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DUKE. Daring the Saxon times the officers and com-manders of armies were., according to Camden, called dukes,duces , after the ancient Roman manner, without any addition jbut after the Conquest, the title lay dormant, or was synoni-mous with that of earl till the reign of Edward III. , who, in1337, created his son, Edward, called the Black Prince, fromthe armour he wore, Duke of Cornwall, which title hath eversince been the peculiar inheritance of the king’s eldest son,during the life of his father j afterwards the king’s other sonswere created dukes, under the titles of Clarence, Lancaster,York, and Gloucester, in such manner as that their titlesdescended to their posterity : however, in the reign of QueenElizabeth, A. D. 1572, the whole order of dukes becameutterly extinct, and continued so for about fifty years, when itwas revived by her successor James I. , in the person of hisfavourite, George Villiers , whom he created Duke ofBuckingham.

The first instance of the title of Duchess is in 1397, whenMargaret, Countess of Norfolk, was created Duchess of Nor-folk, in full Parliament j which at that time was the commonmode of creating peers; nor does it appear that any writ wasnecessary; but that the person advanced to the rank, afterundergoing the usual ceremonies of investiture, had his pa-tent delivered to him, and did homage to the king.

DYEING . The art of colouring cloths and other substan-ces, is of that antiquity as to render it impossible to give anysatisfactory account of its origin ; it is probable that the juiceof certain fruits, leaves, &c. accidentally crushed, furnished thefirst hints of dyeing, which at an early period was carried toconsiderable perfection in the East; and in some instancessuperior to what the moderns, with all the aid of chemistry,have been enabled to effect; we read that blue, purple,crimson, scarlet, and scarlet double-dyed, are colours parti-cularized for the decoration of the tabernacle, and for theembellishment of Aaron’s pontifical habit.

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