DURAND, an Indian officer; served in the Afghan and Sikh Wars, and became Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab (1828-1871).

DURANDAL, the miraculous sword of Orlando, with which he could cleave mountains at a blow.

DURBAN (27), the port of Natal, largest town in the colony, with a land-locked harbour.

DURBAR, a ceremonious State reception in India.

DUeRER, ALBERT, the great early German painter and engraver, born at Nuernberg, son of a goldsmith, a good man, who brought him up to his own profession, but he preferred painting, for which he early exhibited a special aptitude, and his father bound him apprentice for three years to the chief artist in the place, at the expiry of which he travelled in Germany and other parts; in 1506 he visited Venice, where he met Bellini, and painted several pictures; proceeded thence to Bologna, and was introduced to Raphael; his fame spread widely, and on his return he was appointed court-painter by the Emperor Maximilian, an office he held under Charles V.; he was of the Reformed faith, and a friend of Melanchthon as well as an admirer of Luther, on whose incarceration in Wartburg he uttered a long lament; he was a prince of painters, his drawing and colouring perfect, and the inventor of etching, in which he was matchless; he carved in wood, ivory, stone, and metal; was an author as well as an artist, and wrote, among other works, an epoch-making treatise on proportion in the human figure; “it could not be better done” was his quiet, confident reply as a sure workman to a carper on one occasion (1471-1528).

D’URFEY, TOM, a facetious poet; author of comedies and songs; a great favourite of Charles II. and his court; of comedies he wrote some 30, which are all now discarded for their licentiousness, and a curious book of sonnets, entitled “Pills to Purge Melancholy”; came to poverty in the end of his days; Addison pled on his behalf, and hoped that “as he had made the world merry, the world would make him easy” (1628-1723).

DURGA, in the Hindu mythology the consort of Siva.

DURHAM (15), an ancient city on the Wear, with a noble cathedral and a castle, once the residence of the bishop, now a university seat, in the heart of a county of the same name (1,106), rich in coal-fields, and with numerous busy manufacturing towns.

DURHAM, ADMIRAL, entered the navy in 1777; was officer on the watch when the Royal George went down off Spithead, and the only one with Captain Waghorn who escaped; served as acting-lieutenant of a ship under Lord Howe at the relief of Gibraltar, and commanded the Defence, a ship of 74 guns, at the battle of Trafalgar (1763-1815).

DURHAM, JOHN G. L., EARL OF, an English statesman, born in Durham Co.; a zealous Liberal and reformer, and a member of the Reform Government under Earl Grey, which he contributed much to inaugurate; was ambassador in St. Petersburg, and was sent governor-general to Canada in 1839, but owing to some misunderstanding took the extraordinary step of ultroneously returning within the year (1792-1840).