PET 
ation on the river Pedred, now written Parret. It was 
formerly in the pofleffion of the Saxon kings, and of fuch 
confequence, that it never was afl'efled to the Danegeld, 
nor rated to any other fubfidy. The parifh is extenfive, 
and contains feveral hamlets. The church is dedicated 
to St. Mary, and is a large handfome drubture, confiding 
of a nave, chancel, and fide-aifles. At the wed end is an 
embattled tower, richly embelliffied with fculpture, and 
open ornaments towards the fummit. The pinnacles 
are particularly light and elegant. The market is on 
Saturday, and there was formerly a large market-place 
for corn. Here is one annual fair. By the cenfus of 
1S01, the number of inhabitants was 2346; by that of 
1811, the number of houfes was 546, and of the inhabit¬ 
ants 2615. 
Within the parifli are feveral places, of little note now, 
but which at former periods have been the refidence of 
great and eminent families. Manfel, or Maunfel, is the 
leaf of John Slade, efq. the pofleflbr of the manor and hun¬ 
dred of North Petherton. This edate had been the in¬ 
heritance of the family of the Maunfels for many gene¬ 
rations. 
PETH'ERTON (South), a town in the hundred of 
South Petherton, Somerfetfhire, 137 miles from London, 
fix from Ilminder, and (according to Wilkes’s Briti/h Di¬ 
rectory) above twelve miles fouth-ead from North Pether¬ 
ton. It is the fird confiderable parifh which the river 
Parret traverfes in its way to the fea. It pafies here un¬ 
der a done bridge of three arches, a mile fouthward of the 
parifh-church, at the interfedion of the Roman fofle- 
road, coming from Ilcheder. The bridge was formerly of 
wood, which having become ruinous, two children were 
drowned in the river near it; the parents of the children 
rebuilt it of done, and caufed their infant effigies to be 
placed thereon, to commemorate the circumdance. In a 
field near this bridge a large quantity of Roman coins, to 
the amount of fix pecks, was dug up about the year 17203 
and near Jailer’s-mill, in the tithing of Southarp, a little 
below the furface of the ground, are the remains of Ro¬ 
man buildings, which the common people, from the 
name, fuppole to be the foundation of an old prifon. In 
this fpot, alfo, coins, fragments of urns, paterae, and 
pieces of terras, have been difcovered. It is undifputed 
thaLSouth Petherton and its vicinity were known to, and 
occupied by, the Roman people, as it lies fo near to one 
of their principal roads, and as their reliques have here 
been fo frequently difcovered. At Watergore, a fmall 
hamlet fouthward of the town, a Roman pavement was 
difcovered in 1673 ; and Wigborough, not far didant, is 
fuppofed to have been a Roman town, not only from its 
name, but from the extenfive foundations of buildings 
which have been traced there. 
When that people relinquifhed this country, South 
Petherton became the pofleffion and feat of the Saxon 
kings of Weffex. King Ina had a palace here, which was 
long ago dedroyed ; there is, however, an old houfe near 
the church, with ancient windows, and armorial ffiields, 
which bear that prince’s name, but it is unquedionably 
the erection of more modern times. King Atheldan is 
reported to have occupied this place, which was thought 
an objeft of importance by all his fucceflors, till after the 
Norman conqued. The parifh-church dands on a little 
eminence near the centre of the town, and is dedicated 
to St. Peter and St. Paul. It is a large drudure, built in 
the form of a crofs ; having two fide-aides, and a north 
and fouth tranfept, with an oftangular tower at their in- 
terfedion, crowned with a fpire. Behind the altar is a 
vedry-room, which was formerly a ccnfeffional; many 
of the monuments, with the organ, were fpoiled in the 
civil wars. The parifh is divided into four tithings. A 
market is held here on Thurfday, and there was formerly 
a large market-hall and crofs, both which, with feveral 
houles, were dedroyed in the lad century. The annual 
fair is on the 5th of July, for bullocks, lambs, fiieep, and 
Vol. XIX. No. 1344. 
PET 795 
wool. A confiderable manufadure of dowlas is carried 
on here. By the cenfus of 1801, the number of inhabit¬ 
ants was 1674; in 1811, the parifh contained 352 houfes, 
and a population of 1867 inhabitants. 
Crewkherne, five miles didant, is theneared pod-town; 
and Bridport, eighteen miles, the neared fea-port.—The 
village or hamlet of Watergore is adjoining to South 
Petherton; Over Straton, jud at the town’s end ; Lower 
Straton, one mile didant; Lopen, two miles ; Hinton Sr. 
George, where earl Powlet has a feat, three; Dillington- 
houfe, feat of the earl of Guilford, four.—Norton under 
Hambden-hill, two miles from Petherton, and three from 
Crewkherne, is a royalty of 133!. a-year, and has large 
quarries of free-done, (as good for ufe as Purbeck done,) 
as well as of tile-done, See. Collinfou's Ilijl. Somerfetjhire, 
vol. iii. Wilkes's Briti/h Director!/, vol. iv. England's 
Gazetteer. 
PE'THOR, in feripture-geography, the native place of 
Balaam, fituated in Mefopotamia, about the ead bank of 
the Euphrates, and not far from Thapfacus. Num. xxii. 5. 
PETIC'ULiE, f. The fame as petechia?, purple fpots ap¬ 
pearing on the Jleffi in malignant fevers. 
PETIGLIA'NO, a town of Etruria: fifty miles fouth- 
ead of Sienna, and twenty-feven north-ead of Orbitello. 
PETIL'IA, in ancient geography, now Strongoli, a 
town of Magna Grascia, the capital of Lucania, built or 
perhaps only repaired by Philottetes, who, after his re¬ 
turn from the Trojan war, left his country Melibcea, 
becaufe his fubjeffs had revolted. See Strongoli. 
PETIL'IUM, f. in botany, a name given by Linnaeus, 
in the fird edition of his Genera Plantarum, to the crown 
imperial, which he at that time confidered as a didindt 
genus from Fritillaria ; fee that article. 
PETIMBUA'BA, f. in ichthyology. See Fistula 
tabacaria, vol. vii. 
PE'TIN, a fmall ifland in the Eadern Indian Sea. Lat. 
2. 20. S. Ion. 99. 27. E. 
PETI'NA (La), a town of Naples, in Principato Citra : 
fix miles fouth-wed of Cagiano. 
PE'TIOLE, f. in botany, the footdalk, or leafdalk ; 
the dalk fupporting a leaf. 
PE'TIOL'JLE, f. A partial petiole, connecting the 
leaflet of a compound leaf with the main petiole. Turton. 
PE'TIS DE LA CROI'X (Francis), a learned French 
orientalid, born in 1654, was the foil of the king’s inter¬ 
preter for the oriental languages, and received an educa¬ 
tion to qualify him for the fame employment. At the 
early age of fixteen, he was fent by the minider Colbert 
to refide in the Ead. He pafled feveral years at Aleppo, 
vifited Ifpahan and Condantinople, and employed himfelf 
in the molt diligent dudy of oriental literature. He re¬ 
turned to Paris in 1680, and in two years afterwards he 
was fent to Morocco, as fecretary under M. de Saint- 
Amand, to Muley Iffimael, king of that country. He 
pronounced before that fovereign the ambaflador’s ha¬ 
rangue in Arabic, with an elegance and purity which 
excited the admiration of the whole court. In the two 
following years he accompanied the French armament 
againd Algiers, in quality of fecretary-interpreter of the 
marine, and was employed to tranflate into the Turkifh 
language the treaty of peace in 1684. He performed the 
fame office with refpedi to the negociations with Tunis 
and Tripoli. When the latter power was engaged to pay 
the king of France the fum of 600,000 livres, by way of 
reimburfement, a confiderable bribe was od’ered to Petis 
de la Croix, to put in the treaty crowns of Tripoli inltead 
of French crowns, which would have made the difference 
of 100,000 livres; but his fidelity to his fovereign was 
incorruptible. In 1687 he was employed at Morocco 
under the duke de Mortemar: and, in fliort, it was 
through his intervention that all the affairs between the 
French minidry and the eadern courts were tranfaiffed, 
from the year 1680 to the time of his death. Ir. 1692 he 
was appointed to the profefl'orlhip of Arabic in the college 
9 R royal, 
