of the Channel islands, and of the Tyne, the Victoria bridge over the Clyde at Glasgow, the Middle Level drain and sluices, and many lighthouses for the board of the Trinity house. He was for many years consulting engineer of the Clyde navigation, which derived most important benefits from his advice. He was a fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, and an honorary member of the Institution of Engineers in Scotland. On the death of Telford in 1834, he was elected president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and held that office for many years. He received from the university of Glasgow the honorary degree of doctor of laws; and he proved his regard for the place of his own education, and his sense of the value of scientific education to engineers, by founding four prizes, to be competed for annually by students of civil engineering in that university. He was distinguished by his sound knowledge of his profession, and the safe and substantial character of his works; and to this the Middle Level sluices did not form an exception; for after standing securely for a long time, they were destroyed by causes which could not have been foreseen at the time when they were planned and executed. He had a vigorous mind—which he continued to exert in business up to the day before his death, in his eighty-second year—a cheerful and lively disposition, and great practical benevolence.—W. J. M. R.
WALKER, John, an English divine, was born in Devonshire, and was a member of Exeter college, Oxford. He became minister of St. Mary-the-More, Exeter, and published in 1714 an "Attempt towards recovering an account of the numbers and sufferings of the clergy sequestered in the grand Rebellion." This was a counterpart to Calamy's work on behalf of the nonconformists. The university of Oxford honoured Walker with the degree of D.D. for a performance so much to their mind. He died about 1730.—J. E.
WALKER, John, a well-known English lexicographer, was born at Colney-Hatch, near London, 18th of March, 1732. He was intended to follow a trade, and commenced learning one, but forsook it for the stage. He continued a member of the theatrical profession until he had attained his thirty-fifth year, and then as he had not been very successful in it, determined upon changing his labours for those of a schoolmaster. In 1767 he joined Mr. James Usher in a school at Kensington Gravel-pits, but this partnership was dissolved at the end of two years, and Walker became a lecturer and professor of elocution. From this period he appears to have devoted himself entirely to the study of the English language, and to demonstrate the errors and abused varieties of pronunciation which were in general use. In 1774 he published a prospectus of "A General Idea of a Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language," but did not then receive sufficient support to enable him to produce the work. He then compiled and published in 1775 "A Dictionary of the English Language, answering at once the purposes of rhyming, spelling, and pronouncing," which has since been republished under the name of "The Rhyming Dictionary." Meanwhile he continued to lecture in various provincial towns upon elocution, and thereby prepared the way for the publication of his "Elements of Elocution," which appeared in 1781. His other works are—"Hints on the Art of Reading," 1783; a "Rhetorical Grammar," 1785; "English Classics Abridged;" "The Melody of Speaking Delineated;" "The Academic Speaker;" "The Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language," 1791; a "Key to the classical pronunciation of Greek, Latin, and Scripture proper names," a "Teacher's Assistant," and "Outlines of English Grammar," 1805. He died in 1807. Walker was a presbyterian in early life, but afterwards became a Roman catholic.—F.
WALKER, Obadiah, a learned English divine, was born at Worsbrough, near Barnsley, Yorkshire, about 1615, and was educated at University college, Oxford, where he took his degrees, and became a fellow. He entered holy orders, and preached before Charles I. at Oxford. In May, 1648, he was ejected from his fellowship by the parliamentary visitors, and went to Rome, but was reinstated after the Restoration. In 1676 he became master of University college, in which post, despite his well-known Roman catholic proclivities, he remained for several years. Upon the accession of James II. Walker considered it unnecessary any longer to conceal his religious opinions. He proceeded to London to consult, as it was stated, respecting such changes as the catholics at that time hoped might be made in the university, and soon after openly avowed himself a papist, and opened a new chapel in the college for the performance of mass. He obtained a patent from King James for printing religious books, to exempt him from any penalties he might incur under the statutes against popery, and when the king came to Oxford his majesty attended vespers in Walker's chapel. At the Revolution Walker was deposed from his mastership, imprisoned, and narrowly escaped punishment. He died January 21, 1699. He was the author of "Greek and Roman History, illustrated by Coins and Medals;" "Account of Church Government;" a treatise on education; "Artis rationis libri tres;" a paraphrase on St. Paul's epistles, sometimes attributed to Dr. Fell; a translation of Sir John Spelman's Life of King Alfred; "Life and Death of Christ," prohibited on account of its papistical leanings; and a few others.—F.
WALKER, Robert, a good English portrait painter in the time of the Commonwealth, and to whom Cromwell sat several times. There is an excellent portrait in the Pitti gallery at Florence of Cromwell by Walker, which has been erroneously attributed to Lely. It was purchased in this country during Cromwell's lifetime for £500. There is a portrait of Walker by himself in the picture gallery at Oxford. Walker painted most of the distinguished officers of the Commonwealth. He died before the Restoration, about 1659.—R. N. W.
WALKER, Thomas, author of the Original, was born in 1784, at Manchester, where his father was a manufacturer. Educated at Trinity college, Cambridge, he was called to the bar of the Inner temple in 1829, and in the same year was appointed one of the magistrates of Lambeth police court. In May, 1835, he issued No. i. of the Original, one of the few modern attempts to revive the periodical essay of last century. The author himself was an original whose quaint and racy speculations on things in general, and health in particular, attracted considerable attention. Mr. Walker died at Brussels in January, 1862.—F. E.
* WALKER-ARNOTT, George A., a distinguished Scottish botanist, was born at Edinburgh in 1800. He distinguished himself early by his power of acquiring languages, and by the successful prosecution of mathematics and natural philosophy, which he studied at the university of Edinburgh under Playfair and Leslie. He entered the college at Edinburgh in November, 1813, and took the degree of A.M. on 25th April, 1818. He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates on 26th June, 1821. He showed very early a taste for botany, which was fostered by attendance on the lectures of Mr. John Stewart, an extra-academical lecturer in Edinburgh. In 1822 he visited France, and studied the natural system of botany under Jussieu, whom he accompanied on a botanical tour. He worked hard in Baron Delessert's herbarium in Paris. He afterwards visited the south of France, the Pyrenees, and the north of Spain, and he resided for some time at Montpellier. At Geneva he spent three months in studying De Candolle's herbarium. His attention was devoted in a special manner to cryptogamic botany, which he studied along with his friend. Dr. Greville. He contributed articles to the Transactions of societies and to periodicals. Among his writings may be enumerated the following—"Tentamen Methodicum Muscorum," in the Transactions of the Wernerian Society for 1822-25; "Nouvelle Disposition Methodique de Mousses," in the Transactions of the Nat. Hist. Society of Paris; "Tour in the South of France and the Pyrenees," published in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal; "Notulæ Botanicæ;" "On the Hya-hya, or milk-tree of Demerara;" "Botany of Beechey's Voyage," along with Hooker; "Contributions to the Flora of South America and the Islands of the Pacific," with Hooker; "On the Genera of Plants," with Wight and Nees von Esenbeck; "Prodromus Floræ Indiæ Orientalis," along with Wight, of which only one volume appeared; "Illustrations of Indian Botany;" "On the Flora of Senegambia;" besides various monographs of natural orders, genera, and species; the article "Botany," in the Encyclopædia Britannica of 1831; and a British flora, along with Hooker. He has also given articles on Diatomaceæ in the Microscopical Journal. In 1837 he received the degree of LL.D. from King's college, Aberdeen, and in 1845 he was appointed professor of botany in the university of Glasgow, an office which he now holds. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, of the Linnæan Society, of the Natural History Society of Paris, of the Botanical Society of Ratisbon, of the Natural History Society of Moscow, of the Cæsar. Leopold. Alex. Naturæ Curiosorum, of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, of the Lyceum of New York. In 1825 he was made deputy-
