FENCHURCH STREET 



3111 



FENCING 



Wood and wire fences include a 

 large number of contrivances. 

 These may consist entirely of wood 

 (palings, stakes, and brushwood, 

 post and rail), wood and wire, or 

 wire with iron or concrete stan- 

 dards. Wood lasts much longer if 

 treated with creosote or stop-rot 

 composition, or simply tarred. 

 That part of a post driven into the 

 ground should previously be tarred. 

 A farmer can only employ barbed 

 wire lawfully if it falls entirely 

 within the boundaries of his own 

 holding ; if used in a fence adjoin- 

 ing another farm, or adjacent to a 

 public road, he will be liable for 

 any injury it may cause to human 

 beings or other people's stock. One 

 useful kind of wire is rabbit-proof 

 netting, for keeping out hares and 

 rabbits. Hedges are particularly 

 characteristic of many parts of 

 England, and when well established 

 present many advantages. They 

 are costly, however, and require 

 continual care. 



Hedging is an expert rural art, 

 and involves not merely lopping of 

 superfluous twigs and branches, 

 but also " laying " at least every 

 20 years. In this process the main 

 stems are' partly cut through not 

 far from the bottom, bent into an 

 oblique' or horizontal position, and 

 then secured. This promotes the 

 growth of shoots at the base of the 

 hedge, without which it will never 

 form a thick continuous stock - 

 proof barrier. Equally important 

 is the provision of a ditch adequately 

 drained, and its maintenance in a 

 clean condition free from weeds 

 and rubbish. The best hedge-plant 

 is the hawthorn (quick), while 

 beech and hornbeam also give good 

 results. Mixed hedges are not to 

 be recommended. See Hedge. 



Fenchurch Street. London 

 thoroughfare. The name is be- 

 lieved to have been derived from 

 the fenny ground in the vicinity 

 when the Langbourne was a run- 

 ning brook. The street runs E. from 

 Gracechurch Street, describing a 

 northward curve until it meets 

 Leadenhall Street at Aldgate Pump. 

 At the London Tavern, rebuilt in 

 1877, Queen Elizabeth is supposed 

 to have dined in 1554. Iron- 

 mongers' Hall is in this street. 

 Mark Lane, a turning on the S. 

 side, is known for its Old and New 

 Corn Exchanges. Lloyd's Avenue 

 was made in 1899. 



Fencible. Term applied to regi- 

 ments of horse and foot raised for 

 limited service within the king- 

 dom and for a limited time. They 

 ranked junior to the standing army. 

 The new armies raised in 1915 

 would have been called fencibles in 

 18th century England. The word 

 meant anything capable of defence. 



FENCING: ENGLISH AND CONTINENTAL 



Sir T. A. Cook, Captain, English Fencing Team, 19O3 and 19O6 



The art of using various light weapons is here outlined. A llied in- 

 formation will be found in the articles Rapier ; Sabre ; Sword, etc. 



Fencing is the art of using as a 

 recreation the epee, foil, sabre, or 

 other light weapon. In England it 

 may be said to have come in about 

 the time of Elizabeth, when the su- 

 periority of the rapier and the point 

 over the edge and broadsword was 

 realized. But the introduction of 

 pistols in duelling, the disuse of the 

 sword as a customary accompani- 

 ment to every gentleman's attire, 

 and the national preference for 

 boxing combined to drive the prac- 

 tical Englishman from fencing 

 lessons, which retained a merely 

 academic interest. It was only 

 about 1905 that the badge of the 

 English fencing team (a Tudor 

 rose) recalled for the first time for 

 nearly three centuries the official 

 patronage extended to masters of 

 arms by Henry VIII. Even this 

 would not have been accomplished 

 had the revival of English fencing 

 depended solely on the scholastic 

 graces of conventional foil -play. 

 To the epee de combat, the modern 

 French duelling sword, but with a 



button on its point, we owe the 

 rapid development of fencing in 

 the 20th century. 



Moreover, the conventions of 

 foil-play had overgrown its beauty, 

 and the extreme difficulty of scor- 

 ing, if scoring be indeed advisable 

 at all, added yet another reason 

 against its general popularity. The 

 average young Englishman at the 

 dawn of the 20th century liked to 

 know whether he was really better 

 or worse than his opponent, and 

 objected to being told he could 

 score nothing when his weapon, 

 had it been sharp, would obviously 

 have slain or seriously disabled his 

 adversary. When he was given a 

 game which enabled him to hit his 

 man anywhere from the top of his 

 head to the sole of his feet, and 

 necessitated the guarding of an 

 equal area in his own person, the 

 combination of possibilities became 

 interesting. When he realized that 

 his old lessons with the foil were 

 just as essential as before, by way 

 of a correct foundation for sound 



Fencing. 1. Position of hand on foil. 2. Preliminary position. 3. On guard. 



4. Lunge. 5. Parry of quarte. 6. Parry of sixte. 7. Parry of septime. 



8. Parry of octave. 9. Riposte from parry of quarte 



