Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/339

 FLINT 327 In 1873 the county was divided between 3510 owners, of whom 2048, or 58 per cent., possessed Jess than one acre, or much the same proportion as Denbighshire (see vol. vii. p. 77). The average size of properties was 40 acres, the average value per acre &amp;lt;2, 13s. 8|d. More than one- third of the county is owned by 13 proprietors, viz., Lord Haumer (Hanmer Hall), 7318 acres; Captain Convvy (Rhyl), 5526 ; Mostyn Trustees, 5460 ; Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, 6908; Sir Piers Mostyn (Talacre), 4186; Sir Hugh Williams (Bodelwyddan), 4011 ; Lord Kenyon (Gredingtou), 4004 ; River Dee Company, 3679 ; Duke of Westminster (Halkin Castle), 3338 ; P. B. D. Cooke (Gwysaney), 3204; Earl of Denbigh (Downing), 2938; Edmund Peel (Overtoil), 2897 ; W. R. Hughes (St Asaph), 2119. The county petty sessional divisions arc Mold; Northop ; Hawarden and Broughton ; Caergwyrle ; Holy- Avell ; Caerwys ; Rhyl, Prestatyn, and St Asaph ; and Hanmer. Flint borough has its separate commission of the peace, the borough magistrates holding their petty sessions at the town-hall for the borough district. The whole county constitutes one lieutenancy, and there are no highway districts. The principal towns are Flint, Mold, St Asaph, Rhyl, Holy well. Flint (said to be derived from a corruption of the docu mentary term &quot; Gas tell urn apud Fluentum&quot; into &quot; Apud le Flynt&quot;) is the capital and sole corporate town of the county, a seaport and contributory borough, 173 miles from London, on the south of the Dee estuary, between the sea and the hills inland. It has some good houses, and has recovered its decadence of twenty years ago since the establishment of vast chemical works, which make it the seat of great alkali manufactures, by Messrs Muspratt Brothers, Huntley, and others. Its chief imports are sulphur and other chemicals ; its exports coal, soda, potash, copper, and various chemical products. The church is not remarkable ; but there are good parochial schools and several nonconformist chapels. The footways of the town are flagged, and there are other street improvements. Until five years ago the county jail occupied (as at Haverford- west) an angle of the Edwardian Castle on the edge of the estuary ; it was then removed to Mold where, however, the new and costly jail has been closed by the New Prisons Act, and Flintshire prisoners are now sent to Chester Castle. The old Flint jail has been bought by the Messrs Muspratt, and turned to good use as a &quot; working men s club.&quot; It was in Flint Castle that Percy betrayed Richard II. to Bolingbroke in 1399. In 1643 it surrendered to the llounclheads, and four years later was dismantled. Its constable is still appointed by the crown, with duties limited since the Municipal Corporations Reforms Act to the care of the ruins, a square court with towers at the angles abutting the sea, and a massive round tower with a draw bridge. Flint was made a borough by Edward I., and chartered by Edward III. and Edward the Black Prince, as earl of Chester. Since the Reform Act it is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors. It is the nomination place for the group of contributory boroughs, viz., Flint, Caergwyrle, Caerwys, Overton, Rhuddlan, which with St Asaph, Holywcll, and Rhyl returns one member of parliament. In 1871 the population of Flint was 4269, as against 3296 in 1851. Mold is a well-built town on the Alyn, in the south-east of Flintshire, the centre of a great coal and lead district, a terminus of the Chester and Holyhead branch railway, the assize town of the county, and the great locale of county business. Its restored church of the early 16th century is one of the finest in the diocese ; and the Bailey Hill is the site of an ancient fortress stormed in 1144 and in 1322. The population of Mold is 12,237 by the last census. St Asaph, one of the four Welsh sees, and a cathedral town, lies near the confluence of the Elwy and Clwyd. Founded originally by Kentigern, bishop of Glasgow, and named after his successor Asa, or Asaph, it still possesses, outlasting the buffets and vicissitudes of ages, its plain yet massive cruciform church. The population, in 1871 of that part of the town which is situated in the county of Flint was 2806. At the same census the winter population of the flour ishing watering-place of Ithyl is given as 4229 ; but its summer average is from 10,000 to 12,000, railway and water facilities bidding fair to eclipse the ancient neigh bouring borough of Jihuddlan, which was once of such importance that Edward I. held his parliament in it, and the Statutes of Rhuddlan were passed there. Population of Rhuddlan, 5525. Holywell depends for its prosperity on its lead mines and lime-works, its copper, brass, and zinc, and its lead smelting. At the last census its population was 9980. It has a railway station on the Chester and Holyhead line, two miles from the town, and within a hundred yards of the Cistercian abbey of Basingwerk. Closer still is St Wini fred s well, the exquisite late Perpendicular chapel above which has been restored. Other places of antiquarian in terest are Caerwys, on the Mold and Denbigh railway with its streets at right angles and other indications of Roman occupation; Hope, or Hope Estyn, near Caergwyrle; and Overton, in the detached part of Flint. Bodfary re tains the tradition of Roman occupation. There is a for tified British post at Moel-y-Gaer, near Northop, and a road way at Halkin, near Whitford. The history and antiquities of Flintshire are of some im portance. Maes-y-Garmon, a mile from Mold, is the scene of the bloodless victory of the Britons under Germanus and Lupus over the Picts and Scots in 430 A.D., remembered as the &quot;Alleluia victory.&quot; Bangor Iscoed, &quot;the great high choir in Maelor,&quot; preserves the site of the monastery sud denly and totally destroyed with more than 2000 monks by Ethelfred of Northumberland in 607. Watt s Dyke and Offa sDyke supposed to have run, the former from the coast near Basingwerk, past Halkin, Hope, and the Alyn gorge, towards Oswestry, and the latter from Prestatyn southward towards Mold, Minera, and across the Severn over the Long Mountain perpetuate the names, one of a local hero, the other of a great Mercian ruler. At Cynsyllt, or Coleshill, ia the scene of a second defeat of Henry II. by Owain Gwynedd about a mile from Flint, the first having been at Coed Ewloe, where a lone tower remains to recall the tale. Tumuli, maenhirs, and inscribed stones are frequent in Flintshire, the most remarkable of the last being the &quot; Maen Achwynfan&quot; of the 9th to 12th century near Pantasa, and the 14th-century cross in Newmarket church yard. Most of the Flint castles are Edwardian, that at Caergwyrle bespeaking an earlier Roman and even British occupation. Flintshire is well provided with public elementary schools, viz., 68 voluntary and 4 board schools, and Church of England Sunday-schools. It belongs to the diocese of St Asaph. On the history of the county may be consulted ArctiKologia, Cambrcnsis, 3d series, vol. iii. ; Thomas, Histonj of the Diocese of St Asaph, 1874; Pennant s Tour in Wales; Nicholas, Annals of Welsh Counties and County Families ; Notes on the History of the. County Town of Flint, by Henry Taylor, town-clerk of Flint, 1875 ; Murray s Handbook of X. Wales, 1874. (J. DA.) FLINT, TIMOTHY (1780-1840), an American clergyman and writer, was born in Reading, Massachusetts, July 1 1 , 1780. He graduated at Harvard College in the close of 1800. Settled as a Congregational minister in Luneuburg, Massachusetts, he pursued scientific studies with interest ; and his labours in his laboratory seemed so strange to the people of that retired region, that some persons supposed