ith _The Daily
News_, for which he wrote articles on social and prison reform. In 1850
he _pub._ _John Howard and the Prison World of Europe_, which had a wide
circulation, and about the same time he wrote a _Life of Peace_ (1851),
in answer to Macaulay's onslaught. Lives of _Admiral Blake_ and _Lord
Bacon_ followed, which received somewhat severe criticisms at the hands
of competent authorities. D. was ed. of _The Athenaeum_, 1853-69, and
wrote many books of travel, including _The Holy Land_ (1865), _New
America_ (1867), and _Free Russia_ (1870). His later historical works
include _Her Majesty's Tower_, and _The History of Two Queens_ (Catherine
of Arragon and Anne Boleyn). Though a diligent student of original
authorities, and sometimes successful in throwing fresh light on his
subjects, D. was not always accurate, and thus laid himself open to
criticism; and his book, _Spiritual Wives_, treating of Mormonism, was so
adversely criticised as to lead to an action. He wrote, however, in a
fresh and interesting style. He was one of the founders of the Palestine
Exploration Fund, and was a member of the first School Board for London
(1870). He was called to the Bar in 1854, but never practised.

DOBELL, SYDNEY THOMPSON (1824-1874).--Poet, _b._ at Cranbrook, Kent, _s._
of a wine-merchant, who removed to Cheltenham, where most of the poet's
life was passed. His youth was precocious (he was engaged at 15 and _m._
at 20). In 1850 his first work, _The Roman_, appeared, and had great
popularity. _Balder, Part I._ (1854), _Sonnets on the War_, jointly with
Alexander Smith (_q.v._) (1855), and _England in Time of War_ (1856)
followed. His later years were passed in Scotland and abroad in search of
health, which, however, was damaged by a fall while exploring some ruins
at Pozzuoli. D.'s poems exhibit fancy and brilliancy of diction, but
want simplicity, and sometimes run into grandiloquence and other faults
of the so-called spasmodic school to which he belonged.

DODD, WILLIAM (1729-1777).--Divine and forger, _ed._ at Camb., became a
popular preacher in London, and a Royal Chaplain, but, acquiring
expensive habits, got involved in hopeless difficulties, from which he
endeavoured to escape first by an attempted simoniacal transaction, for
which he was disgraced, and then by forging a bond for L4200, for which,
according to the then existing law, he was hanged. Great efforts were
made to obtain a commutation of the sentence, and