Chapter Western to Whist of W by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Western to Whist

Western (Squire), a jovial, fox-hunting country gentleman, supremely ignorant of book-learning, very prejudiced, selfish, irascible, and countrified; but shrewd, good-natured, and very fond of his daughter Sophia.

Philip, earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, was in character a squire Western, choleric, boisterous, illiterate, selfish, absurd, and cowardly.—Osborne: Secret History, i. 218.

Squire Western stands alone; imitated from no prototype, and in himself an inimitable picture of ignorance, prejudice, irascibility, and rusticity, united with natural shrewdness, constitutional good humour, and an instinctive affection for his daughter.—Encyclopœdia Britannica (article “Fielding”).

Sophia Western, daughter of squire Western. She becomes engaged to Tom Jones the foundling.—Fielding: Tom Jones (1749).

There now are no squire Westerns, as of old;
And our Sophias are not so emphatic,
But fair as them [
   —Byron: Don Juan, xiii. 110 (1824).

Westlock (John), a quondam pupil of Mr. Pecksniff (“architect and land surveyor”). John Westlock marries Ruth, the sister of Tom Pinch.—Dickens: Martin Chuzzlewit (1843).

Westminster Abbey of Denmark (The), the cathedral of Roeskilde, some sixteen miles west of Copenhagen.

N.B.—The tradition is that St. Peter himself dedicated the church, and announced to a fisherman that he (Peter), patron of fishermen, had done so. Sibert had asked Militus (the first bishop of London) to perform the ceremony, but St. Peter anticipated him. Edward the Confessor, who rebuilt the abbey, testifies the truth of legend.

I am Peter, keeper of the keys of heaven. When Militus arrives to-morrow, tell him what you have seen, and show him the token that I have consecrated my own church of St. Peter, Westminster.—Recited by Edward the Confessor in his new charter. (See Notes and Queries, January 25, 1896, p. 65)

Westmoreland, according to fable, is West-Mar-land. Mar or Marius, son of Arviragus, was king of the British, and overthrew Rodric the Scythian in the north-west of England, where he set up a stone with an inscription of this victory, “both of which remain to this day.”— Geoffery British History, iv. 17 (1142).

Westward Hoe, a comedy by Thomas Dekker (1607). The Rev. Charles Kingsley published a novel in 1854 entitled Westward Ho! or The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. (See EASTWARD HOE, p. 311.)

Wetheral (Stephen), surnamed “Stephen Steelheart,” in the troop of lord Waldemar Fitzurse (a baron following prince John).—Sir W. Scott: Ivanhoe (time, Richard I.).

Wetherell (Elizabeth), Miss Susan Warner, authoress of The Wide Wide World (1852), Queechy (1853), etc.

Wetzweiler (Tid) or Le Glorieux, the court jester of Charles “the Bold” duke of Burgundy.—Sir W. Scott: Quentin Durward (time, Edward IV.).

Whachum, journeyman to Sidrophel. He was Richard Green, who published a pamphlet of base ribaldry, called Hudibras in a Snare (1667).

A paltry wretch he had, half-starved,
That him in place of zany served,
Hight Whachum.
   —S. Butler: Hudibras, ii. 3 (1664).

Whally Eyes, i.e. Whale-like eyes. Spenser says that “Whally eyes are a sign of jealousy.”—Faërie Queene, I. iv. 24 (1590).