Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol II (1901).djvu/166

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Doyle
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Doyle

of Honour,' which was translated into Pushtoo and became a favourite among the villagers on the north-western frontier of India, 'The Private of the Buffs,' 'The Fusilier's Dog,' 'The Loss of the Birkenhead,' and 'Mehrab Khan.' While Doyle's poetic fame rests chiefly on his ballads, he showed in such poems as 'The Platonist,' 'The Catholic,' and 'The Death of Hector,' that his powers were not confined to a single mode. At the same time it would convey a false impression not to observe that most of his work was commonplace and pedestrian, and that though he often showed genuine poetic feeling he seldom found for it adequate expression. His verse is generally mechanical, rarely instinct with life or transfused with emotion.

Besides the works already mentioned, Doyle published in 1878 'Robin Hood's Bay : an Ode addressed to the English People' (London, 8vo), and in 1886 his 'Reminiscences and Opinions.'

[Doyle's Reminiscences and Opinions; Memoir by Mr. A. H. Japp, prefixed to the selection of Doyle's poems in Miles's Poets and Poetry of the Century; Macmillan's Magazine, August 1888; Saturday Review, 16 June 1888; National Review, November 1886; Oxford Magazine, 13 June 1888; Foster's Men at the Bar; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886; W. E. Gladstone's Personal Recollections of A. H. Hallam in the Daily Telegraph, 5 Jan. 1898; Ornsby's Memoirs of J. R. Hope-Scott, 1884, i. 72-4.]

E. I. C.

DOYLE, HENRY EDWARD (1827–1892), director of the National Gallery of Ireland, born in 1827, was third son of John Doyle [q. v.], 'H. B.' the well-known political cartoonist, and brother of Richard, better known as 'Dick,' Doyle [q. v.], and of James William Edmund Doyle [q. v. Suppl.] A Roman catholic by religion, Henry Doyle was appointed, through the influence of Cardinal Wiseman, commissioner for the Papal States to the London International Exhibition of 1862, when he received the order of 'Pio Nono' in recognition of his services. He was art superintendent for the Dublin exhibition three years later; between 1865 and 1869 he was honorary secretary to the National Portrait Gallery and one of the committee for the three special portrait exhibitions held at South Kensington in 1866-8. In 1869 he was appointed director of the National Gallery of Ireland, in succession to George Mulvany. Early in life Doyle had studied art practically, but never attained any great proficiency. For some time, however, he was political cartoonist to 'Fun,' and never entirely abandoned his pencil. A good many portraits by him are in existence, including two 'Cardinal Wiseman' and 'Richard Doyle' in the Irish National Gallery. Most of these are in a mixture of pencil and water-colour.

Doyle was created a C.B. in 1880, and a J.P. for Wicklow in 1884. He married in 1866 Jane, daughter of Nicholas Ball [q. v.]

He died suddenly on 17 Feb. 1892. During his twenty-three years' incumbency of the directorship of the Irish National Gallery, he raised that collection from insignificance to a more than respectable place among the minor galleries of Europe, and that in spite of extreme parsimony on the part of the treasury.

[Times, 20 Feb. 1892; Men of the Time, ed. 1891; private information.]

W. A.

DOYLE, JAMES WILLIAM EDMUND (1822–1892), author of the 'Official Baronage of England,' born in London on 22 Oct. 1822, was the eldest son of John Doyle [q. v.] Richard Doyle [q. v.] and Henry Edward Doyle [q. v. Suppl.] were younger brothers. James was educated as a Roman catholic. He inherited a portion of his father's artistic ability, and in early life studied drawing and painting. Among other works he executed a painting of Dr. Johnson reading the manuscript of the 'Vicar of Wakefield,' which was engraved and attained considerable popularity. The copyright of the picture realised 100l. While comparatively young, however, Doyle abandoned the profession of an artist and devoted himself to historical studies. For his own edification he compiled a 'Chronicle of England' from B.C. 55 to A.D. 1485, which he adorned with numerous illustrations in colours. It received considerable praise from various persons to whom it was afterwards submitted, among others from the prince consort, and was well received by the public when published in 1864 (London, 12mo). Doyle's illustrations were engraved and printed in colours by Edmund Evans.

The great undertaking of Doyle's life, however, was his 'Official Baronage of England,' which included every rank of nobility except barons. The epithet 'official' in the title means not that Doyle's 'Baronage' was published 'by authority,' but that it gave an exhaustive list of the offices held by the peers of whom it treated. This compilation was at first designed especially to cover the period between the Norman Conquest and the Revolution of 1688, but it was afterwards brought down to 1885. It gave particulars, as complete as possible, of the succession, titles, offices, heraldic bear-