, WYCOMBE, CHIPPING or Thou, a municipal and parliamentary borough in Bucks, surrounded by beech-clad hills, 28 m. w.n.w. of London, on the Wye. a small affluent of the Thames. The church of All Saints is a large and handsome building, erected in 1273; it is in the Norman and early English style of architecture, and consists of a body and two aisles, and, with the chancel, is 180 ft. long. The tower is 96 ft. high, and was built in 1522. There are corn and paper mills on the Wye; beech-wood chairs are made here, and lace-making is carried on. At two miles' distance is the village of West Wycombe. Since 1867 the borough returns one member to parliament. It is connected with the Great Western railway. Pop. '71 of municipal borough, 4,811; of parliament ary borough (which includes Chipping Wycombe township), 10,492.
WYE, a river of England, of great picturesque beauty and considerable importance, an affluent of the Severn, has its origin in two copious springs which issue from the s.e.
side of Plinlimmon, not two miles from the head-water of the Severn (q.v.). It flows in a s.e. direction through Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire, forming the s.w. and s. boundary of the latter, e.s.e. to the middle of Herefordshire, and then s., dividing in its lower course the county of Monmouth from that of Gloucester, and entering the estuary of the Severn below Chepstow. Length of course, 130 m., for 70 ni.• of which to Hereford it is navigable for barges, though large vessels cannot ascend above Chepstow bridge. At Chepstow (q.v.) the tide rises higher than at almost any other place in Great Britain. The chief affluents of the Wye are the Lug and Ithon on the left, and the Mon now, the Caerwen, and Irfron on the right. The part of the river which separates Monmouth from Gloucester• is that chiefly visited for its singular beauty.