Willimantic

Willimantic, a borough of Connecticut, 31 miles by rail E. by S. of Hartford, with large cotton, silk, woollen, and tin factories, etc, driven by the Willimantic River, which here falls 100 feet in 1 mile. Pop. 8948.

Willington Quay

Willington Quay, a Northumberland port, on the Tyne, 2 miles SW. of North Shields. Robert Stephenson was a native. Pop. 7950.

Williton

Williton, a small town of Somerset, 14 miles NW. of Taunton, with an Early English church. Pop. of parish, 1202.

Willoughby

Willoughby, a Lancashire parish, 3 miles SSE. of Alford. Captain John Smith was a native.

Wilmington

Wilmington, (1) a city and port of Delaware, on the Delaware River and Brandywine and Christiana Creeks, 25 miles SW. of Philadelphia. It is a regular town built on the slopes of a hill (240 feet), and contains a granite custom-house, town-hall, opera-house, the Wilmington Institute, Old Swedes' Church (1698), etc. Its manufactures include iron steamships, railway cars, engines, machinery, cottons, woollens, powder, leather, flour, matches, etc. Pop. (1880) 42,478;

(1900) 76,508.-<2) Capital of New Hanover county, North Carolina, on the left bank of Cape Fear River, 30 miles from its mouth and 207 SSE. of Raleigh. It manufactures turpentine, rice, flour, and cottons. During the civil war it was a chief Confederate port, frequented by blockade-runners. Pop. (1880) 17,350; (1900) 20,976.

Wilmslow

Wilmslow, a Cheshire town, on the Bollin, 5 miles SSW. of Stockport. Pop. 7450.

Wilna

Wilna. See Vilno.

Wilton

Wilton, a market-town of Wiltshire (q.v.) at the confluence of the Nadder and Wyly, feeders of the Avon, 3 1/4 miles WNW. of Salisbury. It was the capital of Wessex, and the seat of a bishopric (909-1050), but after 1244, when it had twelve churches, declined through the diversion of the great western road. The present church, erected in 1844 by Lord Herbert of Lea at a cost of £20,000, is an ornate Lombardic structure, with a campanile 108 feet high. On the site of a Saxon nunnery is Wilton House, the Herberts' seat, where Sidney wrote part of the Arcadia. It is famous for its Van Dycks and for the beauty of its grounds. Since Elizabeth's reign carpets have been manufactured at Wilton, which is a municipal borough, first chartered by Henry I., and reformed in 1885. It returned two members till 1832, then one till 1885. Pop. 2220. See James Smith's Wilton (Sal. 1851).

Wimbledon Common

Wim'bledon Common, an open-, breezy heath of 628 acres, 7 miles SW. of London. Here from 1860 till 1889 in July was held the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association, since transferred to Bisley (q.v.). LinnAeus here first saw the gorse in bloom; and here many duels were fought. Wimbledon now is practically a suburb of London. Pop. of urban district (1901) 41,652.

Wimborne

Wimborne, a town of Dorset, at the confluence of the Allen and Stour, 7 miles N. of Poole and 25 1/2 E. of Dorchester. Here, about 705, was founded a nunnery, which Edward the Confessor refounded as a collegiate church - the noble cruciform minster, Norman to Perpendicular in style, with a central and a west tower, and the tomb of Ethelred I. There is a grammar-school (1496; refounded 1563). Coach-building and the manufacture of buttons and woollen hose give employment. Pop. of urban district, 3690. See works by Hall (1853) and Yeatman (1878).