Chapter Dufarge to Dun Cow of D by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Dumb Ox (The). St. Thomas Aquinas was so called by his fellow-students at Cologne, from his taciturnity and dreaminess. Sometimes called “The Great Dumb Ox of Sicily.” He was large-bodied, fat, with a brown complexion, and a large head partly bald.

Of a truth, it almost makes me laugh
To see men leaving the golden grain,
To gather in piles the pitiful chaff
That old Peter Lombard thrashed with his brain,
To have it caught up and tossed again
On the horns of the Dumb Ox of Cologne.
   —Longfellow: The Golden Legend.

(Thomas Aquinas was subsequently called “The Angelic Doctor,” and the “Angel of the Schools,” 1224–1274.)

Dumbiedikes (The old laird of), an exacting landlord, taciturn and obstinate.

The laird of Dumbiedikes had hitherto been moderate in his exactions…but when a stout, active young fellow appeared…he began to think so broad a pair of shoulders might bear an additional burden. He regulated, indeed, his management of his dependents as carters do their horses, never failing to clap an additional brace of hundred-weights on a new and willing horse.—Heart of Midlothian, chap. 8 (1818).

The young laird of Dumbiedikes , a bashful young laird, in love with Jeanie Deans, but Jeanie marries the presbyterian minister, Reuben Butler.—Sir W. Scott: Heart of Midlothian (time, George II.).

Dummerar (The Rev. Dr.), a friend of sir Geoffrey Peveril.—Sir W. Scott: Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Dummy or Supernumerary. “Celimène,” in the Précieuses Ridicules, does not utter a single word, although she enters with other characters on the stage.

Dumtoustie (Mr. Daniel), a young barrister, and nephew of lord Bladderskate.—Sir W. Scott: Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

Dun (Squire), the hangman who came between Richard Brandon and Jack Ketch.

And presently a halter got,
Made of the best strong hempen teer,
And ere a cat could lick his ear,
Had tied him up with as much art
As Dun himself could do for’s heart.
   —Cotton: Virgil Travestied, iv. (1677).

Dun Cow (The), slain by sir Guy of Warwick on Dunsmore Heath, was the cow kept by a giant in Mitchel Fold [middle-fold], Shropshire. Its milk was inexhaustible. One day an old woman, who had filled her pail, wanted to fill her sieve also with its milk; but this so enraged the cow that it broke away, and wandered to Dunsmore, where it was killed.

N.B.—A huge tusk, probably an elephant’s, is still shown at Warwick Castle as one of the horns of this wonderful cow.