WITCH-HAZEL WITNEY. 



ingenuity was generally quickened by the applira- I 

 tion of what was then railed "gentle torture." 

 General assemblies of witches were held yearly or 

 oftener, in which they appeared entirely naked, and 

 besmeared with an ointment made from the bodies 

 of unbaptized infants. To these meetings they 

 rode, from great distances, on broomsticks, pokers, 

 goats, hogs or dogs; the devil taking the chair 

 under the form of a goat. Here they did homage 

 to the prince of hell, and offered him sacrifices of 

 young children, &c., and practised all sorts of 

 license until cock-crowing. Besides extorting con- 

 fessions by torture, it was usual to subject the ac- 

 cused to the witch-ordeal ; that is, their thumbs 

 being tied together, they were thrown into the 

 water, and if they did not sink they were considered 

 guilty. 



W ITCH-HAZEL (hamamelis virginica) ; a North 

 American shrub, remarkable for putting forth its 

 flowers at the season when most forest-trees are 

 parting with their leaves. It grows six or eight 

 feet high, dividing, at base, into several cylindrical, 

 grayish branches : the buds and young shoots are 

 covered with short down : the leaves are about 

 four inches long by two or three broad, alternate, 

 petiolate, oval, obtuse, having a few coarse inden- 

 tations: the flowers are clustered, yellow and 

 showy, having long and linear petals. A forked 

 twig of the witch-hazel forms the celebrated divin- 

 ing rod, which has been used in many parts of the 

 interior to impose on the credulous. 



WITHER, GEORGE, an old English poet, was 

 born at Bentwortb, in Hampshire, June 11, 1588. 

 His parents, who were very respectable, sent him 

 to Magdalen college, Oxford. He was, however, 

 prematurely removed from the university, with a 

 view to agricultural pursuits ; but, disliking a 

 country life, he went to London, and entered him- 

 self a student of Lincoln's Inn. Here he paid more 

 attention to the muses than to law, and acquired 

 the reputation of a poet. In 1613, appeared his 

 celebrated satires, entitled Abuses Stript and Whipt, 

 the severity of which led to his confinement in the 

 Marshalsea, where he wrote his Satire to the Ring, 

 which procured his release. In 1615, he published 

 his Shepherds Hunting, wiitten during his imprison- 

 ment in the Marshalsea, the most poetical of all his 

 works. Attaching himself to the Puritans, he was 

 violently assailed by their opponents. He took an 

 active part on the side of parliament when the 

 civil war broke out, and sold an estate to raise a 

 troop of horse, and obtained the rank of major. He 

 was made a justice of peace, by the long parliament, 

 for three counties, and major-general of all the horse 

 and foot in the county of Surrey, by Oliver Crom- 

 well. On the restoration, he lost all which he had 

 amassed by his previous employment ; and, having 

 published a piece denominated Vox Vulgi, he was 

 committed to Newgate, and afterwards to the 

 Tower, where he was denied the use of pen, ink 

 and paper. In this confinement he remained more 

 than three years, and wrote several things, by the 

 connivance of the keeper, which were subsequently 

 published. When he was released is not recorded ; 

 but he died May 2, 1667. Some of his works have 

 been republished by Sir Egerton Brydges, including 

 his Shepherds Hunting (1814), his Fidelia (1815), 

 and his Hymns and Songs of the Church (1815). 

 The other works are scarce. 



WITHERING, WILLIAM ; a distinguished phy- 

 sician and writer on botany, was born in 1741. He 

 studied at Edinburgh, where he took his doctor's 



degree in 1766. He then settled at Stafford, and 

 afterwards removed to Birmingham, where his skill 

 and assiduity speedily raised him to eminence in his 

 profession. The chief objects of his attention, in- 

 dependent of his duties as a medical practitioner, 

 were chemistry and botany ; the result of his re- 

 searches appeared in several valuable publications. 

 Being subject to pulmonic disease, he thought it 

 desirable, in 1793 and 1794, to pass the winter at 

 Lisbon ; and, after his return home, he did not 

 again resume, to any extent, his professional prac- 

 tice. He died at the Larches, near Birmingham, 

 in November, 1799. His principal publications are, 

 a Systematic Arrangement of British Plants (2 

 vols., 8vo., 1776, extended, in the edition of 1787, 

 to three volumes, and, in that of 1796, to four) ; an 

 Account of the Scarlet Fever and Sore Throat, or 

 Scarlatina Anginosa (1779, 8vo.) ; an Account of 

 the Foxglove, and some of its Medical Uses, with 

 Practical Remarks on the Dropsy and other Dis- 

 eases (1785, 8vo.); a Chemical Analysis of the 

 Waters at Caldas da Reinha (Lisbon, 1795, 4to.); 

 besides a translation of Bergman s Sciagraphia 

 Regni Mineralis, and papers in the Philosophical 

 Transactions relative to mineralogy. The name of 

 Witherinyia has been bestowed on a genus of Ame- 

 rican plants by L'Heritier; and the native carbo- 

 nate of barytes has received the appellation of 

 Witkerite, in honour of doctor Withering, who first 

 discovered and described it. 



WITHERSPOON, JOHN, D.D., LL.D., pre- 

 sident of the college at Princeton, New Jersey, was 

 born in Yester, Scotland, Feb. 5, 1722, and edu- 

 cated at Edinburgh. He was settled in the minis- 

 try, first at Beith, and afterwards at Paisley, and 

 became one of the most distinguished of the Scot- 

 tish clergy for talents and influence. He published, 

 while there, his Characteristics, and became the 

 leader of the orthodox part of the clergy. He was 

 invited to remove to several distinguished citie in 

 Europe, but, at length, accepted an appointment to 

 the presidency of the college at Princeton, New 

 Jersey, and came to that state, with his family, in 

 1768. The war of the revolution dispersed the 

 students, and left him at leisure to engage in civil 

 employments, to which he was almost immediately 

 called. He was elected a member of the conven- 

 tion which formed the constitution of New Jersey, 

 and, in 1776, was appointed a member of congress, 

 and retained a seat in that body till the conclusion 

 of peace. His name is affixed to the Declaration 

 of Independence, and the Articles of Confederation. 

 After the war, the college was re-opened, and he 

 returned to his duties there. During the last two 

 years of his life, he suffered the loss of his sight. 

 He died November 15, 1794, in the seventy-third 

 year of his age. He possessed a mind of great 

 vigour and activity, of uncommon shrewdness and 

 humour. His learning was very various and ex- 

 tensive, and his discernment of character singularly 

 keen. His preaching was characterized by perspi- 

 cuity and energy. He was an able politician, and 

 a zealous friend of liberty, and a highly amiable, 

 amusive, and instructive companion. His works 

 have been published in 4 vols., 8vo. 



WITNESS. See Evidence. 



WITNEY; a market-town in Oxfordshire, 65 



miles W. N. W. from London. It is pleasantly 



I situated on the river Windrush, over which is a 



good stone bridge, erected in 1822. The town 



consists chiefly of two streets, the houses of which 



'. are of a neat and uniform character. The chief 



