Chapter Deerslayer to Demetia of D by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Deiri , separated from Bernicia by Soemil, the sixth in descent from Woden. Deiri and Bernicia together constituted Northumbria.

Diera [sic] beareth thro’ the spacious Yorkish hounds,
From Durham down along to the Lancastrian sounds …
And did the greater part of Cumberland contain.
   —Drayton: Polyolbion, xvi. (1613).

Dekabrist, a Decembrist, from Dekaber, the Russian for December. It denotes those persons who suffered death or captivity for the part they took in the military conspiracy which broke out in St. Petersburg in December, 1825, on the accession of czar Nicholas to the throne.

Delada, the tooth of Buddha, preserved in the Malegawa temple at Kandy. The natives guard it with the greatest jealousy, from a belief that whoever possesses it acquires the right to govern Ceylon. When the English (in 1815) obtained possession of this palladium, the natives submitted without resistance.

Delaserre (Captain Philip), a friend of Harry Bertram.—Sir W. Scott: Guy Mannering (time, George II.).

Delectable Mountains. A range of hills from the summits of which the Celestial City could be seen. These mountains were beautiful with woods, vineyards, fruits of all sorts, flowers, springs and fountains, etc.

Now there were on the tops of these mountains shepherds feeding their flocks. The pilgrims, therefore, went to them, and leaning on their staffs … they asked, “Whose delectable mountains are these, and whose be the sheep that feed upon them?” The shepherds answered, “These mountains are Emmanuel’s land … and the sheep are His, and He laid down His life for them.”—Bunyan: Pilgrim’s Progress, i. (1678).

DELIA, Diana; so called from the island Delos, where she was born. Similarly, Apollo was called Delius. Milton says that Eve e’en

Delia’s self
In gait surpassed and goddess-like deport,
Though not as she with bow and quiver armed.
   —Paradise Lost, ix. 338, etc. (1665).

Delia, any female sweetheart. One of Virgil’s shepherdesses. The lady-love of Tibullus. The Delia of Pope’s Satires (i. 81) is the second lady Doloraine of Ledwell Park.

Slander or poison dread from Delia’s rage;
Hard words or hanging, if your judge be Page.

That is, judge Page of Middle Ashton.

Delia, the lady-love of James Hammond’s elegies, was Miss Dashwood, who died in 1779. She rejected his suit, and died unmarried. In one of the elegies the poet imagines himself married to her, and that they were living happily together till death, when pitying maids would tell of their wondrous loves.

Delia is the unknown somebody to whom Shenstone addressed his love-odes and Pastoral Ballad.

Delian King (The). Apollo or the sun is so called in the Orphic hymn.

Oft as the Delian king with Sirius holds
The central heavens.
   —Akenside: Hymn to the Naiads (1767).

Delight of Mankind (The), Titus the Roman emperor (A. D. 40, 79–81).

Titus indeed gave one short evening gleam,
More cordial felt, as in the midst it spread
Of storm and horror: “The Delight of Men.”
   —Thomson: Liberty, iii. (1735).

Della Crusca School, originally applied in 1582 to a society in Florence, established to purify the national language and sift from it all its impurities; but applied in England to a brotherhood of poets (in the last quarter of the eighteenth century) under the leadership of Mrs. Piozzl. This school was conspicuous for