Chapter Weller to West Indian of W by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Weller to West Indian

Weller (Samuel), boots at the White Hart, and afterwards servant to Mr. Pickwick, to whom he becomes devotedly attached. Rather than leave his master when he is sent to the Fleet, Sam Weller gets his father to arrest him for debt. His fun, his shrewdness, his comparisons his archness, and his cunning on behalf of his master, are unparalleled.

Tony Weller, father of Sam; a coachman of the old school, who drives a coach between London and Dorking. Naturally portly in size, he becomes far more so in his great-coat of many capes. Tony wears top-boots, and his hat has a low crown and broad brim. On the stagebox he is a king, elsewhere he is a mere greenhorn. He marries a widow, landlady of the Marquis of Granby, and his constant advice to his son is, “Sam, beware of the widders.”—Dickens: The Pickwick Papers (1836).

Wellington of Gamblers (The). Lord Rivers was called in Paris Le Wellington des Joueurs.

Wellington’s Horse, Copenhagen. It died at the age of 27.

Wemmick, the cashier of Mr. Jaggers the lawyer. He lived at Walworth. Wemmick was a dry man, rather short in stature, with square, wooden face. “There were some marks in the face which might have been dimples if the material had been softer.” His linen was frayed; he wore four mourning rings, and a brooch representing a lady, a weeping willow, and a cinerary urn. His eyes were small and glittering; his lips small, thin, and mottled; his age was between 40 and 50 years. Mr. Wemmick wore his hat on the back of his head, and looked straight before him, as if nothing was worth looking at. Mr. Wemmick at home and Mr. Wemmick in his office were two distinct beings. At home, he was his “own engineer, his own carpenter, his own plumber, his own gardener, his own Jack-of-all-trades,” and had fortified his little wooden house like commodore Trunnion (q.v.) and he called it his “castle.” His father (82 years of age) lived with him, and he called him “The Aged.” The old man was very deaf, but heated the poker with delight to fire off the nine-o’clock signal, and chuckled with joy because he could hear the bang. The house had a “real flagstaff,” and a plank which crossed a ditch some four feet wide and two feet deep was the drawbridge. At nine o’clock p.m. Greenwich time the gun (called “The Stinger”) was fired.

The piece of ordnance was mounted in a separate fortress, constructed of lattice-work. It was protected from the weather by an ingenious little tarpaulin contrivance in the nature of an umbrella.—Dickens: Great Expectations, xxv. (1860).

(This is a bad imitation of Smollett. In commodore Trunnion such a conceit is characteristic, but in a lawyer’s clerk not so. Still, it might have passed as a good whim if it had been original.)

Wenlock (Wild Wenlock), kinsman of sir Hugo de Lacy constable of Chester. His head is cut off by the insurgents.—Sir W. Scott: The Betrothed (time, Henry II.).

Wenonah, mother of Hiawatha and daughter of Nokomis. Nokomis was swinging in the moon, when some of her companions, out of j ealousy, cut the ropes, and she fell to earth “like a falling star.” That night was born her first child, a daughter, whom she named Wenonah. In due time Wenonah was wooed and won by Mudjekeewis (the west wind), and became the mother of Hiawatha. The false West Wind deserted her, and the young mother died.

Fair Nokomis bore a daughter,
And she called her name Wenonah.
   —Longfellow: Hiawatha, iii. 1855).

Wentworth (Eva), the beau-ideal of female purity. She was educated in strict seclusion. De Courcy fell in love with her, but deceived her; whereupon she died calmly and tranquilly, elevated by religious hope. (See Zaira.)—Maturin: Women (a romance, 1822).

Werburg (St.), born a princess. By her prayers she drove the wild geese from Weedon.

She falleth in her way with Weedon, where, ‘tis said,
St. Werburg, princely born—a most religious maid—
From those peculiar fields, by prayer the wild geese drove.
   —Drayton: Polyolbion, xxiii. 1622).