Wilton Carpets are a kind of Brussels carpeting, with the yarns cut.
Wimple, O. E. A nun’s hood, covering the neck and shoulders, adopted by ladies in general, temp. Henry VII.
Winchester Bushel. An ancient standard measure of capacity preserved in the Town Hall at Winchester. It dates from the reign of King Edgar. It is 18½ inches wide, and 8 inches deep.
Windows. The earliest of stained glass in Italy were painted by order of Pope Leo III., at Rome, in 795. The windows of some churches were closed with valves or shutters of stone, like those of the Duomo of Torcello, erected in 1008. Others were filled with slabs of transparent talc or alabaster. The earliest painted glass in York Cathedral is of A. D. 1200. The use of glass windows in private houses was not general until the 14th century. During the Middle Ages glass windows were in movable wooden frames, and were taken away by families when they travelled. (Consult Hallam’s Middle Ages, vol. iii.) Substitutes for glass were thin parchment or linen, painted and varnished, or even paper. (Le Vieil, de la Peinture sur Verre.) These paper windows may still be seen in villages in the north of Italy.
Winds (Latin, Venti). The impersonations of the winds were held in high veneration, especially by the Athenians. The four principal were Eurus or Vulturnus, the east or south-east wind; Auster, the south wind, the Notus of the Greeks, pernicious to plants and men; Zephyrus, the son of Aurora and father of Carpus (fruit), a genial, health-bearing breeze, called also ζωηφόρος, life-bearing; and Boreas, the strong north wind, usually represented with the feet of a serpent, his wings dripping with golden dewdrops, and the train of his garment sweeping along the ground. Inferior winds were Solanus, in Greek Apeliotes, answering to the east, and represented as a young man holding fruit in his lap; Africus, south-west, represented with black wings and melancholy countenance; Corus, north-west, drives clouds of snow before him; Aquilo, north-east by north, equally dreadful in appearance, from aquila, an eagle, type of swiftness and impetuosity.
Windsor Chairs. A plain kind of strong wooden chairs, so called.
Wings, from time immemorial, have been the Oriental and Egyptian symbol of power as well as of swiftness; of the spiritual and aerial, in contradistinction to the human and the earthly; also in Chaldaic and Babylonian remains, in the Lycian and Nineveh marbles, and on the gems and other relics of the Gnostics. In Etruscan art all their divinities are winged.
Wings, in theatres. The shifting side-scenes on the stage. In costume, the projections on the shoulders of a doublet. (See Fig. [91].)
Wise Men, Chr. The Magi. (See Epiphany.)
Wisp, O. E. A broom.