Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/347

 and Weston Underwood. For a long period he acted as senior surgeon to the Royal Infirmary for Children in the Waterloo Road. He was nominated a fellow of the Anthropological Society of London on 2 April 1867, and on 3 Nov. 1868 read a paper on ‘Anthropogenesis’ before the society, which contained a trenchant attack on the Darwinian doctrines. He was retired in his habits, and, with the exception of attending the annual dinner of the Medical Society and the biennial festival of the students of Guy's Hospital, he seldom appeared at any convivial meetings of the profession.

Having retired from practice, he occupied his time in the reading-room of the British Museum, where his eccentric costume made him a well-known character. After a short illness he died at 25 Suffolk Street, Haymarket, London, on 10 Dec. 1871, aged 77. Besides the works already named, he was the writer of:
 * 1) ‘A Treatise on the Cutaneous Diseases incidental to Childhood,’ 1827.
 * 2) ‘On the Phenomena of Dreams and other Transient Illusions,’ 1832.
 * 3) ‘The Book of the Nursery,’ 1833.
 * 4) ‘Practical Remarks on the Diseases of the Skin,’ 1837, 2nd ed. 1854.
 * 5) ‘Hints on Health and Diseases of the Skin,’ 1843; 2nd ed. 1846.
 * 6) ‘Monograph I. On the Cerebral Diseases of Children,’ 1848.
 * 7) ‘Wonders displayed by the Human Body in the Endurance of Injury. From the portfolio of Delta,’ privately printed, 1848.
 * 8) ‘Portraits of the Diseases of the Scalp,’ 1849.
 * 9) ‘The varieties of Pock delineated and described,’ 1853.
 * 10) ‘Psyche, a Discourse on the Birth and Pilgrimage of Thought,’ 1853.
 * 11) ‘The Beautiful Islets of Britaine,’ 1857, 2nd ed. 1860.
 * 12) ‘The Islets of the Channel,’ 1858.
 * 13) ‘The Wild Hebrides,’ 1859.
 * 14) ‘A Gleam of the Spirit Mystery,’ 1861.
 * 15) ‘Legends of the Lintel and the Ley,’ 1863.



DENE, WILLIAM (fl. 1350), chronicler, was probably author of a work preserved in the Cotton Library in the British Museum (Faustina, B 5), and containing a record of the history of Rochester, ‘Annales Roffenses,’ from 1314 to 1358, but unfortunately mutilated so that it extends no further than 1350. These annals, which are printed with some omissions in Wharton's ‘Anglia Sacra,’ i. 356–77, were plainly written by a clerk in immediate dependence on Bishop Haymo, who occupied the see of Rochester for nearly the whole of the time covered by them. The author also gives us to understand that he was the bishop's notary public, a description which might equally point to William of Dene and Gilbert of Segeford; but that Dene is actually the notary in question is expressly stated by John Joscelin (appendix to Robert of Avesbury, p. 291, ed. Hearne, 1720). A William Dene who is mentioned as archdeacon of Rochester at various dates between 1323 and 1338 (, Fasti, ii. 580, ed. Hardy) is no doubt to be distinguished from the chronicler, though probably related to him.

An earlier William Dean, as the name is spelt, appears in the Royal MS. 5 E ix. in the British Museum, as the author of a letter to Alexander III, ‘Literæ petentes vindictam mortis Thomæ Cantuariensis’ (, Cat. of the Manuscripts of the King's Library, p. 83, 1734).



DENHAM, DIXON (1786–1828), lieutenant-colonel, African traveller, born in London 1 Jan. 1786, was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, where he was entered in 1793. He was afterwards articled to a London solicitor, but joined the army in the Peninsula in 1811 as a volunteer with the 23rd royal Welsh fusiliers. His buoyant temperament and gallant conduct made him a general favourite, and on 13 May 1812 he was appointed a second lieutenant in the corps, with which he made the subsequent campaigns in Portugal, Spain, and the south of France down to the peace, becoming a first lieutenant meanwhile in 1813. He distinguished himself at the battle of Toulouse by carrying Sir James Douglas, commanding a Portuguese brigade, out of fire when that officer had lost his leg. Transferred to the 54th foot, he served with that regiment in Belgium. The 54th was in reserve at Huy on 18 June 1815, but was held to have been constructively present in the battle, and although the latter was not inscribed on the colours, Denham, in common with the other officers and men, received the Waterloo medal. He afterwards served at Cambray and the occupation of Paris. Placed on half-pay in 1818, in consequence of the reductions, Denham travelled for a time in France and Italy, and in 1819 entered the senior department of the Royal Military College, where he attracted the favourable notice of the commandant, Sir Howard Douglas. After the death of Mr. Ritchie, of the consular service, who, under the auspices of the African Association, had been engaged in an attempt to