municipal and parliamentary borough and market town of England, Wiltshire, stands on a tongue of land formed by the junction of the Nadder and Willey, three miles W. by N. from Salisbury. It is a place of great antiquity, and was the capital of the Saxon kingdom of Wessex. The church, erected in 1844, by the Right Hon. Sidney Herbert, at an expense of L20,000, from designs by Messrs Wyatt and Brandon, is the finest specimen of Lombardic architecture in England. The interior is of great splendour, and the pulpit, which was made at Rome, of Wiltshire. Caen stone, is supported upon sixteen columns of black marble. The town-hall is an old plain brick building. Wilton was formerly famed for its carpet manufacture, but this branch of business has declined, though it is still largely carried on. Pop. (1851) of town, 1946; of parliamentary borough, 8607, returning one member to parliament.