[Warwickshire] (805), central county of England; is traversed by the Avon, a tributary of the Severn; the north portion, which was at one time covered by the forest of Arden, is now, from its mineral wealth, one of the busiest industrial centres of England; it contains the birthplace of Shakespeare; Birmingham is the largest town.
[Wash, The], an estuary of the E. coast of England, between the counties of Norfolk and Lincoln, too shallow for navigation.
[Washington] (278), capital of the United States, in the district of Columbia, on the left bank of the Potomac, 35 in. SW. of Baltimore; was founded in 1791, and made the seat of the Government in 1800; it is regularly laid out, possesses a number of noble buildings, many of them of marble, the chief being the Capitol, an imposing structure, where the Senate and Congress sit; near it, 1½ m. distant, is the White House, the residence of the President, standing in grounds beautifully laid out and adorned with fountains and shrubbery.
[Washington] (340), a NW. State of the American Union, twice the size of Ireland; lies N. of Oregon; is traversed by the Cascade Mountains, the highest 8138 ft., and has a rugged surface of hill and valley, but is a great wheat-growing and grazing territory, covered on the W. by forests of pine and cedar; Olympia is the capital. Washington is the name of hundreds of places in the States.
[Washington, George], one of the founders and first President of the United States, born at Bidges Creek, Westmoreland Co., Virginia, of a family from the North of England, who emigrated in the middle of the 17th century; commenced his public life in defending the colony against the encroachments of the French, and served as a captain in a campaign against them under General Braddock; In the contest between the colony and the mother-country he warmly espoused that of the colony, and was in 1775 appointed commander-in-chief; his first important operation in that capacity was to drive the English out of Boston, but the British rallying he was defeated at Brandywine and Germantown in 1777; next year, in alliance with the French, he drove the British out of Philadelphia, and in 1781 compelled Cornwallis to capitulate in an attack he made on Yorktown, and on the evacuation of New York by the British the independence of America was achieved, upon which he resigned the command; in 1789 he was elected to the Presidency of the Republic, and in 1793 was re-elected, at the end of which he retired into private life after paying a dignified farewell (1732-1799).
[Waterbury] (46), a city of Connecticut, U.S., 88 m. NE. of New York, with manufactures of metallic wares; world-famous for its cheap watches.
[Waterford] (21), a town in a county of the same name (98), in Munster, Ireland, at the junction of the Suir and the Barrow; has a splendid harbour formed by the estuary, and carries on an extensive export trade with England, particularly in bacon and butter, the chief industries of the county being cattle-breeding and dairy-farming.
[Waterloo], a village 11 m. S. of Brussels, which gives name to a battle in which the French under Napoleon were defeated by an army under Wellington on June 18, 1815.
[Watling Street], a great Roman road extending from Dover and terminating by two branches in the extreme N. of England after passing through London, the NE. branch, by York, and the NW. by or to Chester.
[Watson, William], poet, born in Yorkshire; the first poem which procured him recognition was "Wordsworth's Grave," and his subsequent poems have confirmed the impression produced, in especial his "Lachrymæ Musarum," one of the finest tributes paid to the memory of Tennyson on the occasion of his death; among his later productions the most important is a volume entitled "Odes and other Poems," published in 1894; has also written an admirable volume of essays, "Excursions in Criticism"; b. 1858.