rated from a much larger region, to which it previously belonged, and extends nearly thirtythree miles in length, and, on the average, about ten in breadth. It is 115 miles in circuit, and contains a superficial area of 309 square miles, nr 197,760 square acres. When the Romans invaded Britain, the portion of country forming the present county of Flint was comprised in the territory of the Ordovices. This county, or a certain portion of it, was long designated under the appellation of Tegangle, or Teigengle, a term that has been supposed to mean Fair England. After the subjugation of the Ordovices, this district was included among the portion of the island which constituted the region denominated Britania secunda. In the Saxon dynasty, the whole of what constitutes the present county of Flint was brought under the domination of those strangers, immediately after the surrender of Chester to the arms of Egbert. It is now in the province of Canterbury, and included in the two dioceses of St. Asaph and Chester. For the purposes of the administration of justice, it is placed in the circuit visited by the chief justice of Chester and his associate; and, for the sake of shrival and subsidiary order, is divided into five hundreds, one city (St. Asaph), one borough (the countytown of Flint), and three other market-towns (Mold, Caerwis, and Holywell), and comprises twenty-eight parishes. This county gives the title of earl, conjoined with the county palatine of Chester, to the Prince of Wales; that of viscount to the family of Ashburton: Greddington is a newly created barony for the family of Kenyon. Flintshire sends one member to parliament for the county, and one for Flint as the county-town. In a comparative view, though this cannot be called a mountainous country, yet both as to soil and surface it is considerably diversified. Some of its ridges have rather sharp escarpments; but generally the hills fall in gentle slopes, descending into fertile vales, through which meander several pleasing and useful streams. From the shore of the Dee, the only navigable stream, the land suddenly rises for three or four miles in fine equalities, consisting of an argillaceous soil highly productive in corn and grass. Beyond this, in the vicinity of Halken, a mountainous tract runs for a considerable extent nearly parallel with the river, the upper parts of which present a sterile appearance; but the interior is incalculably rich, abounding in minerals, lead, and calamine, interspersed with immense strata of limestone; and the lower parts are diversified with well wooded dingles, that, coming from the cwms of the hills, open thefr embouchures to the tide river. The northern part of the county is in general flat, particularly towards the sea; but yields excellent corn and grass. The eastern part has a line of elevation whose escarpment faces the vale of Clwyd, and forms a bold frontier, well known under the denomination of the Clwydian Hill, the insolated summits of which, Moel Arthur, Moel Fenlli, Moel y Famma, are conspicuous at an immense distance. These form a chain of varied elevation, commencing at Prestatyn, on the estuary of the Dee, extending in a direction from north to south as far as the point of Moel yr Accre in the parish of Llananmon, where, reaching a further county, they terminate in the mountain Cefndu in the parish of Gwyddelwern. No passage is obtainable over their heath clad summits, but by the few bwlchs that are to be climbed for the purpose nearly two-thirds of their height, except one opening near Bodfari, where a road has been formed from Holywell to Denbigh. The soil of these hills is of a commixture of clay and gravel, and the argillaceous is the predominant portion. The substrata of this elevated range principally consist of calcareous substances. The other rivers of this district, as we have intimated, are not navigable. The Clwyd having risen in Denbighsnire, and watered that county, enters this in the vicinity of Bodfari, and, taking a northerly direction, empties itself into the Irish Sea. The Alun, which land-dives in the vicinity of Mold, has its fountain head in the same county; and, after a singularly curious route through Flintshire, re-enters Denbighshire in its course to form a confluence with the Dee. The Terrig, Wheler, Elwy, &c., form contributary streams which furnish water for the demand of numerous mills, and afford, for the table, a supply of various and delicate fish. The natural productions of this county are more numerous and valuable than might be expected in a district of so limited an extent. Its mineralogy has long been an interesting subject, and, at a very early period, Flint virtually became a mining county. The mineral line has been briefly pointed out by the accurate Pennant, who divides it into two parts, the highland and the lowland tracts. The former, he observes, commences near Diserth, where the rocky ridge called Dalor-goch impends over the fertile arable champaign lands of the Rhuddlan vale. The course southward runs through the parishes of Cwm, Tremeirchion, and Caerwys. The small valley of Bodfari occasions an interjacent break of continuity; part of the line is again found, passing through Skeifiog and Nannerch; whence, near the town of Mold, it makes a considerable detour through the parish of Northop, and then exhibits its front to those of Halkin, Holywell, Whiteford, Llanasa, Gwaenyscor, and Meliden. The second division is separated from the first by a deep depression of the previously elevated line of country in the vicinity of Rhos Esmor; and numerous coal and other mines are often found in the flat surface, on the western side of the lower portion. With Mold Mountain the land rises again, and the mineral tract takes a southerly course, as previously stated, through the adjacent county of Denbigh. The central and western parts of the former, extending from Dalar-goch to Rhos Esmor, consist of calcareous strata that produce limestone of excellent quality; and, in many instances, approximating to several kinds of foreign marble. On the eastern side of this tract the composite matter begins to alter, trapping, or rather changing into a mixed sort of silicious substance varying as to degrees of purity, denominated chert. Below this, a dark-looking shivery shale, becoming friable when exposed to the atmosphere, commences near Rhos Esmor; and so far as these decomposable strata occur in larger or smaller quantities, lead ore is found. Immediately as the shale disappears, freestone exhibits capabilities for quarrying useful stone; and rich veins of coal lie subjacent, though at a great depth. The coal strata extend to the margin of the Dee estuary, under whose bed they dip, the grass on the opposite side appearing again in the peninsulated tract, constituting the hundred of Wiral in Cheshire; and further in the same north-easterly direction beyond the Mersey in the county of Lancaster. The sudden changes in the strata are as strikingly observable, particularly near Nennerct, where the transition is demonstrable at first sight; limestone rocks forming one side of the vale, and ledges composed of shivery shale the other opposing declivity. Both the limestone and chert are of unknown depth; because neither the natural fissures, nor the mineral veins that cross them in lines of general but various bearings,have hitherto been fathomed. The minerals of those tracts are lead ores of various kinds, and degrees of estimated value; lapis calaminaris, and another species of zinc that forms in some processes a substitute of calamine, known by the miners under the denomination of black-jack. At one time a green lead ore was discovered in the Halken Mountain, of such an obstinate tenacity as to resist the reductive force of a powerful blast-furnace before it would give out its metal; which amounted to about thirteen hundred weight per ton. The gravel-ore found in what the miners denominate flats, that is, a loose stratum composed of sand and stones, consists of a kind of bolders and tumblers, formed of a mineral rounded and polished on the surface by force of agitating waters. The lumps are of various sizes, from that of a hazel nut to pieces weighing several tons. The quality is nearly similar to the potters' ore. Lapis calaminaris is found in great quantities, particularly on the eastern side of the county. This generally lies in a matrix of limestone or chert. It assumes various colors, viz. yellow, green, red, brown, or black, and is of different degrees of hardness, and much various surface: some is reticulated like corroded bones, and other kinds appear similar to indurated wax. Another species of zinc, pseudo-galena, or black-jack, is obtained in large quantities, and is now ascertained to be a fair substitute for calamine. The appearance is metalline, and the color generally a bluish-gray. Coals, it has been observed, are found in great plenty, and the coal district in this county extends in a south-easterly direction, commencing at Llanasa, through the parishes of Whiteford, Holywell, Flint, and Northop, terminating in Hawarden. The dip of the veins varies considerably, both as to bearing and inclination; it is in general from one yard in four to two in three. The beds are also of different thicknesses, from two feet to five yards, producing coal of several qualities, useful in various branches of manufacture; as well as answerable to the demands for culinary purposes. Canal coal, though not of the first kind, possesses a very desirable quality for lime-burning, and is found in extensive beds. Chert, the Detrosilex of Cronstedt, here accompanies the limestone strata in immense masses or rocks that form the matrices of different ores, useful for various purposes, but especially for the manufacturing of porcelain and delft-ware: large quantities are sent to the Staffordshire and Shropshire potteries, where it is also used for comminuting calcined flints. Among other kinds of spars, the curious double reflecting species, the crystallum, vel Spatum islandicum, is not unfrequently found. Petroleum, or rock oil, is often met with in the limestone strata. At Holywell is a fountain dedicated to St. Winifred, which was formerly believed to be endowed with miraculous medicinal properties, but the celebrity of the well has suffered great abatement of late years. It is chiefly distinguished by its extreme coldness and purity. Part of Flintshire affords good pasturage, together with large harvests of excellent wheat, and other grain, which is principally exported to Liverpool. It is also a considerable breeding county of small black cattle. Formerly the inhabitants reared a vast number of bees, and made a liquor from the honey, called metheglin. It is now not much used. The principal manufactures are of copper and brass, carried on to a large extent near Holywell. Here are made bolts, nails, sheathing for vessels, and plates of all descriptions; as also copper pans of large dimensions, for the evaporation of salt. These works were established in the year 1765, and belong to the mining companies of the island of Anglesea. The other manufactures are of cotton and pottery. FLINT, in geography, the capital of Flintshire, in North Wales. It is commodiously seated on the river Dee; and though it is but a small place it has a corporation, consisting of a mayor, two bailiffs, and inferior officers. In conjunction with Rhyddlan, Overton, Carwys, and Cærgerly, this borough sends one member to parliament. The voters, inhabitants paying scot and lot, are about 1200; the returning officer is the mayor of Flint. It was formerly noted for its castle, where Richard II. took shelter on his arrival from Ireland; and where he was taken prisoner by the duke of Lancaster. This castle stands close to the sea on a rock, which in various parts forms several feet of its foundation. It covers about three quarters of an acre, but is now in ruins. It is 204 miles north-west of London, and twelve miles and a half W. N. W. of Chester. FLIPP, n. s. A cant word. A liquor much used in ships, made by mixing beer with spirits and sugar. The tarpawlin and swabber is lolling at Madagascar, with some drunken sunburnt whore, over a can of flip. Dennis. FLIP PANT, adj. Į A word of no great auFLIP PANTLY, adv. Sthority, probably derived from flip-flap.-Johnson. From Goth. pleipin, nimble. Thomson. It is applied only to speech, and signifies a nimble, flowing, prating, use of the tongue; pert; saucy; petulant. Hyde's flippant stile there pleasantly curvets, Still his sharp wit on states and princes whets; So Spain could not escape his laughter's spleen, None but himself must choose the king and queen. Marvell. An excellent anatomist promised to dissect a woman's tongue, and examine whether there may not be in it certain juices, which render it so wonderfully voluble or flippant. Away with flippant epilogues. Addison. Thomson. FLIRT, v. a., v. n. & n. s. From Sax. plicFLIRTATION, n. s. cenian; Gothic fleira, flygra, to flutter. Skinner thinks it formed from the sound. To inove any instrument backwards and forwards rapidly; putting a lady's face in quick motion; hence it has been applied to the state of the mind and feelings indicated by such moveinent. Hence a flirt is one who loves to attract notice; who holds out and employs this or any other signal for admiration. It also means a young woman forward and pert. The verb is likewise used in the sense of jeering and gibing. Scurvy knave, I am none of his flirt gills; I am none of his skains mates. Shakspeare. Permit some happier man To kiss your hand, or flirt your fan. Dorset. Several young flirts about town had a design to cast us out of the fashionable world. Addison. In unfurling the fan are several little flirts and vibrations, as also gradual and deliberate openings. Id. Spectator. When waggish boys the stunted besom ply, To rid the slabby pavement pass not by Ere thou hast held their hands; some heedless flirt Will overspread thy calves with spattering dirt. A muslin flounce, made very full, would give a very agreeable flirtation air. Id. Dick the scavenger Swift. So hardly he the flitted life does win, Unto her native prison to return. Id. He stopt at once the passage of his wind, And the free soul to flitting air resigned. Dryden. Which fastened, by the foot, the flitting bird. Id. Æneid. Fear the just gods, and think of Scylla's fate! Changed to a bird, and sent to flit in air. Pope. He flitted to and fro a dancing light, Which all who saw it followed wrong or right. Byron. Fr. fleche, floche.-Skinner. Icel. flyche, proFLITCH, n. s. Sax. Flicce; Dan. flycke; bably from flaka (Goth. fla), to divide. The side of a hog salted and cured. On birthdays, festivals, or days of state, If they had fresh meat, twas delicious fare. Dryden's Juvenal. He sometimes accompanies the present with a flitch of bacon. Addison. While he from out the chimney took Swift. Vespertilio; from flit and mouse. The bat; the winged mouse. FLITTING, n. s. Sax. flit, scandal. An offence; a fault; a failure; a desert. Thou tellest my flittings, put my tears into thy bottle. Psalms. FLIX, n. s. Corrupted from flax. Down; fur; soft hair. With his lolled tongue he faintly licks his prey; Dryden. FLOAT, v. n., v. a., n. s. & adj. Sax. pleoat; face of the water; to be buoyant in any fluid, Fr. flotter. See FLEET. To swim on the surwhether water or air: to cover with water; as to float a meadow: to let water into dock: to The truth; and though Grief her old age might render buoyant on its surface, the ships that may shorten, Because she put a favourite to death; Her vile ambiguous method of flirtation, FLITTING. Byron. to FLIT, v. n. & adj. Į Dan. flitter; and from S to fleet. To remove; By away; to flutter; to rove on the wing; to be Heet or unstable; swift; nimble. In Scotland, a cant term for a clandestine abandonment of one place for another to avoid the payment of rent. For whan that richesse shineth bright, Love recovereth ayen his light; And whan it faileth he wol flit, And as she greveth so greveth it. Chaucer. Romaunt of the Rose. How oft do they [angels] their silver bowers leave, To come to succour us that succour want! Spenser. Faerie Queene. Id. be laid up. The noun is applied to any body so contrived or formed as to swim on the water. His rosy wreath was dropt not long before, Born by the tide of wine, and floating on the floor. Dryden. Floating visions make not deep impressions enough to leave in the mind clear, distinct, lasting ideas. Locke. Venice looks, at a distance, like a great town half floated by a deluge, Addison on Italy. Swift they descend, with wing to wing conjoined, Stretch their broad plumes, and float upon the wind. Pope. Now smoaks with showers the misty mountainground, And flouted fields lie undistinguished round. Id. Descending flames the dusky shrine illume, Fire the wet wood, the sacred bull consume; Winged from the sea the gathering mists arise, And floating waters darken all the skies. Darwin. When slowly floating down the azure skies A crimson cloud flashed on his startled sight, It is a pleasant voyage perhaps to float Byron. The floating robe around him folding Byron. The Bride of Abydos. FLOAT is also used for a quantity of timber bound together with rafters athwart, and put into a river to be conveyed down the stream; and even sometimes to carry burdens down a river. FLOAT-BOARDS, boards fixed to water-wheels of under-shot mills, serving to receive the impulse of the stream, whereby the wheel is carried round. See MILL and WHEEL. It is no advantage to have too great a number of floatboards; because, when they are all struck by the water in the best manner that it can be brought to come against them, the sum of all the impulses will be but equal to the impulse made against one float-board at right angles, by all the water coming out of the penstock through the opening, so as to take place on the float-board. The best rule in this case is, to have just so many, that each of them may come out of the water as soon as possible, after it has received and acted with its full impulse. As to the length of the float board, it may be regulated according to the breadth of the mill. See MILL. FLOAT-STONE, a sub-species of the indivisible quartz of Mohs., or spongiform quartz of Jameson. Color dirty white. In porous, massive, and tuberose forms, and dull internally. Fracture coarse earthy feebly translucent on the edges. Soft, but its minute particles are as hard as quartz. Rather brittle. Feels meagre and rough, and emits a grating noise when the finger is drawn across it. Specific gravity 0-49 Its constituents are, silica 98, carbonate of lime 2. It occurs in crusting flint, or in imbedded masses in a secondary limestone at St. Ouen near Paris. FLOCK, n. s. & v. n. Sax. Flocc; Goth. and Teut. flock; Dan. flok, a multitude, à Gr. Xoxos, a troop. A company; usually, a company of birds or beasts; sometimes of men ; but especially of sheep, as distinguished from herds, which are of oxen. To gather in crowds, or large numbers The heathen that had fled out of Judea came t Nicanor by flocks. 2 Mac. xiv. 14. A-morwe whan the day began to spring, Uprose our hoste and wos our aller cok, And gaderd us togeder in a flock, And forth we riden, a litel more than pas Unto the watering of Seint Thomas. Chaucer. Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Even all the nation of unfortunate And fatall birds about them flocked were Such as by nature men abhorre and hate. Spenser's Faerie Queens. She that bath a heart of that fine frame, To pay this debt of love but to a brother, How will she love when the rich golden shaft Hath killed the flock of all affections else That live in her. Shakspeare. Twelfth Night. Many young gentlemen flock to him every day, and fleet the time carelessly. Shakspeare. Stilpo, when the people flocked about him, and that one said, The people come wondering about you as if it were to see some strange beast. No, saith he, it is to see a man which Diogenes sought with his lanthorn at noon-day. Bacon. The world's Great Light his lowly state hath blessed, And left his Heaven to be a shepherd base: Thousand sweet songs he to his pipe addressed: Swift rivers stood, beasts, trees, stones ran apace, And serpents flew to hear his softest strains; He fed his flock where rolling Jordan reigns; There took our rags, gave us his robes, and bore our pains. Fletcher's Purple Island. Russet lawns and fallows gray Where the nibbling flocks do stray. Milton. A house well-furnished shall be thine to keep, And, for a flock bed, I can shear my sheep. Dryden. FLODDEN, FLODDON, OF FLOWDEN, a village of England, in Northumberland, on the Till, between the Glen and the Tweed, five miles north of Wooler. Near it the well-known battle of that name was fought, on the 9th September, 1513, between the Scots, under king James IV., and the English under the earl of Surrey. The command of the van was allotted to the earl of Huntley; the earls of Lennox and Argyle commanded the Highlanders under James; and the earls of Crawford and Montrose led the body of reserve. The earl of Surrey gave the command of his van to his son, the lord admiral; his right wing was commanded by his other son, Sir Edward Howard; and his left by Sir Marmaduke Constable. The rear was commanded by the earl himself, lord Dacres, and Sir Edward Stanley. Under those leaders served the flower of all the nobility rear. and gentry then in England. Lord Hume served under the earls of Crawford and Montrose, and Hepburn earl of Bothwel was in the The first motion of the English army was by the lord admiral, who suddenly wheeled to the right, and seized pass at Milford, where he planted his artillery so as to command the most sloping part of the ascent where the Scots were drawn up; and it did great execution. The Scots had not foreseen this manœuvre; and it put them into such disorder, that the earl of Huntley found it necessary to attack the lord admiral; which he did with so much fury that he drove him from his post; and the consequence must have been fatal to the English, had not his precipitate retreat been covered by some squadrons of horse under the lord Dacres, which gave the lord admiral an opportunity of rallying and new forming his men. The earl of Surrey now advanced to the front, so that the English army formed one continued line, which galled the Scots with perpetual discharges of their artillery and bows. The Highlanders, as usual, impatient to come to a close fight, and to share in the honor of the day, which they now thought their own, rushed down the declivity with their broad swords, but without order or discipline, and before the rest of the army, particularly the division under loid Hume, advanced to support them. Their impetuosity, however, made a considerable impression upon the main battle of the English; and, the king bringing up the earl of Bothwel's reserve, the battle became general and doubtful: but by this time the lord admiral, having again formed his men, came to the assistance of his father, and charged the division under the earls of Crawford and Montrose, who were marching up to support the Highlanders, among whom the king and his attendants were now fighting on foot; while Stanley, making a circuit round the hill, attacked the Highlanders in the rear. Crawford and Montrose, not being seconded by the Humes, were routed; and thus all that part of the Scottish army which was engaged under their king, was completely surrounded by the division of the English under Surrey, Stanley, and the lord admiral. In this terrible situation, James acted with a coolness not common to his temper. He drew up his men in a circular form, and their valor more than once opened the ranks of the English, or obliged them to stand aloof, and again have recourse to their bows and artillery. The chief of the Scottish nobility made fresh attempts to prevail with James to make his escape while it was practicable; but he obstinately continued the fight. He saw the earls of Montrose, Crawford, Argyle, and Lennox, fall by his side, with the bravest of his men lying dead on the spot; and, darkness now coming on, he himself was killed by an unknown hand. The English were ignorant of the victory they had gained; and had actually retreated from the field of battle, with a design of renewing it next morning. This disaster was evidently owing to the romantic disposition of the king, and to the want of discipline among his soldiers; though some writers have ascribed it to the treachery of lord Hume. Many of James's domestics knew and mourned over his body; and it appeared that he had received two mortal wounds, one through the trunk with an arrow, and the other on the head with a ball. His coat of armour was presented to queen Catharine, who informed her husband, then in France, of the victory over the Scots. The loss on both sides in, this engagement is far from being ascertained; though Polydore Virgil, who lived at the time, mentions the loss of the English at 5000, and that of the Scots at 10,000. FLOG, v. a. Lat. flagrum. To lash; to whip; to chastise. Gay. The schoolmaster's joy is to flog. FLOOD, n. s. & v. a. Saxon, flod; from FLOOD GATE. Sax. Flopan, to flow; Goth. and Swed. flod; Belg. vloed; Fr. flot. A body of water; the sea; a river; a deluge; an reflux: the swelling of a river by rain, or any inundation; flow; flux; as opposed to ebb and other cause. In medical science, catamenia. The verb signifies to deluge; to cover with water. Floodgate is an artificial means of admitting, or excluding, water at pleasure: it is placed across a river, or a water-course, for this. purpose; used generally, for whatever impedes, or introduces, water, or any other fluid: it is sometimes used in a metaphorical sense. And whanne he was putt out in the flood, the doughter of Pharao took him up and norischide him Wiclif. Dedis. into hir a sone. His dominion shall be also from the one sea to the (Do this miracle; or do min herte brest), Chaucer. The Frankeleines Tale. Like a great water-flood that tombling low, From the high mountaines, threates to overthrow, With suddein fury, all the fertile playne, And the sad husbandman's long hope doth throw Adowne the streame, and all his vowes make vayne; Nor bounds, nor banks, his headlong usine may Spenser's Faerie Queene. sustayne. |