W O T 



WOTCHAT, in Agriculture and Rural Economy, a 

 term provincially applied in fome diftrids to an 

 orchard. 



WOTRALLY, in Geography, a town of Hindooftan, in 

 Myfore ; 8 miles N. of AUumbaddy. 



WOTROW. SeeOsTRiTZ. 



WOTTON, Sir Henry, in Biography, was born at 

 Boughton-liall, in Kent, in 1568, and in 1584 entered of 

 New college, Oxford, from which he removed to Queen's 

 college. During his refidence in the univerfity, he applied 

 with diligence to the ftudy of logic and philofophy, of 

 polite literature and civil law, and at this time compofed a 

 tragedy, which gainod the applaufe of his fellow-coUegians. 

 Upon the death of his father in 1589, he availed bimfelf of 

 the fmall palriniony that was left to him in travelling through 

 France, Italy, Germany, and the Low Countries, in order 

 to improve his acquaintance with men and manners in thefe 

 feveral countries. On his return in 1596, he was appointed 

 fecretary to the earl of EfTex ; and when this nobleman was 

 apprehended on a charge of high treafon, he confulted his 

 own fafety by quitting the kingdom. As he fixed his refi- 

 dence chiefly at Florence, he employed himfelf in compofing 

 a treatife, which was publifheu after his death in 1657, under 

 the title of " The State of Chriltendom : or, a moft exaiSt 

 and curious Difcovery of many fecret PafFages and hidden 

 Myfteries of the Times." When a plot was detefted by 

 the grand-duke of Tufcany for taking away the hfe of 

 James, king of Scotland, Wotton was engaged to com- 

 municate intelligence of it to the king. Having fulfilled 

 this miflion, he returned to Florence ; and when James came 

 to the crown, he recompenfed his fervice by conferring upon 

 him the honour of knighthood. In 1604 he was appointed 

 ambaffador in ordinary to Venice, where he acquired fuch 

 reputation that feveral young gentlemen of rank attended 

 him for improvement. In his way through Augfburg, he 

 drew up the following humorous definition of an ambaffa- 

 dor: — " Legatus eft vir bonus peregre miffus ad mentiendum 

 reipublicae caufa ;" i. e. an ambaffador is a good man, fent 

 abroad to lie for the fervice of his country. This fentence 

 was afterwards alleged as a maxim avowed by the religion 

 profeffed by the king of England ; and it fo far excited the 

 difpleafure of James, that Wotton, after his return, re- 

 'nained for five years unemployed. An apology, however, 

 regained the royal favour, and he was fent on an embaffy 

 -jrll to the United Provinces, and afterwards in 1615 to 

 Venice. After three years' refidence he returned with the 

 iope of fucceeding to the office of fecretary Win wood, but 

 \e was otherwife employed in various foreign embaffies, 

 rem the laft of wliich to Venice he did not return till after 

 :he death of James, when he was appointed, as a recom- 

 pence for his fervices, to the provoftftiip of Eton college in 

 1624. Soon after his fettlement in this fituation, he pub- 

 liftied his " Elements of Architedure." But as the ftatutes 

 of the college required his affuming the clerical charafter, 

 'le took deacon's orders, without undertaking what he con- 

 ^■"idered as too ferious a charge, the cure of fouls. In his 

 domeftic entertainments he maintained the reputation of 

 hofpitality, and in his conneftion with the feminary over 

 n'hich he prefided, he was a liberal encourager of genius 

 and apphcation. For the amufen\ent of advanced life he 

 had contemplated a life of Luther, with the hiftory of the 

 Reformation ; but Charles I. perfuaded him to under- 

 take a hiftory of England, in which, however, he made 

 little progrefs. Having large deinar.ils on government for 

 money advanced in foreign fervices, his circumftances W';ie 

 embarraffed, and he frequently folicited his majefty to gr:M 

 him new preferraeni. But death was the only termination 



VV O T 



of his xvants and wiflies ; and this happened in Decembtr 

 1639, in the 72d year of his age. His remains were in- 

 terred in the chapel of Eton college, and the following epi- 

 taph was infcribed on the ftone that covered them by hi» 

 own order : " Hie jacet hujus fententiae primus author, Dif- 

 putatidi Pruritus Ecclefiarum Scabies. Nomen alias qusere." 

 His accomplifhment* and literary acquifitions were very dif- 

 tinguilhed ; and they are hyperbolically ftated in Cowley's 

 elegy, when he f'^er.V.s of him as one 



" Who had fo many languages in ftore, 



That only fame (hall fpeak of him in more." 



Bufinefs occupied fo much of his time, that he had little 

 leifure for writing. After his death were publifhed his 

 " Reliquix Wottonianae ;" and they have often been re- 

 printed. Of his poems, there is one entitled " A Hymn to 

 my God in a Night of my late Sicknefs," which has been 

 higlily extolled. Biog. Brit. 



Wotton, William, a learned clergyman, was bom in 

 1666, and under the tuition of his father, who was alfo a 

 clergyman, he became a perfeft phenomenon as to the 

 knowledge of languages ; for at the age of five years he 

 could read the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages almoft 

 as well as Englifh. Accordingly he was entered of Catha- 

 rine-hall, Cambridge, fome months before he was ten years 

 of age : at twelve years and five months he took the degree 

 of B. A., fome time before which he had been celebrated in 

 a copy of verfes by Dr. Duport, not only for his acquaint- 

 ance with the learned languages, including Arabic, Syriac, 

 and Chaldee, but his knowledge of geography, logic, phi- 

 lofophy, mathematics, and chronology. He commenced 

 B.D. in 1 69 1, and being chaplain to the earl of Notting- 

 ham, this nobleman prefented him in 1693 to the reftory 

 of Middleton-Keynes, in Buckinghamftiire. His firft work 

 appeared in 1694, and was entitled " Refleftioni upon An- 

 cient and Modern Learning." A fecond edition was p»b- 

 hfhed in 1697, and to this was annexed Dr. Bentley's Differ- 

 tation upon Phalaris, which involved Wotton in controverfy, 

 and fubjefted him to the farcafm of Swift's Battle of Books. 

 Wotton defended his own book againft the objeftions of fir 

 W. Temple and others, and fome obfervations in the Tale 

 of a Tub, in the third edition in 1705. In 1701 he pub- 

 lilhed " The Hiftory of Rome, from the Death of Anto- 

 ninus Pius to the Death of Severus Alexander," 8vo. 

 undertaken at the requeft of biftiop Burnet, for the ufe of 

 his pupil the duke of Gloucefter ; and recommended by 

 Leibnitz to George II. when eleftoral prince. In 1706 he 

 attacked " Tindal's Rights of the Chriftian Church," and 

 in 1707 archbifhop Tenifon conferred upon him the degree 

 of D.D. Notwithftanding his talents and learning, his life 

 was irregular, and of courfe his circumftances embarraffed, 

 fo that in 1714 he was obliged to retire into South Wales, 

 where he employed himfelf in writing. He alio acquired, 

 the Wellh language, and was able to preach in it. Dr. 

 Wotton, fays one of his biographers, was one of thofe 

 fcholars, whofe early proficiency, being chiefly the refult of 

 an extraordinary memory, was not followed by mature pro- 

 ducts correfponding to the expeftations they excited. He 

 died at the age of 60, in the year 1726. Nichols's Lit. 

 Anecd. Gen. Biog. 



'WoTTOV-under-Edge, in Geography, a large and populous 

 market-town in the upper divifion of the hundred of Berke- 

 ley, Gloucefterftiire, England, is fituated at the bafe of 

 a ridge of woody hills (whence its name is evidently derived], 

 at the diftance of 19 miles S.S.W. from Gloucefter, and 

 108 miles W. by S. from London. It is a borough by 

 prcfcription, though it fends no members to parliament. In 



the 



