Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/707

Rh v o o w o ii (5(55 of the members of the royal artillery who fell in the Zulu and Afghan wars of 1879. In addition to the great barracks of the royal artillery there are a number of other barracks, and a permanent camp of huts. At the south east extremity of the Common is the Hubert military hospital. The parish church of St Mary Magdalene was rebuilt, in 1726-29, near the site of the old one dating from before the 12th century. The other parishes are Holy j Trinity, St John the Evangelist, and St Michael s and All i Angels. The Goldsmiths almshouses, originally founded | by Sir Martin Bowes, who was lord mayor of London in j 1545, and rebuilt in 1771 by the Goldsmiths Company, are (1888), on the appropriation of the charity to pensions, to be purchased by the trustees of the present parochial almshouses, built by private benevolence. Behind the Royal Military Academy is a mineral well, &quot; the Shooter s Hill waters &quot; of Evelyn. Near Woolwich Common there are brick and tile kilns and sand and chalk pits. In the neighbourhood are extensive market-gardens. The town is governed by a local board of health, and is within the juris diction of the central criminal court and the metropolitan police. The population of the entire parish of Woolwich (area 1126 acres) in 1871 was 35,557 and in 1881 it was 36,665. The population of the district now included in the parliamentary borough, which comprises the parishes of Woolwich, Eltham, and Plumstead, was 74,963 in 1881. Woolwich (Wulewich) is mentioned in a grant of land by King Edward in 964 to the abbey of St Peter at Ghent, In Domesday, where the manor is mentioned as consisting of 63 acres of land, it is named Hulviz. The Roman Watling Street crossed Shooter s Hill, and a Roman cemetery is supposed to have occupied the site of the Royal Arsenal, numerous Roman urns and fragments of Roman pottery having been dug up in the neighbourhood. Wool wich seems to have been a small fishing village until in the beginning of the 16th century it rose into prominence as a dock yard and naval station. There is evidence that ships were built at Woolwich in the reign of Henry VII., but it was with the purchase by Henry VIII. of two parcels of land in the manor of Woolwich, called Boughton s Docks, that the foundation of the town s prosperity was laid, the launching of the &quot;Harry Grace de Dieu,&quot; of 1000 tons burden, making an epoch in its history. Woolwich remained the chief dockyard of the English navy until the introduction of iron ship building, but the dockyard was finally closed in 1870. The town has been the headquarters of the royal artillery since the establishment of a separate branch of this service in the reign of George I. An arsenal existed at Woolwich in the reign of Henry VII., and the laboratory is mentioned in 1695. On account of an explosion at Moorfields, the gun foundry was removed to Woolwich in 1716, but the establishment was of minor importance until the commencement of the Napoleonic wars. In 1860 the arsenal was greatly extended. Formerly Woolwich was included in the parliamentary borough of Greenwich, but in 1885 it was made a separate borough returning one member. WOONSOCKET, a town of Providence county, Rhode Island, United States, on the Blackstone river, 16 miles from Providence and 37 from Boston. The surrounding country, which is fertile, is devoted to market-gardening and dairying. There are 64 miles of streets. The popu lation (11,527 in 1870) was 16,050 in 1880, being nearly half of foreign birth, a fact explained by its extensive manufactures. The principal industries are the manufac ture of cotton and woollen goods ; of the latter Woon- socket produces more than any other city in the United States, while in the former industry it is excelled by few. Its importance as a manufacturing town is due to the magnificent water-power within its limits. WORCESTER, a midland county of England, of a very irregular shape, and of curious arrangement. Some of its parishes are detached from the county, while portions of other counties extend within its boundaries. It is bounded on the N. by Staffordshire, E. by Warwickshire, S. by Gloucestershire, W. by Herefordshire, and N.W. by Shrop shire. The greatest length from north to south is 34 miles, and its breadth 30 miles. The area is 472,453 acres, or about 738 square miles. Surface and Geology. The surface consists of very fine and picturesque hills and well-watered and fruitful valleys, and the county is certainly one of the fairest and most picturesque in England. Its finest hills are the well- known Malvern Hills on its south-west border, the Abberley Hills running north from them, the Lickey and Clent Hills in the east, and in the south the Bredon Hills, which are a continuation of the Cotswolds. The principal rivers are the Severn, which is navigable, and runs through the county from north to south ; the Stour, which joins the Severn at Stourport ; the Teme, which enters the county at Tenbury, receives the Kyre and the Leigh, and falls into the Severn below Worcester ; and the Warwickshire Avon, which joins the Severn at Tewkesbury. The valley of the Severn is appropriately named the Vale of Worcester, and that of the Avon the Vale of Evesham, the latter being generally considered one of the loveliest valleys in England. The rivers are well stocked with fish, salmon, trout, grayling, shad, and lampreys being found in most of them. The chief geological formation of the county is the Triassic, and a line running north and south through the Malvern Hills and the Forest of Wyre coalfield would divide the hard and ancient Palaeozoic strata from the softer and more recent Mesozoic. Black shales, of about 1000 feet thick, rest upon the Hollybush sandstone near Bransill Castle ; and the Silurian formation extends west of the Malverns as far as Abberley. The sandstone known as May Hill exists in the south-west, reaching the Herefordshire Beacon ; fossils are often found in it. To the w r est of Raggedston and Midsummer Hills the Cambrian formation extends ; this also is fairly rich in fossils. There is but little of the Old Red Sandstone in the county, but the Carboniferous formation extends from the Forest of Wyre coalfield to the Abberley Hills, and from Bewdley to the western limits of the county. The Permian formation is found near Hartley, Abberley, Bewdley, and the Clent Hills, while red marls and sand stones of the Triassic period constitute about three-fourths of the county. At Droitwich and in the Vale of Evesham limestones and a bluish clay exist ; and in the gravels deposited by the Severn and the Avon the remains of extinct mammals have been found. Climate and Agriculture. The climate is generally equable and healthy, and is very favourable to the cultivation of fruit, vegetables, and hops, for which Worcestershire has long held a high reputation, the red marls and the rich loams which are so prevalent being good both for market gardens and tillage. Its agricultural production consists principally of wheat, barley, beans, fruit, and hops, in the cultivation of which great care and skill are employed. The large and well-stocked orchards, the picturesque hop fields, and the wonderfully productive market gardens are the pride of the county, and one of the most attractive objects to all visitors. According to the agricultural returns for 1887, the area under cultivation was 401,936 acres, distributed as follows: corn crops, 90,735; green crops, 32,709; clover and rotation grasses, 31,519; permanent pasture, 232,998; flax, 2; hops, 2828; and fallow, 11,145. The area under orchards was 18,687 acres; market gardens, 3525 ; and nursery grounds, 386. In 1881 the latest return- there were 18,871 acres under woods and plantations. The number of horses in 1S87 was 20.249, of which 14,155 were used solely for agriculture; cows in milk or calf, 27,808; other cattle, 38,472; sheep, 174,371, of which 75,065 were under one year ; pigs, 33,695. According to the landowners return of 1872-3, the total number of proprietors in the county was 21,804, possessing 441,060 acres, with a gross annual estimated rental of 1,685,736. Of the owners, only 5796 possessed one acre or upwards. There were also 3415 acres of waste land. The following are the names of the larger landowners: carl of Dudley, 14,699 acres; earl of Coventry, 13,021; Earl Beauchamp, 10,624; Lord Windsor, 8519; Harry F. Vernon, 7448; Earl Somers, 6265; Lord Lyttelton, 5908; the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, 5213; R. Berkeley, 4812; Due D Aumalc, 4604; Sir John Fakington, 4868; Lord North wick, 4215; and Sir F. Winnington, 4196. Industries. Agriculture in its various branches is tho principal XXIV. 84