Weissenburg

Weissenburg (Vice'en-boorg). See Wissem-bourg.

Weissenfels

Weissenfels (Vice'en-fels), a town of Prussian Saxony, 35 miles SW. of Leipzig. Pop. 28,200.

Welbeck Abbey

Welbeck Abbey, the seat of the Duke of Portland, in Notts, 3 miles S. of Worksop. Occupying the site of an old Premonstratensian abbey, it stands in a park 10 miles in circumference, and is a stately Palladian edifice of the 17th and 18th. centuries, greatly enlarged about 1864 by the fifth duke, to whom it owes its semi-underground picture-gallery, ball-room, and riding-school, the last 385 feet long, 104 wide, and 51 high.

Welland

Welland, a river flowing 70 miles to the Wash.

Welland Canal

Welland Canal. See Erie.

Welle

Welle (Wel'leh), a great river of Equatorial Africa, rising in the Monbuttu country and flowing westward to 19° W., then south-westward, and as the Mobangi or U-banghi entering the Congo. Schweinfurth, Stanley, and Grenfell have explored it.

Wellesley

Wellesley. See Penang.

Wellingborough

Wellingborough, a market-town of Northamptonshire, on a declivity near the confluence of the Ise with the Nen, 10 1/2 miles ENE. of Northampton. Almost destroyed by fire in 1738, it has a chalybeate spring (the 'Red Well'), said to have been resorted to by Charles I.; a large parish church (restored 1861-74); a corn exchange (1861); a grammar-school (1595; new buildings, 1880); and boot-making, iron-smelting, etc. Pop. (1851) 5061; (1901) 18,412.

Wellington College

Wellington College, Berkshire, 4 miles SSE.

of Wokingham, a public school, founded in 1853 in memory of the Duke of Wellington. Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone in 1856, and opened it in 1859. It has 90 scholarships for sons of deceased army officers and over 400 boys.

Wells-next-the-Sea

Wells-next-the-Sea, or Wells, a Norfolk seaport, 31 miles NE. of Lynn. Pop. 2555.

Wellsville

Wellsville, a town of Ohio, on the Ohio River, 48 miles by rail WNW. of Pittsburgh, with steel and terra-cotta works. Pop. 6500.

Welshpool

Welshpool, a town of Montgomeryshire, North Wales, near the Severn's left bank, 20 miles W. by S. of Shrewsbury. It has a parish church (restored by Street), a town-hall and market (1873) with a clock-tower 90 feet high, and the Powys-land Museum (1874); whilst 1 mile south is Powis Castle, dating from the 12th c, with a fine picture-gallery and park - the seat from Elizabeth's time of the Herberts, as now of their and Clive's descendant, the Earl of Powis. The flannel manufacture has migrated to Newtown. Incorporated by James I. in 1615, Welshpool is one of the six Montgomeryshire (q.v.) boroughs. Pop. (1851) 6564; (1901) 6121.

Welwyn

Welwyn, a parish of Herts, 5 miles N. of Hatfield. Young thought his Night Thoughts here, and here lies buried.

Wem

Wem, a market-town of Shropshire, on the Ellesmere Canal, 11 miles N. by E. of Shrewsbury. Here Hazlitt passed his boyhood, and here met Coleridge. Pop. 2150.

Wembly

Wembly, Middlesex, 2 1/2 miles ESE. of Harrow, has been constituted an urban district, and has a pop. of 5000. - Wembly Park, a Londoners' pleasure-resort, was opened in 1894 with a great revolving wheel, etc.