Chapter Walnut Tree to Ward of W by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

the thirteenth century, again in the fifteenth, and a third time in the sixteenth. His last appearance was in 1774 at Brussels. Signor Gualdi about the same time made his appearance at Venice, and had a portrait of himself by Titian, who had been dead at the time 130 years. One day he disappeared as mysteriously as he had come. (Turkish Spy, vol. ii.)
   (4) The French call the Wandering Jew Isaac Laquedem, a corruption of Lakedion. (Mitternacht Diss. in Jno. xxi. 19; 1640.)
   Wandering Jew. Salathiel ben Sadi, who appeared and disappeared towards the close of the sixteenth century, at Venice, in so sudden a manner as to attract the notice of all Europe. Croly in his novel called Salathiel, and Southey in his Curse of Kehama, trace the course of the Wandering Jew, but in utter violation of the general legends. In Eugèe Sue's Le Juif Errant, the Jew makes no figure of the slightest importance to the tale.
   The Wandering Jew. Alexandre Dumas wrote a novel called Isaac Laquedem.
   Sieur Emmerch relates the legend.
   Ed. Grenier has a poem on the subject, La Mort du Juif Errant, in five cantos.
   Halevy has an opera on the same subject, words by Scribe.
   Doré has illustrated the legend.

Wandering Willie or Willie Steenson. The blind fiddler who tells the tale of Redgauntlet. (Sir Walter Scott. Redgauntlet.

Wandering Wood in book i. of Spenser's Faërie Queene, is where St. George and Una encounter Error, who is slain by the knight. Una tries to persuade the Red Cross knight to leave the wood, but he is self- willed. Error, in the form of a serpent, attacks him, but the knight severs her head from her body. The idea is that when Piety will not listen to Una or Truth, it is sure to get into “Wandering Wood,” where Error will attack it, but if it listens then to Truth it will slay Error.

Wans Dyke Sir Richard Colt Hoare tells us, was a barrier erected by the Belgae against the Celts, and served as a boundary between these tribes. Dr. Stukeley says the original mound was added to by the Anglo-Saxons when they made it the boundary-line of the two kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex. It was also used by the Britons as a defence against the Romans, who attacked them from the side of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire.
   In its most perfect state it began at Andover, in Hampshire, ran through the counties of Berkshire, Wiltshire, and Somersetshire, and terminated in the “Severn Sea” or Bristol Channel. It was called Wodenes Dyke by the Saxons, contracted into Wondes-dyke, and corrupted to Wans-dyke, as Wodenes-daeg is into Wednes-day. (See Wats Dyke.)

Want or Went. A road. Thus “the four-want way,” the spot where four roads meet. Chaucer uses the expression “a privie went” (private road), etc.

Wants meaning “gloves.” According to the best Dutch authorities, the word is a corruption of the French gant, Italian guanto, our “gauntlets.”

“Wanten are worn by peasants and working people when the weather is cold. They are in shape somewhat like boxing-gloves, having only a thumb and no fingers. They are made of a coarse woollen stuff”- Teding von Berkhout: Letter from Breda.

Wantley (See Dragon .)

Wapentake A division of Yorkshire, similar to that better known as a hundred. The word means “toucharms,” it being the custom of each vassal, when he attended the assemblies of the district, “to touch the spear of his overlord in token of homage.” Victor Hugo, in his novel of L'Homme qui Rit, calls a tipstaff a “wapentake.” (Anglo-Saxon, wapen, arms; tacan, to touch.)

Wapping Great means astonishingly great. (Anglo-Saxon, wafian, to be astonished; wafung, amazement.) A “wapper” is a great falsehood.

War of the Meal-sacks After the battle of Beder, Abu Sofian summoned two hundred fleet horsemen, each with a sack of meal at his saddle-bow (the scanty provision of an Arab for a foray), and sallied forth to Medina. Mahomet went forth at the head of a superior force to meet him, and Abu Sofian with his horsemen, throwing off their mealsacks, fled with precipitation.

War of the Roses (See Roses .)