801 



WOOD, ROBERT. 



WOODHOUSE, ROBERT. 



602 



and taste little if at all inferior to any of his contemporaries, although 

 he has obtained less notice from architectural and biographical writers 

 than some of them have done. In fact very little can now be collected 

 relative to him beyond what he himself has incidentally told us in his 

 ' Description of Bath.' That city is indebted to him for its architec- 

 tural fame, and he may be considered as having there introduced a 

 style of street architecture till then quite unknown in this country, 

 by combining a number of private houses into one general design. 



It was about the end of 1726 that he began his Bath 'improve- 

 ments,' which he carried on uninterruptedly for about twenty years, 

 within which time he entirely changed the architectural character of 

 the place, and conferred upon it even a degree of magnificence, at 

 least as displayed in such parts as the Parades, the Circus, the Royal 

 Crescent, Queen Square, and some of the public edifices, and even 

 some of these would have been superior to what they are, had they 

 been executed entirely according to the original designs. What he 

 did at Bath alone would justly entitle Wood to an eminent place in 

 the history of English architecture, and not least of all for the very 

 reason which has perhaps occasioned him to be passed over with mere 

 general notice, inasmuch as he distinguished himself rather as the 

 founder of a system of improvement than as the author of any indi- 

 vidual structures of importance. Still he produced some works of 

 the latter class that would have preserved his name from oblivion ; 

 among them are the noble mansion of Prior Park, erected for ' the 

 generous Allen,' that of Buckland, for Sir John Throckmorton, and 

 the Exchange at Bristol, first opened in September 1743. This last is, 

 if not a very large, a very handsome structure (110 by 148 feet), and 

 the principal or north front a more tasteful specimen of the Palladian 

 style than almost anything by Palladio himself. 



Wood, who at that time was a justice of the peace for Somerset- 

 shire, died May 23rd, 1754, but at what age is not said : he was pro- 

 bably born about the close of the preceding century. He was also 

 known as a philosophical writer upon his art by his ' Origin of Building, 

 or the Plagiarism of the Ancients,' fol., 1741, which is however rather 

 strained and fanciful in its opinions, its argument being to show that 

 the system of architectonic beauty and proportion is derived from 

 the Jewish nation. To this publication may be added his 'Essay 

 towards a Description of Bath,' second edition, 2 vols. 8vo, plates, 

 London, 1749; and 'Description of the Exchange of Bristol,' with 

 plates, 8vo, Bath, 1745. 



WOOD, ROBERT, sometimes distinguished as 'Palmyra' Wood, 

 an accomplished scholar and archaeologist, was born at Riverstown in 

 the county of Meath, Ireland, in 1716. Having finished his studies at 

 Oxford, where he applied himself with extraordinary diligence to 

 classical and more especially Grecian literature, he visited Italy more 

 than once, and in 1742 made a voyage as far as the island of Chios; 

 but it was not until 1750 that, in conjunction with his friends Bouverie 

 and Dawkins, and with the Italian architect Borra for their draftsman, 

 he Bet out on his celebrated antiquarian expedition through Asia 

 Minor and Syria. Before reaching Palmyra, Bouverie died of fatigue, 

 but Wood and his remaining companions pursued their researches and 

 labours with success. Almost immediately on his return he published 

 the ' Ruins of Palmyra,' 1753, with 57 plates; and in 1757 the 'Ruins 

 of Balbeck,' 47 plates, two works constituting an epoch in the study 

 of classical architecture, and which, if afterwards surpassed by Stuart's 

 ' Athens,' had the merit of preceding it by several years. 



In 1759, while engaged in preparing for the press his ' Essay on the 

 Genius of Homer,' he was made under-secretary of state by the Earl of 

 Chatham, in consequence of which he suspended his literary studies, 

 and that work was not published till after his death (which happened 

 at Putney, September 9, 1771), when it appeared under the title of 

 ' An Essay on the Original Genius and Writings of Homer ; with a 

 Comparative View of the Antient and Present State of the Troad,' 4to, 

 London, 1775. This learned dissertation, which has been translated 

 into French, German, Italian, and Spanish, treats of the country of 

 Homer, his travels, his system of mythology, and of the geography 

 and ethnography of the ' Iliad ' and ' Odyssey.' It is however by his 

 two other works that he is now more generally known, and they are a 

 very important addition to the history and archaeology of architecture, 

 affording as they do satisfactory evidence of Roman magnificence in 

 distant regions, and in places whose very existence had come to be 

 nearly regarded as fabulous. 



WOODALL, JOHN, an English surgeon, was born about 1556. He 

 was a surgeon in the army during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and 

 went to France with the troops under Lord Willoughby. On his return 

 he settled in London, and was very active in his attentions to those sick 

 of the plague which prevailed in London in the early part of the reign of 

 James I. There is no record of his having been a surgeon in the navy, but 

 in 1612 he published a work describing the diseases of sailors, under the 

 title of the ' Surgeon's Mate.' In this work there is an excellent account 

 of the fearful disease, as it prevailed at that time, known by the name 

 of scurvy. In the same year that he published this book he was 

 appointed surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital. In 1628 he pub- 

 lished a treatise entitled ' Viaticum,' and afterwards a treatise ' On the 

 Plague," and a work upon ' Gangrene and Sphacelus.' All these works 

 were collected together and published in London, in 1639. These 

 works display sound observation and correct reasoning, and obtained 

 for him an extensive reputation. He had a large practice in London, 



BIGG. DIV. VOL. VI. 



and was made a master of the Surgeons' Company. There is no 

 account of the time at which he died. In the preface to the works 

 published in 1639, he speaks of himself then as in infirm health. 



WOODDESSON, DR. RICHARD, was Vinerian professor in the 

 University of Oxford. He published 'Elements of Jurisprudence, 

 treated of in the preliminary part of a Course of Lectures on the Laws 

 of England,' 4to, London, 1783 ; ' A Systematical View of the Laws of 

 England, as treated in a Course of Lectures read at Oxford during a 

 series of years,' 3 vols. 8vo, London, 1792 ; ' Brief Vindication of the 

 Rights of the British Legislature ; in answer to some Positions 

 advanced in a pamphlet entitled Thoughts on the English Govern- 

 ment,' London, 1799, 8vo pamphlet. Wooddesson died October 22, 

 1822. The Lectures on the Law of England were edited in 1834, in 3 

 small volumes, 8vo, by W. R. Williams, D.C.L., who observes in the 

 preface that " these lectures seem to be as superior to the Com- 

 mentaries (of Blackstonc) in accuracy of rules and justness of division 

 and definition, as they are inferior in elegance of style and charm of 

 narrative ; " or, to speak in plain terms, the editor means to say that 

 the Lectures are superior to the Commentaries in all matters which 

 constitute the merit of a law book ; and he is quite right. 



WOODFALL, WILLIAM, was the son of the printer of the 'Public 

 Advertiser' newspaper : another son, we believe the elder of the two, 

 was Henry Sampson Woodfall, who succeeded his father in the manage- 

 ment of the paper, and held it when it became the medium through 

 which the letters of Junius were given to the world. William was 

 born in 1745 or 1746, and began life by being sent to learn the print- 

 ing business under Mr. Baldwin, of Paternoster-row. He was then 

 employed for some time in assisting his father in printing and editing 

 the ' Advertiser,' till a taste for theatrical amusements, it is related, 

 took such possession of him, that he broke away with a company of 

 players on an excursion to Scotland to gratify that passion. While in 

 Scotland he married, but returned to London about 1772, when he was 

 first employed for a short time as editor of a newspaper called ' The 

 London Packet,' and -then undertook the direction, both as editor and 

 printer, of ' The Morning Chronicle.' With that paper he remained 

 connected till 1789, when he left it and set up one of his own, which 

 he called ' The Diary.' Before this, in 1785, he published in an 8vo 

 pamphlet a ' Sketch of the Debate in the House of Commons in Ire- 

 land upon the rejection of the twenty commercial propositions;' but 

 it was in ' The Diary ' that he first gave proof of his wonderful talent 

 for reporting, by presenting his readers with as detailed accounts of 

 the parliamentary debates on the day after each took place, as the 

 other papers had been in the habit of supplying after an interval of 

 many days ; for the practice then was to give only the shortest sum- 

 mary at the time, and to reserve the full speeches till the reports of 

 them could be 1 prepared at leisure. Woodfall's mode of proceeding 

 was what would now be thought very extraordinary. " Without 

 taking a note to assist his memory," says the notice of him in the 

 obituary of the ' Annual Register,' " without the use of an amanu- 

 ensis to ease his labour, he has been known to write sixteen columns, 

 after having sat in a crowded gallery for as many hours, without an 

 interval of rest." This exertion however, it is added, in which he 

 took pride, and which brought him more praise than profit, " wore 

 down his constitution, which, was naturally good ; and when other 

 papers, by the division of labour, produced the same length of debate, 

 with an earlier publication, he yielded the contest, and suffered his 

 ' Diary' to expire." In his latter years he offered himself a candidate 

 for the office of City Remembrancer, but it was given to another. To 

 the last he continued constantly to attend the debates : he was in the 

 House of Lords four or five days before his death, on the 1st of August 

 1803. He left a large family, of whom at least one son, Henry, 

 acquired some literary reputation ; and a daughter, Sophia, who mar- 

 ried Mr. M'Gibbon, became an actress, and also wrote several novels. 



WOODHOUSE, ROBERT. There is almost a total silence concern- 

 ing Professor Woodhouse in the ordinary depositories of biographi- 

 cal information ; for the facts of his private life, as here given, we 

 have been indebted to the courtesy of his brothers, Dr. J. T. Wood- 

 house, Senior Fellow of Caius College, Cambridge, and Richard 

 Woodhouse, Esq., formerly attached to the Supreme Court at Bombay. 



Robert Woodhouse was born at Norwich, April 28, 1773. His 

 father was in business in that city, where he was possessed of some 

 freehold estates. He was of a family of some antiquity, and claimed 

 and sought to recover an estate at Beesthorpe, in the possession of 

 Lord Byron (the uncle of the poet). His mother was the daughter of 

 the Rev. J. Alderson of Lowestoft, who was the grandfather of Baron 

 Alderson and Mrs. Amelia Opie. He was educated at North Walsham 

 public school, where he showed no particular desire for the studies in 

 which he afterwards became eminent. He must have commenced 

 residence at Caius College, Cambridge, in 1791, and he took his first 

 degree, and was senior wrangler and first Smith's prizeman, in 1795. 

 He gained a fellowship in his college (in which the fellows, or most of 

 them, may continue laymen), and the concerns of the college and uni- 

 versity, with his studies, private pupils, and writings, occupied his life. 

 In 1820 he was elected to succeed Dr. Milner as Lucasian professor of 

 mathematics ; and in 1822 he was removed to the Plumiau professor- 

 ship of astronomy and experimental philosophy, vacant by the death 

 of Mr. Vinee. In 1823 he married Harriet, the sister of William 

 Wilkins, R.A., the architect, whom he survived. In 1824, when the 



