Ill* 



WICKWAB. 



WIGHT, ISLE OF. 



iizo 



Tin m*u<uj of the Vartiwy, which U celled llrom Lougb, ii sepa- 

 rated from the *M by a long and narrow alip of land, called the 

 Morrotuh, which at iU southern nd bends to the weat, and approaches 

 to olot* to Ui ahor*. that a bridge crones it, and leads to a suburb 

 At Uw northern end of this alip U the raoe-ooune. The town extends 

 along the Mtoary for above half a mile. At the eastern end of the 

 town, OD a atop rook or cliff projecting into the tea on the aouth side 

 of the mouth of the river, are tome trifling remain! of the caatle, 

 called Black Qtalle. In the centre of the town are the ruins of a 

 Francuoiu friary, founded in the reign of Henry III. The church of 

 the Wicklow union (which comprehends the three parishes in which 

 UK town U situated, and thoae of Qlenealy, Killiskey, and Kilcommou) 

 is on the north-west side of the town, near the river. The south door 

 has a fine Norman arch, the remains of the ancient structure; but 

 Marly all the reat of the building U of modern date : it baa a tower 

 and a copper cupola added in 1T77. Near the church is a school-house. 

 Then an meMing-houae* for Wesleyan Methodist* and for Quakers, 

 al-o a Roman Catholic chapel, two school-houses, a fever hospital, an 

 infirmary, a loan-fund office, a county jail and court-house, a post-office, 

 and a police station. Vessels drawing from seven to eight feet water 

 can enter the harbour at ordinary tides. There are two lighthouses 

 on Wicklow Head, a mile and a half south-east of the town. There is 

 a coast-guard station at Wicklow. Corn and some copper- and lead- 

 ore are exported; and coal, culm, limestone, timber, aud iron are 

 Imported. A few small vessels of from 35 to 100 tons and some small 

 erafl belong to the port. Wicklow was incorporated by charter of 

 11 James L, and sent two members to the Irish parliament before the 

 Union ; at which time it was disfranchised. The assizes for the county, 

 and quarter and petty sessions, ara held in Wicklow. 



\V1CK\VAR. [GLOUCESTERSHIRE.] 



WIDIN, a fortified town in Turkey, capital of Upper Bulgaria, is 

 situated on the right bank of the Danube, opposite the straggling vil- 

 lage of Calafat on the left bank, about ISO miles K.S.E. from Belgrade, 

 aud has a population of about 25,000. The fortifications, which were 

 previously decayed and weak, were repaired and greatly strengthened 

 by the Turks in 1 853-54. The town contains pretty wide streets for 

 a Turkish town ; many mosques surmounted with graceful minarets ; 

 amall bazaar*, 4c. It is the residence of a Greek bishop, and of the 

 pasha of the province of Widin. The trade of the town is in rock-salt, 

 corn, wine, and agricultural produce. The Austrian Danube steamers 

 put into Wnlin. The inhabitants of Widin consist of Turks, Greeks, 

 and Armenians : the Christians inhabit suburbs outside the line of the 

 fortifications. 



W 1 K LICKZKA. [GALICIA, Austrian.] 



W1KLUN. [POLAND.] 

 WliUIXGEN. [HOLLAHD.] 



WIKSBADEN. [NASSAU.] 



WIGAN, Lancashire, a market-town, municipal and parliamentary 

 borough, and the seat of a Poor-Law Union, in the parish of Wigan, 

 U situated in 53 33' N. lat, 2 38' W. long., distant 40 miles S. by E. 

 from Lancaster, 200 miles N.W. by N. from London by road, and 

 194) miles by the London and North-Western railway. The popula- 

 tion of the municipal and parliamentary borough, which are coexten- 

 sive, was 31,941 in 1851. The borough is governed by 10 aldermen 

 and 30 councillor*, of whom one is mayor ; and returns two members 

 to the Imperial Parliament. The living is a rectory, in the archdea- 

 conry of Liverpool and diocese of Chester. Wigan Poor-Law Union 

 contains 20 parishes and townships, with an area of 47,018 acres, and 

 a population in 1851 of 77,539. 



Wigan is a place of considerable antiquity. The old part of the 

 town is chiefly on the right bank of the river Douglas ; the suburb of 

 Scholes, which is modern, is on the left bank of the river. The town 

 U supplied with water, and is lighted with gas. Besides the parish 

 church, a handsome structure of ancient date, seated on the brow 

 of the hill, there are St. George's church, erected in 1781, and St. 

 Catherine* , built in 1841. There are chapels for Wesleyan Methodists, 

 Independents, Baptists, English Presbyterians, and Bx>man Catholics; 

 a Free Grammar school ; a Blue Coat school; National schools ; Infant 

 schools ; a mechanics institute, library, and museum ; news rooms ; a 

 saving* bank; and a dispensary. The town-hall, built in 1720, and 

 the moot-hall, are in the market-place. A large brick edifice, called 

 the Commercial Hall, 102 feet by 66 feet, erected in 1816, is for the 

 use of the manufacturers on market-days. The market-days are 

 Monday and Friday, and there are annual fairs on Holy Thursday, 

 June 27th, and October 28tb. 



manufactures of the place comprise linens, calicoes, checks, 

 fustians, the spinning of cotton-yarn, and other branches of the cotton 

 manufacture. Iron- aud brass-foundries, chemical works, mtinufoc- 

 of spades and edge tools, and corn- and paper-mills, give con- 

 siderable employment. There are extensive collieries in the neigh- 

 bourhood. The Lee-Is anil Liverpool Cnnal, which passes through the 

 town, given it the advantage of water communication with York- 

 shire and many part* of Lancashire, anil, by the Lancaster branch 

 <>f this canal, with We<tm<>rlind. Several lines of railway meet 

 at Wigan, by which communication is afforded with all parts of the 

 .try. 



Wigan IJM received nine royal charters, the first of which was 

 granted by Henry III., in 1246. Quarter and petty sessions and a 



county court are held. There are several sulphureous springs in the 

 parish. 



\\ l.inOROUQH, GREAT. [ESSEX.] 



WIGHT, ISLE OF, on the south coast of England, is sep:i 

 rom the mainland of Hampshire by a channel called the Solent Sea. 

 The average breadth of this channel is less than four mill's. It is 

 narrowest to the west of Yarmouth, where it is contracted to about a 

 mile by a narrow tongue of gravelly beach which runs out nearly two 

 miles from the Hampshire coast, and on the extremity of which is 

 situated Hurst Castle. This narrow part of the channel is extremely 

 deep. From Yarmouth to near West Cowes the width is from two to 

 ihree miles ; it is here contracted to a mile and a half, but opens out 

 opposite to Southampton Water to about five miles; it then f;r "wx 

 narrower as it approaches Spithoad, where the entrance to the channel 

 Torn the east is from two to three miles. The current through the 

 channel, both with the rising and ebbing tide, is extremely strong. 



The form of the island is that of an irregular rhomboid or lozenge. 

 The Needles Cliff, at the western extremity of the island, is in 50' 40' 

 N. lat, 1 84' W. long. ; the Foreland, at the eastern extremity, is in 

 50 41' N. lat., 1" 5' W. long. West Cowes Castle, north, is in 50 46' 

 ST. lat., 1 17' W. long.; St. Catherine's Point, south, is in 50 35' 

 N. lat., 1" 18' W. long. The longer diameter, from the Foreland to the 

 Needles Cliff, is not quite 23 miles ; the shorter diameter, from West 

 Cowea on the north to St. Catherine's Point on the south is scarely 14 

 miles ; the circumference is about 56 miles, ami the area is 99,256 

 acres, or about 155 square miles. The population in 1S51 was 42,277. 



Coatt and Surface. The coast of the Isle of Wight consists for the 

 most part of precipitous cliffs or steep slopes. The north coast is lower 

 than the south. 



The surface of the Isle of Wight is for the most part at a great 

 elevation above the sea. A range of high chalk downs extends, with 

 some interruptions and irregularities, from the Culver Cliff east to the 

 Needles west. In this chalk range there are three principal depres- 

 sions : between Yavcrland and Brading, three-quarters of a mile wide, 

 through which the eastern Yar flows; between St. George's Down and 

 Carisbrooke, half a mile wide, through which the Medina flowa ; aud 

 at Freshwater Gate, hardly 100 yards wide, through wliich the Western 

 Yar flows. Besides these principal depressions, several others, from 

 100 to 200 feet deep, divide the range into a series of long eminences. 

 The highest point of the chalk range is Mottiston Down, 693 feet above 

 the sea. The south side of the island consists of a high range of 

 downs, the upper part of which, on the west, is part of the chalk 

 ridge ; on the south, is chalk in horizontal strata ; on the east, is green 

 sandstone and irousaud. A broad valley separates the lofty range of 

 south downs from the central chalk ridge. The north side of the 

 island, which is in general less elevated than the south side, consists 

 of a great variety of wooded hills and valleys. 



The most extensive of the valleys is that of the Eastern, Yar alluded 

 to above, which comprises a large portion of the most fertile land in 

 the island. The basin of the Medina, which is in general very narrow, 

 forms a central valley. The south-western valley is bounded on the 

 east by St. Catherine's Hill, on the west by the sea, on the north by 

 the chalk ridge. On the north-east are a number of small valleys 

 which open separately into the sea ; that of the Wootton River is the 

 most extensive. Another series of separate valleys, but more flat aud 

 marshy than the north-eastern, forms a north-western valley which is 

 bounded on the west by the high land of Colwell Bay and Totwoll 

 Bay. Last and least is the singular valley of Freshwater, in which the 

 Western Yar rises within a few yards of the south coast, and running 

 into the sea at Yarmouth on the north coast, almost makes a distinct 

 peninsula of the western end of the island. 



The highest part of the island is St. Catherine's Hill, the summit of 

 which is 830 feet above the sea ; the height of Dunnose is 792 feet. 



Rivers. The Medina rises near the north-eastern foot of St. Cathe- 

 rine's Hill, and runs in a narrow valley till near Gatcombe, where the 

 valley becomes wider; it then passes through the chalk ridge near the 

 centre of the island, and flowing on the east side of Newport, forms 

 immediately below the town a wide sestuary, and enters the sea five 

 miles to the north, between East and West Cowes. The Eastern Yar, 

 or Jlradiny River, has its source in the same rauga of hills us the 

 Medina, not far to the east ; it runs in a direction generally north, 

 north-east, and east, and passing through a narrow chasm in the chalk 

 range between Brading and Yaverlmd, then forms Brading Haven, 

 which at high-water is a beautiful lake of 800 acres, but at low-water 

 is a surface of muddy sand traversed by the Yar. The Weitern Yar 

 rises near Freshwater Gate, and falls into the sea at Yarmouth ; it 

 is an scstuory in nearly its whole length, which is less than throe 

 miles. 



Geology, The whole of the strata which compose the Isle of Wight 

 are exhibited in its precipitous cliffs in the mo^t distinct aud complete 

 manner. Some of the phenomena which those strata present are 

 extremely curious. The north side of the island consists of the 

 ab'ive the chalk ; the centre and the upper part of the south side 

 consist of the chalk ; and the lower part of the south and south-east 

 sides consist of the strata below the chalk. The series above the chalk 

 belongs to what has been called the chalk basin of the Isle of Wight, 

 the boundaries of which are near Winchester to the north, near 

 Carisbrooke to the south, Brighton to the east, and Dorchester to the 



