WALPOLE. 
550 
WALNEY ISLAND, an island of England in the north 
part of Lancashire. It is ten miles in length, but hardly one 
in breadth. It serves as a kind of bulwark to the hundred 
of Furness, against the waves of the Irish sea. It has two or 
three small villages, and a chapel. It abounds with sea gulls, 
and is frequently almost inundated by the tides. The south 
end is about 16 miles west-north-west from the mouth of the 
Lune. Lat. 54. 3. N. long. 3. 10. W. 
WA'LNUT, s. [jtalh hnuca, Saxon; nu.vjuglans, Lat.] 
A tree and a fruit. 
’Tis a cockle, or a walnut- shell; 
A knack, a toy. Shakspcare. 
WALNUT, a township of the United States, in Peckaway 
county, Ohio. Population 759.—2. A township of Fair- 
field county, Ohio. Population 694. 
WALNUT, a small river of North America, which enters 
the Scioto from the east. 
WALNUT, Big, a river of the United States, in Ohio, 
which rises in Delaware county, and joins the Scioto, about 
10 miles below Columbus. 
WALNUT BRANCH, a post village of the United States, 
in Fauquier county, Virginia. 
WALNUT COVE, a post village of the United States, in 
Campbell county, Tennessee. 
WALNUT CREEK, a river of the United States, in 
Ohio, which runs into the Scioto; 10 miles below Chilli- 
cothe. 
WALNUT GROVE, a post village of the United States, 
in St. Clair county, Illinois.—2. A post village of Mercer 
county, Kentucky. 
WALNUT HILL, a post village of the United States, in 
Greenville district. South Carolina. 
WALNUT HILLS, a post village and fort of the United 
States, in Warren county, Mississippi, on the Mississippi ; 12 
miles south of the mouth of the Yazoo, and 134 miles above 
Natchez. The name is derived from a mountainous ridge. 
WALOON, or Walloon, a kind of old French; being 
the language spoken by the Walloons, or the inhabitants 
of a considerable part of the French and Austrian Low 
Countries; viz. those of Artois, Hainault, Namur, Luxem¬ 
burg, and part of Flanders and Brabant. 
The Waloon is held to be the language of the ancient 
Gauls, or Celts. 
The Romans, having subdued several provinces in Gaul, 
established praetors, or proconsuls, &c. to administer justice 
in the Latin tongue. On this occasion, the natives were 
brought to apply themselves to learn the language of their 
conquerors; and thus they introduced abundance of the 
Roman words and phrases into their own tongue. 
Of this mixture of Gaulish and Latin was formed a new 
language, called Romans; in contradistinction to the ancient 
unadulterated Gaulish, which is called Waloon or Walloon. 
This distinction is kept up to this day ; for the inhabitants 
of several of the Low-Country provinces say, that in France 
they speak Romans, whereas they speak the Walloon, which 
comes much nearer the simplicity of the ancient Gaulishs 
WALOUGA, a small sea-port of Whidah, in Western 
Africa ; 10 miles south of Sabi. 
WALPO, a smalltown ofSclavonia; 14 miles west-by¬ 
north of Essek. 
WALPO TARO, a rock in the Spanish Main, near the 
Mosquito shore. Lat. 14. 13. N. long. 82. 40. W. 
WALPOLE (Robert), earl of Orford, the third son of 
Robert Walpole, Esq., was born at Houghton in Norfolk, 
the seat of his father, in August, 1676, received his prepara¬ 
tory instruction at Eton, and completed his course of edu¬ 
cation at King’s college, Cambridge; being distinguished at 
school for his talents tor public speaking, and at the univer¬ 
sity by the ardour of his attachment to Whig principles. He 
died March 18th, 1745, aged 69 years. For his public 
character, &c. see the article England, vol. vi. 
WALPOLE (Horace), lord Orford, the youngest son of 
the preceding nobleman, was born in 1718, and educated 
first at Eton and afterwards at King’s college, Cambridge, 
where he wrote “ Verses in memory of King Henry VI.*’ 
dated in 1738. Having been nominated on leaving the 
university to some patent sinecure places, he commenced his 
tour to the continent in 1739, in which he was accompanied 
by Gray, from whom he parted, as he candidly acknow¬ 
ledges, by his own fault, and to whom in 1744 he was re¬ 
conciled. His most intimate friend, however, was his na¬ 
tural cousin, general Seymour Conway, to whom he was 
attached from his youth, and with whom he corresponded 
from 1740 to 1795, the year of the general’s death. His first ap¬ 
pearance in parliament was in 1741, as a representative for 
Callington. But more attached to literature and the arts than 
to the occupations of public life, and unambitious of obtaining 
any emoluments besides those which his places afforded him, 
or any rank and station connected with political pursuits, he 
rather chose to retire from the world than to take an active 
part in parliamentary business. On all occasions, however, 
he manifested his steady adherence to those Whig principles 
which he had imbibed from his youth, and his conduct as a 
member of the legislature was always pure and independent. 
Having, in 1748, purchased a small house at Twickenham, 
called Strawberry-hill, he devoted his time and attention to 
the improvement of it in the Gothic style of architecture; 
and to the furnishing of it with such a collection of books, 
pictures, and other specimens of the fine arts, as made it a 
very desirable place of resort in the vicinity of the metro¬ 
polis, and he gratified the public curiosity and taste by ap¬ 
propriating three hours a day in the summer months for the 
accommodation of visitors. In this singular and interesting 
mansion, he amused himself with the cultivation and exer¬ 
cise of his literary talents by contributing some papers to a 
periodical publication, entitled “ The World;” by his 
“ Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors,” printed by his own 
press; and by a collection of his “ Fugitive Pieces;” by his 
“ Anecdotes of Painting in England,” published in 1761, in 
2 vols. 4to., to which he afterwards added two more volumes; 
by a political pamphlet on general Conway’s dismission from 
the army for his vote in parliament on general warrants, 
which appeared in 1764; and tale of the “ Castle of Otranto,” 
published in 1765. During his visit at Paris in 1765, he pro¬ 
voked the resentment of the irritable Rousseau, by address¬ 
ing to him a letter in the name of the king of Prussia, ex¬ 
posing his vanity and self-conceit. This letter was after¬ 
wards printed, and led Rousseau to suspect, that this was 
part of a concerted plan to ruin his reputation, and that 
Hume and the French philosophers had contrived it for this 
purpose. Walpole was justly censured for the part he took 
in this business; nor could his best friends vindicate him 
for the contemptuous treatment with which he treated those 
who were authors by profession. In 1767 Walpole with¬ 
drew from public business, and declined a return for the 
borough of Lynn in the ensuing parliament. Soon after¬ 
wards he published his “ Historic Doubts on the Life 
and Reign of King Richard III.” In 1768, he printed, 
at his own press, his tragedy of the “ Mysterious Mother 
and about the same time he was concerned in the transac¬ 
tions that occurred between him and the unfortunate Chat- 
terton. In 1791, the death of his nephew elevated him to 
the rank and title of Earl of Orford; but this circumstance 
requiring some change in his fixed habits, gave him rather 
uneasiness than satisfaction. Towards the close of his life 
he was much afflicted with a constitutional gout, by which 
lie was much debilitated; and yet he attained to his 79th 
year, quietly expiring in March, 1797. His printed and MS. 
writings, of which an edition was published in 1798, in 5 
vols. 4to., were bequeathed to Robert Berry, Esq. and his 
two daughters. A posthumous work, viz., “ Letters from the 
Hon. Horace Walpole, Esq., to George Montague, Esq., from 
the Year 1736 to 1770,” royal 4to., has been published. 
Although Horace Walpole, as to the habits of his life, was 
more inclined to personal enjoyment than to social inter¬ 
course, his disposition was affectionate, and he was occa¬ 
sionally generous to his friends. Although he was not pro¬ 
foundly learned, he encouraged literature and the arts by his 
own writings, and by various domestic arrangements and 
conveniences 
