VOLUME X, SLICE VII

Fox, George to France

ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE:

FOX, GEORGE FRAGONARD, JEAN-HONORÉ FOX, RICHARD FRAHN, CHRISTIAN MARTIN FOX, RORERT WERE FRAME FOX, SIR STEPHEN FRAMINGHAM FOX, SIR WILLIAM FRAMLINGHAM FOX FRANC FOXE, JOHN FRANÇAIS, ANTOINE FOXGLOVE FRANÇAIS, FRANÇOIS LOUIS FOX INDIANS FRANCATELLI, CHARLES ELMÉ FOX MORCILLO, SEBASTIAN FRANCAVILLA FONTANA FOY, MAXIMILIEN SÉBASTIEN FRANCE, ANATOLE FRAAS, KARL NIKOLAS FRANCE (part) FRACASTORO, GIROLAMO

FOX, GEORGE (1624-1691), the founder of the "Society of Friends" or "Quakers," was born at Drayton, Leicestershire, in July 1624. His father, Christopher Fox, called by the neighbours "Righteous Christer," was a weaver by occupation; and his mother, Mary Lago, "an upright woman and accomplished above most of her degree," was "of the stock of the martyrs." George from his childhood "appeared of another frame than the rest of his brethren, being more religious, inward, still, solid and observing beyond his years"; and he himself declares: "When I came to eleven years of age I knew pureness and righteousness; for while a child I was taught how to walk to be kept pure." Some of his relations wished that he should be educated for the ministry; but his father apprenticed him to a shoemaker, who also dealt in wool and cattle. In this service he remained till his nineteenth year. According to Penn, "he took most delight in sheep," but he himself simply says: "A good deal went through my hands.... People had generally a love to me for my innocency and honesty." In 1643, being upon business at a fair, and having accompanied some friends to the village public-house, he was troubled by a proposal to "drink healths," and withdrew in grief of spirit. "When I had done what business I had to do I returned home, but did not go to bed that night, nor could I sleep, but sometimes walked up and down, and sometimes prayed and cried to the Lord, who said unto me, 'Thou seest how young people go together into vanity and old people into the earth; thou must forsake all, both young and old, and keep out of all, and be a stranger unto all.' Then, at the command of God, on the ninth day of the seventh month, 1643, I left my relations and broke off all familiarity or fellowship with old or young."

Thus briefly he describes what appears to have been the greatest moral crisis in his life. The four years which followed were a time of great perplexity and distress, though sometimes "I had intermissions, and was sometimes brought into such a heavenly joy that I thought I had been in Abraham's bosom." He would go from town to town, "travelling up and down as a stranger in the earth, which way the Lord inclined my heart; taking a chamber to myself in the town where I came, and tarrying sometimes a month, more or less, in a place"; and the reason he gives for this migratory habit is that he was "afraid both of professor and profane, lest, being a tender young man, he should be hurt by conversing much with either." The same fear often led him to shun all society for days at a time; but frequently he would apply to "professors" for spiritual direction and consolation. These applications, however, never proved successful; he invariably found that his advisers "possessed not what they professed." Some recommended marriage, others enlistment as a soldier in the civil wars; one "ancient priest" bade him take tobacco and sing psalms; another of the same fraternity, "in high account," advised physic and blood-letting.

About the beginning of 1646 his thoughts began to take more definite shape. One day, approaching Coventry, "the Lord opened to him" that none were true believers but such as were born of God and had passed from death unto life; and this was soon followed by other "openings" to the effect that "being bred at Oxford or Cambridge was not enough to fit and qualify men to be ministers of Christ," and that "God who made the world did not dwell in temples made with hands." He also experienced deeper manifestations of Christ within his own soul. "When I myself was in the deep, shut up under all [the burden of corruptions], I could not believe that I should ever overcome; my troubles, my sorrows and my temptations were so great that I thought many times I should have despaired, I was so tempted. But when Christ opened to me how He was tempted by the same devil, and overcame him and bruised his head, and that through Him, and His power, light, grace and spirit, I should overcome also, I had confidence in Him; so He it was that opened to me, when I was shut up and had no hope nor faith. Christ, who had enlightened me, gave me His light to believe in; He gave me hope which He himself revealed in me; and He gave me His spirit and grace, which I found sufficient in the deeps and in weakness." In 1647 he records that at a time when all outward help had failed "I heard a voice which said, 'There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition.' And when I heard it my heart did leap for joy." In the same year he first openly declared his message in the neighbourhood of Dukinfield and Manchester (see FRIENDS, SOCIETY OF).

In 1649, as he was walking towards Nottingham, he heard the bell of the "steeple house" of the city, and was admonished by an inward voice to go forward and cry against the great idol and the worshippers in it. Entering the church he found the preacher engaged in expounding the words, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy," from which the ordinary Protestant doctrine of the supreme authority of Scripture was being enforced in a manner which appeared to Fox so defective or erroneous as to call for his immediate and most energetic protest. Lifting up his voice against the preacher's doctrine, he declared that it is not by the Scripture alone, but by the divine light by which the Scriptures were given, that doctrines ought to be judged. He was carried off to prison, where he was detained for some time, and from which he was released only by the favour of the sheriff, whose sympathies he had succeeded in enlisting. In 1650 he was imprisoned for about a year at Derby on a charge of blasphemy. On his release, overwrought and weakened by six months spent "in the common gaol and dungeon," he performed what was almost the only and certainly the most pronounced act of his life which had the appearance of wild fanaticism. Through the streets of Lichfield, on market day, he walked barefoot, crying, "Woe to the bloody city of Lichfield." His own explanation of the act, connecting it with the martyrdom of a thousand Christians in the time of Diocletian, is not convincing. His proceeding was probably due to a horror of the city arising from a subconscious memory of what he must have heard in childhood from his mother ("of the stock of the martyrs") concerning a martyr, a woman, burnt in the reign of Mary at Lichfield, who had been taken thither from Mancetter, a village two miles from his home in which he had worked as a journeyman shoemaker (see _The Martyrs Glover and Lewis of Mancetter_, by the Rev. B. Richings). He must also have heard of the burning of Edward Wightman in the same city in 1612, the last person burned for heresy in England.

It would be here out of place to follow with any minuteness the details of his subsequent imprisonments, such as that at Carlisle in 1653; London 1654; Launceston 1656; Lancaster 1660, and again in 1663, whence he was taken to Scarborough in 1665; and Worcester 1673. During these terms of imprisonment his pen was not idle, as is amply shown by the very numerous letters, pastorals and exhortations which have been preserved; while during his intervals of liberty he was unwearied in the work of "declaring truth" in all parts of the country. In 1669 he married Margaret, widow of Judge Fell, of Swarthmoor, near Ulverston, who, with her family, had been among his earliest converts. In 1671 he visited Barbados, Jamaica, and the American continent, and shortly after his return in 1673 he was, as has been already noted, apprehended in Worcestershire for attending meetings that were forbidden by the law. At Worcester he suffered a captivity of nearly fourteen months. In 1677 he visited Holland along with Barclay, Penn and seven others; and this visit he repeated (with five others) in 1684. The later years of his life were spent mostly in London, where he continued to speak in public, comparatively unmolested, until within a few days of his death, which took place on the 13th of January 1691 (1690 O.S.).

William Penn has left on record an account of Fox from personal knowledge--a _Brief Account of the Rise and Progress of the People called Quakers_, written as a preface to Fox's _Journal_. Although a man of large size and great bodily strength, he was "very temperate, eating little and sleeping less." He was a man of strong personality, of measured utterance, "civil" (says Penn) "beyond all forms of breeding." From his _Journal_ we gather that he had piercing eyes and a very loud voice, and wore good clothes. Unlike the Roundheads, he wore his hair long. Even before his marriage with Margaret Fell he seems to have been fairly well off; he does not appear to have worked for a living after he was nineteen, and yet he had a horse, and speaks of having money to give to those who were in need. He had much practical common-sense, and keen sympathy for all who were in distress and for animals. The mere fact that he was able to attract to himself so considerable a body of respectable followers, including such men as Ellwood, Barclay, Penington and Penn, is sufficient to prove that he possessed in a very eminent degree the power of conviction, persuasion, and moral ascendancy; while of his personal uprightness, single-mindedness and sincerity there can be no question.

The writings of Fox are enumerated in Joseph Smith's _Catalogue of Friends' Books_. The _Journal_ is especially interesting; of it Sir James Mackintosh has said that "it is one of the most extraordinary and instructive narratives in the world, which no reader of competent judgment can peruse without revering the virtue of the writer." The _Journal_ was originally published in London in 1694; the edition known as the Bicentenary Edition, with notes biographical and historical (reprint of 1901 or later), will be found the most useful in practice. An exact transcript of the _Journal_ has been issued by the Cambridge University Press. A _Life of George Fox_, by Dr Thomas Hodgkin; _The Fells of Swarthmoor Hall_, by Maria Webb; and _The Life and Character of George Fox_, by John Stephenson Rowntree, are valuable. For a mention of other works, and for details of the principles and history of the Society of Friends, together with some further information about Fox, see the article FRIENDS, SOCIETY OF. (A. N. B.)

FOX, RICHARD (c. 1448-1528), successively bishop of Exeter, Bath and Wells, Durham, and Winchester, lord privy seal, and founder of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, was born about 1448 at Ropesley near Grantham, Lincolnshire. His parents belonged to the yeoman class, and there is some obscurity about Fox's early career. It is not known at what school he was educated, nor at what college, though the presumption is in favour of Magdalen, Oxford, whence he drew so many members of his subsequent foundation, Corpus Christi. He also appears to have studied at Cambridge, but nothing definite is known of the first thirty-five years of his career. In 1484 he was in Paris, whether merely for the sake of learning or because he had rendered himself obnoxious to Richard III. is a matter of speculation. At any rate he was brought into contact with the earl of Richmond, who was then beginning his quest for the English throne, and was taken into his service. In January 1485 Richard intervened to prevent Fox's appointment to the vicarage of Stepney on the ground that he was keeping company with the "great rebel, Henry ap Tuddor."

The important offices conferred on Fox immediately after the battle of Bosworth imply that he had already seen more extensive political service than can be traced in records. Doubtless Henry VII. had every reason to reward his companions in exile, and to rule like Ferdinand of Aragon by means of lawyers and churchmen rather than trust nobles like those who had made the Wars of the Roses. But without an intimate knowledge of Fox's political experience and capacity he would hardly have made him his principal secretary, and soon afterwards lord privy seal and bishop of Exeter (1487). The ecclesiastical preferment was merely intended to provide a salary not at Henry's expense; for Fox never saw either Exeter or the diocese of Bath and Wells to which he was translated in 1492. His activity was confined to political and especially diplomatic channels; so long as Morton lived, Fox was his subordinate, but after the archbishop's death he was second to none in Henry's confidence, and he had an important share in all the diplomatic work of the reign. In 1487 he negotiated a treaty with James III. of Scotland, in 1491 he baptized the future Henry VIII., in 1492 he helped to conclude the treaty of Etaples, and in 1497 he was chief commissioner in the negotiations for the famous commercial agreement with the Netherlands which Bacon seems to have been the first to call the _Magnus Intercursus_.

Meanwhile in 1494 Fox had been translated to Durham, not merely because it was a richer see than Bath and Wells but because of its political importance as a palatine earldom and its position with regard to the Borders and relations with Scotland. For these reasons rather than from any ecclesiastical scruples Fox visited and resided in his new diocese; and he occupied Norham Castle, which he fortified and defended against a Scottish raid in Perkin Warbeck's interests (1497). But his energies were principally devoted to pacific purposes. In that same year he negotiated Perkin's retirement from the court of James IV., and in 1498-1499 he completed the negotiations for that treaty of marriage between the Scottish king and Henry's daughter Margaret which led ultimately to the union of the two crowns in 1603 and of the two kingdoms in 1707. The marriage itself did not take place until 1503, just a century before the accession of James I.

This consummated Fox's work in the north, and in 1501 he was once more translated to Winchester, then reputed the richest bishopric in England. In that year he brought to a conclusion marriage negotiations not less momentous in their ultimate results, when Prince Arthur was betrothed to Catherine of Aragon. His last diplomatic achievement in the reign of Henry VII. was the betrothal of the king's younger daughter Mary to the future emperor Charles V. In 1500 he was elected chancellor of Cambridge University, an office not confined to noble lords until a much more democratic age, and in 1507 master of Pembroke Hall in the same university. The Lady Margaret Beaufort made him one of her executors, and in this capacity as well as in that of chancellor, he had the chief share with Fisher in regulating the foundation of St John's College and the Lady Margaret professorships and readerships. His financial work brought him a less enviable notoriety, though a curious freak of history has deprived him of the credit which is his due for "Morton's fork." The invention of that ingenious dilemma for extorting contributions from poor and rich alike is ascribed as a tradition to Morton by Bacon; but the story is told in greater detail of Fox by Erasmus, who says he had it from Sir Thomas More, a well-informed contemporary authority. It is in keeping with the somewhat malicious saying about Fox reported by Tyndale that he would sacrifice his father to save his king, which after all is not so damning as Wolsey's dying words.

The accession of Henry VIII. made no immediate difference to Fox's position. If anything, the substitution of the careless pleasure-loving youth for Henry VII. increased the power of his ministry, the personnel of which remained unaltered. The Venetian ambassador calls Fox "alter rex" and the Spanish ambassador Carroz says that Henry VIII. trusted him more than any other adviser, although he also reports Henry's warning that the bishop of Winchester was, as his name implied, "a fox indeed." He was the chief of the ecclesiastical statesmen who belonged to the school of Morton, believed in frequent parliaments, and opposed the spirited foreign policy which laymen like Surrey are supposed to have advocated. His colleagues were Warham and Ruthal, but Warham and Fox differed on the question of Henry's marriage. Fox advising the completion of the match with Catherine while Warham expressed doubts as to its canonical validity. They also differed over the prerogatives of Canterbury with regard to probate and other questions of ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

Wolsey's rapid rise in 1511 put an end to Fox's influence. The pacific policy of the first two years of Henry VIII.'s reign was succeeded by an adventurous foreign policy directed mainly against France; and Fox complained that no one durst do anything in opposition to Wolsey's wishes. Gradually Warham and Fox retired from the government; the occasion of Fox's resignation of the privy seal was Wolsey's ill-advised attempt to drive Francis I. out of Milan by financing an expedition led by the emperor Maximilian in 1516. Tunstall protested, Wolsey took Warham's place as chancellor, and Fox was succeeded by Ruthal, who, said the Venetian ambassador, "sang treble to Wolsey's bass." He bore Wolsey no ill-will, and warmly congratulated him two years later when warlike adventures were abandoned at the peace of London. But in 1522 when war was again declared he emphatically refused to bear any part of the responsibility, and in 1523 he opposed in convocation the financial demands which met with a more strenuous resistance in the House of Commons.

He now devoted himself assiduously to his long-neglected episcopal duties. He expressed himself as being as anxious for the reformation of the clergy as Simeon for the coming of the Messiah; but while he welcomed Wolsey's never-realized promises, he was too old to accomplish much himself in the way of remedying the clerical and especially the monastic depravity, licence and corruption he deplored. His sight failed during the last ten years of his life, and there is no reason to doubt Matthew Parker's story that Wolsey suggested his retirement from his bishopric on a pension. Fox replied with some warmth, and Wolsey had to wait until Fox's death before he could add Winchester to his archbishopric of York and his abbey of St Albans, and thus leave Durham vacant as he hoped for the illegitimate son on whom (aged 18) he had already conferred a deanery, four archdeaconries, five prebends and a chancellorship.

The crown of Fox's career was his foundation of Corpus Christi College, which he established in 1515-1516. Originally he intended it as an Oxford house for the monks of St Swithin's, Winchester; but he is said to have been dissuaded by Bishop Oldham, who denounced the monks and foretold their fall. The scheme adopted breathed the spirit of the Renaissance; provision was made for the teaching of Greek, Erasmus lauded the institution and Pole was one of its earliest fellows. The humanist Vives was brought from Italy to teach Latin, and the reader in theology was instructed to follow the Greek and Latin Fathers rather than the scholastic commentaries. Fox also built and endowed schools at Taunton and Grantham, and was a benefactor to numerous other institutions. He died at Wolvesey on the 5th of October 1528; Corpus possesses several portraits and other relics of its founder.

See _Letters and Papers of Henry VII. and Henry VIII._, vols. i.-iv.; _Spanish and Venetian Calendars of State Papers_; Gairdner's _Lollardy and the Reformation and Church History 1485-1558_; Pollard's _Henry VIII._; Longman's Political History, vol. v.; other authorities cited in the article by Dr T. Fowler (formerly president of Corpus) in the _Dict. Nat. Biog._ (A. F. P.)

FOX, RORERT WERE (1789-1877), English geologist and natural philosopher, was born at Falmouth on the 26th of April 1789. He was a member of the Society of Friends, and was descended from members who had long settled in Cornwall, although he was not related to George Fox who had introduced the community into the county. He was distinguished for his researches on the internal temperature of the earth, being the first to prove that the heat increased definitely with the depth; his observations being conducted in Cornish mines from 1815 for a period of forty years. In 1829 he commenced a series of experiments on the artificial production of miniature metalliferous veins by means of the long-continued influence of electric currents, and his main results were published in _Observations on Mineral Veins_ (_Rep. Royal Cornwall Polytech. Soc._, 1836). He was one of the founders in 1833 of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society. He constructed in 1834 an improved form of deflector dipping needle. In 1848 he was elected F.R.S. His garden at Penjerrick near Falmouth became noted for the number of exotic plants which he had naturalized. He died on the 25th of July 1877. (See _A Catalogue of the Works of Robert Were Fox, F.R.S., with a Sketch of his Life_, by J.H. Collins, 1878.)

His daughter, CAROLINE FOX (1819-1871), born at Falmouth on the 24th of May 1819, is well known as the authoress of a diary, recording memories of many distinguished people, such as John Stuart Mill, John Sterling and Carlyle. Selections from her diary and correspondence (1835-1871) were published under the title of _Memories of Old Friends_ (ed. by H.N. Pym, 1881; 2nd ed., 1882). She died on the 12th of January 1871.

FOX, SIR STEPHEN (1627-1716), English statesman, born on the 27th of March 1627, was the son of William Fox, of Farley, in Wiltshire, a yeoman farmer. At the age of fifteen he first obtained a situation in the household of the earl of Northumberland; then he entered the service of Lord Percy, the earl's brother, and was present with the royalist army at the battle of Worcester as Lord Percy's deputy at the ordnance board. Accompanying Charles II. in his flight to the continent, he was appointed manager of the royal household, on Clarendon's recommendation as "a young man bred under the severe discipline of Lord Percy ... very well qualified with languages, and all other parts of clerkship, honesty and discretion." The skill with which he managed the exiguous finances of the exiled court earned him further confidence and promotion. He was employed on several important missions, and acted eventually as intermediary between the king and General Monk. Honours and emolument were his reward after the Restoration; he was appointed to the lucrative offices of first clerk of the board of green cloth and paymaster-general of the forces. In November 1661 he became member of parliament for Salisbury. In 1665 he was knighted, was returned as M. P. for Westminster on the 27th of February 1679, and succeeded the earl of Rochester as a commissioner of the treasury, filling that office for twenty-three years and during three reigns. In 1680 he resigned the paymastership and was made first commissioner of horse. In 1684 he became sole commissioner of horse. He was offered a peerage by James II., on condition of turning Roman Catholic, but refused, in spite of which he was allowed to retain his commissionerships. In 1685 he was again M. P. for Salisbury, and opposed the bill for a standing army supported by the king. During the Revolution he maintained an attitude of decent reserve, but on James's flight, submitted to William III., who confirmed him in his offices. He was again elected for Westminster in 1691 and 1695, for Cricklade in 1698, and finally in 1713 once more for Salisbury. He died on the 28th of October 1716. It is his distinction to have founded Chelsea hospital, and to have contributed £13,000 in aid of this laudable public work. Though his place as a statesman is in the second or even the third rank, yet he was a useful man in his generation, and a public servant who creditably discharged all the duties with which he was entrusted. Unlike other statesmen of his day, he grew rich in the service of the nation without being suspected of corruption, and without forfeiting the esteem of his contemporaries.

He was twice married (1651 and 1703); by his first wife, Elizabeth Whittle, he had seven sons, who predeceased him, and three daughters; by his second, Christian Hopes, he had two sons and two daughters. The elder son by the second marriage, Stephen (1704-1776), was created Lord Ilchester and Stavordale in 1747 and earl of Ilchester in 1756; in 1758 he took the additional name of Strangways, and his descendants, the family of Fox-Strangways, still hold the earldom of Ilchester. The younger son, Henry, became the 1st Lord Holland (q.v.).

FOX, SIR WILLIAM (1812-1893), New Zealand statesman, third son of George Townshend Fox, deputy-lieutenant for Durham county, was born in England on the 9th of June 1812, and educated at Wadham College, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1832. Called to the bar in 1842, he emigrated immediately thereafter to New Zealand, where, on the death of Captain Arthur Wakefield, killed in 1843 in the Wairau massacre, he became the New Zealand Company's agent for the South Island. While holding this position he made a memorable exploring march on foot from Nelson to Canterbury, through Cannibal Gorge, in the course of which he discovered the fertile pastoral country of Amuri. In 1848 Governor Grey made Fox attorney-general, but he gave up the post almost at once in order to join the agitation, then at its height, for a free constitution. As the political agent of the Wellington settlers he sailed to London in 1850 to urge their demands in Downing Street. The colonial office, however, refused to recognize him, and, after publishing a sketch of the New Zealand settlements, _The Six Colonies of New Zealand_, and travelling in the United States, he returned to New Zealand and again threw himself with energy into public affairs. When government by responsible ministers was at last initiated, in 1856, Fox ousted the first ministry and formed a cabinet, only to be himself beaten in turn after holding office but thirteen days. In 1861 he regained office, and was somewhat more fortunate, for he remained premier for nearly thirteen months. Again, in the latter part of 1863 he took office: this time with Sir Frederick Whitaker as premier, an arrangement which endured for another thirteen months. Fox's third premiership began in 1869 and lasted until 1872. His fourth, which was a matter of temporary convenience to his party, lasted only five weeks in March and April 1873. Soon afterwards he left politics, and, though he reappeared after some years and led the attack which overthrew Sir George Grey's ministry in 1879, he lost his seat in the dissolution which followed in that year and did not again enter parliament. He was made K.C.M.G. in 1880.

For the thirty years between 1850 and 1880 Sir William Fox was one of the half-dozen most notable public men in the colony. Impulsive and controversial, a fluent and rousing speaker, and a ready writer, his warm and sympathetic nature made him a good friend and a troublesome foe. He was considered for many years to be the most dangerous leader of the Opposition in the colony's parliament, though as premier he was at a disadvantage when measured against more patient and more astute party managers. His activities were first devoted to secure self-government for the New Zealand colonists. Afterwards his sympathies made him prominent among the champions of the Maori race, and he laboured indefatigably for their rights and to secure permanent peace with the tribes and a just settlement of their claims. It was during his third premiership that this peace, so long deferred, was at last gained, mainly through the influence and skill of Sir Donald M'Lean, native minister in the Fox cabinet. Finally, after Fox had left parliament he devoted himself, as joint-commissioner with Sir Francis Dillon Bell, to the adjustment of the native land-claims on the west coast of the North Island. The able reports of the commissioners were his last public service, and the carrying out of their recommendations gradually removed the last serious native trouble in New Zealand. When, however, in the course of the native wars from 1860 to 1870 the colonists of New Zealand were exposed to cruel and unjust imputations in England, Fox zealously defended them in a book, _The War in New Zealand_ (1866), which was not only a spirited vindication of his fellow-settlers, but a scathing criticism of the generalship of the officers commanding the imperial troops in New Zealand. Throughout his life Fox was a consistent advocate of total abstinence. It was he who founded the New Zealand Alliance, and he undoubtedly aided the growth of the prohibition movement afterwards so strong in the colony. He died on the 23rd of June 1893, exactly twelve months after his wife, Sarah, daughter of William Halcombe. (W. P. R.)

FOX, a name (female, "vixen"[1]) properly applicable to the single wild British representative of the family _Canidae_ (see CARNIVORA), but in a wider sense used to denote fox-like species from all parts of the world, inclusive of many from South America which do not really belong to the same group. The fox was included by Linnaeus in the same genus with the dog and the wolf, under the name of _Canis vulpes_, but at the present day is regarded by most naturalists as the type of a separate genus, and should then be known as _Vulpes alopex_ or _Vulpes vulpes_. From dogs, wolves, jackals, &c., which constitute the genus _Canis_ in its more restricted sense, foxes are best distinguished by the circumstance that in the skull the (postorbital) projection immediately behind the socket for the eye has its upper surface concave, with a raised ridge in front, in place of regularly convex. Another character is the absence of a hollow chamber, or sinus, within the frontal bone of the forehead. Foxes are likewise distinguished by their slighter build, longer and bushy tail, which always exceeds half the length of the head and body, sharper muzzle, and relatively longer body and shorter limbs. Then again, the ears are large in proportion to the head, the pupil of the eye is elliptical and vertical when in a strong light, and the female has six pairs of teats, in place of the three to five pairs found in dogs, wolves and jackals. From the North American grey foxes, constituting the genus or subgenus _Urocyon_, the true foxes are distinguished by the absence of a crest of erectile long hairs along the middle line of the upper surface of the tail, and also of a projection (subangular process) to the postero-inferior angle of the lower jaw. With the exception of certain South African species, foxes differ from wolves and jackals in that they do not associate in packs, but go about in pairs or are solitary.

From the Scandinavian peninsula and the British Islands the range of the fox extends eastwards across Europe and central and northern Asia to Japan, while to the south it embraces northern Africa and Arabia, Persia, Baluchistan, and the north-western districts of India and the Himalaya. On the North American side of the Atlantic the fox reappears. With such an enormous geographical range the species must of necessity present itself under a considerable number of local phases, differing from one another to a greater or less degree in the matters of size and colouring. By some naturalists many of these local forms are regarded as specifically distinct, but it seems better and simpler to class them all as local phases or races of a single species primarily characterized by the white tip to the tail and the black or dark-brown hind surface of the ear. The "foxy red" colouring of the typical race of north-western Europe is too well known to require description. From this there is a more or less nearly complete gradation on the one hand to pale-coloured forms like the white-footed fox (_V. alopex leucopus_) of Persia, N.W. India and Arabia, and on the other to the silver or black fox (_V. a. argentatus_) of North America which yields the valuable silver-tipped black fur. Silver foxes apparently also occur in northern Asia.

To mention all the other local races would be superfluous, and it will suffice to note that the North African fox is known as _V. a. niloticus_, the Himalayan as _V. a. montanus_, the Tibetan as _V. a. wadelli_, the North American red or cross fox as _V. a. pennsylvanicus_, and the Alaskan as _V. a. harrimani_; the last named, like several other animals from Alaska, being the largest of its kind.

The cunning and stratagem of the fox have been proverbial for many ages, and he has figured as a central character in fables from the earliest times, as in Aesop, down to "Uncle Remus," most notably as Reynard (_Raginohardus_, strong in counsel) in the great medieval beast-epic "Reynard the Fox" (q.v.). It is not unlikely that, owing to the conditions under which it now lives, these traits are even more developed in England than elsewhere. In habits the fox is to a great extent solitary, and its home is usually a burrow, which may be excavated by its own labour, but is more often the usurped or deserted tenement of a badger or a rabbit. Foxes will, however, often take up their residence in woods, or even in water-meadows with large tussocks of grass, remaining concealed during the day and issuing forth on marauding expeditions at night. Rabbits, hares, domesticated poultry, game-birds, and, when these run short, rats, mice and even insects, form the chief diet of the fox. When living near the coast foxes will, however, visit the shore at low water in search of crabs and whelks; and the old story of the fox and the grapes seems to be founded upon a partiality on the part of the creature for that fruit. Flesh that has become tainted appears to be specially acceptable; but it is a curious fact that on no account will a fox eat any kind of bird of prey.

After a gestation of from 60 to 65 days, the vixen during the month of April gives birth to cubs, of which from five to eight usually go to form a litter. When first born these are clothed with a uniform slaty-grey fur, which in due course gives place to a coat of more tawny hue than the adult livery. In a year and a half the cubs attain their full development; and from observations on captive specimens it appears that the duration of life ought to extend to some thirteen or fourteen years. In the care and defence of her young the vixen displays extraordinary solicitude and boldness, altogether losing on such occasions her accustomed timidity and caution. Like most other young animals, fox-cubs are exceedingly playful, and may be seen chasing one another in front of the mouth of the burrow, or even running after their own tails.

Young foxes can be tamed to a certain extent, and do not then emit the well-known odour to any great degree unless excited. The species cannot, however, be completely domesticated, and never displays the affectionate traits of the dog. It was long believed that foxes and dogs would never interbreed; but several instances of such unions have been recorded, although they are undoubtedly rare. When suddenly confronted in a situation where immediate escape is impossible, the fox, like the wolf, will not hesitate to resort to the death-feigning instinct. Smartness in avoiding traps is one of the most distinctive traits in the character of the species; but when a trap has once claimed its victim, and is consequently no longer dangerous, the fox is always ready to take advantage of the gratuitous meal.

Red fox-skins are largely imported into Europe for various purposes, the American imports alone formerly reaching as many as 60,000 skins annually. Silver fox is one of the most valuable of all furs, as much as £480 having been given for an unusually fine pair of skins in 1902.

Of foxes certainly distinct specifically from the typical representative of the group, one of the best known is the Indian _Vulpes bengalensis_, a species much inferior in point of size to its European relative, and lacking the strong odour of the latter, from which it is also distinguished by the black tip to the tail and the pale-coloured backs of the ears. The corsac fox (_V. corsac_), ranging from southern Russia and the Caspian provinces across Asia to Amurland, may be regarded as a northern representative of the Indian species; while the pale fox (_V. pallidus_), of the Suakin and Dongola deserts, may be regarded as the African representative of the group. Possibly the kit-fox (_V. velox_), which has likewise a black tail-tip and pale ears, may be the North American form of the same group. The northern fennec (_V. famelicus_), whose range extends apparently from Egypt and Somaliland through Palestine and Persia into Afghanistan, seems to form a connecting link between the more typical foxes and the small African species properly known as fennecs. The long and bushy tail in the northern species has a white tip and a dark gland-patch near the root, but the backs of the ears are fawn-coloured. The enormous length of the ears and the small bodily size (inferior to that of any other member of the family) suffice to distinguish the true fennec (_V. zerda_) of Algeria and Egypt, in which the general colour is pale and the tip of the relatively short tail black. South of the Zambezi the group reappears in the shape of the asse-fox or fennec, (_V. cama_), a dark-coloured species, with a black tip to the long, bushy tail and reddish-brown ears.

Passing from South Africa to the north polar regions of both the Old and the New World, inclusive of Iceland, we enter the domain of the Arctic fox (_V. lagopus_), a very distinct species characterized by the hairy soles of its feet, the short, blunt ears, the long, bushy tail, and the great length of the fur in winter. The upper parts in summer are usually brownish and the under parts white; but in winter the whole coat, in this phase of the species, turns white. In a second phase of the species, the colour, which often displays a slaty hue (whence the name of blue fox), remains more or less the same throughout the year, the winter coat being, however, recognizable by the great length of the fur. Many at least of the "blue fox" skins of the fur-trade are white skins dyed. About 2000 blue fox-skins were annually imported into London from Alaska some five-and-twenty years ago. Arctic foxes feed largely on sea-birds and lemmings, laying up hidden stores of the last-named rodents for winter use.

The American grey fox, or Virginian fox, is now generally ranged as a distinct genus (or a subgenus of _Canis_) under the name of _Urocyon cinereo-argentatus_, on account of being distinguished, as already mentioned, by the presence of a ridge of long erectile hairs along the upper surface of the tail and of a projection to the postero-inferior angle of the lower jaw. The prevailing colour of the fur of the upper parts is iron-grey.

The so-called foxes of South America, such as the crab-eating fox (_C. thous_), Azara's fox (_C. azarae_), and the colpeo (_C. magellanicus_), are aberrant members of the typical genus _Canis_. On the other hand, the long-eared fox or Delalande's fox (_Otocyon megalotis_) of south and east Africa represents a totally distinct genus.

See St George Mivart, _Dogs, Jackals, Wolves and Foxes_ (London, 1890); R.I. Pocock, "Ancestors and Relatives of the Dog," in _The Kennel Encyclopaedia_ (London, 1907). For fox-hunting, see HUNTING. (R. L.*)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The word is common to the Teutonic languages, cf. Dutch _vos_, Ger. _Fuchs_; the ultimate origin is unknown, but a connexion has been suggested with Sanskrit _puccha_, tail. The feminine "vixen" represents the O. Eng. _fyxen_, due to the change from _o_ to _y_, and addition of the feminine termination _-en_, cf. O. Eng. _gyden_, goddess, and Ger. _Füchsin_, vixen. The _v_, for _f_, is common in southern English pronunciation; vox, for fox, is found in the _Ancren Riwle_, c. 1230.

FOXE, JOHN (1516-1587), the author of the famous _Book of Martyrs_, was born at Boston, in Lincolnshire, in 1516. At the age of sixteen he is said to have entered Brasenose College, Oxford, where he was the pupil of John Harding or Hawarden, and had for room-mate Alexander Nowell, afterwards dean of St. Paul's. His authenticated connexion at the university is, however, with Magdalen College. He took his B.A. degree in 1537 and his M.A. in 1543. He was lecturer on logic in 1540-1541. He wrote several Latin plays on Scriptural subjects, of which the best, _De Christo triumphante_, was repeatedly printed, (London, 1551; Basel, 1556, &c.), and was translated into English by Richard Day, son of the printer. He became a fellow of Magdalen College in 1539, resigning in 1545. It is said that he refused to conform to the rules for regular attendance at chapel, and that he protested both against the enforced celibacy of fellows and the obligation to take holy orders within seven years of their election. The customary statement that he was expelled from his fellowship is based on the untrustworthy biography attributed to his son Samuel Foxe, but the college records state that he resigned of his own accord and _ex honesta causa_. The letter in which he protests to President Oglethorpe against the charges of irreverence, &c., brought against him is printed in Pratt's edition (vol. i. Appendix, pp. 58-61).

On leaving Oxford he acted as tutor for a short time in the house of the Lucys of Charlecote, near Stratford-on-Avon, where he married Agnes Randall. Late in 1547 or early in the next year he went to London. He found a patron in Mary Fitzroy, duchess of Richmond, and having been ordained deacon by Ridley in 1550, he settled at Reigate Castle, where he acted as tutor to the duchess's nephews, the orphan children of Henry Howard, earl of Surrey. On the accession of Queen Mary, Foxe was deprived of his tutorship by the boys' grandfather, the duke of Norfolk, who was now released from prison. He retired to Strassburg, and occupied himself with a Latin history of the Christian persecutions which he had begun at the suggestion of Lady Jane Grey. He had assistance from two clerics of widely differing opinions--from Edmund Grindal, who was later, as archbishop of Canterbury, to maintain his Puritan convictions in opposition to Elizabeth; and from John Aylmer, afterwards one of the bitterest opponents of the Puritan party. This book, dealing chiefly with Wycliffe and Huss, and coming down to 1500, formed the first outline of the _Actes and Monuments_. It was printed by Wendelin Richelius with the title of _Commentarii rerum in ecclesia gestarum_ (Strasburg, 1554). In the year of its publication Foxe removed to Frankfort, where he found the English colony of Protestant refugees divided into two camps. He made a vain attempt to frame a compromise which should be accepted by the extreme Calvinists and by the partisans of the Anglican doctrine. He removed (1555) to Basel, where he worked as printer's reader to Johann Herbst or Oporinus. He made steady progress with his great book as he received reports from England of the religious persecutions there, and he issued from the press of Oporinus his pamphlet _Ad inclytos ac praepotentes Angliae proceres ... supplicatio_ (1557), a plea for toleration addressed to the English nobility. In 1559 he completed the Latin edition[1] of his martyrology and returned to England. He lived for some time at Aldgate, London, in the house of his former pupil, Thomas Howard, now duke of Norfolk, who retained a sincere regard for his tutor and left him a small pension in his will. He became associated with John Day the printer, himself once a Protestant exile. Foxe was ordained priest by Edmund Grindal, bishop of London, in 1560, and besides much literary work he occasionally preached at Paul's Cross and other places. His work had rendered great service to the government, and he might have had high preferment in the Church but for the Puritan views which he consistently maintained. He held, however, the prebend of Shipton in Salisbury cathedral, and is said to have been for a short time rector of Cripplegate.

In 1563 was issued from the press of John Day the first English edition of the _Actes and Monuments of these latter and perillous Dayes, touching matters of the Church, wherein are comprehended and described the great Persecution and horrible Troubles that have been wrought and practised by the Romishe Prelates, speciallye in this Realme of England and Scotland, from the yeare of our Lorde a thousande to the time now present. Gathered and collected according to the true Copies and Wrytinges certificatorie as well of the Parties themselves that Suffered, as also out of the Bishop's Registers, which were the Doers thereof, by John Foxe_, commonly known as the _Book of Martyrs_. Several gross errors which had appeared in the Latin version, and had been since exposed, were corrected in this edition. Its popularity was immense and signal. The Marian persecution was still fresh in men's minds, and the graphic narrative intensified in its numerous readers the fierce hatred of Spain and of the Inquisition which was one of the master passions of the reign. Nor was its influence transient. For generations the popular conception of Roman Catholicism was derived from its bitter pages. Its accuracy was immediately attacked by Catholic writers, notably in the _Dialogi sex_ (1566), nominally from the pen of Alan Cope, but in reality by Nicholas Harpsfield and by Robert Parsons in _Three Conversions of England_ (1570). These criticisms induced Foxe to produce a second corrected edition, _Ecclesiastical History, contayning the Actes and Monuments of things passed in every kynges tyme_... in 1570, a copy of which was ordered by Convocation to be placed in every collegiate church. Foxe based his accounts of the martyrs partly on authentic documents and reports of the trials, and on statements received direct from the friends of the sufferers, but he was too hasty a worker and too violent a partisan to produce anything like a correct or impartial account of the mass of facts with which he had to deal. Anthony à Wood says that Foxe "believed and reported all that was told him, and there is every reason to suppose that he was purposely misled, and continually deceived by those whose interest it was to bring discredit on his work," but he admits that the book is a monument of his industry, his laborious research and his sincere piety. The gross blunders due to carelessness have often been exposed, and there is no doubt that Foxe was only too ready to believe evil of the Catholics, and he cannot always be exonerated from the charge of wilful falsification of evidence. It should, however, be remembered in his honour that his advocacy of religious toleration was far in advance of his day. He pleaded for the despised Dutch Anabaptists, and remonstrated with John Knox on the rancour of his _First Blast of the Trumpet_. Foxe was one of the earliest students of Anglo-Saxon, and he and Day published an edition of the Saxon gospels under the patronage of Archbishop Parker. He died on the 18th of April 1587 and was buried at St Giles's, Cripplegate.

A list of his Latin tracts and sermons is given by Wood, and others, some of which were never printed, appear in Bale. Four editions of the _Actes and Monuments_ appeared in Foxe's lifetime. The eighth edition (1641) contains a memoir of Foxe purporting to be by his son Samuel, the MS. of which is in the British Museum (Lansdowne MS. 388). Samuel Foxe's authorship is disputed, with much show of reason, by Dr S.R. Maitland in _On the Memoirs of Foxe ascribed to his Son_ (1841). The best-known modern edition of the Martyrology is that (1837-1841) by the Rev. Stephen R. Cattley, with an introductory life by Canon George Townsend. The numerous inaccuracies of this life and the frequent errors of Foxe's narrative were exposed by Dr Maitland in a series of tracts (1837-1842), collected (1841-1842) as _Notes on the Contributions of the Rev. George Townsend, M.A. ... to the New Edition of Fox's Martyrology_. The criticism lavished on Cattley and Townsend's edition led to a new one (1846-1849) under the same editorship. A new text prepared by the Rev. Josiah Pratt was issued (1870) in the "Reformation Series" of the _Church Historians of England_, with a revised version of Townsend's _Life_ and appendices giving copies of original documents. Later edition by W. Grinton Berry (1907).

Foxe's papers are preserved in the Harleian and Lansdowne collections in the British Museum. Extracts from these were edited by J.G. Nichols for the Camden Society (1859). See also W. Winters, _Biographical Notes on John Foxe_ (1876); James Gairdner, _History of the English Church in the Sixteenth Century_.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Printed by Oporinus and Nicolaus Brylinger. The title is _Rerum in ecclesia gestarum ... pars prima, in qua primum de rebus per Angliam et Scotiam gestis atque in primis de horrenda sub Maria nuper regina persecutione narratio continetur_.

FOXGLOVE, a genus of biennial and perennial plants of the natural order Scrophulariaceae. The common or purple foxglove, _D. purpurea_, is common in dry hilly pastures and rocky places and by road-sides in various parts of Europe; it ranges in Great Britain from Cornwall and Kent to Orkney, but it does not occur in Shetland or in some of the eastern counties of England. It flourishes best in siliceous soils, and is not found in the Jura and Swiss Alps. The characters of the plant are as follows: stem erect, roundish, downy, leafy below, and from 18 in. to 5 ft. or more in height; leaves alternate, crenate, rugose, ovate or elliptic oblong, and of a dull green, with the under surface downy and paler than the upper; radical leaves together with their stalks often a foot in length; root of numerous, slender, whitish fibres; flowers 1¾-2½ in. long, pendulous, on one side of the stem, purplish crimson, and hairy and marked with eye-like spots within; segments of calyx ovate, acute, cleft to the base; corolla bell-shaped with a broadly two-lipped obtuse mouth, the upper lip entire or obscurely divided; stamens four, two longer than the other two (_didynamous_); anthers yellow and bilobed; capsule bivalved, ovate and pointed; and seeds numerous, small, oblong, pitted and of a pale brown. As Parkinson remarks of the plant, "It flowreth seldome before July, and the seed is ripe in August"; but it may occasionally be found in blossom as late as September. Many varieties of the common foxglove have been raised by cultivation, with flowers varying in colour from white to deep rose and purple; in the variety _gloxinioides_ the flowers are almost regular, suggesting those of the cultivated gloxinia. Other species of foxglove with variously coloured flowers have been introduced into Britain from the continent of Europe. The plants may be propagated by unflowered off-sets from the roots, but being biennials are best raised from seed.

The foxglove, probably from folks'-glove, that is fairies' glove, is known by a great variety of popular names in Britain. In the south of Scotland it is called bloody fingers; farther north, dead-men's-bells; and on the eastern borders, ladies' thimbles, wild mercury and Scotch mercury. In Ireland it is generally known under the name of fairy thimble. Among its Welsh synonyms are _menyg-ellyllon_ (elves' gloves), _menyg y llwynog_ (fox's gloves), _bysedd cochion_ (redfingers) and _bysedd y cwn_ (dog's fingers). In France its designations are _gants de notre dame_ and _doigts de la Vierge_. The German name _Fingerhut_ (thimble) suggested to Fuchs, in 1542, the employment of the Latin adjective _digitalis_ as a designation for the plant. Other species of foxglove or _Digitalis_ although found in botanical collections are not generally grown. For medicinal uses see DIGITALIS.

FOX INDIANS, the name, from one of their clans, of an Algonquian tribe, whose former range was central Wisconsin. They call themselves Muskwakiuk, "red earth people." Owing to heavy losses in their wars with the Ojibways and the French, they allied themselves with the Sauk tribe about 1780, the two tribes being now practically one.

FOX MORCILLO, SEBASTIAN (1526?-1559?), Spanish scholar and philosopher, was born at Seville between 1526 and 1528. About 1548 he studied at Louvain, and, following the example of the Spanish Jew, Judas Abarbanel, published commentaries on Plato and Aristotle in which he endeavoured to reconcile their teaching. In 1559 he was appointed tutor to Don Carlos, son of Philip II., but did not live to take up the duties of the post, as he was lost at sea on his way to Spain. His most original work is the _De imitatione, seu de informandi styli ratione libri II_. (1554), a dialogue in which the author and his brother take part under the pseudonyms of Gaspar and Francisco Enuesia. Among Fox Morcillo's other publications are: (1) _In Topica Ciceronis paraphrasis et scholia_ (1550); (2) _In Platonis Timaeum commentarii_ (1554); (3) _Compendium ethices philosophiae ex Platone, Aristotele, aliisque philosophis collectum_; (4) _De historiae institutione dialogus_ (1557), and (5) _De naturae philosophia_.

He is the subject of an excellent monograph by Urbano Gonzalez de Calle, _Sebastián Fox Morcillo: estudio histórico-crítico de sus doctrinas_ (Madrid, 1903).

FOY, MAXIMILIEN SÉBASTIEN (1775-1825), French general and statesman, was born at Ham in Picardy on the 3rd of February 1775. He was the son of an old soldier who had fought at Fontenoy and had become post-master of the town in which he lived. His father died in 1780, and his early instruction was given by his mother, a woman of English origin and of superior ability. He continued his education at the college of Soissons, and thence passed at the age of fifteen to the artillery school of La Fère. After eighteen months' successful study he entered the army, served his first campaign in Flanders (1791-92), and was present at the battle of Jemmapes. He soon attained the rank of captain, and served successively under Dampierre, Jourdan, Pichegru and Houchard. In 1794, in consequence of having spoken freely against the violence of the extreme party at Paris, he was imprisoned by order of the commissioner of the Convention, Joseph Lebon, at Cambray, but regained his liberty soon after the fall of Robespierre. He served under Moreau in the campaigns of 1796 and 1797, distinguishing himself in many engagements. The leisure which the treaty of Campo Formio gave him he devoted to the study of public law and modern history, attending the lectures of Christoph Wilhelm von Koch (1737-1813), the famous professor of public law at Strassburg. He was recommended by Desaix to the notice of General Bonaparte, but declined to serve on the staff of the Egyptian expedition. In the campaign of Switzerland (1798) he distinguished himself afresh, though he served only with the greatest reluctance against a people which possessed republican institutions. In Masséna's brilliant campaign of 1799 Foy won the rank of _chef de brigade_. In the following year he served under Moncey in the Marengo campaign and afterwards in Tirol.

Foy's republican principles caused him to oppose the gradual rise of Napoleon to the supreme power and at the time of Moreau's trial he escaped arrest only by joining the army in Holland. Foy voted against the establishment of the empire, but the only penalty for his independence was a long delay before attaining the rank of general. In 1806 he married a daughter of General Baraguay d'Hilliers. In the following year he was sent to Constantinople, and there took part in the defence of the Dardanelles against the English fleet. He was next sent to Portugal, and thenceforward he served in the Peninsular War from first to last. Under Junot he won at last his rank of general of brigade, under Soult he held a command in the pursuit of Sir John Moore's army, and under Masséna he fought in the third invasion of Portugal (1810). Masséna reposed the greatest confidence in Foy, and employed him after Busaco in a mission to the emperor. Napoleon now made Foy's acquaintance for the first time, and was so far impressed with his merits as to make him a general of division at once. The part played by General Foy at the battle of Salamanca won him new laurels, but above all he distinguished himself when the disaster of Vittoria had broken the spirit of the army. Foy rose to the occasion; his resistance in the Pyrenees was steady and successful, and only a wound (at first thought mortal) which he received at Orthez prevented him from keeping the field to the last. At the first restoration of the Bourbons he received the grand cross of the Legion of Honour and a command, and on the return of Napoleon from Elba he declined to join him until the king had fled from the country. He held a divisional command in the Waterloo campaign, and at Waterloo was again severely wounded at the head of his division (see WATERLOO CAMPAIGN). After the second restoration he returned to civil life, devoting his energies for a time to his projected history of the Peninsular War, and in 1819 was elected to the chamber of deputies. For this position his experience and his studies had especially fitted him, and by his first speech he gained a commanding place in the chamber, which he never lost, his clear, manly eloquence being always employed on the side of the liberal principles of 1789. In 1823 he made a powerful protest against French intervention in Spain, and after the dissolution of 1824 he was re-elected for three constituencies. He died at Paris on the 28th of November 1825, and his funeral was attended, it is said, by 100,000 persons. His early death was regarded by all as a national calamity. His family was provided for by a general subscription.

The _Histoire de la guerre de la Péninsula sous Napoléon_ was published from his notes in 1827, and a collection of his speeches (with memoir by Tissot) appeared in 1826 soon after his death. See Cuisin, _Vie militaire, politique, &c., du général Foy_; Vidal, _Vie militaire et politique du général Foy_.

FRAAS, KARL NIKOLAS (1810-1875), German botanist and agriculturist, was born at Rattelsdorf, near Bamberg, on the 8th of September 1810. After receiving his preliminary education at the gymnasium of Bamberg, he in 1830 entered the university of Munich, where he took his doctor's degree in 1834. Having devoted great attention to the study of botany, he went to Athens in 1835 as inspector of the court garden; and in April 1836 he became professor of botany at the university. In 1842 he returned to Germany and became teacher at the central agricultural school at Schleissheim. In 1847 he was appointed professor of agriculture at Munich, and in 1851 director of the central veterinary college. For many years he was secretary of the Agricultural Society of Bavaria, but resigned in 1861. He died at his estate of Neufreimann, near Munich, on the 9th of November 1875.

His principal works are: [Greek: Stoicheia tês Botanikês] (Athens, 1835); _Synopsis florae classicae_ (Munich, 1845); _Klima und Pflanzenwelt in der Zeit_ (Landsh., 1847); _Histor.-encyklopäd. Grundriss der Landwirthschaftslehre_ (Stuttgart, 1848); _Geschichte der Landwirthschaft_ (Prague, 1851); _Die Schule des Landbaues_ (Munich, 1852); _Baierns Rinderrassen_ (Munich, 1853); _Die künstliche Fischerzeugung_ (Munich, 1854); _Die Natur der Landwirthschaft_ (Munich, 1857); _Buch der Natur für Landwirthe_ (Munich, 1860); _Die Ackerbaukrisen und ihre Heilmittel_ (Munich, 1866); _Das Wurzelleben der Culturpflanzen_ (Berlin, 1872); and _Geschichte der Landbau und Forstwissenschaft seit dem 16^ten Jahrh._ (Munich, 1865). He also founded and edited a weekly agricultural paper, the _Schranne_.

FRACASTORO [FRACASTORIUS], GIROLAMO [HIERONYMUS] (1483-1553), Italian physician and poet, was born at Verona in 1483. It is related of him that at his birth his lips adhered so closely that a surgeon was obliged to divide them with his incision knife, and that during his infancy his mother was killed by lightning, while he, though in her arms at the moment, escaped unhurt. Fracastoro became eminently skilled, not only in medicine and belles-lettres, but in most arts and sciences. He studied at Padua, and became professor of philosophy there in 1502, afterwards practising as a physician in Verona. It was by his advice that Pope Paul III., on account of the prevalence of a contagious distemper, removed the council of Trent to Bologna. He was the author of many works, both poetical and medical, and was intimately acquainted with Cardinal Bembo, Julius Scaliger, Gianbattista Ramusio (q.v.), and most of the great men of his time. In 1517, when the builders of the citadel of San Felice (Verona) found fossil mussels in the rocks, Fracastoro was consulted about the marvel, and he took the same view--following Leonardo da Vinci, but very advanced for those days--that they were the remains of animals once capable of living in the locality. He died of apoplexy at Casi, near Verona, on the 8th of August 1553; and in 1559 the town of Verona erected a statue in his honour.

The principal work of Fracastoro is a kind of medical poem entitled _Syphilidis, sive Morbi Gallici, libri tres_ (Verona, 1530), which has been often reprinted and also translated into French and Italian. Among his other works (all published at Venice) are _De vini temperatura_ (1534); _Homocentricorum_ (1535); _De sympatha et antipathia rerum_ (1546); and _De contagionibus_ (1546). His complete works were published at Venice in 1555, and his poetical productions were collected and printed at Padua in 1728.

FRAGONARD, JEAN-HONORÉ (1732-1806), French painter, was born at Grasse, the son of a glover. He was articled to a Paris notary when his father's circumstances became straitened through unsuccessful speculations, but he showed such talent and inclination for art that he was taken at the age of eighteen to Boucher, who, recognizing the youth's rare gifts but disinclined to waste his time with one so inexperienced, sent him to Chardin's _atelier_. Fragonard studied for six months under the great luminist, and then returned more fully equipped to Boucher, whose style he soon acquired so completely that the master entrusted him with the execution of replicas of his paintings. Though not a pupil of the Academy, Fragonard gained the Prix de Rome in 1752 with a painting of "Jeroboam sacrificing to the Idols," but before proceeding to Rome he continued to study for three years under Van Loo. In the year preceding his departure he painted the "Christ washing the Feet of the Apostles" now at Grasse cathedral. In 1755 he took up his abode at the French Academy in Rome, then presided over by Natoire. There he benefited from the study of the old masters whom he was set to copy--always remembering Boucher's parting advice not to take Raphael and Michelangelo too seriously. He successively passed through the studios of masters as widely different in their aims and technique as Chardin, Boucher, Van Loo and Natoire, and a summer sojourn at the Villa d'Este in the company of the abbé de Saint-Non, who engraved many of Fragonard's studies of these entrancing gardens, did more towards forming his personal style than all the training at the various schools. It was in these romantic gardens, with their fountains, grottos, temples and terraces, that he conceived the dreams which he was subsequently to embody in his art. Added to this influence was the deep impression made upon his mind by the florid sumptuousness of Tiepolo, whose works he had an opportunity of studying in Venice before he returned to Paris in 1761. In 1765 his "Corésus et Callirhoé" secured his admission to the Academy. It was made the subject of a pompous eulogy by Diderot, and was bought by the king, who had it reproduced at the Gobelins factory. Hitherto Fragonard had hesitated between religious, classic and other subjects; but now the demand of the wealthy art patrons of Louis XV.'s pleasure-loving and licentious court turned him definitely towards those scenes of love and voluptuousness with which his name will ever be associated, and which are only made acceptable by the tender beauty of his colour and the virtuosity of his facile brushwork--such works as the "Serment d'amour" (Love Vow), "Le Verrou" (The Bolt), "La Culbute" (The Tumble), "La Chemise enlevée" (The Shift Withdrawn), and "The Swing" (Wallace collection), and his decorations for the apartments of Mme du Barry and the dancer Marie Guimard.

The Revolution made an end to the _ancien régime_, and Fragonard, who was so closely allied to its representatives, left Paris in 1793 and found shelter in the house of his friend Maubert at Grasse, which he decorated with the series of decorative panels known as the "Roman d'amour de la jeunesse," originally painted for Mme du Barry's pavilion at Louvreciennes. The panels in recent years came into the possession of Mr Pierpont Morgan. Fragonard returned to Paris early in the 19th century, where he died in 1806, neglected and almost forgotten. For half a century or more he was so completely ignored that Lübke, in his history of art (1873), omits the very mention of his name. But within the last thirty years he has regained the position among the masters of painting to which he is entitled by his genius. If the appreciation of his art by the modern collector can be expressed in figures, it is significant that the small and sketchy "Billet Doux," which appeared at the Cronier sale in Paris in 1905 and was subsequently exhibited by Messrs Duveen in London (1906), realized close on £19,000 at the Hôtel Drouot.

Besides the works already mentioned, there are four important pictures by Fragonard in the Wallace collection: "The Fountain of Love," "The Schoolmistress," "A Lady carving her Name on a Tree" (usually known as "Le Chiffre d'amour") and "The Fair-haired Child." The Louvre contains thirteen examples of his art, among them the "Corésus," "The Sleeping Bacchante," "The Shift Withdrawn," "The Bathers," "The Shepherd's Hour" ("L'Heure du berger"), and "Inspiration." Other works are in the museums of Lille, Besançon, Rouen, Tours, Nantes, Avignon, Amiens, Grenoble, Nancy, Orleans, Marseilles, &c., as well as at Chantilly. Some of Fragonard's finest work is in the private collections of the Rothschild family in London and Paris.

See R. Portalis, _Fragonard_ (Paris, 1899), fully illustrated; Felix Naquet, _Fragonard_ (Paris, 1890); Virgile Josz, _Fragonard--moeurs du XVIII^e siècle_ (Paris, 1901); E. and J. de Goncourt, _L'Art du dix-huitième siècle--Fragonard_ (Paris, 1883). (P. G. K.)

FRAHN, CHRISTIAN MARTIN (1782-1851), German numismatist and historian, was born at Rostock. He began his Oriental studies under Tychsen at the university of Rostock, and afterwards prosecuted them at Göttingen and Tübingen. He became a Latin master in Pestalozzi's famous institute in 1804, returned home in 1806, and in the following year was chosen to fill the chair of Oriental languages in the Russian university of Kazan. Though in 1815 he was invited to succeed Tychsen at Rostock, he preferred to go to St Petersburg, where he became director of the Asiatic museum and councillor of state. He died at St Petersburg.

Frahn wrote over 150 works. Among the more important are: _Numophylacium orientale Pototianum_ (1813); _De numorum Bulgharicorum fonte antiquissimo_ (1816); _Das muhammedanische Münzkabinet des asiatischen Museum der kaiserl. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu St Petersburg_ (1821); _Numi cufici ex variis museis selecti_ (1823); _Notice d'une centaine d'ouvrages arabes, &c., qui manquent en grande partie aux bibliothèques de l'Europe_ (1834); and _Nova supplementa ad recensionem Num. Muham. Acad. Imp. Sci. Petropolitanae_ (1855). His description of some medals struck by the Samanid and Bouid princes (1804) was composed in Arabic because he had no Latin types.

FRAME, a word employed in many different senses, signifying something joined together or shaped. It is derived ultimately from O.E. _fram_, from, in its primary meaning "forward." In constructional work it connotes the union of pieces of wood, metal or other material for purposes of enclosure as in the case of a picture or mirror frame. Frames intended for these uses are of great artistic interest but comparatively modern origin. There is no record of their existence earlier than the 16th century, but the decorative opportunities which they afforded caused speedy popularity in an artistic age, and the Renaissance found in the picture frame a rich and attractive means of expression. The impulses which made frames beautiful have long been extinct or dormant, but fine work was produced in such profusion that great numbers of examples are still extant. Frames for pictures or mirrors are usually square, oblong, round or oval, and, although they have usually been made of wood or composition overlaid upon wood, the richest and most costly materials have often been used. Ebony, ivory and tortoiseshell; crystal, amber and mother-of-pearl; lacquer, gold and silver, and almost every other metal have been employed for this purpose. The domestic frame has in fact varied from the simplest and cheapest form of a plain wooden moulding to the most richly carved examples. The introduction in the 17th century of larger sheets of glass gave the art of frame-making a great _essor_, and in the 18th century the increased demand for frames, caused chiefly by the introduction of cheaper forms of mirrors, led to the invention of a composition which could be readily moulded into stereotyped patterns and gilded. This was eventually the deathblow of the artistic frame, and since the use of composition moulding became normal, no important school of wood-carving has turned its attention to frames. The carvers of the Renaissance, and down to the middle of the 18th century, produced work which was often of the greatest beauty and elegance. In England nothing comparable to that of Grinling Gibbons and his school has since been produced. Chippendale was a great frame maker, but he not only had recourse to composition, but his designs were often extravagantly rococo. Even in France there has been no return of the great days when Oeben enclosed the looking-glasses which mirrored the Pompadour in frames that were among the choicest work of a gorgeous and artificial age. In the decoration of frames as in so many other respects France largely followed the fashions of Italy, which throughout the 16th and 17th centuries produced the most elaborate and grandiose, the richest and most palatial, of the mirror frames that have come down to us. English art in this respect was less exotic and more restrained, and many of the mirrors of the 18th century received frames the grace and simplicity of which have ensured their constant reproduction even to our own day.

FRAMINGHAM, a township of Middlesex county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., having an area of 27 sq. m. of hilly surface, dotted with lakes and ponds. Pop. (1890) 9239; (1900) 11,302, of whom 2391 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 12,948. It is served by the Boston & Albany, and the New York, New Haven & Hartford railways. Included within the township are three villages, Framingham Center, Saxonville and South Framingham, the last being much the most important. Framingham Academy was established in 1792, and in 1851 became a part of the public school system. A state normal school (the first normal school in the United States, established at Lexington in 1839, removed to Newton in 1844 and to Framingham in 1853) is situated here; and near South Framingham, in the township of Sherborn, is the state reformatory prison for women. South Framingham has large manufactories of paper tags, shoes, boilers, carriage wheels and leather board; formerly straw braid and bonnets were the principal manufactures. Saxonville manufactures worsted cloth. The value of the township's factory products increased from $3,007,301 in 1900 to $4,173,579 in 1905, or 38.8%. Framingham was first settled about 1640, and was named in honour of the English home (Framlingham) of Governor Thomas Danforth (1622-1699), to whom the land once belonged. In 1700 it was incorporated as a township. The "old Connecticut path," the Boston-to-Worcester turnpike, was important to the early fortunes of Framingham Center, while the Boston & Worcester railway (1834) made the greater fortune of South Framingham.

See J.H. Temple, _History of Framingham ... 1640-1880_ (Framingham, 1887).

FRAMLINGHAM, a market town in the Eye parliamentary division of Suffolk, 91 m. N.E. from London by a branch of the Great Eastern railway. Pop. (1901) 2526. The church of St Michael is a fine Perpendicular and Decorated building of black flint, surmounted by a tower 96 ft. high. In the interior there are a number of interesting monuments, among which the most noticeable are those of Thomas Howard, 3rd duke of Norfolk, and of Henry Howard, the famous earl of Surrey, who was beheaded by Henry VIII. The castle forms a picturesque ruin, consisting of the outer walls 44 ft. high and 8 ft. thick, 13 towers about 58 ft. high, a gateway and some outworks. About half a mile from the town is the Albert Memorial Middle Class College, opened in 1865, and capable of accommodating 300 boys. A bronze statue of the Prince Consort by Joseph Durham adorns the front terrace.

Framlingham (Frendlingham, Framalingaham) in early Saxon times was probably the site of a fortified earthwork to which St Edmund the Martyr is said to have fled from the Danes in 870. The Danes captured the stronghold after the escape of the king, but it was won back in 921, and remained in the hands of the crown, passing to William I. at the Conquest. Henry I. in 1100 granted it to Roger Bigod, who in all probability raised the first masonry castle. Hugh, son of Roger, created earl of Norfolk in 1141, succeeded his father, and the manor and castle remained in the Bigod family until 1306, when in default of heirs it reverted to the crown, and was granted by Edward II. to his half-brother Thomas de Brotherton, created earl of Norfolk in 1312. On an account roll of Framlingham Castle of 1324 there is an entry of "rent received from the borough," also of "rent from those living outside the borough," and in all probability burghal rights had existed at a much earlier date, when the town had grown into some importance under the shelter of the castle. Town and castle followed the vicissitudes of the dukedom of Norfolk, passing to the crown in 1405, and being alternately restored and forfeited by Henry V., Richard III., Henry VII., Edward VI., Mary, Elizabeth and James I., and finally sold in 1635 to Sir Robert Hitcham, who left it in 1636 to the master and fellows of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge.

In the account roll above mentioned reference is made to a fair and a market, but no early grant of either is to be found. In 1792 two annual fairs were held, one on Whit Monday, the other on the 10th of October; and a market was held every Saturday. The market day is still Saturday, but the fairs are discontinued.

See Robert Hawes, _History of Framlingham in the County of Suffolk_, edited by R. Loder (Woodbridge, 1798).

FRANC, a French coin current at different periods and of varying values. The first coin so called was one struck in gold by John II. of France in 1360. On it was the legend _Johannes Dei gracia Francorum rex_; hence, it is said, the name. It also bore an effigy of King John on horseback, from which it was called a _franc à cheval_, to distinguish it from another coin of the same value, issued by Charles V., on which the king was represented standing upright under a Gothic dais; this coin was termed a _franc à pied_. As a coin it disappeared after the reign of Charles VI., but the name continued to be used as an equivalent for the _livre tournois_, which was worth twenty sols. French writers would speak without distinction of so many livres or so many francs, so long as the sum mentioned was an even sum; otherwise livre was the correct term, thus "_trois livres_" or "_trois francs_," but "_trois livres cinq sols_." In 1795 the livre was legally converted into the franc, at the rate of 81 livres to 80 francs, the silver franc being made to weigh exactly five grammes. The franc is now the unit of the monetary system and also the money of account in France, as well as in Belgium and Switzerland. In Italy the equivalent is the lira, and in Greece the drachma. The franc is divided into 100 centimes, the lira into 100 centesimi and the drachma into 100 lepta. Gold is now the standard, the coins in common use being ten and twenty franc pieces. The twenty franc gold piece weighs 6.4516 grammes, .900 fine. The silver coins are five, two, one, and half franc pieces. The five franc silver piece weighs 25 grammes, .900 fine, while the franc piece weighs 5 grammes, .835 fine. See also MONEY.

FRANÇAIS, ANTOINE, COUNT (1756-1836), better known as FRANÇAIS OF NANTES, French politician and author, was born at Beaurepaire, in the department of Isère. In 1791 he was elected to the legislative assembly by the department of Loire Inférieure, and was noted for his violent attacks upon the farmers general, the pope and the priests; but he was not re-elected to the Convention. During the Terror, as he had belonged to the Girondin party, he was obliged to seek safety in the mountains. In 1798 he was elected to the council of Five Hundred by the department of Isère, and became one of its secretaries; and in the following year he voted against the Directory. He took office under the consulate as prefect of Charente Inférieure, rose to be a member of the council of state, and in 1804 obtained the important post of director-general of the indirect taxes (_droits réunis_). The value of his services was recognized by the titles of count of the empire and grand officer of the Legion of Honour. On the second restoration he retired into private life; but from 1819 to 1822 he was representative of the department of Isère, and after the July revolution he was made a peer of France. He died at Paris on the 7th of March 1836.

Français wrote a number of works, but his name is more likely to be preserved by the eulogies of the literary men to whom he afforded protection and assistance. It is sufficient to mention _Le Manuscrit de feu M. Jérôme_ (1825); _Recueil de fadaises composé sur la montagne à l'usage des habitants de la plaine_ (1826); _Voyage dans la vallée des originaux_ (1828); _Tableau de la vie rurale, ou l'agriculture enseignée d'une manière dramatique_ (1829).

FRANÇAIS, FRANÇOIS LOUIS (1814-1897), French painter, was born at Plombières (Vosges), and, on attaining the age of fifteen, was placed as office-boy with a bookseller. After a few years of hard struggle, during which he made a precarious living by drawing on stone and designing woodcut vignettes for book illustration, he studied painting under Gigoux, and subsequently under Corot, whose influence remained decisive upon Français's style of landscape painting. He generally found his subjects in the neighbourhood of Paris, and though he never rivalled his master in lightness of touch and in the lyric poetry which is the principal charm of Corot's work, he is still counted among the leading landscape painters of his country and period. He exhibited first at the Salon in 1837 and was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1890. Comparatively few of his pictures are to be found in public galleries, but his painting of "An Italian Sunset" is at the Luxembourg Museum in Paris. Other works of importance are "Daphnis et Chloé" (1872), "Bas Meudon" (1861), "Orpheus" (1863), "Le Bois sacré" (1864), "Le Lac de Némi" (1868).

FRANCATELLI, CHARLES ELMÉ (1805-1876), Anglo-Italian cook, was born in London, of Italian extraction, in 1805, and was educated in France, where he studied the art of cookery. Coming to England, he was employed successively by various noblemen, subsequently becoming manager of Crockford's club. He left Crockford's to become chief cook to Queen Victoria, and afterwards he was chef at the Reform Club. He was the author of _The Modern Cook_ (1845), which has since been frequently republished; of a _Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes_ (1861), and of _The Royal English and Foreign Confectionery Book_ (1862). Francatelli died at Eastbourne on the 10th of August 1876.

FRANCAVILLA FONTANA, a town and episcopal see of Apulia, Italy, in the province of Lecce, 22 m. by rail E. by N. of Taranto, 460 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 17,759 (town); 20,510 (commune). It is in a fine situation, and has a massive square castle of the Umperiali family, to whom, with Oria, it was sold by S. Carlo Borromeo in the 16th century for 40,000 ounces of gold, which he distributed in one day to the poor.

FRANCE, ANATOLE (1844- ), French critic, essayist and novelist (whose real name was Jacques Anatole Thibault), was born in Paris on the 16th of April 1844. His father was a bookseller, one of the last of the booksellers, if we are to believe the Goncourts, into whose establishment men came, not merely to order and buy, but to dip, and turn over pages and discuss. As a child he used to listen to the nightly talks on literary subjects which took place in his father's shop. Nurtured in an atmosphere so essentially bookish, he turned naturally to literature. In 1868 his first work appeared, a study of Alfred de Vigny, followed in 1873 by a volume of verse, _Les Poëmes dorés_, dedicated to Leconte de Lisle, and, as such a dedication suggests, an outcome of the "Parnassian" movement; and yet another volume of verse appeared in 1876, _Les Noces corinthiennes_. But the poems in these volumes, though unmistakably the work of a man of great literary skill and cultured taste, are scarcely the poems of a man with whom verse is the highest form of expression.

He was to find his richest vein in prose. He himself, avowing his preference for a simple, or seemingly simple, style as compared with the _artistic_ style, vaunted by the Goncourts--a style compounded of neologisms and "rare" epithets, and startling forms of expression--observes: "A simple style is like white light. It is complex, but not to outward seeming. In language, a beautiful and desirable simplicity is but an appearance, and results only from the good order and sovereign economy of the various parts of speech." And thus one may say of his own style that its beautiful translucency is the result of many qualities--felicity, grace, the harmonious grouping of words, a perfect measure. Anatole France is a sceptic. The essence of his philosophy, if a spirit so light; evanescent, elusive, can be said to have a philosophy, is doubt. He is a doubter in religion, metaphysics, morals, politics, aesthetics, science--a most genial and kindly doubter, and not at all without doubts even as to his own negative conclusions. Sometimes his doubts are expressed in his own person--as in the _Jardin d'épicure_ (1894) from which the above extracts are taken, or _Le Livre de mon ami_ (1885), which may be accepted, perhaps, as partly autobiographical; sometimes, as in _La Rôtisserie de la reine Pédauque_ (1893) and _Les Opinions de M. Jérôme Coignard_ (1893), or _L'Orme du mail_ (1897), Le Mannequin d'osier (1897), _L'Anneau d'améthyste_ (1899), and _M. Bergeret à Paris_ (1901), he entrusts the expression of his opinions, dramatically, to some fictitious character--the abbé Coignard, for instance, projecting, as it were, from the 18th century some very effective criticisms on the popular political theories of contemporary France--or the M. Bergeret of the four last-named novels, which were published with the collective title of _Histoire contemporaine_. This series deals with some modern problems, and particularly, in _L'Anneau d'améthyste_ and _M. Bergeret à Paris_, with the humours and follies of the anti-Dreyfusards. All this makes a piquant combination. Neither should reference be omitted to his _Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard_ (1881), crowned by the Institute, nor to works more distinctly of fancy, such as _Balthasar_ (1889), the story of one of the Magi or _Thaïs_ (1890), the story of an actress and courtesan of Alexandria, whom a hermit converts, but with the loss of his own soul. His ironic comedy, _Crainquebille_ (Renaissance theatre, 1903), was founded on his novel (1902) of the same year. His more recent work includes his anti-clerical _Vie de Jeanne d'Arc_ (1908); his pungent satire the _Île des penguins_ (1908); and a volume of stories, _Les Sept Femmes de la Barbe-Bleue_ (1909). Lightly as he bears his erudition, it is very real and extensive, and is notably shown in his utilization of modern archaeological and historical research in his fiction (as in the stories in _Sur une pierre blanche_). As a critic--see the _Vie littéraire_ (1888-1892), reprinted mainly from _Le Temps_--he is graceful and appreciative. Academic in the best sense, he found a place in the French Academy, taking the seat vacated by Lesseps, and was received into that body on the 24th of December 1896. In the _affaire Dreyfus_ he sided with M. Zola.

For studies of M. Anatole France's talent see Maurice Bàrrès, _Anatole France_ (1885); Jules Lemaître, _Les Contemporains_ (2nd series, 1886); and G. Brandes, _Anatole France_ (1908). In 1908 Frederic Chapman began an edition of _The works of Anatole France in an English translation_ (John Lane).

FRANCE, a country of western Europe, situated between 51° 5' and 42° 20' N., and 4° 42' W. and 7° 39' E. It is hexagonal in form, being bounded N.W. by the North Sea, the Strait of Dover (_Pas de Calais_) and the English Channel (_La Manche_), W. by the Atlantic Ocean, S.W. by Spain, S.E. by the Mediterranean Sea, E. by Italy, Switzerland and Germany, N.E. by Germany, Luxemburg and Belgium. From north to south its length is about 600 m., measured from Dunkirk to the Col de Falguères; its breadth from east to west is 528 m., from the Vosges to Cape Saint Mathieu at the extremity of Brittany. The total area is estimated[1] at 207,170 sq. m., including the island of Corsica, which comprises 3367 sq. m. The coast-line of France extends for 384 m. on the Mediterranean, 700 on the North Sea, the Strait of Dover and the Channel, and 865 on the Atlantic. The country has the advantage of being separated from its neighbours over the greater part of its frontier by natural barriers of great strength, the Pyrenees forming a powerful bulwark on the south-west, the Alps on the south-east, and the Jura and the greater portion of the Vosges Mountains on the east. The frontier generally follows the crest line of these ranges. Germany possesses both slopes of the Vosges north of Mont Donon, from which point the north-east boundary is conventional and unprotected by nature.

France is geographically remarkable for its possession of great natural and historical highways between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean. The one, following the depression between the central plateau and the eastern mountains by way of the valleys of the Rhône and Saône, traverses the Côte d'Or hills and so gains the valley of the Seine; the other, skirting the southern base of the Cévennes, reaches the ocean by way of the Garonne valley. Another natural highway, traversing the lowlands to the west of the central plateau, unites the Seine basin with that of the Garonne.

_Physiography._--A line drawn from Bayonne through Agen, Poitiers, Troyes, Reims and Valenciennes divides the country roughly into two dissimilar physical regions--to the west and north-west a country of plains and low plateaus; in the centre, east and south-east a country of mountains and high plateaus with a minimum elevation of 650 ft. To the west of this line the only highlands of importance are the granitic plateaus of Brittany and the hills of Normandy and Perche, which, uniting with the plateau of Beauce, separate the basins of the Seine and Loire. The highest elevations of these ranges do not exceed 1400 ft. The configuration of the region east of the dividing line is widely different. Its most striking feature is the mountainous and eruptive area known as the Massif Central, which covers south-central France. The central point of this huge tract is formed by the mountains of Auvergne comprising the group of Cantal, where the Plomb du Cantal attains 6096 ft., and that of Mont Dore, containing the Puy de Sancy (6188 ft.), the culminating point of the Massif, and to the north the lesser elevations of the Monts Dôme. On the west the downward slope is gradual by way of lofty plateaus to the heights of Limousin and Marche and the table-land of Quercy, thence to the plains of Poitou, Angoumois and Guienne. On the east only river valleys divide the Auvergne mountains from those of Forez and Margeride, western spurs of the Cévennes. On the south the Aubrac mountains and the barren plateaus known as the Causses intervene between them and the Cévennes. The main range of the Cévennes (highest point Mont Lozère, 5584 ft.) sweeps in a wide curve from the granitic table-land of Morvan in the north along the right banks of the Saône and Rhône to the Montagne Noire in the south, where it is separated from the Pyrenean system by the river Aude. On the south-western border of France the Pyrenees include several peaks over 10,000 ft. within French territory; the highest elevation therein, the Vignemale, in the centre of the range, reaches 10,820 ft. On the north their most noteworthy offshoots are, in the centre, the plateau of Lannemezan from which rivers radiate fanwise to join the Adour and Garonne; and in the east the Corbière. On the south-eastern frontier the French Alps, which include Mont Blanc (15,800 ft.), and, more to the south, other summits over 11,000 ft. in height, cover Savoy and most of Dauphiné and Provence, that is to say, nearly the whole of France to the south and east of the Rhône. North of that river the parallel chains of the Jura form an arc of a circle with its convexity towards the north-west. In the southern and most elevated portion of the range there are several summits exceeding 5500 ft. Separated from the Jura by the defile of Belfort (Trouée de Belfort) the Vosges extend northward parallel to the course of the Rhine. Their culminating points in French territory, the Ballon d'Alsace and the Höhneck in the southern portion of the chain, reach 4100 ft. and 4480 ft. The Vosges are buttressed on the west by the Faucilles, which curve southwards to meet the plateau of Langres, and by the plateaus of Haute-Marne, united to the Ardennes on the north-eastern frontier by the wooded highlands of Argonne.

_Seaboard._--The shore of the Mediterranean encircling the Gulf of the Lion (Golfe du Lion)[2] from Cape Cerbera to Martigues is low-lying and unbroken, and characterized chiefly by lagoons separated from the sea by sand-dunes. The coast, constantly encroaching on the sea by reason of the alluvium washed down by the rivers of the Pyrenees and Cévennes, is without important harbours saving that of Cette, itself continually invaded by the sand. East of Martigues the coast is rocky and of greater altitude, and is broken by projecting capes (Couronne, Croisette, Sicié, the peninsula of Giens and Cape Antibes), and by deep gulfs forming secure roadsteads such as those of Marseilles, which has the chief port in France, Toulon, with its great naval harbour, and Hyères, to which may be added the Gulf of St Tropez.

Along the Atlantic coast from the mouth of the Adour to the estuary of the Gironde there stretches a monotonous line of sand-dunes bordered by lagoons on the land side, but towards the sea harbourless and unbroken save for the Bay of Arcachon. To the north as far as the rocky point of St Gildas, sheltering the mouth of the Loire, the shore, often occupied by salt marshes (marshes of Poitou and Brittany), is low-lying and hollowed by deep bays sheltered by large islands, those of Oléron and Ré lying opposite the ports of Rochefort and La Rochelle, while Noirmoutier closes the Bay of Bourgneuf.

Beyond the Loire estuary, on the north shore of which is the port of St Nazaire, the peninsula of Brittany projects into the ocean and here begins the most rugged, wild and broken portion of the French seaboard; the chief of innumerable indentations are, on the south the Gulf of Morbihan, which opens into a bay protected to the west by the narrow peninsula of Quiberon, the Bay of Lorient with the port of Lorient, and the Bay of Concarneau; on the west the dangerous Bay of Audierne and the Bay of Douarnenez separated from the spacious roadstead of Brest, with its important naval port, by the peninsula of Crozon, and forming with it a great indentation sheltered by Cape St Mathieu on the north and by Cape Raz on the south; on the north, opening into the English Channel, the Morlaix roads, the Bay of St Brieuc, the estuary of the Rance, with the port of St Malo and the Bay of St Michel. Numerous small archipelagoes and islands, of which the chief are Belle Île, Groix and Ushant, fringe the Breton coast. North of the Bay of St Michel the peninsula of Cotentin, terminating in the promontories of Hague and Barfleur, juts north into the English Channel and closes the bay of the Seine on the west. Cherbourg, its chief harbour, lies on the northern shore between the two promontories. The great port of Le Havre stands at the mouth of the Seine estuary, which opens into the bay of the Seine on the east. North of that point a line of high cliffs, in which occur the ports of Fécamp and Dieppe, stretches nearly to the sandy estuary of the Somme. North of that river the coast is low-lying and bordered by sand-dunes, to which succeed on the Strait of Dover the cliffs in the neighbourhood of the port of Boulogne and the marshes and sand-dunes of Flanders, with the ports of Calais and Dunkirk, the latter the principal French port on the North Sea.

To the maritime ports mentioned above must be added the river ports of Bayonne (on the Adour), Bordeaux (on the Garonne), Nantes (on the Loire), Rouen (on the Seine). On the whole, however, France is inadequately provided with natural harbours; her long tract of coast washed by the Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay has scarcely three or four good seaports, and those on the southern shore of the Channel form a striking contrast to the spacious maritime inlets on the English side.

_Rivers._--The greater part of the surface of France is divided between four principal and several secondary basins.

The basin of the Rhône, with an area (in France) of about 35,000 sq. m., covers eastern France from the Mediterranean to the Vosges, from the Cévennes and the Plateau de Langres to the crests of the Jura and the Alps. Alone among French rivers, the Rhône, itself Alpine in character in its upper course, is partly fed by Alpine rivers (the Arve, the Isère and the Durance) which have their floods in spring at the melting of the snow, and are maintained by glacier-water in summer. The Rhône, the source of which is in Mont St Gothard, in Switzerland, enters France by the narrow defile of L'Écluse, and has a somewhat meandering course, first flowing south, then north-west, and then west as far as Lyons, whence it runs straight south till it reaches the Mediterranean, into which it discharges itself by two principal branches, which form the delta or island of the Camargue. The Ain, the Saône (which rises in the Faucilles and in the lower part of its course skirting the regions of Bresse and Dombes, receives the Doubs and joins the Rhône at Lyons), the Ardèche and the Gard are the affluents on the right; on the left it is joined by the Arve, the Isère, the Drôme and the Durance. The small independent river, the Var, drains that portion of the Alps which fringes the Mediterranean.

The basin of the Garonne occupies south-western France with the exception of the tracts covered by the secondary basins of the Adour, the Aude, the Hérault, the Orb and other smaller rivers, and the low-lying plain of the Landes, which is watered by numerous coast rivers, notably by the Leyre. Its area is nearly 33,000 sq. m., and extends from the Pyrenees to the uplands of Saintonge, Périgord and Limousin. The Garonne rises in the valley of Aran (Spanish Pyrenees), enters France near Bagnères-de-Luchon, has first a north-west course, then bends to the north-east, and soon resumes its first direction. Joining the Atlantic between Royan and the Pointe de Grave, opposite the tower of Cordouan. In the lower part of its course, from the Bec-d'Ambez, where it receives the Dordogne, it becomes considerably wider, and takes the name of Gironde. The principal affluents are the Ariège, the Tarn with the Aveyron and the Agout, the Lot and the Dordogne, which descends from Mont Dore-les-Bains, and joins the Garonne at Bec-d'Ambez, to form the Gironde. All these affluents are on the right, and with the exception of the Ariège, which descends from the eastern Pyrenees, rise in the mountains of Auvergne and the southern Cévennes, their sources often lying close to those of the rivers of the Loire and Rhône basins. The Neste, a Pyrenean torrent, and the Save, the Gers and the Baïse, rising on the plateau of Lannemezan, are the principal left-hand tributaries of the Garonne. North of the basin of the Garonne an area of over 3800 sq. m. is watered by the secondary system of the Charente, which descends from Chéronnac (Haute-Vienne), traverses Angoulême and falls into the Atlantic near Rochefort. Farther to the north a number of small rivers, the chief of which is the Sèvre Niortaise, drain the coast region to the south of the plateau of Gâtine.

The basin of the Loire, with an area of about 47,000 sq. m., includes a great part of central and western France or nearly a quarter of the whole country. The Loire rises in Mont Gerbier de Jonc, in the range of the Vivarais mountains, flows due north to Nevers, then turns to the north-west as far as Orléans, in the neighbourhood of which it separates the marshy region of the Sologne (q.v.) on the south from the wheat-growing region of Beauce and the Gâtinais on the north. Below Orléans it takes its course towards the south-west, and lastly from Saumur runs west, till it reaches the Atlantic between Paimboeuf and St Nazaire. On the right the Loire receives the waters of the Furens, the Arroux, the Nièvre, the Maine (formed by the Mayenne and the Sarthe with its affluent the Loir), and the Erdre, which joins the Loire at Nantes; on the left, the Allier (which receives the Dore and the Sioule), the Loiret, the Cher, the Indre, the Vienne with its affluent the Creuse, the Thouet, and the Sèvre-Nantaise. The peninsula of Brittany and the coasts of Normandy on both sides of the Seine estuary are watered by numerous independent streams. Amongst these the Vilaine, which passes Rennes and Redon, waters, with its tributaries, an area of 4200 sq. m. The Orne, which rises in the hills of Normandy and falls into the Channel below Caen, is of considerably less importance.

The basin of the Seine, though its area of a little over 30,000 sq. m. is smaller than that of any of the other main systems, comprises the finest network of navigable rivers in the country. It is by far the most important basin of northern France, those of the Somme and Scheldt in the north-west together covering less than 5000 sq. m., those of the Meuse and the Rhine in the north-east less than 7000 sq.