[Walpurgis Night], the eve of the 1st May, when the witches hold high revel and offer sacrifices to the devil their chief, the scene of their festival in Germany being the [Brocken] (q. v.). This annual festival was in the popular belief conceded to them in recompense for the loss they sustained when by St. Walpurga the Saxons were persuaded to renounce paganism with its rites for Christianity.
[Walsingham, Sir Francis], English statesman, born at Chiselhurst; was ambassador at Paris, and was there during the St. Bartholomew massacre, and was afterwards appointed one of Queen Elizabeth's Secretaries of State; he was an insidious inquisitor, and had numerous spies in his pay, whom he employed to ferret out evidence to her ruin against Mary, Queen of Scots, and he had the audacity to sit as one of the Commissioners at her trial (1536-1590).
[Walston, St.], patron saint of husbandmen, of British birth; gave up wealth for agriculture, and died at the plough; is represented with a scythe in his hand and cattle near him.
[Walter, John], London printer; the founder proper, though his father was the projector, of the Times newspaper, and forty years in the management of it, under which it became the "leading journal" of the day, a success due to his discernment and selection of the men with the ability to conduct it and contribute to it (1773-1847).
[Walter the Penniless], a famous mob leader, adjutant of Peter the [Hermit] (q. v.) in the first Crusade.
[Walton, Izaak], the angler, born in Stafford; settled as a linen-draper, first in Fleet Street and then in Chancery Lane, London; married a lady, a grand-niece of Cranmer, and on her death a sister of Bishop Ken, by whom he had several children; he associated with some of the best clergymen of the Church of England, among the number Dr. Donne, and was much beloved by them; on the death of his second wife he went to Winchester and stayed with his friend Dr. Morley, the bishop; his principal work was the "Complete Angler; or, the Contemplative Man's Recreation," which was extended by his friend Charles Cotton, and is a classic to this day; he wrote in addition Lives of Hooker, Dr. Donne, Bishop Sanderson, Sir Henry Wotton, and George Herbert, all done, like the "Angler," in a uniquely charming, simple style (1593-1683).
[Wandering Jew]. See [Jew, Wandering].
[Wapenshaw], originally gatherings of the people of a district in ancient times in Scotland, at which every man was bound to appear duly armed according to his rank, and make exhibition of his skill in the use of his weapons, against a time of war.
[Warbeck, Perkin], an impostor who affected to be Richard, Duke of York, second son of Edward IV., alleged to have been murdered in the Tower, and laid claim to the crown of England in preference to Henry VII. In an attempt to make good this claim he was taken prisoner, and hanged at Tyburn in 1499.
[Warburton, William], an English divine, born at Newark; was bishop of Gloucester; was author of the famous "Divine Legation of Moses," characterised by Gibbon as a "monument of the vigour and weakness of the human mind"; is a distracted waste of misapplied logic and learning; a singular friendship subsisted between the author and Pope (1698-1779).