I went down to the river Brent in the ordinary ferry. Addison. We have no slaves at home-Then why abroad? And they themselves, once ferried o'er the wave That parts us, are emancipate and loosed. Couper. FERTE GAUCHER, LA, a small town of France, in Champagne, which was the scene of a severe action, on the 26th of March 1814, between the French and allies. Population 1950 Fourteen miles south of Chateau-Thierry. FERTE IMBAULT, LA, a small town of France, in the department of the Loir and Cher, on the Seudre, with 1600 inhabitants. Twenty-eight miles E.S. E. of Blois. FERTE, LANGERON, LA, a town of France, in the department of the Nievre. Population 1200. Fifteen miles north of Nevers. FERTE LOUPTIERE, LA, a town of France, in the department of the Yonne. Population 1160. Fifteen miles north-west of Auxerre. FERTE MACES, LA, a town of Normandy. Population 3400. Twenty-three miles west of Alençon. FERTE MILON, LA, a town of France, in the department of the Aisne, on the Ourcq. Racine, the celebrated French tragedian, was born here, in 1639. Population 2100. It is sixty miles north-east of Paris. FERTE, St. AUBEN, LA, or Lovendhal, a small town of the interior of France, on the Cousson, containing 1600 inhabitants. Eleven miles south of Orleans. FERTE SUR AUBE, LA, a town of France, in the department of the Upper Marne, on the Aube. Population 1100. This was the scene of an action between the French and allies on the 27th and 28th of February 1814. Fifteen miles west of Chaumont en Bassigne. FERTE SOUS JOUARRE, a neat town of France, in the department of the Seine and Marne, at the conflux of the Marne and the Morin. Population 3700. Ten miles east of Meaux. There are various other small towns of France of this name. FER'VENCY, n. s. Darwin. Fr. fervent; Ital. and Port. fervente; Lat fervens, ferveo; à Gr. Oɛpw, to make hot. Heat: most commonly applied in our language metaphorically, to heat or ardor of mind; warmth of devotion; zeal: fervidity, fervidness, and fervor, are synonymes of fervency. Not slough in bisinesse, feruent in spyryt, scruonge to the lord. Wiclif. Romaynes xii. And not by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me; so that I rejoiced the more. 1 Cor. vii. 7. Id. Spenser's Faerie Queene. We have on all sides lost most of our first fervency which all had held for the space of many ages, with- Haply despair hath seized her; Shakspeare. Cymbeline. Did hang a fish on his hook, which he Shakspeare. Were it an undeniable truth that an effectual fervour proceeded from this star, yet would not the same determine the opinion. Browne. Like bright Aurora, whose refulgent ray And warns the shepherd with his flocks retreat Let all enquiries into the mysterious points of theology be carried on with fervent petitions to God, that he would dispose their minds to direct all their skill to the promotion of a good life. South. Addison on Italy. Wake. What profound repose ' What fervid action, yet no noise! as awed Young. Yet, when the sense of sacred presence fires, Johnson. Vanity of Human Wishes. To seize and share the dear caress : Yet did I love thee to the last Byron. Who did'st not change through all the past, Id Fr. ferule, from Lat. FE RULE, n. s. & v. a. Ì ferula, giant fennel. An instrument of correction with which young scholars are beaten on the hand; so named because anciently the stalks of fennel were used for this purpose: to ferule is to apply the ferule. These differ as much as the rod and ferula. Shaw's Grammar · The birch upon the breeches of the small ones, And humble with the ferule the tall ones. Beaumont and Fletcher. The eye of the parent, and the ferule of the master, is all too little to bring our sons to good. Bp. Hall. FERULA has also been used to denote the prelate's cros.er and staff. FERULA, in the eastern empire, was the emperor's sceptre, as is seen on various medals; it consists of a long stem, or shank, and a flat square head. The use of the ferula is very ancient among the Greeks, who used to call their princes vapenkopopo, q. d. 'ferula-bearers.' FERULA, in the ancient eastern church, signified a place separated from the church; wherein the penitents, or the catechumens of the second order, called auscultantes, axρоaμatikoι, were kept as not being allowed to enter the church; whence the name of the place, the persons therein being under penance or discipline: sub ferula erant ecclesiæ. FERULA, fennel-giant, in botany, a genus of the digynia order and pentandria class of plants: natural order forty-fifth, umbellatæ. The fruit is oval, compressed plane, with three striæ on each side. There are nine species; all herbaceous perennials, rising from three to ten or twelve feet high, with yellow flowers. They are propagated by seeds, which should be sown in autumn; and, Asa There will be at Loretto, in a few ages more, jewels of the greatest value in Europe, if the devotion of its princes continues in its present fervour. When you pray, let it be with attention, with fer- when planted out, ought to be four or five feet vency, and with perseverance. distant from each other, or from any other plants; for no other will thrive under their shade. fetida is obtained from a species of ferula. The process of obtaining it is as follows: the earth is cleared away from the top of the roots of the oldest plants; the leaves and stalks are then twisted away, and made into a covering, to screen the root from the sun; in this state the root is left for forty days, when the covering is removed. As to the healing of Malchus's ear, in the account of the meek Lamb of God, it was a kind of injury done to him by the fervidness of St. Peter, who knew not yet what spirit he was of. These silver drops, like morning dew, Foretell the fervour of the day; Bentley. So from one cloud soft showers we view, And blasting lightnings burst away. Pope. and the top of the root cut off transversely; it is then screened again from the sun for forty-eight hours, when the juice it exudes is scraped off, and exposed to the sun to harden. A second transverse section of the root is made, and the exudation suffered to continue for forty-eight hours, and then scraped off. In this manner it is eight times repeatedly collected in a period of six weeks. The juice thus obtained has a bitter, acrid, pungent taste, and is well known by its peculiar nauseous smell, the strength of which is the surest test of its goodness. This odor is Extremely volatile, and of course the drug loses much of its efficacy by keeping. It is brought to us in large irregular masses, composed of various little shining lumps, or grains, which are partly of a whitish color, partly reddish, and partly of a violet hue. Those masses are accounted the best which are clear, of a pale reddish color, and variegated with a great number of elegant white tears. FESCENNIA, or FESCENNIUM, in ancient geography, a town of Etruria, above Falerii, near the Tiber, where the Fescennine verses were first invented now called Galese. the FESCENNINE VERSES, in Roman antiquity, were a kind of satirical verses, full of wanton and obscene expressions, sung or rehearsed by company, with many indecent gestures and dances, at the solemnisation of a marriage (Hor. ep. i. lib. v. 145). The word is borrowed, according to Macrobius, from fascinum, a charm; the people supposing songs proper to drive away witches, or prevent their effect; but its more probable origin is from Fescennia. FE'SCUE, n. s. Fr. festu; Dut. veese. A small wire by which those who teach to read point out the letters. Why mought not he, as well as others done, Rise from his fescue to his Littleton. Bp. Hall's Satires. Teach him an alphabet upon his fingers, making the paints of his fingers of his left hand, both on the inside, to signify some letter, when any of them is pointed at by the fore-finger of the right hand, or by any kind of fescue. Holder. Teach them how manly passions ought to move; For such as cannot think, can never love; And since they needs will judge the poet's art, Point 'em with fescues to each shining part. Dryden. FESELS, n.s. Fr. faseole; Ital. fagiulo; Lat. phaseolus. A kind of base grain. Disdain not feels or poor vech to sow, Or care to make Egyptian lentils thrive. May. FESSE, in heraldry, an honorable ordinary, possessing the third and middle part of the field horizontally. It is supposed to be a belt of honor given as a reward by kings, &c., for services in the army. See fig. 1. argent, a fesse gules, name Wilkins. A fesse is often borne couped or cut off as it were from the two sides as fig. 2. Sable, a fesse couped or between two words pointing upwards and downwards. Party per fess, is when a shield is parted across the middle or lesse part as fig. 3; partly per fesse dancette, or and azure, two mullets counterchanged, name Doubleday. Vor. IX. FESSE POINT, is the exact centre of the escutcheon. See POINT. FESTER, v. n. Sax. etten, an ulcer; Bav. fesse, a swelling corrupted, says Junius; Teut. eissr; Goth.eiter; from Goth. festeen, to putrefy.— Minsheu. To rankle; become virulent or corrupt. But yet the cause and root of all his ill, Inward corruption and infected sin, Not purged nor healed, behind remained still, And festring sore did ranckle yett within, Close creeping twixt the marrow and the skin. Spenser's Faerie Queene. How should our festered sores be cured? Hooker. I have some wounds upon me, and they smart, To hear themselves remembered. -Well might they fester 'gainst ingratitude, And tent themselves with death. Shakspeare. Coriolanus. There was imagination, that between a knight whom the duke had taken into some good degree of favour, and Felton, there had been ancient quarrels not yet well healed, which might perhaps be festering in his breast, and by a certain inflammation produce this effect. Wotton. I might, even in my lady's presence, discover the sore which had deeply festered within me. Sidney. Passion and unkindness may give a wound that shall bleed and smart; but it is treachery that makes it fester. South. When thus a squadron or an army yields, Not Virtue's self, when Heaven its aid denies, Beattie. FESTI DIES, in Roman antiquity, certain days in the year, devoted to the honor of the gods. Numa, when he distributed the year into twelve months, divided the days into dies festi, dies profesti, and dies intercis. The festi again were subdivided into sacrifices, banquets, games, and feriæ. See FERIE. The profesti were those days allowed for the administration of affairs, whether of a public or private nature: these were divided into fasti, comitiales, &c. See COMITIALES, FASTI, &c. The intercisi were days common both to gods and men, some parts of which were allotted to the service of the one, and some to that of the other. FESTINATE, adj. Lat. festinatus. Hasty; hurried. Not in use. Advise the duke, where you are going, to a most festinate preparation : we are bound to the like. Shakspeare. King Lear. Take this key; give enlargement to the swain, and bring him festinately hither. Shakspeare. Lay hands on him with all festination. Preston (1561). N FESTIVAL, adj. & n. s. Fr. (old) festival; Lat. festivus. Pertaining to a feast; FESTIV'ITY, n. s. joyous: hence, as a substantive, the time of a feast; which festivity also signifies, as well as gaiety, generally; joyfulness festive is joyous; gay; befitting a feast. So tedious is this day, As is the night before some festival, Shakspeare. Romeo and Juliet. To some persons there is no better instrument to cause the remembrance, and to endear the affection to the article, than the recommending it by festivity and joy of a holy-day. Taylor. The morning trumpets festivals proclaimed Through each high street. Milton's Agonistes. True festivity is called salt; and such it should be, giving a smart, but savoury relish to discourse; ex-. citing an appetite, not irritating disgust. Barrow. The daughter of Jephtha came to be worshipped as a deity, and had an annual festivity observed unto her honour. Browne. Beattie. Echoed the vale with many a cheerful note; The lowing of the herds resounding long, The shrilling pipe, and mellow horn remote, And social clamours of the festive throng. Drunkenness is a social festive vice. The drinker collects his circle; the circle naturally spreads: of those who are drawn within it, many become the corrupters and centres of sets and circles of their own; every one countenancing, and perhaps emulating the rest, till a whole neighbourhood be infected from the contagion of a single example. Paley. Blue as the garters which serenely lie Byron. FESTOON', n. s. Fr. feston; Ital. festone; a wreath; from Lat. festum, festivum; from its being an ornament worn at festivals.--(Skinner). An ornament of carved work in the form of a wreath or garland of flowers, or leaves twisted together, thickest at the middle, and suspended by the two extremes, whence it hangs down perpendicularly.' Harris). FESTOONS are now chiefly used in friezes, and other vacant places which want to be filled up and adorned; in imitation of the long clusters of flowers, which the ancients placed on the doors of their temples and houses on festival occasions. FESTUCA, fescue, in botany, a genus of the digynia order, and triandria class of plants: natural order thirty-fourth, gramina: CAL. bivalved; the spicula or partial spike oblong and a little roundish, with the glumes acuminated. There are twenty-seven species; of which the following are the most remarkably useful : 1. F. fluitans, floating fescue, so called from its growing in wet ditches and ponds, is remarkable for the uses made of its seeds, which are small, but very sweet and nourishing. They are collected in several parts of Germany and Poland, under the name of manna seeds; and are used at the tables of the great, in soups and gruels, on account of their nutritious quality and grateful flavor. When ground to meal, they make bread very little inferior to that in common use. The bran, separated in preparing the meal, is given to horses as a vermifuge. Geese are also very fond of these seeds. Mr. Lightfoot recommends this as a proper grass to be sown in wet meadows. 2. F. ovina, sheep's fescue grass,' says Dr. Anderson, is much praised by the Swedish naturalists for its singular value as a pasture-grass for sheep; this animal being represented as fonder of it than of any other grass, and fattening upon it more quickly than on any other kind of food whatever. And indeed, the general appearance of the plant, and its peculiar manner of growth, seems very much to favor the accounts that have been given us of it. This plant is of the same family with the rubra, and agrees with it in several respects; although they may be easily distinguished from one another. leaves, in its natural state, are always rounded, but much smaller; being little bigger than large horse-hairs, or swine's bristles, and seldom ex Its ceeding six or seven inches in length. But these Spring out of the root in tufts, so close upon one another, that they resemble, in this respect, a close hair-brush more than any thing else I know; so that it would seem naturally adapted to form that thick short pile of grass in which sheep are known chiefly to delight. Its flowerstalks are numerous, and sometimes attain the height of two feet; but are more usually about twelve or fifteen inches high. Upon gathering the seeds of this plant, and sowing them, it was found that they sprung up as quickly as any other kind of grass; but the leaves are at first no bigger than a human hair. From each side spring up one or two of these hair-like filaments, that in a short time send out new off-sets, so as quickly to form a sort of tuft, which grows larger and larger, till it at length attains a very large size, or till all the intervals are closed up, and then it forms the closest pile of grass that it is possible to imagine. In April and May it pushed forth an innumerable quantity of flowerstalks, that afforded an immense quantity of hay; it being so close throughout, that the scythe could scarcely penetrate it. This was allowed to stand till the seeds ripened; but the bottom of the stalks were quite blanched, and almost rotten for want of air before that time. It is found in poor barren soils, where hardly any other plant can be made to grow at all; and on the surface of dry worn out peat moss, where no moisture remains sufficient to support any plant whatever; but in neither of these situations does it thrive; as it is there only a weak and unsightly plant, very unlike what it is when it has the good fortune to be established upon a good soil; although it is seldomer met with in this last state than in the former. It 3. F. rubra, red or purple fescue grass. Dr. Anderson gives the following character of this species: It retains its verdure much better than rye-grass during the winter season. likewise rises in the spring, as early as rye-grass." 'Although this grass is very often found in old pastures, yet as it has but few flower stalks, and as it is greedily eaten by all domestic animals, these are seldom suffered to appear; so that it usually remains there unperceived. The leaves are long and small, and appear to be roundish, something like a wire; but, upon examination, they are found not to be tubulated like a reed or rush; the sides of the leaf being only folded together from the middle rib, exactly like the strong bent grass on the sea-shore. The flower stalk is small, and branches out in the head, a little resembling the wild oat; only the grains are much smaller, and the ears do not spread fully open but lie bending a little to one side. The stalks are often spotted with reddish freckles, and the tops of the roots are usually tinged with the same color; from whence it has probably obtained its distinctive name of festuca rubra, or red fescue. It is often to be met with in old garden walks; and, as its leaves advance very quickly after cutting, it may usually be discovered above the other grasses, about a week or fortnight after the walks are cut. Nor do they seem to advance only at one season, and then stop and decay, like the rye-grass; but continue to advance during the whole of the summer, even where they are not cut; so that they sometimes attain to a very great height. The leaves naturally trail upon the ground, unless where they meet with some accidental support; and if any quantity of it is suffered to grow for a whole season, without bein eaten down or cut, the roots of the leaves are almost rotted by the overshadowing of the tops of the other leaves, before the end of the season. From the growth of this plant, it would seem to promise to be of great use to the farmer; as he could reap from a field of it, for the first two or three years, as great a weight of hay as he could obtain from any of the culmiferous grasses; and, if he meant afterwards to pasture it, he would suffer no inconveniences from the flower-stalks; and the succulent leaves, that continue to vegetate during the whole summer, would at all times furnish his cattle with abundance of wholesome י food. It has also been remarked, that this grass rises as early in the spring as rye-grass; and continues green for the greatest part of winter, which the other does not. FESTUCINE, adj. color, between green and Lat. festuca. Straw FES'TUCOUS. yellow: formed of straw. Therein may be discovered a little insect of a festucine or pale green, resembling a locust or grass. hopper. Browne. We speak of straws, or festucous divisions, lightly drawn over with oil. Id. Vulgar Errours. FET, v. a. & n. s. Sax. Feccan, neFETCH, v. a., v. n. & n. s. tan; Swed. fatta; Goth. fa; Dan. fatte; Belg. vatten. Fet is our old word for fetch. To go and bring; hence to derive; to reach to, or at; obtain as a price; to bring out; to bring within a particular line or compass; to perform: as a verb neuter, to move round quickly: a fet or fetch is a something fetched; a trick or stratagem, i. e. something performed in an indirect or circuitous way. Go to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats. Genesis. We will take men to fetch victuals for the people. Judges. And they fet forth Urijah out of Egypt to Jehoiakim, who slew him with the sword. Jer. xxvi. 23. My litel child, than wol I fetchen thee, Whan that the grain is fro thy tonge ytake; Be not agaste, I wol thee not forsake. Chaucer. Canterbury Tales. Get home with thy fewel, make ready to fet, The sooner the easier carriage to get. Tusser. An envious neighbour is easy to find, His cumbersome fetches are seldom behind; His fetch is to flatter; to get what he can; purpose once gotten, a pin for thee then. Id. But for he was unable them to fet, A little boy did on him still attend. His Spenser's Faerie Queene. To come to that place they must fetch a compass three miles on the right hand through a forest. Knolles's History. On, you noblest English, They have devised a mean How he her chamber window will ascend, It makes the course of thoughts to fetch about. Id. You laying these slight sullies on my son, As 'twere a thing a little soiled i' th' working. Id. Hamlet. In smells we see their great and sudden effect in Bacon. fetching men again, when they swoon. The conditions of weapons, and their improve ments, are the fetching afar off; for that outruns the danger, as it is seen in ordnance and muskets. |