and, relinquishing an extensive seminary which he had established, he visited most of the principal cities and towns in the kingdom as a lecturer on astronomy. In 1778 he undertoook, at the instance of Dr. Priestley, to open the Haymarket Theatre in that capacity, and, his success being decided, he fixed his abode in the metropolis, and continued to read a course of lectures every winter in a house which he had taken for that purpose in George Street, Hanover Square, attending at intervals Eton, Winchester, Westminster, and other great foundation schools. His death took place 11th of February 1821. His writings comprise an Analysis of his Lectures, printed in 8vo. ; a treatise on the Cause and Cure of Smoky Chimneys; Philosophical Estimate of the Causes, Effects, and Cure of Unwholesome Air in Cities, 8vo.; Ideas suggested in an Excursion through Flanders, Germany, Italy, and France, 8vo., 1791; Remarks made in a Tour to the Lakes of Westmorland and Cumberland in the Summer of 1791, to which is annexed a Sketch of the Police, Religion, Arts, and Agriculture of France, made in an Excursion to Paris in 1785, 8vo., 1792; a System of Familiar Philosophy in Lectures, 4to., 1799; A Treatise on Geography and the Use of the Globes, 12mo.; and various papers in the Magazines, Philosophical Transactions, Young's Annals of Agriculture, &c. His mechanical skill is attested by several ingenious inventions, and especially by his Eidouranion, or transparent orrery, and the revolving lights on the rocks of Scilly.

WALKUFFA, in botany. See ETHIOPIA. WALL, n. s. & v. a. Sax. pall; Belg. walle; WALL'EYED, adj. Welsh wal; Lat. vallum. WALL FRUIT, n. s. A continued fence; a series of brick or stone, or other conjoined materials; the side of a building: to wall is to fence or enclose with walls to take the wall,' take the best or most honorable place: wall-eyed is white eyed: wallfruit, fruit ripened on a wall.

The walled towns do work my greater woe: The forest wide is fitter to resound The hollow echo of my careful cries. Spenser. I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's. Shakspeare. Romeo and Juliet. With love's light wings did I o'erperch these walls; For stony limits cannot hold out love. Shakspeare.

Id.

Wall-eyed slave! whither wouldst thou convey This growing image of thy fiend-like face? His council advised him to make himself master of some good walled town. Bacon's Henry VII.

The Spaniards cast themselves continually into roundels, their strongest ships walling in the rest. Bacon. The terror of his name, that walls us in From danger. Denham's Sophy. Part rise in crystal wall or ridge direct. Milton. There bought a piece of ground, which, Birsa called From the bull's hide, they first inclosed and walled.

Dryden.

To wallfruit and garden plants there cannot be a worse enemy than snails. Mortimer's Husbandry.

When once the poet's honour ceases,
From reason far his transports rove:
And Boileau, for eight hundred pieces,
Makes Louis take the wall of Jove.

Prior.

WALL, in architecture, the principal part of a building, as serving both to enclose it, and to support the roof, floors, &c.-Walls are distinguished into various kinds, from the matter whereof they consist; as plastered or mud walls, brick-walls, stone-walls, flint or boulder-walls, and boardedwalls. See ARCHITECTURE.

WALLS, COD, or mud. In those parts of Eng land where stone is scarce, it is usual to make walls and houses of mud, or, as it is called in Devonshire, cob; which is a composition of earth and straw, wet up somewhat like mortar, but well beat and trod together. When a wall is making, after being raised to a certain height, it is allowed time to pitch or settle before the work is resumed. Some value themselves on their skill in building with this composition; the price, when materials are found, is generally in Devonshire 3s. per perch of sixteen feet and a half; but a stone foundation costs more. Houses built with this, being covered with thatch, are very dry and warm; a cob wall, if in a good situation, will last above fifty years, When pulled down, they are used as manure.

WALL (Martin), M. D., a learned physician, born at Powick, in Worcestershire, in 1708. He was educated at Merton College, Oxford, of which he became fellow. He settled at Worcester, wrote on the virtues of Mineral Waters, and other medical subjects. He died at Bath in 1776.

WALLACE (Sir William), one of the most public-spirited and disinterested patriots that any age or country has produced, a gallant general of the Scots, who endeavoured to rescue his country from the English yoke; but, being betrayed and taken prisoner, he was unjustly tried by the English laws, condemned, and executed as a traitor to Edward I., in 1304. See SCOTLAND.

WALLACE, the Rev. Dr., who was for many years one of the ministers of Edinburgh, and a professor of the University, flourished about the beginning of the eighteenth century, and published an elaborate Essay on the Numbers of Mankind, lately repub lished, in consequence of the discussions occasioned by Malthus's book of population. We have met with no memoir of him.

be

WALLER (Edmund), a celebrated English poet, the son of Robert Waller, esq., of Agmon desham in Buckinghamshire, by Anne the sister of the great Hamden. He was born in 1605: and sent first to Eton, afterwards to King's College, Cambridge, where, at seventeen years of age, was chosen into the last parliament of James I. as burgess for Agmondesham. He began to exercise his poetical talent so early as 1623, as appears from his verses upon the danger his majesty (then prince) escaped in the road of St. Andero;' where, returning from Spain, he was nearly cast away. He married the daughter and heiress of a rich citizen, against a rival whose interest was es poused by the court. But he became a widower before he was twenty-five, when he began to have a passion for Sacharissa, a fictitious name he gave the lady Dorothy Sidney, daughter to the earl of Leicester, afterwards wife to the earl of Sunderland. He was now known at court, caressed by all who the famous club of which lord Falkland, Mr. Chil had any relish for wit and humor; and was one of lingworth, &c., were members. He was elected M. P. in 1640. An intermission of parliaments having disgusted the nation, and raised jealousies against the designs of the court, he was one of the first who condemned these measures. He made a speech in the house on this occasion, in opposition to the court. But he voted against the abolition of episcopacy. He opposed the court also in the long parliament, and was chosen to impeach judge Crawley, which he did in a warm and eloquent speech, July 16th, 1641. This speech was so

highly applauded, that 20,000 copies of it were sold in one day. In 1642 he was a commissioner appointed by the parliament to present their propositions of peace to the king at Oxford. In 1643 he was deeply engaged in a design to deliver up the city of London and the tower to the king; for which he was tried and condemned, together with Mr. Tomkins his brother-in-law, and Mr. Chaloner. These two suffered death; but he obtained a reprieve he, however, suffered a year's imprisonment, and paid a fine of £10,000. After this, he became particularly attached to Oliver Cromwell, upon whom he wrote a very handsome panegyric. He also wrote a noble poem on the death of that great man. At the Restoration, he was treated with great civility by Charles II., who always made him one of the party in his diversions at the duke of Buckingham's, &c. He wrote a panegyric upon his restoration. He sat in several parliaments after the Restoration, and enlivened their debates much with his wit, his natural vivacity making his company agreeable to the last. He died of a dropsy in 1687, and was interred in Beaconsfield, where a monument is erected to his memory. He is esteemed the most elegant and harmonious versifier of his time, and a great refiner of the English language. The best edition of his works, containing poems, speeches, letters, &c., is that published in 4to. by Mr. Fenton, in 1730.

WALLET, n. s. Sax. peallian, to travel. A bag in which the necessaries of a traveller are put; a knapsack.

Who would believe that there were mountaineers Dewlapt like bulls, whose throats had hanging at them Shakspeare.

Wallets of flesh?

Having entered into a long gallery, he laid down his wallet, and spread his carpet, in order to repose. Addison.

WALLINGFORD, Moreton hundred, Berkshire, forty-six miles west from London, contains 476 houses, 2397 inhabitants, and returns two members to parliament. This privilege was conferred in 23 Edward I, and the right of election vested in the mayor, aldermen, bailiffs, and eighteen assistants, together with the inhabitants of the borough paying scot and lot, and not receiving alms, which at present amount to 250. This town is situated on the banks of the Thames, over which it has a neat stone bridge, which has of late years been partly rebuilt. There are three parish churches in the town, one of which, St. Peter's, was rebuilt by public subscription, and since ornamented with a spire of a singular form. In the market place is a convenient well built town hall, in which the assizes have been sometimes holden, and where the business of the quarter sessions of the borough is always transacted. The principal charities are a free-school and alms-house. During the storm of civil war which Stephen brought upon this country, this town was subjected to all the horrors of a siege; and in after times, during the reign of Charles I., it was garrisoned for the king, when two churches were destroyed, and only a smali part of another left standing. Near the river side, and on the estate of James Blackstone, esq., the mouldering remains of the ancient castle may yet be discovered; but they give no idea of that place which regal armies once besieged in vain. Fairs Tuesday before Easter, June 24th, September 29th, December 17th. Markets Tuesday and Friday. But the fair in September, and the market on Friday, are the only ones which are well attended

WALLIS (Dr. John), a celebrated mathemati cian, educated at Cambridge; where he became fellow of Queen's College, till, by his marriage, he vacated it. In 1640 he received holy orders, and became chaplain to lady Vere. While he lived in this family, he cultivated the art of deciphering. In 1643 he published, Truth Tried; or animadversions on the lord Brooke's treatise, called The Nature of Truth, &c. In 1644 he was chosen one of the secretaries to the assembly of divines at Westminster. Dr. Peter Turner, Savilian professor of geometry in Oxford, being ejected by the parliament's visitors in 1649, Mr. Wallis was appointed to succeed him in that place. In 1653 he published at Oxford a Grammar of the English Tongue, in Latin. In 1655 he entered the lists with Mr. Hobbes; and their controversy lasted a considerable time. In 1657 the doctor published his Mathematical Works. Upon the death of Dr. Langbaine, he was chosen custos archivorum of the university. After the Restoration he met with great respect, the king himself entertaining a favorable opinion of him on account of some services he had done both to his royal father and himself. He was therefore confirmed in his places, admitted one of the king's chaplains in ordinary, and appointed one of the divines empowered to review the hook of common prayer. He continued a steady conformist till his death, in 1703. He was one of the first members of the Royal Society. Besides the works above-mentioned, he published many others.

WALLIS'S ISLANDS, in the South Pacific Ocean, discovered by captain Wallis in the year 1767, surrounded by a reef of rocks. The inhabitants, according to his observations, were robust and active, quite naked, except a kind of mat wrapped round the middle, and no other animal was seen, either bird or beast, except sea fowl. The only fruit were a few cocoa-nuts. Long. 177° W., lat. 13° 18' S.

WALLOW, v. n. & n. s. Sax. palpian; Goth. walugan. To move heavily or clumsily; roll; roll in filth or mire: a rolling walk.

Gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes. Jeremiah vi. Dead bodies, in all places of the camp, wallowed in their own blood. Knolles's History of the Turks. Part, huge of bulk! Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait, Tempest the ocean.

Milton's Paradise Lost. One taught the toss, and one the French new wallow; His sword-knot this, his cravat that designed. Dryd. A boar was wallowing in the water, when a horse was going to drink. L'Estrange. WALL RUE, in botany, is a species of asplenium, or spleenwort. WALNUT, n. s. Sax. palh hnuta; Swed. and Belg. walnot. A large kind of nut. The nux juglans.

'Tis a cockle or a walnut-shell; A knack, a toy. Shakspeare. Taming of the Shrew.

Some woods have the veins smooth, as fir and walnut. Bacon.

WALNUT, in botany. See JUGLANS. WALNUT, JAMAICA. Sec HURA. WALPOLE (Sir Robert), earl of Orford, was born at Houghton in Norfolk, September 6th, 1674, and educated at Eton. Thence he was elected to King's College, Cambridge; but, succeeding to the family estate by the death of his elder brother, he resigned his fellowship. In 1700 he was chosen

M. P. for King's Lynn, and represented that borough in several succeeding parliaments. In 1705 he was nominated one of the council to prince George of Denmark, lord high admiral of England; in 1707 appointed secretary at war; and, in 1709, treasurer of the navy. In 1710, upon the change of the ministry, he was removed from all his posts, and held no place afterwards during the queen's reign. In 1711 he was expelled from the house of commons for what they called notorious corruption in his office as secretary at war. The borough of Lynn, however, re-elected him; and, though the house declared the election void, yet they persisted in the choice. In the well-known debate relating to Steele for publishing the Crisis, he greatly distinguished himself in behalf of liberty, and added to the popularity he had before acquired. On the death of the queen, a revolution of politics took place, and the Whig party prevailed both at court and in the senate. Walpole had before recommended himself to the house of Hanover by his zeal for its cause, when the commons considered the state of the nation with regard to the Protestant succession: and he had now the honor to procure the assurance of the house to the new king (which attended the address of condolence and congratulation), that the commons would make good all parliamentary funds:' It is therefore not to be wondered at, that his promotion soon took place after the king's arrival; and that in a few days he was appointed receiver and pay-master general of all the guards and garrisons, and of all other the land forces in Great Britain, paymaster of the royal hospital at Chelsea, and likewise a privy counsellor. On the opening of the new parliament, a committee of secrecy was chosen to enquire into the conduct of the late ministry, of which Walpole was appointed chairman; and, by his management, articles of impeachment were read against the earl of Oxford, lord Bolingbroke, the duke of Ormond, and the earl of Strafford. The eminent service he was thought to have done the crown, by the vigorous prosecution of those ministers who were deemed the chief instruments of the peace, was soon rewarded by the extraordinary promotions to the offices of first commissioner of the treasury, and chancellor, and under treasurer of the exchequer. In two years he resigned all his offices on account of a misunderstanding which took place between him and the rest of the ministry about certain supplies demanded for the support of his majesty's German dominions. On the day of his resignation he brought in the famous sinking fund bill. In the next session of parliament, Walpole opposed the ministry in every thing. But early in 1720 he was again appointed paymaster of the forces, and several of his friends were found soon after in the list of promotions. It was not long before he acquired full ministerial power, being appointed first lord commissioner of the treasury, and chancellor of the exchequer; and when the king went abroad, in 1723, he was nominated one of the lords justices for the administration of government, and was sworn sole secretary of state. About this time his eldest son was created a peer, by the title of baron Walpole of Walpole. In 1725 he was made knight of the bath, and in 1726 knight of the gar

ter.

He was an enemy to war, and the friend of commerce; and, because he did not resent some petty insults of the court of Spain so suddenly as the fiery part of the nation thought he should have

In

The

done, a formidable opposition was formed against him in the house, which had influence enough to employ in its cause almost all the wit of the nation. The opposition prevailed, and the nation was indulged in a war, of which it surely had no cause to boast of the success. To encourage commerce, and improve the revenue, Sir Robert projected a scheme for an extension of the excise, as the only means of putting a stop to the frauds of merchants and illicit traders. This was another ground of clamor to the orators within, and the wits without doors. The minister was therefore obliged to abandon the scheme, which was reserved for a succeeding administration to carry into execution. 1742 the opposition prevailed; and Sir Robert, being no longer able to carry a majority in the house of commons, resigned all his places and fled for shelter behind the throne. He was soon afterwards created earl of Orford; and the king, in consideration of his long and faithful services, granted him a pension of £4000 per annum. remainder of his life he spent in tranquillity and retirement, and died in 1745, the seventy-first year of his age. He has been severely, and not unjustly, censured for that system of corruption by which he almost avowed that he governed the nation; but the objects which he had in view are now acknowledged to have been in a high degree praise-worthy. Burke says his only defect as a minister was the want of sufficient firmness to treat with contempt that popular clamor, which, by his yielding to it, hurried the nation into an expensive and unjust war. But his rancorous prosecution of Atterbury bishop of Rochester (see ATTERBURY) may be considered as something worse than a defect; it was a fault for which no apology can be made; because, whether that prelate was innocent or guilty, of his guilt no legal proof ever appeared. To whatever objections his ministerial conduct may be liable, in his private character he is universally allowed to have had amiable and benevolent qualities. That he was a tender parent, a kind master, a beneficent patron, a firm friend, an agreeable companion, are points that have been seldom disputed; and so calm and equal was his temper, that Pulteney, his great rival and opponent, said, he was sure that Sir Robert Walpole never felt the bitterest invectives against him for half an hour. About the end of queen Anne's reign, and the beginning of George I.'s, he wrote the following pamphlets. 1. The Sovereign's Answer to the Gloucestershire Address. The sovereign meant Charles duke of Somerset, so nicknamed by the Whigs. 2. Answer to the Representation of the House of Lords on the State of the Navy, 1709. 3. The Debts of the Nation stated and considered, in four papers, 1710. 4. The thirty-five Millions account. ed for, 1710. 5. A letter from a Foreign Minister in England to Monsieur Pettecum, 1710. 6. Four Letters to a Friend in Scotland upon Sacheverell's Trial; falsely attributed in the General Dictionary to Mr. Maynwaring. 7. A short History of the Parliament. It is an account of the last session of the queen. 8. The South-Sea Scheme considered 9. A Pamphlet against the Peerage Bill, 1719. 10. The Report of the Secret Committee, June 9th

1715.

WALPOLE (Horace), earl of Orford, was the youngest son of Sir Robert by his first wife, Catharine, daughter of Robert Shorter, esq., of Bybrook in Kent. He was born 1716; and was educated, first

vine of the established church, educated at Oxford, where he graduated; and became rector of Laud chau in Glamorganshire. He compiled a valuable English and Welsh Lexicon, 1 vol. 4to. 1794. He also published some sermons; and died in 1797. WALTHAM, a post town of Middlesex county, Massachusetts, on the north side of Charles River, which separates it from Newton; ten miles west of Boston, and thirty-four east by north of Worcester. It is a pleasant town, and contains one woollen and two cotton manufactories, and a paper mill. WALTHAM-ABBEY, a market-town in Waltham hundred, Essex, twelve miles and a quarter north by east of London, on the river Lea. The town is irregularly built, and of great antiquity, deriving its name from its once stately abbey, erected by Harold, son of earl Godwin. Henry II. afterwards changed the foundation from a dean and eleven secular black canons, to an abbot and sixteen Augustine monks. The succeeding monarchs granted Waltham-Abbey many privileges, and its abbot sat in parliament. The present church appears to be only a part of the ancient structure. Adjoining the south side is a school room, anciently a chapel dedicated to our lady; beneath which is a charnel-house: some ruinous walls, and part of a gateway of the abbey, still remain. The abbeyhouse was entirely taken down in 1770. Government have here established some powder mills; here are also some trifling manufactures of pins, and for printing linens. Market on Tuesday.

WALTHERIA, in botany, a genus of plants in the class monodelphia, and order triandria; and in the natural system arranged under the thirty-seventh order, columniferæ. There is only one pistillum, and the capsule is unilocular, bivalved, and monospermous. There are three species, none of which are natives of Britain.

WALTON (Bryan), bishop of Chester, a earned English divine, who gained great reputation by his edition of the Polyglot bible (see BIBLE), with his Prolegomena in the beginning; which is more exact, says father Simeon, than any other which had been published on that subject. He died in 1661.

WALTON (Isaac, or as he wrote it Izaak), a learned biographer born at Stafford. He became a merchant in the Royal Burse, Cornhill, now Royal Exchange, London, where he made a fortune in a shop only five feet and a half long and five wide. Being fond of fishing, he wrote a work entitled, The Complete Angler, or Contemplative Man's Recreation, 8vo., which has been ever since esteemed a standard work on that art. Mr. J. Hawkins published an improved edition of it. He also wrote the Lives of Drs. Donne, Herbert, Hooker, Wotton, and bishop Sanderson; the last of which is highly praised by Dr. Johnson. The Lea was the scene of his angling. He died at Winchester, during the great frost, December 15th, 1683. See STEVENS, William.

WALTRON, n. s, Goth. huaitrin. The sea

horse.

The morse, or waltron, is called the sea-horse.

Woodward.

WALURU, a town of the south of India, province of Mysore, defended by a citadel. It has a manufacture of arrack, cotton cloth, and blankets; and has a weekly market. A Hindoo chieftain, who formerly held this town and the adjoining territory, is allowed to inhabit the citadel, and has

pension from the Mysore government. It is sitated a few miles from Bangalore.

WAM'BLE, v. n.

Belg. wemmelen. To roll with nausea and sickness. Used of the stomach. A covetous man deliberated betwixt the qualms of a wambling stomach and an unsettled mind. L'Estrange. WAMPUM, the money used by the North American Indians. It is much used in all their treaties as a symbol of friendship. It is made of a shell of a particular species of Venus.

WAN, adj. Sax. pann; Goth. and Swed, wan; Wel. gwan, weakly. Pale, as with sickness; languid of look.

Sad to view his visage pale and wane,
Who erst in flowers of freshest youth was clad. Spent.
Is it not monstrous that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his own conceit,
That, from her working, all his visage wanned?

Why so pale and wan, fond lover?
Pr'ythee, why so pale?

Will, when looking well can't move her,
Looking ill prevail?

Shakspear.

Suckling.

Their course through thickest constellations held, Spreading their bane; the blasted stars looked wơn.

How changed from him, Companion of my arms! how wan, how dim, How faded all thy glories!

WAND, n. s.

Milton

Dryden.

Dan. vaand; Goth. and Swed. wand. A long slender rod; an ensign of authority,

Though he had both spurs and wand, they seemed rather marks of sovereignty, than instruments of punishSidney.

ment.

The skilful shepherd peeled me certain wands. Shakspeart.

His spear, to equal which the tallest pine Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast Of some great admiral, were but a wand.

Milten.

Id.

Nay, lady, sit; if I but wave this wand, Your nerves are all chained up in alabaster. Picus bore a buckler in his hand; His other waved a long divining wand. of a wand on his back, who would have cried for an A child runs away laughing with good smart blows

unkind word.

WAN'DER, v. n. & v. a. J WANDERER, n. s. WANDERING.

Dryden.

Locke on Educaties.

Saxon pandian, Swed. wandra. To

rove; ramble here and It has always a sense either there: to tread over. evil or slight. The noun substantives correspond. O let me not wanaer from thy commandments. They wanderea about in sheeps' and goats' skins.

And wander up and down to view the city.
I will go lose myself,
Nor for my peace will I go far,

Psalm CXIX.

Hebrews XL.

As wanderers that still do roam ; But make my strengths, such as they are,

Shake

Here in my bosom, and at home. Ben Jonson. If any man's eagerness of glory has made him oversee the way to it, let him now recover his wanderings, Decay of Ping.

Here should my wonder dwell, and here my praise: But my fixt thoughts my wandering eye betrays. Denham

They give the reins to wandering thoughts,
Till, by their own perplexities involved,
They ravel more.

A hundred years they wander on the shore. Dryden. A proper remedy for this wandering of thoughts would do great service to the studious.