volumes 'The English in America' (1882), 'The Puritan Colonies' (2 vols. 1887), 'The Middle Colonies' (1907), and 'The Colonies under the House of Hanover' (1907). These books constitute the most complete authoritative account of the English colonies in America down to the conquest of Canada. The subject does not lend itself to continuous narrative or dramatic literary treatment; it is broken up by the necessary transition from the affairs of one colony to those of another. But the history is set forth in clear, vigorous style, with fulness of detail and judicial temper.
Doyle's literary work left him leisure for other interests besides those of local administration. He was a volunteer from the commencement of the volunteer movement; he was in the rifle corps as a boy at Eton and as an undergraduate at Oxford, and he took up rifle shooting with enthusiasm. He accompanied the Irish team which visited America in 1874; he shot in the Irish eight for the Elcho shield in 1875, and made the top score for the team, (147 out of a possible 180), and he was for many years adjutant of the Irish eight. He did much to encourage long-range rifle shooting at Oxford by getting up competitions with Cambridge teams, by offering and contributing to prizes, and by readiness to help with advice which was much valued. Though he was never very successful as a rifle shot, his knowledge was extensive and his judgment sound, as is apparent from an article on modern rifle shooting in the 'Quarterly Review' (1895). He was a constant attendant at Wimbledon and Bisley and was a member of the council of the National Rifle Association from 1889 to his death.
Doyle was also an authority on the breeding of dogs and of racehorses. He was one of the earliest members of the Kennel Club, founded in 1873, and was specially famous as a breeder and judge of fox-terriers. His knowledge of the pedigrees of racehorses was great and his judgment as to their breeding of recognised value. His own experiments in this line were not on a large scale, but Rosedrop, a filly foal, bred by him and sold with the rest of his stock after his death, was the winner of the Oaks in 1910. Doyle died, unmarried, at his house at Pendarren on 5 Aug. 1907.
Besides the literary work already mentioned, Doyle contributed chapters on American history to the 'Cambridge Modern History' and many memoirs of early colonists in America to this Dictionary. He also edited the 'Memoir and Correspondence (1782-1854) of Susan Ferrier' (1898) and 'Papers of Sir Charles Vaughan' (1902). A collection of his essays on various subjects (from the 'Quarterly,' the 'English Historical Review,' 'Baily's Magazine,' and the 'Kennel Encyclopædia') was published in 1911, being edited by Prof. W. P. Ker with an introduction by the present writer.
[Doyle's Essays on Various Subjects, 1911, introd.; personal knowledge; The Times, 7 Aug. 1907.]
DREDGE, JAMES (1840–1906), civil engineer and journalist, born in Bath on 29 July 1840, was younger son, by his wife Anne Vine, of James Dredge of that place, an engineer who designed and patented a form of suspension bridge with inclined suspension rods carrying the roadway. His elder brother, William, under whom he served articles, was also an engineer. After education at Bath grammar school Dredge spent three years (1858-61) in the office of D. K. Clark; in 1862 he entered the office of Sir John Fowler [q. v. Suppl. I], and was engaged for several years on work connected with the Metropolitan District railway. But Dredge soon gave up practical engineering for engineering journalism. From the start in Jan. 1866 of the weekly periodical 'Engineering,' which was founded by Zerah Colburn on his retirement from the editorship of the 'Engineer' in 1865, Dredge helped in illustrating and occasionally wrote for the paper. On Colburn' s death in 1870 Dredge and W. H. Maw, the sub-editor, became joint editors and proprietors. Dredge helped actively in the management until May 1903, when he was disabled by paralysis.
Dredge was keenly interested in international exhibitions. He described for his journal those at Vienna (1873), Philadelphia (1876), and Paris (1878 and 1889), publishing his reports of the first and last in book form. He was also officially connected as a British commissioner with exhibitions at Chicago (1893), the transportation exhibits at which he described in a volume (1894), at Antwerp (1894), at Brussels (1897) and at Milan (1906). For services at Paris in 1889 he was appointed an officer of the Legion of Honour, and for his work at Brussels he was made C.M.G. in 1898.
As a close friend of the American engineer, Alexander Lyman Holley, he delivered an address in Checkering Hall, New York, on 2 Oct. 1890, at the installation of a bronze bust of Holley in Washington Square, New York (Engineering, 1. 433). For the Ameri--
