402 F L O 
of We ft ph alia, and bifhopric of Liege : eight miles fouth- 
fonth-vveff of Liege. 
FLONG, part. pajfl. from to fling , ufed by Spenfer. 
FLON'HEIM, a town of Germany, in the circle of the 
Upper Rhine, and county of Salm : twelve miles eaft- 
fouth-eaft of Creutznach. 
FLOOD, f [plob, Sax. Jlot, Fr.] A body of water; 
the lea ; a river.—His dominion (hall be alfo from the 
one fea to the other, and from the Jlood unto the world’s 
end. PJ'alm lxxii. 8. 
Or thence from Niger flood unto Atlas mount, 
The kingdoms of Ahnanzor, Fez, and Sus. Milton. 
A deluge ; an inundation.—You fee this confluence ; this 
great Jlood of vifiters. Shake/peare. 
By fudden floods, and fall of waters, 
Buckingham’s army is difpers’d and fcatter’d. Sha/tjp. 
Flow; flux; not ebb; not reflux; the fwelling of a 
river by rain or inland floods : 
We feek to know the moving of each fphere. 
And the ftrange caule o’ th’ebbs and of Nile. Davies. 
The general deluge. See the article Deluge, vol. v. 
p. 637-697. 
When went there by an age fince the great flood, 
But it was fam’d with more than with one man ; Shakefp. 
Catamenia.—Thofe that have the good fortune of rriif- 
carrying, or being delivered, efcape by means of their 
Jloods, revelling the humours from their lungs. Harvey. 
To FLOOD, v. a. To deluge, to cover with waters.—- 
Where meadows are Jlcodcd late in fpring, roll them with 
a large barley-roller. Mortimer. 
Young Flood, fea term, the time when the water 
begins to rife. 
FLOOD'GATE, f. Gate or (hotter by which the 
wntcrcourfe is doled or opened at pleafure.—The sain de- 
fcended for forty days, the cataradls or jloodgatcs of heaven 
being opened. Burnet. 
Yet there the fteel (laid not; but inly bate 
-Deep in his flefh, and open’d wide a red jloodgdte. Spsnfer. 
FLOOD'M ARK, /. The mark which the flood leaves 
on the ground, the height to which the flood riles. 
FLOOR, or Fluke, f. [pjlug, G 4 rm, a plow.] The 
broad part of the anchor which takes hold of the ground. 
A flounder; aflat river lifli; a worm found in the rot¬ 
ten livers of (beep, and of many other animals. See Fas¬ 
ciola, p. 266, of this volume. 
FLOOR, f. [plop, plope, Sax.] The pavement : a 
pavement is always of Hone, the floor of wood or (tone; 
the part on which one treads.—He winnoweth barley to¬ 
night in the thre(hingy?cor. Ruth. 
Look how the Jloor of heav’n 
Is thick inlay’d with patens of bright gold : 
There’s not the (mailed orb which thou behold’lt. 
But in his motion like an angel fings, 
Still quiring to the young ey’d cherubins. Shake/peare. 
A (lory ; a flight of rooms : 
Me that building (lays at one 
Floor, or the fecond, hath ereCted none. Ben JonJon. 
To FLOOR, v. a. To cover the bottom with a floor.— 
Hewn done and timber to Jloor the houfes. 2 C/iron, xxxiv. 
FI.OOR'lNG,yi Bottom ; pavement.—The Jlooring is 
a kind of red plaifter made of brick, ground to powder, 
and afterwards worked into mortar. Addijon. 
To FLOP, v. a. To clap the wings with noife ; to play 
with any noify motion o'f a broad body. — A blackbird 
was frighted almoft to death with a hagejlopping kite that 
(lie favv over her head. I.’ EJlrange. 
FLO'RA, the goddefs of flowers and gardens among 
the Romans, the lame as the Chloris of the Greeks. She 
was worlhippcd among the Sabines, long before the foun¬ 
dation of Rome, and Tatius was the firft who raifed her 
FLO 
a temple in the city of Rome. She married Zephyrus, 
and received from him the privileges of prefiding over 
flowers, and of enjoying perpetual youth. By fculptors 
and painters (he was reprefented as crowned with flowers, 
and holding in her hand the horn of plenty. Ovid .—A 
celebrated courtezan, paflionaiely loved by Pompey the 
Great. She was fo beautiful, that when the temple of 
Caftor and Pollux at Rome was adorned with paintings, 
her picture was drawn and placed among the reft. 
FI,OR AC', a town of France, and principal place of a 
diftrilt, in the department of the Lozere, near the Tarn : 
four leagues and a half fouth of Mende, and eight north- 
weft of Alais. Lat. 44. 19. N. Ion. 18. o. E. Ferro. 
FLO'RAL, adj. \_jloralis, Lat.] Relating to Flora, or 
to flowers: 
Let one great day, 
To celebrated fports and jloral play. Prior. 
FLORA'LIA, games in honour of Flora at Rome. 
They were inftituted about the age of Romulus, but they 
yere not celebrated with regularity and proper attention 
till the year of Rome 580. They were obferved yearly,, 
and exhibited a feene of the moil: unbounded licentiouf- 
nefs. It is reported that Cato wifhed once to be prefent 
at the celebration, and when he faw that the deference for 
his prefence interrupted the feaft, he retired, not choofing 
to be the fpeCtator of the proftitution of naked women in 
a public theatre. This behaviour fo captivated the de¬ 
generate Romans, that the venerable fenator was treated 
with the mod uncommon applaufe as he retired. Varro. 
FLGRAN'GE, a town of France, in the department 
of the Mozelle, and chief place of a canton, in the dif- 
trict of Thionville : three quarters of a league fouth of 
Thioriville, and three north-eaft of Brieg. 
FLO'REF, a town of the Netherlands, in the duchy of 
Namur, on the Sambre : feven miles weft of Namur. 
FLO'RENCE, a city of Italy, and capital of Tufcany, 
fituated on the river Arno, at the foot of the Appenines ; 
fir ft founded by the foldiers of Sylla; embeilifhed and en¬ 
larged by the triumvirs; deftroyea byTotila; and re¬ 
built by Charlemagne. It became an afylum for the rich 
and noble, upon the fall of the weftern Roman empire, 
fo early as the year 499. The environs are beautiful, 
rich, and populous, containing, as is faid, 6000 country 
houfes. The circumference of the city is about two 
leagues ; the fortifications conftft only in a wall and moat, 
with two or three, forts, which defend it, and command 
a part of the town. This city is, next to Rome, the moft 
beautiful in Italy, and by fome even preferred to Rome 
itfelf. It is the Athens of Italy. The buildings are 
magnificent, moft of the ftreets clean, and paved with 
fquare chilfeled ftones, fo as to appear like a rock made 
level: they are generally winding, and many of them too 
narrow for carriages to pafs each other. There are fe- 
venteen public places, or fquares ; feven fountains con- 
ftantly playing ; fix pillars or columns, two pyramids, 
160 beautiful ftatues, placed either in the public fquares, 
or in the ftreets, or in the front of palaces ; one metropo¬ 
litan church, twelve collegiate, and forty-four parochial; 
thirty-five convents for men, fixty for women, thirty— 
feven hofpitals, and about 9000 houfes. The city is di¬ 
vided into two unequal parts by the river Arno, over 
which there are four bridges in fight of each other. That 
called the Ponte della Trinita, which is uncommonly ele¬ 
gant, is built entirely of white marble, and ornamented 
with four beautiful ftatues reprefenting the Seafons. The 
quays, the buildings on each fide, and the bridges, ren¬ 
der that part of Florence through which the river runs 
by fap the fineft. The number of inhabitants, by the 
cenfns of 1761, were found to be 72,000. The metro¬ 
politan church was built in the thirteenth century, of 
Gothic architecture, the cupola has the form of an ofta- 
gon, and the delign fo bold, that Michael Angelo judged 
it inimitable ; it is 140 feet from one angle to the other, 
and 270 feet in height. Moft of the churches contain a 
great number of beautiful paintings and ftatues by the firft 
mailers 
