Whempstead, a hamlet in the centre of the county, is not easily reached, being about 5 miles E. from Knebworth Station, G.N.R., and rather farther N.W. from Ware.  The so-called Whempstead Chapel, recently demolished, was a small cottage, but it doubtless stood near the site of an old chapel “founded and endowed about the beginning of the thirteenth century by the family of Aguillon”.

White Barns, near the Essex border, is a hamlet 3/4 mile N. from Furneaux Pelham (q.v.).

Whitwell (41/2 miles S.W. from Stevenage) is strictly a hamlet, but is a place of some size, scattered along the S. bank of the river Maran.  The nearest parish church is at St. Paul’s Walden (q.v.), but there is a modern Baptist chapel near the centre of the main street, and a small church on the Bendish Road, formerly owned by the Countess of Huntingdon’s Connection; it is now partially disused.  The mill at the E. end of the village, near the old tan-yard, was burnt down many years ago, but has since been rebuilt.

Widbury is 1 mile E. from Ware.

WIDFORD, so interesting in the eyes of all lovers of Charles Lamb, is a small village on the river Ash, with a station (G.E.R.) a few minutes W. from the church.  Visitors, however, must remember that much in the neighbourhood has changed since Lamb’s day.  He himself recorded the demolition of the old house “Blakesware” or, as he wrote it, “Blakesmoor,"[o] which he knew so well as a child; the church spire, mentioned in his verses “The Grandame,” was rebuilt many years back; the cottage at Blenheim close by, immortalised in Rosamund Gray, was long ago rebuilt.

The church is Dec. and Perp.; there are sedilia in the chancel, the roof of which was finely painted by Miss Gosselin forty years ago, and there is a piscina in the nave.  The circular stone staircase that formerly led to the old rood-loft was built up during restoration.  The present E. window is to the memory of John Eliot—­the missionary to the Indians—­born at Nazing early in the seventeenth century.  There are very few memorials; one might almost repeat the words written of the church two centuries ago, “In this church are no gravestones”.  The manor is very ancient and was held in the reign of William I. by the Bishop of London.

Wigginton lies on very high ground, commanding splendid views.  The village is about 11/2 mile S.W. from Tring Station, L.&N.W.R.; the church, near the parting of the roads at its S.E. extremity, is a small flint structure, E.E. in style, with a modern N. aisle.  It has no tower. Champneys, near Wigginton Common (1 mile S.), is a prettily situated mansion, rebuilt in 1874.  It was formerly the residence of the Valpy family.

Wilbury Hill, between Ickleford and Baldock, is crossed by the Roman Icknield Way.  The vallum, through which the Way passes, is thought to mark the site of a Roman camp; Stukeley’s suggestion that it was probably the site of a British oppidum is questioned by Salmon (History of Hertfordshire, 1728).  Roman coins have been found in some abundance in the neighbourhood, notably a silver Faustina.