Whickham

Whickham, a manufacturing town of Durham, 3 1/2 miles SW. of Gateshead. Pop. 12,852.

Whidah

Whidah. See Dahomey.

Whitadder

Whit'adder, a Berwickshire stream, flowing 34 miles to the Tweed, 2 1/2 miles above Berwick.

Whitchurch

Whitchurch, (1) a Hampshire town, 12 miles N. of Winchester. Till 1832 a parl. borough, it manufactures silk, serges, and shalloons. Pop. 2230. - (2) A Shropshire town, 19 miles N. by E. of Shrewsbury. Malting and brewing are carried on. Pop. (1851) 3519; (1901) 5220.

Whitechapel

Whitechapel. See London, p. 423.

Whitefield

Whitefield, or Stand, a town of Lancashire, 5 1/2 miles N. of Manchester. Dating from 1826, it has many fine residences, cotton manufactures, and neighbouring collieries. Pop. 6588.

Whitehall

Whitehall, a town of New York, at the head of Lake Champlain, and the end of the Champlain Canal, 78 miles N. by E. of Albany. Pop. 4346.

Whitehaven

Whiteha'ven, a municipal borough and seaport of Cumberland, 80 miles NW. of Lancaster. Dating from 1633, it has owed its well-being to great collieries and haematite iron mines. There are blast-furnaces, iron-shipbuilding yards, iron and brass foundries, and manufactures of coarse linen, sail-cloth, ropes, soap, and earthenware. The harbour has a wet-dock of five acres, two piers constructed in 1824-41, and a lighthouse; and steamers ply to Liverpool, Dublin, Belfast, and Ramsey. Whitehaven was attacked by Paul Jones in 1778, and suffered from a mining subsidence in 1791. It has returned one member since 1832. Pop. (1851) 18,916; (1901) 19,325.

White Horse

White Horse, the name applied to a figure of a horse on a hillside, formed by removing the turf, so as to show the underlying chalk. The most famous is that at Uffington, Berkshire, 4 miles SE. of Shrivenham. It measures 355 feet from nose to tail and 120 from ear to heel; is traditionally supposed to commemorate Alfred the Great's victory of Ashdown (871); is mentioned about Henry II.'s time as existing prior to 1084; and has been periodically 'scoured' - fourteen times during 1755-1857, then not till 1884. Other White Horses are at Bratton Hill, Westbury (175 x 107 feet), Cherhill (129 x 142 feet), Marlborough (62 x 47 feet), Pewsey (180 x 167 feet), etc. See a work by Plenderleath (new ed. 1892).

Whitekirk

Whitekirk, a Haddingtonshire coast parish, 4 1/4 miles SE. of North Berwick, with a church that was a great resort of pilgrims.

White Mountains

White Mountains, an Appalachian (q.v.) group, in New Hampshire (q.v.). Mount Washington has a carriage-road and an hotel on its summit, with a powerful electric light.

White River rises in Arkansas

White River rises in Arkansas, and flows 800 miles (300 navigable) through it or Missouri, NE., E., SE., and S., to the Mississippi near the mouth of the Arkansas.

White Sea

White Sea (Russian Bjeloje More), a branch of the Arctic Ocean penetrating 350 miles into Archangel province, N. Russia. It narrows to less than 50 miles, widens again, and forms the Kandalak Gulf, that of Archangel, into which the Dwina falls, and that into which the Onega falls. The sea-route hither was discovered by Chancellor in 1553; Archangel (q.v.) is the chief emporium on its snores. Usually frozen from the beginning of September till the end of May, it has direct water communication with the Dnieper and Volga, and so with the Black Sea and Caspian.