Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 3.djvu/765

Rh WARTON. 753 WAEWICK. living is a vie. in the dioc. of Manchester, val. 187, in the patron, of the dean and chapter. The church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, has a painted E. window, and was restored in 1850. The register dates from 1575. There are also the district churches of Silverdale and Yealand Conyers, the livings of which are perpet. curs., val. 80 and 57 each. There are a free grammar school, an hospital founded and endowed by Archbishop Button in 1594, and an infant school. There are remains of a Roman encampment. WARTON, a tnshp. in the par. of Kirkham, hund. of Amounderness, co. Lancaster, 3 miles E. of Lytham, and 2 S.W. of Kirkham, its post town. It is a station on the Lytham branch of the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway. The village is situated on the river Ribble. There are a new dock and embankment being made. The living is a perpet. cur.,* with that of Freckleton, in the dioc. of Manchester, val. 350, in the patron, of Christ Church, Oxford. The church, dedicated to St. Paul, was erected in 1724. The parochial charities produce about 104, which go to a school. WAUTON, a tnshp. in the par. of Rothbury, W. div. of Coquetdale ward, co. Northumberland, 3 miles N.W. of Rothbury. The soil is loamy, with a subsoil of limestone. WARTON, a hmlt. in the par. of Polesworth, co. Warwick, 4 miles N.W. of Atherstone. It is a meet for the Atherstone hounds. The living is a cur. in the dioc. of Worcester, val. 80, in the patron, of the vicar. WARTON-WITH-LINDRITH, a tnshp. in the par. of Warton, hund. of Lonsdale South of the Sands, co. Lancaster. WARWICK, a midland co. of England. Its size is below the average of English counties, comprising under 900 square miles, and measuring 60 miles in length from N. to S., with an extreme breadth of 32 miles. It is bounded on the N. and N.W. by Derby and Stafford shires, on the N.E. by Leicestershire and tho line of the ancient Watling Street, on the 8. and S.E. by cos. Oxford and Northampton, on tho S.W. by Gloucestershire, and on the W. by Worcestershire, and includes two small detached portions. Of the Roman dominion there are many traces, including the sites of several towns and stations, as Tripontium and Manduessedttm, mentioned by Antonine, the former of which Dugdalo fixes at Dove, or Don-Bridge, and the latter at llancetter, both on the line of tho ancient Watling Street, which skirts tho county on the N.E. ; the Venona, of the same writer, which is fixed by Cam- den and others near High Cross, where the Watling Street and the Fosse Way intersect; and Alatma, mentioned in tho Iter of Richard of Cirencester, now Alcester, on tho Ryknield Way, which skirts the shire on the W. Roman remains have also been found at Birmingham ani Coventry. On the conquest of Britain by the Saxons, the tribe of the Werings reduced this district, which was from them called Waringwick or Warwick, and formed part of the ancient principality of the Wiccas, afterwards incorporated in Herein. The country was, during the 10th and llth centuries, much devastated by the Danes, who established them- selves in the principal towns except Warwick, which was defended, according to tradition, by the fabulous Guy, Earl of Warwick, whose bones, being those of the fossil elephant, are still shown at Warwick Castle. In the wars of tho Roses, the southern half of the county, under the leadership of Earl Guy, the celebrated " king- maker," supported the Yorkist cause, and the northern half, with the men of Coventry, were supporters of the house of Lancaster. In the civil war of Charles I., the county generally embraced the cause of the parliament, being especially swayed by the influence of Lord Brooke. Tin; first great battle oi the war was fought at Edge- hill, in the southern part of tho county, in 1642, in which tho royalists were driven back.' The only hills are branches of the Cotswold and of Edgehill, on the lope of which was formerly a colossal figure of a horse, now nearly obliterated by enclosures. The geological features of the county belong chiefly to the secondary formation, including a seam of coal, which extends for about 16 miles in length between Nuneaton and Co- ventry, by 3 miles broad at Bedworth ; the other strata are oolite, lias, New Red sandstone, millstone grit, limestone, greenstone, and red marl. The chief soils are red loam, sandy loam, and clay, with lime. Nearly half of the land is in meadow and pasture, and the remainder chiefly arable, with some woodland and common, especially in that part of the county which was at one time occupied by the Forest of Arden. The number of inhabitants is about 450 to the square mile, but nearly two-thirds of the population are seated in tho chief towns of Birmingham, Coventry, Lea- mington, and Warwick. South Warwickshire mostly depends on its husbandry, and in 1861 had a popula- tion of only 101,508, whereas the northern division contained 460,347, tho population of fee whole county being, in 1861, 561,855, of whom about 22 per cent, were engaged in trade, manufacture, and com- merce, and only 6 per cent, in agriculture. The old Warwickshire sheep is nearly run out, having been superseded by tho new Leicester and a cross of the two breeds ; but for folding, the South Downs are preferred. The greater part of the shire is drained by the Avon, which, rising in Northampton- shire, enters the county by Dove Bridge, and after receiving the tributary streams of the Swift, Sow, Lcame, Tachbrook, Dene, Stour, and Arrow, joins the Severn just after quitting the county. It has a course of about 57 miles through the county, becoming navigable at Stratford, and above Warwick is sometimes called the Dove. The northern part of the county belongs to the basin of the Trent by means of the Tame, which, enter- ing the county from Staffordshire, receives the waters of the Rea from Birmingham, and afterwards those of the Blythe and Borne, finally joining the Anker at Tarn- worth, where it quits Warwickshire and flows north- ward into the Trent at Alrewas in Staffordshire. Its whole course is about 42 miles, of which 20 are in War- wickshire. A feeder of tho Cherwell and of the Thames rises near Burton Dassct, draining a small tract in the S., which belongs to the basin of tho Thames. Of these rivers only a small part of the course of the Avon below Stratford is navigable. . But the deficiency of river communication is compensated in Warwickshire by its canals, which give ready access to tho Trent, the Mersey, tho Thames, and the Severn ; the principal are tho Grand Trunk or Trent and Mersey, Coventry, Ox- ford, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Staffordshire and Worcester- shire, Birmingham, Birmingham and Fazoley, Worces- ter and Birmingham, Stratford and Avon, Warwick and Birmingham, and Warwick and Napton. These traverse the greater part of the shire, and have been a chief cause of its rapid progress in wealth, manufacture, and agricultural industry. Tho railways form a close net- work, communicating with every part of the country by means of the London and North- Western, the Birming- ham and Oxford, and the Trent Valley and Midland railways, besides which branch lines extend from Rugby to Leamington and Stamford, from Warwick to Coventry and thence to Nuneaton, from Hampton to Whitacre, and from the Oxford and Birming- ham to Stratford-on-Avon. Tho chief roads are the highway from Shrewsbury to Holyhead, which enters the county between Daventry and Dunchurch, and passes over Dunsmore Heath, and through Ryton, Coventry, Meriden, and Birmingham ; two main lines of road to Birmingham, the one by Buckingham and Ban- bury, and the other by Oxford through Shipston-on- Stour, Stratford-on-Avon, and Henley-in-Arden ; the great Liverpool road crosses the northern part of the county, passing through Atherstone, and the principal road from Bristol to tho N. passing through Birming- ham and Sutton Coldfield ; besides these, roads lead from Warwick by Southam to Daventry, and by Kenilworth to Coventry. The shire is divided into two halves, called Northern Warwickshire and Southern Warwick- shire, each with a separate commission of assize, and each returning two members to Parliament, thus form-