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and contains fome ancient monumental chapels, in which 

 fome of the Verdon family appear to have been interred. 

 The population of the parifh, as returned under the aft of 

 1811, amounted to 626; the number of houfes to 160. 

 A fmall weekly market is held on Tliurfdays ; and here are 

 two annual fairs. — Beauties of England and Wales, vol. vi. 

 Herefordlhire, by J. Britton and E. W. Brayley, 1805. 



WEPFER, John-James, in Biography, an eminent 

 phyfician, was born in 1620 at Schaffhaufen, educated at 

 Strafburg and Bafil, and after vifits to feveral univerfities 

 in Italy, took the degree of doctor at Bafil, and fettled in 

 his native place. His reputation was extenfive in Switzer- 

 land and Germany, and he attained, by his diffeftions and 

 experiments, a high rank among thofe who have contributed 

 to improve medical fcience. In 1658 he publilhed a cele- 

 brated work, entitled " Obfervationes Anatomicae ex Cada- 

 veribus eorum quos fuftulit Apoplexia, cum Exercitatione 

 de ejus loco affefto," 8vo., often reprinted, and in fome 

 editions with the title " Hiltoria Apoplefticarum." In his 

 " De dubiis Anatomicis Epiftola," 1664, 8vo., he aflerts 

 the entire glandular ftrufture of the liver, prior to Malpighi. 

 Another valuable work is entitled " Cicutae Aquaticae Hif- 

 toria et Noxae," 1679, 4to. 



His conftitution was injured by attendance at an advanced 

 age on the duke of Wurtemburg, and the Imperial army 

 under his command ; and he was carried off by a dropfy in 

 1695. His papers were publifhed by two of his grandfons, 

 in a work entitled " Obfervationes Medico-Prafticae de 

 afFeftibus Capitis internis et externis," 1727, 4to. To the 

 Ephemerides Naturae Curioforum, of which fociety he was a 

 member, he communicated feveral valuable papers. Haller. 

 Eloy. 



WEPOLON, in Zoology, the Ceylonefe name of an Eaft 

 Indian ferpent, of a very long and flender body, and in fome 

 degree refembling a piece of cane. 



WERAY, in Geography, a river of Wales, which runs 

 into the Irifh fea, 7 miles S. of Aberyftwith. 



WERBEN, a town of Brandenburg, in the Old Mark, 

 at the conflux of the Havel and the Elbe. This town was 

 built by Henry the Fowler, on the ruins of the ancient Caf- 

 tellum Vari ; 33 miles N.N.W. of Brandenburg. N. lat. 

 52° 53'. E. long. 29° 44'. — Alfo, a town of Pomerania ; 

 9 miles S.S.W. of Stargard. 



WERBERG, a town of Weftphalia, in the bifhopric 

 of Fulda ; 12 miles S.S.E. of Fulda. 



WERBKA, a town of Ruffian Poland, in the palatinate 

 of Braclaw ; 36 miles S. of Braclaw. 



WERD, a town of Carinthia, on a lake to which it 

 gives name ; 8 miles W. of Clagenfurt. 



WERDA, a town of Saxony, in the Vogtland ; 6 miles 

 N.E. of Oelnitz. 



WERDAU, a town of Saxony, in the circle of Erzge- 

 birg ; 6 miles W. of Zwickau. 



WERDEL, St., a town of France, in the department 

 of the Sorre ; 40 miles S.E. of Treves. N. lat. 49° 30'. 

 E. long. 7° 11'. 



WERDEN, a town of Germany, in the county of 

 Mark, on the Roer ; 1 1 miles N.E. of Duffeldorp. N. lat. 

 51"= 18'. E. long. 6° 55'. 



WERDENA, a town of Pruffian Lithuania ; 18 miles 

 N.N.W. of Tilfit. 



WERDENBERG, a town of Switzerland, and capital 

 of a bailiwick, in the canton of Glarus, which was formerly 

 governed by counts of its own, who were at one time very 

 powerful. In the year 1485, it was purchafed by the can- 



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ton of Lucerne ; and, after changfing owners, in the years 

 1493 and 1498, was purchafed by the canton of Glarus, in 

 the year 15 19, and has remained ever fince annexed to that 

 canton, though the inhabitants have feveral times been mu- 

 tinous and revoked. The town is fortified ; 1 1 miles S.S.E. 

 of Appenzell. 



WERDENFELS, a town and caftle of Bavaria, which 

 gives name to a county in the bifliopric of Freyfing ; 20 

 miles S. of Weilhaim. 



WERDER, a town of Brandenburg, in the Middle 

 Mark, on an ifland formed by the Havel ; 4 miles W. of 

 Potzdam — Alfo, a diftrift; of Pomerania, between the two 

 branches of the Viftula, about 20 miles long, and 1 2 in its 

 mean breadth. 



WERDING, a town of Auftria ; 4 miles N.N.W. of 

 Schvvannaftadt. 



WERDT, or Wert. See Weert. 



WERE, or Wear, a river of England, which rifes in 

 Northumberland, crofTes the county of Durham, and runs 

 into the fea at Sunderland ; anciently called " Vedra." 



Were, a river of England, which rifes near Warminfter, 

 in Wiltfhire, and runs into the Avon, near Trowbridge. 



Were. See Weir. 



Were, IVera, in our old Latu-Books, fignifies as much 

 as xjlimatio capitis, or prettum hominis ; that is, fo much as 

 was anciently paid for killing a man. 



When fuch crimes were punifhed with pecuniary mulfts, 

 not death, the price was fet on every man's head, according 

 to his condition and quality. It^ere fuum, id eft, pretium 

 fun redemplionis, his ranfom. 



WERELADA, among our Saxon anceftors, the deny- 

 ing of a homicide on oath, in or4er to be quit of the fine, 

 or forfeiture, called luere. 



Where a man was flain, the price at which he was valued 

 was to be paid to the king, and his relations : for, in the 

 time of the Saxons, the kilhng of a man was not punilhed 

 by death, but by a pecuniary mulft, called luera. 



If the party denied the faft, he was to purge himfelf, by 

 the oaths of feveral perfons, according to his degree and 

 quality. If the guilt amounted to four pounds, he was to 

 have eighteen jurors on his father's fide, and four on his 

 mother's : if to twenty-four pounds, he was to have fixty 

 jurors ; and this was called -werelada. Homicidium lucra 

 folniatur, aut tvcrelada negetur. 



WEREGILD, Weregeld, in our Ancimt Cujloms, the 

 price of a man's head : pretium feu valor hominis occiji, homi- 

 cidii pretium ; which was paid partly to the king for the lofs 

 of his fubjeft, partly to the lord whofe vaflal he was, and 

 partly to the next of kin. 



This was a cuftom derived to us, in common with other 

 northern nations, from our anceftors, the ancient Germans; 

 among whom, according to Tacitus (De Mor. Germ, 

 cap. 21.), luitur homicidium certo armentorum ac pecorum 

 numero ; recipitque fatisfaSionem uninierfa damus. 



In the fame manner, by the Irifti brehon law, in cafe of 

 murder, the brehon, or judge, compounded between the 

 murderer and the friends of the deceafed, who profecuted 

 him, by caufing the malefaftor to give unto them, or to the 

 child or wife of him that was (lain, a recompence, which 

 they called eriach. And thus we find in our Saxon laws, 

 particularly thofe of king Athelftan, the feveral weregilds 

 for homicide, eftablifhed in progreffive order, from the 

 death of the ceorl, or peafant, up to that of the king him- 

 felf. And in the laws of king Henry I. we have an account 

 what other offences were then redeemable by weregild, and 

 what were i^ot fo. The procefs called appeal had probably 

 Q q 2 its 



