FLAMBOROUGH HEAD, a cape or promontory on the eastern coast of Yorkshire, five miles east of Burlington, and 215 from London. This was the Fleamburg of the Saxons, having, it is supposed, been so called from the lights made on it to direct the landing of Ina, who, in 547, joined his countrymen in these parts with a large reinforcement from Germany, and founded the kingdom of Northumberland. In the time of Edward the Confessor, Flam-
borough was one of the manors of Harold, earl of the West Saxons, afterwards king of England; but on his death the conqueror gave it to Hugh Lupus, who bestowed it on the monastery of Whitby. The town is situated on the north side, and consists of about 150 small houses, entirely inhabited by fishermen, few of whom, as is said, die in their beds, but meet their fate in the element with which they are so conversant. The cliffs of the Head are of a tremendous height and amazing grandeur. Beneath are several vast caverns; some closed at the end, others pervious, and all formed with a natural arch. In some places the rocks are insulated, and of a pyramidal figure, soaring up to a vast height. The bases of most are solid, but in some instances they are pierced through and arched. The colour of all these rocks is white, from the dung of the innumerable flocks of migratory birds, which quite cover the face of them. Long. 20. E. Lat. 54. 15. N.
FLAME is a general name for every kind of luminous vapour, provided the light it emits has any considerable degree of intensity. Flame, however, is most generally applied to such as are of a conical figure, like those arising from our common fires; the others are commonly called luminous vapours, or simple lights. See HEAT.
Flames are of different colours, according to the substances from which they are produced. Thus, the flame of sulphur and spirit of wine is blue; the flame of nitre and zinc, of a bright white; that of copper, of a greenish blue, and so on. These varieties afford an opportunity of making a number of agreeable representations in fireworks, which could not be accomplished if the flame produced from every different substance was of the same colour. See PYROTECHNICS.