from the Trent and Mersey Canal through Derby to the Erewash Canal. The Cromford Canal begins at Cromford in the valley of the Derwent, runs by the side of that river to its junction with the Amber, and passes by Codnor to the valley of the Erewash; it has a tunnel 1 mile long, and several aqueducts. The Natbrock Canal connects the Shipley collieries with the Erewash Canal. The Chesterfield Canal, of 46 miles, has about 12 miles of its course in Derbyshire, from Chesterfield to the valley of the Rother. The county is also intersected with several branches of the Midland Railway for both mineral and passenger traffic. Geology and Mineralogy.—That part of the county of Derby which lies south of a line drawn through Ashbourne, Duffield, and Sandiacre is almost entirely cecupied by the red marl or new red sandstone. In many parts, and especially along the valleys of the Lower Derwent and the Trent, the red marl is covered by beds of gravel. The strata of the red marl present considerable variety; among them are some micaceous gritstone beds, producing a good freestone; other strata are not concreted, but appear as sand-red, white, and yellow; others are more clayey, and, from them bricks and tiles are made. Several deposits of gypsum are found in this formation. This gypsum is used | for ornaments, for potters' moulds, and for plaster. The newer magnesian limestone extends into the eastern part of Derby, where it occupies the part east of a line drawn north and south through Bolsover. The thickness of this formation is probably 300 feet. The general colour is yellow, of various shades, from a bright gamboge to a light straw colour or white. This limestone is quarried for building, also for flooring and staircases. The Houses of Parliament are built of Bolsover limestone. Towards the bottom of the series are several beds of compact blue limestone, imbedded in blue clay, and abounding with shells. This blue limestone yields excellent lime; it is quarried at Bolsover, where also pipe-clay is obtained; the pipe-clay separates the limestone beds.

The coal measures underlie the magnesian limestone, and crop out from beneath it on the west. There are twenty gritstone beds, some of them of great thickness, and numerous strata of slate-clay, as shale, bind, and clunch. A hard argillaceous rock, called crowstone, forms in some places the floor of the coal-beds. The number or order of the coal-seams is about thirty, varying in thickness from 6 inches to 11 feet, and every variety of coal is found. In 1883 there were 150 collieries at work in the county; half of them, including the Clay Cross, Staveley, and many other large workings, being in the Chesterfield district. The entire quantity raised annually is about 7,000,000 tons. Large quantities of iron are obtained in Derby from the coal measures, chiefly in the form of argillaceous carbonate. The quantity raised in 1883 was about 250,000 tons; and in the same year 300,000 tons of pig-iron were made at the various smelting furnaces in the county.

Millstone grit and shale form a series of strata having an aggregate thickness of about 870 feet. This series is met with in many parts of the county. The hills formed by it usually present a bold escarpment, crowned by rude piles of crags, exhibiting some of the wildest rock scenery in the district. Carboniferous or mountain limestone occurs largely in the northern part of the county. The limestone is divided into four beds by three intervening beds of toadstone. The white chert or china-stone, and the beautiful fluor-spar, called "Blue John," are met with in the limestone. The outcrop of this system forms the lead district of Derbyshire. Numerous veins have been worked in it, chiefly for lead; but ores of zinc, iron, manganese, and copper also occur. Lead ore is found occasionally in the toadstone, which intervenes between the limestone beds, but commonly the veins are cut off by the toadstone beds. The limestone is remarkable for the caverns which it contains; one of them, the Devil's Cave,

penetrates to a distance of half a mile from its meath; and Eden Hole, Peak's Hole, Pool's Hole, and the Baystaw Grottoes also extend to a great distance. The encuity ass contains some quarries of fine black marble, which is in great request for ornamental purposes.

The mineral springs of Derbyshire are merens and important. The most celebrated are those of Baske Matlock, and Stoney Middleton.

Soil and Agriculture-In the valleys, or on the less abrupt hills, a very fertile red marly loam is frequently met with, which is suitable for every kind of grain without aty extraordinary tillage. Clays and loams are mire extensive than sandy scils in this ecunty. The climate in the ralleys differs little from that of the surrounding ccanties; but the hilly parts are very rainy.

More than five-sevenths of the entire area is under cultivation, and, as a rule, agriculture is in a very good condition. In some farms all new improvements are a once adopted. Much land is devoted to grazing and dairy farming, and great attention is paid to the quality of the stock. Good cheese and butter are made in large quanti ties. The number of acres under cultivation in 1883 was 515,000, of which 64.000 were devoted to corn, 21.00ë tə green crops. 27,000 to clover and grasses under rotative, and 394,000 to permanent pasture. The number of cattl in the county in the same year was 130,000, and of sheep 170.000.

The manufactures of Derbyshire consist chiefly of ir a goods of various kinds. There are also some large cotton, silk, and paper mills; manufactures of earthenware, porcelain, and glass; and some very extensive breweries. Ite working and polishing of native marble and finor-spar als employ a large number of the inhabitants.

Divisions, Towns, &c.—Derbyshire is divided into seven hundreds, and the wapentake of Wirksworth, and about 500 parishes, townships, and parts of parishes. It is in the diocese of Lichfield, and constitutes the archdeaconry of Derby. It is in the Midland circuit. The assizes and quarter-sessions are held at Derby, except the April sessions, which are held at Chesterfield. Before the Reform Act of 1867 the county was divided for parliamentary purposes into two parts, but there are now three divisionsviz. North, South, and East Derbyshire, each returning two members to the House of Commons-the respective places of election being Bakewell, Derby, and Chesterfield.

History and Antiquities.-Numerous remains of the elephant and the rhinoceros, the bison and the elk, the lion and the leopard, the grizzly bear and the hyena, the mammoth and the machairodus, &c., have been found in Derby. There are also undoubted traces of prehistorie man, the weapons and tools of stone and bone-a race of men who probably hunted over one unbroken stretch of dry land from the Peak to the Pyrenees. Before the Roman conquest Derbyshire appears to have been included in the territory of the Coritani; after that event it was included in the province of Flavia Cæsariensis. Many of the large single stones met with in the county, due wholly to geological causes, have been sometimes viewed as Druidical remains; but there are circles of stones, such as that at Arbelows, near Winster, and tumuli or barrows of earth, which are doubtless memorials of the early inhabitants.

In the Saxon division of England Derbyshire was comprehended in the kingdom of Mercia. In the great invasion of England by the Danes in the time of Ethelred I. and Alfred, Derbyshire was overrun by them, and in the wars which Alfred and his successors maintained against them this county was frequently the scene of contest. At the Norman Conquest considerable grants of land within the county were made to Henry de Ferrars, whose descendants became earls of Derby. William Peverel, a natural son of the Conqueror, received also considerable grants. He built the castle of the Peak; and he or his son is

supposed to have built the original Bolsover Castle. From that time till the reign of Henry VII. nearly all the political events in which Derbyshire took part arose out of measures which the powerful earls of Derby took either for or against the reigning sovereign. The earldom was in royal possession from the time of Henry III. to Henry VII., when it was conferred upon Lord Stanley, whose descendants have ever since held it. Derbyshire contains various relics of the middle ages, baronial, ecclesiastical, and monastic. Besides the Peak Castle there are some remains of Codnor Castle, near Heanor. Haddon Hall, the seat of the Duke of Rutland, is on the north-east or left bank of the Wye, below Bakewell; it consists of two courts of irregular form, almost square, surrounded by suites of apartments, and was evidently designed to have a domestic, not a military character. Hardwick Hall is a curious specimen of the style of domestic architecture in Elizabeth's reign, and has remained unaltered since the time of its erection. South Winfield Manor-house, near Alfreton, was built in the reign of Henry VI., and ruined in the civil war of Charles I.; the remains present some beautiful features. Some of the most remarkable churches in Derbyshire are those of Repton, Melbourne, Streetly, Derby, Ashbourne, Bakewell, Chesterfield, and Dronfield. The monastic establishments of Derbyshire were neither large nor wealthy. Their remains comprise fragments of Repton Priory, the Chapel of St. John of Jerusalem at Yeaveley, Dale Abbey, and Beauchief Abbey.

The principal historical events connected with Derbyshire since the Reformation occurred during the civil war of Charles I. The county at first declared for the king, who, after setting up his standard at Nottingham, marched to Derby; but it was soon brought over to the side of the Parliament, and during 1642 and the three following years many contests occurred within the county between the opposing parties. The young Pretender advanced to Derby in 1745.

Several years of the captivity of Mary Queen of Scots were spent in this county, at Winfield Manor-house, and at the old hall at Chatsworth, but not at Hardwick Hall, as is often asserted.

DERBY, the capital of the above county, is situated on the west bank of the Derwent, 127 miles from London by the Midland Railway, of which it contains the chief offices and workshops.

The town appears to have arisen from the ruins of the Roman station, Derventio, which was on the site of Little Chester, on the opposite side of the river. The Saxons called Derby Northworthige, the Danes Deoraby. Ethelfleda, countess of Mercia, and daughter of King Alfred, took the castle by storm from the Danes in 917 or 918. In the time of Edward the Confessor Derby was a royal borough, with 243 burgesses; but at the time of the Norman survey it had only 140 burgesses. There are a large number of Saxon coins extant that were minted at Derby in the reigns of Athelstan, Edred, Edwy, Edgar, Ethelred II., Harold, and Edward the Confessor. At the commencement of the Civil War, Charles I. set up his standard at Derby in 1642. In December, 1745, the young Pretender with his army entered the town, but stayed only two days, retreating into Scotland on the approach of the Duke of Cumberland.

Derby has received many charters: one each from John, Henry VI., Edward VI., James I., and Charles I., and two from Charles II. The population of the municipal borough in 1883 was 81,168.

The town is situated in a luxuriant and well cultivated vale, surrounded with beautiful scenery. The streets in the older parts of the town are narrow and winding, but these defects are fast being removed; one of the principal thoroughfares in the centre of the town, called Iron Gate, has been greatly improved by one side being pulled down

VOL. IV.

and rebuilt back, so making a fine wide street. The houses are mostly of red brick, the public buildings of stone. There are a large number of churches and chapels, some of them very handsome, and a Roman Catholic church. There is a tradition that the fine tower of All Saints', 174 feet high. exclusive of the pinnacles, and distinguished for its graceful shape and delicate decoration, was erected at the cost of the "young men and maydens of Derby," and that it used to be the custom, whenever any girl in the parish got married, for the bachelors to ring the church bells. The new town-hall, an ornamental stone building, with a clock-tower having four illuminated dials, is built on the site of the old one, destroyed by fire. The county-hall is a large but heavy building of freestone, erected in 1660: new buildings have been erected behind the county-hall for holding the assizes and quarter-sessions. The county gaol is a handsome and most convenient building. In the market-hall the roof is chiefly of iron and glass, and the interior is tastefully ornamented in colours from designs by Owen Jones. It is probably the most beautiful structure of its kind in England. An extensive cattle market has been built on the Holmes, where the Derbyshire Agricultural Society hold their yearly shows. The county lunatic asylum, beautifully situated 4 miles from the town, for completeness and admirable arrangements can scarcely be excelled. There is a corn exchange, of ample dimensions, which is used occasionally for entertainments. Derby likewise contains a county infirmary, a self-supporting charitable and parochial dispensary, a ladies' charity for the assistance of poor women during their confinement, and many friendly societies or benefit clubs; also numerous schools, including an ancient endowed grammar-school, two national schools, a Lancasterian school, and several Sunday schools. The Derby School, founded about 700 years ago, was rebuilt in 1875. Besides these there are a philosophical society (originally held at the house of Dr. Darwin), with a good library, a collection of fossils, and mathematical and philosophical apparatus; a permanent library, which has a public newsroom and museum; and a mechanics' institution, with a spacious room for the meeting of the members. There is a public arboretum, presented by Mr. Strutt, formerly M.P. for Derby, and a park of 6 acres, the gift of M. T. Bass, Esq. In 1872 the same gentleman presented another recreation ground as well as a free library and some public swimming baths to the town.

The principal manufactures are silk and cotton goods, porcelain, and ornamental articles, made of the various kinds of spar found in the county, red and white lead, lead-pipe, sheet-lead, cast iron in vast quantities, ribbed stockings, bobbinet and other lace, and paper. The first silk mill in England was built upon an islet in the Derwent in the year 1717, and is still standing. Derby has returned two members to Parliament since 26 Edward I. The population of the parliamentary borough in 1881 was 77,636, and the number of voters in 1883 was 13,600. The assizes for the county are held here. The municipality consists of a mayor, sixteen aldermen, and forty-seven councillors, elected by eight wards.

DERBY, EARL OF. Edward Geoffrey Smith Stanley, fourteenth earl of Derby, was born at Knowsley on 29th March, 1799, being the eldest son of Lord Stanley, who afterwards became the thirteenth earl. He was educated at Eton and at Christ Church College, Oxford, where he gained the chancellor's prize for a Latin poem on "Syracuse," but took no degree or honours. His literary scholarship, his taste for and knowledge of classical poetry, however, far surpassed the attainments of most university students. He had an equal turn for oratory, and while yet a boy would practise elocution under the direction of Lady Derby, his grandfather's second wife, who had been a professional actress. At twenty-two years of age he obtained a seat in the House of Commons for Stockbridge, in Hampshire,

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mainly from allowing too great a play to fancy and theory and too subordinate a place to fact and experiment.

How, then, is it that Descartes made such valuable discoveries and Bacon none in physical science? for beyond what has been already mentioned, Descartes' discoveries in optics (the law of the refraction of the ordinary ray through diaphanous bodies, &c.) are among the most fruitful. The solution is unquestionably that Bacon confined himself too strictly to induction, and that, as Stuart Mill has admirably shown in his "Logic," deduction is an equally necessary instrument for the discovery of truth. Where Descartes had the necessary wide inductions and collections of fact to base his theories upon, he advanced knowledge by leaps and bounds; but where the facts had not been collected, or were in their nature unverifiable, his boundless imagination led him astray. His very famous "Theory of Vortices" may serve (in concluding this article) to show at once the strength and the weakness of the Cartesian method of inquiry. First, since we conceive of space as surface it cannot be empty-all ideas must have corresponding actualities according to this philosopher, as said above. The substance of space being conceived of as angular, since this-as well as with the bee-hive-is the easiest conception (again the maxim), it is evident that if motion were assumed to be impressed upon it, the corners would be ground down into finer dust, till the residues were spherical. These, then, are the suns of the universe, our sun and the fixed stars. The finer parts thus ground off fill the atmospheres and interstellar spaces, and the coarse masses form the opaque bodies of the various worlds, such as the earth and other planets of our own. The opaque bodies whirl round the luminous in circles, as in a vortex, nearer or more remote according to the special solidity and mobility of each, and these circles are by mutual pressures of the vortices driven into a somewhat elliptic shape. Just as in a whirlpool in a river the particles nearer the centre rotate more rapidly, so is it with the planets of our system. Descartes evidently thought that the planets would stop unless urged on by some force from behind, and the like idea had urged Kepler to invent a theory of huge spokes, with the sun as the axle, whereby, like a mighty wheel, the whole system revolved; but the error was greater with Descartes, since he was by thirty years the junior of Galileo, whose "first law of motion" should have shifted the problem altogether. The work of Newton was to show not why the planets moved, but why they rerolred; what force it was that caused them perpetually to fall away from the straight line, in which that "first law declares that motion, if unchecked, shall proceed.

It remains only to be added that it is universally admitted (except by the Rev. P. Mahaffy, "Descartes," Lond., 1880, his latest biographer, who stands almost alone in the contrary opinion) that this extraordinary man was as clearly the first great master and model of modern French prose as of philosophy and of mathematics.

called dignities in fee, and are descendible to females. [See BARONY.] Finally, all the objects of real property, and all annuities, offices, and whatever other things may be held in fee, are descendible, whether they are in possession, reversion, remainder, or expectancy. So are all rights and titles to things that may be held in fee, and the expectancy of an heir apparent or presumptive. There are also " descendible freeholds," that is, estates created by leases of lives, which, though not estates in fee, may during their continuance be inherited as if they were. Descents are either lineal, as from father to son; or collateral, as from uncle to nephew.

The Scottish law of descent differs in some respects from that of England. It may be said, in general, that all heritable estate, whether feudal or leasehold, descends to heirs, all movable property to executors.

DES ERT, a general name for extensive tracts of country which have dropped out of or are incapable of tillage and permanent settlement. The chief large deserts are the following:

North Africa, from its western coast to the border of the Red Sea, presents one vast sea of sand, occupying upon an average about 48 degrees of longitude and 10 of latitude, which is but partially interrupted by a projecting part of Fezzan and by the narrow valley of the Nile. It is divided into the Sahara and the Libyan Desert. The regions of Sahara not occupied by cretaceous mountains and hills consist of large surfaces, more or less horizontal, composed either of loose sands or diluvial deposits. In the midst of these sands, whose position and aspect are continually changing by the effect of the wind, are dispersed a few rocky hills and small hollows, where the collected waters nourish a few shrubs, ferns, and grasses. The mountains which bound the desert on the west present insulated pinnacles, descending gradually into a plain covered with white and sharp silicious stones, and which is at last confounded with the sands. The scarcity of water and the parching wind called the samiel are the two most terrible scourges of this desert. The Libyan Desert is very similar in its character to the Sahara; it joins the equally sterile region of Northern Nubia, leaving which, and crossing the Nile, we again meet with sandy and rocky tracts, which, from Abyssinia on the south as far as Suez on the north, occupy the whole space between the river and the Red Sea.

Inheritances, otherwise called hereditaments, things which may be inherited or taken by descent, are various. The principal of these is the crown, or royal title of the king of the British Empire. Dignities and honours, as baronies and other peerages, are descendible, according to the limitations contained in the patents by which they are created. If created by summons in the first instance, they are

immense spaces, banish all other plants. The waters of this desert, mostly all saline or sulphurous, give rise to pestilential miasmata.

In Persia there are five principal deserts, which occupy about three-tenths of the surface of the country. They are the deserts of Carmania, Kiab, Meckran, Karakoum, and the great Salt Desert, which separates Irak-Ajemi from Khorassan. Northward of Persia is Independent Tartary, which may be regarded as the north-western declivity of the great central plateau of Asia. It occupies a surface of about 60,000 square leagues, of which the greater half is a desert; for, with the exception of the immediate foot of the mountains and the water-courses, the whole country is condemned to drought and sterility. Afghanistan is a vast sandy basin, except in the immediate vicinity of the