Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/727

Rh W II W O T 685 Borbctomagiis, the name by which Worms was known in Roman times, seems to indicate a Celtic origin for the town. The modern name is usually connected with &quot;Vurm or Lindwurm, the German word for a dragon. Drusus is said to have erected a fort on the site of the town in 14 B.C. As a settlement of the Germanic tribe of the Vangiones, it existed under Roman protection till about the middle of the 5th century. The Burgundiana then took it and made it their capital, and its name appears in many of the heroic legends of that people. King Gun the r and Brunhilde held their court at Worms ; and here Sigfried wooed the fair Chriemhild. The &quot;Rosengarten,&quot; often mentioned in these legends, lay on the opposite bank of the Rhine. Under the Franconians this town was also important ; and it was a frequent residence of Charlemagne and his successors. The scene of the graceful though unhistorical romance of Eginhard and Emma, the daughter of Charlemagne, is laid at Worms. The first bishop of AVorms of whom anything authentic is known was Erembert (670), though an &quot; episcopus Vangionum &quot; is said to have attended a council at Cologne in 347. Worms seems to have thriven under the bishops, but the citizens invariably espoused the cause of the emperors against them, and were rewarded by privileges which fostered the trade of the town and eventually led to its recognition as a free imperial city. Worms was frequently visited by the imperial court, and won the proud title of &quot; Mother of Diets.&quot; The most famous diet was that held in 1521, at which Luther appeared to defend his doctrines before Charles V. Four years later the town formally embraced Protestantism. Worms preserved a tolerable prosperity even through the hardships of the Thirty Years War ; but in 1689 it was laid in ashes by the French, a blow from which it has never thoroughly recovered. The peace of Luneville annexed it in 1801 to France ; but in 1815 it passed to Hesse-Darmstadt, being then an unimportant town with 6250 inhabitants. WORSBROUGH, a township in the West Riding of Yorkshire, is situated on a branch of the Dearne and Dove Canal, and near several branch lines of the Manchester, (Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway, 9 miles north-west of Rotherham and 3 south of Barnsley. The church of St Mary, an interesting structure with remains of Norman work, but chiefly in the Transition Early English style, underwent restoration in 1864. It contains some old monuments and brasses. There are extensive collieries and gunpowder mills in the neighbourhood, and the town ship possesses iron and steel works and corn-mills. A short distance to the west is Wentworth Castle, built in 1730 by Thomas, earl of Strafford, on the site of an ancient fortress, and containing a large number of portraits of historical interest. The population of the urban sanitary district (3779 acres) was 6030 in 1871, and 8443 in 1881. WORSTED. See WOOL. WORTHING, a watering-place of Sussex, is situated on the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway, 61 miles south of London and 10 J west of Brighton. On account of its sheltered situation at the foot of the South Downs it has some reputation as a health-resort for pulmonary complaints. As a general sea-side resort it is increasing in favour, especially with the wealthier classes. There is a marine parade 1| mile in length, a long range of firm sands, and an iron promenade pier, 960 feet in length, constructed in 1882. A public park, 21 acres in extent, was opened in 1881. The churches and chapels are all modern. The other principal buildings are the town-hall (1834), a quadrangular structure with square clock tower, Montague hall, the literary institute, the workmen s insti tute, the infirmary and dispensary (1882), the Thomas Banting memorial convalescent home, the public baths, erected in 1886, Humphrey s almshouses, and Queen Elizabeth s almshouses. The mother parish of Worthing is Broadwater, the church of which, three-quarters of a mile north of Worthing, a cruciform building in the Transition style, has .some old monuments and brasses. The popu lation of the urban sanitary district (979 acres) was 7401 in 1871, and 10,976 in 1881. Pottery and other Roman remains have been found at Worthing. In Domesday the manor appears under the name of Ordinges, and consisted of eleven hides, or about 110 acres. In the reign of Edward I. it was valued at 100 shillings. It formed part of the endowment of the priory of Easebourne, near Midhurst, and at the Reformation was granted with other possessions to Henry Fitz- william, earl of Southampton. It afterwards passed through several hands to the earl of Warwick. It was of some importance in the reign of Edward III., who granted it the privilege of a market, but it declined to a poor fishing hamlet. Its rise as a watering place began about 1760, and after a visit of the Princess Amelia in 1797 it made rapid progress. WOTTON, SIR HENRY (1568-1639), an accomplished literary amateur, was one of the favourite diplomatists of James I. of England, although, following the quietistic habit of his family, he never would undertake employ ments of the greatest weight and difficulty. The seat of the family, which was founded in the 14th century by a lord mayor of London, was Bocton or Boughton Malherbe in Kent. It was, as described by Izaak Walton in his Life of Sir Henry, a typical English family of wealthy landed gentry, keeping up a connexion with the court, but avoiding the risks of factious ambition, often holding- offices of high trust, but always prudently declining the highest. Henry, the youngest of four sons, was sent to school at Winchester, and thence to Oxford (New College and afterwards Queen s). At the age of twenty-two, with a high academic reputation for wit and scholarship, he was sent abroad to complete his education, and spent eight years in France, Spain, and Germany, making acquaintance with men of learning as well as courtiers, a general favourite. Returning to England at the age of thirty, he sought political employment, and became one of the secretaries of Essex. On the fall of Essex he made his escape from England and took refuge at Florence, where he employed his leisure in writing a sketch of &quot; the state of Christendom.&quot; W hile he was at Florence the grand-duke discovered a plot against King James, and Wotton was sent to Scotland with the infor mation and a casket of antidotes. King James was so charmed with the emissary that on his accession to the English throne he at once offered Wotton ambassadorial employment. He might have had the embassy to Spain, but this he prudently declined, and chose instead the easier duty of managing relations with Venice and the German states. After twenty years of diplomatic service he craved and obtained the post of provost of Eton in 1624. He had studied and written not a little at odd times during his active life, and when he settled at Eton he intended to write a life of Luther ; but in this and other large lite rary projects he never got beyond the stage of collecting materials. In his fifteen years provostship he set an example of careful, dignified, and gracious supervision ; and his wit, wisdom, courtesy, and benignity are well represented in the Reliquix, Wottians:, published with Walton s Life in 1651. Two of his witticisms are im mortal, his definition of an ambassador as &quot; an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country,&quot; 1 and his advice to a young diplomatist to tell the truth, and so puzzle and confound his adversaries. He died in 1639. WOTTON, WILLIAM (1666-1726), is now remembered chiefly for his part in the famous &quot; Battle of the Books,&quot; but to his own generation his Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning was only one of many proofs of his extraordinary amount and variety of scholarship. Born in 1666, the son of an English clergyman, rector of Wrentham, in Suffolk, he was one of the. wonders of his age in precocity. He could translate from several languages at the age of five. He was under ten when he was sent to Cambridge, and he took the degree of B.A. at the age of twelve years and five months, having already created such a sensation by his linguistic attain ments that Latin poems were addressed to him as a prodigy. In the Battle of the Books he took a judicious middle course between the extreme champions, Fontenelle 1 The full story of tliis witticism is given in Walton s Life.