brother of Patrick Sarsfield, earl of Lucan. On the termination of her connexion with Charles II., Lucy Walter abandoned herself to a life of promiscuous immorality, which resulted in her premature death, at Paris, in 1658. Her name is often wrongly written Walters or Waters.
See Steinmann, Althorp Memoirs (1869), pp. 77 seq. and Addenda (1880); J. S. Clarke, Life of James II. (2 vols., 1816); Clarendon State Papers, vol. iii. (Oxford, 1869–1876); and John Evelyn, Diary, edited by W. Bray (1890).
WALTER OF COVENTRY (fl. 1290), English monk and chronicler, who was apparently connected with a religious house in the province of York, is known to us only through the historical compilation which bears his name, the Memoriale fratris Walteri de Coventria. The word Memoriale is usually taken to mean “commonplace book.” Some critics interpret it in the sense of “a souvenir,” and argue that Walter was not the author but merely the donor of the book; but the weight of authority is against this view.
The author of the Memoriale lived in the reign of Edward I., and mentions the homage done to Edward as overlord of Scotland (1291). Since the main narrative extends only to 1225, the Memoriale is emphatically a secondhand production. But for the years 1201–1225 it is a faithful
transcript of a contemporary chronicle, the work of a Barnwell canon. A complcte text of the Barnwell work is preserved in the College of Arms (Heralds’ College, MS. 10) but has never yet
been printed, though it was collated by Bishop Stubbs for his edition of the Memoriale. The Barnwell annalist, living in Cambridgeshire, was well situated to observe the events of the barons’ war, and is our most valuable authority for that important crisis.
He is less hostile to John than are Ralph of Coggeshall,
Roger of Wendover and Matthew Paris. He praises the king’s management of the Welsh and Scotch wars; he is critical in his
attitude towards the pope and the English opposition; he
regards the submission of John to Rome as a skilful stroke
of policy, although he notes the fact that some men called it
a humiliation.
The constitutional agitation of 1215 does not
arouse his enthusiasm; he passes curtly over the Runnymede conference, barely mentions Magna Carta, and blames the
barons for the resumption of war.
It may be from timidity that the annalist avoids attacking John, but it is more probable that the middle classes, whom he represents, regarded the designs of the feudal baronage with suspicion.
See W. Stubbs’s edition of Walter of Coventry (“Rolls” series, 2 vols., 1872–1873); R. Pauli, in Geschichte von England (Hamburg, 1853), iii. 872. (H. W. C. D.)
WALTERSHAUSEW, WOLFGANG SARTORIUS, Baron von (1809–1876), German geologist, was born at Göttingen, on the 17th of December 1809, and educated at the university in that city. There he devoted his attention to physical and natural science, and in particular to mineralogy. During a tour in 1834–1835 he carried out a series of magnetic observations in various parts of Europe. He then gave his attention to an exhaustive investigation of Etna, and carried on the work with some interruptions until 1843. The chief result of this undertaking was his great Atlas des Ätna (1858–1861), in which he distinguished the lava streams formed during the later centuries. After his return from Etna he visited Iceland, and subsequently published Physisch-geographische Skizze von Island (1847), Über die vulkanischen Gesteine in Sicilien und Island (1853), and Geologischer Atlas von Island (1853). Meanwhile he was appointed professor of mineralogy and geology at Göttingen, and held this post for about thirty years, until his death. In 1866 he published an important essay entitled Recherches sur les climats de l’époque actuelle et des epoques anciennes; in this he expressed his belief that the Glacial period was due to changes in the configuration of the earth’s surface. He died at Göttingen on the 16th of October 1876.
WALTHAM, a city of Middlesex county, Massachusetts,
U.S.A., on both banks of the Charles river, about 10 m. W. of
Boston. Pop. (1890) 18,707; (1900) 23,481, of whom 6695
were foreign-born; (1910 census) 27,834. Waltham is served
by the Boston & Maine railway, and by electric interurban lines
connecting with Boston, Lowell, Lexington, Watertown and
Newton. It is situated on a series of rugged hills rising from the
river. Prospect Hill (482 ft.) commands a magnificent view. A
tract of 100 acres, comprising this hill and an adjoining elevation,
has been set aside as a public park by the city; and there are
four playgrounds (total area, 6234 acres) and, in the centre of the
city, a large common. In Waltham are some 43 acres of the
Beaver Brook Reservation and 40 acres of the Charles River
Reservation of the Metropolitan park system; in the former are
the famous “Waverley Oaks.” The Gore Mansion, erected
towards the close of the 18th century by Christopher Gore
(1758–1829), a prominent lawyer and Federalist leader, governor
of Massachusetts in 1809–1810, and a member of the United
States Senate in 1814–1817, is a stately country house surrounded
by extensive grounds in which are fine old oaks and elms.
Above the city the Charles river is famous as a canoeing ground,
and there is an annual canoe carnival between Waltham and
Riverside, one of the most popular resorts in the neighbourhood
of Boston. The city has a good public library (about 35,000
volumes in 1910). Its principal buildings are a state armoury,
and the First Parish (Unitarian), Christ (Protestant Episcopal),
the Swedenborgian, the First Baptist and Beth Eden (Baptist)
churches. Waltham is the seat of the Massachusetts School
for the Feeble-minded (established in Boston in 1848), the first
institution of its sort in the country, and of the Waltham Training
School for Nurses (1885), the first school to undertake the
training of nurses for “day nursing” (outside of hospital wards)
on the present plan, of the Convent of Notre Dame and the Notre
Dame Normal Training School (Roman Catholic), of the New
Church School (New Jerusalem Church), of two business schools,
and the Waltham Horological School (1870), a school for practical
watchmaking and repairing; here also are the Waltham Hospital
(1885), the Baby Hospital (1902) and the Leland Home (1879)
for aged women. In 1905 the city’s factory product was valued
at $7,149,697 (21.4% more than in 1900). The largest single
establishment was that of the American Waltham Watch
Company, which has here the largest watch factory in the world,
with an annual production of about a million watches. Watch
and clock materials were valued at $123,885 in 1905. In 1905
cotton goods were second in value to watches; and third were
foundry and machine-shop products ($516,067) Other products
are automobiles, wagons and carriages, bicycles, canoes, organs
and enamelled work.
The first white settlement was made about 1640 and in 1691 became the Middle Precinct of Watertown. In 1738 the township of Waltham was separately organized. At various times it was increased in area, part of Cambridge being added in 1755 and part of Newton in 1849. In 1859 one of its precincts was set off to form part of the new township of Belmont. In 1884 Waltham was chartered as a city. The first power mill for the manufacture of cotton cloth in the United States was established here in 1814 as an experiment by the company which built the mills and the city of Lowell. Waltham became an important manufacturing city in the decade before the American Civil War, when the company which in 1853 made the first American machine-made watches moved hither from Roxbury and established the Waltham watch industry. This watch company, before the establishment of the U.S. Observatory at Washington and the transmission thence of true time throughout the country by electric telegraph, had an elaborate observatory for testing and setting its watches.
WALTHAM ABBEY, or Waltham Holy Cross, a market
town in the Epping parliamentary division of Essex, England, on the Lea, and on the Cambridge branch of the Great Eastern railway, 13 m. N. by E. from London. Pop. of urban district of Waltham Holy Cross (1901) 6549. The neighbouring county of the Lea valley is flat and unlovely, but to the E. and N.E. low hills rise in the direction of Hainault and Epping Forests. Of the former magnificent cruciform abbey church the only portion of importance now remaining is the nave, forming the present parish church, the two easternmost bays being converted into the chancel. It is a very fine soecimen of ornate Norman. Only the western supports of the ancient tower now remain. A tower corresponding with the present size of the church was
