuperior tafte and 
elegance are united. 
In the neighbourhood of this is the ancient Stainbo- 
rough, now Wentworth-caftle, a fine feat belonging to the 
earl of Strafford. But Wentworth-caftle is more famous 
for the beauties of the ornamented environs, than for that 
of the houfe, though the front is fuperior to many. The 
water and woods adjoining are fketched with great tafte. 
The firft extends through the park in a meandering courfe, 
and, wherever it is viewed, the terminations are no where 
feen, having every where the effeCt of a real and very 
beautiful river; the groves of oaks fill up the bends of 
the ftream in a moft beautiful manner, here advancing 
thick to the very banks of the water, there appearing at 
a diftance, breaking away to a few fcattered trees in forne 
fpots, and in others joining their branches into the moft 
folemn fliade. The water in many places is feen from 
the houfe, between the foliage of fcattered clumps, moft 
picturefquely ; in others it is quite loft behind hills, and 
breaks every where upon the view, in a ftile that cannot 
be fufficiently admired. The lawn, which leads up to 
the caftle, is truly elegant : there is a clump of lofty 
pines on one fide of it, through which the diftant pro¬ 
fpeCt is feen, and a ftatue of Ceres is caught in the hol¬ 
low of a dark grove, with the moft piCturefque elegance, 
and is one among the few inftances of ftatues being em¬ 
ployed in gardens with real tafte. 
DON'CHERY, a town of France, in the department 
of the Ardennes, and chief place of a canton, in the dif- 
trict of Sedan, on the Meufe ; it is defended with walls 
and fortifications. Here is alfo a woollen manufacture : 
one league weft of Sedan. 
DONDAN'GA, a town of the duchy of CourlancI: 
twenty-four miles north-eaft of Piltyn. 
DON'DI (James de), a phylician and mathematician, 
flouriftted in Padua in the fourteenth century. He was 
known by the name of the Aggregator , on account of a 
work which he compofed, intitled, Promptuarium Medi¬ 
an.z, in quo Jacultates medicamentorum fimplicium SB compc - 
fitorum declarantur , (Be. firft printed at Venice, 1481, folio. 
It is faid, in the preface, to have been written in 1355. 
It is a mere compilation from the ancient phyficians. 
He alfo wrote a work, De modo conjicienclifalls ex aquis ca- 
lidis Aponenfibus, from which it appears, that he extracted 
a fait from the waters of Albano, in the proportion of 
one pound from one thoufand. This treatife, together 
with one De jluxii (3 rejluxu maris, was printed at Venice 
in 1571. He likevvife made himfelf celebrated for the 
conftruCtion of a clock, which was one of the earlieft 
ereCted in Italy. This was placed, in 1344, on the top 
