rote a
panegyric on Cromwell, which, too, is considered his best poem; he
revived, or rather "remodelled," the heroic couplet form of verse, which
continued in vogue for over a hundred years after (1605-1687).

WALLOONS, name given to the descendants of the ancient Belgae, a race
of a mixed Celtic and Romanic stock, inhabiting Belgium chiefly, and
speaking a language called Walloon, a kind of Old French; in Belgium they
number to-day two and a quarter millions.

WALPOLE, HORACE, Earl of Orford, born in London, educated at Eton
and Cambridge; travelled on the Continent with Gray, the poet, who had
been a school-fellow, but quarrelled with him, and came home alone;
entered Parliament in 1741, and continued a member till 1768, but took
little part in the debates; succeeded to the earldom in 1791; his tastes
were literary; wrote "Anecdotes of Painting in England," and inaugurated
a new era in novel-writing with his "Castle of Otranto," but it is by his
"Letters" he will live in English literature, which, "malicious, light as
froth, but amusing, retail," as Stopford Brooke remarks, "with liveliness
all the gossip of the time"; he is characterised by Carlyle as "one of
the clearest-sighted men of his century; a determined despiser and
merciless dissector of cant" (1717-1797).

WALPOLE, SIR ROBERT, Earl of Orford, Whig statesman, born at
Houghton, Norfolk, educated at Eton and Cambridge; entered Parliament in
1701, and became member for King's Lynn in 1702; was favoured by the Whig
leaders, and promoted to office in the Cabinet; was accused of corruption
by the opposite party when in power, and committed to the Tower; on his
release after acquittal was re-elected for King's Lynn; in 1715 became
First Lord of the Treasury, and in 1721 became Prime Minister, which he
continued to be for twenty-one years, but not without opposition on
account of his pacific policy; on being driven against his will into a
war with Spain, which proved unsuccessful, he retired into private life;
he stood high in repute for his financial policy; it was he who
established the first Sinking Fund, and who succeeded as a financier in
restoring confidence after the bursting of the SOUTH SEA BUBBLE
(q. v.); it is to his policy in defeating the plans of the Jacobites
that the Hanoverian dynasty in great part owe their permanent occupancy
of the British throne; it was a favourite maxim of his. "Every man has
his price," and he was mortified to find t