OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Almanack

* related portals: Almanacs.
* sister projects: Wikipedia article, Commons category, definition, Wikidata item.
Edition of 1802.
​ALMANACK, a term derived from two Arabic words, al and manack, a diary; and is, as its name imports, a tabie or register containing a calendar of days and months, the rising and setting of the sun, the age of the moon, and the eclipses of these luminaries. It is also used to foretel the change of seasons, the state of the weather, the ebb and flow of the tide, &c.
Almanacks are much esteemed by the superstitious Arabians, who never sow, reap, plant, travel, or, in short, undertake any enterprize, without consulting them. Since their introduction into Europe, about the middle of the fifteenth century, they have also been adopted in this country, where they generally are interspersed with a number of astrological rules and regulations. To these have been added, various astronomical, meteorological, chronological, political, and economical articles, but they are seldom selected with critical discernment, or adapted to moral and physical improvement.
A great number of such diaries are annually printed in Britain; and we understand, that of the celebrated Moore's Almanack, notwithstanding all the superstitious notions perpetuated in this popular book, not less than 400,000 copies are, every year, ushered into public notice.—It is, therefore, sincerely to be wished, that such publications as are addressed immediately to the bulk of the people, may in future be rendered the vehicles of more useful information. Hence we presume to remark, that an annual publication, conducted upon the plan of Poor Richard's Almanack, in Pennsylvania, would be attended with great advantages, both to the husbandsman and mechanic, in this country. The great Franklin, who is said to have edited that popular work for many years, furnished it with various sentences and proverbs, principally relating to subjects of industry, domestic economy, and frugality.
# Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Alms-Houses

* related portals: Poverty.
* sister projects: Wikipedia article, Commons category, definition, Wikidata item.
Edition of 1802.
​ALMS-HOUSES are asylums for the support and maintenance of a certain number of poor, aged, or infirm persons during their lives. When these institutions are of a private nature, and limited in their extent, they are certainly beneficial to society; yet it may on the whole be doubted, whether such public establishments, especially as they are generally managed under the absolute controul of rapacious trustees, do not in a great measure tend to relax the springs of industry, and encourage habits of indolence. For, by accustoming people rather to resort to eleemosynary sources, than exert their own strength and abilities, they cannot fail to degrade the moral feelings of human nature, and to destroy that independence which constitutes its noblest support.—See the articles Charity and Hospitals.
# Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Althæa officinalis

Edition of 1802.
​Althæa officinalis, L. See Marshmallow.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Walburga

​WALBURGA or WALPURGA (d. 779?), saint, abbess of Heidenheim, was the sister of Willibald [q. v.] and Wynnebald. Their legend calls them the children of a certain Richard, but the name is an impossible one. Boniface (680–755) [q. v.] wrote from Germany, asking that the two nuns Lioba and Walburga might be sent to him (Mon. Mogunt. ed. Jaffé, p. 490), and it is therefore supposed that Walburga was with Lioba at Wimborne, and that she went with her to Germany in 752. Legend, no doubt wrongly, makes Walburga accompany her brothers to Italy in 721. She was present at the death of her brother Wynnebald in 761 at Heidenheim (Holder-Egger, Mon. Ger. Scriptt. xv. 80), and was made abbess of that double monastery. She was living in or after 778, when an anonymous nun wrote lives of her brothers. These lives have been wrongly ascribed to Walburga herself, because the authoress was, like her, of English birth, a relative of the brothers, and a nun of Heidenheim. The writer refers to Walburga as one of her sources of information.
[Mon. Ger. Scriptores, xv. 80, 117, the best edition of the lives of Willibald and Wynnebald; Life of St. Walburga by a Monk, Wolfhard of Herrieden, written at the request of Erchimbald, bishop of Eichstädt (882–912), who removed the relics of Walburga from Eichstädt (whither they had been moved in 870) to Monheim, in 893, in Acta SS. Boll. Feb. iii. 523. There is a long list of lives in Chevalier's Répertoire. On the Walpurgis myth, see Rochholz, Drei Gaugöttinnen, Leipzig, 1870.]
M. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Walbran, John Richard

​WALBRAN, JOHN RICHARD (1817–1869), Yorkshire antiquary, son of John and Elizabeth Walbran, was born at Ripon, Yorkshire, on 24 Dec. 1817, and educated at Whixley in the same county. After leaving school he became assistant to his father, an iron merchant, and afterwards engaged in commerce on his own account as a wine merchant. From his early years he had a marked taste for historical and antiquarian studies, and all the time that he could spare from his avocation was occupied with archæological investigations, especially with respect to the ecclesiastical and feudal history of his native county. His study of the records of Fountains Abbey led him to make a speciality of the history of the whole Cistercian order. A paper by him ‘On the Necessity of clearing out the Conventual Church of Fountains,’ written in 1846, originated the excavations at Fountains Abbey, which were carried out under his personal direction. The first edition of his ‘Guide to Ripon’ was printed in 1844, and was succeeded by nine other editions in his life-time. His chief work, ‘The Memorials of the Abbey of St. Mary of Fountains’ (Surtees Soc. 1864–78, 2 vols.), was left unfinished. Another uncompleted work was his ‘History of Gainford, Durham,’ 1851. He also made some progress with a ‘History of the Wapentake of Claro and the Liberty of Ripon,’ and a ‘History of the Parish of Halifax.’ Although he had great literary ability, he had a singular dislike to the mechanical part of authorship—that connected with printing—and had it not been for the encouragement and technical assistance of his friend William Harrison, printer, of Ripon, few of his writings would have been printed.
Walbran was elected F.S.A. on 12 Jan. 1854, and in 1856 and 1857 filled the office of mayor of Ripon. In April 1868 he was struck with paralysis, and died on 7 April 1869. He was buried in Holy Trinity churchyard, Ripon.
He married, in September 1849, Jane, daughter of Richard Nicholson of Ripon, and left two sons, the elder of whom, Francis Marmaduke Walbran of Leeds, is the author of works on angling. Among Walbran's minor printed works are the following:
rials of Fountains.’
* ‘A Summer's Day at Bolton Abbey,’ 1847.
* ‘Visitors' Guide to Redcar,’ 1848.
* ‘On the Oath taken by Members of the Parliaments of Scotland from 1641,’ 1854.
* ‘Notes on the Manuscripts at Ripley Castle,’ 1864.
His manuscripts were after his death purchased by Edward Akroyd of Halifax, and presented by him to York Cathedral Library.
[Canon J. Raine's preface to Memorials of Fountains, 1878, vol. ii.; Memoir by Edward Peacock, F.S.A., in Walbran's Guide to Ripon, 11th edit. 1875; Ripon Millenary Record, 1892, ii. 175; portraits are given in the last two works.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Waldegrave, George Granville

​WALDEGRAVE, GEORGE GRANVILLE, second Baron Radstock (1786–1857), vice-admiral, eldest son of William Waldegrave, first lord Radstock [q. v.], was born on 24 Sept. 1786. In 1794 his name was placed on the books of the Courageux, commanded by his father, but he seems to have first gone to sea in 1798 in the Agincourt, his father's flagship at Newfoundland. After eight years' service, on 16 Feb. 1807 he was made a captain. From 1807 to 1811 he commanded the Thames in the Mediterranean, and from 1811 to 1815 the Volontaire in the Mediterranean, and afterwards on the north coast of Spain. During these eight years he was almost constantly engaged in preventing the enemy's coasting trade, in destroying coast batteries, or in cutting out and destroying armed vessels. After paying off the Volontaire, he had no further service. On 4 June 1815 he was nominated a C.B. On 20 Aug. 1825 he succeeded his father as Lord Radstock, and on 23 Nov. 1841 was made a rear-admiral. He became a vice-admiral on 1 July 1851, and died on 11 May 1857. He married, in 1823, Esther Caroline, youngest daughter of John Puget of Totteridge, a director of the bank of England, and left issue. His only son, ​Granville Augustus William, succeeded as third Baron Radstock. During the last forty years of his life Radstock took an active part in the administration of naval charities, and formed a curious and valuable collection of volumes and pamphlets relating to naval history. This was presented by his widow, Esther Lady Radstock, to the library of the Royal United Service Institution, where it now is.
[O'Byrne's Nav. Biogr. Dict.; Foster's Peerage.]
J. K. L.
# Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Fishing

* related portals: Angling.
* sister projects: Wikipedia article, Commons category, quotes, definition, textbook, travel guide, Wikidata item.
Edition of 1802.
​FISHING, the art of catching fish, whether by means of nets and spears, or of lines and hooks. The former are used in fresh and salt waters, for the taking of large fish, which go in shoals; the latter are employed for catching single ones, such as bream, carp, &c. to which we refer.—See also Angling.
The most important point in fishing, is the proper season, together with the place, bait, and mode of application.—In March, April, and September, the warmest days are the most successful for this sport, when the bait should be deep; for during those cool months the fish lie near the bottom. For fly-fishing, the most proper seasons are the months of April, May, or June, after a gentle shower of rain has beaten the insects down upon the water, without rendering it turbid; and the most promising hours are about nine or ten in the morning, and three or four o'clock in the afternoon; in still, warm evenings, however, fish will readily bite, till night approaches; because at those ​seasons gnats are flying in great numbers.
In the hot days of Midsummer, when the earth is parched up, little success can be expected in any water. Nor will fish bite during cold weather, unless the evenings be warm and serene. The north and east winds are particularly unfavourable to fishing, as well as tempestuous weather in general; but, if a gentle breeze prevail, it will considerably facilitate the operations of the angler. For farther particulars relative to the proper seasons, baits, lines, hooks, &c. for taking tish, we refer the reader to Isaac Walton's Complete Angler, 8vo. 1784, where he will find ample instructions, blended with considerable amusement.
Fishing-net, a contrivance of a reticular texture, thus denominated, as it is appropriated solely to the taking of fish.
These nets are in general made by the hand; but, as that method is necessarily tedious, and inadequate to supply the demand in populous fishing ports, Mr. J. W. Boswell, of Barnstaple, Devon, in the year 1795, invented a machine for the purpose of weaving nets, for which the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c. in 1796, conferred on him a premium of fifty guineas. His loom is calculated to make 68 meshes at the same time, and by the same motion, with a perfectly fast knot, which does not differ from those employed by fishermen:—nets thus manufactured have a complete selvedge, and are not liable to decay from the knots becoming loose, a circumstance of considerable importance to those employed in the fisheries. We regret that Mr. Boswell's ingenious machine is too complicated to give the reader a competent idea of its mechanism, without illustrating it by an engraving; and, as few persons in domestic life will attempt to make their own fishing-nets, we refer the curious reader to the 14th vol. of the Transactions of the Patriotic Society above mentioned, where he will find an ample description, together with a plate explaining the whole of the machinery.
# Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Fistula

Edition of 1802.
​FISTULA, in general, denotes any ulcerated and sinuous cavity, with callous and elevated edges, which extends to a carious bone.
This formidable disease is, according to the parts which it attacks, called either fistula lachrymalis, that is, a sinuous ulcer of the lachrymal sac or duct, beginning with a tumor between the inner cornea of the eye, and the side of the nose; or a fistula in perinæo, namely, an ulcer communicating with the urinary canal, but sometimes opening into the bladder; or fistula in ano, when the ulcer is in the vicinity of the rectum or straight-gut.—The first generally appears in ricketty children, or such as are subject to glandular obstructions; the second may arise from wounds in the bladder and of the urethra, from external violence, &c. but is most frequently ​occasioned by certain diseases with which voluptuaries are punished; and the last is produced by whatever tends to form matter about the anus, by piles, soft tumors, hardened feces, or in consequence of irritation and inflammation, terminating in suppuration.
It would be needless to enlarge upon the treatment of this complaint, the cure of which cannot be entrusted to unskilful hands; nay, medical and surgical advice are often inadequate to relieve the unhappy sufferer, especially from the last species of fistula, after an operation has been ineffectually performed. Indeed, the frequent unsuccessful attempts of the most experienced operators, have encouraged a degree of quackery in this malignant disease, which ought never to be submitted to dabblers; as the delay of proper advice cannot fail to be attended with fatal effects. Hence we think it necessary to caution the unwary against the insidious attempts of those eccentric impostors (particularly in the west end of the metropolis) who extort large sums of money from the unhappy patients, under the specious promise of curing a fistula, without cutting.
After the disorder has been suffered to prey upon the internal parts, and the bones in the vicinity have become affected, or carious, we venture to pronounce that it is incurable. But, if the patient be of a sound constitution, and has not neglected himself at the commencement of the malady, he may doubtless be cured by professional treatment, an appropriate diet, consisting of light and nutritive food, and abandoning every kind of stimulating and heating aliment, both in a liquid and solid state. Hence game, pork, wine, spirits, coffee, and spices, are here equally improper.—Lastly, we are inclined to believe, that the external use of living snails, or at least the expressed juice of them frequently applied to fistulous ulcers at their commencement (especially after completely laying open the sinus), will have an excellent effect in stopping the progress of the disease; and, by sufficient perservance, probably accomplish a cure. There are several well-attested cases, that this simple remedy has recently been found of excellent service in removing scrophulous ulcers, which had resisted every other mode of treatment.
# Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Flag 1

Edition of 1802.
​Flag: See Flower-de-Luce.
# Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Flail

Edition of 1802.
​Flail: See Threshing.
# Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Flag 2

Edition of 1802.
​FLAG, the Sweet, or Acorus calamus, L. an indigenous perennial plant, growing in shallow, standing waters, rivulets, and marshy places. It delights in an open situation, and might be transplanted into gardens, where it will thrive, if the ground be moist, and not shaded by trees; but unless it grow in water, it never produces flowers, which appear about the latter end of June, and continue till August.
The root of this vegetable has a very agreeable flavour, which greatly improves by drying. It is affirmed to possess carminative and stomachic virtues, having a warm, pungent, bitterish taste, and is frequently used as an ingredient in preparing bitters, though it is said to impart a nauseous flavour.
In the opinion of Linnæus, the powdered root of the sweet flag might supply the place of our foreign spices; and is the only genuine aromatic plant of cold climates. Other assert, that agues have been cured by it, after the Peruvian bark had failed. These roots are commonly imported from the Levant, but those reared in Britain are in no respect inferior. The fresh root candied, is used at Constantinople as a preservative against epidemic diseases.—See Gout.
According to Bechstein, the leaves may be employed for dispelling many noxious insects: hence we recommend them particularly against the moths infesting woollen cloth, and the destructive worms in books; for which purpose they might, every year, be replaced in the corners of drawers and shelves.—M. Bautsch has used the whole plant for tanning leather; and Dr. Böhmer remarks that the French snuff, called a-la-violette, probably receives its peculiar scent from this fragrant root.—Neither horses, cows, goats, sheep, nor hogs, will eat the herb or roots of this vegetable.
# Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Fits

Edition of 1802.
​Fits. See Convulsions; Epilepsy; Hysterics; and Spasms.
# Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Flannel

Edition of 1802.
​FLANNEL, a kind of light, porous, woollen stuff, woven on a loom with two treddles, in a manner similar to baize.
This is unquestionably one of the most useful articles of wearing apparel; and it is much to be regretted, that it is not more generally worn, as we are fully persuaded, that it would be the means of preventing many diseases.
The principal objection to the wearing of flannel appears to be, that it irritates the skin, and occasions disagreeable sensations: these, however, continue only for a few days, and the subsequent advantages, thence resulting, amply ​compensate for such temporary uneasiness. Both young and aged would derive from it equal advantages.—We do not, however, mean to insinuate, that flannel next the skin should be universally and indiscriminately worn by infants and young persons; though it is an ill-founded assertion of its adversaries, that it has a tendency to produce eruptions; as it evidently opens the pores, promotes perspiration, and thus removes the principal cause of cutaneous diseases that originate from an obstructed and irregular state of the skin.
There are, however, certain cases in which flannel cannot, with strict propriety, be used as an underdress. In order to enable the render to ascertain whether its constant use be advisable or not, we shall point out the leading circumstances which may, in this respect, influence his determination: it is a salutary dress to all those, in general, who have passed the meridian of life, or the 35th year of their age; though they should not have been accustomed to it from their infancy; to persons of a cold and phlegmatic habit, or leading a sedentary life; to such as are subject to fits of the gout, rheumatism, frequent colds and catarrhs; to individuals very susceptible of impressions connected with the vicissitudes of air, weather, and climate; as well as to nervous patients, and those who have recently recovered from severe chronical diseases.—On the contrary, the wearing of flannel next the skin may be injurious to constitutions so organized that they are liable to profuse perspiration, on taking even moderate exercise; or to those who are already afflicted with scorbutic or other eruptions of the skin; or, lastly, to all such irritable and whimsical persons as possess neither bodily nor mental vigour sufficient to overcome the first uneasy sensations which it occasions. But we are fully warranted to assert, from daily experience, that the habitual use of this beneficent texture, has essentially contributed to the recovery of numberless ricketty children, not less than to the saving of others who were born of feeble and enervated parents. In short, there is every reason to believe, that a more general adoption of this salutiferous cloth might prevent many fatal inflammations of the throat, breast, lungs; &c. to which the poorer class of people are remarkably liable; and thus preserve the lives of multitudes who now become a prey to our damp and variable climate.
# Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Latin/Cambogia

Edition of 1802.
​Cambogia gutta, Gamboge-tree.
# Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Latin/Cannabis

Edition of 1802.
​Cannabis sativa, Common Hemp.
# Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Latin/Betula

Edition of 1802.
​Betula, Alder-tree; B. alba, Common Birch; B. alnus, Common Alder-tree; B. lenta, Canada Birch; B. nana, Dwarf Alder-tree.
# Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Latin/Borago

Edition of 1802.
​Borago officinalis, CommonBorage.
# Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Latin/Balæna

Edition of 1802.
​Balæna mysticetus, Common Whale.
# Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Latin/Bunium

Edition of 1802.
​Bunium bulbo-castanum, Great Earth-nut; B. flexuosum, Common Earth-nut.
# Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Latin/Callitriche

Edition of 1802.
​Callitriche autumnalis, Autumnal Star-grass; C. verna, Vernal Star-grass.
# Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Latin/Barytes

Edition of 1802.
​Barytes, Ponderous Spar.
# Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Latin/Bromus

Edition of 1802.
​Bromus mollis, Soft Brome-grass; B. pinnatus, Spiked Heath Brome-grass; B. Secalinus, Smooth Rye Brome-grass.
# Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Latin/Carpinus

Edition of 1802.
​Carpinus Betulus, Common Horn-beam-tree.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Wigram, Woolmore

​WIGRAM, WOOLMORE (1831–1907), campanologist, the fifth son of ten children of Money Wigram (1790–1873), director of the Bank of England, of Manor Place, Much Hadham, Hertfordshire, and Mary, daughter of Charles Hampden Turner, of Rooks Nest, Godstone, Surrey, was born on 29 Oct. 1831 at Devonshire Place, London. His father was elder brother of Sir James Wigram [q. v.], of Joseph Cotton Wigram [q. v.], and of George Vicesimus Wigram [q. v.]. Of his brothers, Charles Hampden (1826–1903) was knighted in 1902, and Clifford (1828–1898) was director of the bank of England. Wigram entered Rugby school in August 1844, and matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1850, graduating B.A. in 1854 and proceeding M.A. in 1858. Among his intimate friends at Cambridge was John Gott, afterwards bishop of Truro [q. v. Suppl. II]. Taking holy orders in 1855, he was curate of Hampstead (1855–64), vicar of Brent Pelham with Furneaux Pelham, Hertfordshire (1864–76), and rector of St. Andrew's with St. Nicholas and St. Mary's, Hertford (1876–97). From 1877 to 1897 he was rural dean of Hertford, and in 1886 was made hon. canon of St. Albans, where he lived from 1898 till his death, and was an active member of the chapter. A high churchman, Wigram was long a member of the English Church Union.
Wigram was an enthusiastic campanologist, and became an authority on the subject. A series of articles in ‘Church Bells’ were published collectively in 1871 under the title of ‘Change-ringing Disentangled and Management of Towers’ (2nd edit. 1880).
In his earlier days Wigram was an enthusiastic Alpine climber. He was a member of the Alpine Club from 1858 to 1868. His most memorable feat was the first successful ascent, in the company of Thomas Stewart Kennedy (with Jean Baptiste Croz and Josef Marie Krönig as guides), of La Dent Blanche on 18 July 1862 (see his own account in Memoirs, 1908, pp. 81–95; T. S. Kennedy in Alpine Journal, 1864, i. 33–9: cf. Whymper's Scrambles amongst the Alps, chap. xiv.).
Wigram died from the effects of influenza at his residence in Watling Street, St. Albans, on 19 Jan. 1907, and was buried in St. Stephen's churchyard there. He married ​on 23 July 1863 Harriet Mary, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Ainger of Hampstead, and had issue four sons and three daughters.
[The Times, 22 Jan. 1907; Memoirs of Woolmore Wigram, 1831–1907, by his wife (with portrait), 1908.]
W. B. O.