P L O 
P L O 
fame name, with a confiderable additional territory. Its 
climate, furface, and prod lifts, differ i/i no refpeft from 
thofe of the north of Poland in general; as it confifts of 
a large plain, with a fertile foil, but is ill cultivated, and 
thinly inhabited. Its chief rivers are the Vittula and the 
Narew. 
PLOCK, or Plotzk, a town of Poland, and the chief 
place;of the preceding palatinate. It is agreeably fitua- 
ted on the Viftula; in the midft of orchards, and is a 
biftiop’s fee. It has alfo a college of Piarifts, and 3000 
inhabitants. Fifty-five miles weft-north-weft of Warfaw. 
PLOCK'EN-AL'BEN, a mountain of Carinthia; fix 
miles fouth-eaft of Mauten. 
To PLOD, v. n. [ploeg/ien, Dutch.] To toil; to moil; 
to drudge; to travel.'—A plodding • diligence brings 11s 
fooner to our journey’s end, than a fluttering way of ad¬ 
vancing by ftarts. L’EJlrange. — He knows better than 
any man what is not to be written ; and never hazards 
himfelf fo far as to fall, but plods on deliberately, and, as 
a grave man ought, puts his ftaff before him. Dryden's 
State of Innocence, 
The unlettered Chriftian, who believes in grofs, 
Plods on to heaven, and ne’er is at a lofs. Dryden. 
To travel laborioufly.— Rogues, plod away o’the hoof, 
feek flielter, pack. Shakefpeare. 
Haft thou not held my ftirrup ? 
Bare-headed plodded by my foot-cloth mule, 
And thought thee happy when I (hook my head ? Shahefp. 
Ambitious love hath fo in me offended, 
That bare-foot plod I the cold ground upon, 
With fainted vow my faults to have amended. Shakefp. 
To ftudy clofely and dully : 
She reafon’d without plodding long. 
Nor ever gave her judgement wrong. Swift's Mifcell. 
PLOD'DERjy. A dull, heavy,laborious, man. 
Study is like the heaven’s glorious fun, 
That will not be deep fearch’d with fancy looks; 
What have contin ual plodders ever won, 
Save bafe authority from other’s books ? Shakefpeare. 
PLOD'DING,/. The aft of ftudying clofely and dully. 
We can print here old John Buridane’s ploddings upon 
the ethicks ; but matters that entrench nearer upon true 
divinity, muft be more ftriftly overfeen. Prideaux to 
Alp. Ujhcr. 
Univerfal plodding prifons up 
The nimble fpirits in the arteries ; 
As motion and long-during aftion tires 
The finewy vigour of the traveller. Shakefpeare. 
PLOE'MUR, a town of France, in the department of 
theMorbihan: two miles weft of L’Orient. 
PLO'EN, a town of Denmark, in Kolftein, fituated be¬ 
tween a large and a fmall lake. It has about 2000 inha¬ 
bitants, with an elegant palace, which was formerly the 
refidence of the dukes of Holftein-Ploen, a branch of the 
royal family of Denmark, now extinft. Eighteen miles 
fouth-fouth-eaft of Kiel, and twenty-two miles north by 
weft of Lubeck. 
PLO'ERMEL,a town of France, department of the Mor- 
bihan, fituated on the fmall river Due, near its junftion 
with the Oufte. It contains, including its parifti, 4500 
inhabitants, who manufafture coarfe woollens, and carry 
on a traffic in the produftions of the furrounding coun¬ 
try. Thirty-four miles weft by fouth of Rennes. 
PLOES'TI, a town of Walachia: 200 miles eaft of 
Belgrade. 
PLOE'UC, a town of France, department of the Cotes- 
du-Nord, with 1100 inhabitants, who manufafture the 
well known linen of Quintin, and carry on a traffic in 
yarn. Twelve miles north of Loudeac. 
PLOFEL'DEN, or BLAUFEi.D,a town of Germany, in 
Wirtemberg : feventeen miles fouth-fouth-eaft of Mergen- 
theim. Population 900. 
695 
PLOGAS'TEL, a village of France, department of 
Finifterre, wii’li 800 inhabitants, remarkable for little but 
a fpring which ebbs and flows. Thirty-four miles fouth 
of Breft. 
PLOK-PEN'IN, f. A term ufed in the public fales 
at Amfterdam for a little fum given by the laft bidder. 
The ploh-penin, is a kind of earned, by which it is fig- 
nified, that the commodity is adjudged to him. The 
plok-penin differs according to the quality of the commo¬ 
dity, and the price of the lot. Sometimes it is arbitrary, 
and depends on the pleafure of the buyer; and, fome- 
times, it is regulated by the ordinances of the burgomaf- 
ters. 
PLOMBIE / RES, a town of France, in the department 
of the Vofges, fituated between two fteep mountains on 
the river Augrogne. Population 1000. Fourteen miles 
fouth of Epinal. 
PLOMBIE'RF.S, a town of France, near the river 
Ouche. Population 1100. Four miles north-eaft of Dijon. 
PLOM'NITZ, a town of Silefia, in the county of 
Glatz.: two miles north-weft of Habelfchwerdt. 
PLONCOU'R, a town of France, in the department 
of the Finifterre: eight miles fouth-weft of Quimper. 
PLONE, a fmall river of Pruffia, in Pomerania, which 
falls into the lake of Damm near Damrn. 
PLO'NEVEZ DE FAOU', a town of France, in the 
department of the Finifterre : eight miles weft of Carhaix. 
PLONSK, a town of Poland : thirty-five miles north- 
north-weft of Warfaw. Population 1500. 
PLO'RABUND, aclj. [from the Lat. plorabundus .] 
Making great lamentations. 
PLOSA'WO, a town of Poland, in the palatinate of 
Belcz : twenty-eight miles weft-fouth-weft of Belcz. 
PLOSS, a town of Germany, in the principality of 
Culmbach : fix miles north-weft of Bayreuth. 
PLOT (Robert, LL.D.), a natural philofopher and 
antiquary, was born in 1641, of a good family at 
Borden, near Sittingbourn, in Kent. He was educated 
at Magdaien-hall, Oxford, where he took the degree of 
doftor of laws in 1671. Having diftinguiftied himfelf 
as an ingenious enquirer into philofophical fubjefts, he 
was made a fellow of the newly-conftituted Royal So¬ 
ciety, of which, in 1682, he was elefted one of the fecre- 
taries. In 1683 he was appointed by Aftintole the firft 
keeper of his Mufeum at Oxford, and at the fame time 
was made profeffor of chemiftry in the univerfity. His 
fubfequent offices feem to (how that antiquities were the 
leading purfuits of his later years ; for in 1687 he was 
made regifter to the revived earl-marftial’s court; and in 
1695 was nominated Movvbray-herald - extraordinary. 
He died of the ftone in the following year, at his houfe 
in his native parifh. 
Dr. Plot is principally known by his two county natu- 
ral-hiftories, which were the firft of the kind publifhed 
in England, and were exemplifications of a great plan 
which he had formed for a natural hiftory of the whole 
kingdom. The “ Natural Hiftory of Oxfordfhire” was 
publiffied firft in 1677, fol. and again with additions and 
correftions, by Mr. Burman, in 1705. That “ Of Staf- 
fordfhire” was firft publiffied in 1679. fol. and reprinted 
in 1686. It was decorated with views of the feats of the 
nobility and gentry. In thefe works the author takes a 
wide compafs, including not only all that properly be¬ 
longs to natural hiftory, but what relates to arts, man¬ 
ners, antiquities, and all other memorabilia. The per¬ 
formance, due allowance being made for the ftate of fci- 
ence at the time, is very refpeftable, though the author 
occafionally difplays credulity in his admiflion of fabu¬ 
lous narrations. As lecretary to the Royal Society, he 
condufted the publication of its Tranfaftions from N° 
143 to N° 166 inclufive ; and he communicated to it forne 
papers of his own, on chemical and philofophical fub¬ 
jefts, After his death, two letters of his were publiffied 
relative to antiquities in Kent and at Thetford. He left 
a number of manuferipts, among which were large col- 
kftions for a natural hiftory of Kent. Biog. Brit. 
PLOT, 
