FERNEY 



3 1 23 



FERRARA 



Ferney OB FEBNEY-VOLTAIRE. 

 Village of France, in the dept. of 

 Ain. It stands near the Swiss fron- 

 tier, 4 m. N.W. of Geneva. The 

 chateau de Ferney was built by 

 Voltaire, who lived in it from 1758 

 to 1778 ; it contains numerous me- 

 morials and personal relics of the 

 philosopher, who in 1768 founded 

 a watch factory, which at one time 

 employed 800 hands. In the town- 

 hall is a statue to Voltaire (q.v.), 

 and his name was officially added 

 to the town in 1878. Pop. 1,172. 



Fern Palm (Gycas revolula). 

 Tree-like perennial of the natural 

 order Cycadaceae. A native of 

 China, it has a stout stem, in old 

 individuals as much as 7 ft. high, 

 crowned by the arching, palm -like 

 leaves. These are cut into narrow 

 segments in a feather-like manner, 

 and vary in length from 2 ft. to 6 

 ft. The reproductive organs are 

 found in the heart of the leaf -crown: 

 the males in cones, whose scales 

 bear anthers on their under sur- 

 face ; the females bearing ovules 

 in the marginal notches of woolly, 

 leaf-like organs. 



Ferns. Town of Ireland, in co. 

 Wexford. It stands on the Bann, 

 74 m. S. of Dublin by the Dublin 

 and S.E. Rly. Its interest is wholly 

 historical. It was long the seat of 

 a bishop, and has a modern church, 

 formerly ths cathedral. Other 

 buildings of interest are the epis- 

 copal palace, the ruins of the castle, 

 of a church, and a monastery. 

 The town grew up around a mon- 

 astery founded by S. Edan about 

 600. The kings of Leinster had a 

 palace here, and here the Norman 

 invaders built a castle. The diocese 

 was united with Ossory in 1836. 

 James I made it a chartered town, 

 and until 1800 it sent two members 

 to the Irish Parliament. 



Ferozepore. District and town 

 of the Punjab, India. The area of 

 the district is 4,286 sq. m. There 

 are no important manufactures ; 

 the chief crops are wheat, gram, 

 barley, and millet. Half the culti- 

 vated area is irrigated. Ferozepore 

 town is situated at the junction of 

 the Rajputana and North -Western 

 Rlys., some 4 m. from the Sutlej. 

 It is the site of a large canton- 

 ment, and has an arsenal ; it is also 

 the centre of a considerable grain 

 trade. Pop. dist., 959,657, 25 p.c. 

 Hindus, 25 p.c. Sikhs, 50 p.c. Ma- 

 homedans; town, 50,836, 42 p.c. 

 Hindus, 47 p.c. Mahomedans. The 

 Jats are the chief tribe. 



Ferozeshah, BATTLE OF'. British 

 victory in the first Sikh war. On 

 Dec. 21, 1845, Sir Hugh Gough, 

 who had just won the victory of 

 Moodka, advanced against the 

 Sikhs, and after a violent cannon- 



ade attacked with his infantry. 

 The first British attack was re- 

 pulsed with heavy loss. In the 

 second effort the Sikhs were routed, 

 losing 73 guns. See Sikh Wars. 



Ferragus, FERBACUTE, FEB- 

 BAUTE, OB VEBNAGU. Giant of early 

 French romances. In the Charle- 

 magne legends he overcomes all 

 that monarch's paladins except 

 Roland, by whom he is slain. In 

 Ariosto's Orlando Furioso he is 

 a Saracen who threw away his 

 helmet, declaring that he would 

 never wear another until he had 

 won that of Orlando, by whom he 

 was killed. 



Ferranti Meter. Type of elec- 

 trical meter invented by S. Z. 

 Ferranti. in 1883. It consists of an 



Ferranti Meter. Froi 

 used for measuring electric currents 



electro -magnet containing mer 

 cury in the shape of a thin disk. 

 The rotation of this disk serves 

 as a measure of the strength of 

 the current passing through the 

 meter. See Meter, Electrical. 



Ferrar, NICHO- 

 LAS (1592-1637). 

 English theologian 

 and founder of the 

 Little Gidd ing 

 community. Son of 

 a London mer- 

 chant, he was edu- 

 cated at Clare 

 Hall, Cambridge, 

 and worked for the 

 Virginia Company, 

 1619-23. He was 

 elected to Parlia- 

 ment in 1624, but 

 in 1625 retired, 

 with his mother 

 and brother-in-law. 

 Collet, and their 

 families, to the 



manor of Little Gidding, Hunting- 

 donshire, to a secluded life of 

 devotion, study, and good works. 

 In 1626 he was ordained deacon 

 by Laud. He died Dec. 4, 1637. 



The members of Little Gidding 

 household were famed for their 

 skill in embroidery, bookbinding, 

 and " scrap book " making, and 

 examples survive in the British 

 Museum and elsewhere of cun- 

 ningly constructed " harmonies," 

 or " concordances " of the Bible, 

 illustrated with prints collected by 

 Ferrar on his travels. The " Ar- 

 minian Nunnery," as it was called, 

 was twice visited by Charles I, and 

 was broken up by the Puritans 

 in 1647 ; it figures in J. H. Short- 

 house's philosophical romance 

 John Inglesant, and in Izaak 

 Walton's Life of George Herbert. 



Ferrar, ROBEBT (1500-55). 

 English divine and martyr. He 

 studied at Oxford, was or- 

 dained, and later was head of a 

 religious house in Yorkshire, but 

 only became prominent on the 

 accession of Edward VI. Owing to 

 the influence of Somerset he was 

 made bishop of St. Davids. He 

 was a zealous reformer, but 

 charges were brought against him, 

 and, Somerset having fallen from 

 power, he was imprisoned in 

 1552. In 1554 his bishopric was 

 taken from him, and he was put on 

 his trial. Found guilty, he was 

 burned at Carmarthen, March 30, 

 1555. The chief charge against 

 him was that he had violated his 

 vow of chastity by marrying. 



Ferrara. Prov. of N.E. Italy. 

 It is bounded N. by the river Po 

 and E. by the Adriatic Sea. Area, 

 1,019 sq. m. Low-lying and marshy 

 in parts, it lies mostly within the 

 delta formed by the Po and its 

 branches and by the Primaro and 

 the Panaro, and embraces the 

 lagoons of Comacchio (q.v.). Fairly 

 fertile, it produces rice, grain, wine, 

 hemp, silk, salt, and fish. The 

 capital is Ferrara. Pop. 326,447. 







Ferrara. Facade o! the cathedral ol S. George, in the 

 city ot Ferrara, the lower part dating from 1135 



