WALLER WALLIS. 



869 



suffered under tbe severity of the star chamber, 

 acquired a predilection for the Presbyterian disci- 

 pline. He soon became strenuous in his opposition 

 to the court, and, when hostilities commenced, 

 was appointed second in command of the parlia- 

 mentary army, under the earl of Essex. The west 

 of England was the principal theatre of his exploits, 

 where he obtained several signal advantages, but 

 ultimately sustained defeats by the king's forces at 

 . Roundway Down, near Devizes, and at Cropready 

 bridge, in Oxfordshire. The blame was thrown 

 by him on the jealousy of other officers ; and soon 

 after, having refused to fall in with the views of 

 the Independents, he, among others, was removed 

 by the self-denying ordinance. Being deemed a 

 great support to the Presbyterian party, he was 

 one of the eleven members impeached of high trea- 

 son by the army, and finally expelled the house of 

 commons, and committed to prison. He was again 

 taken into custody, on suspicion of being engaged 

 in Sir George Booth's insurrection, but was released 

 upon bail. He died at his seat in 1668. He pub- 

 lished Divine Meditations, which were written 

 during his retirement, and give a faithful picture of 

 his sentiments and failings. He also left behind 

 him a manuscript, published in 1793, under the title 

 of Vindication of Sir William Waller, explanatory 

 of his Conduct in taking up Arms against King 

 Charles ; Written by himself. 



WALLER, EDMUND ; an eminent English poet, 

 born at Colsehill, in Warwickshire, in March, 1605. 

 His father died during his infancy, leaving him an 

 ample fortune. He was educated at Eton, whence 

 he was removed to King's college, Cambridge. He 

 was chosen member of parliament in his sixteenth or 

 seventeenth year, and evinced himself a poet almost 

 as soon as a politician, his verses On the Prince's 

 Escape at St Andero being written in his eighteenth 

 year. What is more remarkable, they exhibit a 

 style and versification as perfectly formed as those 

 of his more mature productions. He continued to 

 employ his muse on courtly topics, and augmented 

 his fortune by a marriage with a rich city heiress. 

 Being left a widower at the age of twenty-five, he 

 became the suitor of lady Dorothea Sidney, eldest 

 daughter of the earl of Leicester, whom he has im- 

 mortalized under the poetical name of Sacharissa. 

 He describes her as a haughty and scornful beauty ; 

 and, his addresses being unsuccessful, he acted as 

 poetical, and other lovers, under such circum- 

 stances, frequently act, and married somebody else. 

 In the parliament of 1640, he was again chosen to 

 represent Agmondesham, and took a decided part 

 with those who thought that a redress of griev- 

 ances ought to precede a vote of supply. He also 

 sat for the same borough in the long parliament, 

 and joined Hampden, who was his uncle, in his 

 opposition to ship-money. He continued to vote 

 with the opposition, but did not fall in with all 

 their measures, and absented himself from the house 

 of commons on the commencement of open hostili- 

 ties. He is also thought to have sent tbe king 

 some pecuniary aid at Nottingham. He was one 

 of the commissioners employed to treat with 

 Charles at Oxford, who treated him with great 

 kindness. His mind being then entirely disposed 

 towards the royal party, he entered into a plot 

 with his brother-in-law, named Tomkyns, clerk of 

 the council to the queen, who possessed consider- 

 able influence, to produce a rising in the city. 

 When arrested, there was little to convict them of 

 the design ; but Waller, according to lord Claren- 



don, to save himself, betrayed every body and every 

 thing. The conclusion of this business, in which 

 he displayed great baseness, was the execution or 

 Tomkyns and Challoner, with his own expulsion 

 from the house ; after which he was tried and con- 

 demned ; but on paying a fine of < 10,000, he was 

 allowed to leave the kingdom. He retired first to 

 Rouen, and subsequently to Paris, where he lived 

 on his wife's jewels, until, after a lapse of ten years, 

 perceiving himself getting to the end of his re- 

 sources, he applied for permission to return to Eng- 

 land, which, by the interest of colonel Scroope, 

 who had married his sister, was granted him. He 

 was also restored to his estate, although now re- 

 duced to half its value ; and he fixed his abode at 

 a house he had built near Beaconsfield. He next 

 paid his court to Cromwell, to whom his mother 

 was related ; and the very noblest tribute of his 

 muse was offered to the protector. On the restor- 

 ation, he was equally complaisant to Charles II., 

 but not so successful ; which being remarked to 

 him by the king, he replied, " Poets succeed much 

 better in fiction than in truth." In a reign of 

 oblivion for past offences, and no regard for charac- 

 ter, his wit and poetry soon made him a favourite 

 at court and in the highest circles ; and he had also 

 interest to obtain a seat in all the parliaments of 

 the reign. In 1665, he was emboldened to request 

 the provostship of Eton college, which was given 

 him ; but Clarendon refused to set the seal to the 

 grant, which produced a rupture of the friendship 

 that had long subsisted between them ; and he 

 joined Buckingham and the enemies of that minister. 

 On the accession of James II., Waller, then in his 

 eightieth year, was chosen representative for Salt- 

 ash ; and he appears to have taken advantage ot 

 his intimacy with that monarch to give him very 

 sound advice. He now turned his thoughts to de- 

 votion, and composed Divine Poems. He died at 

 Beaconsfield, in 1687, in the eighty-third year of 

 his age. His intellectual powers were of a superior 

 order ; he was at once a prompt, elegant and grace- 

 ful speaker, while the wit and pleasantness of his 

 conversation made him a favourite, even with 

 those whom his abject pliancy must have disgusted. 

 English versification is much indebted to him ; and 

 for ease, gallantry, gayety, brilliancy and wit, his 

 amatory poetry has not been surpassed. The dig- 

 nity which he assumes in some heroic themes he 

 not unfrequently attains ; and his thoughts are often 

 worthy of the sonorous versification in which they 

 are clothed. He was not, however, sufficiently 

 natural for pathos, or elevated for sublimity ; but 

 be trifles with ingenuity, and is serious with an air 

 of grandeur; nor will he ever be entirely neglected 

 by the student of English poetry. He left several 

 children by his second wife, one of whom, a daughter, 

 was married to doctor Birch; and Edward, who 

 succeeded to the estate, ultimately became a 

 Quaker. His descendants long resided at Beacons- 

 field, in great affluence. 



WALLINGFORD ; a borough and market town 

 of England, Berkshire, on the Thames. It ha& 

 sent two members to parliament from the twenty- 

 :hird year of Edward I., but, by the reform act ol 

 1832, was deprived of one of its members. The 

 number of voters was previously about 210, the 

 right of election having been in the corporation, 

 and inhabitants paying scot and lot. Population 

 n 1841, 2780. 



WALLIS, JOHN, a celebrated mathematician, 

 born in 1616, at Ashford, in Kent, where his father 



