DOUBLEDAY, THOMAS (1790-1870), English politician and author, was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne in February 1790. In early life he adopted the views of William Cobbett, and was active in promoting the agitation which resulted in the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832. As secretary of the Northern Political Union of Whigs and Radicals he took a prominent part in forwarding the interests of Earl Grey and the reforming party. In 1858-1859 he was a member of the council of the Northern Reform Union; and to the last he was a keen observer of political events. He succeeded his father, George Doubleday, as partner in a firm of soap manufacturers at Newcastle, but devoted his attention rather to literature than to mercantile affairs. On the failure of the firm he obtained the office of registrar of St Andrew’s parish, Newcastle, a post which he held until appointed secretary to the coal trade. He died at Bulman’s Village, Newcastle-on-Tyne, on the 18th of December 1870. In 1832 Doubleday published an Essay on Mundane Moral Government, and in 1842 he attacked some of the principles of Malthus in his True Law of Population. He also wrote A Political Life of Sir Robert Peel (London, 1856); A Financial, Statistical and Monetary History of England from 1688 (London, 1847); Matter for Materialists (London, 1870); The Eve of St Mark, a Romance of Venice; and three dramas, The Statue Wife, Diocletian and Caius Marius, in addition to some fishing songs, and many contributions to various newspapers and periodicals.
DOUBLET (a Fr. word, diminutive of double, folded or of two thicknesses), a close-fitting garment, with or without sleeves, extending from the neck to a little below the waist, worn by men of all ranks and ages from the 14th century to the time of Charles II., when it began to be superseded by coat and waistcoat. The doublet was introduced into England from France, and was originally padded for defence or warmth. “Doublet” is also used of a pair or couple—a thing that is the facsimile of another; as in philology, one of two words differing in form, but represented by an identical root, as “alarm” or “alarum”; in optics, of a pair of lenses, combined, for example, to correct aberration. In the work of the lapidary a doublet is a counterfeit gem, made by cementing two pieces of plain glass or crystal on each side of a layer of glass (coloured to represent the stone counterfeited); a thin portion of a genuine stone may be cemented upon an inferior one, as a layer of diamond upon a topaz, or ruby on a garnet.
DOUBS, a river of eastern France, rising in the Jura at the foot of the Noirmont ridge at a height of 3074 ft. and flowing into the Saône. Its course is 269 m. in length, though the distance from its source to its mouth is only 56 m. in direct line; its basin has an area of 3020 sq. m. Flowing N.E. the river traverses the lake of St Point and passes Pontarlier; thenceforth its course lies chiefly through wooded gorges of great grandeur. After skirting the town of Morteau, below which it expands into the picturesque lake of Chaillexon and descends over the Falls of the Doubs (88 ft. in height), the river for about 28 m. forms the frontier between France and Switzerland. Flowing into the latter country for a short distance, it turns abruptly west, then north, and finally at Voujeaucourt, south-west. Just below that town the river is joined by the canal from the Rhone to the Rhine, to accommodate which its course has been canalized as far as Dole. Till it reaches Besançon which lies on a peninsula formed by the river, the Doubs passes no town of importance except Pontarlier. Some distance below Besançon it enters the department of Jura, passes Dole, and leaving the region of hill and mountain, issues into a wide plain. Traversing this, it receives the waters of the Loue, its chief affluent, and broadening out to a width of 260 ft., at length reaches the Saône at Verdun. Below Dole the river is navigable only for some 8 m. above its mouth.
DOUBS, a frontier department of eastern France, formed in 1790 of the ancient principality of Montbéliard and of part of the province of Franche-Comté. It is bounded E. and S.E. by Switzerland, N. by the territory of Belfort and by Haute Saône, and W. and S.W. by Jura. Pop. (1906) 298,438. Area, 2030 sq. m. The department takes its name from the river Doubs, by which it is traversed. Between the Ognon, which forms the north-western limit of the department, and the Doubs, runs a range of low hills known as “the plain.” The rest of Doubs is mountainous, four parallel chains of the Jura crossing it from N.E. to S.W. The Lomont range, the lowest of these chains, dominates the left bank of the Doubs. The central region is occupied by hilly plateaux covered with pasturage and forests, while the rest of the department is traversed by the remaining three mountain ranges, the highest and most easterly of which contains the Mont d’Or (4800 ft.), the culminating point of Doubs. Besides the Doubs the chief rivers are its tributaries, the Dessoubre, watering the east of the department, and the Loue, which traverses its south-western portion. The climate is in general cold and rainy, and the winters are severe. The soil is stony and loamy, and at the higher levels there are numerous peat-bogs. Approximately a fifth of the total area is planted with cereals; more than a third is occupied by pasture. In its agricultural aspect the department may be divided into three regions. The highest, on which the snow usually lies from six to eight months in the year, is in part barren, but on its less exposed slopes is occupied by forests of fir trees, and affords good pasturage for cattle. In the second or lower region the oak, beech, walnut and sycamore flourish; and the valleys are susceptible of cultivation. The region of the plain is the most fertile, and produces all kinds of cereals as well as hemp, vegetables, vines and fruit. Cattle-rearing and dairy-farming receive much attention; large quantities of cheese, of the nature of Gruyère, are produced, mainly by the co-operative cheese-factories or fruitières. The rivers of the department abound in gorges and falls of great beauty. The most important manufactures are watches, made chiefly at Besançon and Morteau, hardware (Hérimoncourt and Valentigney), and machinery. Large iron foundries are found at Audincourt (pop. 5317) and other towns. The distillation of brandy and absinthe, and the manufacture of cotton and woollen goods, automobiles and paper, are also carried on. Exports include watches, live-stock, wine, vegetables, iron and hardware; cattle, hides, timber, coal, wine and machinery are imported. Large quantities of goods, in transit between France and Switzerland, pass through the department. Among its mineral products are building stone and lime, and there are peat workings. Doubs is served by the Paris-Lyon railway, the line from Dôle to Switzerland passing, via Pontarlier, through the south of the department. The canal from the Rhône to the Rhine traverses it for 84 miles.
The department is divided into the arrondissements of Besançon, Baume-les-Dames, Montbéliard and Pontarlier, with 27 cantons and 637 communes. It belongs to the académie (educational circumscription) and the diocese of Besançon, which is the capital, the seat of an archbishop and of a court of appeal, and headquarters of the VII. army corps. Besides Besançon the chief towns are Montbéliard and Pontarlier (qq.v.). Ornans, a town on the Loue, has a church of the 16th century and ruins of a feudal castle, which are of antiquarian interest. Montbenoît on the Doubs near Pontarlier has the remains of an Augustine abbey (13th to 16th centuries). The cloisters are of the 15th century, and the church contains, among other works of art, some fine stalls executed in the 16th century. Lower down the Doubs is the town of Morteau, with the Maison Pertuisier, a house of the Renaissance period, and a church which still preserves remains of a previous structure of the 13th century. Baume-les-Dames owes the affix of its name to a Benedictine convent founded in 763, to which only noble ladies were admitted. Numerous antiquities have been found at Mandeure (near Montbéliard), which stands on the site of the Roman town of Epomanduodurum.
DOUCE, FRANCIS (1757-1834), English antiquary, was born in London in 1757. His father was a clerk in Chancery. After completing his education he entered his father’s office, but soon quitted it to devote himself to the study of antiquities. He became a prominent member of the Society of Antiquaries, and for a time held the post of keeper of manuscripts in the British Museum, but was compelled to resign it owing to a quarrel with one of the trustees. In 1807 he published his Illustrations of Shakespeare and Ancient Manners (2 vols. 8vo), which contained some curious information, along with a great deal of trifling criticism and mistaken interpretation. An unfavourable notice of the work in The Edinburgh Review greatly irritated the author, and made him unwilling to venture any further publications. He contributed, however, a considerable number of papers to the Archaeologia and The Gentleman’s Magazine. In 1833 he published a Dissertation on the various Designs of the Dance of Death, the substance of which had appeared forty years before. He died on the 30th of March 1834. By his will he left his printed books, illuminated manuscripts, coins, &c., to the Bodleian library; his own manuscript works to the British Museum, with directions that the chest containing them should not be opened until the 1st of January 1900; and his paintings, carvings and miscellaneous antiquities to Sir Samuel Meyrick, who published an account of them, entitled The Doucean Museum.