in Architecture, any square body, as the trunk or notched part of a pedestal; or it is the middle of the pedestal, or that part included between the base and the cornice; so called because it is often made in the form of a cube or dye. See ARCHITECTURE, No. 61.
DYER, a person who professes the art of dyeing all manner of colours. See DYEING.
DYER, Sir James, an eminent English lawyer, chief judge of the court of common pleas in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He died in 1581: and about 20 years after was published his large collection of Reports, which have been highly esteemed for their succinctness and solidity. He also left other writings behind him relative to his profession.
DYER, John, the son of Robert Dyer, Esq., a Welsh solicitor of great capacity, was born in 1700. He passed through Westminster school under the care of Dr Freind, and was then called home to be instructed in his father's profession. His genius, however, led him a different way; for besides his early taste for poetry, having a passion no less strong for the arts of design, he determined to make painting his profession. With this view, having studied a while under his master, he became, as he tells his friend, an itinerant painter, and wandered about South Wales, and the parts adjacent; and about 1727 printed Grongar Hill. Being probably unsatisfied with his own proficiency, he made the tour of Italy; where, besides the usual study of the remains of antiquity, and the works of the great masters, he frequently spent whole days in the country about Rome and Florence, sketching those picturesque prospects with facility and spirit. Images from hence naturally transferred themselves into his poetical compositions: the principal beauties of The Ruins of Rome are perhaps of this kind; and the various landscapes in The Fleece have been particularly admired. On his return to England, he published The Ruins of Rome, 1740; but soon found that he could not relish a town life, nor submit to the assiduity required in his profession. As his turn of mind was rather serious, and his conduct and behaviour always irreproachable, he was advised by his friends to enter into holy orders; and it is presumed, though his education had not been regular, that he found no difficulty in obtaining them. He was ordained by the bishop of Lincoln, and had a law degree conferred on him.
About the same time he married a lady of Coleshill named Ensor; "whose grandmother (says he) was a Shakespeare, descended from a brother of every body's Shakespeare." His ecclesiastical provision was a long time but slender. His first patron, Mr Harper, gave him, in 1741, Calthorp in Leicestershire, of 80l. a-year, on which he lived ten years; and in April 1751 exchanged it for Belchford in Lincolnshire, of 75l. which was given him by Lord-chancellor Hardwicke, on the recommendation of a friend to virtue and the muses. His condition now began to mend. In 1752, Sir John Heathcote gave him Comingsby, of 140l. a-year; and in 1756, when he was LL.B. without any solicitation of his own, obtained for him from the chancellor Kirby-on-Bane, of 110l. In 1757, he published The Fleece, his greatest poetical work; of which Dr Johnson relates this ludicrous story. Dodgson the bookseller was one day mentioning it to a critical visitor, with more expectation of success than the other could easily admit. In the conversation the author's age was asked: and being represented as advanced in life, "He will (said the critic) be buried in woollen." He did not indeed long outlive that publication, nor long enjoy the increase of his preferments; for a consumptive disorder, with which he had long struggled, carried him off at length in 1758.
Mr Dyer's character as a writer has been fixed by three poems, Grongar Hill, The Ruins of Rome, and The Fleece; wherein a poetical imagination perfectly original, a natural simplicity connected with and often productive of the true sublime, and the warmest sentiments of benevolence and virtue, have been universally observed and admired. These pieces were put out separately in his lifetime; but after his death they were collected and published in one volume 8vo, 1761; with a short account of himself prefixed.
DYER'S-WEED. See RESEDA, BOTANY and DYEING INDEX.