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they would putrefy, and fend forth an infupportable flench. 

 The pafte is laid in heaps, prefl'ed clofe and fmooth, and 

 the blackifh cruft, which forms on the outfide, re- 

 united if it happens to crack : if this was negleded, little 

 worms would be produced in the cracks, and the woad 

 would lofe a part of its ftrength. After lying for fifteen 

 days, the heaps are opened, the cruft rubbed and mixed 

 with the infide, and the matter formed into oval balls, which 

 are prefl'ed clofe and folid in wooden moulds. Thefe are 

 dried upon hurdles : in the fun, they turn black on the out- 

 fide ; in a clofe place, yellowifh, efpccially if the weather 

 be rainy : the dealers in this commodity prefer the firft, 

 though it is faid the workmen find no inconiiderable differ- 

 ence betwixt the two. The good balls are diftinguifhed 

 by their being weighty, of an agreeable fmell, and when 

 rubbed of a violet colour within. For the ufe of the 

 dyer, thefe balls require a farther preparation : they are 

 btat with wooden mallets, on a brick or ftone floor, into a 

 grofs powder ; which is heaped up in the middle of the 

 room to the height of four feet, a fpace being left for 

 pafling round the fides. The powder, moiftened with 

 water, ferments, grows hot, and throws out a thick feiid 

 fume. It is fhovelled backwards and forwards, and moif- 

 tened every day for twelve days ; after which it is flirred lefs 

 frequently, without watering, and at length made into a 

 heap for the dyer. 



The powder thus prepared gives only brownifh tinftures, 

 of different fhadcs, to water, to reftilied fpirit of wine, to 

 volatile alkaline fpirits, and to fixed alkaline lixivia : rubbed 

 on paper, it communicates a green llain. On diluting the 

 powder with boiling water, and after Handing fome hours in 

 a clofe veffel, adding about one-twentieth part of its weight 

 of hme newly flacked, digefting in a gentle warmth, and 

 ftirring the whole together every three or four hours, a new 

 fermentation begins, a blue froth arifcs to the furface, and 

 the liquor, though it appears itfelf of a reddifh colour, dyes 

 woollen of a green, which, like the green from indigo, 

 changes in the air to a blue. This is one of the niceft pro- 

 ceffes in the art of dyeing, and does not well fucceed in the 

 way of a fmall experiment. 



Aftruc propofes the manufadturing of frefh woad leaves 

 in Europe, after the fame manner as the indigo plant is ma- 

 nufaftured in America ; and thus preparing from it. a blue 

 fecula fimilar to indigo, which from his own experiments be 

 has found to be prafticable. Such a management would 

 doubtlefs be accompaiiicd with fome advantages, though 

 poffibly woad fo prepared might lofe thofe qualities which 

 now render it, in a large bufinefs, preferable on fome ac- 

 counts to indigo, as occafioning greater difpatch when once 

 the vat is ready, and giving out its colour lefs haftily, fo as 

 to be better fitted for dyeing very light ihades. Neumann's 

 Chem. by Lewis, p. 437, &c. 



The ancient Gauls and Britons ufed to dye or ftain 

 their bodies with this plant, and were probably led from this 

 application of it to ufe it for dyeing cloth. 



Some hold that it was from this plant glafs took its deno- 

 mination ; though others derive both glajs and glajlum from 

 the Britifli glafs, which to this day denotes a blue colour. 

 See Glass. 



A woad blue is a very deep blue, almoft black ; and is 

 the bafe of fo many forts of colours, that the dyers have a 

 fcale, by which they compofe the divers cafts or degrees of 

 woad, from the brighteft to the deepell. 



Woad, in Botany. (See Isatis.) There are four 

 fpecies. 



The broad-leaved woad is cultivated in feveral parts of 



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England for the purpofes of dyeing, beinaufed as a found- 

 ation for many of the dark colours. 



Some feed down the leaves of woad in winter with (heep ; 

 a pradice which Mr. Miller condemns. 



Woad grows wild in fome parts of France, and on the 

 coafts of the Baltic fea : the wild woad, and that which is 

 cultivated for^the ufeof dyers, appear to be of the fame fpecies. 



Befide the plant properly fignified by the name woad, 

 which dyes a blue colour, we have two others known in our 

 Englifh herbals under that name, as alfo that of luold or 

 •weld. Thefe are both called by the common people dyer's 

 •weed, and are the /uteo/a and ihe genifta tmaoria. 



The ancients confounded all thefe three plants alfo under 

 the fame names. Paul us ^gineta feems to make them all 

 the fame plant ; and Neophytus, fpeaking of the ifatts, or 

 our woad, properly fo called, fays, that it was called by the 

 Latins lutum. This liilum has been by fome underftood to 

 mean the luteola, and by others the genlfla tinaoria ; but the 

 latter opinion only is right, for it is defcribed to us by the 

 ancients as having leaves hke the linum, or flax, and flowers 

 like the broom. 



WoAD-Mi/l and ffou/e, that fort of mill and houfe 

 which is neceffary and proper for preparing and fitting this 

 kind of fubftance for the ufe of the dyer. The reprefent- 

 ation of a mill and excellent apparatus for effefting the pre- 

 paration of the woad plant, which is made ufe of by Mr. 

 Cartwright, with much fuccefs and advantage, in Lincoln- 

 fhire, may be feen in the fecond volume of the " General 

 Didlionary of Agriculture and Hufbandry." 



WOAHOO, or Oahoo, in Geography, one of the Sand- 

 wich iflands ; as far as could be judged from the appear- 

 ance of the north-eafl and north-weft parts, it is much the 

 fineft ifland of the whole group. Nothing can exceed the 

 verdure of the hills, the variety of wood and lawn, and rich 

 cultivated valleys, which the whole face of the country dif- 

 played. The road is formed by the north and weft extremi- 

 ties. Should the ground-tackling of a (hip be weak, and 

 the wind blow ftrong from the north, to which quarter the 

 road is entirely open, this circumftance might be attended 

 with fome danger ; but with good cables there would be 

 little rifl<, as the ground from the anchoring-place, which is 

 oppofite to the valley through which the river runs to the 

 north point, is a fine fand. This ifland is fuppofed to con- 

 tain 60,000 inhabitants. N. lat. 21° 43'. E. long, of the 

 anchoring-place 202° 9'. See Sandwich IJlands. 



WOALDS, in ylgrlcuhure, a term not unfrequently 

 applied by writers on hufbandry to crops of the woad 

 kind. See Woad. 



WOAPO, in Geography, one of the Ingraham iflands 

 in the Pacific ocean. Captain Ingraham called it Ad.nms. 

 It was afterwards viGted by captain Roberts, who named 

 it JefFerfon. S. lat. 9' 27'. 



WOBBEL, a town of Weftphalia, in the county of 

 Lippe ; 6 miles E.N.E. of Horn. 



WOBURN, or WooBURN WeJ}, or BMop's Wooburn, a 

 village in the hundred of Defborough, Buckinghamlhire, 

 England, is fituated in a narrow valley, at the diftance of 

 3 miles W.S.W. from Beaconsfield, and 26 miles W. byN. 

 from London. The manor of Bifhop's Wooburn had 

 from time immemorial belonged to the fee of Lincoln, till 

 the year 1547, when bifhop Holbeach gave it to the crown 

 in exchange. It was granted in 1549 to John, earl of 

 Bedford. In the 1701 century it came by marriage 

 to Philip, lord Wharton, whofe fon and grandfon, the cele- 

 brated marquis and duke of Wharton, fiicceflively held it. 

 After the death of the latter, it was fold to the Berties ; 

 from whom it was purchafed, in 1784, by Mrs. Dupre, 



mother 



