W 1 L 



W 1 L 



of Fairfield, with 1728 inhabitants. — Alfo, atownof South 

 Carolina ; 27 miles S.W. of Charleftown. 



WILTOWN, a town of South Carolina; 21 miles 

 W.S.W. of Dorchefter. 



WILTPERG, a town of Auftria; 8 miles S.W. of 

 Freyftadt. 



WILTSHIRE, an inland county, fituated towards the 

 fouth-weftern diviilon of England, derives its name from the 

 town of Wilton, which, according to fome ancient hiftorians, 

 was the metropohs of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Weflex. 

 On the north and north-weft it is bounded by Gloucefter- 

 fhire, on the fouth-weft by Dorfetlhire, on the fouth and 

 eaft by Hampfhire, and on the north-eaft by the county of 

 Berks. Thefe boundaries are in general artificial, and form 

 a figure approaching that of an ellifpe. Concerning the 

 extent and fuperficial area of this county, various are the 

 ftatements of different writers. In the Magna Britannia it 

 is faid to be thirty-nine miles in length from north to fouth, 

 and thirty in breadth from eaft to weft. Gough, in his 

 additions to Camden's Britannia, eftimates its length at 

 forty -nine miles, and its breadth at thirty-feven. Its cir- 

 cumference, according to the fame author, is one hundred 

 and fifty miles, and the number of acres it contains 876,000. 

 Mr. Davis, whofe authority on this fubjeft is highly re- 

 fpeftable, in his Agricultural Report on the County, ftates it 

 to be in length fifty-four miles, and in breadth thirty-four. 

 The fame writer computes the fuperficial area to be 1372 

 fquare miles, or 878,000 acres. 



The county of Wilts is a diftrift peculiarly interefting to 

 the topographer and antiquary. To the latter, indeed, it 

 offers a wider and more varied field for refearch than per- 

 haps any other county in England. The grand and myfte- 

 rious monuments of Stonehenge and at Avebury, and the 

 numerous barrows which cover its plains, are relics of an 

 age anterior to hiftorical record, and of which the annals of 

 the world do not furnifti a parallel example. Like the 

 proud pyramids of Egypt, the former were calculated by 

 their conftruAion to have remained entire to almoft endlefs 

 futurity, if the agency of the elements had not been aflifted 

 by the deftruftive influence of man. In the Wanfdyke, 

 Bokerly-ditch, and Grimfditch, and in the Ampler in- 

 trenchments with which the county abounds, we behold the 

 remains of Britifti towns, and perceive the mode adopted by 

 the Britons to mark boundaries and form communications. 

 The caftles of Old Sarum, Scratchbury, Battlefbury, and 

 Bratton, difplay the efforts of a more advanced period; and 

 many other of the Wiltftiire intrenched works bear marks 

 of fucceffive occupation by the Romans, the romanized 

 Britons, the Saxons, and the Danes. This part of the 

 kingdom, indeed, feems to have been the principal theatre of 

 the military and civil events which were confequent on the 

 Saxon and Danifh invafions. Here the far-famed Arthur 

 and the ftill more illuftrious Alfred contended at different 

 periods for the liberties of their country, and checked for 

 a time the tide of invading conqueft. At Ludgerfhall, 

 Devizes, Malmfbury, and Marlborough, the veftiges of 

 Norman fortrefles may yet be traced ; and in Clarendon- 

 park ftood a fumptuous palace, eredled by king John. 

 Malmlbury yet preferves the ruins of a magnificent abbey ; 

 and in the cathedral of Salilbury, we behold an edifice fur- 

 paffing every fimilar ancient ftruAure in uniformity of ftyle 

 and fymmetry of parts. Many of the parochial churches 



head, and Longleat, we are prefented with manfions alike 

 celebrated for magnificence and beauty of fcenery, and for 

 popular attraftions to the connoiffeurs and artifts of the 

 country. 



At the period of the invafion of our ifland by Julius 

 Caefar, a people called the Belgae inhabited a portion of 

 this county. The Hedui are faid to have occupied its' 

 north-weftern divifion, near the fource of the Avon and 

 about Cricklade. Another diftrift is mentioned by Carte, 

 in his Hiftory of England, as being fubfequently poflefTed 

 by the Carvilii, fo named from their prince Carvilius ; but 

 whether thefe people were fome of the Belgae, or a diftinft 

 tribe, does not appear. Other authors fuppofe that the 

 Cangi inhabited the northern parts, if not at this era, at leaft 

 foon after it. 



When the Romans, after the lapfe of nearly a century, 

 from the final departure of Casfar, again invaded Britain in 

 the reign of Claudius (A.D. 44.), they found the political 

 condition and relations of its feveral tribes very materially 

 altered. The opinion of Camden, in his Britannia, is, that 

 the Belgae had fubdued the whole of Wiltfhire, and alfo had 

 poflefled themfelves of all the territories of the Hedui. 



It is very generally admitted, that the Belgae were the 

 moft powerful people in the fouth-weftern divifion of Eng- 

 land at the era of which we are now fpeaking ; and no doubt 

 is entertained of their having occupied all the fouthern dif- 

 trift of this county, as far as the Wanfdyke, which is there- 

 fore defignated by the appellation of ' The great Belgic 

 Boundary.' 



Under the Romans, Wiltfhire formed part of Britannia- 

 Prima, and many ftations, encampments, and other military 

 vettigia of that people can be traced in different parts of it. 

 Subfequent to the departure of the Romans, the earlieft 

 event of political importance which occurs in hiftory relating 

 to Wiltfhire is the maffacre of three hundred Britifh nobles, 

 on the fpot where Stonehenge is fituated, by the orders of 

 Hengift (leader of the firft Saxon expedition to England), 

 who had invited them here to a banquet under the pretence 

 of *ffefting a reconciliation between the Britons and him- 

 felf. The truth of this dreadful cataftrophe, however, 

 is extremely doubtful, as it does not appear to be mentioned 

 by any of the Saxon writers, and feems to reft folely upon 

 the authority of Nennius, and a few of the Britifti or Welfh 

 bards, who were evidently interefted in the propagation of 

 ftories calculated to excite feeUngs of enmity and revenge in 

 the breafts of their countrymen, againft a people, once their 

 allies, but afterwards their inveterate and barbarous enemies. 

 Carte fays, that this " ftory was borrowed from Witikind, 

 who relates it of the Thuringians, who were murdered by 

 the Saxons on a hke occafion, and upon a fignal given in the 

 fame words made ufe of by the Britifh writers." Turner, 

 in his Hiftory of the Anglo-Saxons, regards it as an incident 

 which can neither be authenticated nor difproved ; and 

 Whitaker, in his Hiftory of Manchefter, afferts, that the 

 conquefts of Hengift never extended beyond the hmits of 

 Kent ; a circumjlance which, if fully eftabhftied, would no 

 doubt tend to invaUdate our belief of the tranfaftion. 

 Hume, in his Hiftory of England, calls it a ftory " in- 

 vented by the Welfh authors, in order to palliate the weak 

 refiftance made at firft by their countrymen, and to account 

 for the rapid progrefs and licentious devaftations of the 

 Saxons." About the year 520, Cerdic, founder of WefTex, 



in the county are alfo objefts worthy the examination of having received confiderable reinforcements from Saxony, 

 the antiquary, as fpecimens of architeftural fkill and fcience ; and cut off a body of Britons which had been difpatched to 

 and in Wilton-houfe, Longford-caftle, Font-hill, Corfham- intercept them, collefted all his difpofable forces, and ad- 

 houfe, Bowood, Tottenham-park, Charlton-park, Stour- vanced to Mount Badon, Badbury-caftle, a Britifli pofl 



11 then 



