Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 8, DIA-England

D O U
two small streams. The streets, though irregular, possess
some good houses. This is the principal town of the
island. It has a safe and spacious harbour, which is de¬
fended by a strong fort. Long. 4.44. W. Lat. 58. 52. N.
DOULEIA (AoaXs/oc), among the Athenians, a kind of
punishment by which the criminal was reduced to the con¬
dition of a slave. It was never inflicted upon any except
the uti'miji, sojourners and. freed servants.
DOULENS, an arrondissement of the department of
the Somme, in France, extending over 310 square miles,
and divided into four cantons and eighty-nine communes,
containing 52,626 inhabitants. The capital is a town of
the same name, situated at the junction of the two rivers
the Authie and the Grouche. It contains 460 houses
and 1323 inhabitants.
DOUNE, a village of Scotland, in the southern part of
Perthshire, pleasantly situated on the northern bank of the
Teith. It consists of three streets radiating from a cen¬
tre, where stands the market-cross. Its general appear¬
ance was much improved in 1826 by the erection of a
parish church in the Gothic style, with a handsome tower.
In the immediate vicinity is an extensive cotton manufac-
tory.
DOUR, a town in the circle of Mons, and province of
Hennegau, in the Netherlands. Near to it are some very
extensive coal mines. The inhabitants amount to 4549.
DOURDAN, a market-town of France, in the depart¬
ment of the Seine and Oise, situated on an elevation over¬
looking the river Orge, with 450 houses and 2592 inhabit¬
ants.
DOUW, Gerhard, a celebrated painter, was born at
Leyden in 1613, and received his first instruction in draw¬
ing and design from Bartholomew Dolendo, an engraver,
and also from Peter Kouwhoorn, a painter on glass. At the
age of fifteen he became a disciple of Rembrandt; and in
that famous school he continued for three years, at the
expiration of which he found himself qualified to study
nature, the most unerring director.
From Rembrandt he learned the true principles of co¬
louring, and obtained a complete knowledge of the chiaro¬
scuro ; but to that knowledge he added a delicacy of pen¬
cil, and a patience in working up his colours to the high¬
est degree of neatness, superior to any other master. He
therefore was more pleased with those pictures of Rem¬
brandt which were painted in his youth than with those
by which he was distinguished in his more advanced age;
because the first seemed finished with more care and at¬
tention, the latter with more boldness, freedom, and ne¬
gligence, which was quite opposite to the taste of Douw.
But although his manner appears so different from that
of his master, yet it was to Rembrandt alone that he ow¬
ed that excellence in colouring by which he triumphed
over all the artists of his own country.
His pictures are usually of a small size, with figures so
exquisitely touched, so transparent, so wonderfully deli¬
cate, as to excite astonishment as well as pleasure. He
designed every object after nature, and with an exactness
so singular, that each object appears as perfect as nature
itself, in respect to colour, freshness, and force. Flis ge¬
neral manner of painting portraits was by the aid of a
concave mirror, and sometimes by looking at the object
through a frame with many exact squares of fine silk.
But the latter custom is disused, as the eye of a good
artist seems a more competent rule, though the use of the
former is still practised by painters in miniature.
It is almost incredible what sums have been given and
are given at this day for the pictures of Douw, even in
his own country, as also in Italy and every polite part of
Europe ; for he was exceedingly curious in finishing them,
and patiently assiduous beyond example. Of that pa-
D O V
tience Sandrart gives a very strong proof in a circumstance d,
which he mentions relative to this artist. Having once,
in company with Bamboccio, visited Gerhard Douw, they ho
could not forbear admiring the prodigious neatness ofa^^
picture which he was then painting, and inparticular noticed
a broom, at the same time expressing their surprise at the
excessive neatness of the finishing of that minute object;
upon which Douw told them he would spend three days
more in working on that broom before he should account
it entirety complete. In a family picture of Mrs Spiering,
the same author observes, that the lady sat five days for the
finishing of one of her hands that leaned on an arm chair.
For this reason not many would sit to him for their por-
traits ; and he therefore indulged himself mostly in works
of fancy, in which he could introduce objects of still life,
and employ as much time on them as suited his own in¬
clination. Houbraken states, that his great patron Mr
Spiering allowed him a thousand guilders a year, and paid
besides whatever he demanded for his pictures, having
purchased some of them for their weight in silver; but
Sandrart, with more probability, assures us, that the thou¬
sand guilders a year were paid to Gerhard, on no other
consideration than that the artist should give his benefac¬
tor the option of every picture he painted, for which
he was immediately to receive the utmost he demanded.
This great master died in 1674, aged sixty-one.
DOVE. See Ornithology.
Dove Island, a small island in Torres Strait, on the
north coast of New Holland, about a mile and a half in
circuit. The fragrance of the trees and shrubs with which
it is covered perfumes the air.
Dove-Tailing, in carpentry, is the manner of fastening
boards together by letting one piece into another in the
form of the tail of a dove. The dove-tail is the strongest
of the assemblages or joinings, because the tenon, or piece
of wood which is put into the- other, goes widening to the
extreme, so that it cannot be drawn out again, by reason
that the extreme or tip is bigger than the hole.
DOVER, a sea-port in the hundred of Bensborough, in
the county of Kent, seventy-two miles from London. It
is built at an opening between two cliffs, and the streets
run in a circular form under the western hill. The old
streets are narrow, but of late years many new parts have
been added on the eastern shore, which are handsome
and airy. It is defended by forts and an ancient castle.
The harbour has been formed by means of great labour and
expense, and is dry at low water, but, when entered, safe.
As the principal place by which communication with the
Continent is kept up, it contains numerous inns and hotels,
and the trade of the town arises in a great measure from
casual visitors and travellers. Dover had formerly five
churches, which are now reduced to three. It is governed
by a corporation, with a mayor at the head of it. Two
members are returned to parliament, formerly elected by
the freemen, but now householders have also votes. There
are markets on Wednesday and Saturday. The inhabit¬
ants amounted in 1801 to 14,845, including the liberty,
in 1811 to 9074, in 1821 to 10,327 in the borough alone,
and in 1831 to 11,924.
Dover Straits, the narrow channel between Dover and
Calais, which separates our island from the opposite Con¬
tinent. These celebrated straits are only twenty-one miles
wide in the narrowest part. From the pier at Dover to
that at Calais is twenty-four.
Dover, a post-town of New Hampshire, and capital of
the county ot Stratford. It is situated on the western side
of the Piscataqua, and the Cochecho flows through it.
This river has several large falls, which afford a consider¬
able water power, which has much facilitated the progress
of manufactures here. Dover has thus been rendered one