WARWICK WASHINGTON. 



881 



north-easterly direction towards Tamworth, within 

 a few miles of which it joins the Coventry canal at 

 Whittington-Brook. It is sixteen and a half miles 

 in length, thirty feet in breadth, and four and a half 

 feet deep, admitting boats of twenty-two tons bur- 

 den. The Coventry canal, constructed in 1790, 

 forms an important line in the communication be- 

 tween London, Manchester, Birmingham; and Liver- 

 pool. It is twenty-seven miles in length. The 

 Ashby-de-la-Zouch canal arises from the Coventry 

 canal at Marston-bridge, near Nuneaton, 'and enters 

 Leicestershire near Hinckley. Its whole length is 

 40| miles, the part within Warwickshire being only 

 about seven. The Oxford canal, forming part of 

 the chain from London to the western counties, 

 commences in the Coventry canal at Longford, 

 about four miles from Coventry, and runs with an 

 extremely tortuous course to Harborough-Magna, 

 near the borders of Leicestershire, from whence it 

 winds in a southerly direction, occasionally passing 

 into Northamptonshire, and finally entering Oxford- 

 shire a little to the southward of Wormleighton. 

 The total length is ninety and a half miles, breadth 

 thirty feet, and depth five feet. The Warwick arid 

 Birmingham canal commences at Birmingham, where 

 it communicates with the Warwick and Fazeley 

 canal, and runs in a south-easterly direction to 

 Warwick, from whence it continues under the 

 name of the Warwick and Napton canal, and finally 

 joins the Oxford canal near Napton-on-the-Hill. 

 Both these canals were constructed in 1799, and 

 the former is twenty-five miles in length, with 

 thirty-two locks, and a tunnel 300 yards in length ; 

 the latter is fifteen miles in length. A branch 

 from the Worcestershire and Staffordshire canal, 

 near Wolverbampton, enters the county a little to 

 the west of Birmingham, and joins the Birming- 

 ham and Fazeley canal. The Birmingham and 

 Worcestershire canal, the course of which lies 

 chiefly in the county of Worcester, crosses that de- 

 tached portion of the county of Warwick which lies 

 about ten miles to the west of Henley-in-Arden, 

 and again entering the county near Edgbaston, pro- 

 ceeds to join the Birmingham and Fazeley canal at 

 Farmer's-bridge. The Stratford-upon-Avon canal 

 commences at King's-Norton in Worcestershire, 

 near which it enters the county of Warwick and 

 runs in a south-easterly direction towards Lap- 

 worth, after which it turns to the southward, and 

 joins the river Avon at Stratford-upon-Avon. At 

 the point where it turns to the southward, it gives 

 off a small branch communicating with the Warwick 

 and Birmingham canal ; it also communicates by a 

 short branch with the village of Tamworth. Po- 

 pulation of the county in 1841, 401,715. 



WARWICK, GUY, earl of, an English champion, 

 now celebrated in nursery tales, is supposed to have 

 flourished in the reign of the Saxon king Athel- 

 stan. There is a tower belonging to Warwick 

 castle, which still bears the name of this redoubted 

 hero, and a spot called Guy's cliff, where the her- 

 mitage, to which he retired after performing the 

 many valorous exploits recorded of him, is said to 

 have stood. In the suburbs of Warwick, a chan- 

 try, with a statue, was erected to his memory, in 

 the reign of Henry VI., by Beauchamp, earl of 

 Warwick. In the castle of Warwick are still shown 

 his spear, buckler, spurs and bow, and also the slip- 

 pers of the beautiful Phillis, for whom he performed 

 all his wondrous achievements. Besides many vic- 

 tories over dragons, wild boars, &c., Guy is said to 

 have decided the fate of the kingdom in single com- 



bat with an enormous giant, who stood forth as the 

 champion of the Danes, at Memhill, near the walls 

 of Winchester, when king Athelstan was besieged. 

 The history of Warwick may be found in old 

 English and French romances. 



WARWICK, EARL OF. See Dudley. 



WASA, GUSTAVUS. See Gustavus I. 



WAS A, ORDER OF. See Sweden. 



WASH. See Brewing. 



WASHES ; a large estuary on the eastern coast 

 of England, in the counties of Norfolk and Lincoln. 

 When the tide is full, the whole is under water ; 

 but when the tide is out, it is passable by travellers, 

 though not without danger from quicksands. 



WASHING OF ORES. See Mining. 



WASHINGTON, the capital of the United 

 States of America, is situated on the left bank of 

 the Potomac and the right bank of the Anacostia, 

 or Eastern branch, in the district of Columbia. 

 The Tiber, a small stream, runs through the mid- 

 dle of the city ; and its waters may be conveyed to 

 the capitol and the president's house. Lat. 38 

 32' 54" N. ; Ion. 77 1' 48" W. from Greenwich 

 (on American maps it is often made the first meri- 

 dian) ; 436 miles south-west of Boston, 226 of New 

 York, 136 of Philadelphia, thirty-seven of Balti- 

 more ; 553 north-east of Charleston, 1260 north- 

 east of New Orleans, and 897 east of St Louis ; 

 295 miles, by the course of the Potomac, from the 

 Atlantic ocean ; population, in 1810, 8208 ; 1820, 

 13,247 ; .1840, 23,364 ; population of the district, 

 at the last-mentioned period, 43,712, of which 4694 

 were slaves. The city of Washington became the 

 seat of government in 1800 ; and it is the residence 

 of the president, and the other chief executive of- 

 ficers of the federal government. The federal con- 

 gress meets at Washington on the first Monday of 

 December every year, and the supreme court of the 

 United States holds its annual sittings here, begin- 

 ning on the second Monday of January. Washing- 

 ton is separated from Georgetown by Rock creek, 

 over which there are several bridges, and from 

 Alexandria by the Potomac, over which is a pile 

 bridge upwards of a mile in length : there are, also, 

 several bridges over the Anacostia. This river has 

 a sufficient depth of water for frigates to ascend, 

 without being lightened, above the navy-yard, 

 which is situated upon it ; vessels drawing fourteen 

 feet can come up to Potomac bridge, whence to 

 the mouth of the Tiber, there are nine feet of water 

 at ordinary high tide. A spacious canal unites the 

 Anacostia with the Potomac. The city is well 

 supplied with good water, and is pleasantly situated 

 with a range of heights in the rear, affording many 

 fine sites, and the Potomac, of more than a mile in 

 width, opening towards the south. Near the head 

 of tide-water navigation, and having an easy com- 

 munication with the ocean, it is connected with a 

 rich back country by the Chesapeake and Ohio 

 canal. Steam-boats ply regularly between Wash- 

 ington and Baltimore, Alexandria, Norfolk and other 

 places. A railroad leads from Washington to 

 Baltimore, and from thence to New York. The 

 city is regularly laid out ; but a small part of the 

 ground embraced within the plan is built upon. 

 Streets running north and south, are crossed by 

 others running east and west, whilst those which 

 are called avenues, traverse these rectangular divi- 

 sions diagonally, and are so laid out as to afford 

 the most direct communication between those places 

 deemed the most important, or which offer the most 

 agreeable prospects. Where the avenues form acute 

 3 K 



