DROITWICH

droitwich, a market town and municipal borough in the droitwich parliamentary division of worcestershire, england, 51⁄2 m. n.n.e. of worcester, and 126 m. n.w. by w. from london by the great western railway. pop. (1901) 4201. it is served by the bristol-birmingham line of the midland railway, and by the worcester-shrewsbury line of the great western. it stands on the river salwarpe, an eastern tributary of the severn. there is connexion with the severn by canal. there are three parish churches, st andrew, st peter and st michael, of which the two first are fine old buildings in mixed styles, while st michael's is modern. the principal occupation is the manufacture of the salt obtained from the brine springs or _wyches_, to which the town probably owes both its name and its origin. the springs also give droitwich a considerable reputation as a health resort. there are royal brine baths, supplied with water of extreme saltness, st andrew's baths, and a private bath hospital. the water is used in cases of gout, rheumatism and kindred diseases. owing to the pumping of the brine for the salt-works there is a continual subsidence of the ground, detrimental to the buildings, and new houses are mostly built in the suburbs. in the pleasant well-wooded district surrounding droitwich the most noteworthy points are hindlip hall, 3 m. s., where (in a former mansion) some of the conspirators in the gunpowder plot defied search for eight days (1605); and westwood, a fine hall of elizabethan and carolean date on the site of a benedictine nunnery, a mile west of droitwich, which offered a retreat to many royalist cavaliers and churchmen during the commonwealth. droitwich is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. area, 1856 acres. a roman villa, with various relics, has been discovered here, but it is doubtful how far the romans made use of the brine springs. droitwich (_wic_, _salturic_, _wich_) probably owed its origin to the springs, which are mentioned in several charters before the conquest. at the time of the domesday survey all the salt springs belonged to the king, who received from them a yearly farm of £65, but the manor was divided between several churches and tenants-in-chief. the burgesses of droitwich are mentioned in the domesday survey, but they probably only had certain franchises in connexion with the salt trade. the town is first called a borough in the pipe roll of 2 henry ii., when an aid of 20s. was paid, but the burgesses did not receive their first charter until 1215, when king john granted them freedom from toll throughout the kingdom and the privilege of holding the town at a fee-farm of £100. the burgesses appear to have had much difficulty in paying this large farm; in 1227 the king pardoned twenty-eight marks of the thirty-two due as tallage, while in 1237 they were £23 in arrears for the farm. they continued, however, to pay the farm until the payment gradually lapsed in the 18th century. in medieval times droitwich was governed by two bailiffs and twelve jurats, the former being elected every year by the burgesses; queen mary granted the incorporation charter in 1554 under the name of the bailiffs and burgesses. james i. in 1625 granted another and fuller charter, which remained the governing charter until the municipal reform act. king john's charter granted the burgesses a fair on the feast of ss. andrew and nicholas lasting for eight days, but edward iii. in 1330 granted instead two fairs on the vigil and day of st thomas the martyr and the vigil and day of ss. simon and jude. queen mary granted three new fairs, and james i. changed the market day from monday to friday. drome, a department in the south-east of france, formed of parts of dauphine and provence, and bounded w. by the rhone, which separates it from ardeche, n. and n.e. by isere, e. by hautes-alpes, s.e. by basses-alpes, and s. by vaucluse; area 2533 sq. m.; pop. (1906) 297,270. drome is traversed from east to west by numerous rivers of the rhone basin, chief among which are the isere in the north, the drome in the centre and the aygues in the south. the left bank of the rhone is bordered by alluvial plains and low hills, but to the east of this zone the department is covered to the extent of two-thirds of its surface by spurs of the alps, sloping down towards the west. to the north of the drome lie the vercors and the royans, a region of forest-clad ridges running uniformly north and south. south of that river the mountain system is broken, irregular and intersected everywhere by torrents. the most easterly portion of the department, where it touches the mountains of the devoluy, contains its culminating summit (7890 ft.). north of the isere stretches a district of low hills terminating on the limits of the department in the valloire, its most productive portion. the climate, except in the valleys bordering the rhone, is cold, and winds blow incessantly. snow is visible on the mountain-tops during the greater part of the year. the agriculture of the department is moderately prosperous. the main crops are wheat, which is grown chiefly on the banks of the isere and rhone, oats and potatoes. large flocks of sheep feed on the pastures in the south; cattle-raising is carried on principally in the north-east. good wines, among which the famous hermitage growth ranks first, are grown on the hills and plains near the rhone and drome. fruit culture is much practised. olives and figs are grown in the south; the cultivation of mulberries and walnuts is more widely spread. in the rearing of silkworms drome ranks high in importance among french departments. the montelimar district is noted for its truffles, which are also found elsewhere in the department. the mineral products of drome include lignite, blende, galena, calamine, freestone, lime, cement, potter's clay and kaolin. brick and tile works, potteries and porcelain manufactories exist in several localities. the industries comprise flour-milling, distilling, wood-sawing, turnery and dyeing. the chief textile industry is the preparation and weaving of silk, which is carried on in a number of towns. woollen and cotton goods are also manufactured. leather working and boot-making, which are carried on on a large scale at romans, are important, and the manufacture of machinery, hats, confectionery and paper employs much labour. drome exports fruit, oil, cheese, wine, wool, live stock and its manufactured articles; the chief import is coal. it is served by the paris-lyon railway, and the rhone and isere furnish over 100 m. of navigable waterway. the canal de la bourne, the only one in the department, is used for purposes of irrigation only. drome is divided into the arrondissements of valence, die, montelimar and nyons, comprising 29 cantons and 379 communes. the capital is valence, which is the seat of a bishopric of the province of avignon. the department forms part of the academie (educational division) of grenoble, where its court of appeal is also located, and of the region of the xiv. army corps. besides valence, the chief towns of the department are die, montelimar, crest and romans (qq.v.). nyons is a small industrial town with a medieval bridge and remains of ramparts. suze-la-rousse is dominated by a fine chateau with fortifications of the 12th and 14th centuries; in the interior the buildings are in the renaissance style. at st donat there are remains of the palace of the kings of cisjuran burgundy; though but little of the building is of an earlier date than the 12th century, it is the oldest example of civil architecture in france. the churches of leoncel, st restitut and la garde-adhemar, all of romanesque architecture, are also of antiquarian interest. st paul-trois-chateaux, an old roman town, once the seat of a bishopric, has a romanesque cathedral. at grignan there are remains of the renaissance chateau where madame de sevigne died. at tain there is a sacrificial altar of a.d. 184. dromedary (from the gr. [greek: dromas, dromados], running, [greek: dramein], to run), a word applied to swift riding camels of either the arabian or the bactrian species. (see camel.)