W I c 



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cotton raanufafture is carried on with fpirit at Stratford- 

 upon-Slaney. The woollen manufafture is chiefly limited 

 to the flannel-trade. This, however, is carried on largely, 

 and is a fource of fair profit and induftrious occupation. 

 It prevails on the property of earl Fitzwilliam, and the 

 Flauuel-hall at Rathdrum was built at his lordfhip's expence. 

 The average annual fale is about 5000 pieces of 1 20 yards 

 each. 



The romantic beauties of this county have been often 

 defcribed. The vicinity to Dublin makes them eafily 

 acceflible, and few travellers omit to vifit them. The anti- 

 quities of Glendalough have been noticed in the proper 

 place, under that name. The mineralogy of Wicklow has 

 been noticed in Dr. Fetton's valuable Notes on the Mine- 

 ralogy of the Neighbourhood of Dublin ; and on this 

 head Mr. Griffith's Report on the Mountain Diftrift of 

 Wicklow fliould alfo be confulted. This uncultivated 

 diftrift has many peculiarities, which confift chiefly in the 

 facihty of accefs by means of roads ; the vicinity of highly 

 improved lands and induftrious inhabitants ; the frequent 

 occurrence of beds of lime-ftone, gravel, and marl ; the beft 

 manure for the amelioration of mountain foils ; and the 

 uncommon mildnefs of the climate. Thefe uncultivated 

 lands occupy about 200,000 Irifh acres, of which about 

 60,000 confift: of black bog ; the remainder is moory foil, 

 generally covered by coarfe ledgy grafs, or grafs intermixed 

 with heath. In this diftrift, many rivers have their fources. 

 The Liffey, with its tributary ftreams, takes a circular 

 courfe through the county of Kildare, and falls into the 

 bay of Dublin ; the Slaney runs fouthward to the county 

 of Wicklow ; the Fartrey difembogues itfelf at Wicklow ; 

 and the Ovoca at Arklow. ( For an account of the Crone- 

 bane mines, fee CronebanE. ) At Croghan Kinfhela, in 

 the fouthern part of the county, a quantity of native gold 

 has been extrafted by wafhing from the alluvial foil, of 

 which an account, by Meffrs. Mills and Weaver, may be 

 found in the Tranfaftions of the Dublin Society. Near 

 600 ounces of gold, worth above 2000/., were extrafted ; 

 but the vein could not be difcovered, and the fearch for it 

 was given up. Oxyd of tin was found in the fame ftream. 

 The county of Wicklow has no large town, and has only 

 the two members for the county to reprefent it in par- 

 liament. — Frazer's Survey. Beaufort's Memoir. Rad- 

 cliffe's Report. Griffith's Report, &c. 



Wicklow, the affize-town of the preceding county, 

 which is alfo a poft-town. It is pleafantly fituated on a 

 fmall harbour, and near a beautiful ftrand abounding in fine 

 pebbles, which is called the Murrough. The ale of Wick- 

 low has been long celebrated in Dublin. It is 24 miles 

 S.S.E. from Dublin. 



WICKWA, a fmall lake of Canada, at the eaftem ex- 

 tremity of Lake St. John. 



WICKWAR, anciently WiCKEN, a market-town in the 

 hundred of Grombald's A(h, in the county of Gloucefter, 

 England, is fituated 19 miles S.W. from Gloucefter, and 108 

 miles W. from London, andconfifts of one long ftreet. The 

 town is incorporated and governed by a mayor and twelve 

 aldermen. It has a weekly market on Monday, and two 

 yearly fairs. In it two courts are held ; one for the bo- 

 rough, and another for the tything, or foreign, which have 

 feparate conftables. The clothing manufadlure, which once 

 flourifhed here, has long been on the decline ; but the lower 

 clafles are ftill employed in fpinning for the clothiers of 

 other places. Wickwar contains a well-endowed free 

 grammar-fchool, which was founded in 1684. The church, 

 a handfome building on an eminence, confifts of a nave 

 and north aille. The reftory is valued in the king's books 



at 18/. The refident population in i8oi was 764 ; in 

 181 1 it had increafed to 805. — Hift. of the County of 

 Gloucefter, by the Rev. Thomas Rudge, B.D. Gloucefter, 

 1803, 2 vols. 8vo. 



WICLIFF, De Wyclif, Wiclef, or Wickliffe, 

 John, in Biography, the earlieft reformer of religion from 

 Popery, was born about the year 1324 in Yorkftiire, near 

 the river Tees, in a parifli whence he takes his name. He 

 was educated at Oxford, firft as a commoner of Queen's col- 

 lege, and then at Merton college, peculiarly celt brated at _ 

 that period for its learned members. His induftry and 

 talents foon railed him to diftinftion ; and he is faid to have 

 committed to memory the moft abftrufe parts of Ariftotle, 

 and to have excelled in his acquaintance with the fubtleties 

 of the fchool divinity. He was alfo eminently (killed in 

 civil and canon law, and in the law of the land. But the 

 ftudy which led to his future fame was that of the Scrip- 

 tures ; to which he added a diligent perufal of the Latin 

 fathers, and of the writings of the Englifh divint s, Robert 

 Grofthead and Richard Fitz-Ralph. In his treatife "Of 

 the Laft Age of the Church," at the early period of the 

 year 1356, heremonftrated againft fome Popilh corruptions; 

 and in 1360 he was aftive in oppofiiig the encroachments of 

 the Mendicant Friars, who interfered with the jurifdiftion and 

 ftatutes of the univerfity, and took all opportunities of en- 

 ticing the ftudents from the colleges into their convents. In 

 the following year, fuch was the credit he had acquired by his 

 conduft and writings, he was appointed maftcr of Baliol 

 college, and was prefented to a living in Liiicolnfhire. At . 

 this time he was held in fuch efteem by archbifhop Simon 

 Iflip, that in 1365 he conftituted him warden of Canterbury 

 college, which he had juft founded ; but on occdfion of a 

 difpute between the regular and fecular priefts, Wickliffe and 

 the three fecular fellows were rej-fted ; and on an appeal to 

 Rome, the fentence againft Wickliffe was cor firmed in 1 370. 

 His reputation in the univerfity was not at all diminifhed by 

 his exclufion. In 1372 he took the degree of D.D., and 

 read leftures, which gained him fuch applaufe, that whatever 

 he faid was regarded as an oracle. The impoftures of the 

 monks were the objefts to which his firft attacks were par- 

 ticularly diredled ; and the circumftances of the times fa- 

 voured his defign. The court of Rome was now enforcing 

 by menaces its demands on king Edward III. of the homage 

 and tribute to the fee of Rome, which had been inglorioufly 

 ftipulated by king John ; and the parliament had determined 

 to fupport the king in his refufal. A monk appeared as an 

 advocate on behalf of the claims of Rome ; and Wickhffe's 

 reply caufed him to be favourably regarded at court, and pro- 

 cured for him the patronage of the king's fon, John of Gaunt, 

 duke of Lancafter. In 1374 Wickliffe was joined in an 

 embafly to Bruges, the objeft of which was to confer with the 

 papal nuncios concerning the liberties of the Enghfh church, 

 on which the ufurpations of Rome had made unwarrantable 

 encroachments. In the fame year the king prefent-d him to 

 the valuable redory of Lutterworth, in Leicefterihire ; and 

 in the following year he was inftalled in a prtbend of the 

 collegiate church of Weftbury, in Gloucefterfhire. Wick- 

 liffe, by his foreign mifhon, bad an opportunity of ac- 

 quainting himfelf with the corruption and tyranny of the 

 court of Rome ; and both his leftures and converfations 

 were amplified with inveftives againft the pope. Whilft 

 he defended the authority of the crown and the privileges of 

 the nobles againft all ecclefiaftical encroachments, he cen- 

 fured vice and corruption in all ranks of fociety. This 

 conduft, though it raifed his reputation among the people, 

 excited a hoft of enemies, who felefted from his writings 

 nineteen articles, which they deemed heretical, and which. 



