Dowden, Edward, English critic, historian, and educator, was born at Cork in 1843, died in 1913. He studied at Queen's College, Cork, and Trinity College, Dublin, where he gained great distinction, especially in English and Philosophy; and in 1867 he was elected to the professorship of English literature in the university. He was the first Taylorian lecturer at Oxford University in 1889, and held the Clark lecturership in English literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1893 to 1896. Besides contributing to periodicals, Professor Dowden published various works on literary subjects, in particular: Shakspere: his Mind and Art (1875); Shakspere Primer; Studies in Literature; Southey; Southey's Correspondence with Caroline Bowles; Life of Shelley (2 vols., 1886), the chief authority on the poet's life, being founded on papers in the possession of the Shelley family; Wordsworth's Poetical Works (1892-3); Introduction to Shakspere (1893); New Studies in Literature (1895); The French Revolution and English Literature (lectures delivered at Princeton College, New Jersey, in 1896); History of French Literature (1897); Robert Browning (1904); Michel de Montaigne (1905); Essays, Modern and Elizabethan (1910). A volume of poems by him appeared in 1876, and his collected Poetical Works and Letters appeared in 1914.
Dower (Fr. douaire, Lat. dos, dower), in English law, is the right which a wife (not being an alien) has in the freehold lands and tenements of which her husband dies possessed and undisposed of by will. By common law this right amounts to one-third of his estate during her life; by local custom it is frequently greater. Where the custom of gavelkind prevails, the widow's share is a half, and that of free-bench gives her the whole or a portion of a copyhold, according to the custom of the manor. The term is also applied to the property which a woman brings to her husband in marriage, but this is more correctly dowry.
Dowie, John Alexander, religious impostor, born at Edinburgh in 1847, died in 1907. Educated at the university of his native town, he joined his family in Sydney, Australia, and entered the ministry as clergyman of the Congregational denomination. In 1878 he started evangelistic work, maintaining that it was wrong to take a minister's salary. In 1882 he established a tabernacle at Melbourne, and began to practise faith-healing. He then came to the United States, where he organized his own Church, establishing it in 1901 at Zion City, 42 miles from Chicago, on the shore of Lake Michigan. He styled himself 'Elijah II', and 'the First Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, and General Overseer of the Catholic Apostolic Church'. Suspended in 1906 by his congregation of Zion City, who accused him of tyranny, polygamy, and misuse of funds, he died shortly afterwards.
Dowlais, a town of South Wales, Glamorganshire, included in the parliamentary borough of Merthyr Tydfil, from which it is distant 1½ miles north-east, with important iron- and steelworks. Pop. 18,112.
Dowlas, a kind of coarse linen formerly much used by working people for shirts; this use of it is now generally superseded by calico.—Cf. Shakespeare, 1st Henry IV, iii, 3.
Dowletabad. See Daulatabad.
Down, a county of Ireland, in Ulster, bounded on the north by Belfast Lough and on the east by the Irish Sea; area, 610,730 acres, of which over five-sixths are productive. Down is copiously watered by the Rivers Bann, Lagan, and Newry, and has numerous small lakes. The surface is very irregular, and in parts mountainous, Slieve Donard, in the Mourne Mountains, being 2796 feet high. Agriculture is in a flourishing condition, oats, wheat, flax, turnips, and potatoes being the principal crops. The native breed of sheep is small, but valued for the delicacy of its mutton and the fine texture of its wool. The principal manufactures are linen and muslin. The fisheries on the coast, principally cod, haddock, and herring, are considerable.
The county has five parliamentary divisions, each returning a member. The county town is Downpatrick; others are Newry, Newtownards, Bangor, and Banbridge. Pop. 204,303.
Downing College, one of the colleges of the University of Cambridge, chartered in 1800 and opened in 1821. Its founder was Sir George Downing, a Cambridgeshire gentleman.
Downing Street, a street in London, leading from Whitehall. The name is used as a synonym for the British Government, the Foreign Office and Colonial Office being located in it. No. 10 is the official residence of the Prime Minister, and No. 11 that of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.