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Rh town and gold dredging is a growing industry; wheat growing is the most considerable agricultural pursuit, but fruit trees and vines are cultivated with success. Stock-rearing also is extensively followed on account of the fine pasturage in the district. In the vicinity are the beautiful Wellington caves.

WELLINGTON, a market town in the Wellington (Mid) parliamentary division of Shropshire, England, 10½ m. by rail E. of Shrewsbury. Pop. of urban district (1901), 6283. It is an important junction on the London & North-Western and Great Western railways, being 152 m. N.W. from London by the former line. The Shropshire Union canal connects it with the Severn. The neighbourhood is picturesque, the Wrekin, about 1½ m. from the town, rising to a height of 1335 ft. The church of All Saints dates from 1790. The manufacture of agricultural implements and nails, iron and brass founding and malting are carried on. The Roman Watling Street, running near the town, gives its name to a suburb of Wellington.

Before the Conquest Wellington (Weliton, Welintun) belonged to Earl Edwin of Mercia, and after his forfeiture in 1071 was granted to Roger, earl of Shrewsbury. It came into the king's hands in 1102 through the attainder of Robert de Belesme. King John in 1212 granted Wellington to Thomas de Eddington " as a reward for services rendered in Rome at the time of the Interdict." Among the numerous subsequent lords of the manor were the families of Burnell and Lovell, the present owner being Colonel Sir Thomas Mayrick, Bart. Like many other towns in Shropshire, Wellington appears to have grown into importance as a border town, and possibly had some manner of corporate community in 1177, when it paid three marks to an aid, but its privileges seem to have disappeared after the annexation of Wales, and it was never Incorporated. Markets are held on Thursday and Saturday under a charter of 1691–1692 to William Forester, but the Thursday market was first granted in 1244 to Giles de Erdington. Wellington has never been represented in parliament.

WELLINGTON, a market town in the Wellington parliamentary division of Somersetshire, England, at the foot of the Blackdown hiUs, and near the river Tone, 170½ m. W. by S. of London by the Great Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901), 7283. The 15th-century church of St John has a fine Perpendicular tower and chancel; while the clerestories nave is Early English. There is a magnificent altar-tomb to Sir J. Popham, Lord Chief Justice under Elizabeth and James I. The chief buildings include the West Somerset County School and a 17th-century hospital for the aged poor, founded by Sir J. Popham. A tower, which stands on the highest peak of the Blackdowns, 2½ m. S., was erected in honour of the duke of Wellington. The town has woollen manufactures, iron foundries and brick and tile works.

WELLINGTON, the capital of New Zealand, the seat of government and of a bishop. Pop. (1901) 43,638; (1906) 58,563, and including suburbs, 63,807. It lies on the south-western shore of North Island, on the inner shore of Port Nicholson, an inlet of Cook's Strait, the site affording a splendid harbour, walled in by abrupt hills. The original flat shore is occupied by massive walls constructed for the reclaiming of land, as the hills prevent an inland extension of the city. Wood was originally in favour as a building material, owing to the prevalence of earthquakes, but brick and stone subsequently took its place in the construction of the principal buildings. The main street is a winding thoroughfare named in different parts Thomdon Quay, Lambton Quay, Willis Street and Manners Street. It runs parallel to the shore, but the quays properly so called are separated from it by blocks of buildings. It is traversed by an electric tramway. There are two railway stations in the town and one in the southern suburb of Te Aro. Two main lines leave the town, one following the west coast, the other an inland route to Napier. The principal buildings are governmental; the houses of parliament, formerly a wooden erection, are rebuilt in brick and stone; there are also the residence of the governor and court house. The fine town hall was founded by the prince of Wales in 1901. There are several fine churches, and among educational institutions the chief is the Victoria University. An excellent school of art and several public libraries are provided, the latter including that in the house of parliament. The museum contains a beautiful Maori house of carved woodwork, and biological collections. There are several public parks and gardens oa well-chosen elevated sites, the principal being the Botanical Garden, from which the city and port are well seen. Shipping is controlled by a harbour board (1880). The extensive wharves are amply served by hydraulic machinery and railways. Wellington was founded in 1840, being the first settlement of New Zealand colonists, and the seat of government was transferred here from Auckland in 1865. The town is under municipal government.

 WELLS, CHARLES JEREMIAH (1798?-1879), English poet, was born in London, probably in the year 1798. He was educated at Cowden Clarke's school at Edmonton, with Tom Keats, the younger brother of the poet, and with R. H. Home. He became acquainted with John Keats, and was the friend "who sent me some roses," to whom Keats wrote a sonnet on the 29th of June 1816:—

Unfortunately, Wells soon afterwards played a cruel practical joke on the dying Tom Keats, and reappears in the elder poet's correspondence as "that degraded Wells." Both with Keats and Reynolds, Wells was in direct literary emulation) and his early writings were the result of this. In 1822 he published Stories after Nature—or rather, in the manner of Boccaccio, tempered by that of Leigh Hunt—a curious little volume of brocaded prose. At the close of 1823, under the pseudonym of H. L. Howard, appeared the Biblical drama of Joseph and his Brethren (dated 1824). For the next three years Wells saw Hazlitt, as he said, "every night," but in 1827 the two men were estranged. When Hazlitt died, in September 1830, Wells took Home to see his dead friend, and afterwards raised a monument to the memory of Hazlitt in the church of St Anne's, Soho. His two books passed almost unnoticed, and although Hazlitt said that Joseph and his Brethren was "more than original, aboriginal, and a mere experiment in comparison with the vast things" Wells could do, he forbore to review it, and even dissuaded the young poet from writing any more. Wells was now practising as a solicitor in London, but he fancied that his health was failing and proceeded to South Wales, where he occupied himself with shooting, fishing and writing poetry until 1835, when he removed to Broxbourne, in Hertfordshire. In 1840 he left England, never to set foot in it again. He settled at Quimper, in Brittany, where he lived for some years. A story called Claribel appeared in 1845, and one or two slight sketches later, but several important tragedies and a great deal of miscellaneous verse belonging to these years are lost. Wells stilted in a letter to Home (November 1877) that he had composed eight or ten volumes of poetry during his life, but that, having in vain attempted to find a publisher for any of them, he burned the whole mass of MSS. at his wife's death. The only work he had retained was a revised form of Joseph and his Brethren, which was praised in 1838 by Wade, and again, with great warmth, by Home, in his New Spirit of the Age, in 1844. The drama was then once more forgotten, until in 1863 it was read and vehemently praised by D. G. Rossetti. The tide turned at last; Joseph and his Brethren became a kind of shibboleth—a rite of initiation into the tme poetic culture but still the world at large remained indifferent. Finally, however, Swinburne wrote an eloquent study of it in the Fortnightly Review in 1873, and the drama itself was reprinted in 1876. The old man found it impossible at first to take his revival seriously, but he woke up at length to take a great interest in the matter, and between 1876 and 1878 he added various scenes, which are in the possession of Mr Buxton Forman, who published one of them in 1895 After leaving Quimper,