earl (1760-1814), a member of the Irish House of Commons before 1792, was succeeded by his son George Thomas John (1785-1871), who was created marquess of Westmeath in 1822 and who was an Irish representative peer from 1831 to 1871.(County Longford) and Sligo. A branch of the Great Southern & He died without legitimate sons on the 5th of May 1871, when The marquessate became extinct.

by the latter company. Water communication with Dublin is | The latter's son, Hugh Lupus (1825-1899), created a duke in furnished by the Royal Canal, traversing the centre of the county. 1874, was from 1847 to 1869 member of parliament for Chester A branch of the Grand Canal reaches Kilbeggan in the south. and from 1880 to 1885 master of the horse under Gladstone, but he left the Liberal party when the split came over Home

spicuous; but he was a patron of many progressive movements. His eldest son, Victor Alexander, Earl Grosvenor (1853-1884), predeceased him, and he was succeeded as 2nd duke by his grandson, Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor (b. 1879), who in 1901 married Miss Cornwallis-West. Earl Grosvenor's widow, Countess Grosvenor, a daughter of the 9th earl of Scarborough, had in 1887 married Mr George Wyndham (b. 1863), a grandson of the 1st baron Leconfield, who subsequently became wellknown both as a littérateur and as a Unionist cabinet minister.

The population (68,611 in 1891; 61,629 in 1901) decreases in excess of the average shown by the Irish counties, and emi-Rule for Ireland. His great wealth made him specially congration is considerable. About 92% of the total are Roman Catholics, and about 86% constitute the rural population. The principal towns are Athlone (pop. 6617), of which the part formerly in Roscommon was added to Westmeath by the Local Government (Ireland) Act of 1898, and Mullingar (4500), the county town. Castlepollard and Moate are lesser market towns. By the Redistribution Act of 1885 Westmeath was formed into two parliamentary divisions, North and South, each returning one member, Athlone being included in the county representation. The county is divided into twelve baronies. Assizes are held at Mullingar and quarter sessions at Mullingar and Moate. The county is in the Protestant dioceses of Dublin, Killaloe and Ossory, and in the Roman Catholic dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin, Killaloe and Ossory. Westmeath was severed from Meath (q.v.) in 1543. The plan for the insurrection of 1641 was concerted in the abbey of Multifarnham, and both in the wars of this period and those of 1688 the gentry of the county were so deeply implicated that the majority of the estates were confiscated. There are a considerable number of raths or encampments: one at Rathconrath is of great extent; another at Ballymore was fortified during the wars of the Cromwellian period and those of 1688, and was afterwards the headquarters of General Ginkell, when preparing to besiege Athlone; and there is a third of considerable size near Lough Lene. The ruins of the Franciscan abbey of Multifarnham, founded in 1236 by William Delaware, picturesquely situated near Lough Dereveragh, include a tower 93 ft. in height.

WESTMINSTER, MARQUESSES AND DUKES OF. The title of marquess of Westminster was bestowed in 1831 upon Robert Grosvenor, 2nd Earl Grosvenor (1767-1845), whose grandson, Hugh Lupus Grosvenor (1825-1899), was created duke of Westminster in 1874. The family of Grosvenor is of great antiquity in Cheshire, the existence of a knightly house of this name (Le Grosvenur) in the palatine county being proved by deeds as early as the 12th century (see The Ancestor, vi. 19). The legend of its descent from a nephew of Hugh Lupus, earl of Chester, perpetuated in the name of the first duke, and the still more extravagant story, repeated by the old genealogists and modern " peerages," of its ancestors, the "grand hunts(gros veneurs) of the dukes of Normandy, have been exploded by the researches of Mr W. H. B. Bird (see "The Grosvenor Myth" in The Ancestor, vol. i. April 1902). The ancestors of the dukes of Westminster, the Grosvenors of Eaton, near Chester, were cadets of the knightly house mentioned above, and rose to wealth and eminence through a series of fortunate marriages. Their baronetcy dates from 1622.

men

Sir Thomas Grosvenor, the 3rd baronet (1656-1700), in 1676 | married Mary (d. 1730), heiress of Alexander Davies (d. 1665), a scrivener. This union brought to the Grosvenor family certain lands, then on the outskirts of London, but now covered by some of the most fashionable quarters of the West End. Sir Thomas's sons, Richard (1689-1732), Thomas (1693-1733) and Robert (d. 1755), succeeded in turn to the baronetcy, Robert being the father of Sir Richard Grosvenor (1731-1802), created Baron Grosvenor in 1761 and Viscount Belgrave and Earl Grosvenor in 1784. The 1st earl, a great breeder of racehorses, was succeeded by his only surviving son Robert (1767-1845), who rebuilt Eaton Hall and developed his London property, which was rapidly increasing in value. In the House of Commons, where he sat from 1788 to 1802, he was a follower of Pitt, who made him a lord of the admiralty and later a commissioner of the board of control, but after 1806 he left the Tories and joined the Whigs. He was created a marquess at the coronation of William IV. in 1831. His son, Richard, the 2nd marquess, (1795-1869), was a member of parliament from 1818 to 1835 and lord steward of the royal household from 1850 to 1852.

Two other peerages are held by the Grosvenor family. In 1857 Lord Robert Grosvenor (1801-1893), a younger son of the 1st marquess, after having sat in the House of Commons since 1822, was created Baron Ebury. He was an energetic opponent of ritualism in the Church of England; and he was associated in philanthropic work with the earl of Shaftesbury. On his death his son, Robert Wellesley Grosvenor (b. 1834), became the 2nd baron. In 1886, Lord Richard Grosvenor (b. 1837), a son of the 2nd marquess, was created Baron Stalbridge; from 1880 to 1885 he had been "chief whip" of the Liberal party. In 1891 he became chairman of the London & North Western railway.

WESTMINSTER, a part of London, England; strictly a city in the administrative county of London, bounded E. by "the City," S. by the river Thames, W. by the boroughs of Chelsea and Kensington, and N. by Paddington, St Marylebone and Holborn. Westminster was formed into a borough by the London Government Act of 1899, and by a royal charter of the 29th of October 1900 it was created a city. The council consists of a mayor, 10 aldermen and 60 councillors. The city comprises the parliamentary boroughs of the Strand, Westminster and St George's, Hanover Square, each returning one member. Area, 2502-7 acres. The City of Westminster, as thus depicted, extends from the western end of Fleet Street to Kensington Gardens, and from Oxford Street to the Thames, which it borders over a distance of 3 m., between Victoria (Chelsea) Bridge and a point below Waterloo Bridge. It thus includes a large number of the finest buildings in London, from the Law Courts in the east to the Imperial Institute in the west, Buckingham and St James's palaces, the National Gallery, and most of the greatest residences of the wealthy classes. But the name of Westminster is more generally associated with a more confined area, namely, the quarter which includes the Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, the government and other buildings in Whitehall, the Roman Catholic Cathedral, and the parts immediately adjacent to these.

Tradition and

history.

Westminster Abbey.-The Abbey of St Peter is the most widely celebrated church in the British empire. The Thames, bordered in early times by a great expanse of fen on either hand from Chelsea and Battersea downward, washed, at the point where the Abbey stands, one shore of a low island perhaps three-quarters of a mile in circumference, known as Thorney or Bramble islet. Tributary streams from the north formed channels through the marsh, flanking the island north and south, and were once connected by a dyke on the west. These channels belonged to the Tyburn, which flowed from the high ground of Hampstead. Relics of the Roman occupation have been excavated in the former island, and it is supposed that traffic on the Watling Street, from Dover to Chester, crossed the Thames and the marshes by way of Thorney before the construction of London Bridge; the road continuing north-west in the line of the modern Park Lane (partly) and Edgware Road. Tradition places on the island a temple of Apollo, which was destroyed by an earthquake in the reign of the emperor Antoninus Pius. On the site King Lucius is said to have founded a church (c. A.D. 170). The irruption of the Saxons left Thorney desolate. Traditional still, but supported by greater probability, a story states that Sebert,

king of the East Saxons, having taken part in the foundation of St Paul's Cathedral, restored or refounded the church at Thorney to the honour of God and St Peter, on the west side of the City of London " (Stow). A splendid legend relates the coming of St Peter in person to hallow his new church. The sons of Sebert relapsed into idolatry and left the church to the mercy of the Danes. A charter of Offa, king of Mercia (785), deals with the conveyance of certain land to the monastery of St Peter; and King Edgar restored the church, clearly defining by a charter dated 95r (not certainly genuine) the boundary of Westminster, which may be indicated in modern terms as extending from the Marble Arch south to the Thames and east to the City boundary, the former river Fleet. Westminster was a Benedictine foundation. In 1050 Edward the Confessor took up the erection of a magnificent new church, cruciform, with a central and two western towers. Its building continued after his death, but it was consecrated on Childermas Day, 28th December 1065; and on the following " twelfth mass eve "the king died, being buried next day in the church. In 1245 Henry III. set about the rebuilding of the church east of the nave, and at this point it becomes necessary to describe the building as it now appears. Westminster Abbey is a cruciform structure consisting of nave with aisles, transepts with aisles (but in the south transept the place of the western aisle is occupied by the eastern cloister walk), and choir of polygonal apsidal form, with six chapels (four polygonal) opening north and south of it, and an eastern Lady Chapel, known as Henry VII.'s chapel. There are two western towers, but in the centre a low square tower hardly rises above the pitch of the roof. The main entrance in common use is that in the north transept. The chapter-house, cloisters and other conventual buildings and remains lie to the south. The total length of the church (exterior) is 531 ft. and of the transepts 203 ft. in all. The breadth of the nave without the aisles is 38 ft. 7 in. and its height close upon 102 ft. These dimensions are very slightly lessened in the choir. Without, viewed from the open Parliament Square to the north, the beautiful proportions of the building are readily realized, but it is somewhat dwarfed by the absence of a central tower and by the vast adjacent pile of the Houses of Parliament. From this point (considered as a building merely) it appears only as a secondary unit in a magnificent group. Seen from the west, however, it is the dominant unit, but here it is impossible to overlook the imperfect conception of the "Gothic humour" (as he himself termed it) manifested by Wren, from whose designs the western towers were completed in 1740. The north front, called Solomon's Porch from a former porch over the main entrance, is from the designs of Sir G. G. Scott, considerably altered by J. L. Pearson.

The church.

Within, the Abbey is a superb example of the pointed style. The body of the church has a remarkable appearance of uniformity; because, although the building of the new nave was continued with intermissions from the 14th century until Tudor times, the broad design of the Early English work in the eastern part of the church was carried on throughout. The choir, with its unusual form and radiating chapels, plainly follows French models, but the name of the architect is lost. Exquisite ornament is seen in the triforium arcade, and between some of the arches in the transept are figures, especially finely carved, though much mutilated, known as the censing angels. Henry VII.'s Chapel replaces an earlier Lady Chapel, and is the most remarkable building of its period. It comprises a nave with aisles, and an apsidal eastward end formed of five small radiating chapels. Both within and without it is ornamented with an extraordinary wealth and minuteness of detail. A splendid series of carved oak stalls lines each side of the nave, and above them hang the banners of the Knights of the Bath, of whom this was the place of installation when the Order was reconstituted in 1725. The fan-traceried roof, with its carved stone pendants, is the most exquisite architectural feature of the chapel. The choir stalls in the body of the church are modern, as is the organ, a fine instrument with an "echo attachment, electrically connected, in the triforium of the south transept. The reredos is by Sir G. G. Scott, with mosaic by Salviati. In Abbot Islip's chapel there is a series of effigies in wax, representing monarchs and others. The earliest, which is well preserved, is of Charles II., but remnants of older figures survive. Some of the effigies were carried in funeral processions according to custom, but this was not done later than 1735. There are, however, figures of Lord Chatham and Nelson,

monies and monu

ments.

| set up by the officials who received the fees formerly paid by visitors to the exhibition. But the peculiar fame of the Abbey lies not in its architecture, nor in its connexion with the metropolis alone, but in the fact that it has long been the place of the coronation of sovereigns and the burial-place of many of them and of their greatest Ceresubjects. The original reason for this was the reverence stands in the central chapel behind the high altar. The attaching to the memory of the Confessor, whose shrine" Norman kings were ready to do honour to his name. From William the Conqueror onward every sovereign has been crowned here except ing Edward V. The coronation chairs stand in the Confessor's chapel. That used by the sovereign dates from the time of Edward I., and contains beneath its seat the stone of Scone, or stone of destiny, on which the Celtic kings were crowned. It is of Scottish origin, but tradition identifies it with Jacob's pillow at Bethel. Here also are kept the sword and shield of Edward III., still used in the coronation ceremony. The second chair was made for Mary, consort of William III. Subsequent to the Conquest many kings and queens were buried here, from Henry III. to George II. Not all the graves are marked, but of those which are the tomb of Henry VII. and his queen, Elizabeth of York, the central object in his of Italian workmanship, rest upon a tomb of black marble, and the own chapel, is the finest. The splendid recumbent effigies in bronze, whole is enclosed in a magnificent shrine of wrought brass. Monuments, tombs, busts and memorials crowd the choir, its chapels and the transepts, nor is the nave wholly free of them. All but the Edmund Crouchback and Aymer de Valence, in the sanctuary, are minority of the Gothic period (among which the canopied tombs of notable) appear incongruous in a Gothic setting. Many of the memorials are not worthy of their position as works of art, nor are the subjects they commemorate always worthy to lie here, for the high honour of burial in the Abbey was not always so conscientiously wonderful range of sculptural art is found. A part of the south guarded as now. Eliminating these considerations, however, a transept is famed under the name of the Poet's Corner. The north transept contains many monuments to statesmen. erected into a bishopric, but only one prelate, Thomas Thurleby, The monastery was dissolved in 1539, and Westminster was then held the office of bishop. In 1553 Mary again appointed an abbot, but Elizabeth reinstated the dean, with twelve prethe 13th and 14th centuries. On the south side of the bendaries. Of the conventual buildings, the cloisters are of southern walk remains of a wall of the refectory are seen from without. From the eastern walk a porch gives entry to the chapter house and the chapel of the Pyx. The first is of the time of Henry III., a fine octagonal building, its vaulted roof supported by a slender clustered column of marble. It was largely restored by Sir centuries. The chapel or chamber of the Pyx is part of the underGilbert Scott. There are mural paintings of the 14th and 15th croft of the original dormitory, and is early Norman work of the Confessor's time. It was used as a treasury for the regalia and coins of the realm used in the trial of the pyx now carried out at other articles of value in early times, and here were kept the standard the Mint. The undercroft is divided into compartments by walls, and part of it appears in the gymnasium of Westminster School. Above it is now the chapter library. To the south-east lies the picturesque Little Cloister, with its court and fountain, surrounded by residences of canons and officials. Near it are slight ruins of the monastic infirmary chapel of St Catherine. West of the main the building surrounding a small court and dating in fabric mainly cloisters are the Deanery, Jerusalem chamber and College Hall, from the 14th century. This was the Abbot's house. Its most famous portion is the Jerusalem chamber, believed to be named from the former tapestries on its walls, representing the holy city. Here died Henry IV. in 1413, as set forth in Shakespeare's Henry IV. (Pt. ii., Act iv. Sc. 4). It is a beautiful room, with open timber roof, windows partly of stained glass, and walls tapestried and but plainly fitted in the common manner of a refectory, with a dais panelled The College Hall, adjoining it, is of similar construction, for the high table at the north and a gallery at the south. It is now the dining-hall of Westminster School.

Conventual

and other buildings.

Westminster School.-St Peter's College, commonly called Westminster School, is one of the most ancient and eminent public schools in England, and the only school of such standing still occupying its original site in London. A school was maintained by the monks from very early times. Henry VIII. took steps to raise it in importance, but the school owes its present foundress at a Latin commemoration service held periodically eminence to Queen Elizabeth, who is commemorated as the in the Abbey, where, moreover, the daily school service is held. The school buildings lie cast of the conventual buildings, surrounding Little Dean's Yard, which, like the cloisters, communicates with Dean's Yard, in which are the picturesque houses of the headmaster, canons of the Abbey, and others. The buildings are modern or large modernized. The Great Schoolroom

is a fine panelled hall, bearing on its walls the arms and | Holbein in its decoration, and made it his principal residence. names of many eminent alumni; it is entered by a gateway attributed to Inigo Jones, also covered with names. Ash burnham House, now containing one of the school houses, the library and class-rooms, is named from the family for whom it was built, traditionally but not certainly, by Inigo Jones. The finest part remaining is the grand staircase. The number of scholars, called King's Scholars, on the foundation is 60, of which 40, who are boarders, represent the original number. The great proportion of the boys are home boarders (Town Boys). In the College dormitory a Latin play is annually presented, in accordance with ancient custom. It is preceded by a prologue, and followed by a humorous epilogue, in Latin adapted to subjects of the moment. Other customs for which the school is noted are the acclamation of the sovereign at coronation in the Abbey, in accordance with a privilege jealously held by the boys; and the "Pancake Greaze," a struggle in the Great Schoolroom on Shrove Tuesday to obtain possession of a pancake carrying with it a reward from the Dean. The number of boys is about 250. Valuable close scholarships and exhibitions at Christ Church, Oxford, and Trinity College, Cambridge, are awarded annually.

the institution of coroners, measures of Richard and his ministers, come under review as well as the Provisions of Oxford and the Statute of Marlborough."

The second statute of Westminster was passed in the parliament of 1285. Like the first statute it is a code in itself, and contains the famous clause De donis conditionalibus (q.v.), one of the fundamental institutes of the medieval land law of England." Stubbs says of it: "The law of dower, of advowson, of appeal for felonies, is largely amended; the institution of justices of assize is remodelled, and the abuses of manorial jurisdiction repressed; the statute De religiosis, the statutes of Merton and Gloucester, are amended and re-enacted. Every clause has a bearing on the growth of the later law." The statute Quia Emptores of 1290 is sometimes called the statute of Westminster III.

WESTMINSTER, SYNODS OF. Under this heading are included certain of the more important ecclesiastical councils held within the present bounds of London. Though the precise locality is occasionally uncertain, the majority of the medieval synods assembled in the chapter-house of old St Paul's, or the former chapel of St Catherine within the precincts of Westminster Abbey or at Lambeth. The councils were of various types, each with a constitutional history of its own. Before the reign of Edward I., when convocation assumed substantially its present form (see CONVOCATION), there were convened in London various diocesan, provincial, national and legatine synods; during the past six centuries, however, the chief ecclesiastical assemblies held there have been convocations of the province of Canterbury.

The first really notable council at St Paul's was that of 1075 under the presidency of Lanfranc; it renewed ancient regulations, forbade simony and permitted three bishops to remove from country places to Salisbury, Chichester and Chester respectively. In 1102 a national synod at Westminster under Anselm adopted canons against simony, clerical marriages and slavery. The councils of 1126, 1127 and 1138 were legatine, that of 1175 provincial; their canons, chiefly re-enactments, throw light on the condition of the clergy at that time. The canons of 1200 are based in large measure on recommendations of the Lateran Council of 1179. At St Paul's the legatine constitutions of Otto were published in a synod of 1237, those of Ottobon in 1268: these were the most important national councils held after the independence of York had been established. A synod at Lambeth in 1281 put forth canons none too welcome to Edward I.; they included a detailed scheme for the religious instruction of the faithful. During the next two centuries the councils devoted much attention to heresy: eight propositions concerning the body of Christ after his death were rejected at St Mary-le-Bow in 1286; the expulsion of the Jews from England was sanctioned by a legatine synod of Westminster in 1291; ten theses of Wiclif's were condemned at the Dominican friary in 1382, and eighteen articles drawn from his Trialogus met the same fate at St Paul's in 1396; and the doom of Sir John Oldcastle was scaled at the latter place in 1413. The 14th-century synods at St Paul's concerned themselves largely with the financial and moral status of the clergy, and made many quaint regulations regarding their dress and behaviour (1328, 1342, 1343; cf. 1463). From the time of Edward VI. on, many of the most vital changes in ecclesiastical discipline were adopted in convocations at St Paul's and in the Abbey. To enumerate them would be to give a running commentary on the development of the Church of England; among the most important were those of 1547, 1552, 1554, 1562, 1571, 1604, 1605, 1640 and 1661. In 1852 there was held the first of a series of synods of the newly organized Roman Catholic archdiocese of Westminster. For the "Pan-Anglican Synods" see LAMBETH CONFERENCES.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.-For acts of synods prior to the Reformation see Spelman, Hardouin, W. Lynwood, Provinciale (Oxford, 1679), and best of all Wilkins; for the canons and proceedings of convocations from 1547 to 1717 consult E. Cardwell, Synodalia (2 vols., Oxford, 1842); for translations and summaries, Guérin, Landon and Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, vol. iv. ff.; see also T. Lathbury, A History of the Convocation of the Church of England (2nd enlarged edition,

| London, 1853); A. P. Stanley, Historical Memorials of Westminster
Abbey (4th and revised ed., London, 1876), 411-413, 495-504:
H. H. Milman, Annals of S. Paul's Cathedral (2nd ed., London, 1869).
Full titles under COUNCILS.
(W. W. R.)

WESTMORLAND, EARLS OF. Ralph Neville, 4th Baron Neville of Raby, and 1st earl of Westmorland (1364-1425), eldest son of John, 3rd Baron Neville, and his wife Maud Percy (see NEVILLE, Family), was knighted by Thomas of Woodstock, afterwards duke of Gloucester, during the French expedi tion of 1380, and succeeded to his father's barony in 1388. He had been joint warden of the west march in 1386, and was reappointed for a new term in 1390. In 1391 he was put on the commission which undertook the duties of constable in place of the duke of Gloucester, and he was repeatedly engaged in negotiations with the Scots. His support of the court party against the lords appellant was rewarded in 1397 by the earldom of Westmorland. He married as his second wife Joan Beaufort, half-sister of Henry of Lancaster, afterwards Henry IV., whom he joined on his landing in Yorkshire in 1399. He already held the castles of Brancepeth, Raby, Middleham and Sheriff Hutton when he received from Henry IV. the honour and lordship of Richmond for life. The only rivals of the Nevilles in the north were the Percies, whose power was broken at Shrewsbury in 1403. Both marches had been in their hands, but the wardenship of the west marches was now assigned to Westmorland, whose influence was also paramount in the east, which was under the nominal wardenship of the young Prince John, afterwards duke of Bedford. Westmorland had prevented Northumberland from marching to reinforce Hotspur in 1403, and before embarking on a new revolt he sought to secure his enemy, surrounding, but too late, one of Sir Ralph Eure's castles where the earl had been staying. In May the Percies were in revolt, with Thomas Mowbray, earl marshal, and Archbishop Scrope. Westmorland met them on Shipton Moor, near York, on the 29th of May 1405, and suggested a parley between the leaders. By pretending accord with the archbishop, the earl induced him to allow his followers to disperse. Scrope and Mowbray were then seized and handed over to Henry at Pontefract on the 3rd of January. The improbabilities of this narrative have led some writers to think, in face of contemporary authorities, that Scrope and Mowbray must have surrendered voluntarily. If Westmorland betrayed them he at least had no share in their execution. Thenceforward he was busily engaged in negotiating with the Scots and keeping the peace on the borders. He did not play the part assigned to him by Shakespeare in Henry V., for during Henry's absence he remained in charge of the north, and was a member of Bedford's council. He consolidated the strength of his family by marriage alliances. His daughter Catherine married in 1412 John Mowbray, second duke of Norfolk, brother and heir of the earl marshal, who had been executed after Shipton Moor; Anne married Humphrey, first duke of Buckingham; Eleanor married, after the death of her first husband Richard le Despenser, Henry Percy, 2nd earl of Northumberland; Cicely married Richard, duke of York, and was the mother of Edward IV. and Richard III. The sons by his second marriage were Richard Neville, earl of Salisbury, William, Baron Fauconberg, George, Baron Latimer, Robert, bishop of Salisbury and then of Durham, and Edward, Baron Abergavenny. The earl died on the 21st of October 1425, and a fine alabaster tomb was erected to his memory in Staindrop church close by Raby Castle.

See J. H. Wylie, History of England under Henry IV. (4 vols., 1884-1898).

Ralph, 2nd earl of Westmorland (c. 1404-1484), the son of John, Lord Neville (d. 1423), succeeded his grandfather in 1425, and married as his first wife Elizabeth Clifford, daughter of Sir Henry Percy (Hotspur), thus forming further bonds with the Percies. The 3rd earl, Ralph Neville (1456-1499), was his nephew, and the son of John Neville, Lord Neville, who was slain at Towton. His grandson Ralph, 4th earl of Westmorland (1409-1550), was an energetic border warrior, who remained faithful to the royal cause when the other great northern lords