658 
WIG 
Scots, when they plundered the abbey of Holme-Cultrum, in 
1322. The van of the duke of Hamilton’s army was 
quartered in and about Wigton in 1648. The market is by 
prescription, and appears to have been always held, as 
it is at present, on Tuesday. John de Wigton proved his 
right to it in the reign of Edward I, and to a fair for three 
days at Lady-day. The market is a very considerable one 
of corn, butchers’ meat, and other provisions. On St. 
Thomas’ day, December 21, in every year, there is an un¬ 
usually large market for butchers’ meat, apples, and honey, 
for the purposes of Christmas cheer. On Martinmas Tues¬ 
day, a large quantity of beef is brought to the market, and 
bought by the country people chiefly, to be salted for winter 
consumption. The old charter fair is held April 5, and is a 
great mart for black cattle, stallions, Yorkshirecloth, hardware, 
&c. There is a large and noted horse fair on the 20th of 
February. There was a free chapel near Wigton, attached to 
the hospital of St. Leonard, the lands belonging to which 
were granted by king Edward VI., to Thomas Dalston and 
William Denton. This hospital is supposed to have been at 
a place now called Spital, nearly a mile east of the town, 
now' the property of Sir Wastell Briscoe, bart. of Crofton 
Hall. In the year 1723 an hospital for six widows of Pro¬ 
testant clergymen (who had enjoyed benefices) of the county 
of Cumberland, or such as had served two years as curates, 
was founded here by the executors of the reverend John 
Thomlinson, rector of Rothbury, in Northumberland. A 
free grammar school was also founded at Wigton, by this 
benevolent clergyman, in 1730, who having received 200/. 
collected by the inhabitants, gave a rent charge of 19/. 6s. 4 d. 
per annum, out of his lands at Haughton. Dr. Thomlinson 
built the school-house, to w'hich is attached a good house 
and garden, for the head master. Mr. Allison and Mr. 
Thomlinson have shewn their liberality as patrons of learn¬ 
ing, by a handsome bequest to the school in the years 1792 
and 1798. 
The causes which have contributed to increase the popu¬ 
lation of Wigton, are the increase of manufactories, viz. for 
printed cottons, ginghams, checks, calicoes, &c. and the 
inclosure of extensive common lands, within the last 10 
years. Eminent agriculturists consider the recent inclosures 
ofland, (the chief produce of which is corn) for a circuit of 
10 miles round Wigton, as deserving the appellation of the 
Granary of the county. In 1788, a new and elegant church 
was built. A handsome Sunday school, capable of contain¬ 
ing 400 children, was built by voluntary subscription in 
1820; a lasting monument of the charitable regard of the 
inhabitants for the best interests of the rising generation. 
There are three good inns, the Queen’s Head, King’s Arms, 
and the George, not inferior to any in the north of England, 
for comfortable accommodation and reasonable charges. 
The streets are clean and neat in general, and are now under¬ 
going a complete and thorough repair, which, when finished, 
will be such an improvement to their appearance as will 
amply remunerate the proprietors of houses for the great ex¬ 
pense incurred. There are some well built houses in the 
place. The river Wiza bounds the west and north side of 
the town, from which some fields, containing a rich alluvial 
soil, extend, by a gentle declivity, their green surface to the 
margin of the river, and form a beautiful landscape. The 
salubrious temperature of the air here is highly favourable to 
longevity. One mile south of Wigton is Old Carlisle, a 
considerable Roman station, well deserving the attention 
of every antiquarian. Horsley supposes that Olenacum was 
the name of this station, though, from the river Wiza, which 
runs near it, and the modern name of Wigton, only a mile 
from it, he feels inclined to call it Virosidum. 
WIGTON, a township of England, West Riding of 
Yorkshire; 6 miles north-by-east of Leeds. 
WIGTON BAY, a fine safe bay in Scotland, of consi¬ 
derable extent, running northward from the Solway frith into 
the interior of Galloway. It affords safe places of anchorage 
in many parts, and possesses several good harbours, particu¬ 
larly at the isle of Whithorn, Wigton,Garliestown, Creetown, 
and Gatehouse. 
W I L 
WIHICZ, or Bihicz, a small town of European Turkey, 
in Bosnia, situated on an island in the river Unna. It was 
formerly fortified; 5 miles north-west of Ripach. 
WIKE, a township of England, West Riding of York¬ 
shire ; 4 miles south-by-west of Bradford.—2. Another 
township in the same Riding; 7 miles north-north-east of 
Leeds. 
WIK1NISKY CREEK, a river of the United States, in 
Pennsylvania, which runs west into the Susquehanna; 12 or 
15 miles above the Juniatta. 
WIKINISKY MOUNTAIN, a mountain of the United 
States, in Dauphine county, Pennsylvania, south of Wikin- 
isky Creek. 
WILBARSTON, a parish of England, in Northampton¬ 
shire; 4 miles south-west of Rockingham. Population 599. 
WILBERFORCE, a parish of England, East Riding of 
Yorkshire; 5| miles west-north-west of Pocklington. 
WILBERFORCE, Cape, a cliffy cape on the north 
coast of New Holland, at the west entrance into the gulf of 
Carpentaria. Lat. 11. 52. S. long. 136. 33. E. 
WILBERTON, a parish of England, in the isle of Ely, 
Cambridgeshire; 5| miles south-west of Ely. 
WILBRAHAM, or Wilburgham, Great, a parish of 
England, in Cambridgeshire ; 7 miles east-north-east of 
Cambridge. 
WILBRAHAM, or Wilburgham, Little, another pa¬ 
rish in the above county, adjoining to the foregoing. 
WILBRAHAM, a township of the United States, in 
Hampden county, Massachusetts ; 10 miles south-east of 
Springfield, and 77 west-south-west of Boston. Population 
1776. 
WILBY, a parish of England, in Norfolk ; 3 miles north¬ 
east of East Harling.—2. A parish in Northamptonshire ; 2 
miles south-west of Wellingborough.—3. A parish in Suf¬ 
folk ; 3 miles east-south-east of Eye. Population 376. 
WILCHINGEN, a small town of Switzerland, in the 
canton of Schaffhausen, district of Neukirch. Iron mines 
are wrought in the neighbourhood. 
WILCOT, a parish of England, in Wiltshire; 1| mile 
west-north-west of Persey. Population 566. 
WILCOT, a village of England, in Oxfordshire, on the 
Akeman-street road, south of Charlbury. Here are vestiges 
of a Roman officina, for making bricks, tiles, and stucco. 
It was lately a spreading tumulus, consisting of fragments of 
Roman bricks and cement, and probably concealed pocaus- 
tic ducts, and other subterraneous works. 
WILD, adj. [pilb, Saxon; wild, Dutch.] Not tame; not 
domestic. 
For I am he, am born to tame you, Kate, 
And bring you from a wild cat to a kate. 
Conformable as other household kates. Shakspeare. 
Propagated by nature; not cultivated.—Whatsoever will 
make a wild tree a garden tree, will make a garden tree to 
have less core or stone. Bacon. —Desart; uninhabited.— 
The wild beast where he wons in forest wild. Mill on. — 
Savage; uncivilized. Used of persons, or practices. 
Affairs that walk, 
As they say spirits do, at midnight, have 
In them a wilder nature than the business 
That seeks dispatch by day. Shakspeare. 
Turbulent; tempestuous; irregular. 
His passions and his virtues lie confus’d, 
And mixt together in so wild a tumult, 
That the whole man is quite disfigur’d in him. Addison. 
Licentious; ungoverned. 
The barbarous dissonance 
Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard. Milton. 
Inconstant; mutable ; fickle. 
In the ruling passion, there alone 
The wild are constant, and the cunning known. Pope. 
Inordinate; loose. 
Other 
