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 Ray in 1649. Willughby graduated B.A. in 1655–6, and proceeded M.A. in 1659.

In 1660 Willughby spent a short time at Oxford in order to consult some rare works in the libraries there; and in the preface to his ‘Catalogus Plantarum circa Cantabrigiam,’ published in that year, Ray alludes to help received from Willughby and to his success in the study of insects. In a letter to him, dated 1659, Ray asks for his help, for Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire, towards a catalogue of British plants (Correspondence of John Ray, Ray Soc., p. 1). In 1661 Willughby did not accompany Ray on the second botanical journey described in ‘Mr. Ray's Itineraries,’ published in his ‘Remains’ in 1760, though in the notes and in Derham's ‘Life of Ray’ he is stated to have done so, the naturalist's companion being Philip Skippon (op. cit. p. 3), but in May and June 1662 he did accompany Ray on his third journey from Cambridge through the northern midland counties and Wales. He appears to have parted company from him in Gloucestershire, to have chanced upon a find of Roman coins near Dursley, and to have fallen ill at Malvern (op. cit. p. 5). Willughby was at this time much interested in mathematical questions, as appears from two letters of his, dated March 1662 and October 1665, to Barrow, published by Derham in the ‘Philosophical Letters’ (1718). Barrow dedicated to him and others his edition of ‘Euclid,’ and is recorded in Cole's manuscripts to have said ‘that he never knew a gentleman of such ardor after real learning and knowledge, and of such capacities and fitness for any kinde of learning.’

It must have been at this time that, as Ray afterwards told Derham (Memorials of Ray, p. 33), he and Willughby ‘finding the “History of Nature” very imperfect … agreed between themselves, before their travels beyond sea, to reduce the several tribes of things to a method, and to give accurate descriptions of the several species from a strict view of them. And forasmuch as Mr. Willughby's genius lay chiefly to animals, therefore he undertook the birds, beasts, fishes, and insects, as Mr. Ray did the vegetables.’ Ray, having been deprived of his fellowship in August 1662 by the operation of the Act of Uniformity, he and Willughby determined to go abroad, and left Dover for Calais on 18 April 1663, accompanied by Philip (afterwards Sir Philip) Skippon and Nathaniel Bacon, two of Ray's pupils. On 22 May Willughby was included in the original list of fellows of the Royal Society, which had been incorporated on 22 April. War with France compelled the travellers to turn aside into Flanders, after which they traversed Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Sicily, and Malta. In August 1664 Willughby parted from the others at Montpelier, and accompanied a merchant into Spain. His journey is summarised in a letter to Ray, written from Paris in December (Corresp. of Ray, p. 7). Many of the travellers' papers were lost on their return journey; but Ray published their ‘Observations. … Whereunto is added a brief Account of Francis Willughby, esq., his Voyage through a great part of Spain,’ in 1673, and many of Willughby's specimens of birds, fishes, fossils, dried plants, and coins are still at Wollaton Hall.

Recalled to England by the death of his father in December 1665, Willughby was kept at Middleton Hall during much of 1666; but on 22 July, in company with Robert Hooke and others, he observed the eclipse of the sun through Boyle's 60-foot telescope in London (Phil. Trans. 9 Sept. 1666). In October of that year Dr. John Wilkins [q. v.] wrote asking his assistance in drawing up tables of animals for his ‘Essay towards a Real Character,’ which was published in 1668; and Ray spent the greater part of the following winter at Middleton, as he says in a letter to Martin Lister, ‘reviewing, and helping to put in order, Mr. Willughby's collections … in giving what assistance I could to Dr. Wilkins in framing his tables of plants, quadrupeds, birds, fishes, &c., for the use of the universall character’ (Memorials of Ray, p. 17); in the dedication of his work, however, Wilkins acknowledges his indebtedness to Willughby in respect of animals, and to Ray only in respect of plants. From June to September 1667 Willughby and Ray made a tour into the south-west of England (ib. p. 21); but Willughby's marriage in 1668 temporarily suspended their collaboration. Ray was, however, re-established at Middleton Hall in September 1668, and in the following spring the two friends carried out some important experiments on the rise of sap in trees (Phil. Trans. iv. 963). In the autumn of 1669 Willughby sent letters to the Royal Society on the ‘cartrages’ of rose leaves made by leaf-cutting bees. In 1671 he wrote on the same subject and on ichneumon wasps, and from a letter from Ray to Lister in 1670 he seems to have added considerably to the latter's list of English spiders (Corresp. of Ray, p. 60). At the close of 1671 Willughby meditated a journey to America to ‘perfect his history of animals;’ but his health, never robust, failed him. He was taken seriously ill in


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 108 to him, and made the bargain in this way, that he should take the butcher a measure of turnip-seed, and then the butcher was to count him out a Brabant thaler for every seed. I call that well sold! The peasant now went home, and carried the measure of turnip-seed to him on his back. On the way, however, he lost one seed out of the bag. The butcher paid him justly as agreed on, and if the peasant had not lost the seed, he would have had one thaler the more. In the meantime, when he went on his way back, the seed had grown into a tree which reached up to the sky. Then thought the peasant, "As thou hast the chance, thou must just see what the angels are doing up there above, and for once have them before thine eyes." So he climbed up, and saw that the angels above were threshing oats, and he looked on. While he was thus watching them, he observed that the tree on which he was standing, was beginning to totter; he peeped down, and saw that some one was just going to cut it down. "If I were to fall down from hence it would be a bad thing," thought he, and in his necessity he did not know how to save himself better than by taking the chaff of the oats which lay there in heaps, and twisting a rope of it. He likewise snatched a hoe and a flail which were lying about in heaven, and let himself down by the rope. But he came down on the earth exactly in the middle of a deep, deep hole. So it was a real piece of luck that he had brought the hoe, for he hoed himself a flight of steps with it, and mounted up, and took the flail with him as a token of his truth, so that no one could have any doubt of his story.

113.—THE TWO KINGS' CHILDREN.

was once on a time a King who had a little boy of whom it had been foretold that he should be killed by a stag when he was sixteen years of age, and when he had reached that age the huntsmen once went

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 June 1672, and died at Middleton Hall on 3 July 1672. He was buried in Middleton church, his tomb being surmounted by a bust and bearing a Latin epitaph, probably by Ray. There is also a marble bust of him in Trinity College Library, Cambridge, and an oil portrait at Wollaton, from which that by Lizars in Sir William Jardine's ‘Naturalist's Library’ was engraved. The genus Willughbeia, an important group of Malayan rubber plants, was dedicated to him by William Roxburgh [q. v.] The leaf-cutting bee described by him bears his name as ‘Megachile Willubuella.’

Willughby married, in 1668, Emma, second daughter and coheiress of Sir Thomas Bernard, by whom he had three children, Francis, Cassandra, and Thomas. Francis, born in 1668, was created a baronet in 1676, no doubt as an honour to his father's memory, but died in 1688. Cassandra married James Brydges, first duke of Chandos [q. v.]; and Thomas, who succeeded to the baronetcy in 1688, was created Baron Middleton in December 1711, being one of the batch of peers created in one day under Harley and St. John; he died in 1729. Mrs. Willughby in 1676 married Sir Josiah Child [q. v.]

Ray was one of five executors of Willughby's will, under which he received an annuity of sixty pounds. Until 1676 he acted as tutor to the children of his friend, and, from letters printed in his ‘Correspondence’ (pp. 101, 103), he seems soon to have decided that it was his duty to publish what Willughby had done towards his history of animals. ‘Viewing,’ he says, ‘his manuscripts after his death, I found the several animals in every kind, both birds, and beasts, and fishes, and insects, digested into a method of his own contriving, but few of their descriptions or histories so full and perfect as he intended them; which he was so sensible of that when I asked him upon his deathbed whether it was his pleasure they should be published, he answered that he did not desire it, nor thought them so considerable as to deserve it … though he confest there were some new and pretty observations on insects. But considering that the publication of them might conduce somewhat to the illustration of God's glory … the assistance of those who addict themselves to this part of philosophy, and .. the honour of our nation … he not contradicting, I resolved to publish them and first took in hand the Ornithology’ (Preface to The Ornithology of Francis Willughby, 1678). This was published in 1676 as ‘Francisci Willughbeii … Ornithologiæ libri tres in quibus aves omnes … in methodum naturis suis convenientem … describuntur … Totum opus recognovit, digessit, supplevit Joannes Raius. Sumptus in chalcegraphos fecit illustriss. D. Emma Willughby vidua,’ London, pp. 312, fol. Of this work Neville Wood says Willughby was ‘the first naturalist who treated the study of birds as a science, and the first who made anything like a rational classification … His system … is without doubt the basis on which the ornithological classification of Linnæus is founded’ (Ornithologist's Text-book, pp. 3, 4). Ray next prepared an enlarged edition of this work in English, which he published in 1678 as ‘The Ornithology of Francis Willughby …’ his own share in which is described by the words, ‘translated into English and enlarged with many additions throughout the whole work. To which are added three considerable discourses: I. On the Art of Fowling. II. Of the Ordering of Singing Birds. III. Of Falconry,’ London (pp. 448, fol.) On 18 Feb. 1684 Ray, then settled at Black Notley, Essex, writes to Sir Tancred Robinson [q. v.] that he had extracted out of Willughby's papers, ‘revised, supplied, methodized, and fitted for the press,’ the ‘Ichthyology.’ The Willughby family not assisting in the publication of this work, as they had in the case of the former, it was issued at the expense of Bishop Fell and the Royal Society, various fellows of the society bearing the cost of the copperplate illustrations, and the work being printed at the Oxford University Press under the title of ‘Francisci Willughbeii … de Historia Piscium libri quatuor … Totum opus recognovit, coaptavit, supplevit, librum etiam primum et secundum integros adjecit Johannes Raius … Oxonii,’ 1686 (pp. 373, fol.) In the last year of his life Ray resolved to complete Willughby's ‘History of Insects,’ but, at Dr. Tancred Robinson's suggestion, preceded it by his ‘Methodus Insectorum,’ published in 1705, just after his death. In August 1704 he wrote to Dr. Derham of the larger work: ‘The main reason which induces me to undertake it is because I have Mr. Willughby's history and papers in my hands, who had spent a great deal of time and bestowed much pains upon this subject … and it is a pity his pains should be lost … I rely chiefly on Mr. Willughby's discoveries and the contributions of friends; as for my own papers on the subject they are not worth preserving.’ The ‘Historia Insectorum’ was published in 1710 as ‘auctore Joanne Raio,’ edited by Derham for the Royal Society; but it abounds throughout with acknowledgments of indebtedness to Willughby, expressed in terms of the highest


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 with him. In the forest, the King's son was separated from the others, and all at once he saw a great stag which he wanted to shoot, but could not hit. At length he chased the stag so far that they were quite out of the forest, and then suddenly a great tall man was standing there instead of the stag, and said, "It is well that I have thee, I have already ruined six pairs of glass skates with running after thee, and have not been able to get thee." Then he took the King's son with him, and dragged him through a great lake to a great palace, and then he had to sit down to table with him and eat something. When they had eaten something together the King said, "I have three daughters, thou must keep watch over the eldest for one night, from nine in the evening till six in the morning, and every time the clock strikes, I will come myself and call, and if thou then givest me no answer, to-morrow morning thou shalt be put to death, but if thou always givest me an answer, thou shalt have her to wife."

When the young folks went to the bed-room there stood a stone image of St. Christopher, and the King's daughter said to it, "My father will come at nine o'clock, and every hour till it strikes three; when he calls, give him an answer instead of the King's son." Then the stone image of St. Christopher nodded its head quite quickly, and then more and more slowly till at last it stood still. The next morning the King said to him, "Thou hast done the business well, but I cannot give my daughter away, thou must now watch a night by my second daughter, and then I will consider with myself, whether thou canst have my eldest daughter to wife, but I shall come every hour myself, and when I call thee, answer me, and if I call thee and thou dost not reply, thy blood shall flow." Then they both went into the sleeping-room, and there stood a still larger stone image of St. Christopher, and the King's daughter said to it, "If my father calls, do you answer him." Then the great stone image of St. Christopher again nodded its head quite quickly and then more and more slowly, until at last it stood still again. And the King's son lay down on the threshold, put his hand under his head and slept.


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 deference. There seems little reason to class Ray's posthumous ‘Synopsis Methodica Avium et Piscium,’ published in 1713, among works mainly due to the labours of Willughby; but when we remember the intimate friendship of the two men, their undoubted collaboration in the tables prepared for Dr. Wilkins's work, and the definite statements as to his own share in the work made by Ray, a man of unquestionable modesty, we recognise that it is futile to attempt to apportion the credit. When Sir James Edward Smith writes ‘we are in danger of attributing too much to Mr. Willughby, and too little to’ Ray (Linnean Transactions, vol. i.), he errs only in a less degree than does Swainson in saying that ‘all the honour that has been given to Ray, so far as concerns systematic zoology, belongs exclusively to’ Willughby.

[Memoir by Joshua Frederick Denham in Sir W. Jardine's Naturalist's Library, vol. xvi.; authorities cited.]  WILLUGHBY, PERCIVALL (1596–1685), writer on obstetrics, was sixth son of Sir Percivall Willughby, knt., of Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire, where he was born in 1596. Francis Willughby [q. v.] was his nephew. Percivall was educated at Trowbridge, Rugby, Eton, and Oxford, where he matriculated from Magdalen College on 23 March 1620–1, his age being given as twenty-two, and graduated B.A. on 6 July 1621.

In 1619 he was, at the suggestion of his uncle Robert Willughby, himself a medical man, articled for seven years to Feamer van Otten, after which he was to have joined his uncle; but Van Otten dying in 1624, Willughby soon after commenced practice for himself, and in 1631 he settled in Derby, where he married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Francis Coke of Trusley, by whom he had two or three sons and two daughters.

On 20 Feb. 1640–1 he was admitted an extra licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians. In 1655 he removed to London ‘for the better education of his children,’ but in 1660 he returned to Derby, where he resumed his practice as a physician, enjoying a high reputation throughout the neighbouring counties for his skill in obstetric operations. He deprecated the use of the crotchet, and, Chamberlen's secret of the forceps not having been as yet divulged, he endeavoured to overcome all difficulties by turning. At one period he was to some extent assisted by a daughter, whom he had trained as a midwife to ladies of the higher classes. He was a man of high culture, powerful intellect, and great modesty, scorning the secrecy which some of his contemporaries maintained as to their procedures; and though he committed to writing the conclusions at which he arrived after long years of study and observation, revising and transcribing the manuscripts in English and in Latin, he seems to have hesitated to the last at their publication, as if sensible of the want of some really scientific instrument (the forceps) for the perfection of his art. The earliest copy of his work is a closely written quarto, entitled ‘Dni Willougbaei, Derbiensis, De Puerperio Tractatus,’ in the British Museum Sloane MS. 529. The second, an amplification of this, and referred to by Dr. Denman in his ‘Practice of Midwifery,’ was then in the possession of his friend Dr. Kirkland; while the third and greatly enlarged edition consisted of two exquisitely written copies in Latin and in English, which were quite recently the property of the late Dr. J. H. Aveling, the English version being in two parts, with the titles ‘Observations in Midwifery’ and ‘The Countrey Midwife's Opusculum or Vade-mecum, by Percivall Willughby, Gentleman.’ It was privately printed in 1863 by Henry Blenkinsopp, but a Dutch translation had been printed as an octavo at Leyden in 1764, though no copy is now to be had in Holland. He was the intimate friend of Harvey and of most of the scientific men of the century, and died on 2 Oct. 1685, in the ninetieth year of his age, being buried in St. Peter's Church at Derby, where within the rails of the chancel is a tablet to his memory.

[Munk's Coll. of Phys.; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Sloane MS. 529.]  WILLYAMS, COOPER (1762–1816), topographer and artist, born in June 1762, probably at Plaistow House, Essex, was the only son of John Willyams (1707–1779), commander R.N., by his wife, Anne Goodere, daughter of Sir Samuel Goodere, and first cousin of Samuel Foote [q. v.] He was educated at the King's school, Canterbury, where he was contemporary with Charles Abbott, first lord Tenterden, Bishop Marsh, and Sir S. E. Brydges. In 1789 he preached the annual sermon before the King's School Feast Society (, Canterbury School, p. 24).

Willyams was entered in October 1780 at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and graduated B.A. in 1784 and M.A. in 1789. In the spring of 1784 he was in France with his friend Montagu Pennington [q. v.], and in that year he was ordained to a curacy near Gloucester, where his mother lived.


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 He was appointed in 1788 to the vicarage of Exning, near Newmarket, and in 1793 to the rectory of St. Peter, West Lynn, Norfolk. An illustrated account of Exning by him appeared in the ‘Topographer’ for September 1790 (iii. 192–4), and he furnished other illustrations to that periodical (iii. 256, 391, iv. 17, 59). He contributed to ‘Topographical Miscellanies’ (1792) a view of Kirtling Hall, near Newmarket. He resigned the benefice of Exning in 1806.

In early life Willyams had imbibed a love of the sea, and on 24 Nov. 1793 he started as chaplain of the Boyne to the West Indies, in the expedition under the command of Lieutenant-general Sir Charles Grey and Vice-admiral Sir John Jervis. Through deaths from yellow fever the ranks of the officers were much thinned; he himself suffered from it, and during the latter part of the campaign was the only chaplain in the expedition. The French soldiers at Fort St. Charles, Guadeloupe, surrendered on 22 April 1794, and Willyams was appointed chaplain to the English troops in that island, but the ministry at home would not confirm the appointment. He published in 1796, with illustrations, ‘An Account of the Campaign in the West Indies in 1794;’ a German translation of it came out at Leipzig in 1800. Some details of this war were inserted from his ‘comprehensive and circumstantial Account’ in Bryan Edwards's ‘History of the West Indies’ (1891, iii. 444 et seq.).

Willyams became in 1797 domestic chaplain to Earl St. Vincent, and from 24 May 1798 he served as chaplain of the Swiftsure (Captain Hallowell), a vessel in the squadron under the command of Nelson. He was present in this vessel at the battle of the Nile, and his narrative, which was full of engravings from his own drawings, of ‘A Voyage up the Mediterranean in the Swiftsure,’ contained ‘the first, the most particular, and the most authentic account of the battle.’ A German version was published at Hamburg in 1803. After the death of Willyams there appeared in 1822 a volume containing ‘A Selection of Views in Egypt, Palestine, Rhodes, Italy, Minorca, and Gibraltar, with descriptions in English and French.’

Willyams landed at Portsmouth on 10 Sept. 1800, and stayed some weeks with Brydges, who in 1806 appointed him to the rectory of Kingston, near Canterbury. In the same year he was nominated by the lord chancellor, through the influence of Lord St. Vincent, to the neighbouring rectory of Lower Hardress, which he at once exchanged for that of Stourmouth. These two benefices together produced an income of over 1,000l. per annum. He died at Bernard Street, Russell Square, London, on 17 July 1816. He is said to have been buried at Fulham, near his sister, Beata Willyams (d. 1791). He married at Cheltenham, on 20 July 1801, Elizabeth Rebecca, third daughter of Peter Snell. They had four children. Willyams was a clever artist. His journals and drawings of the expeditions in which he took part are ‘intelligent and useful.’ Another work by him was ‘A History of Sudeley Castle’ (1791, folio), with an illustration of the ruins, dedicated to Brydges. It was reprinted in octavo form, and without the view, at Cheltenham in 1803. Poems by Brydges referring to Willyams are in ‘Censura Literaria’ (iv. 79–100, viii. 87, 91), and are reproduced in his ‘Ruminator’ (i. 5, 209).

[Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub. ii. 891–2; Boase's Collect. Cornub. p. 1271; Gent. Mag. 1779 p. 104, 1797 i. 50, ii. 1137, 1801 ii. 672, 1806 ii. 1240, 1809 ii. 1171, 1810 ii. 91, 1816 i. 91, 184; Brydges's Autobiogr. i. 44–6, 147–9; Annual Biogr. i. 604–6 (by Brydges); Faulkner's Fulham, p. 116; Reuss's Alphabetical Reg. of Authors, 1804; Letters of Mrs. Carter (1817), iii. 216.]

WILLYMAT, WILLIAM (d. 1615), author, was probably a native of Cheshire. In 1585 he was presented to the rectory of Ruskington in Lincolnshire by Thomas Howard (afterwards Earl of Suffolk) [q. v.] In 1603, with the king's consent, he published a volume of extracts from James I's ‘Basilikon Doron,’ which he rendered into Latin and English verse and entitled ‘A Prince's Looking-Glasse, or a Prince's Direction, very requisite and necessarie for a Christian Prince. … Printed by Iohn Legat, Cambridge,’ 4to. The work was dedicated to Henry, prince of Wales, for whose benefit the ‘Basilikon Doron’ had been written. Encouraged by the favourable reception of his compilation, he published a companion volume in 1604 entitled ‘A Loyal Svbiect's Looking-Glasse, or a Good Subiect's Direction necessary and requisite for euery Good Christian … at London, printed by G. Elde for Robert Boulton,’ 4to. This work was also dedicated to Prince Henry. Willymat enforced by precepts drawn from ancient and modern writers the subject's duty of obedience to his rulers. He devoted a large portion of his book to rebuking reluctance in paying subsidies and customs, asserting that the subject's only lawful remedy lay in ‘the compassion, pity, and bountifulnesse of the king, prince, &c., in pardoning and remitting the same.’ In 1605 he published a third treatise of a religious nature, which shows literary ability of a high order. It was entitled ‘Physicke to


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 133.—THE SHOES THAT WERE DANCED TO PIECES.

was once upon a time a King who had twelve daughters, each one more beautiful than the other. They all slept together in one chamber, in which their beds stood side by side, and every night when they were in them the King locked the door, and bolted it. But in the morning when he unlocked the door, he saw that their shoes were worn out with dancing, and no one could find out how that had come to pass. Then the King caused it to be proclaimed that whosoever could discover where they danced at night, should choose one of them for his wife and be King after his death, but that whosoever came forward and had not discovered it within three days and nights, should have forfeited his life. It was not long before a King's son presented himself, and offered to undertake the enterprise. He was well received, and in the evening was led into a room adjoining the princesses' sleeping-chamber. His bed was placed there, and he was to observe where they went and danced, and in order that they might do nothing secretly or go away to some other place, the door of their room was left open.

But the eyelids of the prince grew heavy as lead, and he fell asleep, and when he awoke in the morning, all twelve had been to the dance, for their shoes were standing there with holes in the soles. On the second and third nights it fell out just the same, and then his head was struck off without mercy. Many others came after this and undertook the enterprise, but all forfeited their lives. Now it came to pass that a poor soldier, who had a wound, and could serve no longer, found himself on the' road to the town where the King lived. There he met an old woman, who asked him where he was going. "I hardly know myself," answered he, and added in jest, "I had half a mind to discover where the princesses danced their shoes into holes, and thus become King." "That is not so difficult," said the old woman, "you must not drink the wine which will be brought to you at night, and must pretend to be sound asleep." With that she


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 gave him a little cloak, and said, "If you put on that, you will be invisible, and then you can steal after the twelve." When the soldier had received this good advice, he went into the thing in earnest, took heart, went to the King, and announced himself as a suitor. He was as well received as the others, and royal garments were put upon him. He was conducted that evening at bed-time into the ante-chamber, and as he was about to go to bed, the eldest came and brought him a cup of wine, but he had tied a sponge under his chin, and let the wine run down into it, without drinking a drop. Then he lay down and when he had lain a while, he began to snore, as if in the deepest sleep. The twelve princesses heard that, and laughed, and the eldest said, "He, too, might as well have saved his life." With that they got up, opened wardrobes, presses, cupboards, and brought out pretty dresses; dressed themselves before the mirrors, sprang about, and rejoiced at the prospect of the dance. Only the youngest said, "I know not how it is; you are very happy, but I feel very strange; some misfortune is certainly about to befall us." "Thou art a goose, who art always frightened," said the eldest. "Hast thou forgotten how many Kings' sons have already come here in vain? I had hardly any need to give the soldier a sleeping-draught, in any case the clown would not have awakened." When they were all ready they looked carefully at the soldier, but he had closed his eyes and did not move or stir, so they felt themselves quite secure. The eldest then went to her bed and tapped it; it immediately sank into the earth, and one after the other they descended through the opening, the eldest going first. The soldier, who had watched everything, tarried no longer, put on his little cloak, and went down last with the youngest. Half-way down the steps, he just trod a little on her dress; she was terrified at that, and cried out, "What is that? who is pulling at my dress?" "Don't be so silly!" said the eldest, "you have caught it on a nail." Then they went all the way down, and when they were at the bottom, they were standing in a wonderfully pretty avenue of trees, all the leaves of which were of silver, and shone and glistened. The soldier thought, "I must carry a token away with me," and


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 broke off a twig from one of them, on which the tree cracked with a loud report. The youngest cried out again, "Something is wrong, did you hear the crack?" But the eldest said, "It is a gun fired for joy, because we have got rid of our prince so quickly." After that they came into an avenue where all the leaves were of gold, and lastly into a third where they were of bright diamonds; he broke off a twig from each, which made such a crack each time that the youngest started back in terror, but the eldest still maintained that they were salutes. They went on and came to a great lake whereon stood twelve little boats, and in every boat sat a handsome prince, all of whom were waiting for the twelve, and each took one of them with him, but the soldier seated himself by the youngest. Then her prince said, "I can't tell why the boat is so much heavier to-day; I shall have to row with all my strength, if I am to get it across." "What should cause that," said the youngest, "but the warm weather? I feel very warm too." On the opposite side of the lake stood a splendid, brightly-lit castle, from whence resounded the joyous music of trumpets and kettle-drums. They rowed over there, entered, and each prince danced with the girl he loved, but the soldier danced with them unseen, and when one of them had a cup of wine in her hand he drank it up, so that the cup was empty when she carried it to her mouth; the youngest was alarmed at this, but the eldest always made her be silent. They danced there till three o'clock in the morning when all the shoes were danced into holes, and they were forced to leave off; the princes rowed them back again over the lake, and this time the soldier seated himself by the eldest. On the shore they took leave of their princes, and promised to return the following night. When they reached the stairs the soldier ran on in front and lay down in his bed, and when the twelve had come up slowly and wearily, he was already snoring so loudly that they could all hear him, and they said, "So far as he is concerned, we are safe." They took off their beautiful dresses, laid them away, put the worn-out shoes under the bed, and lay down. Next morning the soldier was resolved not to speak, but to watch the wonderful


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 goings on, and again went with them. Then everything was done just as it had been done the first time, and each time they danced until their shoes were worn to pieces. But the third time he took a cup away with him as a token. When the hour had arrived for him to give his answer, he took the three twigs and the cup, and went to the King, but the twelve stood behind the door, and listened for what he was going to say. When the King put the question, "Where have my twelve daughters danced their shoes to pieces in the night?" he answered, "In an underground castle with twelve princes," and related how it had come to pass, and brought out the tokens. The King then summoned his daughters, and asked them if the soldier had told the truth, and when they saw that they were betrayed, and that falsehood would be of no avail, they were obliged to confess all. Thereupon the King asked which of them he would have to wife? He answered, "I am no longer young, so give me the eldest." Then the wedding was celebrated on the self-same day, and the kingdom was promised him after the King's death. But the princes were bewitched for as many days as they had danced nights with the twelve.

134.—THE SIX SERVANTS.

former times there lived an aged Queen who was a sorceress, and her daughter was the most beautiful maiden under the sun. The old woman, however, had no other thought than how to lure mankind to destruction, and when a wooer appeared, she said that whosoever wished to have her daughter, must first perform a task, or die. Many had been dazzled by the daughter's beauty, and had actually risked this, but they never could accomplish what the old woman enjoined them to do, and then no mercy was shown; they had to kneel down, and their heads were struck off. A certain King's son who had also heard of the maiden's beauty, said to his father, "Let me


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 ment, for which he was committed to the Tower on 14 June 1641, and expelled from the house on 9 Dec. following (Commons' Journals, ii. 175, 337; Report on the Duke of Portland's MSS. i. 18;, Ordinances, 1643, pp. 216–20).

Wilmot joined the king in Yorkshire when the civil war began, commanded a troop of horse, and held the posts of muster-master and commissary-general (, Army Lists, p. 16; Old Parliamentary History, xi. 260). Clarendon blames him for not preventing the relief of Coventry in August 1642 (ib. xi. 397;, Rebellion, v. 446 n.) He was wounded in the skirmish at Worcester on 23 Sept. 1642, and commanded the cavalry of the king's left wing at the battle of Edgehill (ib. vi. 44, 85). Wilmot captured the town of Marlborough in December 1642, but his greatest exploit during the war was the crushing defeat he inflicted on Sir William Waller (1597?–1668) [q. v.] at Roundway Down, near Devizes, on 13 July 1643 (ib. vi. 156, vii. 115;, History of Marlborough, p. 160). In April 1643 Wilmot was appointed lieutenant-general of the horse in the king's army, and on 29 June 1643 he was created Baron Wilmot of Adderbury in Oxfordshire (, Oxford Docquets, pp. 26, 53). Clarendon describes Wilmot ‘as an orderly officer in marches and governing his troops,’ while also very popular with his officers on account of his good fellowship and companionable wit. The comparison, after the manner of Plutarch, between Wilmot and Goring is the most amusing passage in the ‘History of the Rebellion’ (viii. 169). Extremely ambitious and perpetually at feud with the king's civil counsellors, Wilmot was specially hostile to Lords Digby and Colepeper. Prince Rupert, on the other hand, cherished a personal animosity to Wilmot, and Charles I had no great liking for him (ib. vi. 126, vii. 121, viii. 30, 94). In 1644 these different causes led to Wilmot's fall. During the earlier part of the campaign the absence of Rupert and the infirmities of the Earl of Brentford made him practically commander-in-chief of that part of the army which was with the king. According to Clarendon he neglected military opportunities and spent his energy in cabals. At Cropredy Bridge, however, on 29 June Wilmot again defeated Sir William Waller. In the battle he was wounded and taken prisoner, but was rescued again almost immediately (ib. viii. 65;, Historical Discourses, p. 33; Diary of Richard Symonds, p. 23). After this success the king marched into Cornwall in pursuit of the Earl of Essex, where Wilmot recommenced his intrigues. The king, he was reported to have said, was afraid of peace, and the only way to end the war was to set up the Prince of Wales, who had no share in the causes of these troubles. A private message which he sent to Essex by the bearer of an official letter from the king to the parliamentary commander roused suspicion that he was endeavouring by the concerted action of the two generals to impose terms on the king and parliament, and on 8 Aug. he was arrested and deprived of his command. He also lost his joint presidency of Connaught, to which he had been appointed in April 1644, succeeding his father in that office, and as second Viscount Wilmot of Athlone (, Liber Mun. Hibernicorum, ii. 189, 190;, Cont. Hist. vol. i.). His popularity, however, with the officers of the royal army, who petitioned the king on his behalf, prevented any further proceedings against him, and he was released and allowed to retire to France (ib. pp. 106–10;, p. 57; , Rebellion, viii. 96). At Paris in October 1647 Wilmot fought a duel with his old enemy, Lord Digby, and was slightly wounded (, Original Letters, i. 63, 146, 159).

When Charles II succeeded his father Wilmot became one of the new king's chief advisers. He was appointed a gentleman of the bedchamber on 3 April 1649, and consulted on questions of policy, though not a member of the privy council (Baillie Letters, iii. 88;, Original Letters, i. 339). He accompanied Charles to Scotland, attached himself to the Marquis of Argyll's faction, and was allowed to stay in the country when other English royalists were expelled. Rumour credited him with betraying the king's design to join Middleton and the Scottish royalists in October 1650 (, Historical Discourses, pp. 158, 161, 197; Nicholas Papers, i. 201–8). Wilmot fought at Worcester, accompanied the king in the greater part of his wanderings after that battle, and helped to procure the ship in which both escaped to France in October 1651 (, Rebellion, xiii. 87–106;, The Flight of the King, 1897, passim). The common perils they had endured strengthened his political position, and Wilmot, ‘who had cultivated the king's affection during the time of their peregrination and drawn many promises from him,’ was one of the committee of four whom Charles thenceforward consulted with in all his affairs (, Rebellion, xiii. 123; Clarendon State Papers, iii. 46). On 13 Dec. 1652 he was created Earl of Rochester (, iii. 152;, Rebellion, xiii.


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 go there, I want to demand her in marriage." "Never," answered the King; "if you were to go, it would be going to your death." On this the son lay down and was sick unto death, and for seven years he lay there, and no physician could heal him. When the father perceived that all hope was over, with a heavy heart he said to him, "Go thither, and try your luck, for I know no other means of curing you." When the son heard that, he rose from his bed and was well again, and joyfully set out on his way.

And it came to pass that as he was riding across a heath, he saw from afar something like a great heap of hay lying on the ground, and when he drew nearer, he could see that it was the stomach of a man, who had laid himself down there, but the stomach looked like a small mountain. When the fat man saw the traveller, he stood up and said, "If you are in need of any one, take me into your service." The prince answered, "What can I do with such a great big man?" "Oh," said the Stout-One, "this is nothing, when I stretch myself out well, I am three thousand times fatter." "If that's the case," said the prince, "I can make use of thee, come with me." So the Stout One followed the prince, and after a while they found another man who was lying on the ground with his ear laid to the turf. "What art thou doing there?" asked the King's son. "I am listening," replied the man. "What art thou listening to so attentively?" "I am listening to what is just going on in the world, for nothing escapes my ears; I even hear the grass growing." "Tell me," said the prince, "what thou hearest at the court of the old Queen who has the beautiful daughter." Then he answered, "I hear the whizzing of the sword that is striking off a wooer's head." The King's son said, "I can make use of thee, come with me." They went onwards, and then saw a pair of feet lying and part of a pair of legs, but could not see the rest of the body. When they had walked on for a great distance, they came to the body, and at last to the head also. "Why," said the prince, "what a tall rascal thou art!" "Oh," replied the Tall One, "that is nothing at all yet; when I really stretch out my limbs, I am three thousand times as tall,


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 147). Charles also employed him on many diplomatic missions. In May 1652 he was sent to negotiate with the Duke of Lorraine (Nicholas Papers, i. 301), and in December of the same year he was despatched to negotiate with the diet of the empire at Ratisbon, from whom he succeeded in obtaining a subsidy of about 10,000l. for the king's service (, Rebellion, xiv. 55, 103). In 1654 he was sent on a mission to the elector of Brandenburg, from whom the king hoped for assistance to further the rising attempted by the Scottish royalists (Clarendon State Papers, iii. 204, 220, 230, 251). In February 1655 Rochester went to England to direct the movements of the royalist conspirators against the Protector, with power to postpone or to authorise an insurrection, as it seemed advisable. He sanctioned the attempt, but at the rendezvous of the Yorkshire cavaliers on 8 March at Marston Moor found himself with only about a hundred followers, and abandoned the hopeless enterprise. Clarendon unfairly blames him for desisting, but royalists in general did not (Rebellion, xiv. 135). Thanks to his skill in disguises, Rochester contrived to effect his escape, and, though arrested on suspicion at Aylesbury, got back to the continent early in June (English Historical Review, 1888 p. 337, 1889 pp. 315, 319, 331). In 1656, when Charles II raised a little army in Flanders, Rochester was colonel of one of its four regiments (, Rebellion, xv. 68). He died at Sluys on 19 Feb. 1657–8, and was buried at Bruges by Lord Hopton (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1658, pp. 297, 300). After the Restoration his body is said to have been reinterred at Spelsbury, Oxfordshire.

Rochester married twice: first, on 21 Aug. 1633, at Chelsea, Frances, daughter of Sir George Morton of Clenston, Dorset, by Catherine, daughter of Sir Arthur Hopton of Witham, Somerset; secondly, about 1644, Anne, widow of Sir Francis Henry Lee, bart. (d. 13 July 1639), and daughter of Sir John St. John, bart., by Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Leighton. Portraits of her and her first husband are reproduced in ‘Memoirs of the Verney Family’ (i. 241, iii. 464). She was the friend of Sir Ralph Verney and of Colonel Hutchinson, and helped to save the life of the latter at the Restoration (, Memoirs, i. 247, iii. 464; Life of Colonel Hutchinson, 1885, ii. 258, 268, 396). She was also the mother of, second earl of Rochester [q. v.], survived her son, and was buried at Spelsbury, Oxfordshire, on 18 March 1696 (, Complete Peerage, vi. 481).

WILMOT, JAMES (d. 1808), alleged author of 'The Letters of Junius.' [See under .]

WILMOT, JOHN, second (1647–1680), poet and libertine, was the son of, first earl of Rochester [q. v.], by his second wife. He was born at Ditchley in Oxfordshire on 10 April 1647, and on the death of his father on 9 Feb. 1657–8 succeeded to the earldom. He was left with little besides the pretensions to the king's favour bequeathed him by his father's services to Charles after the battle of Worcester. After attending the school at Burford, he was admitted a fellow commoner of Wadham College, Oxford, on 18 Jan. 1659–60. His tutor was Phineas Bury. He showed as an undergraduate a happy turn for English verse, and contributed to the university collections on Charles II's restoration (1660) and on the death of Princess Mary of Orange (1661). He was created M.A. on 9 Sept. 1661, when little more than fourteen. Next year he presented to his college four silver pint pots, which are still preserved. On leaving the university he travelled in France and Italy under the care of Dr. Balfour, who encouraged his love of literature. In 1664 he returned from his travels while in his eighteenth year, and presented himself at Whitehall. In the summer of 1665 he joined as a volunteer Sir [q. v.] on board the Royal Katherine, and took part in the unsuccessful assault on Dutch ships in the Danish harbour of Bergen on 1 Aug. He is said to have behaved with credit. He again served at sea in the summer of the following year in the Channel under Sir [q. v.], and distinguished himself by carrying a message in an open boat under the enemy's fire.

Rochester had meanwhile identified himself with the most dissolute set of Charles II's courtiers. He became the intimate associate of George Villiers, second duke of Buckingham; Charles Sackville, earl of Dorset; Sir Charles Sedley, and Henry Savile, and, although their junior by many years, soon excelled all of them in profligacy. Burnet says that he was ‘naturally modest till the court corrupted him,’ but he fell an unresisting prey to every manner of vicious example.


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 As 'tis Alter'd by the late Earl of Rochester and Acted at the Theatre Royal. Together with a Preface concerning the Author and his Writings. By one of his Friends’ (i.e. Robert Wolseley, eldest son of Sir Charles Wolseley [q. v.]), London, 1685. When the play was produced in 1685, Betterton played Aecius with much success, and Mrs. Barry appeared as Lucina (, Roscius, p. 55). Three prologues were printed, one being by Mrs. Behn.

A second play (in heroic couplets) of intolerable foulness has been put to Rochester's discredit. It is entitled ‘Sodom,’ and was published at Antwerp in 1684 as ‘by the E. of R.;’ no copy of this edition is known; one is said to have been burnt by Richard Heber. Two manuscripts are extant; one is in the British Museum (Harl. MS. 7312, pp. 118–45, a volume containing many of Rochester's authentic compositions), and the other is in the town library of Hamburg. The piece is improbably said to have been acted at court; it was doubtless designed as a scurrilous attack on Charles II. In a short poem purporting to be addressed to the author of the play (in Rochester's collected poems), he mockingly disclaimed all responsibility for it, and it has been attributed to a young barrister named John Fishbourne, of whom nothing is practically known (, Biogr. Dram.) Internal evidence unhappily suggests that Rochester had the chief hand in the production. French adaptations are dated 1744, 1752, and 1767 (cf., Centuria Librorum Absconditorum, London, privately printed, 1879).

An edition of Rochester's ‘Works’ which was issued by Tonson in 1714, 12mo, included his letters to Savile and Mrs. * * *, the tragedy of ‘Valentinian,’ a preface by Rymer, and a pastoral elegy by Oldham. There was a portrait by Van der Gucht. The fourth edition of this is dated 1732. Rochester's ‘Remains,’ including his ‘Satyres,’ followed in 1718. Probably the completest edition is the ‘Poetical Works of the Earl of Rochester,’ 1731–2, 2 vols.

A less perfect collection of his ‘Works’ included the poems of the Earl of Roscommon. The first edition appeared before 1702. An obscene appendix was called ‘The Delights of Venus, now first published.’ The second edition is dated 1702; others appeared in 1707 (and in 1714) with Saint-Évremond's memoir of Rochester and an additional poem of outrageous grossness called ‘The Discovery.’

A volume containing not only Rochester's poems, but also those of the Earls of Roscommon and Dorset and the Dukes of Devonshire and Buckingham, first appeared in 1731, and was frequently reissued, often with an obscene appendix by various hands, entitled ‘The Cabinet of Love,’ London, 1739, 2 vols. 12mo; 1757, 1777. A privately printed reissue of excerpts from the 1757 edition appeared in 1884. Rochester's poems, expurgated by George Steevens [q. v.], appeared in Johnson's collection, and were reprinted in the collections of Anderson, Chalmers, and Park.

Rochester's letters to Savile and to Mrs. Barry were published, with a varied correspondence collected by Tom Brown, in ‘Familiar Letters,’ 1685, 1697, and 1699, and seven letters—two to his son, four to his wife, and one to the Earl of Lichfield—are in ‘Whartoniana,’ 1727, ii. 161–8. A few more are appended to ‘A New Miscellany of Original Poems,’ 1720 (with preface by Anthony Hammond [q. v.])

[Saint-Évremond's Memoir, prefixed to Rochester's Miscellaneous Works, 1707; Savile Correspondence (Camden Soc.); Cibber's Lives, ii. 269–300; Gramont's Memoirs; Burnet's Own Times; Aubrey's Lives, ed. Andrew Clark; Poems on Affairs of State, passim; Marshall's Woodstock, with Supplement, 1873–4; Hunter's Chorus Vatum in Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 24491; Johnson's Lives of the Poets, ed. Cunningham; G. E. C[okayne]'s Complete Peerage. Rochester's death is described for edificatory purposes not only in Parsons's Sermon, 1680, and Burnet's Some Passages, 1680, but also in The Libertine Overthrown, 1680, and in The Two Noble Converts, 1680. His career is depicted in an intentionally unedifying light in J. G. M. Rutherford's Adventures of the Duke of Buckingham, Charles II, and the Earl of Rochester, 1857, and in Singular Life … of the renowned Earl of Rochester, 1864?]

WILMOT, JOHN EARDLEY (1709–1792), chief justice of the common pleas, second son of Robert Wilmot of Osmaston, Derbyshire, by Ursula, daughter of Sir Samuel Marow, bart., of Berkswell, Warwickshire, was born at Derby on 16 Aug. 1709. Sir Robert Wilmot, bart. (so created on 19 Sept. 1772 in recognition of long service as secretary to successive lords-lieutenant of Ireland) was his elder brother. The brothers were grandsons of Robert Wilmot, M.P. for Derby 1690–5, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Eardley of Eardley, Staffordshire. Their great-grandfather was Sir Nicholas Wilmot, serjeant-at-law (knighted at Hampton Court on 20 July 1674), whose elder brother Edward was grandfather of the eminent physician Sir Edward Wilmot [q. v.]

The future chief justice received his earlier education at the free school, Derby, and, like


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Wilmot several other judges [cf. ; ; ], at King Edward's school, Lichfield, where he was slightly senior to David Garrick and contemporary with Samuel Johnson. In 1724 he was removed to Westminster school, where he formed a lifelong friendship with Henry Bilson Legge, the future chancellor of the exchequer. At Cambridge, where he soon afterwards matriculated from Trinity Hall, he did not graduate, but acquired a taste for learned leisure which he never lost. His predilection was for the church, and it was only in deference to his father's wishes that he adopted the legal profession. During his residence at Trinity Hall, however, he dutifully studied the civil law, and in June 1732 he was called to the bar at the Inner Temple. In 1745 he was elected F.S.A.

Wilmot soon made a distinguished figure both in the courts of common law and at the parliamentary bar (in election petition cases), but found the profession uncongenial. In 1753 he refused silk, and in the following year he retired to his native place with the intention of confining himself to local practice. Early in 1755, however, he was lured back to Westminster by the offer of a puisne judgeship in the king's bench, and, having been knighted and invested with the coif, was sworn in as justice (11 Feb.) He proved so efficient a puisne that when, on the resignation of Lord Hardwicke, it became necessary to put the great seal in commission, he was nominated one of the commissioners [cf. , and ]. This office he held with increasing credit from 19 Nov. 1756 to 20 June 1757, when the seal was delivered to Lord-keeper Henley [see, first ].

After eight years more of service in the king's bench, Wilmot began again to think of retirement; but the easy post of chief justice of Chester, which he hoped to secure, proved unobtainable, while that of chief justice of the common pleas was literally thrust upon him on the elevation of Lord Camden to the woolsack. After some demur he accepted the proffered dignity, and was sworn in accordingly on 20 Aug. 1766. He was sworn of the privy council on 10 Sept. following. As puisne Wilmot followed Mansfield's lead in the cases which arose out of the publication of Wilkes's celebrated ‘North Briton’ No. 45 [cf. ]. As chief justice assistant to the House of Lords during the proceedings on Wilkes's writ of error he sustained (16 Jan. 1769) Mansfield's judgments in the king's bench. In the common pleas, when Wilkes's long-delayed action against Lord Halifax came on for hearing (10 Nov. 1769), he sought to temper justice with mercy by directing the jury that, though precedent did not justify the issue of the general warrant, it ought to be taken into account in mitigation of damages.

Wilmot thrice declined the great seal: once on the dismissal of Lord Camden, again on the death of [q. v.] and once more pending the subsequent commission [cf. , 1714–1794]. Unlike Yorke, Wilmot had no such party ties—he had held aloof from politics throughout his career—as rendered his refusal of office obligatory; and no one but himself doubted his capacity. His refusal was dictated by the same pococurantism, now inveterate and reinforced by failing health, which he had twice before exhibited. It was the more to be regretted by reason of the glaring incompetence of the commissioners. But there is no reason to suppose that in Wilmot the country lost a great chancellor. His understanding was indeed sound and strong and his learning extensive, but there is no evidence that he possessed the subtlety and originality which characterise the masters of equity.

Wilmot resigned the chief-justiceship on 26 Jan. 1771. He at first declined all recompense for his services, but at length accepted a pension of 2,400l. He continued to take part in the judicial business of the privy council until 1782, when he withdrew entirely from public life. He died at his house in Great Ormond Street, London, on 5 Feb. 1792. His remains were interred in Berkswell church. By his wife Sarah (m. in 1743), daughter of Thomas Rivett, M.P. for Derby 1748–54, Wilmot had, with two daughters, three sons. The second son, [q. v.], succeeded to his estates. Robert, the eldest son, died married in the East Indies.

Wilmot's decisions are reported by Burrow and Wilson. His own ‘Notes of Opinions and Judgments delivered in different Courts,’ edited by his son John Eardley-Wilmot, appeared at London in 1802, 4to. Some of his letters are printed in his ‘Memoirs’ (see infra; and cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. App. p. 359, 6th Rep. App. p. 242).

Engravings from portraits by Reynolds and Dance are in the British Museum and prefixed to the works above mentioned.

[John Eardley-Wilmot's Memoirs of the Life of the Right Hon. Sir John Eardley Wilmot, Knight, with some Original Letters, 1802, London, 4to (2nd edit. with additions, 1811); Le


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  Neve's Pedigrees of the Knights (Harl. Soc.), p. 291; Kimber and Johnson's Baronetage, iii. 151; Gent. Mag. 1755 p. 92, 1792 i. 187; Ann. Reg. 1765 p. 59, 1766 pp. 165, 166, 1771 p. 71, 1772 p. 162; Lysons's Mag. Brit. vol. v. p. lxvi; Harwood's Lichfield, p. 499; Walpole's Memoirs of the Reign of George II, ed. Holland, ii. 273; Memoirs of the Reign of George III, ed. Le Marchant, and Russell Barker, 1894, and Letters, ed. Cunningham; Grenville Papers, ed. Smith, iii. 46, iv. 110, 115, 392; Grafton's Autobiography, ed. Anson; Correspondence of George III with Lord North, ed. Donne, p. 53; Harris's Life of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke; Wynne's Serjeant-at-Law; Hardy's Cat. of Chancellors; Howell's State Trials, xix. 1027, 1127, 1407; Law Mag. viii. 356; Campbell's Chief Justices; Foss's Lives of the Judges; Burke's Peerage and Baronetage; Foster's Baronetage.]

WILMOT, JOHN EARDLEY- (1750–1815), politician and author, second son of Sir John Eardley-Wilmot [q. v.], lord chief justice of the common pleas, by Sarah, daughter of Thomas Rivett of Derby, was born in 1750. He was educated at Derby grammar school, Westminster school, the Royal Academy, Brunswick, and the university of Oxford, where he matriculated from University College on 10 Jan. 1766, and graduated B.A. in 1769, being elected fellow of All Souls' College in the same year. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1773, and in 1781 was appointed to a mastership in chancery, which he held until 1804. He represented Tiverton, Devonshire, in parliament from 1776 to 1784, and sat for Coventry in the parliaments of 1784–90 and 1790–6. In the House of Commons he seldom spoke, but from his ‘Short Defence of the Opposition, in Answer to a Pamphlet entitled “A Short History of the Opposition”’ (London, 1778, 8vo), it appears that he was an independent whig who strongly condemned the policy which precipitated the American war. In 1783 he was appointed by act of parliament commissioner to inquire into the claims of the American loyalists to compensation for their losses suffered during the war. In 1790 he organised the Freemasons' Hall committee for the relief of the French refugees. He retired from public life in 1804. In 1812 he assumed by royal license (20 Jan.) the additional surname of Eardley. He died at his house, Bruce Castle, Tottenham, on 23 June 1815. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society on 18 Nov. 1779, and of the Society of Antiquaries in 1791.

Wilmot married twice: (1) on 20 April 1776, Frances, only daughter of Samuel Sainthill; (2) on 29 June 1793, Sarah, daughter of Colonel Haslam. He had issue only by his first wife.

Letters from and to Wilmot are preserved in Additional MSS. 5015 f. 29, and 9828, and Lord Lansdowne's collection (Hist. MSS. Comm. 6th Rep. app. i. 242). From materials collected by Wilmot, John Rayner edited Ranulf de Glanville's ‘Tractatus de Legibus et Consuetudinibus Regni Angliæ’ (London, 1780, 8vo). Wilmot edited ‘Notes of Opinions and Judgments delivered in different Courts’ by his father (London, 1802, 4to). Besides the pamphlet mentioned above, he was author of: 1. ‘Memoirs of the Life of the Right Hon. Sir John Eardley Wilmot, Knt., with some original letters,’ London, 1802, 4to; 2nd ed. with additions, 1811, 8vo. 2. ‘The Life of the Rev. John Hough, D.D., successively Bishop of Oxford, Lichfield and Coventry, and Worcester,’ London, 1812, 4to. 3. ‘Historical View of the Commission for Inquiring into the Losses, Services, and Claims of the American Loyalists at the close of the War between Great Britain and her Colonies in 1783; with an Account of the Compensation granted to them by Parliament in 1785 and 1788,’ London, 1815, 8vo.

By his first wife Wilmot had, with four daughters, a son, John Eardley (1783–1847), born on 21 Feb. 1783, educated at Harrow, and called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn on 9 May 1806. He resided at Berkswell Hall, Warwickshire, the northern division of which county he represented in parliament in the liberal interest from 1832 to 1843. On 23 Aug. 1821 he was created Sir John Eardley Eardley-Wilmot, bart. In 1843 (27 March) he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Van Diemen's Land, but, in consequence of his supposed indifference to the morals of the convicts under his charge, was superseded on 13 Oct. 1846. He died at Hobart Town on 3 Feb. 1847. He was D.C.L. (Oxon.), F.R.S., and F.L.S., and author of ‘An Abridgment of Blackstone's “Commentaries”’ (London, 1822, 12mo; 2nd ed., by his son Sir John Eardley Eardley-Wilmot [q. v.], 1853, 8vo; 3rd ed. 1855). He married twice: first, on 21 May 1808, Elizabeth Emma (d. 1818), fourth daughter of Caleb Hillier Parry, M.D., of Bath, and sister of Admiral Sir Edward Parry; secondly, on 30 Aug. 1819, Eliza (d. 1869), eldest daughter of Sir Robert Chester of Bush Hall, Hertfordshire. He had issue by both wives.

[Foster's Alumni Oxon. and Baronetage; Burke's Peerage and Baronetage; Law List; Gent. Mag. 1776 p. 191, 1793 ii. 670, 1808 i. 458, 1815 ii. 83, 1819 ii. 272, 1847 ii. 206; Ann. Reg. 1743, ii. 333; Memoirs of Sir John Eardley-Wilmot (1802), p. 58; Parl. Hist. xix. 37, 787, xxiii. 564; Madame D'Arblay's Diary, vi. 10;


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  Georgian Era; Chalmers's Biogr. Dict.; List of Royal Society, 1797; List of Society of Antiquaries (1802); Northcote's Case of Sir Eardley-Wilmot (1847); Heaton's Australian Dict. of Dates.]  WILMOT, JOHN EARDLEY EARDLEY- (1810–1892), baronet, barrister and politician, born on 16 Nov. 1810, was eldest son of Sir John Eardley Eardley-Wilmot, first baronet, and grandson of John Eardley-Wilmot [q. v.] He was educated at Winchester, where he received the gold medal in 1828, and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he matriculated on 22 March 1828, and obtained a scholarship. He gained the chancellor's gold medal for Latin verse in 1829, graduating B.A. in 1831. On 19 May 1830 he became a student at Lincoln's Inn, and he was called to the bar on 28 Jan. 1842; he joined the midland circuit and Warwick, Coventry, and Birmingham sessions. From 1852 until 1874, when he resigned the post, he was recorder of Warwick, and he was judge of the county court at Bristol from January 1854 to 1863, and subsequently from 1863 to 1871 of the Marylebone district in London. He represented South Warwickshire in parliament in the conservative interest from 1874 to 1885, where he introduced bills in 1875 and 1876 to amend the criminal law by differentiating two classes of murder, and to further extend the jurisdiction of county courts.

Wilmot was never a very successful advocate, though a practised speaker. He took great interest in the question of local government for Ireland, advocating the development of Irish industries and the establishment of a royal residence in Ireland, and acting as chairman of a harbour board in Ireland. His persevering efforts procured the release of Edmund Galley, who had been wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to penal servitude for life. Wilmot died at his residence in Thurloe Square, London, on 1 Feb. 1892. He married, on 27 April 1839, Eliza Martha, fifth daughter of Sir Robert Williams, ninth baronet. She died on 23 Oct. 1887, and had issue six sons and two daughters. He was succeeded in the title by his eldest son, William Assheton Eardley Wilmot, of the Northumberland Fusiliers, who was born in 1841, married in 1876 Mary, third daughter of David Watts Russell of Biggin, Northamptonshire, and died in 1896.

Wilmot was author of: 1. ‘A Digest of the Law of Burglary,’ London, 1851, 12mo. 2. ‘Lord Brougham's Acts and Bills from 1811 to the present time, now first collected and arranged, with an Analytical Review, showing their results upon the Amendment of the Law,’ London, 1857, 8vo. 3. ‘Reminiscences of the late Thomas Assheton Smith,’ London, 1860, 8vo; 5th edit. 1893. 4. ‘A Safe and Constitutional Plan of Parliamentary Reform,’ London, 1865, 8vo. He also edited his father's ‘Abridgment of Blackstone's Commentaries,’ London, 1853, 8vo; 1855, 12mo. He frequently contributed letters to the ‘Times’ and other newspapers on the legal and political subjects in which he was interested, besides writing and publishing various pamphlets.

[Times, 2 and 3 Feb. 1892; Law Times, 6 Feb. 1892; Law Journal, 6 Feb. 1892; Debrett's House of Commons and Judicial Bench; Burke's Peerage; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886; Foster's Men at the Bar; Official Returns of Members of Parliament; private information.]  WILMOT, LEMUEL ALLEN (1809–1878), governor of New Brunswick, born on 31 Jan. 1809 at Sunbury, on the St. John River in New Brunswick, was the son of William Wilmot, a member of the provincial legislative assembly, by his wife Hannah, daughter of Daniel Bliss (1740–1806), chief justice of the court of common pleas in New Brunswick. On his father's side he was descended from a New England family, his grandfather, Major Lemuel Wilmot, being a loyalist refugee. Lemuel Allen was partly educated among the French community at Madawaska, and he afterwards entered the university of King's College at Fredericton. He was a successful student, and had the distinction of being ‘the best swimmer, skater, runner, wrestler, boatman, drill-master, speaker, and musician’ of his time. In 1830 he became an attorney, and two years later was called to the bar of New Brunswick. On 31 July 1834 he was elected to the house of assembly for the province of York. He declared himself a liberal in politics, advocating responsible government and opposition to the system of family compacts, and soon was acknowledged the liberal leader. In 1836 he moved an address to the governor for a detailed account of the crown land fund, and he and William Crane were sent to England as delegates to obtain for the representative assembly the control of the crown lands. They were cordially received by the colonial secretary, Sir Charles Grant, baron Glenelg [q. v.], and a bill was drafted granting the reforms they asked. The lieutenant-governor, Sir Archibald Campbell (1769–1843) [q. v.], withheld his approval and tendered his resignation. The delegates were again sent to England, where their efforts were finally successful. Campbell's resigna-


text:
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title: User talk:Scolemcd~enwikisource


text:
Page:Grimm's household tales, volume 2 (1884).djvu/139

 mannikin. "Have no fear," said the latter to his master. "Go wheresoever they take you, and let them do what they will, only take the blue light with you." Next day the soldier was tried, and though he had done nothing wicked, the judge condemned him to death. When he was led forth to die, he begged a last favour of the King. "What is it?" asked the King. "That I may smoke one more pipe on my way." "Thou mayst smoke three," answered the King, "but do not imagine that I will spare thy life." Then the soldier pulled out his pipe and lighted it at the blue light, and as soon as a few wreaths of smoke had ascended, the mannikin was there with a small cudgel in his hand, and said, "What does my lord command?" "Strike down to earth that false judge there, and his constable, and spare not the King who has treated me so ill." Then the mannikin fell on them like lightning, darting this way and that way, and whosoever was so much as touched by his cudgel fell to earth, and did not venture to stir again. The King was terrified; he threw himself on the soldier's mercy, and merely to be allowed to live at all, gave him his kingdom for his own, and the princess to wife.

117.—THE WILFUL CHILD.

upon a time there was a child who was wilful, and would not do what her mother wished. For this reason God had no pleasure in her, and let her become ill, and no doctor could do her any good, and in a short time she lay on her death-bed. When she had been lowered into her grave, and the earth was spread over her, all at once her arm came out again, and stretched upwards, and when they had put it in and spread fresh earth over it, it was all to no purpose, for the arm always came out again. Then the mother herself was obliged to go to the grave, and strike the arm with a rod, and when she had done that, it was drawn in, and then at last the child had rest beneath the ground.


text: Grimm's Household Tales, Volume 2/The Wilful Child


text: Grimm's Household Tales, Volume 2/The Lord's Animals and the Devil's


text: Grimm's Household Tales, Volume 2/The Beam


text:
Author:Edward Henry Palmer

Works

 * The Desert of the Exodus: Journeys on foot in the Wilderness of the Forty Years' Wanderings (1871)
 * 'Jerusalem, the City of Herod and of Saladin' (1871)
 * 'The Secret Sects of Syria;' in the 'British Quarterly Review' (1873)
 * Translation of the Qur'ân, as part of Sacred Books of the East (1880)
 * report to the Palestine Exploration Fund, in 'Special Papers relating to the Survey of Western Palestine.' (1881)
 * 'Arabic and English Name-lists of the Survey of Western Palestine,' ed. (1881)
 * Simplified grammar of Hindustani, Persian and Arabic (1882)
 * (in part)

title: Author:Edward Henry Palmer


text: Grimm's Household Tales, Volume 2/The Old Beggar-Woman


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Leveson-Gower, John (1740-1792)


text: Grimm's Household Tales, Volume 2/The Three Sluggards


text: Grimm's Household Tales, Volume 2/The Twelve Idle Servants


text: Grimm's Household Tales, Volume 2/The Shepherd Boy


text:
Grimm's Household Tales, Volume 2/The Star Money

Elektitaj fabeloj de la Fratoj Grimm/Steloj talaroj Die Sternthaler (1857) Contos de Grimm/As moedas que cairam do céu Звёзды-талеры (Гримм/Полевой)


text: Grimm's Household Tales, Volume 2/The Stolen Farthings


text: Grimm's Household Tales, Volume 2/Brides on their Trial


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Willoughby, Francis


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Willoughby, Henry


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Willoughby, Hugh


text: Grimm's Household Tales, Volume 2/The Sparrow and his Four Children


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Willoughby, Nesbit Josiah


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Willoughby, Richard de


text: Grimm's Household Tales, Volume 2/Odds and Ends


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Willoughby, Robert


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wills, Charles


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wills, James


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wills, John


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wills, Thomas


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wills, William Gorman


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wills, William Henry


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wills, William John


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Willshire, Thomas


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Willson, Edward James


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Willson, Robert William


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Page:Grimm's household tales, volume 2 (1884).djvu/374

360 CHILDREN'S LEGENDS.

1.—. JOSEPH IN THE FOREST.

was once on a time a mother who had three daughters, the eldest of whom was rude and wicked, the second much better, although she had her faults, but the youngest was a pious, good child. The mother was, however, so strange, that it was just the eldest daughter whom she most loved, and she could not bear the youngest. On this account, she often sent the poor girl out into the great forest in order to get rid of her, for she thought she would lose herself and never come back again. But the guardian-angel which every good child has, did not forsake her, but always brought her into the right path again. Once, however, the guardian-angel behaved as if he were not there, and the child could not find her way out of the forest again. She walked on constantly until evening came, and then she saw a tiny light burning in the distance, ran up to it at once, and came to a little hut. She knocked, the door opened, and she came to a second door, where she knocked again. An old man, who had a snow-white beard and looked venerable, opened it for her; and he was no other than St. Joseph. He said quite kindly, "Come, dear child, seat thyself on my little chair by the fire, and warm thyself; I will fetch thee clear water if thou art thirsty; but here in the forest, I have nothing for thee to eat but a couple of little roots, which thou must first scrape and boil."

St. Joseph gave her the roots. The girl scraped them clean, then she brought a piece of pancake and the bread that her mother had given her to take with her;


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Willughby, Francis


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Willughby, Percivall


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Willyams, Cooper


text: Author:Ernest Maes Harvey

title: Author:Ernest Maes Harvey


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Willymat, William


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Willymott, William


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wilmot, Edward


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wilmot, Henry


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wilmot, John Eardley (1709-1792)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wilmot, John Eardley-


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wilmot, John Eardley Eardley-


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Page:Grimm's household tales, volume 2 (1884).djvu/90

 76 catch him up, if you were to ride fast." "Alas," said the youth, "I have been doing tiring work all day, and the ride here has completely worn me out; you know the man, be so kind as to get on my horse, and go and persuade him to come here." "Aha!" thought the peasant, "here is another who has no wick in his lamp!" "Why should I not do you this favour?" said he, and mounted the horse and rode off in a quick trot. The youth remained sitting there till night fell, but the peasant never came back. "The man from Heaven must certainly have been in a great hurry, and would not turn back," thought he, "and the peasant has no doubt given him the horse to take to my father." He went home and told his mother what had happened, and that he had sent his father the horse so that he might not have to be always running about. "Thou hast done well," answered she, "thy legs are younger than his, and thou canst go on foot."

When the peasant got home, he put the horse in the stable beside the cow which he had as a pledge, and then, went to his wife and said, "Trina, as your luck would have it, I have found two who are still sillier fools than you; this time you escape without a beating, I will store it up for another occasion." Then he lighted his pipe, sat down in his grandfather's chair, and said, "It was a good stroke of business to get a sleek horse and a great purse full of money into the bargain, for two lean cows. If stupidity always brought in as much as that I would be quite willing to hold it in honour." So thought the peasant, but you no doubt prefer the simple folks.

105.—STORIES ABOUT SNAKES.

was once a little child whose mother gave her every afternoon a small bowl of milk and bread, and the child seated herself in the yard with it. When she began to eat however, a snake came creeping out of a crevice in the wall, dipped its little head in the dish, and ate with


text:
Page:Grimm's household tales, volume 2 (1884).djvu/91

 her. The child had pleasure in this, and when she was sitting there with her little dish and the snake did not come at once, she cried,

Then the snake came in haste, and enjoyed its food. Moreover it showed gratitude, for it brought the child all kinds of pretty things from its hidden treasures, bright stones, pearls, and golden playthings. The snake, however, only drank the milk, and left the bread-crumbs alone. Then one day the child took its little spoon and struck the snake gently on its head with it, and said, "Eat the bread-crumbs as well, little thing." The mother, who was standing in the kitchen, heard the child talking to some one, and when she saw that she was striking a snake with her spoon, ran out with a log of wood, and killed the good little creature.

From that time forth, a change came over the child. As long as the snake had eaten with her, she had grown tall and strong, but now she lost her pretty rosy cheeks and wasted away. It was not long before the funeral bird began to cry in the night, and the redbreast to collect little branches and leaves for a funeral garland, and soon afterwards the child lay on her bier.

orphan child was sitting on the town walls spinning, when she saw a snake coming out of a hole low down in the wall. Swiftly she spread out beside this one of the blue silk handkerchiefs which snakes have such a strong liking for, and which are the only things they will creep on. As soon as the snake saw it, it went back, then returned, bringing with it a small golden crown, laid it on the handkerchief, and then went away again. The girl took up the crown, it glittered and was of delicate golden filagree work. It was not long before the snake came back for the second time, but when it no longer saw the crown, it crept up to the wall, and in its grief smote


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Page:Grimm's household tales, volume 2 (1884).djvu/92

 78 its little head against it as long as it had strength to do so, until at last it lay there dead. If the girl had but left the crown where it was, the snake would certainly have brought still more of its treasures out of the hole.

A snake cries, "Huhu, huhu." A child says, "Come out." The snake comes out, then the child inquires about her little sister: "Hast thou not seen little Red-stockings?" The snake says, "No." "Neither have I." "Then I am like you. Huhu, huhu, huhu."

106.—THE POOR MILLER'S BOY AND THE CAT.

a certain mill lived an old miller who had neither wife nor child, and three apprentices served under him. As they had been with him several years, he one day said to them, "I am old, and want to sit in the chimney-corner, go out, and whichsoever of you brings me the best horse home, to him will I give the mill, and in return for it he shall take care of me till my death." The third of the boys was, however, the drudge, who was looked on as foolish by the others; they begrudged the mill to him, and afterwards he would not have it. Then all three went out together, and when they came to the village, the two said to stupid Hans, "Thou mayst just as well stay here, as long as thou livest thou wilt never get a horse." Hans, however, went with them, and when it was night they came to a cave in which they lay down to sleep. The two sharp ones waited until Hans had fallen asleep, then they got up, and went away leaving him where he was. And they thought they had done a very clever thing, but it was certain to turn out ill for them. When the sun arose, and Hans woke up, he was lying in a deep cavern. He looked around on every side and exclaimed, "Oh, heavens, where am I?" Then he


text: Grimm's Household Tales, Volume 2/Stories about Snakes


text:
Author:Emilius Charles Delmé Radcliffe

Works

 * Falconry: Notes on the Falconidae used in India in Falconry

title: Author:Emilius Charles Delmé Radcliffe


text:
Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/44

 THE INFLUENCE OF BURIAL CUSTOMS ON THE BELIEF IN A FUTURE STATE.

BY MRS. HOLLAND.

The choice of this subject has been prompted largely by a study of Sir James Frazer's well-known article "On Certain Burial Customs as Illustrating the Primitive Theory of the Soul."

A disposition to differ from its main positions has given rise to a criticism from the pre-animistic point of view. Following on this, an examination has been attempted, first of certain customs associated with burial, and then of the actual methods adopted by primitive man in disposing of the dead body itself; whereupon certain correlations are indicated with what appear to be derivative beliefs. The problem why the savage should believe in a future life at all is as perplexing as it is strong in its human appeal; and perhaps a useful way of approaching it is to study what the savage thinks of his dead in the light of what he does to them.

The fact that custom once established affords a basis for many and changing interpretations lies at the root of the theory that beliefs can develop out of ritual. Sir James Frazer by no means disposes of this view by maintaining that the savage normally thinks before he acts. To allege that he invariably acts without thinking at all would be indeed to deny to our remote forefathers a degree


text:
Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/99

 Rh implying “all that which lives and moves,” the “Spirit of the Universe.”

It seems to have been an almost invariable rule among the ancients to designate the priests of a cult by the name of the fetich or symbol to which they paid their devotions. Thus one finds “The Hounds,” “The Bees,” “The Doves,” etc., etc. To this list may one add the Ao’s of Easter Island? .

OBITUARY.

, who died on 2nd February, 1918, was a member of the Folk-Lore Society. He had been for many years on Mr. T. Fisher Unwin’s literary staff, and had recently been working for the Friends’ War Victims’ Relief Committee. He was author of an important work: Christmas: in Ritual and Tradition. He possessed a wide knowledge of European languages, translated Sabatier’s Modernism and other works from the French, and was co-translator from the Italian of Gayda’s Modern Austria: Her Racial and Social Problems. His early death at the age of 37 frustrates the promise of a distinguished career.


text:
Author:Charles William Alcock

Works

 * Football: The Association Game (1906)
 * (Rugby (Association))

title: Author:Charles William Alcock


text:
Massachusetts Board of Retirement v. Murgia

A Massachusetts statute making it mandatory for a uniformed state police officer to retire at age 50 held not to deny equal protection of the laws in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

(a) Rationality, rather than strict scrutiny, is the proper standard for determining whether the statute violates equal protection. Equal protection analysis requires strict scrutiny of a legislative classification only when it impermissibly interferes with the exercise of a fundamental right or operates to the peculiar disadvantage of a suspect class. Here mandatory retirement at 50 does not implicate any fundamental right of a uniformed state police officer over that age, since a right of governmental employment per se is not fundamental, and the class of such officers over 50 does not constitute a suspect class, since classifications based on age are not considered suspect.

(b) Since physical ability generally declines with age, mandatory retirement at 50 serves to remove from police service those whose fitness for uniformed police work has presumptively diminished with age and is, therefore, rationally related to the State's announced legitimate objective of protecting the public by assuring the physical preparedness of its uniformed police. There is no indication that the statute has the effect of excluding from service so few officers who are in fact unqualified as to render age 50 a criterion wholly unrelated to such objective. While the State perhaps has not chosen the best means to accomplish its purpose, where rationality is the test, a statute "does not violate the Equal Protection Clause merely because the classifications made by [it] are imperfect." Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U.S. 471, 485.

376 F. Supp. 753 and 386 F. Supp. 179, reversed.

Terence P. O'Malley, Assistant Attorney General of Massachusetts, argued the cause for appellants. With him on the brief were Francis X. Bellotti, Attorney General, and S. Stephen Rosenfeld and Margot Botsford, Assistant Attorneys General.

Robert D. City argued the cause and filed a brief for appellee.


text:
Author:Charles James Nicol Fleming

Works

 * (Rugby (in part))

title: Author:Charles James Nicol Fleming


text:
Massachusetts Board of Retirement v. Murgia/Opinion of the Court

PER CURIAM.

This case presents the question whether the provision of Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. c. 32, § 26 (3) (a) (1966), that a uniformed state police officer "shall be retired...upon his attaining age fifty," denies appellee police officer equal protection of the laws in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Appellee Robert Murgia was an officer in the Uniformed Branch of the Massachusetts State Police. The Massachusetts Board of Retirement retired him upon his 50th birthday. Appellee brought this civil action in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, alleging that the operation of § 26 (3) (a) denied him equal protection of the laws and requesting the convening of a three-judge court under 28 U.S.C. §§ 2281, 2284. The District Judge dismissed appellee's complaint on the ground that the complaint did not allege a substantial constitutional question. 345 F. Supp. 1140 (1972). On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, in an unreported memorandum, set aside the District Court judgment and remanded the case with direction to convene a three-judge court. Upon a record consisting of depositions, affidavits, and other documentary material submitted by the parties, the three-judge court filed an opinion that declared § 26 (3) (a) unconstitutional on the ground that "a classification based on age 50 alone lacks a rational basis in furthering any substantial state interest," and enjoined enforcement of the statute. 376 F. Supp. 753, 754 (1974). We noted probable jurisdiction, 421 U.S. 974 (1975), and now reverse.

The primary function of the Uniformed Branch of the Massachusetts State Police is to protect persons and property and maintain law and order. Specifically, uniformed officers participate in controlling prison and civil disorders, respond to emergencies and natural disasters, patrol highways in marked cruisers, investigate crime, apprehend criminal suspects, and provide backup support for local law enforcement personnel. As the District Court observed, "service in this branch is, or can be, arduous." 376 F. Supp., at 754. "[H]igh versatility is required, with few, if any, backwaters available for the partially superannuated." Ibid. Thus, "even [appellee's] experts concede that there is a general relationship between advancing age and decreasing physical ability to respond to the demands of the job." Id., at 755.

These considerations prompt the requirement that uniformed state officers pass a comprehensive physical examination biennially until age 40. After that, until mandatory retirement at age 50, uniformed officers must pass annually a more rigorous examination, including an electrocardiogram and tests for gastro-intestinal bleeding. Appellee Murgia had passed such an examination four months before he was retired, and there is no dispute that, when he retired, his excellent physical and mental health still rendered him capable of performing the duties of a uniformed officer.

The record includes the testimony of three physicians: that of the State Police Surgeon, who testified to the physiological and psychological demands involved in the performance of uniformed police functions; that of an associate professor of medicine, who testified generally to the relationship between aging and the ability to perform under stress; and that of a surgeon, who also testified to aging and the ability safely to perform police functions. The testimony clearly established that the risk of physical failure, particularly in the cardiovascular system, increases with age, and that the number of individuals in a given age group incapable of performing stress functions increases with the age of the group. App. 77-78, 174-176. The testimony also recognized that particular individuals over 50 could be capable of safely performing the functions of uniformed officers. The associate professor of medicine, who was a witness for the appellee, further testified that evaluating the risk of cardiovascular failure in a given individual would require a number of detailed studies. Id., at 77-78.

In assessing appellee's equal protection claim, the District Court found it unnecessary to apply a strict-scrutiny test, see Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U.S. 618 (1969), for it determined that the age classification established by the Massachusetts statutory scheme could not in any event withstand a test of rationality, see Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U.S. 471 (1970). Since there had been no showing that reaching age 50 forecasts even "imminent change" in an officer's physical condition, the District Court held that compulsory retirement at age 50 was irrational under a scheme that assessed the capabilities of officers individually by means of comprehensive annual physical examinations. We agree that rationality is the proper standard by which to test whether compulsory retirement at age 50 violates equal protection. We disagree, however, with the District Court's determination that the age 50 classification is not rationally related to furthering a legitimate state interest.

I
We need state only briefly our reasons for agreeing that strict scrutiny is not the proper test for determining whether the mandatory retirement provision denies appellee equal protection. San Antonio School District v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1, 16 (1973), reaffirmed that equal protection analysis requires strict scrutiny of a legislative classification only when the classification impermissibly interferes with the exercise of a fundamental right or operates to the peculiar disadvantage of a suspect class. Mandatory retirement at age 50 under the Massachusetts statute involves neither situation.

This Court's decisions give no support to the proposition that a right of governmental employment per se is fundamental. See San Antonio School District v. Rodriguez, supra; Lindsey v. Normet, 405 U.S. 56, 73 (1972); Dandridge v. Williams, supra, at 485. Accordingly, we have expressly stated that a standard less than strict scrutiny "has consistently been applied to state legislation restricting the availability of employment opportunities." Ibid.

Nor does the class of uniformed state police officers over 50 constitute a suspect class for purposes of equal protection analysis. Rodriguez, supra, at 28, observed that a suspect class is one "saddled with such disabilities, or subjected to such a history of purposeful unequal treatment, or relegated to such a position of political powerlessness as to command extraordinary protection from the majoritarian political process." While the treatment of the aged in this Nation has not been wholly free of discrimination, such persons, unlike, say, those who have been discriminated against on the basis of race or national origin, have not experienced a "history of purposeful unequal treatment" or been subjected to unique disabilities on the basis of stereotyped characteristics not truly indicative of their abilities. The class subject to the compulsory retirement feature of the Massachusetts statute consists of uniformed state police officers over the age of 50. It cannot be said to discriminate only against the elderly. Rather, it draws the line at a certain age in middle life. But even old age does not define a "discrete and insular" group, United States v. Carolene Products Co., 304 U.S. 144, 152-153, n. 4 (1938), in need of "extraordinary protection from the majoritarian political process." Instead, it marks a stage that each of us will reach if we live out our normal span. Even if the statute could be said to impose a penalty upon a class defined as the aged, it would not impose a distinction sufficiently akin to those classifications that we have found suspect to call for strict judicial scrutiny.

Under the circumstances, it is unnecessary to subject the State's resolution of competing interests in this case to the degree of critical examination that our cases under the Equal Protection Clause recently have characterized as "strict judicial scrutiny."

II
We turn then to examine this state classification under the rational-basis standard. This inquiry employs a relatively relaxed standard reflecting the Court's awareness that the drawing of lines that create distinctions is peculiarly a legislative task and an unavoidable one. Perfection in making the necessary classifications is neither possible nor necessary. Dandridge v. Williams, supra, at 485. Such action by a legislature is presumed to be valid.

In this case, the Massachusetts statute clearly meets the requirements of the Equal Protection Clause, for the State's classification rationally furthers the purpose identified by the State: Through mandatory retirement at age 50, the legislature seeks to protect the public by assuring physical preparedness of its uniformed police. Since physical ability generally declines with age, mandatory retirement at 50 serves to remove from police service those whose fitness for uniformed work presumptively has diminished with age. This clearly is rationally related to the State's objective. There is no indication that § 26 (3) (a) has the effect of excluding from service so few officers who are in fact unqualified as to render age 50 a criterion wholly unrelated to the objective of the statute.

That the State chooses not to determine fitness more precisely through individualized testing after age 50 is not to say that the objective of assuring physical fitness is not rationally furthered by a maximum-age limitation. It is only to say that with regard to the interest of all concerned, the State perhaps has not chosen the best means to accomplish this purpose. But where rationality is the test, a State "does not violate the Equal Protection Clause merely because the classifications made by its laws are imperfect." Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U.S., at 485.

We do not make light of the substantial economic and psychological effects premature and compulsory retirement can have on an individual; nor do we denigrate the ability of elderly citizens to continue to contribute to society. The problems of retirement have been well documented and are beyond serious dispute. But "[w]e do not decide today that the [Massachusetts statute] is wise, that it best fulfills the relevant social and economic objectives that [Massachusetts] might ideally espouse, or that a more just and humane system could not be devised." Id., at 487. We decide only that the system enacted by the Massachusetts Legislature does not deny appellee equal protection of the laws.

The judgment is reversed.

Mr. Justice Stevens took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.