4 42 
F L A' 
the king, with a falary of rook per annum. In Eafter, 
1675-, Mr. Flamfteed was ordained at Ely-houfe, by bifhop 
Gunning. On the 10th of Anguft following, the foun¬ 
dation of the royal obfervatory at Greenwich was laid, 
which, as Flamfteed was the firft aftronomer-royal, for 
whofe ufe it was erected, received the name of Flavfleed- 
houfe, which it (till bears. During the erection of this 
edifice, Mr. Flamfteed wrote his Dodtrine of the Sphere, 
which in 1681 w r as pub'.iftied by fir Jonas Moore, in his 
Syftem of the Mathematics. In 1C84, the lord-keeper 
North, in requital for the p'leafure which Mr. Flamfteed 
had often afiforded him by his fcientific converfation, pre- 
fented him to the living of Burftow, in Surrey, which 
was the only preferment he ever obtained, notwithstanding 
his extraordinary mdrit, and the great refpect in which 
he was defervedly held by the firft men of his age. Be- 
lides many perfons of rank, he had to number among his 
friends the incomparable fir Ifaac Newton, who corre- 
fponded with him from 1680 to 1699 ; Dr. Edmund Hal¬ 
ley, Mr. William Molyneux of Dublin, Dr. Wallis, and 
feveral others who were mod eminent in this nation for 
their love of fcience ; and among his foreign correfpond- 
ents was the celebrated M. CafTini. 
Befides writing feveral fmall tra£D, Mr. Flamfteed 
contributed a vaft number of papers to the Philofophical 
Tranfaftions, of which many are inferted in almoft every 
volume from the fourth to the twentv-ninth. But bis 
great work, which contained the principal labours of his 
life, and has fecured to him immortal fame, was his 
Hifioria Ccelejlis Britannica , in three volumes folio. The 
firft contains the obfervations of Mr. William Gafcoigne 
(the inventor of the method of meafuring angles in a 
telefcope by means of fcrews, and the firft who applied 
telefcopical fights to agronomical inftruments), taken at 
Middleton, near Leeds, in Yorkfhire, between the years 
1638 and 1643, extracted from his letters by Mr. Crab¬ 
tree ; with fome of Mr. Crabtree’s obfervations at the 
fame time, and alfo thofe of Mr. Flamfteed himfelf, made 
at Derby between the years 1670 and 1675 ; together with 
a multitude of curious obfervations, and necelfary tables 
to be tifedvvith (hem, made at the royal obfervatory, be¬ 
tween the years 1675 and 1689. The iecond volume con¬ 
tains his obfervations, rnade with a mural arch of feven 
feet radius, and one hundred and forty degrees on the 
limb, of the meridional zenith diftances of the fixed flairs, 
fun, moon, and planets, with their tranfits over (he me¬ 
ridian; alfo obfervations of the diameters of the fun and 
moon, with their eclipfes, and thofe of Jupiter’s fatel- 
liies, and variations of the compafs, from 1689 to 1719. 
The third volume contains a catalogue of the right al'cen- 
lions, polar uiftances, longitudes, and magnitudes, of near 
three thoufand fixed ftars, with the correfponding varia¬ 
tions of the fame. To this volume there is a large pre¬ 
face, containing an account of all the aftronomical obfer¬ 
vations made before his time, with a defcription of the 
inftruments employed ; as alfo of his own obfervations and 
inftruments; a new Latin verfion of Ptolemy’s catalogue 
of a thoufand fixed ftars, and Ul'egh-beig’s places annexed 
on the Latin page, with corrections ; a fmall catalogue 
of the Arabs ; Tycho Brahe’s of about feven hundred and 
eighty fixed ftars; the landgrave of Heffe’s of three hun¬ 
dred and eighty-fix; Heveliais’s of a'thoufand five hun¬ 
dred and thirty-four ; and a catalogue of fome of the 
fouthern fixed ftars not vifible in our hemifphere, calcu¬ 
lated from obfervations made by Dr. Hailey at St. Helena, 
and adapted to the year 1726. Of this work, which is 
an honour to Englilh fcience, the author had printed a 
great part, and had prepared the reft for the prefs, ex¬ 
cepting the prolegomena prefixed to the third volume, 
when he was feized with a ftrangury, which proved fatal 
to him on the laft day of the year 1719, at which time he 
had arrived at the age of feventy-three years. The care 
of finifhing his grand work devolved on his friend Mr. 
J uites Hodgfon, by whom it was publiflred in 1725. A 
lefs perfect edition of the Hifioria Ccelejlis had been pub- 
F L A 
liftied without the author’s confent, in 1712, in one volume 
folio; containing his obfervations to the year 1705. Of 
Mr. Flamfteed’s eminent abilities, and unwearied applica¬ 
tion, his valuable productions afford the belt evidence, 
and will prove a lading monument of his fame. 
FLA'MY, adj. Inflamed; burning; blazing: 
My thoughts imprifon’d in my fecret woes, 
With flamy breaths do iffue oft in found. Sidney. 
Having the nature of flame.—The vital fpirits of living 
creatures are a fubftance compounded of an airy and flamy 
matter. Bacon. 
FLANA'TICUS Sl'NUS, in ancient geography, a bay 
of the Flanates, in Liburnia, on the Adriatic, now the 
gulf of Carnero. Pliny. 
FLANCH, j: A kind of ring of iron or fteel ufed in 
machinery. See the article Fire-Engine, p. 392 of this 
vo! 11 me, and t It e correfponding Engraving, Plate II. fig. 6. 
—In heraldry, an ordinary confiding of the fegment of a 
circular fuperficies which is always borne double; or an 
embowed line, beginning at the top, fwelling in the mid¬ 
dle, and ending at the bafe.of an efcutcheon. 
FLANCGN A'DE, f. in fencing, a pufli or thru ft in 
flank. 
FI.AN'DERS, a country of the Netherlands, and at 
one time a confiderable county, bounded on the north by 
the mouth of the Scheldt and the German Ocean; on the 
eaft by Brabant and Hainaut; on the fouth by Hainaut 
and a part of France,.formerly called Artois and Picardy ; 
and on the weft by the Englilh Channel and Artois. Its 
greateft length is about fixty miles, and its-breadth about 
fifty. It contained thirty cities or walled towns, a great 
number of market-towns, 1154 villages, and forty-eight 
abbies, befides a great number of priories, colleges, and 
monifteries. The towns are fituated fo near together, 
that the Spaniards who followed Philip 11 . fuppofed that 
all Flanders' was but one town. Since that time, this 
county has Differed very feverely from almoft continual 
wars. Flanders has been generally divided into three 
parts : Flcmifh Flanders, where they fpeak the language 
of the country ; French Flanders, where they fpeak the 
Walloon language; and Imperial or Auftrian Flanders, 
on account of the county of Aloft, which has for a long 
time been dependent on the empire. The firft extended 
from the North Sea and the Scheldt to the river Lys, and 
contained Ghent, Bruges, Ypres, Slays,. Offend, Nieti- 
port,. Dunkirk, Fumes, Bergues-Saint-Vincc, Courtray, 
Oudenarde, Galilei, Graye’ines, See. The fccond, or 
French Flanders, contained the towns of Lille, Douay, 
Tournay, and Orchies. The third, fituated between 
the Scheldt and the Dender, contained the towns and 
di'ftricts of Aloft, Hulft, Axel, Affenede, and Bochoult. 
Flanders has been more recently divided into French, 
Auftrian, and Dutch, Flanders; but in a country fo much 
expofed to the depredations of ambitious or tyrannical 
(fates, the limits of each have been always more or lefs 
uncertain; at prefent the whole has been conquered by 
the armies of the French republic, and great part long 
confidered as French dominions, Lille, Dunkirk, and fe¬ 
veral other towns, being comprehended in the department 
of the North., in the new divifion of France; before hofti- 
iities were commenced, or perhaps even thought of. 
Verftegan, in his Reftitution of decayed Intelligence, 
ato. p. 101, is of opinion, that the greateft part of Flan¬ 
ders was originally overflowed by the fea, as lying fo low 
and even, that by cutting off the downs or fandhills, 
they might now be again eafily overflowed. Fie quotes 
an eminent author, who afferts, that the city of Tongres, 
in the biftiopric of Liege, though now near one hundred 
miles from the fea, was once a fea-port; alleging, amongft 
other reafons, the great iron rings to which (hips were 
faftened, remaining there in his time; befides innume¬ 
rable quantities of fea-fhells, in digging a few feet, found 
in ftrata, as in the fea ; with various other reafons for 
proving thole parts to have been fea in ancient times. 
,/ind 
