1025 



FIRENZE. 



FLANDERS. 



1026 



abundance of fruit, The mountains are planted with chestnut and 

 timber trees, and afford abundant pasture. The farms are generally 

 very small, and are mostly let to tenants-at-will on the metayer system. 

 A great resource of the country people is the manufacture of straw- 

 hats, the straw for which is that of a peculiar description of wheat 

 cultivated for the purpose, very thickly sown, and cut down before 

 it is ripe. The country girls and men employ themselves in platting 

 this straw, and the profit they derive from it forms a considerable 

 addition to their means of support. The appearance of the peasantry, 

 especially in the Val d'Arno, is pleasing; there is an air of health, 

 comfort, and cheerfulness, a smartness of dress and a cleanliness of 

 the person, superior to what is seen in most other parts of Italy. 

 Many of the women wear round beaver-hats like the men. The other 

 manufactures in the country are pottery and china ware, cloth, paper, 

 leather, &e., mostly for internal consumption. The silk manufacture, 

 once very flourishing at Florence, has greatly declined during the 

 present century. The manners of the country people are simple, 

 sober, and decent. The church-festivals, which recur at various 

 epochs of the year, are days of mixed devotion and rejoicing to which 

 the people are much attached. There are elementary schools in every 

 commune. There are besides grammar schools in the towns kept by 

 the Brothers of the Pious Schools, the Oratorians, and other religious 

 congregations. Lancasterian schools, holiday schools, and infant 

 schools were established through the exertions chiefly of the Abate 

 Latnbruschini. The Italian language is spoken with nearly equal 

 purity by all classes. 



The climate of the province is generally healthy ; the winters are 

 colder than in the plains of Pisa, near the sea. The highlands of the 

 Apennines are bleak and barren ; the lowlands are pleasant and very 

 fertile, but in some parts subject to inundations of the Arno or its 

 feeders. 



For administrative purposes the province is divided into 28 districts 

 called cancellerie, which contain altogether 82 communes, having each 

 a gonfaloniere and a communal council. The districts have each a 

 political governor called caccelliere, and they are named from their 

 chief towns. Florence, the capital of the province, is connected by 

 railways with Pistoja, Pisa, Leghorn, and Siena. It is noticed in a 

 separate article. [FLORENCE.] We here briefly notice the more 

 important of the other towns. There are few towns of any import- 

 ance in the part of the province north of the Apennines, although the 

 valleys are pretty thickly inhabited. In this part a.rePirenzuola, 

 situated in a deep valley, 27 miles N.E. from Florence, on the left 

 bank of the Santemo, population 1500 : Modiylianrt, on the Marzen, 

 a feeder of the Lamone, a walled town 40 miles E.N.E. from Florence, 

 has several churches, a college, and 2500 inhabitants : and Terra-del- 

 Sole, which stands on a hill above the left bank of th.3 Montone, 45 

 miles from Florence, and has about 3500 inhabitants. 



On the south side of the mountains are JBoryo San Lorenzo, on the 

 left bank of the Sieve, or Mugello, 14 miles N.E. from Florence, popu- 

 lation 3300 : Castel Franco di Sotto, on the Arno, population 3280 : 

 C'aitel Fiorentino, on the Elsa, with 2700 inhabitants : and Scarperia, 

 in the valley of the Upper Sieve, or Mugello, containing 5 communes 

 and 22,870 inhabitants. 



tiinjioli, situated in a very fertile country, on the Florence-Leghorn 

 railway, is a thriving well-built town on the left bank of the Lower 

 Aruo, with several manufactories of cotton, leather, straw-hats, glass, 

 and 5500 inhabitants. 



Fieole, situated on a steep hill above the valley of the Arno, 3 miles 

 N. by E. from Florence, occupies the site of the ancient Fesulce, one 

 of the twelve confederate cities of Etruria. It is a small place of about 

 250U inhabitants, but interesting on account of its ancient remains, 

 which include polygonal walls, an amphitheatre, &c. The town gives 

 title to a bishop, and has a cathedral built in the llth century, a 

 diocesan school, and a commercial hall. Many of the Florentines 

 have country houses in and about Fiesole : in the neighbourhood are 

 large quarries of sandstone. Fiyline, 1C miles S.E. from Florence, 

 near the left bank of the Arno, has a population of about 4000. 

 Fucecchio, near the Lake of Fucecchio, 20 miles W. from Florence, 

 near the right bank of the Lower Arno, population 4200. Monte- 

 Catini, a village of 2600 inhabitants, near the western border of the 

 province, is celebrated for its warm springs. 



Peicia, a walled town, W.N.W. from Florence, on the Pescia, a 

 feeder of Lake Fucecchio, is the seat of a bishop, and has about 

 4700 inhabitants, who manufacture paper, broadcloth, and silk. The 

 vicinity of the town is planted with olive and mulberry trees. Piatoja, 

 21 miles by railway through Prato from Florence, is an ancient and 

 still considerable town with about 13,000 inhabitants. It forms the 

 subject of a separate article. [PISTOJA.] 



Prato, in the valley of the Biseuzio, 11 miles by railway N.W. from 

 Florence, at the foot of the Apennines, is a bishop's see, has a hand- 

 some cathedral, a college, besides a seminary for ecclesiastical students, 

 a public library, a printing-press, an hospital, a monte di pieta, copper 

 smelting works and foundries, several manufactories of woollens, 

 strawplait, leather, hats, soap, silk-twist, &c., and about 12,000 inha- 

 bitants. The road from Florence to Prato crosses a fine level country, 

 highly cultivated, and thickset with gardens and villas. Prato Vecchio, 

 in the upper Val d'Arno, is a walled village with about 3500 inhabit- 

 ants. Han Miniato, an episcopal town of 2000 inhabitants, is situated 



gtou. DIV. VOL. it. 



on a hill at a little distance from the railway between EtnpoU and 

 Pontedera. It has a cathedral, and is said to' bo the cradle of the 

 Bonaparte family. 



FIRMIN, ST. [ALPE3, H.VUTES 1 



FISHGUAKD. [PEMBROKESHIRE.] 



FIU'ME (formerly St. Veit am Flaum, in Illyrian Reka), the chief 

 town of the palatinate of Fiumo in the Austrian erownlaud of Croatia, 

 is situated in a narrow valley at the efflux of the Fiumara into the 

 Gulf of Quarnaro in the Adriatic, at a distance of 36 miles S.E. from 

 Trieste by the road across Istria, and has about 11,000 inhabitants. 

 The approach to the town by the Luisen Strasse, which connects 

 Fiume with CarJstadt on the Kulpa in the interior of Croatia, presents 

 scenery of a very wild character. The road passes down the defile 

 called the Porta Hungarica, along the left wall of which the road is 

 carried by terraces and shelves, excavated from the solid rock, so 

 high above the Fiumara that the roar of its waters struggling over 

 its rocky bed at the bottom of the chasm is scarcely heard. The view 

 of the town, with the castle of Tersat above it, and the green islands 

 iu the Adriatic in front, from the extremity of the defile, are most 

 charming by contrast with the wild savagery of the rocky pass. 

 Fiume is composed of the old and new towns. The new town lies 

 next the sea, has a cheerful aspect, broad, handsome, and well-paved 

 streets, and a number of fine buildings, private as well as public : 

 among the latter are the flesh, fish, and bread markets, ranges of 

 shops with colonnades ; and the casino, a spacious structure, containing 

 coffee-rooms, a casino, &c. The old castle of Tersat is situated on an 

 adjacent height, and behind the new town is a steep rock on whicli 

 the old town is built. The latter is a gloomy spot, laid out in steep 

 narrow streets, and almost entirely inhabited by the lower classes. 

 In this part of the town are an ancient Roman arch ; the elegant 

 cathedral church of St. Veit, built in imitation of the church of Santa 

 Maria della Salute in Venice ; and a column which marks the spot 

 where, according to the legend of the Santa Casa of Loretto, the holy 

 House of the Virgin stopped on its way from Nazareth. The other 

 buildings of note in Fiume are a large building formerly used as a 

 sugar-refinery, a nunnery, a gymnasium, a lazaretto, the government 

 offices, and an hospital. Fiume has manufactures of linens, leather, 

 woollens, rosoglio, sugar, wax, tobacco, paper, &c. A handsome 

 promenade with avenues of plantain-trees and public gardens are 

 at one end of the new town ; several stone-jetties and a fine 

 quay of freestone also embellish it. It has been a free port ever 

 since the year 1722, but the harbour admits only small vessels; 

 large ships come to anchor in the bay at a distance of three miles 

 from the shore. The trade of Fiume is greatly fallen off. The chief 

 exports are rags, staves, and timber. Fiume was formerly the port 

 of Hungary, and traded extensively in timber, wheat, oil, tobacco, 

 wine, seeds, &c. ; but steam-navigation on the Danube, the introduc- 

 tion of railways, and the superior advantages of Trieste as a commercial 

 harbour, have operated powerfully against the trade of Fiume. The 

 territory of Fiume used to belong to Hungary, and was called the 

 Littorale, from its position along the shore of the Adriatic. It now 

 forms the palatinate of Fiume in Croatia, which has been severed from 

 Hungary since 1849. [CROATIA.] 



FLAMBOROUGH. [YORKSHIRE.] 



FLANDERS ( Vlandeeren), formerly an extensive county iu the 

 Low Countries, extending along the southern shore of the North 

 Sea, between the mouths of the Aa and the Schelde. It was bounded 

 W. by Artois, which however was long united to it, S. by Hainault, 

 and E. by Brabant. The country thus indicated was, in Roman timc3, 

 included iu Gallia Belgica, and comprised portions of the territories 

 of the Morini, the Menapii, and the Nervii, who were amongst the 

 most savage and warlike tribes of Gaul, and the last to submit to the 

 yoke of Cresar. About the end of the 3rd century after Christ the 

 Franks obtained settlements in the eastern part of the territories of 

 the Nervii, whence, issuing under Clovis, they extended their sway 

 over a great part of Gaul. From the time of Clothaire II. Flanders 

 was governed by an officer of the royal household, who was styled 

 Grand Forestier, or High Ranger, and whose office was hereditary. 

 The country was then covered chiefly with forests and marshes. 



In the time of Charlemagne, who settled many of the Saxons 

 among the Flemish, the high ranger was named Lideric, whose great- 

 grandson, Baudouiu d' Ardennes, surnarned Bras-de-Fer, or Iron-Arm, 

 succeeded his father as third Count of Flanders in A.D. 864. 

 Baudouin, by his union with Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, 

 king of France, obtained Artois, which was held by his successors 

 until its reunion to France by Philippe Auguste. He died in Arras, 

 his capital, in 879, after a turbulent life, during which however he 

 laid the foundation of the greatness of Flanders by establishing the 

 order of weavers, and attracting workmen skilled in woollen and 

 other manufactures to settle in his states. The country continued 

 for centuries to be governed by counts, under whom the Flemish 

 towns-folk early obtained charters of freedom conferring upon them 

 the rights of electing their own magistrates, of managing their own 

 civil and commercial affairs, and defending their walls against invaders 

 by manning them with a militia consisting of the stout burghers them- 

 selves. By means of these privileges, for which they paid a fixed 

 revenue to the count, the Flemish towns worked out for themselves 

 an amount of freedom, and attained a degree of prosperity, without 



3 u 



