Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 62.djvu/351

 lege, Cooper's Hill. He was superannuated in 1889, and died on 18 Nov. 1891, leaving a widow and four sons. A pension on the civil list was granted to his widow in 1893, in consideration of his eminence as a mathematician, a petition having been signed by a great number of members of the Cambridge senate.

Wolstenholme was part author with the Rev. Percival Frost of a ‘Treatise on Solid Geometry,’ 1863 (later editions omit his name). He also published ‘A Book of Mathematical Problems on Subjects included in the Cambridge Course,’ 1867 (2nd edit. much enlarged, in 1878); and ‘Examples for Practice in the Use of Seven-figure Logarithms,’ 1888.

‘Wolstenholme,’ says Dr. Forsyth, Sadlerian professor of pure mathematics at Cambridge, ‘was the author of a number of mathematical papers, most of which were published in the “Proceedings” of the London Mathematical Society. They usually were concerned with questions of analytical geometry, and they were marked by a peculiar analytical skill and ingenuity. But, considerable as were the merits of some of these papers, his fame rests chiefly upon the wonderful series of original mathematical problems which he constructed upon practically all the subjects that entered into the course of training of students of twenty-five or thirty years ago. They are a product characteristic of Cambridge, and particularly of Cambridge examinations; he was their most conspicuous producer at a time when their vogue was greatest. When gathered together from many examination papers so as to form a volume, which was considerably amplified in its later edition, they exercised a very real influence upon successive generations of undergraduates; and “Wolstenholme's Problems” have proved a help and a stimulus to many students. A collection of some three thousand problems naturally varies widely in value, but many of them contain important results, which in other places or at other times would not infrequently have been embodied in original papers. As they stand they form a curious and almost unique monument of ability and industry, active within a restricted range of investigation.’

[Information from his sister, Mrs. Wolstenholme Elmy; the registers of St. John's and Christ's Colleges, Cambridge.] 

WOLTON, JOHN (1535–1594), bishop of Exeter. [See .]

WOLVERTON, second. [See, 1824-1887.]

WOMBWELL, GEORGE (1778–1850), founder of Wombwell's menageries, was born at Maldon in Essex in 1778, and as a young man kept a cordwainer's shop in Monmouth Street, Soho. About 1804 he bought as a speculation two boa-constrictors for 75l. In three weeks he more than cleared his expenses by exhibiting them, and next year he set to work to form a menagerie which he built up until it became by far the finest travelling collection in the kingdom. He travelled mainly from one large fair to another, and many stories are told of his rivalries with Atkins and other menagerie owners, especially in connection with Bartholomew Fair, of which moribund institution he was one of the last upholders. Much interest was excited in July 1825 by a ‘match’ arranged at Warwick between Wombwell's large lion Nero and six dogs of the bull-and-mastiff breed; but ‘the lovers of brutal sports were disappointed of their banquet,’ for Nero refused to fight, and when he was replaced by a smaller lion, Wallace, the dogs who survived the first few seconds of the encounter could not be induced to face their enemy again (, Brit. Chronology, s.a. 1825, 26 July); Wombwell displayed ‘a disgusting picture of the fight outside his show.’ At Croydon one year Wombwell startled the frequenters of the fair by announcing the exhibition of a ‘bonassus,’ which turned out to be a bison; the pride of the show in 1830 was the ‘Elephant of Siam.’ He was very successful in breeding carnivorous animals, and became the proprietor of over twenty lions. His caravans are stated to have numbered forty, and he had a fine stud of 120 drayhorses. The cost of maintenance of his three ‘monstre menageries’ was estimated at over 100l. a day, the payment for turnpike tolls alone forming a heavy item of expenditure. Wombwell died of bronchitis on 16 Nov. 1850 at Northallerton, where his show (which he followed to the last in a special travelling carriage) was then exhibiting. His remains were conveyed to his house in the Commercial Road, London, and buried at Highgate in the presence of an enormous concourse of people. He left a widow and a daughter, Mrs. Barnescombe, wife of an army accoutrement maker, who had long taken a part in the business, and who took over his No. 1 menagerie; a second went to his nephew, George Wombwell, junior, and a third to his niece, Mrs. Edmonds.

Wombwell took the keenest interest in the welfare of the animals. ‘No one probably did more,’ said the ‘Times,’ ‘to forward practically the study of natural history