From either end of heaven the welkin burns. Milton. WELL, n. s., v. n., v. a., adj.) Sax. pelle, poll; Gothic vella. A spring; fountain ; source; pit of water; any deep cavity: to well is to issue as from a spring; to >pour forth: as an adjective, healthy; happy; convenient; recovered as an adverb, properly; skilfully; completely; favoredly well is J much used in composition to express that which is right, laudable, or complete; and this, with the extracts, will explain the compounds. WELL WISHER. The plain of Jordan was well watered every where. Genesis. We are well able to overcome it. Numbers xiii. 30. Psalms. My feet were almost gone: my steps had well-nigh slipt. Understanding is a wellspring of life. Prov. xvi. 22. Instead of well-set hair, baldness. Isaiah iii. 24. Welldone, thou good and faithful servant. Matthew xxv. 21. Disarming all his own countrymen, that no man Sidney. might shew himself a wellwiller of mine. The knot might well be cut, but untied it could not be. Id. He, by enquiry, got to the well-known house of Kalander. Thereby a crystal stream did gently play, Which from a sacred fountain welled forth alway. To her people wealth they forth do well, And health to every foreign nation. Id. Spenser. Id. The fountain and wellspring of impiety is a resolved purpose of mind to reap in this world what sensual profit or sensual pleasure soever the world yieldeth. Hooker. Once more to-day wellmet, distempered lords; The king by me requests your presence straight. Shaks. His wife seems to be well favoured. I will use her as the key of the cuckoldly rogue's coffer. He rails Id. A private caution I know not well how to sort, unles I should call it political, by no means to build too ne a great neighbour. Wetten. Man is not to depend upon the uncertain dispositions of men for his wellbeing, but only on God and his own spirit. Taylor's Holy Living, Many sober, well-minded men, who were real lovers of the peace of the kingdom, were imposed upon. Such musick Before was never made, His constellations set, Clarenden. Just thoughts and modest expectations are eas satisfied. If we don't over-rate our pretensions, all wi be well. Cellier What a refreshment then will it be, to look back upc a wellspent life! Calamy's Sermons. Good men have a well-grounded hope in another life. and are as certain of a future recompence as of the be Atterbary. of God. He examines that well-meant, but unfortunate, le e Arbuth the conquest of France. 'Tis easy for any, when well, to give advice to ther that are not. Wake's Preparation for Death. All the world speaks well of you. Pupe. Oh! that I'd died before the well-fought wall! Had some distinguished day renowned my fall, All Greece had paid my solemn funerals. What poet would not mourn to see His brother write as well as he? We ought to stand firm in well-established principie and not be tempted to change for every difficulty. From his two springs Pure welling out, he through the lucid lake Of fair Dambea rolls his infant stream. A WELL, in hydraulics, is a hole under groun usually of a cylindrical figure, and walled with stone and mortar; its use is to collect the water of the strata around it. In 1794 the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c., conferred their silver medal on George Butler, esq., for his invention of a bucket for drawing water from deep wells. It consists of a common barrel, the head of which is taken out; across the top are fixed two thin bars, of iron, having in the centre a small piece of the, same metal, which Mr. Butler terms a standard. This is furnished with a collar, which has four moveable arms; and above it there are a mortise containing a small brass pulley, and a loop to which the well-rope is secured: further a cord is tied to one extremity of the collar, which, after passing over the pulley, communicates with a valve applied to the lower end of the vessel. The bucket, thus constructed, when let down into the well by a rope, is filled through such valve; and, on being drawn up, the iron cross above-mentioned is pressed against two parallel bars, so that the valve is opened, and the water discharged into a trough, or vessel, prepared for its reception. The chief advantage arising from this contrivance is that the bucket is not only filled expeditiously, but it is also brought up steadily, so that no water is spilt; and, if any of it accidentally drop, it falls directly from the valve into the well without wetting the descending rope, a circumstance of considerable importance; for, by such continual moisture (which is necessarily occasioned by the common buckets), it speedily decays, while the vessels are seldom drawn up completely filled. The following method of procuring good water from wells appears in the Decade Philosophique, &c. If you wish the water of a well to be clear, and free from any disagreeable taste,' says the writer, the excavation should be made considerably larger than is usually done. If, for example, you wish to construct a well five feet in diameter, the excavation ought to be from twelve to fifteen feet. A false well is made ten or twelve feet in diameter; in the middle of this large well the real well is constructed with a diameter of about five feet, but in such a manner that the water may fiiter through the interstices left between the stones, which form the outside of the inner well: the false well is then filled with sand and pebbles, so that the water must first filter through them before it reaches the real well. By this method you are sure of having filtered water perfectly clear and fit to drink.' WELL, in ships, an apartment formed in the middle of a ship's hold to enclose the pumps, from the bottom to the lower deck. It is used as a barrier to preserve those machines from being damaged by the friction or compression of the materials contained in the hold, and particularly to prevent the entrance of ballast, &c., by which the tubes would presently be choked, and the pumps rendered incapable of service. By means of this inclosure the artificers may likewise more readily descend into the hold, in order to examine the state of the pumps, and repair them as occasion requires. WELL-TUBE, an hydraulic instrument for procuring water, in almost every situation, suggested by M. Cadet de Vaux. He directs the soil to be perforated with a borer; a wooden pipe is then to be placed in the hole, and driven down with a mallet; after which the boring must be continued that a pipe may be driven to a greater depth. As the augur becomes filled with earth it ought to be VOL. XXII. drawn up and emptied; so that, by the addition of fresh portions of the pipe, the boring is carried to a considerable extent under ground, and water is in most instances obtained. Wells, thus formed, are preferable to those dug in the usual manner; being less expensive, while the supply of water is oth copious and certain. This plan of boring for water has of late been much practised in the neighbourhood of London. WELL'ADAY, interj. This is a corruption of waleway. Alas! O welladay, mistress Ford, having an honest man to your husband, to give him such cause of suspicion! Shakspeare. Ah, welladay, I'm shent with baneful smart! Gay. WELLINGBOROUGH, an ancient town of England, in Northamptonshire, reckoned the second in the county. It was destroyed by the Danes. It is named from its numerous medicinal wells. It has a market on Wednesday with a great trade in grain, and flourishing manufactures of shoes, lace, &c. The houses are elegantly built with stone, eighty houses having been accidentally burnt in 1738. It has a handsome church and a free school. It is seated on the side of a hill, on the west bank of the Nen; ten miles north-east of Northampton. Long. 0° 59′ W., lat. 52° 16′ N. WELLINGTON, a market-town and parish in South-Bradford hundred, Salop, situate near the Wrekin, eleven miles east by south from Shrewsbury, and 150 from London. The church is a handsome building, erected of late, and supported with cast-iron pillars, having window frames of iron. Near it is a respectable charity school. The greater part of the inhabitants are engaged in working coals and lime, and mines of iron ore. It has a good market on Thursday. Also a market-town and parish in West-Kingsbury hundred, Somersetshire, situate on the river Tone, seven miles W. S. W. of Taunton, and 150 from London. This place gives the title of duke to the conqueror of Waterloo. WELLS (Edmund), a learned professor of Greek, in the university of Oxford. He published a good edition of Xenophon's Works, in 5 vols., and died in 1730. WELLS (Edward), D. D., a learned divine, born at Corsham, in Wilts, in 1666, and educated at Westminster, and thence to Christ Church, Oxford. Having graduated there, he obtained the living of Catesbach, in Leicestershire. He published, 1. An Answer to Dr. Clarke on the Trinity; 2. A valuable work on the Geography of the Old and New Testament; 2 vols. 8vo. 3. A Course of Mathematics; 3 vols. 4. Some Tracts against the Dissenters; and other works. WELLS, a post town of York county, Maine, twelve miles N. N. E. of York, thirty south-west of Portland, and eighty-eight N. N. E. of Boston. It is separated from Arundel by the river Kennebunk, at the mouth of which is the village and sea-port of Kennebunk, and it is bounded southeast by that part of the sea called Wells Bay, which lies between capes Porpoise and Neddock. The township is about ten miles long and seven broad. The river Mousum flows through the eastern part of it. WELLS, a city, in Wells-forum hundred, Somersetshire, pleasantly situate on the border of the Mendip-hills, on the small river Wesitire, nineteen miles south-west of Bath, and 121 west by south 212 from London. The houses are neat, and many of them elegant, and the streets well paved. The cathedral, the greater part of which, as it now stands, was erected in 1239, by bishop Joceline de Wells, is a spacious gothic structure in the form of a cross, being 380 feet long, and 130 wide. The entire west front is a pile of statues of most excellently carved stone work, and one of the principal windows contains some beautiful paintings on glass. The cloisters adjoining are spacious and elegant, and the chapter-house in the form of a rotunda, is supported by one pillar in the centre. Two gates with towers, lead into the close; one of which leads into the cloisters, consisting of twenty-two houses, and a chapel at the upper end; the vicars' dwellings in the close are commodious, but their hall is turned into a music room, in which concerts are frequently held. The deanery is a handsome edifice. The episcopal palace, though small, is reckoned the handsomest in the kingdom. The pious bishop Ken and his lady were killed here in their bed, by the falling in of the palace during a great storm in 1703. The church of St. Cuthbert has a lofty square tower containing six bells; that of the cathedral has eight. The town hall is situate over bishop Bubwith's hospital, which is endowed for thirty poor men and women. Here are several alms houses; and a charity school was erected in 1714 for twenty boys and twenty girls. On the east side of the city is a spacious open market place. The name of this city is said to have been taken from a remarkable spring called St. Andrew's Well, rising near and emitting a copious stream, which surrounds the palace, and thence flows through the south-west part of the town. It returns two members to parliament, elected by the mayor, masters, burgesses, and freemen. The chief manufactures are knitting hose, and making bone lace. Near the site of the market cross, stands a public Conduit. The annual races are held in that part called East-Wells, without the city liberty. About two miles north-west of Wells is a remarkable cavern, nearly 600 feet in length, called WokeyHole, containing several rugged and lofty apartments. Markets on Wednesday and Saturday. WELSTED (Leonard), an English poet, born in 1689, and educated at Westminster, where he wrote the humorous tale of the Apple P'ye, which has been falsely ascribed to Dr. King. He obtained a place in the Ordnance Office; aud Mr. Pope. gave him a place unasked and unmerited in his Dunciad; for he was a man of real genius, and several of his poems have great merit. He translated Longinus on the Sublime into English, from Boileau's version; and wrote a comedy, entitled The Dissembled Woman. He died in 1747. WELT, n. s. Sax. pilan, to enclose. A border; guard; edging. Little low hedges made round like welts, with some Bacon. pretty pyramids, I like well. They may have some edging or trimming of a scholar, a welt or so, but no more. Ben Jonson. WELT'ER, v.n. Sax. pealtan; Lat. volutari. To roll in water or mire; wallow. If a man inglut himself with vanity, or weiter in filthiness like a swine, all learning, all goodness, is soon forgotten. He must not float upon his watery bier Unweeped, nor welter to the parching winds. Ascham. Milton. The gasping head files off; a purple flood Flows from the trunk, that welters in the blood. Dryden. Bellona wades in blood; that mangled body, Deformed with wounds and wettering in its gore, 1 know it well. Murphy. WELWOOD (James), A. M., a Scottish writer of the seventeenth century, born at Perth in 1599. He wrote Immanuel's Land, and various other pious tracts. He died at Perth in 1680, aged eighty-two. WELWOOD, OF WELLWOOD (Thomas), M. D., an eminent physician and historian, born near Edinburgh, in 1652, and educated at Glasgow. His father, having been suspected of being accessory to the death of archbishop Sharp, fled with his family to Holland; whence young Welwood returned, in 1688, with king William III., who appointed him one of his physicians for Scotland. He settled at Edinburgh, where he made a large fortune. He wrote Memoirs of English Affairs from 1588 to 1688; and died at Edinburgh in 1716. WEN, n. s. protuberance. Sax. pen. A fleshy excrescence or Warts are said to be destroyed by the rubbing them with a green elder stick, and then burying the stick to rot in muck. It would be tried with corns and cens, and such other excrescences. Bacon. Dryden. A promontory wen, with griesly grace, Stood high upon the handle of his face. A WEN is a tumor arising on any part of the body, and containing a cystus or bag filled with some peculiar kind of matter. See NEVUS. WENCESLAUS, emperor of Germany, and king of Bohemia, was the son of the emperor Charles IV., whom he succeeded in 1378. Becoming deranged in his mind, the Bohemians confined him, but he escaped once and again; on which occasions he took severe vengeance on all those he supposed his enemies. At length he was deposed, and died in 1419. WENCH, n. s. & v.n. Sax. pencle. A young woman; used generally in contempt: hence a strumpet: to frequent the company of loose women. family in Yorkshire. Being elected into the house of Commons, he became a distinguished leader of the popular party, in opposition to the measures of king Charles I. in the beginning of his reign. But at last he was gained over to the court party; created a peer by the title of earl of Strafford; and appointed president of the north, and lord lieutenant of Ireland. The earl showed great talents for government in Ireland, where he governed eight years, encouraged agriculture, and labored much to promote the Protestant interest. When the rebellion broke out in Scotland he endeavoured to persuade king Charles to act with vigor, but in vain. The commons, with Pym at their head, impeached the earl at the bar of the house of lords, who ordered him into custody. His trial lasted eighteen days, and was carried on with great virulence. His defence was satisfactory; yet a bill of attainder was passed against him. The king long refused his assent to it, till the earl wrote him to yield, which he did at last with reluctance. The earl was in consequence beheaded on Tower Hill, 12th May, 1641. See ENGLAND. WENTWORTH (William), marquis of Rockingham, a late celebrated British statesman, born in Yorkshire. He became the leader of the Whig party in the beginning of the reign of George III. When lord North was dismissed, in March 1782 (see ENGLAND), the marquis was appointed first lord of the treasury, but died within four months after. WERF (Adrian Vander), an eminent Dutch painter, born at Rotterdam in 1689. He painted historical subjects in miniature, in a style of high elegance. He died at Rotterdam in 1727. WERF (Peter Vander), brother of Adrian, was his pupil, and was also a good painter. WERNER (Abraham Gottlob), the celebrated mineralogist, was born September 25th, 1750, while his father was overseer of iron works in Upper Lusatia. After some previous education he was sent to the mineralogical academy at Freyburg; and thence to Leipsic, where he applied himself to natural history and jurisprudence, but more especially to the former. The external characters of mineral bodies attracted much of his attention; and in 1774 he published a work on that subject, which has been translated into various languages, and adopted and commented on by many writers; but the author could never be persuaded to publish a new or enlarged edition. Soon after, Werner was invited to become keeper of the cabinet of natural history at Freyburg, and to deliver lectures on mineralogy. In 1780 he published the first part of a translation of Cronstadt's Mineralogy; and in his annotations on this work gave the first sketch of his own system. In 1791 appeared his catalogue of the vast mineral collection of Pabst von Obaine, captain-general of the Saxon mines. He now also delivered lectures on the art of mining, which he is said to have rendered peculiarly intelligible and interesting by his simplification of the machinery. His system of geognosy or geology was unfolded only in his lectures; which he caused to be written out by his approved pupils, revising them himself. Many parts of these lectures have been published. Werner himself likewise published some mineralogical papers in the Miner's Journal; and in 1791 appeared his New Theory of the Formation of Metallic Veins. In 1792 he was nominated counsellor of the mines of Saxony; and had a great share in the direction of the Academy of Mineralogy, and in the administration for public works. The cabinet of minerals which he had collected was unrivalled for its completeness. This he sold for 40,000 crowns, reserving the interest of 33,000 as an annuity to himself and his sister; and at her death to revert to the Mineralogical Academy of Freyburg. He died unmarried, in August 1817. WERNIGERODE, a district, with the title of county, in the Prussian states, in Upper Saxony, lying between the principality of Halberstadt and the states of Brunswick and Hanover. Its area is about 100 square miles; its population 13,000. It lies in the Hartz forest. WERNIGERODE, a town of Prussian Saxony, and the chief place of the above county, stands on a small stream called the Zillicherbach, at the north extremity of the Hartz. It is divided into the Old and New towns, and the suburb of Nessenrode; contains 5100 inhabitants, and has a considerable trade in corn, spirituous liquors, and woollens manufactured ir. the town. Adjoining is the castle, the residence of the prince. Twenty-five miles S. S. E. of Wolfenbuttel, and twelve W. S. W. of Halberstadt. WERTHEIM, a county and town of Germany, in Franconia, lying chiefly to the south of the Maine, and subject to the grand duchy of Baden. Its area is about 110 square miles; its population 12,000. It is fertile in corn and wine, the latter being accounted the best in Franconia. The town is the capital of the circle of the Maine and Tauber. It stands in a narrow valley, at the confluence of the Maine and the Tauber, is surrounded with a wall, divided into four quarters, and contains 3200 inhabitants, chiefly Protestants. WESIL', n. s. See WEASAND. The wesil, or windpipe, we call aspera arteria. Bacon. WESLEY (Samuel), an English divine, born in Dorsetshire, and educated at Oxford; but was bred a Dissenter. He afterwards conformed, and wrote some tracts against his former friends. He obtained the living of south Ormesby, and afterwards that of Epworth, both in Lincolnshire. He wrote many sacred poems; but his chief work is The Life of Christ, an heroic poem, in twelve books, with learned notes. He also wrote Dissertations on the Book of Job, in Latin, folio. He died at Epworth in 1735. WESLEY (John), the eldest son of the above, was born at Epworth, in the isle of Axholme, in 1703. When he was only six years old the parso aage house at Epworth was burnt to the ground, and he was saved from the flames with the extremest difficulty. In 1713 he was entered a scholar at the Charter House in London, where he continued seven years under the celebrated Dr. Walker, and the rev. Andrew Tooke. Being elected to Lincoln College, Oxford, he became fellow about 1725, took the degree of M. A. in 1726, and was joint tutor with the rev. Dr. Hutchins the rector. Mr. John Wesley, his brother Charles, and a few of their young fellow students, were distinguished by a more than common strictness of religious life. They received the sacrament of the Lord's Supper every week; observed all the fasts of the church; visited the prisons; rose at 4 A. M., and refrained from all amusements. From the exact method in which they disposed of every hour they acquired the appellation of Methodists; by which their fol lowers have been ever since distinguished. See METHODISTS. In 1735 he embarked for Georgia, which was at that time in a state of political infancy; and the great object of this voyage was to preach the gospel to the Indian nations in the vicinity of that province. He returned to England in 1737. Of his spiritual labors, both in this country and in America, he himself has given a very copious account, in a series of Journals, print ed at different periods. On his return from Georgia he paid a visit to count Zinzendorf, the founder of the sect of Moravians, at Hernuth, in Upper Lusatia. In the following year he appeared again in England, at the head of the Methodists. He preached his first field sermon at Bristol, on the 2d of April, 1738, from which time his disciples have continued to increase. In 1741 a serious altercation took place between him and Mr. Whitfield. In 1744, attempting to preach at an inn at Taunton, he was regularly silenced by the magistrates. Although he chiefly resided for the remainder of his life in the metropolis, he occasionally travelled through every part of Great Britain and Ireland, establishing congregations in each kingdom. In 1750 he married a lady, from whom he was afterwards separated. By this lady, who died in 1781, he had no children. He died on the 2d March, 1791, in the eighty-eighth year of his age. WESLEY (Charles), younger brother of John, was born at Epworth in 1708, and educated at Westminster, and next at Christ Church College, Oxford. He adopted his brother John's system and sentiments; and continued a constant preacher among the Methodists till his death in 1788. He wrote several hymns, and other pious pieces. WESLEY (Samuel), another brother of John, was under master of Westminster School for many years; and afterwards master of Blundel's School at Tiverton, in Devonshire, where he died in 1739. He published The Battle of the Sexes, and other ingenious poems, in 1 vol. 12mo. WESSELUS (John), a learned German, born at Groningen, about 1419. He studied at Zwoll, and travelled afterwards into Greece and the Le vant. Some of his works were printed at Groningen 1614, 4to., under this title: Farrago Ferum Theologicarum. WEST, n. s. WEST'ERING, adj. WESTERLY, adv. WESTERN, adj. WEST'WARD, Sax. pert; Belg. west. The region where the sun goes below the horizon at the equinoxes: westering is tending to the west: westerly, towards the west the other derivatives corresponding. WEST WARDLY, adv. This shall be your west border. Numb. xxxiv. 6. Now fair Phoebus 'gan decline in haste His weary waggon to the western vale. Spenser. The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day: Now spurs the lated traveller apace, To gain the timely inn. The grove of sycamore, That westward rooteth from the city side. Shakspeare. If our loves faint, and westwardly decline, To me thou falsely thine, And I to thee mine actions shall disguise. The Phenicians had great fleets; so had Id. Donne. the Carta. Bacon. ginians, which is yet farther west. The star that rose at evening bright wheel. The moon in levelled west was set. Abbot. WEST (Gilbert), LL. D., the son of Dr. West, lawyer, and a barrister in the Temple. In 171 WEST (Thomas), an eminent topographer, bom at Ulverston, in Lancashire. He wrote, 1. The History of Furness; 2. A Guide to the Lakes. He died at Ulverston in 1779. painter, born in 1738, near Springfield, in the WESTERN ISLES, or Æbudæ, or Hebrides, islands on the west and north-west coast of Scotland. See HEBRIDES, and the names of the various islands in their order. Mr. Pennant very judiciously sup westering poses that the modern name, Hebrides, has arisen from the mistake of some transcriber, instead of Hobudes. Milton. Id. |