set himeslf to transcribe the monumental inscriptions and arms of the parishes of Oxford, and, in 1660, obtained permission to consult the registers and other records of the university in the Schools' Tower. These researches, added to others in the Tower of London and the Cotton library, produced the materials for his History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford. The copy of this work, which he had compiled with greater industry than skill, was purchased of him by the university for 100 pounds. It was written in English; but as it was thought proper that it should appear in Latin for the information of foreigners, it was translated into that language, under the inspection of doctor Fell, and published at the Oxford press, under the title of Historia et Antiquitates Universitatis Oxoniensis (2 vols., folio). Of this version he often complained, as exhibiting various mistakes and omissions. In 1691 appeared his more popular and important work, Athena Oxonienses, or an account, in English, of almost all the writers educated at Oxford, and many of those at the university of Cambridge. A prosecution was soon after instituted against him in the vice-chancellor's court, for an imputation, in this work, affecting the character of the deceased earl of Clarendon; and he was sentenced to expulsion until he should formally recant it. His work affords valuable materials for biography. He died in 1695, and left his books and papers to the university of Oxford. A third edition of his Athena Oxonienses, corrected from the author's manuscripts, and continued, appeared under the superintendence of doctor Bliss (1813 -1817, 3 vols., 4to.).

WOOD, Robert, an accomplished scholar and statesman, was born at Riverstown, in the county of Meath, in 1716. In 1751, he made the tour of Greece, Egypt and Palestine, in company with Bouverie and Dawkins, and, at his return, published a splendid work in folio, entitled the Ruins of Palmyra, otherwise Tadmor in the Desert (fol., 1753), being an account of the ancient and present state of that place, with fifty-seven elegant engravings; republished in Paris in 1819 (4to.). This was followed by a similar Description of the Ruins of Balbec, with forty-six plates (1757). In 1759, he was appointed under secretary of state by the earl of Chatham, at which time he was preparing for the press his Essay on the Life and Writings of Homer, which did not appear until after his death, which took place at Putney, in 1771. This work

has been translated into French, Italian, Spanish and German; the latter by Heyne, with a preliminary essay.

WOOD, Matthew, is a native of Tiverton, where he was born in 1770. His parents were engaged in business there, and brought up a numerous family with credit, and well qualified to seek their fortunes in the world. Matthew travelled for some years for the house of an eminent druggist, and afterwards engaged in the same line of business. He soon became common-council man, and, in 1808, alderman, of London. In 1809-10, he was made sheriff. In 1817, he became lord mayor, and, on the expiration of his office, received the extraordinary compliment of being elected a second time. In the mean time, he was returned to parliament, after a severe contest, and, in a subsequent struggle, was again placed in the same situation. Here he exerted himself to procure an inquiry into the state of the metropolitan prisons, and distinguished himself by his activity in procuring the abolition of the blood-money rewards. (See Informer.) He met the queen at St. Omer, and accompanied her to England, and, in her carriage, into London, where she made his house her temporary residence. During the arduous conflict which ensued between the court and the ministry, and the queen and the people of England, Alderman Wood was the active adherent of her majesty. After her death, he attended her remains to Brunswick. Alderman Wood has realized a large fortune in the hop trade, and in the working of some copper mines in Cornwall. In the performance of his parliamentary and other public duties, he has shown himself indefatigable and honorable. His popularity had, however, so far declined, that, in 1826, he was the last on the poll of the members returned for the city. In parliament, he has been the advocate of reform and retrenchment.

WOOD ENGRAVING. Some account of this may be found in the article Engraving. We add here, that one of the chief advantages of wood-cuts is, that they may be printed by the same process as common letter-press. In a copper-plate, as may be known to most of our readers, the parts which are intended to leave an impression upon the paper are cut into copper, so that, after the ink is spread over the engraving, it has to be rubbed from all the prominent or uncut portion of the surface, in order that it may remain only in these hollows. Several disadvantages result from this. In the first place, the plate is very soon worn, or the

colors, blue only excepted. We have numerous and very beautiful species in the U. States, such as the ivory-billed, pileated, hairy, downy, Carolina, redheaded, red-cockaded, and yellow-bellied. The golden-winged woodpecker, or flicker, so familiarly known in most parts of the U. States, is remarkable for having the bill slightly arcuated. In Canada and the extreme northern parts of the U. States, a species is found having but three toes; and others exist, in the East Indies, having the fourth toe very short, or merely rudimentary.

WOODS, LAKE OF THE. (See Lake of the Woods.)

WOODSTOCK; a borough and markettown of England, in Oxfordshire. Woodstock has two manufactures, those of polished steel and gloves; the former much decayed: the latter was begun here about seventy years ago. Population in 1831, 1320. Previous to the passage of the reform act in 1832, it returned two members to parliament, who were chosen by about 400 voters. By that act it was deprived of one of its members.

WOOL; a term used very indefinitely. It is applied both to the fine hair of animals, as sheep, rabbits, some species of goats, the vicugna, &c., and to fine vegetable fibres, as cotton (the German name of which is tree-wool-Baumwolle). In this article, however, we refer only to the wool of sheep, a substance which, from the earliest periods, has been of primary importance, because it has always formed the principal material of the clothing of mankind in most temperate regions. What Columella says (lib. viii, cap. 2), still remains true: Post majores quadrupedes, ovilli pecoris secunda ratio est, quæ prima sit, si ad utilitatem magnitudinem referas. Nam id præcipue nos contra frigoris violentiam protegit; corporibusque nostris liberaliora præbet velamina. We have given, in the articles Sheep, and Sheep-Raising, some historical and other information on this interesting subject, and must refer the reader to that article, as forming, in some degree, one whole with the following. On those parts of the sheep where wool does not grow, it has hair, like other animals, as on the nose and the lower part of the legs. Those parts of the skin which cover flesh, always produce wool in the healthy state of the animal. The fibres of the wool are either straight and lank, or crooked and interlaced. The division into locks, formed by the coherence of the single fibres, varies in every species of wool, and forms what is called the staple. The body of wool,

which is shorn in connexion from one animal, is called a fleece. If we imagine a fleece spread out, the wool of the head, the legs, the belly, and the tail (which is the worst), form the exterior parts or margin. The wool of the same animal differs much on the various parts of the body: that on the back and the sides is the best. The great difference in the wool of different sheep depends, in general, upon their descent, the crossing of breeds, climate, food, and manner of living, and among the individual animals of the same breed, upon age, sex, and outward circumstances. The wool is, therefore, divided into coarse wool, which is long, either straight or irregularly curled, and fine wool, which is regularly curled. There are again many subdivisions. In Spain, the sheep are sorted before the washing, then shorn, and at last the wool is washed. It comes into the market divided into four sorts: refina, prima, segonda and tercera. The Saxon wool is also divided into four sorts: electoral, prima, secunda and tertia. To sort the wool requires much practice, in order to discern minute differences that are quite inappreciable by common observers. Frequently eight or ten different kinds are found in a single fleece; and if the best wool of one fleece be not equal to the finest sort, it is put with a second, third or fourth, or a still lower class, of an equal degree of fineness with it. The best English short native fleeces, such as the fine Norfolk and south down, are generally divided by the wool-sorter into the following kinds, all varying in fineness, viz. 1. prime; 2. choice; 3. super; 4. head; 5. downrights; 6. seconds; 7. fine abb; 8. coarse abb; 9. livery; 10. short, coarse, or breech wool. The relative value of each varies according to the greater demand for coarse, fine or middle cloths. Fine Merino wool, upon healthy and fullgrown animals, grows within a year from one to two inches, generally from one and a half to two inches. As the fineness of the wool is a very important quality (though softness is equally so), "woolmeasures" have been invented." One of these, that of A. C. F. Köhler and K Hoffmann, two German gentlemen, measures a hundred of the fibres of the wool at once: they are put into a cavity in the middle of the instrument, and pressed by a peculiar apparatus, with a weight of about three Leipsic pounds, till the maximum reaction of their elasticity is reached, and the result is indicated, sixty times magnified, on a semicircle divided into degrees. Mr. Köhler has written a pam

phlet on the use of this instrument, and Mr. Hoffmann makes them for sale in Leipsic. The price of one is forty Saxon dollars. The softness of the fibre, as already observed, is of great importance. It does not depend on fineness, and consists of a peculiar feel, approaching to that of silk or down. The difference in the value of two pieces of cloth, made of two kinds of wool equally fine, but one distinguished for its softness, and the other for the opposite quality, is such, that, with the same process and expense of manufacture, the one will be worth from twenty to twenty-five per cent. more than the other. Mr. Bakewell maintains that the degree of softness depends principally on the nature of the soil on which sheep are fed; that sheep pastured on chalk districts, or light, calcareous soil, usually produce hard wool; while the wool of those that are pastured on rich, loamy, argillaceous soils, is always distinguished by its softness. The Saxon wool is generally softer than the Spanish. Hard wools are all defective in felting properties. The felting property of wool is known to every one. The process of hatmaking, for example, depends entirely upon it. The wool of which hats are made is neither spun nor woven; but locks of it, being thoroughly intermixed and compressed in warm water, cohere, and form a solid, tenacious substance. Whole tribes use felted wool for cloth. Cloth and woollen goods are made with us from wool possessing this property: the wool is carded, spun, woven, and then, being put into the fulling-mill, the process of felting takes place. The strokes of the mill make the fibres cohere: the piece subjected to the operation contracts in length and breadth, and its texture becomes more compact and uniform. This process is essential to the beauty and strength of woollen cloth. But the long wool, of which stuffs and worsted goods are made, is deprived of its felting properties. This is done by passing the wool through heated iron combs, which take away the lamina, or feathery part of the wool, and approximate it to the nature of silk or cotton. Long or combing wool may vary in length from three to eight inches. The shorter combing wools are principally used for hose, and are spun softer than the long combing wools; the former being made into what is called hard, and the latter into soft worsted yarn. Short wool is used in the cloth manufacture, and is, therefore, frequently called clothing wool. It may vary in

length from one to three or four inches: if it be longer, it requires to be cut or broken to prepare it for the manufacture. In clothing wool, the color of the fleece should always approach as much as possible to the purest white; because such wool is not only necessary for cloths dressed white, but for all cloths that are to be dyed bright colors, for which a clear white ground is required to give a due degree of richness and lustre. Some of the English fine woolled sheep, as the Norfolk and South Down, have black or gray faces and legs. In all such sheep there is a tendency to produce gray wool on some part of the body, or to produce some gray fibres intermixed with the fleece, which renders the wool unfit for many kinds of white goods; for, though the black hairs may be too few and minute to be detected by the wool-sorter, yet, when the cloth is stoved, they become visible, forming reddish spots, by which its color is much injured. The Herefordshire sheep, which have white faces, are entirely free from this defect, and yield a fleece without any admixture of gray hairs. The cleanliness of the wool is an important consideration. The Spanish wool, for example, is always scoured after it is shorn, as stated above; whereas the wool of many other countries is only imperfectly washed previously to its being shorn. In consequence of which, it is said that while a pack of English clothing wool, of 240 pounds weight, will waste about seventy pounds in the manufacture, the same quantity of Spanish wool will not waste more than forty-eight pounds. Cleanness, therefore, is an object of much importance to the buyer. Whiteness of fleece is of less importance in the long combing than in clothing wool, provided it be free from gray hairs. Sometimes, however, the fleece has a dingy brown color, called a winter stain, which is a sure indication that the wool is not in a thoroughly sound state. Such fleeces are carefully thrown out by the wool-sorter, being suitable only for goods that are to be dyed black. The fineness of heavy combing wool is not of so much consequence as its other qualities. We have already spoken, in the article Sheep, of the deterioration of British wool from the raising of fine mutton. The better the meat, the coarser the wool. However, whilst the average weight of a fleece of the German Merino breed is about two and a half to three pounds, that of a fat Leicester sheep is from eight to nine pounds; and thus the large fleece some

what makes up the loss of fineness by increase of weight, so that it is probable, that, notwithstanding the decline in the price of wool, taking into account the greater weight of the carcass and the greater weight of the fleece, sheep produce more at present to the British farmer than at any former period. According to a_table, formed by order of the lords' committee of 1828, and published in their report on the wool duty question, the quantity produced, on an average of years, in England, is 111,160,560 pounds: the importation was, in 1828, 20, 122,447 pounds, making a total of 140,283,007 pounds for every year's consumption and exports in the shape of manufactured goods. In Germany, the fine wool produced has surprisingly increased since 1815, or since peace took place. We have spoken of the history of this branch of industry, in Germany, in the article Sheep. We only add, that, from papers laid before the British parliament, it appears, that for the year ending January 5, 1829, there were imported from Germany 23,110,822 pounds of wool, which, calculated at an average of 1s. 6d. per pound, makes a return, from England alone, of £1,733,311, 13s. Admitting only one half more for the wool exported to France, the Netherlands, Russia, Poland and Switzerland, and assuming that the internal manufactures of Germany consume one half of the wool produced, which is short of the

In 1800, the ports of both countries were open to English commerce, as well as at the two latter periods; so that, in fact, the progressive increase of importations from Germany, and the decrease from Spain, are the best possible tests of the revolution which has taken place in the relative position of those two countries as respects the wool cultivation. A table below shows the different prices. But not Germany only has become a rival of Spain: two distant colonies of England may soon vie with both-New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. In the year 1795, a small flock of sheep, not exceeding one dozen, was carried to the upper colony of New South Wales, from the cape of Good Hope. From these sprung the vast flocks which now exist there. The quantity of wool yielded for a long time was too small to form a shipment to England; but, in 1804, some Merinos, purchased

truth, the result will give £5,199,934, 19s. of annual value, created by the growth of wool now raised, instead of the worthless hair produced upon the old indigenous sheep of Germany, which was scarcely in sufficient quantity to supply the peasantry with worsted petticoats and stockings. It is not only in Saxony that fine wool is raised : in Silesia, Moravia, Austria Proper, Bohemia, also in Hungary, &c., noble flocks have sprung up. Until the elector of Saxony received a present of a small Merino flock from the king of Spain, about thirty years since the only fine wool known was the Spanish wool, which at that time was supplied to England, France and the Netherlands for their fine cloth manufactures. Unfortunately for the Spanish flock-masters, the captains of Napoleon's armies which invaded Spain, drove several of the finest flocks into France; and many others were killed or dispersed by the various parties which ravaged that country during the contest for its dominion. So completely were they destroyed, and the original system of keeping the sheep lost, in the convulsions of that period, that the wool has degenerated into a quality not worth more than one third of that of the same stock of sheep in Germany. The following table, taken from the English customhouse returns of imports, will show the effects of this transfer of the Merino breed from Spain to Germany :—