(W. L.-W.)
DALHOUSIE, FOX MAULE RAMSAY, 11th Earl ot (1801-1874), was the eldest son of William Ramsay Maule, 1st Baron Panmure (1771-1852), and a grandson of George, 8th earl of Dalhousie. Born on the 22nd of April 1801 and christened Fox as a compliment to the great Whig, he served for a term in the army, and then in 1835 entered the House of Commons as member for Perthshire. In Lord Melbourne’s ministry (1835-1841) Maule was under-secretary for home affairs, and under Lord John Russell he was secretary-at-war from July 1846 to January 1852, when for two or three weeks he was president of the board of control. In April 1852 he became the 2nd Baron Panmure, and early in 1855 he joined Lord Palmerston’s cabinet, filling the new office of secretary of state for war. Panmure held this office until February 1858, being at the war office during the concluding period of the Crimean War and having to meet a good deal of criticism, some of which was justified and some of which was not. In December 1860 he succeeded his kinsman, the marquess of Dalhousie, as 11th earl of Dalhousie, and he died childless on the 6th of July 1874. Always interested in church matters, Dalhousie was a prominent supporter of the Free Church of Scotland after the disruption of 1843. On his death the barony became extinct, but his earldom passed to his cousin, George Ramsay (1806-1880), an admiral who, in 1875, was created a peer of the United Kingdom as Baron Ramsay. George’s grandson, Arthur George Maule Ramsay (b. 1878), became the 14th earl in 1887.
See the Panmure Papers, a selection from Panmure’s correspondence, edited in two volumes (1908), by Sir G. Douglas, Bart., and Sir G. D. Ramsay. These numerous letters throw much light on the concluding stage of the Crimean War.
DALIN, OLOF VON (1708-1763), Swedish poet, was born on the 29th of August 1708 in the parish of Vinberg in Halland, where his father was the minister. He was nearly related to Rydelius, the philosophical bishop of Lund, and he was sent at a very early age to be instructed by him, Linnaeus being one of his fellow-pupils. While studying at Lund, Dalin had visited Stockholm in the year 1723, and in 1726 entered one of the public offices there. Under the patronage of Baron Rålamb he rapidly rose to preferment, and his skill and intelligence won him golden opinions. In 1733 he started the weekly Svenska Argus, on the model of Addison’s Spectator, writing anonymously till 1736. His next work was Tankar öfver Critiquer (Thoughts about Critics, 1736). With the avowed purpose of enlarging the horizon of his cultivation and tastes, Dalin set off, in company with his pupil, Baron Rålamb’s son, on a tour through Germany and France, in 1739-1740. On his return the shifting of political life at home caused him to write his famous satiric allegories of The Story of the Horse and Aprilverk (1738), which were very popular and provoked countless imitations. His didactic epos of Svenska Friheten (Swedish Liberty) appeared in 1742. Hitherto Addison and Pope had been his models; in this work he draws his inspiration from Thomson, whose poem of Liberty it emulated. On the accession of Adolphus Freduck in 1751 Dalin received the post of tutor to the crown prince, afterwards Gustavus III. He had enjoyed the confidence of Queen Louisa Ulrika, sister of Frederick the Great of Germany, while she was crown princess, and she now made him secretary of the Swedish academy of literature, founded by her in 1753. His position at court involved him in the queen’s political intrigues, and separated him to a vexatious degree from the studies in which he had hitherto been absorbed. He held the post of tutor to the crown prince until 1756, when he was arrested on suspicion of having taken part in the attempted coup d’état of that year, and was tried for his life before the diet. He was acquitted, but was forbidden on any pretence to show himself at court. This period of exile, which lasted until 1761, Dalin spent in the preparation of the third volume of his great historical work, the Svea Rikes historia (History of the Swedish Kingdom), which came down to the death of Charles IX. in 1611. The first two volumes appeared in 1746-1750; the third, in two parts, in 1760-1762. Dalin had been ennobled in 1751, and made privy councillor in 1753; and now, in 1761, he once more took his place at court. During his exile, however, his spirit and his health had been broken; in a fit of panic he had destroyed some packets of his best unpublished works and this he constantly brooded over. On the 12th of August 1763 he died at his house in Drottningholm. In the year 1767 his writings in belles lettres were issued in six volumes, edited by J. C. Bökman, his half-brother. Amid an enormous mass of occasional verses, anagrams, epigrams, impromptus and the like, his satires and serious poems were almost buried. But some of these former, even, are found to be songs of remarkable grace and delicacy, and many display a love of natural scenery and a knowledge of its forms truly remarkable in that artificial age. His dramas also are of interest, particularly his admirable comedy of Den afvundsjuke (The Envious Man, 1738); he also wrote a tragedy, Brynilda (1739), and a pastoral in three scenes on King Adolphus Frederick’s return from Finland. During the early part of his life he was universally admitted to be facile princeps among the Swedish poets of his time.
See also K. Warburg, “Olof von Dalin,” in the Handlingar (vol. lix., 1884) of the Swedish Academy. A selection of his works was edited by E. V. Lindblad (Örebro, 1872).
DALKEITH, a municipal and police burgh of Edinburghshire, Scotland, lying between the North and South Esk, 7½ m. S.E. of Edinburgh, by the North British railway. Pop. (1891) 7035; (1901) 6812. It is an important agricultural centre, and has every week one of the largest grain-markets in Scotland. Besides milling, brewing and tanning, the chief industries are the making of carpets, brushes and bricks, and iron and brass founding. Near Eskbank, a handsome residential quarter with a railway station, coal-mining is carried on. Market-gardening, owing to the proximity of the capital, flourishes. The parish church—an old Gothic edifice, which was originally the Castle chapel, and was restored in 1852—the municipal buildings, corn exchange, Foresters’ hall and Newmills hospital are among the principal public buildings. Dalkeith was the birthplace of Professor Peter Guthrie Tait, the mathematician (1831-1901). Dalkeith Palace, a seat of the duke of Buccleuch, was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh in 1700 for the widow of the duke of Monmouth, countess of Buccleuch in her own right. It occupies the site of a castle which belonged first to the Grahams and afterwards to the Douglases, and was sold in 1642 by William, seventh or eighth earl of Morton, to Francis, second earl of Buccleuch, for the purpose of raising money to assist Charles I. in the Civil War. The palace has been the residence of several sovereigns during their visits to Edinburgh, among them George IV. in 1822, Queen Victoria in 1842, and Edward VII. in 1903. The picture gallery possesses important examples of the Old Masters; the gardens are renowned for their fruit and flowers; and the beautiful park of over 1000 acres—containing a remnant of the Caledonian Forest, with oaks, beeches and ashes of great girth and height—is watered by the North and South Esk, which unite before they leave the policy. About 1 m. south is Newbattle Abbey, the seat of the marquess of Lothian, delightfully situated on the South Esk. It is built on the site of an abbey founded by David I., the ancient crypt being incorporated in the mansion. The library contains many valuable books and illuminated MSS., and excellent pictures and carvings. In the park are several remarkable trees, among them one of the largest beeches in the United Kingdom. Two miles still farther south lies Cockpen, immortalized by the Baroness Nairne’s humorous song “The Laird of Cockpen,” and Dalhousie Castle, partly ancient and partly modern, which gives a title to the earls of Dalhousie. About 6 m. south-east of Dalkeith are Borthwick and Crichton castles, 1 m. apart, both now in ruins. Queen Mary spent three weeks in Borthwick Castle, as in durance vile, after her marriage with Bothwell, and fled from it to Dunbar in the guise of a page. The castle, which is a double tower, was besieged by Cromwell, and the marks of his cannon-balls are still visible. In the manse of the parish of Borthwick, William Robertson, the historian, was born in 1721. About 4 m. west of Dalkeith is the village of Burdiehouse, the limestone quarries of which are famous for fossils. The name is said to be a corruption of Bordeaux House, which was bestowed on it by Queen Mary’s French servants, who lived here when their mistress resided at Craigmillar.