130 



u \ \IONDIIAM_X. 



toral staff, is still preserved, supposed to be the 

 only one in England. Scarcely was this college 

 finished, when he commenced erecting another at 

 Winchester, which he also lived to see finished. 

 In 1391, he resigned the chancellorship. His death 

 took place in 1404. See bis Life, by Lowth ; and 

 Milner's History of \VinrIn-ster. 



WYMONDHAM, OR WINDHAM; a market- 

 town in the county of Norfolk, situated on the high 

 road from Norwich to London, distant from the 

 latter 100 miles, north-east by north. It first be- 

 came a place of importance in the reign of Henry I., 

 in consequence of the foundation of a priory of 

 black monks by William D'Albini, which was ' 

 1448, elevated to the rank of an abbey. The two 

 Kets, tanners and natives of this town, who endea- 

 voured to inflame this county in the reign of Ed- 

 ward VI., used to meet their companions under an 

 oak in the neighbourhood, a part of which is still 

 pointed out as a kind of historical record ; after 

 they were defeated by the Earl of Warwick, the 

 elder was hanged in chains at Norwich castle, and 

 the younger on the steeple of Wymondbam church. 

 The town has suffered severely by the two dread- 

 ful scourges of fire and plague ; by the former in 

 1615, when upwards of 300 houses were consumed, 

 and by the latter in 1631. In the market-place is 

 an ancient cross. The greater portion of the in- 

 habitants are employed in weaving, chiefly bomba- 

 sins and crapes. The manufacture of wooden- 

 wares is also carried on in a small way. Popula- 

 tion of town and parish in 1841 5179. 



WYNDHAM, Sm WILLIAM, an eminent Eng- 

 lish senator and statesman, was born at Orchard- 

 Wyndham, in Somersetshire, in 1687. His father, 

 of the same name, had been created a baronet by 

 Charles II. He was educated at Eton, whence he 

 was removed to Christ-church, Oxford. On quit- 

 ting the university, he made the tour of the con- 

 tinent, and, on his return, was chosen knight of 

 the shire for the county of Somerset. He soon be- 

 came conspicuous as one of the ablest members of 

 the house of commons ; and, on the change of mi- 

 nistry which produced the treaty of Utrecht, was 

 appointed master of the buck-hounds, then secre- 

 tary at war, and, in 1713, chancellor of the exche- 

 quer. On the breach between the earl of Oxford 

 and viscount Bolingbroke, he adhered to the inter- 

 ests of the latter. Upon the death of queen Anne, 

 be was displaced ; and, in the ensuing parliament, 

 took a leading part in opposition, and signalized 

 himself by advocating the treaty of Utrecht, and 

 in his defence of the duke of Ormond and earls of 

 Oxford and Strafford, when impeached by the house 

 of commons. On the breaking out of the rebellion 

 in Scotland, under the earl of Mar, in August, 1715, 



he was arrested at his seat in Somersetshire, or. 

 suspicion of being concerned in that event ; but he 

 m.HJr his escape from the messenger. On a pro- 

 clamation being issued for his apprehension, he soon 

 after surrendered himself, and was committed to the 

 Tower, but was never brought to trial. On re- 

 gaining his liberty, he continued his opposition, but 

 on more broad, and less Jacobitical grounds than 

 heretofore, and remained in strenuous contest with 

 ministers until his death, in 1740. His son, by 

 the daughter of the duke of Somerset, became, on 

 the death of the duke, earl of Egremont, the title 

 having been granted to that nobleman, with re- 

 mainder to his grandson. The latter succeeded 

 the first earl of Chatham as secretary of state, and 

 died in 1763. 



WYTE, OR WITE, in the ancient English cus- 

 toms ; a pecuniaiy penalty or mulct. The Saxons 

 had two kinds of punishments were andicyte ; the 

 first for the more grievous offences : the wyte \\ ;i < 

 for the less heinous ones. It was not fixed to any 

 certain sum, but left at liberty to be varied accord- 

 ing to the nature of the case. 



WYTTENBACK, DANIEL; a learned philolo. 

 gist of the Dutch school, was a native of Berne, 

 and born in 1746. His father having been appoint- 

 ed a professor at Marburg, he was admitted a stu- 

 dent of that university. He afterwards went to 

 Gottingen to study under Heyne, with whose as- 

 sistance he published, in 1769, Epistola Critica ad 

 Ruhnkenium super nonnullis Locis Juliani cui acces- 

 serunt Animadversiones in Eunapium ct Arislenietum. 

 This learned work procured him the friendship of 

 Ruhnken, whom he visited at Leyden, and who 

 obtained for him the professorship of philosophy 

 and literature in the college of the Remonstrants 

 at Amsterdam. He subsequently devoted his ta- 

 lents to the illustration of the works of Plutarch, 

 and, in 1772, printed, at Leyden, the treatise of 

 that writer, De Sera Numinis vindicta, with a 

 learned commentary. In 1779, the magistrates of 

 | Amsterdam created a philosophical professorship 

 at an institution called the Illustrious Atheiiseurn, 

 to which Wyttenbach was presented ; and, in 1799, 

 he was appointed professor of rhetoric at Leyden, 

 where he died in 1819. The result, of his re- 

 searches relative to Plutarch, appeared in his ex- 

 cellent critical edition of the Moral Works of Plu- 

 tarch, published at Oxford (17951810, 7 vols. 

 4to., and 12 vols. 8vo.) Professor Wyttenbach 

 was the author of Prcecepta Philosophic logica 

 (Amst. 1781, 8vo.) ; Selecta Principum Grcecice 

 Historicorum, with notes (1793 and 1807) ; Vita 

 Ruhnkenii (1800, 8vo.) ; and some other works. 

 His Opuscula appeared at Leyden in 1821 ; ntul 

 there is a Life of him by Mahne (Ghent, 1823.) 



X 



X; the twenty-fourth letter of the English alpha- 

 bet, taken from the Latin, into which it was adop- 

 ted fr'om the Greek. The pronunciation of it, in 

 the middle and at the end of words, is like that of 



cs or ks. At the beginning of a word, it lias pre- 

 cisely the sound of z ; and the English alphabet 

 might therefore dispense with this character with- 

 out any inconvenience, except where etymology re- 



