[Wycherley, William], dramatist, born in Shropshire, of good birth, and resided for a time in Paris, being admitted to the circle of the Précieuses, but returned to England at the Restoration, and became a figure at the court; his plays were marked with the coarseness of the time, and his best were "The Country Wife" (1675) and the "Plain Dealer" (1677); married the Countess of Drogheda for her fortune, a legacy which cost him only lawsuits and imprisonment for debt; succeeded to his paternal estate when he was an old man; married again, and died immediately after (1640-1715).
[Wycliffe, John]. See Wicliffe.
[Wycombe, High] (13), a market-town in Buckinghamshire, on the Wye, 25 m. SE. of Oxford; has a parish church built in the Norman style in 1273 and restored in 1887, and several public buildings; the manufacture of chairs, lace, and straw-plait among the leading industries.
[Wye], a lovely winding river in South Wales, which rises near the source of the Severn on Plinlimmon, and falls into its estuary at Chepstow, 125 m. from its head; rapid in its course at first, it becomes gentler as it gathers volume; barges ascend it as far as Hereford, but a high tidal wave makes navigation dangerous at its mouth.
[Wykeham, William of], bishop of Winchester, born in Hampshire of humble parentage; was patronised by the governor of Winchester Castle and introduced by him to Edward III., who employed him to superintend the rebuilding of Windsor Castle, and by-and-by made him Privy Seal and Lord Chancellor, though he fell into disgrace towards the close of Edward's reign; was restored to favour in Richard II.'s reign and once more made Chancellor; in his later years he founded the New College, Oxford, built and endowed St. Mary's College, Winchester, and rebuilt the cathedral there. He was less of a theologian than an architect; was disparagingly spoken of by John Wickliffe as a "builder of castles," and his favourite motto was, "Manners make the man"; (1324-1404).
[Wynnad], a highland district in the Western Ghâts, Madras Presidency, with extensive coffee plantations, and a wide distribution of auriferous quartz rock, the working of which has been on an extravagant scale, and has involved the loss of much capital.
[Wyntoun, Andrew of], Scottish chronicler; lived at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th centuries; was canon regular of St. Andrews and prior of St. Serf, Lochleven; the subject of his "Original Chronicle," as he calls it, was Scottish history, introduced by foreign from the creation downwards, and it was written in verse that can hardly be called poetry; it is of value historically and interesting philologically, and consists of nine books or cantos; it is to him we owe "When Alexander our King was dead."
[Wyoming] (60), a North-West State of the American Union, chiefly on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, an elevated region about three times the area of Ireland and a comparatively sparse population, settled principally along the line of the Union Pacific Railway; it has a very rugged surface, and abounds in deep cañons and frowning precipices, the lakes also are deep, and there are immense geysers, one, the Great Geyser, throwing up a volume of water 300 ft. high; it is rich in minerals, yields good crops of various grains, rears large herds of horses and cattle, as well as game on its moors, and trout and salmon in its rivers. See [Yellowstone Park].
[Wyoming Valley], a fertile valley in Pennsylvania, on the Susquehanna River, 20 m. long by 5 broad; it was the scene of a series of contests between rival settlers, when the last of them were set upon by an invading force, forced to surrender, and either massacred or driven forth from the valley; Campbell's "Gertrude of Wyoming" relates to this last disaster.
[Wyss, Johann Rudolf], Swiss littérateur, born at Bern, professor of Philosophy there; the author of the "Swiss Family Robinson," on which alone his title to fame rests (1781-1830).