theatre in Vienna, and soon obtained an engagement at the Victoria theatre in Berlin, where she remained until 1861. Her performance of Hermione in the Winter's Tale took the playgoing world by storm, and she was given in 1862 an appointment at the Vienna Hofburg theatre, to which she remained faithful until her death on the 14th of June 1897. According to her wish, she was buried in the costume of Iphigenia, in which rôle she had achieved her most brilliant success. Charlotte Wolter was one of the great tragic actresses of modern times. Her repertory included Medea, Sappho, Lady Macbeth, Mary Stuart, Preciosa, Phèdre, Adrienne Lecouvreur, Jane Eyre and Messalina, in which character she was immortalized by the painter Hans Makart. She was also an inimitable exponent of the heroines in plays by Grillparzer, Hebbel, Dumas and Sardon.
See Ehrenfeld, Charlotte Wolter (Vienna, 1887); Hirschfeld, Charlotte Wolter, ein Erinnerungsblatt (1897).
WOLVERHAMPTON, HENRY HARTLEY FOWLER, Viscount (1830-), English statesman, was born at Durham on the 16th of May 1830. He became a prosperous solicitor in Wolverhampton, and coming of a Liberal nonconformist family took a prominent part in politics. In 1880 he was elected Liberal member of parliament for Wolverhampton, and was re-elected for the east division at successive contests. In 1884-1885 he was under-secretary for the Home Office, and in 1886 financial secretary to the treasury. In Mr Gladstone's 1892-1894 ministry he was president of the local government board, and in Lord Rosebery's cabinet, 1894-1895, secretary of state for India. In these and the succeeding years of opposition he was recognized as a sound economist and a sober administrator, as well as a universally respected representative of nonconformist views. In Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's cabinet, 1905-1908, he was chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, and he retained this office in Mr Asquith's ministry, but was transferred to the House of Lords with a viscountcy (April 1908). He retired in 1910. His daughter, Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler, who married Mr A. L. Felkin in 1903, became well known as a novelist with her Concerning Isabel Carnaby (1898) and other books.
WOLVERHAMPTON, a market town, and municipal, county and parliamentary borough of Staffordshire, England, 125 m. N.W. from London by the London & North-Western railway, served also by the northern line of the Great Western and by a branch of the Midland railway. Pop. (1891) 82,622; (1901) 94,187. It lies at the north-western edge of the group of great manufacturing towns extending S.E. to Birmingham, but there are pleasant residential suburbs to the west, where the country is rich and well wooded. The situation is elevated and healthy. The church of St Peter is a fine cruciform building, with S. porch and central tower. The lower part of the tower and the S. transept date from the 13th century; the nave, clerestory, upper part of the tower and N. transept from the 15th; the chancel was rebuilt in the restoration, completed in 1865, with an apsidal termination. The chief public buildings are the town hall (1871), exchange, agricultural hall, free library and theatres. A large free grammar school, founded in 1515 by Sir Stephen Jermyns, a native of the town and alderman of London, occupies modern buildings (1876). There are a Blue Coat school (1710) and a school of art. The benevolent institutions include a general hospital, the eye infirmary, orphan asylum, nursing institution and institute of the society for outdoor blind. In Queen Square is an equestrian statue of Albert, Prince Consort, unveiled by Queen Victoria in 1866, and on Snow Hill a statue (1879) of Charles Pelham Villiers. There are parks on the east and west of the town, and a new racecourse (1887) replaces that formerly on the site of the west park. In the district S. and E. of Wolverhampton (the Black Country) coal and ironstone are mined. Ironmongery and steel goods of all kinds, especially locks, machinery, tools and cycles, are produced; there are also tin and zinc works. Large agricultural markets are supplied from the districts W. and N. of the town. An annual fair is held at Whitsuntide. In 1902 an industrial and art exhibition was held. The parliamentary borough of Wolverhampton has three divisions, each returning one member. The town is governed by a mayor, 12 aldermen and 36 councillors. Area, 3525 acres. Wednesfield (pop. 4803), Heath Town or Wednesfield Heath (9441) and Willenhall (18,515) are neighbouring urban districts, with populations employed in the manufacture of locks, keys and small iron goods, in iron and brass foundries, varnish works, &c.
The town of Wolverhampton (Handone, Wolvernehamptone, Wollernehampton) seems to have grown up round the church of St Mary, afterwards the royal free chapel of Wolverhampton, probably founded in 996 by Wulfruna, widow of the earl of Northampton, who in that year endowed it with extensive lands. The estates of the clerks of Handone are enumerated in Domesday. In 1204 John granted the manor of Wolverhampton to the church, and at the Reformation it was held by the dean of the collegiate body; in 1553 Edward VI. granted the college and manor to Dudley, duke of Northumberland, but Mary, at the beginning of her reign, refounded the college and restored to it its property, and this arrangement was confirmed by Elizabeth. Henry III. (1258) granted the Wednesday market, which is still held, and a fair for eight days, beginning on the eve of the feast of SS. Peter and Paul (June 29). During the Great Rebellion the sympathies of Wolverhampton were royalist. In 1645 it was for a time the headquarters of Prince Rupert, while Charles I. lay at Bushbury to the north. At the end of the 17th century the market was esteemed the second market in the county. An account of Wolverhampton published in 1751 stated that the chief manufacture was locks, “here being the most ingenious locksmiths in England,” and attributed the slow growth of the town to the fact that most of the land was church property. Wolverhampton was incorporated in 1848 as a municipal borough. It was not represented in parliament until after the passing of the Reform Bill (1832), under which it returned two members until in 1885 the representation was increased to three. The county borough dates from 1888.
WOLVERTON, a town in the Buckingham parliamentary division of Buckinghamshire, England, near the river Ouse, 52½ m. N.W. by N. of London by the London & North-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 5323. Its modern growth and importance are the result of the establishment of carriage works by the railway company. There are also printing works. A steam tramway connects the town with the old market town of Stony Stratford on the Ouse, 2 m. W.
WOMBAT, the title of the typical representatives of the marsupial family Phascolomyidae (see Marsupialia). They have the dental formula: i. 11, c. 00, p. 22, m. 33, = 24. All the teeth are of continuous growth, having persistent pulps. The incisors are large and chisel-like, much as in rodents. The body is broad and depressed, the neck short, the head large and flat, the eyes small and the tail rudimentary and hidden in the fur. The
Fig. 1.—Tasmanian Wombat (Phascolomys ursinus).
