Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/365

Rh W A L W A L 341 been accustomed to go from court to court that it was apparently hard for him to live without the excitement of travel and adventure. In 1217 he was at the court of Duke Leopold of Austria, after whose departure for the Holy Land he appears to have been received first by the duke s uncle, Henry of Medlik, then by Berthold of Andechs, the patriarch of Aquileia. On the return of Duke Leopold Walther again spent some time with him ; but in 1220 he joined the retinue of the imperial vicar Engelbert of Cologne and Frederick II. s son, Henry, to whom he seems to have acted as tutor. In 1224 Walther retired to Wiirzburg, where, although living in privacy, he watched closely the course of public affairs. He may have taken part in the crusade of 1228, but he certainly did not reach Palestine. He died about 1230 at Wiirzburg, where, under a tree in the Laurence garden of the new minster, a stone was long pointed out as that which, according to tradition, marked his grave. A new monu ment to him was erected at Wiirzburg in 1843, and a statue of him was unveiled at Innsbruck in 1877. Walther von der Vogelweide was a poet not only of exquisite sensibility, but of a frank, independent, and manly character. He lived in a troubled age, when church and state were often in deadly conflict. In this struggle, in which he took keen interest, his sympathy was wholly with the imperial cause, and he did much to influence opinion by the vigour with which he attacked the extravagant pretensions of the papacy. While defending the rights of secular rulers, he did not forget their duties, and many of his verses considering the period to which they belong display a remarkably clear and .generous conception of the principles of humanity and freedom. In writing of love, the favourite subject of the minnesanger, he had all the brightness, freshness, and gaiety of the best of his contemporaries, and he excelled them in his deli cate appreciation of the noblest womanly qualities. His love of nature, especially in the season of spring, was an essential element of his intellectual and emotional life, and gives an enduring charm to the poems in which it is incidentally or indirectly expressed. He was a master of all the forms of verse used in Middle High German, and the perfection of his rhythm and diction, combined with the depth and wide range of his ideas, secures for him an enduring place in the front rank of the lyrical poets of his country. A critical edition of his poems was issued by Liichmann in 1827, and there have been later editions by Wackernagel, Rieger, and Pfeiffer. There are renderings into modern German by Simrock, Kocli, and Weiske. An admirable biography of the poet was written by Uliland (1822). Biographical and critical studies have also been written by Reuss, Rieger, Menzel, and Bose. WALTON, or WALTON-LE-DALE, a township of Lanca shire, is situated on the south bank of the Kibble, l miles south-east of Preston. The township includes the town of Walton-le-Dale, the villages of Bumber Bridge and Higher Walton, and several hamlets. The Kibble is crossed by a stone bridge of three arches erected in 1782, connecting Walton-le-L&amp;gt;ale with Preston. The church of St Leonard, situated on an eminence to the east of the town, was originally erected in the llth century. The earliest portions of the present building are the chancel and tower, in the Perpendicular style, the nave having been rebuilt in 1798, while the transepts were erected in 1816. The nave was re-pewed in 1855 and the chancel restored in 1864. There are a number of interesting old brasses and monuments. A working men s institute was built in 1881. Cotton-spinning is carried on, and there are market-gardens in the vicinity. The population of the urban sanitary district (area 4683 acres) was 8187 in 1871 and 9286 in 1881. Walton occupies the site of a Roman station, probably that of Coccium. The manor was granted by Henry de Lacy about 1130 to Robert Banastre. It afterwards passed by marriage to the Langtons, and about 1592 to the Hoghtons of Hoghton. Walton was the principal scene of the great battle of Preston, fought on the 17th August 1648 between Cromwell and the duke of Hamilton. In 1701 the duke of Norfolk, the earl of Derwentwater, and other Jacobites incorporated the town by the style of the &quot;mayor and corporation of the ancient borough of Walton.&quot; In 1715 the pass age of the Ribble was bravely defended against the Jacobites by Parson Woods and his parishioners. WALTON, or WALTON-ON-THE-HILL, a township of Lancashire, England, now practically a suburb of Liver pool, 3 miles north-east of the central station. It con sists largely of villas and the better class residences, but a considerable portion of the Parish Church district is occupied by labourers and artisans. The parish church, dedicated to St Mary, was originally founded in 1326, but has all been rebuilt within recent times, the nave in 1742, the chancel in 1810, and the embattled western tower in 1831-32. There are also situated within the township the West Derby union workhouse, erected in 1868 at a cost of 10,000; the borough prison, 1855, 1 80,000 (which, however, is by a special Act of Parlia ment included within the borough of Liverpool) ; and the county police station, 1885, &quot;8000. One of the attrac tions of Walton is Stanley Park, 100 acres in extent, opened in 1870 at a cost of 200,000. In the neigh bourhood are also the Liverpool parochial cemetery, the Anfield Park cemetery, and the Kirkdale cemetery. The population of the urban sanitary district (area 1907 acres) in 1871 was 6449, and in 1881 it was 18,536. The parish of Walton originally included Liverpool, which was separated from the mother church in 1699. At Domesday it was held by a Saxon named Winestan, and subsequently it was for some centuries in the possession of a family who took from it their name. The earl of Sefton is now lord of the manor. WALTON, BRIAN (1600-1661), bishop of Chester, and editor of the great London Polyglott Bible, was born at Seymour, in the district of Cleveland, Yorkshire, in 1600. He went to Cambridge as a sizar of Magdalene College in 1616, migrated to Peterhouse in 1618, was bachelor in 1619, and master of arts in 1 623. After holding a school master ship and two curacies he was in 1626 made rector of St Martin s Orgar in London (1626), where he took a leading part in the contest between the London clergy and the citizens about the city tithes, and compiled a treatise on the subject, which is printed in Brewster s Collectanea, 1752. His conduct in this matter displayed his ability, but his zeal for the exaction of ecclesiastical dues was remembered to his hurt in 1641 in the articles brought against him in parliament, which appear to have led to the sequestration of his very considerable preferments. 1 He was also charged with Popish practices, but on frivolous grounds, and with aspersing the members of parliament for the city. Up to this time he was perhaps more an active ecclesiastic than an eager student. In 1642 he was ordered into custody as a delinquent ; thereafter he took refuge at Oxford, and ultimately returned to London to the house of Dr Fuller, dean of Ely, whose daughter Jane was his second wife. In this retirement he planned and executed his great work, a Polyglott Bible which should be completer, cheaper, and provided with a better critical apparatus than any previous work of the kind (see POLY GLOTT). The proposals for the Polyglott appeared in 1652, and the book itself came out in six great folios in 1657, having been printing for five years. England had at this time a band of Biblical and Oriental scholars of unusual distinction, and Walton could reckon among his active helpers Usher, Lightfoot, and Pococke, Castle, Wheelock, and Patrick Young, Hyde, Thomas Greaves, and others of less note. The great undertaking was supported by liberal subscriptions, and Walton s political opinions did not de prive him of the help of the Commonwealth ; the paper used was freed from duty, and the interest of Cromwell in the work was acknowledged in the original preface, part of which was afterwards cancelled to make way for more loyal expressions towards that restored monarchy under which Oriental studies in England immediately began to languish. To AValton himself, however, the Reformation 1 He was from January 1635-36 rector of Sandon, in Essex, where his first wife, Anne Claxton, is buried. He appears to have also been a prebendary of St Paul s, and for a very short time he had held the rectory of St Giles in the Fields.