FLEECE 



Coat of the live sheep 

 removed by shearing and forming 

 a fairly coherent mass by the inter- 

 locking of adjacent fibres. Fleeces 

 deprived of some of their inferior 

 portions are rolled into bundles, se- 

 cured by a twist of their own fibre, 

 and packed into bales or into bags 

 known by the trade name of sheets. 

 Locks and pieces are portions of 

 the coat separated by accident or 

 design from the main bulk or fleece. 

 In the course of wool-sorting the 

 fleece is opened out and examined. 

 Fleeces of like quality placed to- 

 gether are described as cased. 



Wool of different strengths 

 grows upon different parts of the 

 body, and in sorting wool fully the 

 fleeces are broken up. When the re- 

 spective sorts of wool from many 

 fleeces have been collected together 

 the lots are given the name of 

 matchings. The term fleece wool in 

 some parts of the country implies 

 wool not of the first clip. Certain 

 manufactured goods, e.g. warm 

 linings, are called fleece from their 

 warmth and fleecy appearance. See 

 Woollen; also illus. p. 1181. 



Fleet. In the naval sense, a 

 number of ships under a single 

 command. The word simply means 

 to float or flow, hence its use in this 

 connexion. At one time fleet was 

 almost synonymous with squadron, 

 but it is now used for a much 

 larger unit. The whole of a navy is 

 often called the fleet, e.g. the 

 French fleet, and during the Great 

 War there was the Grand Fleet 

 (q.v.). See Navy ; Squadron. 



Fleet. Urban district of Hamp- 

 shire, England. It is 6 m. N.E. of 

 Odiham and 36 m. S. W. of London, 

 having a station on the L. & S. W.R. 

 Near the village is Fleet Pond, a 

 sheet of water 130 acres in extent. 

 Pop. 3,280. There is also a village 

 of this name in Lincolnshire, 

 2 m. S.E. of Holbeach. Pop. 1,155. 



Fleet, THE. Name of the navig- 

 able part of an old London river 

 vhich, rising in Hampstead, en- 

 tered the city S. of Chick Lane (now 

 Charterhouse Street) and joined 

 the Thames at Blackfriars. First 

 mentioned in 12th century MS., it 

 was known as the Fleet Ditch, 

 owing to the frequency with which 

 it became choked with refuse. The 

 N. part was known as the Hoi- 

 bourne, hence Holborn. After the 

 Great Fire of 1666 it was cleansed, 

 deepened, and called the New 

 Canal. Wharves were erected as 

 well as bridges at Holborn, Fleet 

 Lane, Fleet Street, and Bridewell. 

 The part between Holborn and 

 Fleet Street was arched over in 

 1737, and later the stream was 

 converted into a sewer, its course 

 being covered by Farringdon Street 

 (q.v.) and New Bridge Street. 



31 95 



Fleet Prison, THE. Former 

 prison of old London. Its history 

 has been traced back to the 12th 

 century. Named after the Fleet 

 river, it stood on the E. bank 

 of that stream, S. of Fleet Lane, 

 was burnt in the Great Fire, re- 



Fleet Prison. 



The inner court with prisoners engaged 

 jn a game of racquets 



From a drawing by Bowlandson & Pugin, 1807 



built, destroyed in the Gordon riots 

 of 1780, rebuilt again in 1781-82, 

 purchased by the City Corporation 

 in 1844, used as a stone- yard, and 

 sold in 1864 to the L.C. & D.R. 

 On part of the site was erected the 

 Memorial Hall. The prison was used 

 for prisoners of the Star Chamber, 

 and later for debtors and bankrupts. 

 The register books are preserved 

 at Somerset House. 



The poet Surrey, Bishop Hooper, 

 Thomas Nash, Dr. Donne, Falk- 

 land, Prynne, James Howell, Wy- 

 cherley, and Richard Savage were 

 among notable prisoners here ; as, 

 among literary creations, were 

 Falstaff, Mr. Pickwick, and Shan- 

 don, the shiftless journalist of 

 Thackeray's Pendennis. Here, and 

 in the liberties, clergymen im- 

 prisoned for debt celebrated clan- 

 destine marriages, known as Fleet 

 marriages, between 1614 and 1754, 

 when they became illegal. Favoured 

 debtors were allowed to live in what 

 was known as the rules or liberty of 

 the Fleet, which included the N. side 

 of Ludgate Hill and the Old Bailey 

 to Fleet Lane and Market, and along 

 the E. bank of the Fleet to what 

 is now Ludgate Circus. See Far- 

 ringdon Street ; consult also The 

 Fleet : Its River, Prison and Mar- 

 riages, J. Ashton, 1888 ; The Chap- 

 lain of the Fleet, W. Besant and 

 J. Rice, 1881. 



Fleet Reserve, THE ROYAL. 

 British naval unit. It was consti- 

 tuted in 1901 as a scheme to secure 

 the services in war of men who 

 had retired from the navy. With 

 the Royal Naval Reserve it was 

 designed to form a reserve of 

 personnel from which to draw in 

 the event of war. Men composing 

 it undergo a period of training. 



FLEET STREET 



They were called out on the out- 

 break of the Great War, and on 

 Aug. 15, 1914, numbered 27,395. 

 Their strength on Nov. 15, 1918, 

 was 19,189. See Navy, British. 



Fleet Street. London thorough- 

 fare, in Farringdon Ward Without. 

 Running W. from 

 Ludgate Circus to 

 Temple Bar, its pre- 

 cincts are closely 

 associated with the 

 ecclesiastical, legal, 

 theatrical, bank- 

 ing, publishing and 

 printing activities 

 of the metropolis. 

 It contains two 

 churches of note, 

 S. Bride's and S. 

 Dunstan's in the 

 West, the remains 

 of Clifford's Inn 

 and the second 

 Serjeants' Inn, 

 part of the Law 

 Courts,entrances to 



the Temple (q.v.), and, near to the 

 last-named, a restored timber house 

 of 1610, the projecting upper storey 

 of which, called Prince Henry's 

 Room, is described as the council 

 chamber of the duchy of Cornwall 

 in the time of James I. 



On each side of Fleet Street are 

 lanes and courts and squares, e.g. 

 Chancery Lane, Fetter Lane, Shoe 

 Lane ; Bolt Court, Crane Court, 

 Wine Office Court, Mitre Court; 

 Gough Square and Salisbury 

 Square all with some interesting 

 story to tell. Whitefriars Street 

 still serves to remind the passer-by 

 of the Carmelite monastery which 

 once stood near ; and Anderton's, 

 the Cheshire Cheese, the Cock, 

 Peele's, and the Rainbow represent 

 the taverns and coffee houses of 

 an earlier day. The site of the old 

 Mitre tavern of Johnson's time is 

 covered by Hoare's Bank, and that 

 of the Devil tavern by Child's Bank. 



Notable modern buildings are 

 those of Child's Bank, the Law 

 Courts branch of the Bank of Eng- 

 land, the Norwich Union Insurance 

 Co., and, in Bride Lane, the S. 

 Bride Foundation Institute. Most 

 of the buildings in Fleet Street are 

 wholly or in part newspaper offices. 

 Here are the chief offices of The 

 Daily Telegraph and The Daily 

 Chronicle, branch offices of The 

 Daily Mail and The Daily News, 

 and London offices of provincial, 

 Indian, Australian, and American 

 journals. The Great Fire of 1666 

 extended to Clifford's Inn on the 

 N. side and to the Temple on the 

 S. side, and after it the street was 

 virtually rebuilt. 



Wynkyn de Worde, the printer, 

 worked at No. 32, near Temple 

 Bar; Richard Tothill had his 



