FENN 



3114 



FENTON 



The Irish famines in the 'forties 

 caused a great emigration to 

 America, and the emigrants laid the 

 blame for their exile on the British 

 Government, which had been pain- 

 fully unsuccessful in its efforts to 

 cope with distress. The sentiment 

 of hatred towards England was 

 fomented by James Stephens and 

 others, who had escaped after the 

 abortive Young Ireland insurrec- 

 tion of 1848. The organizers knew 

 that oj>en rebellion against the 

 armed forces of the British Govern- 

 ment could bring only disaster, but 

 were persuaded that justice could 

 not be won by peaceful methods 

 Therefore they held it justifiabb to 

 foster " secret warfare " which 

 those who did not sympathise with 

 them called outrage and assassina- 

 tion. Their aim was purely politi- 

 cal ; being neither religious nor 

 agrarian, it appealed neither to the 

 priesthood nor to the peasantry. 



James Stephens returned to Ire- 

 land to organize the society in that 

 country, while the real head- 

 quarters remained in America. In 

 the American Civil War, which 

 ended in 1865, large numbers of 

 American Irish had learnt the busi- 

 ness of fighting. The moment 

 seemed ripe for the organization of 

 risings, and an active secret propa- 

 ganda was set to work in Ireland ; 

 but the authorities were on the 

 alert, seized the offices of the 

 Fenian organ, " The Irish People," 

 and arrested sundry ringleaders. 

 For the time the vigilance of the 

 government seemed to have para- 



Fennec. Small fox found in the 

 deserts of North Africa 



lysed the conspirators. In 1866 

 some hundreds of American Irish 

 attempted to raise an insurrection 

 in Canada, but failed completely, 

 receiving none of the support ex- 

 pected from the U.S.A. govern- 

 ment. Another effort, however, 

 had been prepared in England and 

 Ireland. In Feb. 1867 a plan to 

 seize the arsenal in Chester Castle 

 was forestalled by drafting troops 

 to that city.? f $ 



In Sept., two Fenians were ar- 

 rested in Manchester on charges of 

 felony. A rescue was attempted, 

 the prisoners escaped, and a police 

 officer was killed, but 29 Fenians 

 were arrested and three were 

 hanged for the murder of the ser- 

 jeant, which had not been inten- 



G. Man ville Fenn, 

 British novelist 



ded, and of which the men convicted 

 had been guilty only in a technical 

 sense. These men became known as 

 the Manchester Martyrs. A worse 

 crime was the blowing up of a part 

 of Clerkenwell prison on December 

 13. The brotherhood after this 

 time became merged in other 

 societies of a similar character, 

 such as Clan-na-Gael (q.v.), and the 

 Irish Republican Brotherhood. See 

 Ireland : History ; Parnell. 



Fenn, GEORGE MANVILLE (1831- 

 1909). British novelist and story- 

 writer for boys. He was born at 

 W e s t m inster 

 and was edu- H 

 cated at pri- g 

 v a t e schools. 

 Having early 

 contributed to I 

 popular period- | 

 icals', he was in 

 1870 appointed 

 editor of Cas- 

 sell's Magazine, 

 and in 1873 

 became pro- 

 prietor of Once a Week. His pub- 

 lished work totalled close upon 200 

 volumes and included numerous 

 stories told in pleasant narrative 

 style, among them being The Sap- 

 phire Cross, 1871 ; The Parson o' 

 Dumford, 1879 ; Off to the Wilds, 

 1881 ; Nat the Naturalist, 1883 ; 

 Bunyip Land, 1885; The Bag 

 of Diamonds, 1887 ; A Crimson 

 Crime, 1899. 



Fennec (Canis zerda). Small fox- 

 like member of the dog family, 

 found in N. Africa. The ears are 

 enormously long, sometimes a 

 quarter the length of the whole 

 body. The colour is a very pale 

 buff, with white beneath and a 

 black tip to the tail. It lives in 

 burrows in the desert and feeds at 

 night on birds, lizards and small 

 mammals. 



Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare). 

 Tall perennial herb of the natural 

 order Umbelliferae. It is a native 

 of Europe, N. Africa, and W. Asia. 

 The leaves are much divided into 

 thread-like segments. The tubular, 

 but almost solid stem is 3 ft.-4 ft. 

 in height, crowned with compound 

 umbels of minute yellow flowers. 

 The fruits are compressed from side 

 to side. The leaves are used as a 

 pot-herb, and for garnishing dishes, 

 and the fruit supplies an aromatic 

 oil which possesses carminative 

 properties. 



Fenny Stratford. Market town 

 and urban district of Buckingham- 

 shire, England. It stands on the 

 Ouzel, 48 m. N.W. of London and 

 17 m. S.W. of Bedford, and has a 

 station on the L. & N.W. Rly. It 

 has a trade in agricultural produce. 

 The chief building is S. Martin's 

 church, dating [from the 18th cen- 



tury. Market day, Thurs. (alter- 

 nate). Pop. 4,000. 



Fens. Extensive flat 'and low- 

 lying region of England, 70 m. in 

 length and 35 m. in extreme 

 breadth, occupying parts of several 

 counties in the neighbourhood of 

 the Wash. They represent the 

 silted up portion of a bay of which 

 only the Wash is left, and syste- 

 matic drainage at various periods 

 has rendered them extremely 

 fertile. The Romans attempted to 

 drain the Fens by constructing 

 causeways and throwing up im- 

 mense embankments along the 

 rivers and the seashore, but the 

 sluices were gradually choked and 

 the district again became water- 

 logged, serious inundations by the 

 sea occurring at intervals down to 

 the second half of the 16th century. 



In 1634, Francis, earl of Bedford, 

 and thirteen co-adventurers under- 

 took to drain the area now known 

 as the Bedford Level (q.v.). 

 It was not until 1807, however, 

 that the effectual draining of the 

 entire region was finally accom- 

 plished, the Holland and neigh- 

 bouring fens having been reclaimed 

 in 1767, the Witham Fens in 1807, 

 and the Welland Fens almost 

 totally reclaimed by 1801. Grain, 

 flax, cole-seed and potatoes are 

 extensively cultivated, and wild- 

 fowl abound. The Fen country 

 is the home of English skating. 



I: 



Fennel. Flower-head and leaf of 

 Foeniculum vulgare 



During the second half of the 7th 

 century, Peterborough, Ely, Ram- 

 sey, Thorney, Crowland and many 

 other places were settled by mem- 

 bers of various monastic orders, 

 who erected churches, monasteries 

 and abbeys. 



Fenton OR GREAT FENTON. 

 Parish of Staffordshire, England, 

 now part of the county borough of 

 Stoke-on-Trent. It has a station on 

 the N. Staffs Rly., and is largely 

 engaged in earthenware manufac- 

 ture. To the east of Stoke, it was a 

 separate urban district until ab- 

 sorbed. Market day, Sat. Pop. 

 25,626. See Stoke-upon-Trent. 



