Chapter XII: Part 12

But he certainly made friends among his class-fellows--some of whom continued friends for life. Winnington and Hanbury-Williams were among these. The chief, however, and the most faithful, was George, afterwards Sir George, and later Baron Lyttelton of Frankley.

When Fielding left Eton is unknown. But in November 1725 we hear of him definitely in what seems like a characteristic escapade. He was staying at Lyme (in company with a trusty retainer, ready to "beat, maim or kill" in his young master's behalf), and apparently bent on carrying off, if necessary by force, a local heiress, Miss Sarah Andrew, whose fluttered guardians promptly hurried her away, and married her to some one else (_Athenaeum_, 2nd June 1883). Her baffled admirer consoled himself by translating part of Juvenal's sixth satire into verse as "all the Revenge taken by an injured Lover." After this he must have lived the usual life of a young man about town, and probably at this date improved the acquaintance of his second cousin, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, to whom he inscribed his first comedy, _Love in Several Masques_, produced at Drury Lane in February 1728. The moment was not particularly favourable, since it succeeded Cibber's _Provok'd Husband_, and was contemporary with Gay's popular _Beggar's Opera_. Almost immediately afterwards (March 16th) Fielding entered himself as "Stud. Lit." at Leiden University. He was still there in February 1729. But he had apparently left before the annual registration of February 1730, when his name is absent from the books (_Macmillan's Magazine_, April 1907); and in January 1730 he brought out a second comedy at the newly-opened theatre in Goodman's Fields. Like its predecessor, the _Temple Beau_ was an essay in the vein of Congreve and Wycherley, though, in a measure, an advance on _Love in Several Masques_.

With the _Temple Beau_ Fielding's dramatic career definitely begins. His father had married again; and his Leiden career had been interrupted for lack of funds. Nominally, he was entitled to an allowance of L200 a year; but this (he was accustomed to say) "any body might pay that would." Young, handsome, ardent and fond of pleasure, he began that career as a hand-to-mouth playwright around which so much legend has gathered--and gathers. Having--in his own words--no choice but to be a hackney coachman or a hackney writer, he chose the pen; and his inclinations, as well as his opportunities, led him to the stage. From 1730 to 1736 he rapidly brought out a large number of pieces, most of which had merit enough to secure their being acted, but not sufficient to earn a lasting reputation for their author. His chief successes, from a critical point of view, the _Author's Farce_ (1730) and _Tom Thumb_ (1730, 1731), were burlesques; and he also was fortunate in two translations from Moliere, the _Mock Doctor_ (1732) and the _Miser_ (1733). Of the rest (with one or two exceptions, to be mentioned presently) the names need only be recorded. They are _The Coffee-House Politician_, a comedy (1730); _The Letter Writers_, a farce (1731); _The Grub-Street Opera_, a burlesque (1731); _The Lottery_, a farce (1732); _The Modern Husband_, a comedy (1732); _The Covent Garden Tragedy_, a burlesque (1732); _The Old Debauchees_, a comedy (1732); _Deborah; or, a Wife for you all_, an after-piece (1733); _The Intriguing Chambermaid_ (from Regnard), a two-act comedy (1734); and _Don Quixote in England_, a comedy, which had been partly sketched at Leiden.

_Don Quixote_ was produced in 1734, and the list of plays may be here interrupted by an event of which the date has only recently been ascertained, namely, Fielding's first marriage. This took place on the 28th of November 1734 at St Mary, Charlcornbe, near Bath (_Macmillan's Magazine_, April 1907), the lady being a Salisbury beauty, Miss Charlotte Cradock, of whom he had been an admirer, if not a suitor, as far back as 1730. This is a fact which should be taken into consideration in estimating the exact Bohemianism of his London life, for there is no doubt that he was devotedly attached to her. After a fresh farce entitled _An Old Man taught Wisdom_, and the comparative failure of a new comedy, _The Universal Gallant_, both produced early in 1735, he seems for a time to have retired with his bride, who came into L1500, to his old home at East Stour. Around this rural seclusion fiction has freely accreted. He is supposed to have lived for three years on the footing of a typical 18th-century country gentleman; to have kept a pack of hounds; to have put his servants into impossible yellow liveries; and generally, by profuse hospitality and reckless expenditure, to have made rapid duck and drake of Mrs Fielding's modest legacy. Something of this is demonstrably false; much, grossly exaggerated. In any case, he was in London as late as February 1735 (the date of the "Preface" to _The Universal Gallant_); and early in March 1736 he was back again managing the Haymarket theatre with a so-called "_Great Mogul's_ Company of _English_ Comedians."

Upon this new enterprise fortune, at the outset, seemed to smile. The first piece (produced on the 5th of March) was _Pasquin, a Dramatick Satire on the Times_ (a piece akin in its plan to Buckingham's _Rehearsal_), which contained, in addition to much admirable burlesque, a good deal of very direct criticism of the shameless political corruption of the Walpole era. Its success was unmistakable; and when, after bringing out the remarkable _Fatal Curiosity_ of George Lillo, its author followed up _Pasquin_ by the _Historical Register for the Year 1736_, of which the effrontery was even more daring than that of its predecessor, the ministry began to bethink themselves that matters were going too far. How they actually effected their object is obscure: but grounds were speedily concocted for the Licensing Act of 1737, which restricted the number of theatres, rendered the lord chamberlain's licence an indispensable preliminary to stage representation, and--in a word--effectually put an end to Fielding's career as a dramatist.

Whether, had that career been prolonged to its maturity, the result would have enriched the theatrical repertoire with a new species of burlesque, or reinforced it with fresh variations on the "wit-traps" of Wycherley and Congreve, is one of those inquiries that are more academic than, profitable. What may be affirmed is, that Fielding's plays, as we have them, exhibit abundant invention and ingenuity; that they are full of humour and high spirits; that, though they may have been hastily written, they were by no means thoughtlessly constructed; and that, in composing them, their author attentively considered either managerial hints, or the conditions of the market. Against this, one must set the fact that they are often immodest; and that, whatever their intrinsic merit, they have failed to rival in permanent popularity the work of inferior men. Fielding's own conclusion was, "that he left off writing for the stage, when he ought to have begun"--which can only mean that he himself regarded his plays as the outcome of imitation rather than experience. They probably taught him how to construct _Tom Jones_; but whether he could ever have written a comedy at the level of that novel, can only be established by a comparison which it is impossible to make, namely, a comparison with _Tom Jones_ of a comedy written at the same age, and in similar circumstances.

_Tumble-Down Dick; or, Phaeton in the Suds_, _Eurydice_ and _Eurydice hissed_ are the names of three occasional pieces which belong to the last months of Fielding's career as a Haymarket manager. By this date he was thirty, with a wife and daughter. As a means of support, he reverted to the profession of his maternal grandfather; and, in November 1737, he entered the Middle Temple, being described in the books of the society as "of East Stour in Dorset." That he set himself strenuously to master his new profession, is admitted; though it is unlikely that he had entirely discarded the irregular habits which had grown upon him in his irresponsible bachelorhood. He also did a good deal of literary work, the best known of which is contained in the _Champion_, a "News-Journal" of the _Spectator_ type undertaken with James Ralph, whose poem of "Night" is made notorious in the _Dunciad_. That the _Champion_ was not without merit is undoubted; but the essay-type was for the moment out-worn, and neither Fielding nor his coadjutor could lend it fresh vitality. Fielding contributed papers from the 15th of November 1739 to the 19th of June 1740. On the 20th of June he was called to the bar, and occupied chambers in Pump Court. It is further related that, in the diligent pursuit of his calling, he travelled the Western Circuit, and attended the Wiltshire sessions.

Although, with the _Champion_, he professed, for the time, to have relinquished periodical literature, he still wrote at intervals, a fact which, taken in connexion with his past reputation as an effective satirist, probably led to his being "unjustly censured" for much that he never produced. But he certainly wrote a poem "Of True Greatness" (1741); a first book of a burlesque epic, the _Vernoniad_, prompted by Vernon's expedition of 1739; a vision called the _Opposition_, and, perhaps, a political sermon entitled the _Crisis_ (1741). Another piece, now known to have been attributed to him by his contemporaries (_Hist. MSS. Comm., Rept._ 12, App. Pt. ix., p. 204), is the pamphlet entitled _An Apology for the Life of Mrs Shamela Andrews_, a clever but coarse attack upon the prurient side of Richardson's _Pamela_, which had been issued in 1740, and was at the height of its popularity. _Shamela_ followed early in 1741. Richardson, who was well acquainted with Fielding's four sisters, at that date his neighbours at Hammersmith, confidently attributed it to Fielding (_Corr._ 1804, iv. 286, and unpublished letter at South Kensington); and there are suggestive points of internal evidence (such as the transformation of _Pamela's_ "MR B." into "Mr Booby") which tend to connect it with the future _Joseph Andrews_. Fielding, however, never acknowledged it, or referred to it; and a great deal has been laid to his charge that he never deserved ("Preface" to _Miscellanies_, 1743).

But whatever may be decided in regard to the authorship of _Shamela_, it is quite possible that it prompted the more memorable _Joseph Andrews_, which made its appearance in February 1742, and concerning which there is no question. Professing, on his title-page, to imitate Cervantes, Fielding set out to cover _Pamela_ with Homeric ridicule by transferring the heroine's embarrassments to a hero, supposed to be her brother. Allied to this purpose was a collateral attack upon the slipshod _Apology_ of the playwright Colley Cibber, with whom, for obscure reasons, Fielding had long been at war. But the avowed object of the book fell speedily into the background as its author warmed to his theme. His secondary speedily became his primary characters, and Lady Booby and Joseph Andrews do not interest us now as much as Mrs Slipslop and Parson Adams--the latter an invention that ranges in literature with Sterne's "Uncle Toby" and Goldsmith's "Vicar." Yet more than these and others equally admirable in their round veracity, is the writer's penetrating outlook upon the frailties and failures of human nature. By the time he had reached his second volume, he had convinced himself that he had inaugurated a new fashion of fiction; and in a "Preface" of exceptional ability, he announced his discovery. Postulating that the epic might be "comic" or "tragic," prose or verse, he claimed to have achieved what he termed the "Comic Epos in Prose," of which the action was "ludicrous" rather than "sublime," and the personages selected from society at large, rather than the restricted ranks of conventional high life. His plan, it will be observed, was happily adapted to his gifts of humour, satire, and above all, irony. That it was matured when it began may perhaps be doubted, but it was certainly matured when it ended. Indeed, except for the plot, which, in his picaresque first idea, had not preceded the conception, _Joseph Andrews_ has all the characteristics of _Tom Jones_, even (in part) to the initial chapters.

_Joseph Andrews_ had considerable success, and the exact sum paid for it by Andrew Millar, the publisher, according to the assignment now at South Kensington, was L183:11s., one of the witnesses being the author's friend, William Young, popularly supposed to be the original of Parson Adams. It was with Young that Fielding undertook what, with exception of "a very small share" in the farce of _Miss Lucy in Town_ (1742), constituted his next work, a translation of the _Plutus_ of Aristophanes, which never seems to have justified any similar experiments. Another of his minor works was a _Vindication of the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough_ (1742), then much before the public by reason of the _Account of her Life_ which she had recently put forth. Later in the same year, Garrick applied to Fielding for a play; and a very early effort, _The Wedding Day_, was hastily patched together, and produced at Drury Lane in February 1743 with no great success. It was, however, included in Fielding's next important publication, the three volumes of _Miscellanies_ issued by subscription in the succeeding April. These also comprised some early poems, some essays, a Lucianic fragment entitled a _Journey from this World to the Next_, and, last but not least, occupying the entire final volume, the remarkable performance entitled the _History of the Life of the late Mr Jonathan Wild the Great_.

It is probable that, in its composition, _Jonathan Wild_ preceded _Joseph Andrews_. At all events it seems unlikely that Fielding would have followed up a success in a new line by an effort so entirely different in character. Taking for his ostensible hero a well-known thief-taker, who had been hanged in 1725, he proceeds to illustrate, by a mock-heroic account of his progress to Tyburn, the general proposition that greatness without goodness is no better than badness. He will not go so far as to say that all "Human Nature is Newgate with the Mask on"; but he evidently regards the description as fairly applicable to a good many so-called great people. Irony (and especially Irony neat) is not a popular form of rhetoric; and the remorseless pertinacity with which Fielding pursues his demonstration is to many readers discomforting and even distasteful. Yet--in spite of Scott--_Jonathan Wild_ has its softer pages; and as a purely intellectual conception it is not surpassed by any of the author's works.

His actual biography, both before and after _Jonathan Wild_, is obscure. There are evidences that he laboured diligently at his profession; there are also evidences of sickness and embarrassment. He had become early a martyr to the malady of his century--gout, and the uncertainties of a precarious livelihood told grievously upon his beautiful wife, who eventually died of fever in his arms, leaving him for the time so stunned and bewildered by grief that his friends feared for his reason. For some years his published productions were unimportant. He wrote "Prefaces" to the _David Simple_ of his sister Sarah in 1744 and 1747; and, in 1745-1746 and 1747-1748, produced two newspapers in the ministerial interest, the _True Patriot_ and the _Jacobite's Journal_, both of which are connected with, or derive from, the rebellion of 1745, and were doubtless, when they ceased, the pretext of a pension from the public service money (_Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon_, "Introduction"). In November 1747 he married his wife's maid, Mary Daniel, at St Bene't's, Paul's Wharf; and in December 1748, by the interest of his old school-fellow, Lyttelton, he was made a principal justice of peace for Middlesex and Westminster, an office which put him in possession of a house in Bow Street, and L300 per annum "of the dirtiest money upon earth" (_ibid._), which might have been more had he condescended to become what was known as a "trading" magistrate.

For some time previously, while at Bath, Salisbury, Twickenham and other temporary resting-places, he had intermittently occupied himself in composing his second great novel, _Tom Jones; or, the History of a Foundling_. For this, in June 1748, Millar had paid him L600, to which he added L100 more in 1749. In the February of the latter year it was published with a dedication to Lyttelton, to whose pecuniary assistance to the author during the composition it plainly bears witness. In _Tom Jones_ Fielding systematically developed the "new Province of Writing" he had discovered incidentally in _Joseph Andrews_. He paid closer attention to the construction and evolution of the plot; he elaborated the initial essays to each book which he had partly employed before, and he compressed into his work the flower and fruit of his forty years' experience of life. He has, indeed, no character quite up to the level of Parson Adams, but his Westerns and Partridges, his Allworthys and Blifils, have the inestimable gift of life. He makes no pretence to produce "models of perfection," but pictures of ordinary humanity, rather perhaps in the rough than the polished, the natural than the artificial, and his desire is to do this with absolute truthfulness, neither extenuating nor disguising defects and shortcomings. One of the results of this unvarnished naturalism has been to attract more attention to certain of the episodes than their inventor ever intended. But that, in the manners of his time, he had chapter and verse for everything he drew is clear. His sincere purpose was, he declared, "to recommend goodness and innocence," and his obvious aversions are vanity and hypocrisy. The methods of fiction have grown more sophisticated since his day, and other forms of literary egotism have taken the place of his once famous introductory essays, but the traces of _Tom Jones_ are still discernible in most of our manlier modern fiction.

Meanwhile, its author was showing considerable activity in his magisterial duties. In May 1749, he was chosen chairman of quarter sessions for Westminster; and in June he delivered himself of a weighty charge to the grand jury. Besides other pamphlets, he produced a careful and still readable _Enquiry into the Causes of the late Increase of Robbers_, &c. (1751), which, among its other merits, was not ineffectual in helping on the famous Gin Act of that year, a practical result to which the "Gin Lane" and "Beer Street" of his friend Hogarth also materially contributed. These duties and preoccupations left their mark on his next fiction, _Amelia_ (1752), which is rather more taken up with social problems and popular grievances than its forerunners. But the leading personage, in whom, as in the Sophia Western of _Tom Jones_, he reproduced the traits of his first wife, is certainly, as even Johnson admitted, "the most pleasing heroine of all the romances." The minor characters, too, especially Dr Harrison and Colonel Bath, are equal to any in _Tom Jones_. The book nevertheless shows signs, not of failure but of fatigue, perhaps of haste--a circumstance heightened by the absence of those "prolegomenous" chapters over which the author had lingered so lovingly in _Tom Jones_. In 1749 he had been dangerously ill, and his health was visibly breaking. The L1000 which Millar is said to have given for _Amelia_ must have been painfully earned.

Early in 1752 his still indomitable energy prompted him to start a third newspaper, the _Covent Garden Journal_, which ran from the 4th of January to the 25th of November. It is an interesting contemporary record, and throws a good deal of light on his Bow Street duties. But it has no great literary value, and it unhappily involved him in harassing and undignified hostilities with Smollett, Dr John Hill, Bonnell Thornton and other of his contemporaries. To the following year belong pamphlets on "Provision for the Poor," and the case of the strange impostor, Elizabeth Canning (1734-1773).[1] By 1754 his own case, as regards health, had grown desperate; and he made matters worse by a gallant and successful attempt to break up a "gang of villains and cut-throats," who had become the terror of the metropolis. This accomplished, he resigned his office to his half-brother John (afterwards Sir John) Fielding. But it was now too late. After fruitless essay both of Dr Ward's specifics and the tar-water of Bishop Berkeley, it was felt that his sole chance of prolonging life lay in removal to a warmer climate. On the 26th of June 1754 he accordingly left his little country house at Fordhook, Ealing, for Lisbon, in the "Queen of Portugal," Richard Veal master. The ship, as often, was tediously wind-bound, and the protracted discomforts of the sick man and his family are narrated at length in the touching posthumous tract entitled the _Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon_, which, with a fragment of a comment on Bolingbroke's then recently issued essays, was published in February 1755 "for the Benefit of his [Fielding's] Wife and Children." Reaching Lisbon at last in August 1754, he died there two months later (8th October), and was buried in the English cemetery, where a monument was erected to him in 1830._ Luget Britannia gremio non dari fovere natum_ is inscribed upon it.

His estate, including the proceeds of a fair library, only covered his just debts (_Athenaeum_, 25th Nov. 1905); but his family, a daughter by his first, and two boys and a girl by his second wife, were faithfully cared for by his brother John, and by his friend Ralph Allen of Prior Park, Bath, the Squire Allworthy of _Tom Jones_. His will (undated) was printed in the _Athenaeum_ for the 1st of February 1890. There is but one absolutely authentic portrait of him, a familiar outline by Hogarth, executed from memory for Andrew Millar's edition of his works in 1762. It is the likeness of a man broken by ill-health, and affords but faint indication of the handsome Harry Fielding who in his salad days "warmed both hands before the fire of life." Far too much stress, it is now held, has been laid by his first biographers upon the unworshipful side of his early career. That he was always profuse, sanguine and more or less improvident, is as probable as that he was always manly, generous and sympathetic. But it is also plain that, in his later years, he did much, as father, friend and magistrate, to redeem the errors, real and imputed, of a too-youthful youth.

As a playwright and essayist his rank is not elevated. But as a novelist his place is a definite one. If the _Spectator_ is to be credited with foreshadowing the characters of the novel, Defoe with its earliest form, and Richardson with its first experiments in sentimental analysis, it is to Henry Fielding that we owe its first accurate delineation of contemporary manners. Neglecting, or practically neglecting, sentiment as unmanly, and relying chiefly on humour and ridicule, he set out to draw life precisely as he saw it around him, without blanks or dashes. He was, it may be, for a judicial moralist, too indulgent to some of its frailties, but he was merciless to its meaner vices. For reasons which have been already given, his high-water mark is _Tom Jones_, which has remained, and remains, a model in its way of the kind he inaugurated.

An essay on Fielding's life and writings is prefixed to Arthur
Murphy's edition of his works (1762), and short biographies have been
written by Walter Scott and William Roscoe. There are also lives by
Watson (1807), Lawrence (1855), Austin Dobson ("Men of Letters," 1883,
1907) and G.M. Godden (1909). An annotated edition of the _Journal of
a Voyage to Lisbon_ is included in the "World's Classics" (1907).
(A. D.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] For a full account of this celebrated case see Howell, _State
Trials_ (1813), vol. xix.

FIELDING, WILLIAM STEVENS (1848- ), Canadian journalist and statesman, was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the 24th of November 1848. From 1864 to 1884 he was one of the staff of the _Morning Chronicle_, the chief Liberal paper of the province, and worked at all departments of newspaper life. In 1882 he entered the local legislature as Liberal member for Halifax, and from 1884 to 1896 was premier and provincial secretary of the province, but in the latter year became finance minister in the Dominion administration of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, and was elected to the House of Commons for Shelburne and Queen's county. He opposed Confederation in 1864-1867, and as late as 1886 won a provincial election on the promise to advocate the repeal of the British North America Act. His administration as finance minister of Canada was important, since in 1897 he introduced a new tariff, granting to the manufactures of Great Britain a preference, subsequently increased; and later he imposed a special surtax on German imports owing to unfriendly tariff legislation by that country. In 1902 he represented Canada at the Colonial Conference in London.

FIELD-MOUSE, the popular designation of such mouse-like British rodents as are not true or "house" mice. The term thus includes the long-tailed field mouse, _Mus (Micromys) sylvaticus_, easily recognized by its white belly, and sometimes called the wood-mouse; and the two species of short-tailed field-mice, _Microtus agrestis_ and _Evotomys glareolus_, together with their representatives in Skomer island and the Orkneys (see MOUSE and VOLE).

FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD, the French _Camp du drap d'or_, the name given to the place between Guines and Ardres where Henry VIII. of England met Francis I. of France in June 1520. The most elaborate arrangements were made for the accommodation of the two monarchs and their large retinues; and on Henry's part especially no efforts were spared to make a great impression in Europe by this meeting. Before the castle of Guines a temporary palace, covering an area of nearly 12,000 sq. yds., was erected for the reception of the English king. It was decorated in the most sumptuous fashion, and like the chapel, served by thirty-five priests, was furnished with a profusion of golden ornaments. Some idea of the size of Henry's following may be gathered from the fact that in one month 2200 sheep and other viands in a similar proportion were consumed. In the fields beyond the castle, tents to the number of 2800 were erected for less distinguished visitors, and the whole scene was one of the greatest animation. Ladies gorgeously clad, and knights, showing by their dress and bearing their anxiety to revive the glories and the follies of the age of chivalry, jostled mountebanks, mendicants and vendors of all kinds.

Journeying from Calais Henry reached his headquarters at Guines on the 4th of June 1520, and Francis took up his residence at Ardres. After Cardinal Wolsey, with a splendid train had visited the French king, the two monarchs met at the Val Dore, a spot midway between the two places, on the 7th. The following days were taken up with tournaments, in which both kings took part, banquets and other entertainments, and after Wolsey had said mass the two sovereigns separated on the 24th. This meeting made a great impression on contemporaries, but its political results were very small.

The _Ordonnance_ for the _Field_ is printed by J.S. Brewer in the
_Calendar of State Papers, Henry VIII_. vol. iii. (1867). See also
J.S. Brewer, _Reign of Henry VIII_. (1884).

FIELDS, JAMES THOMAS (1817-1881), American publisher and author, was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the 31st of December 1817. At the age of seventeen he went to Boston as clerk in a bookseller's shop. Afterwards he wrote for the newspapers, and in 1835 he read an anniversary poem entitled "Commerce" before the Boston Mercantile Library Association. In 1839 he became junior partner in the publishing and bookselling firm known after 1846 as Ticknor & Fields, and after 1868 as Fields, Osgood & Company. He was the publisher of the foremost contemporary American writers, with whom he was on terms of close personal friendship, and he was the American publisher of some of the best-known British writers of his time, some of whom, also, he knew intimately. The first collected edition of De Quincey's works (20 vols., 1850-1855) was published by his firm. As a publisher he was characterized by a somewhat rare combination of keen business acumen and sound, discriminating literary taste, and as a man he was known for his geniality and charm of manner. In 1862-1870, as the successor of James Russell Lowell, he edited the _Atlantic Monthly_. In 1871 Fields retired from business and from his editorial duties, and devoted himself to lecturing and to writing. Of his books the chief were the collection of sketches and essays entitled _Underbrush_ (1877) and the chapters of reminiscence composing _Yesterdays with Authors_ (1871), in which he recorded his personal friendship with Wordsworth, Thackeray, Dickens, Hawthorne and others. He died in Boston on the 24th of April 1881.

His second wife, ANNIE ADAMS FIELDS (b. 1834), whom he married in 1854, published _Under the Olive_ (1880), a book of verses; _James T. Fields: Biographical Notes and Personal Sketches_ (1882); _Authors and Friends_ (1896); _The Life and Letters of Harriet Beecher Stowe_ (1897); and _Orpheus_ (1900).

FIENNES, NATHANIEL (c. 1608-1669) English politician, second son of William, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele, by Elizabeth, daughter of John Temple, of Stow in Buckinghamshire, was born in 1607 or 1608, and educated at Winchester and at New College, Oxford, where as founder's kin he was admitted a perpetual fellow in 1624. After about five years' residence he left without taking a degree, travelled abroad, and in Switzerland imbibed or strengthened those religious principles and that hostility to the Laudian church which were to be the chief motive in his future political career. He returned to Scotland in 1639, and established communications with the Covenanters and the Opposition in England, and as member for Banbury in both the Short and Long Parliaments he took a prominent part in the attacks upon the church. He spoke against the illegal canons on the 14th of December 1640, and again on the 9th of February 1641 on the occasion of the reception of the London petition, when he argued against episcopacy as constituting a political as well as a religious danger and made a great impression on the House, his name being added immediately to the committee appointed to deal with church affairs. He took a leading part in the examination into the army plot; was one of the commissioners appointed to attend the king to Scotland in August 1641; and was nominated one of the committee of safety in July 1642. On the outbreak of hostilities he took arms immediately, commanded a troop of horse in the army of Lord Essex, was present at the relief of Coventry in August, and at the fight at Worcester in September, where he distinguished himself, and subsequently at Edgehill. Of the last two engagements he wrote accounts, viz. _True and Exact Relation of both the Battles fought by ... Earl of Essex ... against the Bloudy Cavaliers_ (1642). (See also _A Narrative of the Late Battle before Worcester taken by a Gentleman of the Inns of Court from the mouth of Master Fiennes_, 1642). In February 1643 Fiennes was sent down to Bristol, arrested Colonel Essex the governor, executed the two leaders of a plot to deliver up the city, and received a commission himself as governor on the 1st of May 1643. On the arrival, however, of Prince Rupert on the 22nd of July the place was in no condition to resist an attack, and Fiennes capitulated. He addressed to Essex a letter in his defence (Thomason Tracts E. 65, 26), drew up for the parliament a _Relation concerning the Surrender_ ... (1643), answered by Prynne and Clement Walker accusing him of treachery and cowardice, to which he opposed _Col. Fiennes his Reply_.... He was tried at St Albans by the council of war in December, was pronounced guilty of having surrendered the place improperly, and sentenced to death. He was, however, pardoned, and the facility with which Bristol subsequently capitulated to the parliamentary army induced Cromwell and the generals to exonerate him completely. His military career nevertheless now came to an end. He went abroad, and it was some time before he reappeared on the political scene. In September 1647 he was included in the army committee, and on the 3rd of January 1648 he became a member of the committee of safety. He was, however, in favour of accepting the king's terms at Newport in December, and in consequence was excluded from the House by Pride's Purge. An opponent of church government in any form, he was no friend to the rigid and tyrannical Presbyterianism of the day, and inclined to Independency and Cromwell's party. He was a member of the council of state in 1654, and in June 1655 he received the strange appointment of commissioner for the custody of the great seal, for which he was certainly in no way fitted. In the parliament of 1654 he was returned for Oxford county and in that of 1656 for the university, while in January 1658 he was included in Cromwell's House of Lords. He was in favour of the Protector's assumption of the royal title and urged his acceptance of it on several occasions. His public career closes with addresses delivered in his capacity as chief commissioner of the great seal at the beginning of the sessions of January 20, 1658, and January 2, 1659, in which the religious basis of Cromwell's government is especially insisted upon, the feature to which Fiennes throughout his career had attached most value. On the reassembling of the Long Parliament he was superseded; he took no part in the Restoration, and died at Newton Tony in Wiltshire on the 16th of December 1669. Fiennes married (1), Elizabeth, daughter of the famous parliamentarian Sir John Eliot, by whom he had one son, afterwards 3rd Viscount Saye and Sele; and (2), Frances, daughter of Richard Whitehead of Tuderley, Hants, by whom he had three daughters.

Besides the pamphlets already cited, a number of his speeches and
other political tracts were published (see Gen. Catalogue, British
Museum). Wood also attributed to him _Monarchy Asserted_ (1666)
(reprinted in Somers Tracts, vi. 346 [ed. Scott]), but there seems no
reason to ascribe to him with Clement Walker the authorship of
Sprigge's _Anglia Rediviva_.

FIERI FACIAS, usually abbreviated _fi. fa._ (Lat. "that you cause to be made"), in English law, a writ of execution after judgment obtained in action of debt or damages. It is addressed to the sheriff, and commands him to make good the amount out of the goods of the person against whom judgment has been obtained. (See EXECUTION.)

FIESCHI, GIUSEPPE MARCO (1790-1836), the chief conspirator in the attempt on the life of Louis Philippe in July 1835, was a native of Murato in Corsica. He served under Murat, then returned to Corsica, where he was condemned to ten years' imprisonment and perpetual surveillance by the police for theft and forgery. After a period of vagabondage he eluded the police and obtained a small post in Paris by means of forged papers; but losing it on account of his suspicious manner of living, he resolved to revenge himself on society. He took lodgings on the Boulevard du Temple, and there, with two members of the Societe des Droits de l'Homme, Morey and Pepin by name, contrived an "infernal machine," constructed with twenty gun barrels, to be fired simultaneously. On the 28th of July 1835, as Louis Philippe was passing along the boulevard to the Bastille, accompanied by his three sons and a numerous staff, the machine was exploded. A ball grazed the king's forehead, and his horse, with those of the duke of Nemours and of the prince de Joinville, was shot; Marshal Mortier was killed, with seventeen other persons, and many were wounded; but the king and the princes escaped as if by miracle. Fieschi himself was severely wounded by the discharge of his machine, and vainly attempted to escape. The attentions of the most skilful physicians were lavished upon him, and his life was saved for the stroke of justice. On his trial he named his accomplices, displayed much bravado, and expected or pretended to expect ultimate pardon. He was condemned to death, and was guillotined on the 19th of February 1836. Morey and Pepin were also executed, another accomplice was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment and one was acquitted. No less than seven plots against the life of Louis Philippe had been discovered by the police within the year, and apologists were not wanting in the revolutionary press for the crime of Fieschi.

See _Proces de Fieschi, precede de sa vie privee, sa condamnation par
la Cour des Pairs et celles de ses complices_ (2 vols., 1836); also P.
Thureau-Dangin, _Hist, de la monarchie de Juillet_ (vol. iv. ch. xii.,
1884).

FIESCO (DE' FIESCHI), GIOVANNI LUIGI (c. 1523-1547), count of Lavagna, was descended from one of the greatest families of Liguria, first mentioned in the 10th century. Among his ancestors were two popes (Innocent IV. and Adrian V.), many cardinals, a king of Sicily, three saints, and many generals and admirals of Genoa and other states. Sinibaldo Fiesco, his father, had been a close friend of Andrea Doria (q.v.), and had rendered many important services to the Genoese republic. On his death in 1532 Giovanni found himself at the age of nine the head of the family and possessor of immense estates. He grew up to be a handsome, intelligent youth, of attractive manners and very ambitious. He married Eleonora Cibo, marchioness of Massa, in 1540, a woman of great beauty and family influence. There were many reasons which inspired his hatred of the Doria family; the almost absolute power wielded by the aged admiral and the insolence of his nephew and heir Giannettino Doria, the commander of the galleys, were galling to him as to many other Genoese, and it is said that Giannettino was the lover of Fiesco's wife. Moreover, the Fiesco belonged to the French or popular party, while the Doria were aristocrats and Imperialists. When Fiesco determined to conspire against Doria he found friends in many quarters. Pope Paul III. was the first to encourage him, while both Pier Luigi Farnese, duke of Parma, and Francis I. of France gave him much assistance and promised him many advantages. Among his associates in Genoa were his brothers Girolamo and Ottobuono, Verrina and R. Sacco. A number of armed men from the Fiesco fiefs were secretly brought to Genoa, and it was agreed that on the 2nd of January 1547, during the interregnum before the election of the new doge, the galleys in the port should be seized and the city gates held. The first part of the programme was easily carried out, and Giannettino Doria, aroused by the tumult, rushed down to the port and was killed, but Andrea escaped from the city in time. The conspirators attempted to gain possession of the government, but unfortunately for them Giovanni Luigi, while crossing a plank from the quay to one of the galleys, fell into the water and was drowned. The news spread consternation among the Fiesco faction, and Girolamo Fiesco found few adherents. They came to terms with the senate and were granted a general amnesty. Doria returned to Genoa on the 4th thirsting for revenge, and in spite of the amnesty he confiscated the Fiesco estates; Girolamo had shut himself up, with Verrina and Sacco and other conspirators, in his castle of Montobbia, which the Genoese at Doria's instigation besieged and captured. Girolamo Fiesco and Verrina were tried, tortured and executed; all their estates were seized, some of which, including Torriglia, Doria obtained for himself. Ottobuono Fiesco, who had escaped, was captured eight years afterwards and put to death by Doria's orders.

There are many accounts of the conspiracy, of which perhaps the best
is contained in E. Petit's _Andre Doria_ (Paris, 1887), chs. xi. and
xii., where all the chief authorities are quoted; see also Calligari,
_La Congiura del Fiesco_ (Venice 1892), and Gavazzo, _Nuovi documenti
sulla congiura del conte Fiesco_ (Genoa, 1886); E. Bernabo-Brea, in
his _Sulla congiura di Giovanni Luigi Fieschi_, publishes many
important documents, while L. Capelloni's _Congiura del Fiesco_,
edited by Olivieri, and A. Mascardi's _Congiura del conte Giovanni
Luigi de' Fieschi_ (Antwerp, 1629) may be commended among the earlier
works. The Fiesco conspiracy has been the subject of many poems and
dramas, of which the most famous is that by Schiller. See also under
DORIA, ANDREA; FARNESE. (L. V.*)

FIESOLE (anc. _Faesulae_, q.v.), a town and episcopal see of Tuscany, Italy, in the province of Florence, from which it is 3 m. N.E. by electric tramway. Pop. (1901) town 4951, commune 16,816. It is situated on a hill 970 ft. above sea-level, and commands a fine view. The cathedral of S. Romolo is an early and simple example of the Tuscan Romanesque style; it is a small basilica, begun in 1028 and restored in 1256. The picturesque battlemented campanile belongs to 1213. The tomb of the bishop Leonardo Salutati (d. 1466). with a beautiful portrait bust by the sculptor, Mino da Fiesole (1431-1484), is fine. The 13th-century Palazzo Pretorio contains a small museum of antiquities. The Franciscan monastery commands a fine view. The church of S. Maria Primerana has some works of art, and S. Alessandro, which is attributed to the 6th century, contains fifteen ancient columns of cipollino. The inhabitants of Fiesole are largely engaged in straw-plaiting.

Below Fiesole, between it and Florence, lies San Domenico di Fiesole (485 ft.); in the Dominican monastery the painter, Fra Giovanni Angelico da Fiesole (1387-1455), lived until he went to S. Marco at Florence. Here, too, is the Badia di Fiesole, founded in 1028 and re-erected about 1456-1466 by a follower of Brunelleschi. It is an irregular pile of buildings, in fine and simple early Renaissance style; a small part of the original facade of 1028 in black and white marble is preserved. The interior of the Church is decorated with sculptures by pupils of Desiderio da Settignano. The slopes of the hill on which Fiesole stands are covered with fine villas. To the S.E. of Fiesole lies Monte Ceceri (1453 ft.), with quarries of grey _pietra serena_, largely used in Florence for building. To the E. of this lies the 14th-century castle of Vincigliata restored and fitted up in the medieval style.

FIFE, an eastern county of Scotland, bounded N. by the Firth of Tay, E. by the North Sea, S. by the Firth of Forth, and W. by the shires of Perth, Kinross and Clackmannan. The Isle of May, Inchkeith, Inchcolm, Inchgarvie and the islet of Oxcar belong to the shire. It has an area of 322,844, acres or 504 sq. m. Its coast-line measure 108 m. The Lomond Hills to the S. and S.W. of Falkland, of which West Lomond is 1713 ft. high and East Lomond 1471 ft., Saline Hill (1178 ft.) to the N.W. of Dunfermline, and Benarty (1131 ft.) on the confines of Kinross are the chief heights. Of the rivers the Eden is the longest; formed on the borders of Kinross-shire by the confluence of Beattie Burn and Carmore Burn, it pursues a wandering course for 25 m. N.E., partly through the Howe, or Hollow of Fife, and empties into the North Sea. There is good trout fishing in its upper waters, but weirs prevent salmon from ascending it. The Leven drains the loch of that name and enters the Forth at the town of Leven after flowing eastward for 15 m. There are numerous factories at various points on its banks. The Ore, rising not far from Roscobie Hills to the north of Dunfermline, follows a mainly north-easterly course for 15 m. till it joins the Leven at Windygates. The old loch of Ore which was an expansion of its water was long ago reclaimed. Motray Water finds its source in the parish of Kilmany, a few miles W. by N. of Cupar, makes a bold sweep towards the north-east, and then, taking a southerly turn, enters the head-waters of St Andrews Bay, after a course of 12 m. The principal lochs are Loch Fitty, Loch Gelly, Loch Glow and Loch Lindores; they are small but afford some sport for trout, perch and pike. "Freshwater mussels" occur in Loch Fitty. There are no glens, and the only large valley is the fertile Stratheden, which supplies part of the title of the combined baronies of Stratheden (created 1836) and Campbell (created 1841).

_Geology._--Between Damhead and Tayport on the northern side of the
low-lying Howe of Fife the higher ground is formed of Lower Old Red
Sandstone volcanic rocks, consisting of red and purple porphyrites and
andesites and some coarse agglomerates, which, in the neighbourhood of
Auchtermuchty, are rounded and conglomeratic. These rocks have a
gentle dip towards the S.S.E. They are overlaid unconformably by the
soft red sandstones of the Upper Old Red series which underlie the
Howe of Fife from Loch Leven to the coast. The quarries in these rocks
in Dura Den are famous for fossil fishes. Following the Old Red rocks
conformably are the Carboniferous formations which occupy the
remainder of the county, and are well exposed on the coast and in the
numerous quarries. The Carboniferous rocks include, at the base, the
Calciferous Sandstone series of dark shales with thin limestones,
sandstones and coals. They are best developed around Fife Ness,
between St Andrews and Elie, and again around Burntisland between
Kirkcaldy and Inverkeithing Bay. In the Carboniferous Limestone
series, which comes next in upward succession, are the valuable
gas-coals and ironstones worked in the coal-fields of Dunfermline,
Saline, Oakley, Torryburn, Kirkcaldy and Markinch. The true Coal
Measures lie in the district around Dysart and Leven, East Wemyss and
Kinglassie, and they are separated from the coal-bearing
Carboniferous Limestone series by the sandstones and conglomerates of
the Millstone Grit, Fourteen seams of coal are found in the Dysart
Coal Measures, associated with sandstones, shales and clay ironstones.
Fife is remarkably rich in evidences of former volcanic activity.
Besides the Old Red Sandstone volcanic rocks previously mentioned,
there are many beds of contemporaneous basaltic lavas and tuffs in the
Carboniferous rocks; Saline Hill and Knock Hill were the sites of
vents, which at that time threw out ashes; these interbedded rocks are
well exposed on the shore between Burntisland and and Seafield Tower.
There were also many intrusive sheets of dolerite and basalt forced
into the lower Carboniferous rocks, and these now play an important
part in the scenery of the county. They form the summits of the Lomond
Hills and Benarty, and they may be followed from Cult Hill by the
Cleish Hills to Blairadam; and again near Dunfermline, Burntisland,
Torryburn, Auchtertool and St Andrews. Later, in Permian times,
eastern Fife was the seat of further volcanic action, and great
numbers of "necks" or vents pierce the Carboniferous rocks; Largo Law
is a striking example. In one of these necks on the shore at Kincraig
Point is a fine example of columnar basalt; the "Rock and Spindle"
near St Andrews is another. Last of all in Tertiary times, east and
west rifts in the Old Red Sandstone were filled by basalt dikes.
Glacial deposits, ridges of gravel and sand, boulder clay, &c.,
brought from the N. W., cover much of the older rocks, and traces of
old raised beaches are found round the coast and in the Howe cf Fife.
In the 25-ft. beach in the East Neuk of Fife is an island sea-cliff
with small caves.

_Climate and Agriculture._--Since the higher hills all lie in the west, most of the county is exposed to the full force of the east winds from the North Sea, which often, save in the more sheltered areas, check the progress of vegetation. At an elevation of 500 or 600 ft. above the sea harvests are three or four weeks later than in the valleys and low-lying coast-land. The climate, on the whole, is mild, proximity to the sea qualifying the heat in summer and the cold in winter. The average annual rainfall is 31 in., rather less in the East Neuk district and around St Andrews, somewhat more as the hills are approached, late summer and autumn being the wet season. The average temperature for January is 38 deg. F., for July 59.5 deg., and for the year 47.6 deg. Four-fifths of the total area is under cultivation, and though the acreage under grain is smaller than it was, the yield of each crop is still extraordinarily good, oats, barley, wheat being the order of acreage. Of the green crops most attention is given to turnips. Potatoes also do well. The acreage under permanent pasture and wood is very considerable. Cattle are mainly kept for feeding purposes, and dairy farming, though attracting more notice, has never been followed more than to supply local markets. Sheep-farming, however, is on the increase, and the raising of horses, especially farm horses, is an important pursuit. They are strong, active and hardy, with a large admixture, or purely, of Clydesdale blood. The ponies, hunters and carriage horses so bred are highly esteemed. The strain of pigs has been improved by the introduction of Berkshires. North of the Eden the soil, though generally thin, is fertile, but the sandy waste of Tents Moor is beyond redemption. From St Andrews southwards all along the coast the land is very productive. That adjacent to the East Neuk consists chiefly of clay and rich loam. From Leven to Inverkeithing it varies from a light sand to a rich clayey loam. Excepting Stratheden and Strathleven, which are mostly rich, fertile loam, the interior is principally cold and stiff clay or thin loam with strong clayey subsoil. Part of the Howe of Fife is light and shingly and covered with heather. Some small peat mosses still exist, and near Lochgelly there is a tract of waste, partly moss and partly heath. The character of the farm management may be judged by its results. The best methods are pursued, and houses, steadings and cottages are all in good order, commodious and comfortable. Rabbits, hares, pheasants and partridges are common in certain districts; roe deer are occasionally seen; wild geese, ducks and teal haunt the lochs; pigeon-houses are fairly numerous; and grouse and blackcock are plentiful on the Lomond moors. The shire is well suited for fox-hunting, and there are packs in both the eastern and the western division of Fife.

_Mining._--Next to Lanarkshire, Fife is the largest coal-producing county in Scotland. The coal-field may roughly be divided into the Dunfermline basin (including Halbeath, Lochgelly and Kelty), where the principal house coals are found, and the Wemyss or Dysart basin (including Methil and the hinterland), where gas-coal of the best quality is obtained. Coal is also extensively worked at Culross, Carnock, Falfield, Donibristle, Ladybank, Kilconquhar and elsewhere. Beds of ironstone, limestone, sandstone and shale lie in many places contiguous to the coal. Blackband ironstone is worked at Lochgelly and Oakley, where there are large smelting furnaces. Oil shale is worked at Burntisland and Airdrie near Crail. Among the principal limestone quarries are those at Charlestown, Burntisland and Cults. Freestone of superior quality is quarried at Strathmiglo, Burntisland and Dunfermline. Whinstone of unusual hardness and durability is obtained in nearly every district. Lead has been worked in the Lomond Hills and copper and zinc have been met with, though not in paying quantities. It is of interest to note that in the trap tufa at Elie there have been found pyropes (a variety of dark-red garnet), which are regarded as the most valuable of Scottish precious stones and are sold under the name of Elie rubies.

_Other Industries._--The staple manufacture is linen, ranging from the finest damasks to the coarsest ducks and sackings. Its chief seats are at Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline, but it is carried on at many of the inland towns and villages, especially those situated near the Eden and Leven, on the banks of which rivers, as well as at Kirkcaldy, Dunfermline and Ceres, are found the bleaching-greens. Kirkcaldy is famous for its oil-cloth and linoleum. Most of the leading towns possess breweries and tanneries, and the largest distilleries are at Cameron Bridge and Burntisland. Woollen cloth is made to a small extent in several towns, and fishing-net at Kirkcaldy, Largo and West Wemyss. Paper is manufactured at Guardbridge, Markinch and Leslie; earthenware at Kirkcaldy; tobacco at Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy; engineering works and iron foundries are found at Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline; and shipbuilding is carried on at Kinghorn, Dysart, Burntisland, Inverkeithing and Tayport. From Inverkeithing all the way round the coast to Newburgh there are harbours at different points. They are mostly of moderate dimensions, the principal port being Kirkcaldy. The largest salmon fisheries are conducted at Newburgh and the chief seat of the herring fishery is Anstruther, but most of the coast towns take some part in the fishing either off the shore, or at stations farther north, or in the deep sea.