W O R 



but fatisfied themfelves vsrith teftifying their affent to what he 

 expreffed, by faying Amen, or fo be it. Indeed it was im- 

 polTible for the people to refpond, fince they had no fixed 

 public form of prayer, except the Lord's prayer, which 

 they frequently, though not always, repeated ; and as to 

 ti-eir other prayers, every bilhop or minifter of a parifh was 

 left to his own liberty or ability therein. The conftant repe- 

 tition of the Lord's prayer with other prayers was not 

 thought to be necelTary, but it was frequently omitted. 

 Accordingly they regarded the Lord's prayer as given by 

 Chrift for a pattern of all other prayers, fo that Cyprian 

 ( De Unit. Ecclef. J 1 1 • ) calls it the law or rule of praying. 

 But though the repetition of the Lord's prayer was not 

 neceflary, yet it was ufual. Although they ufed that, they 

 had alfo other prayers. Their ufual method, according to 

 TertuUian (De Orat.), feems to have been, fir ft to begin 

 with the Lord's prayer, as the ground and foundation of all 

 others, and then, according to their circumftances and con- 

 ditions, as he expreffes it, to offer up their own prayers and 

 rcquefts. Thcfe other prayers, however, were not rellrifted 

 or impofed forms ; but the words and expreflions of them 

 were left to the prudence, choice, and judgment of every 

 particular bifhop or minifter. In other words, the primitive 

 Chriftians had no ftinted liturgies, or impofed forms of 

 prayer. As to prefcribed forms, there is not the leail men- 

 tion of them in any of the primitive writings, nor the leaft , 

 word or fyllable tending to it, according to lord King, 

 which, as he fays, is an unaccountable filence if there ever 

 were fuch, but rather fome expreflions intimating the con- 

 trary ; fuch as the minifter's praying dVr ovnui:, according 

 to his ability. (Juft. Mart. Apolog. ii. Origen, Comment, 

 in Mattli. et in Johanii. ) The noble author now cited has 

 fhev.-n from parallel paffages, that the minifter's praying ocr» 

 iuvz//i?, or according to the utmoft of his ability, imports 

 the exTcife of his gifts and parts in fuitable matter and apt 

 expreffiuas ; and that the primitive prayers were fuch appears 

 farther from a paflage in Origen, which explains the verfe in 

 Matth. vi. " When ye pray, ufe not mere repetitions, &c." 

 It is very unlikely, continues his lordfhip, that they were 

 obliged to prefcribed forms, becaufe they never read a fyl- 

 lable of their prayers out of any book whatever ; which is 

 evident from their pofture of prayer, that was two-fold, 

 either with their hands and eyes lifted up to heaven, or with 

 their eyes (hut. (Tertull. de Orat. Origen in Matth. vi. 5. 

 De Orat. j 9. Contra Celfum, lib. vii.) If tliey had ufed 

 prefcribed and impofed forms, they muft neceflarily have re- 

 membered them, which would have been an intolerable load 

 to the ftrongeft memory ; efpecially to have repeated, word 

 after word, the prayers of their faft-days, which muft have 

 been fev^ral hours long, fince fome of their fafts were pro- 

 longed from the morning of one day to the beginning of an- 

 other. Whether their prayers were divided into feveral col- 

 lefls, our author has not been able pofitively to determine ; 

 but he thinks it probable, that on their faft-days they made 

 feveral diftinft prayers, and that at their ordinary meetings, 

 their prayer after fermon was but one entire piece. Accord- 

 ing to Juft. Martyr (Apolog. ii. ', the prayer that preceded 

 the confirmation of the euchariftical elements " was one 

 long prayer, Jo which the people faid. Amen." Lord 

 King's Enquiry into the Conftitution, Difcipline, Unity, 

 and Worihip of the Primitive Church, part ii. See 

 Liturgy. 



WORSLEY, in Geography, a populous townftiip in the 

 pai-ifti of Ecclej, and county of Lancafter, England, 6 

 miles W.N.W. from the town of Manchefter. In the -year 

 18 1 1, this place contained 615 1 inhabitants, who occupied 

 1 01 2 houfes; and nearly the whole of whom were engaged 

 in manufa(5ture8 and the coal-mines. At this place is the 



won 



famous tunnel for the Bridgewater canal, (fee Canal,) 

 and a large brick manfion, called Worfley-hall, which be- 

 longed to, and was inhabited by, the late duke of Bridge- 

 water. See Lancafhire Gazetteer, 1808. 



WORSTED, or WoRSTEDE, a market-town in the hun- 

 dred of Tunftead, and county of Norfolk, England, is fituated 

 4 miles S.S.E. from North Walftiam, aiul 120 miles N.E. 

 by N. from London. It was formerly a place of much cele- 

 brity, and of confiderable trade ; but is now greatly on the 

 decline, and is chiefly remarkable for the invention, or firit 

 twilling, of that fort of woollen yarn or thread, which hence 

 obtained the name of worfted. This manufafture is mentioned 

 in the fecond year of Edward III. when the weavers 

 and workers of worfted ftuffs were required by parliament 

 to work them in a better manner than they had previoufly 

 done. Thefe ftuffs, and knit and wove hofe, conftitute 

 the chief manufafture of the town. A weekly market is 

 held on Saturdays, and here is an annual fair. The church 

 confifts of a nave, two aifles, a chancel, and a fquare 

 tower. The population of the parifh, according to the 

 return of the year 181 1, amounted to 619, occupying 112 

 houfes. 



Contiguous to the town is Worfted-hall, the feat of fir 

 George Berney Brograve, bart., a commodious manfion, 

 fituated in a pleafant park. — Beauties of England and 

 Wales, vol. xi. Norfolk; by J. Britton, F.S.A. 1809. 

 Blomefield's Hiftory of Norfolk, vol. xi. 1810. 



Worsted, and Worsted Manufadure. The term wor- 

 fted is applied to yarn, and manufaftured goods made of 

 combed wool. Worfted is properly a branch of the IVooUen 

 Manufacture, to which article we refer our readers ; but the 

 latter term, ftriftly fpeaking, is applied only to yarn, or 

 pieces made entirely or in part of carded wool. The cha- 

 rafteriftic diftinftion between combing-wool and ftiort or 

 clothing-wool has been already ftated under the article 

 Wool. (See Wool and Woollen* Manufacture.) 

 Worfted goods were made in England as early as the time 

 of Edward II. In the account of exports in the following 

 reign, already given in the article Woollen Mmrufaclure, 

 the number of pieces of worfted goods exported is rearly 

 double that of woollen cloths. According to Camden, 

 the name is derived from Worfted, a town in Norfolk, 

 where worfted ftuff"s were firft made. According to Dr. 

 Pan-y, in his " Eflay on the Merino Breed of Sheep," 

 vvorfteds were called by the Flemings ' Oflades,' and as the 

 manufacture was in their hands long before it was introduced 

 into England, it is probable that our appellation is a cor- 

 ruption of their's. Oftade was long ago a common furname 

 in Flanders, and was perhaps that of fome perfon famous 

 for this particular branch of the woollen trade, which 

 afterwards was appropriated to an eftabliftiment of fimilar 

 manufafturers in Norfolk. 



Worfted yarn is made of long or combing-wool, in which 

 the fibres are all laid even parallel with each other by the 

 wool-comb. It may be clafFcd into two great divifions, 

 the foft and the hard woriled yarn. The foft yarn is 

 made of the ftiorter kinds of combing-wool, the forting of 

 which has been already defcribcd under the article Wool. 

 The fhort and long combing-wools are both prepared for 

 fpinning by the comb in the fame manner, except that for 

 fome kinds of fine hard yarn made from the latter, the wool 

 is combed, and afterwards fpun nearly without oil. This 

 is the cafe with the yarn for bombazines. The foft yarn 

 for hofiery receives but little twift in the fpinnii?g, and two, 

 three, or more threads are afterwards twined together on 

 what is called a doubling-mill, to make a thread of rcquifiie 

 ftrength and thicknefs to be woven on the ftocking-frame. 

 See ^JO^KISG- Frame. 



Knitting- 



