The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 457

WOOD, ANTHONY, antiquary, born at Oxford, and educated at Merton College, Oxford; was a gentleman of independent means; wrote "History and Antiquities of Oxford University," which appeared in 1674, and "Athenae Oxonienses," which appeared in 1691, being an exact history of all the writers and bishops educated at Oxford from 1500 to 1690 (1632-1695).

WOOD, SIR EVELYN, soldier, born in Ess.e.x; served in the Indian Mutiny War, and received the V.C., also in the Ashanti, in the Zulu, in the Transvaal (1880-1881) Wars, and in Egypt in 1882; _b_. 1838.

WOOD, MRS. HENRY (_nee_ Price), novelist, born in Worcesters.h.i.+re; her best novels "The Channings" and "Mrs. Halliburton's Troubles," though her most popular "East Lynne"; she wrote some thirty, all popular, and deservedly so (1820-1887).

WOODEN HORSE, a gigantic horse of wood, within which Greek warriors were concealed, and which the Trojans were persuaded to admit into their city, to its ruin, on the pretext that it was an offering by the Greeks to Pallas, to atone for their abstraction of her image from the citadel.

WOODSTOCK, a small market-town on the Glyme, 8 m. NW. of Oxford, once a royal manor, near which is BLENHEIM PARK (q. v.).

WOOLNER, THOMAS, English sculptor, born at Hadleigh, in Suffolk; sympathised with the Pre-Raphaelite movement; did a number of statues (one of Bacon for Oxford), busts of famous contemporaries--Carlyle, Darwin, Tennyson, &c.--and ideal works, such as Elaine, Ophelia, Guinevere, &c.; was a poet as well as a sculptor (1826-1892).

WOOLSACK, the seat of the Lord Chancellor in the House of Lords, as Speaker of the House, being a large square cus.h.i.+on of wool covered with red cloth, without either back or arms.

WOOLSTON, THOMAS, an eccentric semi-deistical writer, born at Northampton, who maintained a lifelong polemic against the literal truth of the Bible, and insisted that the miraculous element in it must be allegorically interpreted, with such obstinacy that he was in the end subjected to imprisonment as a blasphemer, from which he was never released, because he refused to recant (1669-1731).

WOOLWICH (40), a town in Kent, on the S. bank of the Thames, 9 m.

below London; is the chief military a.r.s.enal in the country; contains a gun factory, ammunition factory, laboratory, &c., which employ 12,000 men, besides barracks for artillery, engineers, &c., covering an area 4 m. in circ.u.mference.

WORCESTER (42), the county town of Worcesters.h.i.+re, on the left bank of the Severn, 26 m. SE. of Birmingham; a very ancient place, and a handsome city, with a n.o.ble old Gothic cathedral; is famous for its blue porcelain ware and other industries, particularly glove-making; was the scene in 1651 of Cromwell's victory over the Royalists, which he called his "crowning mercy."

WORCESTER (118), the second city of Ma.s.sachusetts, U.S., a place of busy industry, and with a flouris.h.i.+ng trade.

WORCESTER, MARQUIS OF, inventor of the steam-engine, born probably in the Strand; early gave himself to mechanical studies; was an ardent Royalist; negotiated with the Irish Catholics on behalf of the king; was discovered and imprisoned on a charge of treason, but his release being procured by the king, he spent some time in exile; on his return he was again imprisoned and then released; wrote an account of inventions amounting to a hundred, "A Century of Inventions" as he called it, one of which he described as "an admirable and most forcible way of driving up water by fire" (1601-1667).

WORCESTERs.h.i.+RE, an agricultural and pastoral county in the valley of the Severn, the N. part of which is the Black Country, rich in coal and iron mines, with Dudley for capital, and the SW. occupied by the Malvern Hills, while the S. is famous for its orchards and hop-gardens; it has also extensive manufactures at Worcester, Kidderminster, Stourbridge, and Redditch.

WORD, THE, or LOGOS, the name given by St. John to G.o.d as existing from the beginning as in the fulness of time He manifested Himself in Christ, or as at first what He revealed Himself at last.

WORDSWORTH, CHARLES, bishop of St. Andrews, born in Lambeth, studied at Christ Church, Oxford; was private tutor to Gladstone and Manning, Warden of Glenalmond College, Perths.h.i.+re, and made bishop in 1852; was a student of Shakespeare, and distinguished as a prelate for his zeal for Church union in Scotland; he was a nephew of the poet (1805-1892).

WORDSWORTH, WILLIAM, poet, born at c.o.c.kermouth, of a Yorks.h.i.+re stock; educated at Hawkshead Grammar School and at St. John's College, Cambridge; travelled in France at the Revolution period, and was smitten with the Republican fever, which however soon spent itself; established himself in the S. of England, and fell in with Coleridge, and visited Germany in company with him, and on his return settled in the Lake Country; married Mary Hutchinson, who had been a school-fellow of his, and to whom he was attached when a boy, and received a lucrative sinecure appointment as distributor of stamps in the district, took up his residence first at Grasmere and finally at Rydal Mount, devoting his life in best of the Muses, as he deemed, to the composition of poetry, with all faith in himself, and slowly but surely bringing round his admirers to the same conclusion; he began his career in literature by publis.h.i.+ng along with Coleridge "Lyrical Ballads"; finished his "Prelude" in 1806, and produced his "Excursion" in 1814, after which, from his home at Rydal Mount, there issued a long succession of miscellaneous pieces; he succeeded Southey as poet-laureate in 1843; he is emphatically the poet of external nature and of its all-inspiring power, and it is as such his admirers regard him; Carlyle compares his muse to "an honest rustic fiddle, good and well handled, but wanting two or more of the strings, and not capable of much"; to judge of Wordsworth's merits as a poet the student is referred to Matthew Arnold's "Selections" (1770-1850).

WORLD, THE, the name applied in the New Testament to the collective body of those who reject and oppose the spirit of Christ, who practically affirm what He denies, and practically deny what He affirms, or turn His Yea into Nay, and His Nay into Yea.

WORMS (25), an old German town in Hesse-Darmstadt, in a fertile plain on the left bank of the Rhine, 40 m. SE. of Mainz, with a ma.s.sive Romanesque cathedral having two domes and four towers; it was here the Diet of the empire was held under Charles V., and before which Martin Luther appeared on 17th April 1521, standing alone in his defence on the rock of Scripture, and deferentially declining to recant: "Here stand I; I can do no other; so help me G.o.d."

WORSAAE, JANS JACOB, eminent Danish archaeologist, born in Jutland; has written on the antiquities of the North, specially in a Scandinavian reference (1821-1885).

WORTHING (16), a fas.h.i.+onable watering-place on the Suss.e.x coast, 10 m. SW. of Brighton; has a mild climate, fine sands, and a long wide parade.

WOTTON, SIR HENRY, diplomatist and scholar, born in Kent; was amba.s.sador of James I. for 20 years, chiefly at Venice; visited Kepler (q. v.) on one occasion, and found him a very "ingenious person," and came under temporary eclipse for his definition of an amba.s.sador, "An honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country"; was ultimately provost of Eton, and was a friend of many good men, among others Isaac Walton, who wrote his Life; he wished to be remembered as the author of the saying, "The itch of controversy is the scab (_scabies_) of the Churches," and caused it to be insculpt in his epitaph (1568-1630).

WOUVERMANS, PHILIP, Dutch painter, born at Haarlem, where he lived and died; painted small landscapes, hunting pieces, and battle pieces, from which the picture-dealers profited, while he lived and died poor; had two brothers, whose pictures are, though inferior, often mistaken for his (1619-1668).

WRANGEL, FREDERICK, Prussian field-marshal, born at Stettin; served with distinction in various campaigns, and commanded in the Danish War of 1864, and was present in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, though without command; was known as Papa Wrangel among the Berliners, who loved him for his disregard of grammar (1784-1877).

WRANGLER, name given in Cambridge University to those who have attained the first rank in mathematics, pure and applied, the one who heads the list being known as the Senior Wrangler.

WREDE, PHILIP, field-marshal and prince, born in Heidelberg; served as a Bavarian general against Austria as the ally of Napoleon at Wagram, and also in the expedition against Russia in 1812, on which occasion he covered the retreat of the French army to the loss of nearly all the cavalry; fought against the French at Hanau; was defeated, but was afterwards successful on French soil, and eventually became commander-in-chief of the Bavarian army (1767-1838).

WREN, SIR CHRISTOPHER, architect, born at East Knoyle, in Wilts.h.i.+re; educated at Westminster School and Wadham College, Oxford, and became Fellow of All Souls; was early distinguished in mathematics and for mechanical ingenuity, and soon became notable for his skill in architecture, and received a commission to restore St. Paul's, London, but on its destruction in 1666 he was appointed to design and erect an entirely new structure; for this he had prepared himself by study abroad, and he proceeded to construct a new St. Paul's after the model of St.

Peter's at Rome, a work which, as it occupied him from 1675 to 1710, took him 35 years to finish; he died at the age of 90, sitting in his chair after dinner, and was buried in the cathedral which he had erected, with this inscription, "Si monumentum requiris, circ.u.mspice" (If you inquire after his monument, look around); Wren was a man of science as well as an artist; he was at one time Savilian professor of Astronomy at Oxford, and one of the founders of the Royal Society (1631-1723).

WREN, MATTHEW, bishop of Ely; was one of the judges of the Star Chamber; a.s.sisted in preparing the liturgy for Scotland, which, when read in St. Giles', Edinburgh, roused the ire of JENNY GEDDES (q. v.); was impeached, and confined in the Tower for 18 years, and released at the Restoration (1585-1667).

WREXHAM (12), an important town in Denbighs.h.i.+re, North Wales, 12 m.

SW. from Chester, in the centre of a mining district, and famed for its breweries.

WRIGHT, JOSEPH, painter, usually called "Wright of Derby," from his birthplace and place of residence nearly all his life; he excelled in portraits, and in the representation of the effects especially of firelight (1734-1797).

WRIGHT, THOMAS, antiquary, born in Shrops.h.i.+re, but settled in London; wrote or edited a vast number of works bearing on the antiquities, literary and other, of England, and was connected with the founding of sundry antiquarian societies (1810-1877).

WRITERS TO THE SIGNET, a body of solicitors in Scotland who had at one time the exclusive privilege of practising in and drawing up cases for the supreme courts of the country, and whose privileges are now limited to the preparation of crown writs.

WULSTAN, ST., Saxon bishop of Worcester in the days of Edward the Confessor; being falsely accused by his adversaries, after the king's death, he was required to resign, but refused, and laying his crozier on the Confessor's shrine called upon him to decide who should wear it; none of his accusers could lift it, only himself, to his exculpation from their accusations.