White Chapel
a celebrated parish of London, England, where the mysterious "Jack the Ripper" operated in 1888- 1891. It contains the London Hospital and the Tower of London, and has a population of about 30,000.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Single-source entries: W (40)
These 10 listings are so strange that each appears in only one of the 7 encyclopedias we compared. They include such classics as White Chapel, White Friars, White House.
White Friars
a popular name in pre-Reformation times for the friars of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, now generally known as Carmelites. The name had reference to the fact that they wore over the brown habit a white scapular and cloak. See CARMELITE.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
White House
a name applied to the presidential mansion in Washington, D. C. The name arose from the fact that it is built of stone and painted white. The total length is 170 feet; depth 86 feet; height two stories, with a portico, containing the main entrance on the N. side. The corner stone was laid in 1792; the house was first occupied by President Adams in 1800; burned by British troops in 1814; and restored in 1818. By metonymy the name has been applied to the office of the presidency itself. There are several other mansions and plantations in the Southern States which have borrowed this title.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
White Lady
a spectral figure which, according to popular legend, appears in many of the castles of Germany, as at Berlin, Neuhaus in Bohemia, Ansbach, Bayreuth, Kleve, Darmstadt, Altenburg, as also in London, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and elsewhere, by night as well as by day, particularly when the death of any member of the family is imminent. She is regarded as the ancestress of the race, shows herself always in snowwhite garments, carries a bunch of keys at her side, and sometimes rocks and watches over the children at night when their nurses sleep.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
White Plains
a town in Westchester co., N. Y.; 26 miles N. N. E. of New York City. It was the scene of several important events during the Revolutionary War, the most prominent of which was the action usually known as the battle of White Plains, though it actually occurred in the town of Greenburg, on the opposite side of the Bronx river, Oct. 28, 1776. After a warm contest, the commanding eminence of Chatterton Hill, on which the Americans under Washington were intrenched, was carried by the British under General Howe, the Americans retreating in good order and without being pursued. The loss on each side was about 300 killed, wounded, and prisoners. Pop. (1910) 15,949; (1920) 21,031. WHITE RIVER. (1) A river of Arkansas, with a course of 800 miles. It joins the Mississippi above the influx of the Arkansas river, and has several important affluents. Together with its tributaries it affords 500 miles of boat navigation. (2) A river in Indiana, formed by the confluence of the East and West Forks, emptying into the Wabash near Mount Carmel. (3) A river of Canada, an affluent of the Yukon. It rises in the coast mountains near the head of Altsekh river; flows for over 200 miles through a rough country in a N. E. direction; and enters the Yukon just above the mouth of the Stewart. Some gold has been found along its course.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
White Russia
a name given by the people to that part of Russia Russia lying peo toward the W. and principally inhabited by White Russians.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
White Sand
The silver-sand is a white sand, and results from the disintegration of soft, pure, siliceous sandstone. Beach-sand in some localities is also a white sand, but not so pure as silver-sand, as it invariably contains more or less of other substances, besides being somewhat calcareous from the presence of carbonate of lime, rendering it inferior to silver-sand in refractoriness. See SAND; FACING-SAND; CORE-SAND.
Only in The Encyclopedia of Founding
White Sea
a branch of the Arctic Ocean which extends S. W. into the province of Archangel as far as the 64th parallel. It is separated from the open sea by the peninsula of Kola and a strait 246 miles long, and from 106 miles (between Capes Sviatoi and Kanin) to 28 wide, and divides itself for the most part part into three bays, of which the broadest is the Dwina Bay to the S. E., the S. the Onega Bay, and the longest the Kandalak Bay in the W. Its area, including the N. E. bay, into which the Mezen falls, is 47,346 square miles. The coasts are flat, with numerous lakes, small rivers, and mountains in the N. and E. The White Sea is blocked with ice except during the months of June, July, and August. Canals connect it with the Volga and the Dnieper. The dwellers on its shores are Lapps, Finns, and Samoyedes, who live by fishing, seal hunting, and the chase. The chief port is Archangel. The passage to the White Sea was discovered in 1553 by Richard Chancellor, an officer under Sir Hugh Willoughby. The English in 1584 established the little fort of Archangel as the center of the White Sea Sea trade, in which they enjoyed great privileges till the founding of St. Petersburg.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
White, Gilbert
Gilbert (1720-1793), an eminent English naturalist. He was a native of Selborne, Hampshire County. He was educated at Oxford for the English church. He had many offers of appointment, but seems to have preferred to retain humble positions at or near the village of his birth. He was a keen observer of trees, flowers, birds, and four-footed animals. He is known chiefly by his Natural History of Selborne. It is the most widely read record of a naturalist's rambles and observations that has appeared in the English language. White is in a way suggestive of Burroughs and Warner, rather than of Long and Thompson-Seton. See Burroughs
Only in Aiton's Encyclopedia
White, Peregrine
Peregrine (1620-1704), the first New England child of English parents. He was born November 20, 1620, on the Mayflower, then anchored in Cape Cod Harbor. His parents were William and Susanna White. His father died during the first winter at Plymouth. The marriage of the widow to Edward Winslow, governor of the colony, was the first wedding in New England. Peregrine was granted two hundred acres of land in honor of his birth. He grew up to be "vigorous and of comely aspect." He was a farmer, but he held various official positions. The Dutch cradle in which he was rocked when a child, a bond bearing his signature, and other relics of the White family are shown at Plymouth. He died in 1704. He left six children. See Pilgrims
Only in Aiton's Encyclopedia