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it; and they thus spent the evening of their greater festivities 
in the monasteries of the North, as early as the conclusion 
of the seventh century. 
These services were naturally denominated from their late 
hours waeccan or wakes, and vigils or eves. That of the 
anniversary at Rippon, as early as the commencement of the 
eighth century, is expressly denominated the vigil. But 
that of the church’s holiday was named eyrie tvtrccan, or 
church-wake, the church-vigil, or church-eve. And it was 
this commencement of both with a wake, which has now 
caused the days to be generally preceded with vigils, and the 
church-holiday particularly to be denominated the church- 
wake. So religiously were the eve and festival of the patron 
saint observed for many ages by the Saxons, even as late as 
the reign of Edgar, the former being spent in the church, 
and employed in prayer. And the wakes, and all the other 
holidays in the year, were put upon the same footing with 
the octaves of Christmas, Easter, and of Pentecost. When 
Gregory recommended the festival of the patron saint, he 
advised the people to erect booths of branches about the 
church on the day of the festival, and to feast and be merry 
in them with innocence. Accordingly, in every parish, on 
the returning anniversary of the saint, little pavilions were 
constructed of boughs, and the people indulged in them to 
hospitality and mirth. The feasting of the saint’s day, how¬ 
ever, was soon abused ; and even in the body of the church, 
when the people were assembled for devotion, they began to 
mind diversions, and to introduce drinking. The growing 
intemperance gradually stained the service of the vigil, till 
the festivity of it was converted, as it now is, into the rigour 
of a fast. At length they too justly scandalized the Puri¬ 
tans of the seventeenth century, and numbers of the wakes 
were disused entirely, especially in the east and some western 
parts of England; though the order for abolishing them was 
reversed by the influence of Laud: but they are commonly 
observed in the north, and in the midland counties. 
This custom of celebrity in the neighbourhood of the 
church, on the days of particular saints, was introduced into 
England from the continent, and must have been familiar 
equally to the Britons and Saxons; being observed among 
the churches of Asia in the sixth century, and by those of 
the west of Europe in the seventh. 
WAKEFIELD (Gilbert), an eminent classical scholar, 
was the son of the Rev. George Wakefield, rector of St. 
Nicholas, Nottingham, and born in that town in the year 
1756. After a previous grammatical education, he was ad¬ 
mitted, in 1772, into Jesus College, in the university of Cam¬ 
bridge. Here he pursued his studies with an assiduity which 
established his reputation; and having taken his degree of 
B. A. in 1776, he was soon afterwards elected a fellow of 
his college. At this early period, he published a small col¬ 
lection of Latin poems, and a few critical notes on Homer. 
Having directed his particular attention to theological in¬ 
quiries, he began betimes to entertain doubts concerning the 
articles of the church, and though he took deacon’s orders 
in 1778, he reproached himself for complying with the pre¬ 
vious forms. He commenced his ministerial labours as a 
curate at Stockport, and thence, he removed to Liverpool, 
discharging the duties of his office with a suitable sense of 
their importance. Dissatisfied, however, with the doctrines 
and liturgy of the church, he determined to surrender his 
connection with it; and having married in 1779, he accepted 
an invitation to be classical tutor at the dissenting academy 
of Warrington, without avowing himself as a dissenter. 
Having in 1781 published his plan of a new version of 
the New Testament, with a specimen of the proposed work, 
he presented to the public, in 1782, “ A New Transla¬ 
tion of the Gospel of St. Matthew, with Notes critical, 
philological, and explanatory,” 4to., which was well received. 
Upon the dissolution of the academy at Warrington, he 
removed to Bramcote in Nottinghamshire, where he received 
private pupils; and here he published in 1784 the first 
volume of an “ Enquiry into the Opinions of the Christian 
Writers of the first Three Centuries concerning the Person 
of Jesus Christ,” 8vo., which was received in a manner that 
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discouraged him from pursuing his plan. Being disabled by 
the attack of disorder in one arm to undertake any literary 
performance that required any considerable exertion, he 
intermitted his constant occupations; till at length in 1789 
he commenced his “ Silva Critica, sive in Auctores sacros. 
prophanosque Commentarius Philologicus;” of which three 
parts appeared successively to the year 1795; the three first 
being issued from the Cambridge press. Mr. Wakefield, in 
1790, removed from Nottingham to Hackney, in order to 
assume the office of classical tutor in the dissenting college of 
that place, where his services where highly acceptable, till the 
publication of his “ Enquiry into the Expediency and Pro¬ 
priety of public or social Worship,” in 1791 ; which, being 
intended to justify the disuse of the public exercises of de¬ 
votion, occasioned a termination of his connection with that 
institution. From this time he employed himself in atten¬ 
tion to the instruction of his own family, and to several lite¬ 
rary works; the principal of which were his “ Translation 
of the New Testament, with Notes critical and explanatory,” 
3 vols. 8vo. 1792, of which a second edition appeared in 
1795, 2 vols, 8vo.; and “ Memoirs of his own Life,” 
published in the same year. His other productions were 
“ Evidences of Christianity,” and “ Replies to the Two 
Parts of Thomas Paine’s Age of Reasona volume of Pope’s 
Works, a volume of “ Notes on Pope,” and an edition of his 
version of the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer. His “ Silva 
Critica” was also enlarged to the 5th volume; and he pre¬ 
sented to the public editions of select “ Greek Tragedies,” 
of “ Homer,” “ Bion and Moschus,” “ Virgil,” and 
“ Lucretius,” in 3 vols. 4to., a work highly esteemed. 
Avowing himself an enemy to war in general, and to the 
war against France in particular, he published a pamphlet 
in 1798, entitled “ A Reply to some parts of the Bishop of 
Llandaff’s Address to the People of Great Britain,” which 
subjected him to a prosecution : this terminated in a trial and 
conviction in February, 1799. His sentence was imprison¬ 
ment for two years in the county gaol of Dorchester, His 
course of study was thus unfortunately interrupted, so that 
he could only prepare for the press “ Select Essays of Dio 
Chrysostom, translated into English from the Greek, with 
notes,” 1800, 8vo., and “ Noctes Carcerariae, sive de Legibus 
Metricis Poetarum Gragcorum, qui Versibus Hexainetris scrip- 
serunt, Disputatio,” 1801, 12mo.; and make collections for 
his proposed Lexicon, Greek and English. In May, 1801, 
he was liberated from his confinement; but on September 
the 9th of the same year, a typhus fever terminated his life, 
in his 46th year, to the grief of his family and the regret of 
numerous friends, by whom he was highly esteemed. 
The assiduity of his literary application, and the singular 
temperance of his habits, though they occasioned a seclu¬ 
sion from much of that social intercourse which was inte¬ 
resting to his family, and a degree of reserve in his own 
temper, enabled him, however, to acquire great reputation 
as a philological writer and critic during, comparatively, a 
short life, tinder this character, he resembled Bentley and 
Markland, being, like them, in his conjectural criticism, 
“ always learned, sometimes bold, and frequently happy.” 
Possessing a very retentive memory, his extensive reading 
furnished him with an ample store of passages for illustra¬ 
tion or parallel, of which he could avail himself as occasions 
occurred. With regard to his moral disposition and charac¬ 
ter, they were marked, as a biographer who knew him well 
has delineated them, “ by an openness, a simplicity, a good 
faith, an affectionate ardour, a noble elevation of mind, which 
made way to the hearts of all who nearly approached him, 
and rendered him the object of their warmest attachment.” 
The second edition of his “ Memoirs,” published after his 
death, contains a catalogue of all his works, several of which 
have been omitted in this concise account of his life and 
labours. A collection of letters between him and Mr. Fox, 
by whom he was highly esteemed, chiefly on subjects of 
Greek literature, has also been published. Memoirs Gen. 
Biog. 
WAKEFIELD, a large and well built town of England,, 
in the West Riding of Yorkshire, pleasantly situated on the 
side 
