WILTSHIRE 
671 
eleven common-council men, with a town-clerk and other 
officers, as fixed by the last charter granted in the reign of 
Henry VIII. Wilton sends two members to parliament, and 
has regularly done so since the 23d year of Edward I. It is 
the county town of Wiltshire, and is consequently the place 
of assembly for the election of knights of the shire. The 
county courts of justice are sometimes held here. During the 
time of the Saxons, Wilton was the see of a bishop, created 
by Edward the Elder, out of the diocese of Sherborne. It 
has now a market on Wednesday, and its fairs are on the 4th 
May for cattle and sheep, and 12th September for sheep and 
horses. Adjoining the town is Wilton-house, the splendid 
and interesting seat of the earls of Pembroke. The park is 
extensive, finely wooded, and adorned with a lake, trium¬ 
phal arches, a Palladian bridge, and other architectural orna¬ 
ments; 3| miles west-by-north of Salisbury, and 85 west- 
south-west of London. Population of the borough and pa¬ 
rish 1963.—2. A parish of England, in Norfolk; 9 miles 
south-by-east of Stoke Ferry.—3. A parish in Somersetshire, 
about 1 mile south-west of Taunton.—4. A township in the 
North Riding of Yorkshire; 4 miles north-west of Guis- 
brough.—5. A township in the East Riding of Yorkshire ; 4 
miles east-by-south of Pickering.—6. A post township of 
the United States, in Kennebeck county, Maine, 200 miles 
north-north-east of Boston.—7. A post township of Hills¬ 
borough county. New Hampshire ; 40 miles south-south-west 
of Concord. Population 1017.—8. A township of Fairfield 
county, Connecticut; 7 miles north of Norfolk. Here is an 
academy.—9. A township of Saratoga county, New York. 
WILTON BISHOP’S, a township of England, East 
Riding of Yorkshire; 4 miles north-by-west of Pocklington. 
Population 454. 
WILTOUN, a post village of the United States, in Fair- 
field county, Connecticut.—2. Of Williamsburg district. 
South Carolina.—3. A village of Charleston district, South 
Carolina; 27 miles west-south-west of Charleston. 
WILTSHIRE, an inland county of England, bounded on 
the north and north-west by Gloucestershire; on the south¬ 
west by Dorsetshire; on the south and east by Hampshire; 
and on the north-east by the county of Berks. Its form 
is nearly oval; and concerning its extent and superficial 
area, various statements are made by different writers, some 
estimating its length at 39 miles from north to south, and 
30 in breadth from east to west; while others, apparently 
on better grounds, give it 54 miles of length, and 34 of 
breadth. The superficial area, according to the same au¬ 
thority, is 1372 square miles, or 878,000 acres, of which 
about 160,000 are supposed to be arable, and 270,000 to be 
fit for pasture. Wiltshire may be said to be naturally divided 
into two portions, by an irregular range of hills, which ex¬ 
tends transversely through the greater part of the county, in 
a direction inclining from the north-east to the south-west. 
These districts are usually denominated South and North 
Wiltshire, and differ very materially from each other, not 
only in appearance, but in almost every distinguishing quality. 
South Wiltshire, which claims priority of notice, on account 
of its superior extent, forms the western division of a vast 
tract of chalk hills, comprising a considerable part of Hamp¬ 
shire, and having for its boundaries the rich lands of Berk¬ 
shire, and the extreme verge of the Marlborough hills on the 
north; the broken ground of Somersetshire on the west; 
the New Forest of Hampshire on the south; and the heaths 
of Surrey and Sussex, together with the West Downs of the 
latter county, on the east. This portion of Wiltshire pre¬ 
sents to the eye,, when surveyed from a distance, the appear¬ 
ance of a large elevated plain. On a nearer inspection, how¬ 
ever, it appears to be indented by numerous, and frequently 
extensive vallies, and to display an almost continual series of 
gentle eminences, with now and then a bolder height rising 
above the others, but never to a mountainous elevation. In 
some parts the hills assume the form of rotund knolls, and 
are separated by smoothly sided hollows, which vary consi¬ 
derably both in depth and extent. At other places they range 
along for a short distance in connected ridges, shewing on 
one side of the range rather a rapid declivity, from the top o' 
which, on the other side, the hills sink in irregular gradation 
till at length they frequently shelve into a perfect flat. The 
whole of this district, generally speaking, is separated into 
two divisions, the one called Marlborough Downs, and the 
other Salisbury Downs, or Plain. Both these portions, how¬ 
ever, are characterised by precisely the same generic fea¬ 
tures, excepting, perhaps, that the eminences in the former 
are more abrupt and elevated than in the latter. Around 
Stonehenge, the greatest level prevails, and the face of the 
country here flows in the most gentle manner, and exhibits a 
tamer aspect than even the high wolds of Yorkshire. Through¬ 
out this whole extent, the surface is usually smooth and na¬ 
ked; but nevertheless beautiful. Many of the scenes are 
grand; and at particular seasons, or under the influence of 
peculiar effects of sky, cannot fail to delight the artist. The 
principal vallies in this division of the county lie along the 
banks of the rivers, the most remarkable of which diverge 
like irregular radii from the country around Salisbury and 
Wilton. These display rich meadow and corn lands, inter¬ 
spersed with seats and villages, and finely covered, at inter¬ 
vals, with plantations of wood. 
North Wiltshire differs completely from the southern divi¬ 
sion of the county in its general appearance. Instead of a 
constant series of “ chalky waves,” the aspect of this district, 
which extends from the verge of the Downs to the hills of 
Gloucestershire, is nearly that of a perfect flat, the few devi¬ 
ations from the ordinary level being for the most part so gra¬ 
dual, as scarcely to be perceptible on a cursory view. The 
country here, moreover, is so extremely close, and well 
wooded, that when viewed from any of the surrounding hills, 
it appears like one vast plantation of trees. If examined in 
detail, however, it is found also to contain many extensive 
tracts of rich pasture land, situated on the banks of the 
Lower Avon and the Thames, and of such smaller streams as 
flow into the one or the other of these rivers. It likewise 
comprises a number of corn fields, exhibits some very fine 
scenery of the milder kind, and is abundantly supplied with 
towns and villages. The soil of this county is various, both 
in the southern and in the northern districts. In the former, 
however, a much greater uniformity of disposition is obser¬ 
vable than in the latter. All the higher land, on the sides of 
the hills, from which the flints have been washed off, exhi¬ 
bits very commonly a chalky loam, or rather a dissolved 
chalk. A flinty loam chiefly forms the soil of the lower 
grounds of these summits; and in the centre of the vallies, 
which are watered by rivulets, the soil is usually composed 
of a deep black earth, covering a bed of broken flints; but 
in some of the more extensive vales there are veins of peat, 
formed by black earth, without any mixture of flints. The 
white land prevails most near the sources of the rivulets, 
where the hills are steepest; and the flinty loams near the 
junction of the rivulets, where the country is flattest. On 
those hills, the sides of which are much washed, the soil 
is of course extremely thin and weak; and, on the contrary, 
the level tops, which have been little, if at all washed, fre* 
quently possess a very strong and deep soil. Some stiff clays 
and clayey loams are discovered in different spots on the 
skirts of this district; and its interior is intersected by seve¬ 
ral stripes of a sandy soil, following the course of the veins 
of sand-stone already mentioned. One stripe, which is very 
narrow, but very fertile, entering the county in the vicinity 
of Mere, runs by Maiden-Bradley, Warminster, Westbury, 
and Lavington, towards Devizes, where it meets and unites 
with a wider and still more fertile tract of similar soil, which 
stretches through the vale of Pewsey, and terminates at Bur¬ 
bage. From Shaftesbury, in Dorsetshire, another stripe pro¬ 
ceeds by Donhead, Ansty, Swallowcliffe, and Fovant, till it 
is stopped by the high ground in Burcomb field. This vein 
is likewise met at or near Fovant, by the range of sand hills 
coming from West Knoyle, by Stop-Beacon and Ridge. In 
North Wiltshire, the soil, covering the extensive tracts of 
corne-grate, under strata, is chiefly a calcareous loam of a 
reddish colour, and contains a considerable mixture of irre¬ 
gular 
