a maritime town of the French Netherlands, situated in E. Long. 2. 28. N. Lat. 51. 10. and is the most easterly harbour on the side of France which is next to Great Britain.—It was originally a mean hamlet, consisting only of a few fishermen's huts; but a church being built there, it was from that, and from its situation, which is a sandy eminence, called Dunkirk; dunn signifying, in the old Gallic language, a hill; and kirk being the old Flemish name for church.

About the year 960, Baldwin earl of Flanders, thinking the situation convenient, enlarged it into a kind of town, and surrounded it with a wall. In the year 1322, Robert of Flanders, who held it as an appendage, built a castle for its defence; which was afterwards demolished by the revolters of Flanders. Robert of Bar erected a fortification round it, the remains of which are visible on the side next the harbour. The emperor Charles V., who held it as part of Flanders, built another castle to defend the harbour; but this was also demolished soon afterwards. In 1588, the French, under Marshal de Thermes, took Dunkirk by storm, and almost ruined the place; the Spaniards recovered it again in about a fortnight, and put all the French to the sword.

During a peace procured for the Dunkirkers by Philip II. of Spain, they rebuilt their town with greater splendour than before, and the inhabitants for a long time subjected by privateers fitted out against the Dutch; and at length, growing rich by these Dunkirk hostilities, they fortified their town and harbour, and fitted out no less than 15 ships of war at their own charge.

In 1634, the Dunkirkers agreed with the inhabitants of Bergues to dig a canal, at their joint expense, for a communication between the two towns; which was some time afterwards effected. By this time Dunkirk was become the best harbour the Spaniards possessed in Flanders, which induced many foreigners to settle there; and it being necessary to enlarge the town for their accommodation, a new fortified wall was built at a considerable distance from the former. In 1646, it was besieged and taken by the prince of Condé. In 1652 it was retaken by the archduke Leopold, then governor of the Netherlands. France entering into a treaty with England in 1655, the Dunkirkers, with views of pecuniary advantage, fitted out privateers against both those powers: the consequence of which was, that the French, assisted by Cromwell, attacked and took it; and it was put into the hands of the English, in consequence of a treaty between them and the French. To the English it was even then of very great importance; for, during the war in which it was taken the Dunkirkers had made prizes of no less than 250 of their ships, many of which were of great value. They therefore improved the fortifications, and built a citadel; yet they kept it only four years; for in 1662, two years after the Restoration, Charles II., sold this valuable acquisition to France, for the paltry sum of 500,000l. In consequence of this sale, the town was taken possession of by the French king Louis XIV. by the Count d'Estrades, on the 29th of November 1662. Louis having acquainted the celebrated engineer Monsieur Vauban, that he intended to make Dunkirk one of the strongest places in Europe, Vauban drew up a plan with that view, which was gradually executed. An arsenal was erected, large enough to contain all the store necessary for fitting out and maintaining a large fleet of men of war; the fortifications on the land side were constructed in a manner that was thought to render them impregnable; and, towards the sea, the entrance of the harbour being properly formed, it was fortified by the jetties, and the two forts called Green Fort and the Fort of Good Hope at their extremities; the famous ribbank was also erected on the side of the jetties, and Fort Galliard on the other, to secure the town. These works were all completed in 1683; and in 1685, the whole circumference of the bastion was faced with masonry, and the keys completely formed: at the same time care was taken to build at the entrance of this bastion a sluice, almost 45 feet wide, that the ships within might be constantly afloat. In 1689, the fort called the Corniche, and some other works, were completed. But though 30 years had been now employed in improving the fortifications of Dunkirk, it was not yet in the state in which Louis intended to put it; and therefore, in 1701, he caused a new ribbank to be built, called Fort Blanc.

At the treaty of Utrecht, it having been made appear, that the privateers of Dunkirk had, during the war then closing, taken from the English no less than 1614 prizes valued at 1,334,375l. sterling, it was stipulated, that the fortifications of the city and port Dunkirk part of Dunkirk should be entirely demolished, and the harbour filled up, so as never to be a harbour again.

The treaty of which this demolition of Dunkirk was an article, was signed on the 28th of April 1713; but the demolition did not take place till the September following, when the queen deputed Colonel Armstrong and Colonel Clayton to oversee the execution of the treaty as far as concerned the works and harbour of Dunkirk.

Under the inspection of these gentlemen, the places of arms were broken down, the ditches filled up, and the demi-lunes, bastions, and covered way, totally destroyed; the citadel was razed, and the harbour and basin filled up; the jetties were also levelled with the strand, and all the forts which defended the entrance into the harbour were demolished. A large dam, or bar, was also built across the mouth of the harbour between the jetties and the town, by which all communication between the harbour and the canal, which formed its entrance, was entirely cut off. The flues were also broken up, and the materials of them broken to pieces.

But this was no sooner done, than Louis XIV. ordered 30,000 men to work incessantly upon a new canal, the canal of Mardick, which in a short time they accomplished; by which the harbour was rendered almost as commodious as ever; but in 1717 this likewise was rendered unserviceable.

In the year 1720, during a great storm, the sea broke up the bar or dam, and restored to the Dunkirkers the use of the harbour in a very considerable degree.

In the year 1740, when Great Britain was engaged in a war with Spain, Louis XV. set about improving the advantage which Dunkirk had derived from the storm in 1720, by restoring the works, and repairing the harbour. He rebuilt the jetties, and erected new forts in the place of those which had been destroyed; and soon afterwards he espoused the cause of Spain, and became a principal in the war against us.

But at the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, it was stipulated, that all the works towards the sea should be destroyed a second time; yet, before the declaration of the last war, the place was in as good a state of defence towards the sea as it was at any time during the war which was concluded by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.

**DUNSE**, a market town of Scotland, in the shire of Mers, situated in W. Long. 2. 15. N. Lat. 55. 42. It is seated on a rising ground in the middle of the shire, and has a weekly market for cattle. It is by some reputed the birth-place of the famous John Duns Scotus. A mile south of the town is a well of mineral water, of great use as a debilifluent and antiseptic, first discovered in 1747 by Dr Thomas Simpson who practised there.