WILHELMSTADT. 



WILTON. 



1128 



t 



arlUr CelUe iohabitanU are occasionally discovered. The remains of 

 a* mrin1 wall or rampart, called the Dell's Dike, which commence* 

 at Lochrymn. aod is believed to have terminated near Bowness in 

 OoMtberiaod. where the great Wall of Hadrian commenced, is sup- 

 posed by Chalmers to hare been the work of the Britons after the 

 Setauture of the Roman armies. There were monasteries at Whit- 

 her*. Wmo*. Glenluco, and Soolseat Several ancient castles are 

 aHefl orer the county, among which may be mentioned Dunskey 

 Cs*tle, ainculariy placed on the verge of a precipice, above the sea, 

 boolamfls & from Portpatriok; aod Castle Kennedy, the ancient 

 sat of the family of Casaiiis, in the pariah of Inch. The abbey of 

 Ulcnluc* U at the present day a mere remnant of what it once was. 

 Of objects of antiquarian interest the most curious is the stone circle 

 called the Standing Stones of Ton-house, in the pariah of Wigton : 

 the stone* are 19 erect blocks of granite, which form a circle, with 

 M rtnrHiTg at a little distance to the south and east Two 

 in the same neighbourhood. There are a few other unim- 

 iatoric and Roman remains. 



.j^,,,,.. Rttigiout Worikip and fJucation. According to the 

 Returns of the Census for 1851 it appears that there were then in the 

 county 62 places of worship, of which 18 belonged to the Established 

 Church, 14 to the Free Church, 10 to the United Presbyterian Church, 

 4 to the Reformed Presbyterian Church, 4 to Roman Catholics, and 

 1 each to Episcopalians and Independents. For 60 of the places of 

 worship the number of sittings was estimated at 22,293. The number 

 uf Sabbath schools in the county was 51, of which 14 belonged to the 

 KsUbliahrd Church, 14 to the United Presbyterian Church, and 12 to 

 the Free Church. The total number of Sabbath scholars was 3402. 

 Of Day schools there were 101, of which 59 were public schools with 

 4076 scholars, and 42 were private schools with 1452 scholars. 

 WILHELMSTADT, or WILLEMSTAD. [BRABANT, North.] 



WlLKll WX.SXKI. [POLABD.] 



WILLKNHALL. [STAFFORDSHIRE.] 



WILLIAM, KORT. [INVERNESS-SHIRE.] 



WILLIAM HENRY. [CANADA.] 

 WILLIAMSBURQ. [New YORK; VIRGINIA.] 

 uil.I.IXGHAM. [CAMBRIDGESHIRE.] 



WILLITON, Somersetshire, a village and the seat of a Poor-Law 

 Union, in the parish of St Decumans, is situated in a valley near the 

 Bristol Channel, in 51 9' N. lat, 3 19' W. long., distant 13 milea 

 N.\V. from Taunton, 155 miles W. by S. from London. The popula- 

 tion of the chapelry of Williton in 1851 was 2783. The living is a 

 perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry of Tauntou and diocese of 

 Bath and Wells. Williton Poor-Law Union contains 36 parishes and 

 townships, with an area of 109,202 acres, and a population in 1851 of 

 1 9,895. Besides the district chapel there are places of worship for 

 Wesleyan Methodists and Baptists, and a Diocesan school. 



WILMINGTON. [CAHOLJKA, NORTH ; DELAWABE ; KENT ; 

 8OHB.1 



W1LMSLOW. [CHESHIRE.] 



WILNA, an extensive government of West Russia, formed out of 

 Samogitia and Lithuania, situated between 53 35' and 56 24' N. lat, 

 21* 6 y and 26 40' E. long., is bounded N. by Courland, N.E. by 

 Vitpsk, E. by Minsk, 8. by Grodno, S.W. by Poland, W. by Prussia, 

 and N.W. by the Baltic. Its area is 16,251 square miles, and the 

 population in 1846 numbered 863,700. 



The country is an extensive aud rather elevated plain, diversified 

 by forests and hills, the highest of which however do not rise more 

 than 300 feet above the surface of the sea, and the hollows are filled 

 with manhe* and bogs. Some districts are too sandy for vegetation, 

 but on the whole the soil is not unfavourable to cultivation. All 

 kinds of grain and useful plants flourish. Here and there are found 

 blocks of granite, and fossil bones of elephants and other animals. 

 The country appears to have been covered with one vast forest for 

 thousands of years. The progress of cultivation has of course thinned 

 the forests, but there are still woods of great extent There are many 

 lakes and numerous rivers; most of the rivers are tributaries of the 

 Niemen, which forms the south-western boundary of the province 

 towards the kingdom of Poland. The Diina bounds the province for 

 a short distance on the extreme north-east The Wilia is the prin- 

 cipal river ; it rises in Minsk, is joined by the Narocz and the Swienta, 

 and fills into the Niemen at Kauen. The Dange and the Beresina 

 both rise in the province ; the former passes into Prussia, and the 

 latter into Minsk. The course of most of these rivers is slow, and 

 the water is bad in consequence of the many small streams which flow 

 into them from the marshes, which are chiefly in the east and south- 

 east of the province, where likewise the lakes are the most numerous, 

 the principal of which are the Narocz, to the east of Wilna, the 

 Drisiraty, and the Lake of Braslau. The winter*, though short, are 

 very cold; the spring U long and humid; the autumn and summer 

 are wet and foggy. 



Agriculture is the chief occupation of the inhabitants. Rye is the 

 grain moiit generally cultivated, and considerable quantities are 

 exported. Next to rye ara barley and wheat, then oats, buckwheat, 

 |as and beans, and a little millet Flax, hemp, and hops are grown, 

 and a considerable quantity exported. 



Cattle, though numerous, are in general of inferior breed. There 

 is a good breed of small but hardy horses, called the Lithuanian, 



which are in great request for the Russian light cavalry. Bees are 

 kept in great numbers. The abundance and remarkably fine quality 

 of the honey ara attributed to the great forests of lime-trees, of the 

 flowers of which the beei are very fond. 



There ara vast forests of oak, fir, ash, beech, lime, willow, maple, 

 and alder, and great abundance and variety of wild-barries are found. 

 Great quantities of charcoal are burned, aud pitch, tor, potashes, and 

 lamp-black ara made. Large numbers of river-craft are built fur the 

 down-navigation of the rivers. There is abundance of game and wild 

 beasts, among which are wolves, bears, gluttons, &c. The urus U 

 said to exist in the woods near Letewik. 



The minerals are bog-iron, saltpetre, marble, granite, sandstone, 

 jasper, agates, and chalcedony. 



The manufactures are unimportant. The women in the country 

 spin hemp, flax, and wool, weave linen and coarse cloth for thrir 

 families, and knit stockings. The men work in the forests, aud gain 

 their livelihood partly as carriers, aud by preparing potashes, pitch, 

 tar, and lamp-black, and partly by assisting in the conveyance of goods 

 on the Niemen, the Diina, and the Wilia. The articles exported are 

 rye, flour, linseed, hops, timber, staves, bark, tar, potashes, hides, woo), 

 hair, horns, feathers, honey and wax, tallow, butter, oxen, Lithuanian 

 horses, and strong coarse linen. There are no great brandy-distil 

 but all the principal farmers have each his own still fur himself and 

 his family, and the Jews distil brandy for sale. The inland trade is 

 almost exclusively in the hands of the Jews. 



Towns. Wilna, the capital formerly of Lithuania, now of (lie 

 government of Wilna, is situated in 54 43' N. lat, 25 10' E. 

 long., at the conflux of the navigable river Wilia and the Wileyka, 

 and has about 58,01)0 inhabitants, of whom more than one-third are 

 Jews. The streets arc crooked and narrow. On an eminence called 

 the Castle Hill are ruins of a large palace of the Jagellons. The 

 town-hall, the arsenal, the palace of the government, and some palaces 

 of the nobility, are handsome buildings. Among the churches, which 

 number about 40, the cathedral, dedicated to St. Stanislaus, is the 

 most worthy of notice. It was built in 1367. Besides Catholic con- 

 vents there are several Jewish synagogues, two Protestant and two 

 Greek churches. The University of Wilna, founded as a college of 

 Jesuits in 157S, was suppressed by a ukase of 1st May 1832, and its 

 library of 200,000 volumes was transferred to St. Petersburg. The 

 town has still a medical academy, a botanic garden, an observatory, 

 aud a theological seminary. It has a few manufactures and a 

 considerable trade. 



Troki, situated on a lake 17 miles to the west of Wilna, has 4000 

 inhabitants. Kowno, a town of 7000 inhabitants, is situated at the 

 conflux of the Wilia and the Niemen ; it was here that the main 

 body of Napoleon's army entered Russia in 1812. Krcidany, with 

 6000 inhabitants, is a very considerable town ; all the houses arc of 

 wood. 



WILTON. [NORFOLK.] 

 WILTON, Wiltshire, a m 



a market-town, a municipal and parliamentary 



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

 is situated near the river Wily, in 51 4' N. lat., 1 51' W. long., 

 distant 3 miles W. by N. from Salisbury, and 84 miles W.S.W. from 

 London. The population of the parliamentary borough in 1851 wm 

 8607. The borough is governed by a mayor, aldermen, aud burgesses, 

 and returns one member to the Imperial Parliament. The living is a 

 rectory in the archdeaconry and diocese of Salisbury. Wilton Poor- 

 Law Union comprises 22 parishes aud townships, with an area of 

 55,304 acres, and a population in 1851 of 10,742. 



Wilton is a place of great antiquity, aud its former importance is 

 indicated by the circumstance of its having given name to the county, 

 which is called in the Saxon Chronicle Wiltuuscire. It was the 

 scene of one of Alfred's earlier battles with the Danes in 871. Wilton 

 was the occasional residence of the West Saxon kings ; aud an abbey 

 for nuns existed here at an early period. The town was plundered 

 and burnt by the Danish king Sweyn, in the reign of Ethelred II., 

 1003, but it appears to have so far recovered as to be a place of import- 

 ance at the time of the Conquest. It was for a time (909-1045, or 

 later) the seat of a bishopric formed by the dismemberment of the 

 diocese of Sherbourne, and afterwards reunited with it, just before the 

 removal of the see to Sarum. 



Wilton stauds on the tongue of land formed by the junction of the 

 Nadder and the Wily. The town consists chiefly of one long street, 

 on the road from Salisbury to Hindon and Mere. The old church, 

 formerly the abbey church, is now only used as a place of sepulture. 

 The new church, erected in 1S42, at a cost of nearly SO.OOOi. by the 

 Right Hon. Sidney Herbert, M.P., is a very elegant and highly-finished 

 edifice in the Lombardic style, with a detached campanilj. There 

 are places of worship for Independents and Methodists; an endowed 

 and a parochial school. Opposite the old church is ' the county 

 cross.' The town-hall is an ancient plain brick building. Wilton 

 was formerly famed for its carpet manufacture : this branch of 

 industry has declined, but is still carried on to some extent, and some 

 beautiful fabrics are produced. The market is not held regularly. 

 There are two yearly fairs ; one of them, one of the greatest sheep 

 fairs in England, is held on September 12th, the other on May 1th. 



Near the town is Wilton House, the seat of the Earl of Pembroke, 

 a mansion of incongruous architecture but imposing appearance, 



