*WILTON, (Wiltshire) 3 m. W. from Salisbury, 72 cm. 87 mm. from London, at the conflux of the Nadder and Willy, from which last it had its name. Though it was once the shire T. as Leland says, with 12 Chs. 'tis now a mean place, with but one; yet, by a charter of K. Hen. VIII. 'tis governed by a mayor, with a recorder, 5 ald. 3 capital burgesses, and 11 C. C. and has a town-clerk, King's bailiff, and the mayor's serjeant; also the Co.-courts are usually kept, and the Kts. of the shire chosen here. After being plundered by the Danes, it recovered, and was very populous in the time of the Saxons, it being then also the See of a Bp. erected by Edward the Elder out of the diocese of Sherborn. K. Stephen put a garrison here, to curb the incursions of the Empress Maud's soldiers from Salisbury; but Robert Earl of Glocester beat out the garrison, and burnt the T. Nevertheless the T. still held up its head, till the Bp. of Salisbury turned the London road to the W. Cos. another way, and then it decayed apace. It lies at the bottom of a vale about a m. broad, which runs from Christchurch in Hampshire through Salisbury-Plain for 20 m. It has a Mt. on W. Fairs April 23, July 25, Sept. 1. Oct. 28, and Nov. 2. It glories in that called Wilton-House, bet. the T. and a spacious park, the seat of the Earl of Pembroke, which was begun in the R. of Henry VIII. on the ruins of a nunnery, and is such a magnificent palace, as for its building and furniture, especially of paintings and statues, as is the admiration of foreigners as well as natives. There is an ample description of it in the Compleat System of Geography, which cannot be expelled in this epitome. A tapestry mf. has been carried on at this T. for some time, under the patronage of the late Earl of Pembroke, which, if encouraged also by others as it deserves, will be a benefit not only to the T. but to the Km. This Bor. sent members to Pt. as early as Salisbury; they are chosen by the free-burgesses, in number above 80, and returned by the mayor.