P E M 
P E M 
Pembrokefliire abounds with objects of antiquaririn cu¬ 
rio fity and intereft, of aim oft every kind and era. Druid- 
ical circles and cromlechs are frequent, of which the prin¬ 
cipal are thofe near Caftle-Hendrev, Drewfon, Trellys, 
Long-houfe, Lech-y-dribedd, Pentre-Evan, and Caftle- 
Martyn. Single ftone monuments are alfo numerous, 
particularly along the coaft, where they are conjeCtured 
to have been raifed as memorials of predatory battles. 
The great Roman road to Menapia, St. David's, enters 
the county near Llandewi-Velfry, and proceeds by Ha- 
verford-weft and Roch-Caftle, almoft on the fame line 
with the prefent turnpike-road from Caermarthen, which 
it crolfes at different points. Another Roman road led 
from the great road to the ftation called Ad-Vicefimum. 
But the molt important antiquities are its caltles, of 
which there are nineteen mentioned as belonging to 
princes and great barons. Some of the churches in this 
county are likewife objects worthy the attention of the 
antiquary. The cathedral and palace of St. David’s are 
particularly entitled to attention. See Saint David’s 5 
alfo Norris’s ArchiteCiural Antiquities of Wales, 410. 
Fenton’s Hiftorical Tour in Pembrokefliire, 1811. Cam¬ 
brian Regifter for 1796. Camden’s Britannia, vol. ii. 
Britilh Directory, vol. iv. and Univerfal Magazine for 
April 1766. 
PEMIGEWAS'SET, a river of New Hamplhire, which, 
united with the Winipifiokee, forms the Merrimack 
river. 
PEMISSISAQUEWAK'EE, a river of the diftria of 
Maine, which runs into the fea in lat. 44. 23. N. Ion. 68. 
20. W. 
PEMNAGUR', a fort of Hindooftan, in Bahar: thirty- 
one miles north-weft of Durbungah. Lat. 26. 29. N. 
Ion. 85. 43. E. 
PEM'PHIS, f . in botany, a genus of plants, fo named 
by Forfter from wqxipi?, a globule, in allufion to the glo¬ 
bular protuberance of the germen above the calyx, or of 
what, in Linnasan language, is the receptacle of the 
flower. This genus confifts of but one fpecies, which is 
the Lythrum pemphis, already defcribed in vol. xiii. p. 
^ 49 - 
PEN, f according to Camden, originally fignifles a 
high mountain, which was thus called among the ancient 
Britons, and even the Gauls. And hence that tall range 
which parts Italy and France is called Apennines. 
Pen is often ufed for a pound, or head of water arti¬ 
ficially kept up. Hence Pen Stock, a fort of flu ice or 
flood-gate placed in the water of a mill-pond, or a canal, 
to retain or let it go at pleafure. 
PEN,/. [ penna , Lat.] An inftrument for writing,] — 
He remembers not that he took off pen from paper till he 
had done. Fell. 
Eternal deities ! 
Who write whatever time fliall bring to pafs. 
With pens of adamant on plates of brafs. Dry den. 
Fie takes the papers, lays them down again ; 
And, with unwilling .fingers, tries the pen. Dryden. 
Feather; [penne, old Fr. Old alfo, in this fenfe, in our 
own language; and Hill foufed in the north of England. 
Wicliffe employs it.]—The proud peacock, overcharg’d 
with peas. ii. Jonfuns Staple of News. 
The pews that did his pinions bind, 
Were like main-yards with flying canvas lin’d. Spenfer. 
Wing; though even here it may mean feather. 
Feather’d foon and fledg’d, 
They fumm’d their pens ; and, foaring the air fublime, 
tv ith clang defpis’d the ground. Milton's P. L. 
[From pennan, Sax.] A finall inclofure ; a coop.—The 
cook'was ordered to drefs capons for fupper, and take 
the belt in the pen. L'Ejlrange. 
Ducks in thy ponds, and chickens in thy pens ; 
And be thy turkeys numerous as thy hens. Kins:. 
Vol. XIX. No. 1322. 
527 
As long as people wrote upon tables covered with wax, 
they were obliged to ufe a ftyle or bodkin made of bone, 
metal, or fome other hard fubftance; but, when they be¬ 
gan to write with coloured liquids, they then employed 
a reed, and afterwards quills or feathers. 
It is rather aftonilhing, that we are ignorant what kind 
of reeds the ancients ufed for writing, though they have 
mentioned the places where they grew wild, and where, 
it is highly probable, they grow. Hill. Befides, we have 
reafon to fuppofe, that the fame reeds are ufed even at 
prefent by all the oriental nations; for it is well known, 
that among the people of the eaft old manners and inftru- 
ments are not eafily banifhed by new modes and new in¬ 
ventions. Moft authors who have treated on the hiftory 
of writing have contented themfelves with informing 
their readers that a reed was employed ; but that genus 
of plants called by the ancients calamus, and arundo, is 
more numerous in fpecies than the genus of graffes, to 
which the corn of the ancients belongs ; and it might 
perhaps be as difficult to determine what kind of reed 
they employed for writing, as to diftinguifli the fpecies of 
grain called far, alien, and arena. 
The moft beautiful reeds of this kind grew formerly in 
Egypt ; near Cnidus, a city and dittriCt in the province 
of Caria, in Ana Minor; and likewife in Armenia and 
Italy. Thofe which grew in the laft-mentioned country, 
feern to have been confidered by Pliny as too left and 
fpongy: but his words are fo ohfcure, that little can be 
gathered from them ; and, though the above places have 
been explored in latter times by many experienced bota- 
nifts, they have not fupplied 11s with much certain infor¬ 
mation refpeCting this fpecies of reed. As the old. bota¬ 
nists give no cbaraCterifing marks fufiiciently precife, 
Linnaeus was not able to affign any place in his fyftem to 
the arundofcriptoria of Bauh'in. 
Chardin fpeaks of the reeds which grow in the marfhes 
of Perfia, and which are fold and much fought after in the 
Levant, particularly for writing. He has even defcribed 
them ; but his account has been of no fervice to enlarge 
our botanical knowledge. Tournefort, who faw them col¬ 
lected in the neighbourhood ofTefiis, the capital of Geor¬ 
gia, though his defcription of them is far from complete, 
has taught us more than any of his predeceffors. We 
learn from his account, that this reed has finall leaves, 
that Strifes only to the height of a man, and that it is not 
hollow, but filled with a loft fpongy fubftance. He has 
charaCierifed it, therefore, in the following manner in his 
Syftem of Botany : Arundo orientals, tenuifolia, cattle 
pleno, ex qua Favcce calamos parant. The fame words are 
applied to itT>y Miller; but he obferves that no plants 
of it had ever been introduced into England. That the 
beft writing-reeds are procured from the fouthern provin¬ 
ces of Perfia is confirmed by Dapper and Hanway. The 
former fays, that the reeds are Town and planted near the 
Perfian gulf in the place mentioned by Chardin, and 
gives the fame defcription as that traveller of the manner 
in which they are prepared. 
The circumftance exprefsly mentioned by Tournefort, 
that thefe writing-reeds are not entirely hollow, feems : to 
agree perfectly with the account given by Diofcorides. It 
is probable that the pith dries and becomes fhrunk, efpe- 
cially after the preparation defcribed by Chardin, fo that 
the reed can be eafily freed from it in the fa median her 
as the marrowy fubftance in writihg-quills is removed 
from them when clarified. Something of the like kind 
feems to be meant by Pliny, who fays, that the pith dried 
up within the reed, which was hollow at the lower end, 
but at the upper end woody and deftitute of pith. The 
flowers of this reed were employed inftead of feathers for 
beds, and alfo for caulking fliips. Forfkal only tells us 
that a*great many reeds of different kinds grow near the 
Nile, which ferve to make hedges, thatch, and wattled- 
walls, and which are ufed for various other purpofes. 
Thefe reeds were fplit, and formed to a point like our 
quills 5 but certainly it was not poffible to make fo clean 
6 T and 
