558 
PEN 
during her reign fixty-two, which proportion Was ob- 
ferved till the new coinage of 1816, when fixty-fix pence 
were made from an ounce of filver, and fixty-fix {hillings 
from a pound. 
The filver penny fterling has been long difufed as a 
coin ; and is (carcely known but as a money of account, 
containing the twelfth part of a (hilling, or the two hun¬ 
dred and fortieth part of a pound ; and indeed, from its 
very diminutive fize, it can never more become a current 
coin, nor probably will any thing lefs than a lixpence 
ever be fo ufed. But, in the year 1797, when gold was 
withdrawn from circulation, the filver coinage being alfo 
in a very bad ftate, copper pennies, weighing, an ounce 
each, were introduced into circulation. In the copper 
coinage of 1806, the penny was made fomewhat lefs; fo 
that, at length, inftead of 20 pennyweights to the ounce, 
we have about 20 to the pound. 
The courfe of exchange between England and France 
is fettled on the foot of fo many pence fterling for a 
French half-crown of three livres. 
Penny, in ancient ftatutes, &c. is ufed for ail filver 
money. Hence the ward-penny, aver-penny, hundred- 
penny, titldng-penny, and brotlial-penny. 
PENNY EAR'TH,/. A term ufed by farmers for a hard 
loamy or fandy earth, with a very large quantity of fea- 
fhells intermixed in it, fome of which being round and 
flat, in fome meafure refembling pieces of mgney, have 
occafioned the earth’s being called by this name. It is 
an earth not eafily dug, but is ufually undermined with 
pickaxes, and then falls in large lumps; which, with the 
frofts, break to pieces, and leave the (hells loofe. It is 
prepared by breaking and mixing well with water, and 
then makes very defirable floors. The Jerfey combers’ 
comb-pots are alfo made of it, and the fides and roofs of 
ovens are plaftered with it; and, being rightly managed, 
it combines into a floor almoft as ftrong as plafter of 
Paris. 
PEN'NY-GRASS. See Rhinanthus. 
PENNY-PO'ST, f. An office for conveying letters for 
the price of a penny to all places within th£ London bills 
of mortality, till the year 1807, when the price was ad¬ 
vanced to 2d. 
PENNY-ROY'AL, or Pud'ding-grass, /. [pulegium, 
Lat.] A plant. See Mentha. 
Firft pennyroyal, to advance her fame, 
(And from her mouth a grateful odour came,) 
Tells ’em, they fay, how many ills that fource 
Threatens, whene’er, Sec. Cowley engli/ked. 
PEN'NY-TOWN. See Pennington. 
PEN'NY-WEIGHT, f. A weight containing twenty- 
four grains troy-weight. So called from the ancient fil¬ 
ver penny being of this weight.—The Sevil piece of 
eight is 15 pennyweight in the pound worfe than the Eng- 
lifli ftandard, weighs fourteen pennyweight, contains thir¬ 
teen pemiyiveight twenty-one grains and fifteen mites, of 
which there are twenty in the grain of fterling filver, and 
is in value forty-three Englifh pence and eleven hun¬ 
dredths of a penny. Arhuthnot on Coins. 
PENNY-WI'SE, adj. Saving fmall fums at the hazard 
of larger; niggardly on improper occafions.—Be not 
penny-wife; riches have wings and flyaway of themfelves. 
Bacon. -—Penny-wife, pound-foolifh. Burton's Anat. of 
Mel. Pref. 
PEN'NY-WORT. See Hydrotocyle. 
PEN'NYLESS, adj. Moneylefs; poor; wanting mo¬ 
ney.— The doors, for ever barred to the pennylefs popu¬ 
lace, feemed to open themfelves at his producing a filver 
fixpence. Arbuthnot and Pope. 
Hail, ticking! fureft guardian of diftrefs! 
Beneath thy (lielter pennylefs I quaff 
The cheerful cup ! Warion on Oxford Ale. 
PEN'NYWORTH,/. As much as is bought for a 
penny. Any purchafe; any thing bought or fold for 
PEN 
money.—Lucian affirms, that the fouls of ulurers after 
their death, are tranfported into the bodies of afles, and 
there remain certain days for poor men to take their pen¬ 
nyworths out of their bones and fides by cudgel and fpur. 
Peacham. 
Pirates may make cheap penn'worths of their pillage. 
And purchafe friends. Shakefpeare's Hen. VI. 
Something advantageoufly bought; a purchafe got for 
lefs than it is worth : 
For fame he pray'd, but let the event declare 
He had no mighty penn'worth of his prayer. Dryden. 
A fmall quantity.—My friendfhip I diftribute in penny¬ 
worths to thofe about me, and who difpleafe me leaft. 
Swift. 
PEN'OBSCOT, a river of America, which is the moft 
confiderable in the diftrift of Maine, and rifes by two 
branches in the high lands. Between the fource of the 
weft Fork and its junftion with the eaft, is Moofehead 
lake, thirty or forty miles long and fifteen wide. The eaft 
branch pafies through feveral fmaller lakes. From the 
Forks, as they are called, the Penobfcot Indians pafs to 
Canada, along either branch, principally the weft, the 
fource of which, as they fay, is not more than twenty 
miles from the^waters that empty into the St. Lawrence. 
At the Forks is a remarkable high mountain ; and from 
thence down to Indian Old Town, fituated on an ifland 
in this river, the diftance is about fixty miles, and in the 
interval the river widens and embraces a great number 
of iflands. Juft below Indian-town are the Great Falls, 
where is a carrying-place of about twenty rods; and 
thence for twelve miles to the head of the tide there are 
no falls to obftruft boats. From thence for thirty-five 
miles, to the head of Penobfcot-bay, or to the feite of 
Old Fort Pownal, the river flows in a pretty ftraight 
courfe, and is eafily navigated. Paffing by Majahagadufe 
on the eaft feven miles, and Owl’s-head twenty miles far¬ 
ther, you enter the ocean. The Indians have a commu¬ 
nication from this river to Scoodick-river, by a portage 
of three miles. This river was the eaftern limit of Nova 
Scotia, or Acadia, by the treaty of Utrecht. Within 
about twenty miles there are more than fixty iflands of 
various fizes, comprehending in the whole about 12,000 
acres. Fifty-four of thefe the Indians have referved to 
their own ufe. See Indian Old Town, vol.xi. 
PEN'OBSCOT, a bay on the coaftof Hancock county, 
in the ftate of Maine, and called by the firft difeoverer 
Norembega, about fixteen leagues wide from Nafkeag- 
point and Burnt-coat ifland on the eaft, to the point on 
which Thomaftown (lands on the weft fide of the bay. 
The chief iflands it inclofes are Fox, Haut, Long, and 
Deer, iflands; befides a number of fmall ifles, rocks, and 
ledges. On a fine peninfula, on the eaft fide of the bay, 
the Britifh built a fort, and made a fettlement, which is 
now the (hire-town of the county of Hancock, and is a 
commodious place for the lumber-trade. Haut-ifland, or 
the Ifle of Holt, lies in lat. 4.4.. 23. N. Ion. 68. 10. W. and 
is the fouthernmoft of the large ifles. 
PEN'OBSCOT, a poll-town of Maine, on the eaft fide 
of the bay of its name, which is a port of entry, and 
carries on a fmall trade in fifli and lumber. In 1796 it 
was divided into two towns; the one retaining the name 
of Penobfcot, containing 1302 inhabitants, and the other 
named Castine, which fee, vol. iii. 
PEN'OL (El), a caftle of Fez, near Velez: taken by 
the Spaniards in 1513. 
PENOMA'ZIN, a town of Siam: fixty miles fouth of 
Tenaflerim. 
PEN'ON (El), a town of South America in the pro¬ 
vince of Carthagena: thirty-fix miles fouth ofMompox. 
PENO'WAL, a town of Hindooftan, in the circar of 
Oudeypour: twenty miles fouth-eaft of Cheitore. 
PENRHYN', a feaport of North Wales, in the county 
of Caernarvon, on the Menai, from whence great quan¬ 
tities 
