and his companion Viscount Nuneham, son of Earl Harcourt, only returning to England in the autumn of 1756. In 1757 he was appointed poet-laureate in succession to Cibber, and proceeded to write annual effusions in the royal honour. That he was not altogether happy in his position, which was discredited by the fierce attacks made on his predecessor, Colley Cibber, appears from "A Pathetic Apology for all Laureates, past, present and to come." Charles Churchill attacked him in 1762, in the third book of The Ghost, as the heir of Dullness and Method. In the same year, Whitehead produced his most successful work in the comedy of the School for Lovers, produced at Drury Lane on the 10th of February. This success encouraged David Garrick to make him his 'reader' of plays. Whitehead's farce, The Trip to Scotland, was performed on the 6th of January 1770. He collected his Plays and Poems in 1774. He had for some time, after his return from the Continent, resided in the houses of his patrons, but from 1769 he lived in London, where he died on the 14th of April, 1785. Beside the works already mentioned, Whitehead wrote a burlesque poem, The Sweepers, a number of verse contes, of which "Variety" and "The Goat's Beard" are good examples, and much occasional and official verse.
See memoirs by his friend William Mason, prefixed to a complete edition of his poems (York, 1788). His plays are printed in Bell's British Theatre (vols. 3, 7, 20) and other collections, and his poems appear in Chalmers's Works of the English Poets (vol. 17) and similar compilations.
WHITE HORSE, VALE OF, the name of the valley of the Ock, a stream which joins the Thames from the west at Abingdon in Berkshire, England. The vale is flat and well wooded, its green meadows and foliage contrasting richly with the bald summits of the White Horse Hills, which flank it on the south. On the north a lower ridge separates it from the upper Thames valley; but local usage sometimes extends the vale to cover all the ground between the Cotteswolds (on the north) and the White Horse Hills. According to the geographical definition, however, the vale is from 2 to 5 m. wide, and the distance by road from Abingdon to Shrivenham at its head is 18 m. Wantage is the only town in the heart of the vale, lying in a sheltered hollow at the foot of the hills, along which, moreover, villages are more numerous than elsewhere in the vale. Towards the west, above Uffington, the hills reach a culminating point of 856 ft. in White Horse Hill. In its northern flank, just below the summit, a gigantic figure of a horse is cut, the turf being removed to show the white chalky soil beneath. This figure gives name to the hill, the range and the vale. It is 374 ft. long and of the rudest outline, the neck, body and tail varying little in width. Its origin is unknown. Tradition asserted it to be the monument of a victory over the Danes by King Alfred, who was born at Wantage; but the site of the battle, that of Ashdown (871), has been variously located. Moreover, the figure, with others of a similar character elsewhere in England, is considered to be of a far higher antiquity, dating even from before the Roman occupation. Many ancient remains occur in the vicinity of the Horse. On the summit of the hill there is an extensive and well-preserved circular camp, apparently used by the Roman, but of earlier origin. It is named Uffington Castle from the village in the vale below. Within a short distance are Hardwell Castle, a square work, and, on the southern slope of the hills near Ashdown Park, a small camp traditionally called Alfred's. A smooth, steep gully on the north flank of White Horse Hill is called the Manger, and to the west of it rises a bald mound named Dragon's Hill, the traditional scene of St George's victory over the dragon, the blood of which made the ground bare of grass for ever. But the name, properly Pendragon, is a Celtic form signifying "chief of kings," and may point to an early place of burial. To the west of White Horse Hill lies a cromlech called Wayland Smith's Cave, said to be the home of a smith who was never seen, but shod the horses of travellers if they were left at the place with payment. The legend is elaborated, and the smith appears as a character, in Sir Walter Scott's novel Kenilworth. The White Horse itself has been carefully cleared of vegetation from time to time, and the process, known as the "Scouring of the White Horse," was formerly made the occasion a festival. Sports of all kinds were held, and keen rivalry was maintained, not only between the inhabitants of the local villages, but between local champions and those from distant parts of England. The first of such festivals known took place in 1755, and they died out only subsequently to 1857. A grassy track represents the ancient road or Ridge Way along the crest of the hills continuing Icknield Street, from the Chiltern Hills to the north-east, across the Thames; and other earthworks in addition to those near the White Horse overlook the vale, such as Letcombe Castle above Wantage. At the foot of the hills not far east of the Horse is preserved the so-called Blowing Stone, a mass of sandstone pierced with holes in such a way that when blown like a trumpet a loud note is produced. It is believed that in the earliest times the stone served the purpose of a bugle. Several of the village churches in the vale are of interest, notably the fine Early English cruciform building of Uffington. The length of the vale is traversed by the main line of the Great Western railway, between Didcot and Swindon.
See Thomas Hughes, The Scouring of the White Horse (1859).
WHITEING, RICHARD (1840- ), English author and journalist, was born in London on the 27th of July 1840, the son of a civil servant. He was a pupil of Benjamin Wyon, medallist and seal-engraver, and made his journalistic début by a series of papers in the Evening Star in 1866, printed separately in the next year as Mr Sprouts, His Opinions. He became leader-writer and correspondent on the Morning Star, and was subsequently on the staff of the Manchester Guardian, the New York World, and for many years the Daily News, resigning from the last-named paper in 1899. His novel The Democracy (3 vols., 1876) was published under the pseudonym of Whyte Thorne. His remarkable story The Island (1888) attracted little attention until, years afterwards, its successor, No. 5 John Street (1899), made him famous; the earlier novel was then republished. Later works were The Yellow Van (1903), Ring in the New (1906), All Moonshine (1907).
WHITELEY, WILLIAM (1831-1907), English "Universal Provider," was born at Agbrigg, near Wakefield, Yorkshire, on the 29th of September 1831, the son of a corn-factor. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to a firm of drapers at Wakefield. In 1851 he made his first visit to London to see the Great Exhibition, and was so impressed with the size and activity of the metropolis that he determined to settle there as soon as his apprenticeship was over. A year later he obtained a subordinate position in a draper's establishment in the city, and after studying the drapery trade in this and other London establishments for ten years, in 1863 himself opened a small shop for the sale of fancy drapery in Westbourne Grove, Bayswater. His capital amounted to about £700, which he had saved from his salaries and commissions, and he at first employed two young girls and an errand boy. Friends in the trade had assured him that Westbourne Grove was one of the two worst streets in London for his business, but Whiteley had noted the number and quality of the people who passed the premises every afternoon, and relied on his own judgment. Events justified his confidence, and within a year he was employing fifteen hands. He made a consistent practice of marking all goods in plain figures and of "dressing" his shop-window attractively, both unusual features in the retail trading of the time, and to this, coupled with the fact that he was satisfied with small profits, he largely attributed a success in which his own genius for organization and energy played a conspicuous part. In 1866 Whiteley added general drapery to his other business, opening by degrees shop after shop and department after department, till he was finally enabled to call himself the "Universal Provider," and boast that there was nothing which his stores could not supply. Whiteley's was, in fact, the first great instance of a large general goods store in London, held under one man's control. In 1899 the business, of which the profits then averaged over £100,000 per annum, was turned into a limited liability company, Whiteley retaining the bulk of the shares. On the 23rd of January 1907 he was shot dead, after an interview in his private
