Watlington

Watlington, a market-town of Oxfordshire, 8 miles NE. of Wallingford. Pop. of parish, 1734.

Watton

Watton, a Norfolk market-town, 12 miles N. of Thetford. Near it is Wayland Wood, the scene of the ' Children of the Wood.' Pop. 1365.

Waukegan

Wauke'gan, capital of Lake county, Illinois, on the west shore of Lake Michigan, 36 miles by rail N. by W. of Chicago. Pop. 9345, Wau'kesha, capital of a county, Wisconsin, on Fox River, 19 miles W. of Milwaukee. Pop. 7321.

Wausau

Wausau (Waw'saw), a town of Wisconsin, 210 miles NW. of Milwaukee. It sends much lumber down the Wisconsin River. Pop. 12,360.

Waveney

Wave'ney, a river of Norfolk and Suffolk, flowing 50 miles ENE. to the Yare, 4 1/2 miles WSW. of Yarmouth.

Waverley

Waverley. See Farnham.

Wavertree

Wavertree, a SE. suburb of Liverpool.

Wavre

Wavre (Vahvr), a Belgian town, 15 miles SE. of Brussels; pop. 8432. Here on 18th June 1815 the Prussians prevented Grouchy from joining Napoleon at Waterloo.

Wayland Wood

Wayland Wood. See Watton.

Wazan

Wazan', a town of Morocco, 90 miles SE. of Tangier; pop. 20,000, It is a sacred city, the headquarters of the Grand Shereef.

Wazirabad

Wazirabad', a town of the Punjab, 21 miles N. of Gujranwala by rail. Pop. 15,462.

Waziristan

Waziristan', a highland country between the Kurram and Gomul passes. Formerly Afghan, it was transferred to British India in 1894; but a military expedition had to be despatched thither in Jan. 1895.

Weald

Weald. See Kent, Sussex.

Wear

Wear, a river of Durham (q.v.), 65 miles long. See also Sunderland.

Weaver

Weaver, a Cheshire river flowing 45 miles to the Mersey, 2 1/2 miles below Runcorn.

Webb City

Webb City, a town of Missouri, 9 miles SW. of Carthage. Pop. 9200.

Wedmore

Wedmore, a Somerset parish (pop. 3060), 8 miles WNW. of Wells. Here peace was signed in 878 between King Alfred and Guthrum the Dane.

Wednesfield

Wednesfield, a NE. suburb of Wolverhampton.

Wei-hai-wei

Wei-hai-wei, a harbour in the Chinese peninsula of Shantung, 40 miles E. of Che-foo, secured by Britain on a lease of twenty-five years, as Port Arthur (q.v.) had been by Russia. Pop. of ceded strip round the bay, 200,000.

Weimar

Weimar (Vi-mar), the capital of the German grand duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, on the Ilm's left bank, 31 miles E. of Gotha and 155 SW. of Berlin. The lustre conferred on it by the residence of Goethe, Schiller, Herder, and Wieland, at the court of Karl-August, has faded, and the interest of the place (Thackeray's ' Pumpernickel') is almost wholly derived from its monuments, traditions, and associations. The town church (Stadtkirche), dating from 1400, contains the tombs of Bernhard of Weimar, Herder, etc. Other buildings are the handsome ducal palace, rebuilt in 1790-1803 after the fire of 1774; the Rothes Schloss (1574); the Grimes Schloss, with a library of 180.000 volumes, and relics of Luther and Gustavus Adolphus; the court theatre (rebuilt 1825). where Liszt produced Wagner's Lohengrin; and the houses of Cranach, Goethe, Schiller, and Herder. Pop. (1871) 15,998; (1900) 28,330.