W A 11 



clofe, formerly Hood the caftle, of wliich no remains are now 

 vifiblc : it was famous for the imprifonmLiit and death of 

 Robert de Belefme, earl of Montgomery, who, for rebel- 

 ling in the year 1 1 14 againft Henry I., was doomed to the 

 mod rigid confinement in tliis cafUe, where he llarved him- 

 felf to death. The port of Wareliam was formerly con- 

 iiderable ; but, owing to the (hallownefs of tlie (hore, and the 

 retreat of the fea, it is nearly choaked up ; though at very 

 high tides tiie water flovs up to Holm bridge, nearly 

 five miles. It had anciently a court of admiralty belonging 

 to it : the quay lies on tlie fouth fide of the town, but tlie 

 trade is now very inconfiderable ; it chiefly coiifills in tlie 

 exportation ot pipe-clay, vail quantities of which are ob- 

 tained from llie clay-pits round the town ; and nearly 

 Io,oco tons are annually fhippcd for London, Hull, Liver- 

 pool, Glafgovv, &c. for the ufe of the potteries. This clay- 

 is particularly ufeful in the compofition of Staffordfhire 

 ware ; the digging it employs many hands. jVccording to 

 the population return of the year 181 1, the nihabitants of 

 Wareham were i 709, occupying 383 houfes. South Bridge, 

 which, crolTuig the Frome, conucfted this town with the 

 ifle ot Purbeck, was an ancient llruflure, probably coeval 

 with William Rufus ; but being ruinous was prclented at 

 the Eafter feflions for the county in 1775. A handfome 

 bridge of Purbeck (lone has been fince erefted, having live 

 arches, the expence of which amounted to 2932/. ics. The 

 falmon filhery on the I'rome anciently belonged jointly to 

 the abbey of Bindon : the hoop-net, or weir, for taking the 

 falmon, was fixed in the Wareham royalty for feveral cen- 

 turies ; and its antiquity appears from various grants. The 

 fifliery is now held by Thomas Weld, of LuUwortli, and 



•John Calcraft, cfqrs Hutchins's Hillory of Dorfetfliire, 



4 vols. fol. 1796. Beauties of England and Walts, vol. iv. 

 Dorfetlhire ; by J. Britton and E. W. Brayley, 1803. 



Wakeham, a town of the ftate of Maflachufetts, in the 

 county of Plymouth, on a river which runs into Buzzard's 

 Bay, containing 851 inhabitants; 35 miles S.S.E. of 

 Bollon. 



WAREM. See Borchworm. 



WAREN. See Warren. 



Waren, in Geography, a fmall idand in the North fea, 

 near the coaft of Lapland, but the principal of a group. 

 N. lat. 66° 48'. 



WARENDORFF, a town of Germany, in the bifhop- 

 ric of Munfter, on the Ems; 12 miles S.E. of Munller. 

 N. lat. 51" 52'. E. long. 8° 6'. 



WARENDORP, a town of the duchy of Holftein ; 6 

 miles W.S.W. of Cifmar. 



WARESTAS, a fmall ifland on the eaR fide of the 

 gulf of Bothnia. N. lat. 60° 43'. E. long. 21^4'. 



WARGAM, a town of Hindooftan, in Guzerat ; 45 

 miles S. of Gogo. 



WARGELA, a town of Africa, in Sahara ; 250 miles 

 N.W. of Agades. N. lat. 23° 35'. E. long. 9" 50'. 



WARGEN, a town of Pruflia, in Samland ; 6 miles 

 W.N.W. of Konigfbcrg. 



WARGENTIN, Peter William, in Biogniphy, an 

 eminent Swcdifl. aftronomer, was the fon of 3 clergyman, 

 and born in Yamtland in 1717. In his (.arlier ye;:rs he 

 made rapid proficiency in tlie learned languages and in ma- 

 thematics, and in thofe other branches of learning which 

 were adapted to his original defliii.itioii for the church. In 

 1733 he was admitted at the academy of Upfal, where he 

 enjoyed peculiar advantages under Klingenllierna and Cel- 

 fjus for purfuing his favourite fludies of mathematics and 

 aflronomy ; gaining, after the death of his father, the means 

 of fubfillcncc by the inllruttion of private pupils. The 



6 



VV A K 



fubjea 



jjefts of his difputations, preparatory to his degree of 

 Her of arts, which he obt:;ined in 1743, were the fatel- 

 lites of Jupiter, and the political fyftem of Machiavel. His 

 views were diredled in the courfe of his Itudies to the office 

 of leftiirer in mathematics in the gymnafium of Hcrncifand, 

 and this objeft he fucceeded in attaining. Having cal- 

 culated new tables of Jupiter's fatellites, which were in- 

 ferted in the tranfadions of the fociety of Upfal for 1 74 1, 

 he was chofen a member of that body. After the death of 

 Celflus, he commenced a correfpondence with fome of the 

 French allronomers, and in 1743 "'^^ nominated a member 

 of the Academy of Sciences at Paris. In 1749 he wzs 

 chofen fuccelfor to Elvius, as fecretary to the Academy of 

 Sciences at Upfal, the duties of which ofTice he difcharged 

 for 34 years. Wargentin's tables for the fatellites of 

 Jupiter, piiblifhed in 1741, were much approved by all 

 foreign aflronomers ; and in 1742 he communicated, in the 

 tranfaftions of the fociety of Upfal for 1 742, more than 

 1000 obfervations made by various aflronomers, which he 

 compared with his tables, and the refult of the comparifon 

 was, that the difference feldom amounted to a minute, and 

 for the mofl part to lefs. In the fame tranfadions for 

 '743> f"^ inferted about 400 obfervations of the other fatel- 

 lites, which, compared with the tables, gave a difference 

 that feldom amounted to four minutes of time, but for the 

 moll part to lefs. From this time he dircAcd his attention 

 to the improvement of the theory of Jupiter and his moons, 

 and to the perfcftion of his tables. He was thus led to 

 revife them to the year 1753 ; and when his tables of the 

 four fatellites were completed, ho tranfmitted a copy of them 

 to M. de la Lande, by whom they were inferted, in 1759, 

 in a new edition of Halley's tables, publifhed at Paris. In 

 1769 he fent a copy of them, further improved, to Dr. 

 Maflcelyne, who publifhed thtni in the Nautical Almanack 

 for 1 77 1. They were again pubhfned, with improvements 

 by De la Lande, together with his own aftrcnorr.ical tables ; 

 and another edition of them, with fome variations from the 

 lad edition of Paris, appeared at Berlin in 1 776. The re- 

 fult of Wargentin's afTiduity in this department of aftror.omy 

 was communicated to the public in the " Connoilfanee du 

 Mouvements Celeiles" for 1766, the " Nautical .Mmanack" 

 for 1771 and 1779, and the " Aflronomiches Jahr-buch" 

 for 1777, 1779, 1 78 1, and 1782 : and the fruits of his lafl 

 labour in thefe tables appeared in the fourth volume of the 

 " Nova Ada Societatis Literariae Upfalienfis," which con- 

 tained 1250 obfervations of the third fatellite, with appro- 

 priate remarks. This indefatigable aftronomer contributed 

 to the tranfaAions of the Royal Academy of Sciences 

 papers on different fubjefts, amounting to the number of 

 fixty. All thefe papers, befides feveral others, and one 

 written in 1744, on the velocity of the rays of light, were 

 produced by him after he became fecretary to the academy. 

 Many of them " relate to the hiftory of the fcienees ; Inch .is 

 on thernumieters, and the bell forts of them ; on the attempt 

 made to determine the re.1l figure of the earth ; on the 

 parallax of the fixed flare, and the experiment made to dif- 

 coverit ; on logarithms ; on the (lux and reflux of the fea; 

 on comets ; on the ufe of ventilators on board Ihips ; and 

 on the northern lights." Some of them treat of climate 

 and its differences, in reference to which he obfervcs in 

 general, " that milder and colder winters, fummers more or 

 lefs warm, earlier or later fprings and aiitumiiB, depend not 

 only on the greater or lefs degree of latitude of tlie place, 

 but alfo on other circumllances, fuch as the vicinity of the 

 fea, lakes, niarlhes, large woods, uninhaliited deferls, &c. 

 from which he deduces this tonclulion, that the climate of 

 Swcdcu is much more temperate than many others lying 



under 



