Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/754

Rh 712 W Y C W Y printed o&quot;xford7i828) Ts&quot;not included in either of these collections. (R. L. P.) WYCOMBE, HIGH WYCOMBE, or CHIPPING WYCOMBE, a municipal borough and market-town of Bucks, is situ ated in the valley of the Wyck and on a branch of the Great Western Railway, 29 miles west-north-west of London, 25 south-east of Oxford, and 10 north of Maiden head. Notwithstanding many additions to the town within recent years, it still retains many evidences of antiquity, including several mediaeval buildings. The parish church of All Saints, the largest in the county, was rebuilt in 1273 by the abbess and nuns of Godstowe, Oxfordshire, on the site of an earlier Norman structure, and underwent extensive reconstruction in the beginning of the 15th century. The present western tower, 108 feet in height, was completed in 1522, and adorned with pinnacles in 1753. The style of the building is now Early English with Decorated and Perpendicular addi tions. The interior underwent extensive restoration in 1874, under the direction of the late G. E. Street, and the restoration of the exterior is at present (1888) in progress. For the grammar school, founded in 1555 by the mayor and burgesses of Wycombe, and now under the direction of the charity commissioners, a hand some new building was erected in 1883. The remains of the Norman hall of St John the Baptist, incorporated in the old school building, with its chapel in the Early English style, adjoins the new building. The other princi pal public buildings are the guild-hall, originally erected by the earl of Shelburne in 1757, and altered and improved in 1859; the literary institute, 1854; the free library, per manently endowed by a subscription of the townspeople after the premises had been presented by J. O. Griffiths ; the High Wycombe hospital, established in 1875 ; the shambles, erected in 1761 on the site of the old hog market; and the South Bucks auction mart, 1887. Some remains still exist of Desborough Castle, supposed to have been erected for defence against the Danes. There are a number of almshouses, including those of Queen Elizabeth, endowed in 1562 out of the revenues of the dissolved fraternity of St Mary. In 1797 a military college was established at Wycombe, which was transferred to Farn- ham and the junior department to Sandhurst in 1812 and 1813. The Frogmore gardens were presented to the town by J. O. Griffiths in 1877 as public pleasure- grounds. There is a common pasturage, 30 acres in extent, called the Rye. Formerly lace and strawplait making were the staple industries, but they have been superseded by chair-making, which of late years has greatly increased, the number of chairs made annually now amounting to over li millions. The rise of the industry was due to the beech-woods in the neighbourhood ; but, in addition to the cane and rush-bottomed chairs, for which these woods supply the frames, chairs of a finer kind are now also made from walnut, cherry, and other more valuable woods. There are also flour and paper mills. The borough, which is divided into three wards, is governed by a mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen councillors. The population of the municipal borough in 1871 (area then 122 acres) was 4811 ; in 1880 the area was extended to 400 acres, and the population in 1881 was 10,618. The population of the parliamentary borough (area 6395 acres), which existed till 1885, was 10,492 in 1871 and 13,154 in 1881. From the character of Roman remains found at Wycombe it seems to have been an important Roman station. By the Saxons a fortress called Desborough castle was erected for its defence. At the Conquest it was a borough town, and was then held by Robert Doily or Doyley. In the 9th year of Edward I. it reverted to the crown. The incorporation of the borough is ascribed to Henry From the 28th of Edward I. it returned two members to parliament, but in 1867 the number was reduced to one, and in 1885 it was merged in the South or Wycombe Division of the county. Camden, writing in the beginning of the 17th century, says of it, &quot;This town for largeness and beauty compares with the best in the county, and as it is governed by a mayor is justly pre ferred to the rest. &quot; During the Civil War it was the scene of a skirmish between Prince Rupert and the Parliamentarian forces, in which the latter were defeated. See Parker s Antiquities of Wycombe, 1878. WYNTOUN, ANDREW OF, a Scottish monk who flourished at the beginning of the 15th century, was the author of the Orygynale GronyTf.il of Scotland. The chronicle, which is in verse and has some historical value from the use made in it of the St Andrews registers, is called &quot; original&quot; because it begins with the beginning of the world, the second chapter giving an account of the creation of man. The history of Scotland is brought down to the death of Robert III. in 1406. Of the chronicler himself nothing is known except what he tells us in his prologue, namely, that he was a canon regular of St Andrews, and prior of Serf s Inch in Lochleven. The chronicle has been twice carefully edited and annotated, by Macpherson in 1795, and by David Laing in 1872-79. WYOMING, a Territory of the United States, is Plate nearly rectangular in shape, having as its boundaries XVI I. the 41st and 45th parallels of N. latitude and the 27th and 34th meridians west of Washington. South of it are Colorado and Utah; on the west, Utah, Idaho, and Montana; on the north, Montana; and on the east, Dakota and Nebraska. The area is 97,890 square miles. The surface is greatly diversified. Its mean elevation is Moun- great, being probably not less than 6400 feet. The low- tams - est portions of the Territory are along the northern and eastern borders, where in several places the surface is less than 5000 feet above sea-level, while its highest points exceed 13,000 feet. By far the greater part consists of high plains, which are broken by numerous mountain ranges and ridges, which form parts of the Rocky Mountain system. This system enters the Territory in the south-eastern part, and traverses it in a north-west direction. On the south it consists of three members, the Laramie range, which is crossed by the Union Pacific railroad at Sherman, and the Medicine Bow and Park ranges, which separate branches of the North Platte river. These ranges run out and fall down into the plain in the southern part of the Territory, leaving for 150 miles a broad flat plateau to re present the Rocky Mountain system. The ill-defined sum mit of this plateau forms the parting between the waters of the Missouri and Colorado. Eastward this plateau slopes to the Great Plains, and westward to the Green river basin, The Union Pacific Railroad traverses it, and therefore the traveller upon this road sees little of the Rocky Mountains except at a distance. Farther north the mountains rise again from this plateau in several ranges. The principal of these is that known as the Wind River range, which in a sense is continued northward beyond the northern boundary of the Territory by the Ab.iroka range. The former contains the most elevated lai: 1 in the Territory, its highest peak being Fremont s, with cm elevation of 13,790 feet. The latter range is in its sc ithern part a great volcanic plateau, elevated 10,000 to 11, COO feet above the sea, while farther north it is eroded into very rugged mountain forms. About the point where these ranges join, there is a confused mass of mountains of great breadth and considerable height. In this elevated mass rise streams flowing to the Atlantic, the Gulf of California, and the Pacific. The highest peaks of these mountains are those known as the Three Tetons, the most elevated of which, Mount Hayden, has an altitude of 13,691 feet. East of the Wind River and Absaroka ranges, and separated from them by the valley of the Wind River and the Big Horn basin, is the range