a town of Hertfordshire in England, 5 miles from St Albans and Dunstable, stands on the river Verlamb, and was of old called Verlamsted. The land hereabouts is a clay so thickly mixed with flints, that, after a shower, nothing appears but a heap of stones; and yet it bears very good corn even in dry summers. This fertility is imputed to a warmth in the flint, which preserves it from cold in the winter; and to its clovenets, which keeps it from the scorching rays of the sun in the summer. Edward VI., when an infant, was brought hither for his health; and, it is said, the bedstead he lay on, which is curiously wrought, is still preserved in the manor house just by.

(John), an eminent English astronomer in the 17th century, born at Derby in 1646. He had early read a great deal of civil and ecclesiastical history; but happening to see John de Sacrobosco's book de Sphaera, this gave him a turn for astronomy, which study he afterwards prosecuted with great vigour. His father, finding him in correspondence with several learned men, advised him to go to London, that he might be personally acquainted with them. In 1674, he wrote an ephemeris, in which he showed the fallacy of altrurogy; and gave a table of the moon's rising and setting, carefully calculated, together with the eclipses and appulses of the moon and planets to fixed stars. This fell into the hands of Sir Jonas More; for whom, at his request, he made a table of the moon's true sowings. In 1674, Sir Jonas having informed him, that a true account of the tides would be highly acceptable to his majesty, he composed a small ephemeris for the king's use; and when Sir Jonas showed the king and duke of York our author's telescopes and micrometer, and recommended him strongly, he procured him a warrant to be king's astronomer, with the salary of £100 per annum; on which occasion he was ordained. In 1675, the foundation of the royal observatory at Greenwich was laid, and during the building he lodged at Greenwich; his quadrant and telescopes being kept in the queen's house there. His Doctrine of the Sphere was published in 1681, in a posthumous work of Sir Jonas More, intitled, A new System of the Mathematicks. In 1684, he was presented to the living of Burttow in Surry, which he enjoyed till he died in 1719. His Historia celestis Britannica was published at London in 1725, in 3 vols. Mr Flamsteed likewise composed the British Catalogue of Flanders, the fixed stars, which contains twice the number that are in the catalogue of Hevelius; to each of which he annexed its longitude, latitude, right ascension, and distance from the pole, together with the variation of right ascension and declination, while the longitude increases a degree. This catalogue, together with most of his observations, were printed on a fine paper and character, at the expense of the late prince George of Denmark.