W — Walnut Tree to Ward (Part 1 of 3)

Walnut Tree It is said that the walnut tree thrives best if the nuts are beaten off with sticks, and not gathered. Hence Fuller says, “Who, like a nut tree, must be manured by beating, or else would not bear fruit” (bk. ii. ch. 11). The saying is well known that-

“A woman, a spaniel, and a walnut tree,
The more you beat them the better they be.”
Taylor, the Water- Poet.

Walpurgis Night The eve of May Day, when the old pagan witch-world was supposed to hold high revelry under its chief on certain high places. The Brocken of Germany was a favourite spot for these revelries.
   Walpurgis was a female saint concerned in the introduction of Christianity into Germany. She died February 25th, 779.

“He changed hands, and whisked and rioted like a dance of Walpurgis in his lonely brain.”- J. S. Le Fanu: The House in the Churchyard, p. 109.

Walston (St.). A Briton who gave up all his wealth, and supported himself by manual husbandry. Patron saint of husbandmen; usually depicted with a scythe in his hand, and cattle in the background. Died mowing, 1016.

Walter Multon Abbot of Thornton-upon-Humber, in Lincolnshire, was immured in 1443. In 1722, an old wall being taken down, his remains were found with a candlestick, table, and book. Stukeley mentions the fact. In 1845 another instance of the same kind was discovered at Temple Bruer, in Lin colnshire.

Waltham Blacks (See Black Act .)

Walton An Izaak Wallon. One devoted to “the gentle craft” of angling. Izaak Walton wrote a book called The Complete Angler, or Contemplative Man's Recreation. (1655.)
    “Gentle” is a pun. Gentles are the larvae of flesh-flies used as bait in angling.

Walton Bridle (The). The “gossip's or scold's bridle.” One of these bridles is preserved in the vestry of the church of Walton-on-Thames. Iron bars pass round the head, and are fastened by a padlock. In front, a flat piece of iron projects, and, this piece of iron being thrust into the mouth, effectually prevents the utterance of words. The relic at Walton is dated 1633, and the donor was a person named Chester, as appears from the inscription:

“Chester presents Walton with a bridle
To curb women's tongues that talk too idle.”

    It is also called a “brank.” (Teutonic, pranque, “a bridle.”)

Wamba Son of Witless, and jester of Cedric “the Saxon,” of Rotherwood. (Sir Walter Scott: Ivanhoe.)

Wan means thin. (Anglo-Saxon, wan, “deficient”; our wane, as the “waning moon.”) As wasting of the flesh is generally accompanied with a grey pallor, the idea of leanness has yielded to that of the sickly hue which attends it. (Verb wan-ian, to wane.)

Wand The footman's wand. (See under Running Footmen .)

Wandering Jew
   (1) Of Greek tradition. Aristeas, a poet who continued to appear and disappear alternately for above 400 years, and who visited all the mythical nations of the earth.
   (2) Of Jewish story. Tradition says that Kartaphilos, the door-keeper of the Judgment Hall, in the service of Pontius Pilate, struck our Lord as he led Him forth, saying, “Go on faster, Jesus”; whereupon the Man of Sorrows replied, “I am going, but thou shalt tarry till I come again.” (Chronicle of St. Alban's Abbey; 1228.)
    The same Chronicle, continued by Matthew Paris, tells us that Kartaphilos was baptized by Ananias, and received the name of Joseph. At the end of every hundred years he falls into a trance, and wakes up a young man about thirty.
   Another legend is that Jesus, pressed down with the weight of His cross, stopped to rest at the door of one Ahasuerus, a cobbler. The craftsman pushed him away, saying, “Get off! Away with you, away!” Our Lord replied, “Truly I go away, and that quickly, but tarry thou till I come.” Schubert has a poem entitled Ahasuer (the Wandering Jew). (Paul von Eitzen; 1547.)
   A third legend says that it was Ananias, the cobbler, who haled Jesus before the judgment seat of Pilate, saying to Him, “Faster, Jesus, faster!”
   (3) In Germany the Wandering Jew is associated with John Buttadaeus, seen at Antwerp in