a pointed instrument used to make holes for planting young trees, slips, and seeds.

DIDRIN, Charles, a well-known writer of songs and musical composer, was born at Southampton in 1745, and was the youngest of a family of eighteen. His parents designing him for the church, he was sent to Winchester; but his love of music early diverted his thoughts from the clerical profession. After receiving some instruction from Kent, the organist of Winchester Cathedral, he went to London. His first dramatic pieces appeared on the stage of the Covent Garden Theatre, and in 1778 he became musical manager in that establishment. At this period his success on the stage was far from being commensurate with his ability as a composer. A series of mono-dramatic entertainments which he gave at his Sans Souci, brought his songs, music, and recitations more prominently into notice, and permanently established his fame as a lyric poet. On retiring from public life in 1805, he was rewarded by government with a pension of L200 a-year, of which he was only for a time deprived under the administration of Lord Grenville. Didrin died of paralysis in 1814. Besides his Musical Tour, his Professional Life, a History of the Stage, and several smaller works, he wrote upwards of 1400 songs and about 30 dramatical pieces.

DIDRIN, Thomas Froggatt, D.D., nephew of the preceding, a celebrated philologer and antiquarian, was born at Calcutta in 1775. He received his education at St John's College, Oxford, and afterwards entered on the study of law under Basil Montague. Abandoning the legal for the clerical profession, he took orders in 1804; and while holding various lectureships in the metropolis, he devoted himself with great ardour to literary pursuits. In 1824 he was appointed to the rectory of St Mary's, Bryanstone Square, an appointment which he held till his death in 1847. Didrin's works are exceedingly voluminous. The most important are the Bibliomania, the Biographical Decameron, the Biographical Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour, Reminiscences of a Literary Life, and Bibliotheca Spenceriana.